Starting with Windows Vista, Microsoft does not support DDE on a network anymore. However, you can create DDE links on a local computer.
You can send commands to another application, if the application can accept them. For example, from Minitab, you can open a Microsoft Word file or run an Excel macro.
[RUN("MACRO1.XLM!Record1",FALSE)]
starts the macro. Refer to the application's documentation for details.