Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has had a wonderful 2013. The company’s stock has finally begun to rise alongside the other tech giants, and its business appears to have caught up to the modern mobile paradigm. Microsoft’s year is almost over. It is clear that the company’s success next year will rely on one old trick the company has used for years.

Microsoft supports enterprise. That’s the beginning and the end of the company’s successful business over the last three decades. The company originally designed its operating system to appeal to business. Backward compatibility and a mass of enterprise customers makes Windows the most valuable operating system out there, far ahead of iOS or Android. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is refocusing on its old skill set, and it will change the mobile device market in 2014 as a result.

Microsoft Builds Business

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) serves enterprise. The company’s dominance of the consumer market was an added bonus. As computing moves onto mobile the company’s advantage among consumers will disappear. Its advantage among businesses doesn’t have to, and very few big tech companies are competing with Microsoft for enterprise revenue.

Microsoft is not battling any company that offers the mix of server, desktop and mobile operating systems alongside a set of devices tuned to their use. No other company has the experience of delivering such a wide range of software solutions and support as Microsoft. 2014 will hinge upon Microsoft leaving behind a focus on consumers and developing its enterprise solutions.

Microsoft is already moving in this direction. The company has revealed a series of improvements to its Windows 8 operating system, and the firm is not going to stop there. A major overhaul for the Desktop software, codenamed Threshold, is due next year. A similar overhaul to Windows Phone 8, nicknamed Project Blue, is also due to raise its head next year. Microsoft’s efforts for enterprise go further than that.

Microsoft Is Building An Ecosystem

Apart form the availability of Microsoft software to enterprise, third party solution are the most attractive part of the Microsoft solution to enterprise problems. The company is currently driving the development of applications for Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8. These solutions will come online next year and will form a vital part of the company’s strategy to pull in enterprise customers.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) will tack on sales of its devices onto its bills for business. When Microsoft enterprise software once again becomes the obvious solution to business problems, firms will buy the company’s devices in order to ensure compatibility.

Microsoft is heading toward an excellent 2014, but the company isn’t really doing anything new. It’s using skills it learned in the computer explosion of the 1980s and early 1990s. The company is still able to derive value from those strategies, and it is going to define its operation over the next three years.

Disclosure: Author represents that he has no position in any stocks mentioned in this article at the time this article was submitted.