Microsoft's $1.2 billion acquisition of Yammer, which is commonly referred to as `Facebook for the Workplace', is an indication that the software company will apparently bring about a notable shift in the way bigwig companies select as well as use software.

With Yammer being a well-known social network for businesses, a Wall Street Journal report has noted that the Yammer acquisition by Microsoft underscores the fact that the software giant is apparently "trying to plug holes in its ubiquitous Office software."

With regard to the Microsoft-Yammer merger, a renowned expert like Peter Levine - general partner at Andreessen Horowitz - said that an unprecedented renaissance and "full-blown reawakening" is seemingly in the offing for business software, which essentially includes tools used by firms for doing a number of tasks like process payroll, monitoring customer leads and making spreadsheets.

In fact, most of the experts are of the opinion that a silent revolution in business IT is seemingly in progress, with some of the most noteworthy hallmarks of the new wave being the consumerization of business software; the CIO getting crowd-sourced; enterprise software becoming increasingly social; business computing going mobile; and software emerging as a cloud-based service rather than a mere product.

Noting that, in the present business scenario, there are hardly any reasons for workplace computing to remain desk-bound, CNET's David Rosenberg said it is becoming more and more imperative that business-critical data is made available "anywhere, anytime" to the employees.