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By SuperUser Account on 5/18/2012 8:37 AM
Posted by Janet I. Tu (This article is running in the print edition of The Seattle Times May 17, 2012. - Janet I. Tu) When Facebook completes its initial public offering this week, Microsoft certainly will benefit financially. At the high end, Facebook could be valued at up to $104 billion, which means Microsoft could see its original investment in Facebook grow in value from $240 million to up to $1.6 billion. Microsoft, which now has a 1.8 percent stake in Facebook, is also planning to offer 6.6 million of its 33 million shares in the IPO. If valued at the high-end estimate of $38 per share, that means Microsoft would make some $250 million. Not bad for what was a relatively small investment, for Microsoft, back in 2007. But probably more important to Microsoft than the money is the partnership the two companies have built over the past six years. They've made mutually beneficial moves in the fight against their common competitor, Google. "Facebook has been really valuable as a way for Microsoft to reach customers it couldn't get to otherwise," said Rob Helm, an analyst at independent research firm Directions on Microsoft. "It's an asset for Microsoft's business products as well." | By SuperUser Account on 5/11/2012 8:51 AM
In an effort to outdo Google's social search integration, Microsoft has tagged Facebook. Here's what the move means. By Thomas Claburn  InformationWeek
May 11, 2012 09:05 AM Search is going social, like it or not. In a few weeks, Microsoft plans to roll out a revised version of its Bing search engine that includes a way to involve Facebook friends in the search process. While the move looks like a response to Google's Search Plus Your World social integration, announced in January, it's more than that. Microsoft believes it can make search better by enabling Bing users to pose questions during the search process to Facebook users. This functionality will be available to users shortly through a new sidebar interface. Bing will also be aggregating content posted on social networks and services like Twitter, Foursquare, Quora, LinkedIn, Google Plus and Blogger, and presenting that content when relevant."You can post a question to get help from your Facebook friends as you search," explain Bing corporate VPs Derrick Connell and Harry Shum in a blog post. "You can 'tag' friends Bing suggests might know about the topic. In a few simple clicks you can share your search and your friends can reply to your question on either Facebook or Bing." [ See Google Marries Google+ To Search Results . ] All the major browsers support some form of privacy mode. Internet Explorer looks like it will be the first to get a publicity mode. Nonetheless, Microsoft insists it has made an effort to maximize privacy protections. The company says that while you're using Bing and signed into Facebook, Bing will only reveal content that friends could access through Facebook directly. | By SuperUser Account on 5/9/2012 9:28 AM
 Researchers used the device to collaborate on how to build an object out of blocksMicrosoft has shown off an augmented reality system that allows users at different locations to work together on tabletop activities, sharing objects which they can both handle. The MirageTable was demonstrated at a conference in Austin, Texas and is outlined on the firm's research site. Researchers said it could "fool" the eye to suggest both parties were using a "seamless 3D shared task space". The team admitted more work was needed before the system could be marketed. Avoiding bulky equipment The MirageTable uses a 3D-video projector to beam images onto a sheet of curved white plastic placed in front of the user. At each end one of Microsoft's Kinect depth camera sensors is used to track the direction of each person's gaze as well as to capture the shape and appearance of objects placed on the surface and the participant sitting behind them. Users are also required to wear shutter glasses in order to see the projected image in three dimensions. Two computers linked by a network connection are required to power the experience. | By SuperUser Account on 5/8/2012 11:05 AM
By Mary Jo Foley Summary: Microsoft is cutting the name “Azure” out of the branding for its cloud services on its billing portal. Microsoft is informing customers of its Windows Azure cloud that it is rebranding many, if not all, of the component services in a way that eliminates the “Azure” name on its billing portal. “Windows Azure Compute” will now be known simply as “Cloud Services,” according to the Microsoft officials. SQL Azure is now known as “SQL Database.” Here’s the full list of what’s being rechristened: 
(click on the table above to enlarge)
| By SuperUser Account on 5/7/2012 2:03 PM
Service is built on three platforms - partner-extensible, richly programmable and automatically scalable
By Zach Walton  Microsoft definitely needs to give its cloud network – Windows Azure – a kick in the pants. If it wants to compete with the likes of Google’s and other cloud businesses, it’s going to have to step up its game. Microsoft announced its solution this morning – Windows Azure Media Services. Microsoft says the new service is exactly as it sounds. It will be a collection of various media services that will all be accessible via the cloud. Those media services according to the official page are encoding and format conversion, content protection, on-demand streaming and live streaming. This content can be delivered to everything from desktops and laptops to game consoles and tablets. | By SuperUser Account on 5/2/2012 9:23 AM
 NEW YORK, NY, May 02, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- Things are starting to heat up in the e-book market with Microsoft's recent $300 million investment in Barnes & Noble Nook digital reader. News of the recent deal sent shares of Barnes & Noble soaring over $25 early Monday morning. With the new investment Microsoft looks to challenge Amazon and Apple in rapidly growing e-book industry. The Paragon Report examines investing opportunities in the Technology Sector and provides equity research on Microsoft Corporation MSFT -0.84% and Apple Inc. AAPL -0.01% . Microsoft's $300 million investment will give them a 17.6 percent stake in a yet-to-be named subsidiary that will develop an application based on Barnes & Noble's Nook e-book platform for its Windows 8 operating system. The Nook e-book brand will combine with an education business that provides books and course materials for college students. This would allow Microsoft to enter the $12 billion education market competing with Amazon's Kindle e-reader and Apple's iPad. "Everyone wants to make sure it doesn't end up being just an Amazon world, or just an Apple world, or even an Amazon-Apple world," stated James McQuivey, an analyst with Forrester. | By SuperUser Account on 5/1/2012 9:33 AM
Quite a lot has already been conjectured in the wake of Microsoft's decision to invest $300 million in a new joint venture with Barnes & Noble. Is a Windows Nook on the way? Are we witnessing a sly move to poke Google in the eye by fostering Android fragmentation? Or is this part of a longer range effort to help users e-books and articles across myriad devices? Yes to all of the above. But there's not much sense in overthinking this. If you're Steve Ballmer, there's no way that you don't do this deal. First, the $300 million is a rounding error for a company that did $17.4 billion in its most recent quarter. This was chump change next to what Facebook plunked down to buy Instagram and, really, a very small price to pay to get off the sidelines and into a hot market. | By SuperUser Account on 4/30/2012 9:36 AM
By GINA CHON And SHIRA OVIDE
Microsoft Corp. MSFT +0.06% is making a $300 million investment in Barnes & Noble Inc.'s BKS +67.91% Nook digital-book business and college-texts unit in a move that helps value the prized Nook business, the companies said.
Microsoft will have a 17.6% stake in a new subsidiary for the businesses in a transaction that values them at $1.7 billion, the companies said. That compares with Barnes & Noble's current market capitalization of about $791 million and could fuel the argument of some analysts and investors that the digital business should be separated from the retail division.
As part of the move, there will be a Nook application included in the new Windows 8, which is scheduled to have a release preview in early June. Later this year, computers and tablets with Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system are expected to go on sale.
The alliance comes after the companies openly feuded over the Nook. Microsoft last year sued Barnes & Noble and the manufacturers of the Nook, charging the device infringed on its patents. Barnes & Noble said Microsoft was trying to "bully" smaller companies that used versions of Google Inc.'s GOOG -0.97% Android operating system, as Barnes & Noble does for the Nook.
As part of the Microsoft investment, the two parties have settled their patent litigation, and in the future, Barnes & Noble and the new subsidiary will have a royalty-bearing license under Microsoft's patents for the Nook, the companies said.
| By SuperUser Account on 4/26/2012 10:51 AM
By Ian Paul, PCWorld Apr 26, 2012 7:21 AM  Amid the excitement over Google Drive, the search giant's new Dropbox competitor, Microsoft recently improved a similar online sync and storage service, SkyDrive. Microsoft added the ability to store files online and sync across multiple devices right from your Windows or OS X desktop. That puts SkyDrive squarely in competition with Dropbox and Drive, five years after Microsoft first introduced its online storage solution in 2007.
If you're looking for a new service to sync and store files across multiple devices and the cloud, you should give SkyDrive a serious look. Not only do you get more free storage, but you'll also have an easier time managing online documents and you get free remote access to your home PC while you're on the go. Google Drive may be the current media darling, but for people just looking to get some work done here's why you should give SkyDrive a try. Microsoft Office Formats Drive may offer deep integration with Google Docs, but Google Docs file formats do not offer deep integration with the rest of the productivity software world. If you want to edit a document in Google Docs you have to convert that file to Google's online formats. It doesn't matter if your original file was a simple text or HTML document, or the world's de facto standard, a Microsoft Office format. All of these files must be converted to Docs format before you can edit them. So when you download a native Docs file from Google Docs to your Drive folder, you are downloading a link that opens the document in your browser instead of the actual file., but that's a good amount of storage for the average user, and it's $10 cheaper per year than Google at $50 compared to Drive's $60. You can also buy just 20GB for $10 per year or you can get 50GB extra for $25 per year with SkyDrive.
| By SuperUser Account on 3/6/2012 12:24 PM
Microsoft is currently running a big discount on our Dynamics ERP software – up to 85% off – Five users for $3k. This is the one piece of software not available to Microsoft Partners for internal use unless you have a Dynamics ERP competency. If you are currently evaluating accounting software, or are struggling with QuickBooks, PeachTree or Deltek, now is the time to look at Microsoft Dynamics ERP. For more information on that promotion, visit the “Grow your Business” site. Step 1: Find how many seats you are eligible to receive If you are Gold Certified, you also need to click the word “gold”  Then scroll down to see a grid listing ALL ‘competency specific benefits with regard to MPN licenses’. | By SuperUser Account on 1/12/2012 11:26 AM
By Ashlee Vance - a technology writer for Bloomberg Businessweek. Photograph by Jeff Minton They had his dining room waiting. Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s (MSFT) chief executive and one of the richest men in the world, often eats privately at a Bellevue (Wash.) steakhouse whose name remains, at the behest of his security guards, a secret. Ballmer uses the room to break bread with prospective partners, employees, and, on one frigid Northwestern evening in November, a reporter. Although the room has enough space to host a small bar mitzvah, on this particular night, there’s only one table, graced with four meticulously presented settings and located center-floor, surrounded by empty space. It’s here that Ballmer, 55 and worth about $14 billion, wages a twin battle on the reigning conventional wisdom that discounts Microsoft’s role in the new digital landscape—and on a pork chop and accompanying wedge salad. “Four years ago, you know, I can remember statistically when we would have looked far more like the overdog in everything,” he says. “Now we’ve got battles where we’re big and strong and powerful, and we’ve got battles where other guys are moving, and it’s fun to work both from the front of the pack and from the back of the pack sometimes. They’re different kinds of competition, but they both drive you, push you.”
| By SuperUser Account on 1/10/2012 10:36 AM
Since I'll be heading off to Vegas in a few weeks to setup our booth at a tradeshow, I was blown away by this time lapse video of the production of the Microsoft booth at CES...... pretty incredible stuff.... | By SuperUser Account on 1/6/2012 9:16 AM
By Fred Schruers at TheWrap In the constant game of thrones that is the Silicon Valley tech giants’ battle for dominance, 2012 could be the year that Microsoft comes back from exile. Having lost its beat about a decade ago, the software giant has more recently been plotting an aggressive grab for territory. And it's getting back in the game with actual innovation. Flush with capital from its steady core businesses of software and servers, the company has been quietly busy with research and development in recent months and years. The results are showing. >> Windows 8, expected to come out in February in beta, is meant to operate at the heart of a Microsoft-wide ecosystem, one that bids to challenge Apple’s intuitive array of linked devices and functions. In introducing 8 at a developer's conference in Anaheim in September, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer (pictured) was expansive, promising, "If Windows 8 is Windows re-imagined, we're also in the process of re-imagining Microsoft." >> The X Box 360’s upgrade, via an improved dashboard and the Kinect add-on, is ahead of the pack as a user-friendly voice- and gesture-controlled device and stoking enthusiasm not only among the early adopters and tech geek websites but on Wall Street. With its inviting user interface, it set a record for Black Friday weekend console sales. | By SuperUser Account on 1/6/2012 9:08 AM
By Preston Gralla Barnes & Noble may be shopping its successful Nook business around not because the ereader is in trouble, but because it's become such a whopping success. Two potential suitors include Google and Microsoft -- and Google is clearly the better choice. Yesterday Barnes & Noble reported its earnings, and company executives said that they are considering spinning off the Nook business, either entirely or in part. There are two reasons for the possible spinoff. First is that the Nook business may be worth much more as an independent company or partially owned by Barnes & Noble. Second is that Barnes & Noble may find it hard to continue to spend the hundreds of millions of dollars annually required to continue to grow the Nook. The New York Times notes that the NOOK has been able to gain almost 30% of the ereader market share in the two years since it was launched, despite the Kindle's head start. Doing that costs plenty of money; the Times notes that by one estimate Barnes & Noble spends between $200 and $250 million a year on the Nook. | By SuperUser Account on 1/6/2012 8:59 AM
  ZoomSo far, we only know that the company is called Cocomo. There is no office yet, but just the note that he is hiring and that he won't be able to talk about the business "for some months". Ozzie indicated that the team includes people he worked with before. Boston.com reported that former Microsoft executives Matt Pope is a co-founder of Cocomo, and Ransom Richardson, another former Microsoft executive, joined the company as well.
There is a first public job posting that seeks a lead UX designer, for both smartphone and tablet iOS and Android platforms. The candidate the company would consider will have "had a minimum of several years of experience designing, building and delivering mobile apps on platforms such as iPhone,iPad, and Android." There are several notes that the individual will have to "understand and embrace the conceptual models, constraints and affordances of the mobile/social design environment", which would include "Email & SMS, Facebook, Google+, Twitter". | By SuperUser Account on 1/4/2012 9:30 AM
Mobile industry leaders are looking for big moves in 2012 from the Seattle area’s two technology heavyweights, taking the lead from a surge by Google’s Android operating system, according to a new survey from Issaquah, WA-based Chetan Sharma Consulting. Sharma’s 2012 Mobile Industry Predictions Survey, compiled from about 150 responses through the consulting firm’s global mailing list of industry insiders, also predicts that mobile payments and commerce will remain a big focus for businesses and consumers alike, further roiling the waters for retailers. When asked what the biggest storyline of 2012 would be, survey respondents put Amazon’s entry into mobile in second place, with a Microsoft and Nokia “resurgence” close behind in third (the top story was the continued growth of mobile data usage worldwide). | By SuperUser Account on 1/4/2012 9:22 AM
 Have to edit a Word document? Poor baby. At least now you can do it on your iPad Probably the biggest thing stopping many users from switching to the iPad full time is the lack of Microsoft Office on the tablet. It might be a bloated, slow, convoluted mess that makes you want to toss your computer out the window whenever you use it, but Office–and particularly Word– are pretty much mandatory for many jobs. Enter CloudOn, a combination of app and web service, which lets you create and edit Office documents using your iPad. It works by running Office-compatible software on the CloudOn servers, meaning you need to be online to use it. But as the server-session uses a native app as a front-end, you open mail attachments, say, with the usual “Open with” service. | By SuperUser Account on 12/12/2011 8:28 AM
By Vito Pilieci, Postmedia News OTTAWA - Microsoft Corp. rolled out the new dashboard for its Xbox 360 console on Wednesday, bringing mainstream television programming to millions of Canadian Xbox owners. The Microsoft logo is seen at the XBOX 360 booth during the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, Calif. Microsoft Corp. has just rolled out the new dashboard for its Xbox 360 console. The company, which has partnered with cable providers in other countries, announced Monday that the Rogers On Demand service, LeafsTV and DisneyXD will all be offering TV content to viewers through the Xbox 360 gaming console. The initiative is another push by Microsoft to make the Xbox gaming console the heart of entertainment systems. The console has allowed users to play video games and DVDs since it was initially released in 2005. It was updated early on to allow users to play music and movies stored on a nearby computer. In more recent years, Microsoft has added Facebook connectivity, Netflix and Internet radio to be streamed over the device. The announcement marks the first time the console has streamed TV shows from major networks and providers into the living rooms of Canadian consumers. "It's been a passion in terms of how we've been evolving the Xbox platform," said Glenn Purkis, Microsoft Canada Xbox Live manager. | By SuperUser Account on 8/22/2011 1:32 PM
BY AUSTIN CARR The reaction to Skype's proposed acquisition of the New York City-based group messaging service GroupMe for $85 million has been nearly universal: Good for Skype. It's the latest in a string of high-profile gambits in the world of social grouping technology. Google+ has made Circles central to its social efforts. Apple has announced plans to launch its own group service, iMessage. And Mark Zuckerberg, whose company recently acquired the group messaging service Beluga, has called grouping friends "the biggest problem in social networking." In all that excitement it's easy to overlook the fact that Skype is also in the process of being acquired by Microsoft for $8.5 billion. That means any decision Skype makes should be viewed as a decision Microsoft would make as well. And Microsoft was well aware of Skype's acquisition of GroupMe, Sandhya Venkatachalam, Skype's head of corporate development, tells Fast Company. There was visibility at all levels of Microsoft including CEO Steve Ballmer. "This is something that's very important for Skype and for our mobile and overall social strategy," says Venkatachalam. "Of course, if and when the acquisition with Microsoft closes, we want to bring this functionality and this strategy to Microsoft and their mobile offerings." Which means you can expect GroupMe to play a prominent role in Microsoft's social efforts as well. When I recently spoke to Skype product VP Neil Stevens, he spoke at length about how Skype would become central to Microsoft's mobile efforts. He described how Skype will add deep integration with Windows Phone, at a greater level than with any other mobile OS, and how it will become a unifying force between various Microsoft products such as Windows, Windows Mobile, and Xbox. | By SuperUser Account on 7/26/2011 4:27 PM
Informational event shares how to use InsiteCommerce and its SDK to develop and deliver scalable, high-performing .NET B2B ecommerce sites
Minneapolis, MN., July 26, 2011—Insite Software, a leading provider of B2B and B2C ecommerce platforms and shipping solutions, today announced it is hosting a one-hour informational webinar for the .NET developer community on its Windows Azure-certified ecommerce platform, InsiteCommerce, and the InsiteCommerce Software Development Kit (SDK). The event will take place on Thursday, July 28, 2011, at 12:00PM Eastern. “InsiteCommerce is the fastest growing enterprise B2B ecommerce platform for .NET developers and the only B2B ecommerce platform certified for Windows Azure,” said Brian Strojny, CEO of Insite Software. “Our SharePoint-friendly platform gives .NET developers the power of the easy-to-use InsiteCommerce SDK to rapidly develop and deliver scalable, high-performing B2B ecommerce projects. We are expanding our partnerships in the .NET development community to help firms confidently deliver a B2B enterprise ecommerce solution to their clients. InsiteCommerce addresses a growing business need that is not being met by today’s available solutions.” During this webinar, attendees will:
| By SuperUser Account on 7/25/2011 8:49 AM
Published 13:10, 25 July 11One of the unusual characteristics of the computer industry in recent years is the rapid rise of companies to almost complete market dominance of their respective sectors. Things began with Microsoft, whose Windows operating system is still unchallenged on the desktop. Then came Google, which more or less owns the online search world (with the notable exception of the important Chinese market), and after that Facebook, which is probably hurtling towards 800 million users at the moment. What this means is that it is almost impossible for other companies to enter those particular markets and compete against the incumbent. It's not hard to see why this has happened. It's all about network effects: once a particular player becomes established in a new market, it attracts more users than anyone else, ensuring that it grows yet bigger and more dominant. This kind of stranglehold is typically only broken once a step change in technology occurs that allows the story to begin all over again (the transition from MS-DOS to Windows was one such.) Although there are many big and successful computer companies around at the moment, one stands out. Apple is currently going from strength to strength, as its recent figures show: Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2011 third quarter ended June 25, 2011. The Company posted record quarterly revenue of $28.57 billion and record quarterly net profit of $7.31 billion, or $7.79 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $15.70 billion and net quarterly profit of $3.25 billion, or $3.51 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 41.7 percent compared to 39.1 percent in the year-ago quarter. Much of that was down to Apple's success in two emerging markets: The Company sold 20.34 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 142 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 9.25 million iPads during the quarter, a 183 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. | By SuperUser Account on 7/12/2011 11:58 AM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Greenville, SC – July 12, 2011 – AssetPoint, a leading provider of (EAM) Enterprise Asset Management and (CMMS) Computerized Maintenance Management Software solutions, announced it has successfully renewed its Gold Level Competency with Microsoft. AssetPoint (www.AssetPoint.com) has been a leader in CMMS/EAM solutions for over 30 years, and its TabWare CMMS/EAM solution is designed by maintenance professionals for maintenance professionals. TabWare is easy to learn, easy to use, and easy to own, so companies are able to get up and running in days not months. AssetPoint offers flexible deployment options, including acloud computing solution (SaaS) or on-site for companies who want TabWare on their own servers. TabWare is the leading EAM solution for companies who want full functionality without the expense, resources and time other solutions demand. TabWare is proven to maximize asset performance, resulting in reduced operating costs and higher profit margins. | By SuperUser Account on 7/1/2011 7:41 PM
By Aviv Siegel, AtHoc, Inc. Campuses, government agencies, military and enterprises are facing increased threats from terror, accidents and weather. Legacy fire systems are inadequate and incapable of handling the wide-spectrum of threats. The advent of new communication technologies enabled by Internet Protocol (IP) infrastructure presents excellent opportunity to address the challenge.
Protecting, informing and accounting for people quickly and effectively during emergencies is the problem addressed by AtHoc Emergency Mass Notification System (EMNS). AtHoc IWSAlerts™ network-centric mass notification currently represents the state-of-the-art in emergency alerting technology. It leverages the ubiquitous IP network and transforms an organization’s existing IP network and its connected devices into a rapid and pervasive emergency notification system. A net-centric unified notification system can reach people through multiple redundant channels in minutes—with detailed information for a safe course of action. Additionally, emergency managers can provide detailed instructions for action to all personnel and receive feedback to ensure a safe response--a capability absent on traditional passive alerting systems. | By SuperUser Account on 7/1/2011 7:34 PM
Microsoft-centric solution provides .NET developers with advanced cloud computing solution and SDK for more profitable and rapid ecommerce deployments Minneapolis, MN., June 29, 2011—Insite Software, a leading provider of B2B and B2C ecommerce platforms and shipping solutions, today announced that Microsoft Corporation has certified InsiteCommerce as one of the first enterprise B2B ecommerce platform powered by Windows Azure for cloud computing. The latest version of InsiteCommerce provides the Microsoft .NET development community and design agencies with advanced cloud deployment and an easy-to-use SDK allowing firms to rapidly develop and deliver scalable, high performing, B2B ecommerce projects for their manufacturing, distribution and retail clients. “.NET developers have been looking for a reliable, scalable, ecommerce platform that delivers the B2B capabilities in the cloud, as Microsoft Commerce Server does not currently support the Windows Azure platform,” said Brian Strojny, CEO of Insite Software. “InsiteCommerce is designed for cloud computing and leverages the benefits of Windows Azure to help developers provide faster, scalable and more profitable B2B ecommerce deployments. We are pleased to be one of the first enterprise B2B ecommerce platforms certified by Microsoft and look forward to working more closely with the .NET development community.” | By SuperUser Account on 6/7/2011 11:55 AM
Apple's iCloud promises to sync every document and every edit across multiple devices but Apple's idea of every document is every iWork document. If iCloud doesn't play nice with Microsoft Office, it doesn't stand a chance to replace other syncing and file-sharing software, like Dropbox, Box.net and Microsoft's own Windows Live SkyDrive. Apple's decision to build its iCloud Storage APIs around iWork -- Keynote, Pages and Numbers -- makes a lot of sense. The company has been fortifying its product and lifestyle ecosystem for a long time and iCloud is another incentive to streamline your productivity by purchasing Apple products. But Microsoft Office isn't going anywhere; Forrester Research stated that as of 2009, 80 percent of the enterprise is using some form of Microsoft Office, with 64 percent using Office 2007.  Image courtesy of Macworld.
| By SuperUser Account on 6/7/2011 11:52 AM
Microsoft and Facebook are throwing their weight behind the proposed AT&T and T-Mobile merger that would consolidate the wireless industry. "The FCC must seriously weigh the benefits of this merger and approve it," the companies wrote in a Monday letter to the Federal Communications Commission. Several other companies signed on to the letter, including phone technology company Avaya, software and server company Oracle, Blackberry maker Research in Motion, mobile chip maker Qualcomm and Brocade. Microsoft provided a copy of the letter. Missing in action on the letter: Google and Apple. Out of all the big technology companies, Apple has the most intimate working relationship with AT&T because the iPhone was for a long time exclusive to the AT&T. Google's Android software is the fastest growing mobile platform with 100 million users. | By SuperUser Account on 5/23/2011 1:33 PM
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Remarks by Steve Ballmer, Chief Executive Officer
Tokyo, Japan
May 23, 2011
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STEVE BALLMER: Well, thank you very much. It's very much a privilege to have a chance to join many of Japan's most thoughtful leaders from business, from government, from academia, and from the media.
I want to thank Nikkei Newspaper for inviting me here today, and to have the opportunity to discuss the role of technology in Japan's reconstruction.
I'll begin by expressing my deep sympathy to the people of Japan who were affected by the earthquake and the tsunami in March. The scale of what happened here, the extent of the devastation is truly beyond words. I think it is inspiring to hear how Japan has united in these very difficult times to move forward.
Certainly on behalf of Microsoft, I want you to know what while you were standing strong together, you do not stand alone. Our company is fully committed to assisting Japan in any way we can, and to the companies and individuals in this room, as the recovery efforts move forward in this long term process of rebuilding.
We see Japan as an important and longstanding friend and a vibrant part of the world's marketplace. Microsoft has been in business here for 25 years, and we have today more than 2,500 employees in Japan.
Nihon Microsoft was our first country subsidiary outside the United States, and today, it is our largest, other than the United States.
We also have more than 8,000 companies, individual companies who are business partners of Microsoft's here in Japan, spanning every field of technology, communications, entertainment, and more.
And while it's certainly been painful to see the impact of the earthquake on our customers and our colleagues and our friends, we are hopeful about what we can do together to support Japan's forward progress.
Microsoft's commitment to Japan in the wake of the earthquake has included both financial and technical support. Initially, we provided a small $2 million donation to the relief efforts in both cash and in-kind contributions, and we are matching every dollar that our employees not only here in Japan but around the world are donating to the Japanese relief efforts.
We also offer free technical support and free temporary software licenses to an array of the customers and partners and organizations that have been involved in the response and relief efforts.
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| By SuperUser Account on 5/19/2011 11:12 AM
Well-respected SMB Nation community announces 6th Annual Spring Conference Hosted in Toronto, June 10-11, 2011 at International Centre With a “Pivot to the Cloud” mantra, SMB Nation, the well-respected technology channel community, has awarded its 6th annual Spring conference to Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It’s part of SMB Nation’s on-going worldwide SMB channel partner outreach to engage and extend the success of its tribal membership. “We are thrilled to freshen our Spring conference with impactful content that is first cloud focused while honoring traditional SMB IT topics.” Shared Harry Brelsford, CEO of Seattle-based SMB Nation. “We have brought in the best and brightest technical and business minds for an amazing two-day professional conference. We have speakers delivering unique content on Small Business Server 2011 Essentials, Office 365, cloud and hybrid computing, managed services provider (MSP) business models and important ‘BusinessSpeak’ topics such as increasing technology sales.” Speakers were selected in a competitive process where an authoritative content selection committee vetted a large number of papers to select the more relevant content. This resulted in Microsoft MVPs, published authors, accomplished CEOs and surprisingly successful MSPs speaking from the stage. The conference is well supported by enthusiastic sponsor community including D&H Distributing, Microsoft, Intel, AppAssure, Cisco and many other familiar names. “First and foremost, we are community. We’re from the community producing a community event supported by the community and attended by community members. How cool is that?” Brelsford exclaimed. “Beyond the amazing SMB Nation staff and tribal membership, we have enjoyed fantastic support from like-minded similar communities including the MVPs, user groups, trade associations and other affinity entities. And most importantly, we really recognize and realize the warm welcome we’ve already received and Toronto and hope that our efforts satisfy the hunger of the Canadian SMB technology community!” | By SuperUser Account on 5/16/2011 3:06 PM
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| New social features in Bing let users make decisions with help from their Facebook friends. |
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REDMOND, Wash. — May 16, 2011 — Bing is adding 500 million new friends, and they’re all going to help the search experience become a lot more social.
Microsoft today announced new features in Bing that bring together Facebook and search to offer users personalized results based on the opinions of their friends. The new social features, which are available today, surface the stories, content and sites that their Facebook friends “like” right on the results page.
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| Today, Bing is bringing the collective IQ of the Web together with the opinions of the people you trust most, to bring the “Friend Effect” to search. Starting today, you can receive personalized search results based on the opinions of your friends by simply signing into Facebook. |
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By marrying fact-based search results with the opinions of trusted friends, Bing aims to help people make better decisions, said Sean Suchter, general manager of Microsoft’s Search Technology Center in Silicon Valley.
“We partnered with Facebook to basically allow Bing users to bring their friends to search with them,” he said. “That means they’ll be able to make decisions not just with facts but with the opinions of their friends. With almost any task on Bing, if your friends can help you out we’ll bring them right there with you.”
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| By SuperUser Account on 5/16/2011 9:28 AM
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| Avatar Kinect, the facial recognition technology coming to Kinect for Xbox 360 this spring, started out in the lab and soon will end up in the living room. Avatar Kinect’s journey from prototype to product shows how ideas move from research to product at Microsoft. |
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REDMOND, Wash., – May 16, 2011 – When you smile, your Xbox 360 avatar will smile with you.
Just a few months after Kinect turned heads with its controller-free technology comes Avatar Kinect, a new Xbox LIVE social experience that uses the sensor’s precise facial-recognition capabilities to project your face and your expressions into a virtual word.
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| Avatar Kinect will enable you to hang out with up to seven friends in creative themed environments, from talk-show sets to a tailgate party, projecting your facial expressions and voice. |
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When it rolls out later this spring, “Avatar Kinect will let you hang out and socialize with seven of your friends in a simulated environment,” said Umaimah Mendhro, a senior product manager for Microsoft Startup Business Group. “The gathering spots will range from the set of a late-night talk show to a tailgate party to a magical forest.”
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| By SuperUser Account on 5/9/2011 1:49 PM
by Ravi Mandalia Words have hit the streets that Microsoft is also likely to join the bidding war for acquiring the VoIP service provider Skype.
If these rumours are to be believed, Microsoft has joined the likes of Google and Facebook as the potential new owner of the widely popular voice and video chat service provider from Luxembourg.
Earlier, Om Malik of the website Gigaom also claimed with inputs taken from unnamed sources that Microsoft is also interested in "either partnering with, acquiring or investing" in Skype.
Apparently, Skype bosses are not willing to disclose any thing in this regard, at least not at the moment.
| By SuperUser Account on 5/5/2011 11:30 AM
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| Microsoft employee Larry Venter, a native South African, had a hunch that Kinect for Xbox 360 could help the children at a rural school in his hometown get excited about learning English and that gaming could help in the fight against widespread illiteracy. |
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REDMOND, Wash. – May 5, 2011 – A story that began with a mischievous Icelandic volcano has ended happily with South African schoolchildren using Kinect for Xbox 360 to learn English.
The Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull was causing chaos a year ago when its ash cloud stranded travelers all over Europe and beyond, including employee Larry Venter, who was vacationing in his native South Africa.
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| Watch a video about an innovative new use for Kinect—using the controller-free gaming device for Xbox 360 in the classroom to engage young learners. Children at Lakeside Park Primary school in South Africa are using Kinect to help learn English. |
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"It turned out not to be a tragedy," said Venter, a senior director for Microsoft Retail Solutions. Venter's friend Yunus Kirsten used the extra time to take Venter on an unplanned tour of an area primary school that he leads.
Venter had mixed feelings about what he saw at the school in Vryheid, a small town in the eastern KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. There, children are taught English and their local language, Zulu, until the fourth grade, after which they are taught solely in English. Most children at the school—called Lakeside Park Primary school—are poor and have few English-learning resources at home. As a result, literacy acquisition is a real challenge. The language the children spoke when they played (the language spoken during play is a main indicator of how effective language learning is) was not English, but Zulu.
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| Lessons and languages are more likely to sink in for young learners (like this one at Lakeside Park Primary school in South Africa) when the children are engaged and having fun, said Larry Venter, a senior director for Microsoft Retail Solutions. |
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"They have no one at home to help them with their homework or to help teach them English," Venter said. "Only 53 percent of children who start schooling in South Africa will finish it, and most of that is a result of poor education in the foundation phase."
At the same time, Venter saw that Kirsten, the headmaster of Lakeside Park Primary school, and the teachers were relentlessly trying to find ways to help the children learn.
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| By SuperUser Account on 5/5/2011 11:11 AM
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| Q&A: Ron Markezich talks about his vision for transforming the U.S. sales force toward selling cloud services. |
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REDMOND, Wash. – May 5, 2011 – After several years as Microsoft’s chief information officer and corporate vice president of Microsoft Online, Ron Markezich was recently appointed corporate vice president of Microsoft’s U.S. Enterprise and Partner Group, where he will bring his expertise to the company’s enterprise sales and marketing efforts. The Microsoft News Center caught up with Markezich in late April to get the scoop on his vision for Microsoft’s strategy for courting CIOs and pitching the company’s cloud computing strategy. Here’s what we learned:
On what his priorities will be in the first weeks and months of his new role as head of the U.S. Enterprise and Partner Group: “The first priority will always be to continue to grow the Microsoft business. Today, there are so many ways customers can take advantage of Microsoft technology, and we want to grow our customers’ success. Second, we have a set of great partners and independent software vendors (ISVs) making the cloud transition with us. There will be a need for a large amount of coordination. The key factor with partners and ISVs is to make sure we have a strong rhythm in terms of sharing information to make sure we’re in alignment.”
On how selling cloud computing applications and services is different from selling on-premises enterprise software installations: “One, you have to have a deeper relationship with enterprise customers. Two, we’re not just selling a product. We own that process from the implementation all the way through the run. Our support never ends, post-sale. Also, there are regulatory aspects to selling cloud services such as security and privacy that are not typically covered when selling enterprise software.”
On whether Microsoft’s sales force is ready to sell the cloud: “Absolutely, we’re ready to sell the cloud. We’ve been selling our services to the largest customers in the world – McDonalds, Coca Cola – for many years. Many have already moved to Office 365. I’m coming into an organization that’s extremely healthy. Employee satisfaction is increasing and one of the highest I’ve seen at this company. We continue to beat our numbers. Customer satisfaction results are great. When you have great employee and customer satisfaction while bringing in record revenue - I feel great about what I’m taking over.”
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| By SuperUser Account on 5/4/2011 10:03 AM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Microsoft Dynamics Integrated (EAM) Enterprise Asset Management / (CMMS) Computerized Maintenance Management System Solutions for Manufacturers Greenville, SC – May 4, 2011 – AssetPoint (www.AssetPoint.com), a leading provider of EAM and CMMS solutions and a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, now offers its best-in-class TabWare Express CMMS/EAM software solution integrated with Microsoft Dynamics Great Plains, SL, and AX. AssetPoint has been a leader in CMMS/EAM solutions for over 30 years, and its TabWare Express CMMS/EAM solution is designed by maintenance professionals for maintenance professionals so it’s easy to learn, easy to use, and easy to own. By deploying a best-in-class EAM solution with seamless, lower cost integration, companies can streamline their maintenance operations to maximize asset performance and control maintenance costs. AssetPoint offers flexible deployment options, including a Cloud Computing solution (SaaS) starting at $40/month/user that enables our customers to go live in days and reduces IT costs. | By SuperUser Account on 4/21/2011 9:41 AM
 Business people worldwide are realizing that they do not need to pay a premium for a world-class CRM solution – and you shouldn’t either. Today, you can get a great solution that meets your specific business needs – and save a tremendous amount of money in the process. Until May 28, 2011, Microsoft will send qualified organizations $200 for each Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Subscription license. Buy 30 seats, get $6,000. Buy 100 seats, get $20,000.3 This money could be used any way you like. For example, the money can be used to accelerate your implementation of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. Whatever the case, Microsoft will send you money to help you get started fast. | By SuperUser Account on 4/18/2011 8:40 AM
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| Using Office 365, small businesses can be up and running with Office, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and Lync Online in just 15 minutes. |
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REDMOND, Wash. — April 17, 2011 — David Kroenke has authored more than 15 undergraduate business technology textbooks over the past few decades, with titles including “Database Concepts” and, most recently, “Using MIS.” As a small-business owner working with a handful of co-writers, editors, designers and contractors, Kroenke often collaborated via telephone, email and file-sharing — and mailed printed copies of book drafts to his team for review. However, once he became a beta tester for Microsoft Office 365, it changed the way his business works.
“I work out of two offices, and Office 365 saves me the hassle of tracking book files between so many different places,” said Kroenke. “I don’t have to wonder where I put everything, because it’s always available to me, no matter where I am.”
As soon as he heard about Office 365, Kroenke signed up for the limited beta program.
“Office 365 has opened up a whole new world of productivity for me — I feel like a kid in a candy shop,” said Kroenke.
“After using it for just a few weeks, Office 365 simplified my business, giving me more time to focus on the work that’s most important. We can brainstorm in real time, organize, and streamline the book-editing process. Office 365 gives small-business owners like me many of the tools we never had before.
“With just one click, I can show my co-worker a document I’m working on and make suggested changes while in a videoconference; we can even use a virtual whiteboard. My co-worker might be in Ohio, while I’m in Seattle, but we’re drawing on the same whiteboard, just like we’re sitting in the same room. That is just really, really cool,” said Kroenke.
Ready for Work, Whenever You Are
Small businesses around the world can now enjoy the benefits Kroenke described. Microsoft today announced the public beta of Microsoft Office 365, the company’s next-generation cloud productivity service for businesses of all sizes. Office 365 was recently introduced in limited beta, bringing together Microsoft Office, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online and Lync Online in an always-up-to-date cloud service. The public beta allows millions of people in more countries and more languages — a total of 38 markets and 17 languages in all — to try Office 365 for the first time.
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| By SuperUser Account on 4/11/2011 2:49 PM
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Remarks by Steve Ballmer, Chief Executive Officer, and Kirill Tatarinov, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Business Solutions
Atlanta, Ga.
April 11, 2011
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ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome corporate vice president, Microsoft Business Solutions, Kirill Tatarinov. (Cheers, applause.)
KIRILL TATARINOV: Well, good morning, everybody. It is my great pleasure to welcome you to Atlanta, to Convergence 2011. This is our 15th Convergence and my fourth in my role as the leader of Microsoft Dynamics.
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| Steve Ballmer and Kirill Tatarinov share vision for future of Microsoft Dynamics at Convergence 2011 on April 11, 2011 in Atlanta, Ga. |
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We have over 9,300 people here today. So, this is the second largest Convergence. So, we're just a few folks short of being the biggest ever.
We represent here 20 different industries, coming from 36 different countries. Some people have to travel very near, coming from Atlanta. Over 500 people are Atlanta locals. Thank you for hosting us. And over 36 people from 16 companies came from as far as New Zealand. Thank you for taking the trip.
Whether it's near or far, welcome to Convergence. We have an amazing show for you this week, and we're very excited you are here with us.
This week, we're celebrating a pretty substantial milestone for all of us who are involved with Microsoft Dynamics, the 10-year anniversary of Microsoft being the vendor delivering business applications to our business customers.
Ten years ago this month, we entered this business by acquiring Great Plains, and it's an amazing road, and it's an amazing journey that we've been on together with you.
Ten years ago, we had less than 30,000 customers working on Microsoft Dynamics GP. Today, we have over 350,000 customers, and 5 million users logging into Dynamics every morning. (Cheers, applause.)
Many of our customers are truly Dynamics customers for life, and here in the room over a thousand people have been working with Dynamics for over 10 years.
And at the show, at Convergence, we love telling the stories of our customers. We love telling the stories of how the products are used and how products make the businesses run and be more successful.
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| By SuperUser Account on 4/11/2011 9:36 AM
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| Microsoft Dynamics customers gather at Convergence 2011 to hear how they win today and in the future. |
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ATLANTA — April 11, 2011 — Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq “MSFT”) CEO Steve Ballmer and Kirill Tatarinov, corporate vice president for Microsoft Business Solutions, today opened a sold-out Convergence 2011 to more than 9,000 attendees, demonstrating how companies can use Microsoft Dynamics to maximize the value of their existing technology investments, remain agile as market conditions change and ultimately become dynamic businesses that can win in any environment.
At Convergence 2011, Microsoft’s premier event for decision-makers using enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM), the company shared its vision to take Microsoft Dynamics ERP solutions to the cloud. It also gave customers a first look at the newMicrosoft Dynamics AX 2012 release and shared the strong momentum experienced by its portfolio of Microsoft Dynamics ERP and CRM solutions.
Unveiling Vision for Cloud ERP
Building on the success of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, the company revealed a path for its ERP customers to move to the cloud with the next major releases of Microsoft Dynamics ERP solutions, which will run on the Windows Azure platform. Customers will be able to move to the cloud on their own terms. The Microsoft Dynamics ERP solutions will bring the same benefits in the cloud as they do on-premises.
Understanding that to deliver the benefits of the cloud to customers requires more than just technology, the company reiterated its commitment to help partners benefit from Microsoft Dynamics cloud offerings and released a Microsoft Dynamics Cloud Partner Profitability Guide. This guide provides key success factors and an execution road map, to help partners optimize their business processes and identify new opportunities.
“We see the cloud as a turning point in the market that provides the opportunity to create a new business model geared toward increasing the profitability and agility of our company,” said David Goad, managing director, eSavvy Pty Ltd. “The Microsoft Dynamics Cloud Partner Profitability Guide really helped us to solidify that opinion. It offers clear guidance on how to benefit from this shift and serves as a great starting point for all partners looking to build a strong, cloud-based business.”
In addition to resources such as the profitability guide, independent software vendors (ISVs) and partners will also be able to showcase Microsoft Dynamics cloud-enabled vertical solutions, add-ons and services on the Microsoft Dynamics Marketplace. This makes it simple for customers to try and buy solutions that fit their specific business needs and gives partners an opportunity to reach a broader audience and grow their business.
Microsoft Introduces Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012
Also at Convergence 2011, customers get a first look at Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, an innovative new ERP solution that empowers people to anticipate and embrace change, with agility made possible by a unified business process repository, model-driven architecture, and simplicity that comes from a familiar user experience and built-in collaboration tools.
“Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 frees customers from the electronic concrete that has plagued the ERP industry for so long,” Tatarinov said. “Customers want flexible yet cost- effective business applications that work the way they do instead of being forced to adapt to the software.”
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| By SuperUser Account on 4/4/2011 1:48 PM
For all of the developers out there, there's now a cool way to check Windows Azure from Microsoft, and have a little bit of fun, thru their new Rock Paper Azure Challenge. Windows Azure, a cornerstone of the Microsoft Cloud Offering, is used to create player bots, which compete against other bots weekly for six weeks. Weekly prizes for winners include Xbox 360's, Kinects, and gift cards. Weekly stats are provided thru the site, along with links to tips, tools, and weekly training webcasts. 
| By SuperUser Account on 4/4/2011 9:30 AM
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| Every day more than half a million people visit Microsoft Answers to get their burning Microsoft product questions answered. The company’s recently refreshed question-and-answer forum brings together consumers, experts and technical enthusiasts into a single online community. |
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REDMOND, Wash. – April 4, 2011 – Ever since he retired in 2005, Ronnie Vernon’s time has been his own. The former heavy equipment instructor gets to spend his days doing exactly what he likes to do. So each morning he fires up his computer, heads to the Microsoft Answers site, and settles in for a long day answering questions about Windows.
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| Roughly half a million visitors go to the Microsoft Answers site each day to ask and answer questions about Microsoft consumer products. |
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Vernon can’t quite explain why he spends up to 12 hours a day offering strangers tech support. “Over the years I’ve tried to figure out why people do what they do with volunteering, but I never came up with a good explanation,” said Vernon, a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) community leader recognized by Microsoft for actively sharing his real world technical expertise with consumers. “Basically, you have some knowledge, you see some people who have problems, and you just like to help.”
That’s exactly the spirit Microsoft is trying to nurture with Microsoft Answers, a question-and-answer forum that brings together consumers, Microsoft support engineers and technical enthusiasts from around the world, said Barbara Winter, senior program manager for Microsoft Answers.
“We see Microsoft Answers as less of a support site and more of a community supported by users and experts, only some of whom happen to work at Microsoft,” she said. “We're really trying to connect peers and enthusiasts and experts in a way that encourages users to own their experience and see each other as resources.”
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| By SuperUser Account on 3/24/2011 1:40 PM
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| Launched this month, Windows MultiPoint Server 2011 is helping schools from Iowa to Africa deliver more computing to students at a lower cost. It works – and saves schools money – by letting as many as 20 students simultaneously “share” a single computer. |
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REDMOND, Wash. – March 24, 2011 – Like schools everywhere, Iowa’s Tri-Center Community Schools District wants to give its students the best education possible. And like most, it’s trying to make sure it provides students with the opportunity to use technology to learn while also coping with a shrinking budget.
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| Windows MultiPoint Server is used in computer labs at schools in Haiti that Microsoft and the Clinton Global Initiative have been building as part of the ongoing rebuilding efforts after last year’s devastating earthquake. |
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“A challenge that Tri-Center and other public schools in Iowa and I’m sure around the nation face is funding,” said Angela Huseman, Tri-Center’s high school principal. “There’s not always enough money, and you only get so much. And that’s the hard part for me to figure out: Well, if I’ve got this much money, where’s the biggest bang for my buck?”
For Huseman, the answer to that, at least in part, was a piece of Microsoft software that lets up to 20 students share one PC at the same time – each with their own keyboard, mouse, and monitor.
For months Tri-Center has been using a new tool from Microsoft that aims to deliver schools the most bang for their IT buck:Windows MultiPoint Server 2011. Windows MultiPoint Server 2011 (WMS 2011) – which went on sale earlier this month – lets multiple users simultaneously tap into the power of a single PC. The result is more computing at a lower cost, helping schools worldwide better prepare students for an increasingly competitive global economy.
“Access to technology provides students with a better platform for learning, but the realities of tighter school budgets make this difficult. Windows MultiPoint Server 2011 is a great solution to this challenge,” said Anthony Salcito, vice president of worldwide education at Microsoft.
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| By SuperUser Account on 3/24/2011 1:36 PM
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| Leading analyst firm points to opportunities for Microsoft partners both in cloud computing and with current Microsoft products. |
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REDMOND, Wash. — March 24, 2011 — Today, global research firm IDC issued a new white paper which estimates that members of the worldwide Microsoft ecosystem generated local revenues for themselves of $580 billion in 2010, up from $537 billion in 2009 and $475 billion in 2007. This demonstrates strong revenue growth when total worldwide IT spending increased less than half a percent, and validates the substantial opportunities and benefits available through the Microsoft Partner Network, the program that equips Microsoft partners with training, resources and support they need to successfully compete in today’s marketplace while allowing customers to easily identify the right partner for their technology needs.
Through the Microsoft Partner Network https://partner.microsoft.com, partners can extend their market reach for greater opportunities and profitability while delivering innovative solutions to help customers achieve their business goals. The IDC study estimates that for every dollar of revenue made by Microsoft Corp. in 2009, local members of the Microsoft ecosystem generated revenues for themselves of $8.70. In an additional study on Microsoft Core Infrastructure Optimization, IDC found that partners that invested in more difficult or a greater number of Microsoft competencies enjoyed 68 percent larger deals and 28 percent more revenue per employee, compared with partners that invested less.
“The Microsoft Partner Network has allowed us to extend and grow our business by delivering innovative solutions to our customers,” said Tom Chew, national general manager of Slalom Consulting. “Over the past year, we’ve increased revenue 45 percent and built strong momentum with Microsoft technologies around cloud services, business intelligence, portals and collaboration, dynamics, and unified communications. As a Microsoft partner, we’ve been able to differentiate Slalom and grow rapidly in an extremely challenging business landscape.”
“Microsoft and its partners make a significant impact on the global economy,” said Darren Bibby, program vice president for IDC Software Channels and Alliances Research. “Microsoft does an excellent job of providing great products for partners to work with, as well as effective sales, marketing and training resources. And the number of Microsoft partners working together is growing. The result is that the Microsoft ecosystem has achieved impressive results and has a very bright future.”
The Microsoft-commissioned IDC report reveals that the modifications made to the Microsoft Partner Network equip Microsoft partners with the training, resources and support they need to be well-positioned in the competitive IT marketplace, both with the current lineup of Microsoft products and in the cloud. Cloud-based solutions offer Microsoft partners the opportunity to grow by extending their current businesses via cloud infrastructure-as-a-service (private and/or public), software-as-a-service (Microsoft Business Productivity Online Standard Suite and/or Office 365), platform-as-a-service (Windows Azure) or a hybrid combined with on-premise solutions. Microsoft’s cloud offerings are based on products customers already use and that partners have already built their businesses around.
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| By SuperUser Account on 3/21/2011 10:38 AM
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| Large retailer runs business-critical applications for 1,755 stores on Microsoft virtualization technologies. |
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REDMOND, Wash. — March 21, 2011 — Microsoft Corp. announced today that Target Corp. is running business-critical workloads for all its retail stores on 15,000 virtual machines using Microsoft virtualization and management technologies, giving its IT department greater agility and economies of scale. The second-largest discount retailer in the U.S., Target has virtualized inventory, point-of-sale, supply-chain management, asset protection, in-store digital media and more on Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Microsoft System Center.
“Target’s investment in Hyper-V is a result of the strong technology partnership between our two companies,” said Jeff Mader, vice president, Target Technology Services. “With Hyper-V, Target can reduce our stores’ server footprints without sacrificing the mission-critical application performance that contributes to a superior retail experience for our guests.”
Minneapolis, Minn.-based Target Corp. serves guests at 1,755 stores in 49 states and operates 37 national distribution centers. Earlier this year, Target scaled its deployment of Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V to every U.S. store in the chain. Applications, ranging from Microsoft SQL Server 2008 SP1, SharePoint 2007 and Exchange 2007 to third-party, line-of-business software, can now be deployed and managed more quickly, with 8,650 fewer physical servers to maintain, power and refresh. Target has also implemented the Microsoft System Center management platform to manage and patch more than 300,000 endpoints, ranging from servers and PCs to mobile inventory devices and point-of-sale registers. System Center provides the automation, insight and data to help ensure Target guests can quickly find the products they need at the lowest possible cost and check out without delay.
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| By SuperUser Account on 3/10/2011 10:03 AM
 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Greenville, SC – March 7, 2011 – AssetPoint (www.assetpoint.com), a leading Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) solution provider, celebrated the success of one of their customers pursuing the business benefits of procurement best practices utilizing the latest TabWare EAM procurement solution TabSource. With the standard functionality of AssetPoint’s cloud computing (SaaS) TabWare EAM solution in use by over 1,000 users, one of the world's largest steel companies launched a strategic initiative last month to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their overall procurement process. AssetPoint and Life Cycle Engineering (www.LCE.com), a leading professional services firm focused on customer-specific solutions for reliability excellence and achieving successful organizational change, partnered to validate and reinforce the customer’s new procurement strategy by ensuring the right people and technology come together in the context of best business practice in order to achieve and sustain the targeted business benefits. According to the Aberdeen Group report “The Role of Software in Asset Performance Management,” the growing impact of asset management and procurement processes on organization’s bottom lines as well as on the safety of plant and employees has certainly elevated the importance and the criticality of these functions in the eyes of senior management. The report also listed the top two goals for asset maintenance: improving uptime and improving asset utilization. | By SuperUser Account on 3/8/2011 9:51 AM
Carlsbad, CA — March 7, 2011 EPM Live, a global leader in Enterprise SharePoint Project and Work Management applications, announced today its launch of WorkEngine’s Enterprise Portfolio Management Capabilities for SharePoint. Building on its award winning foundation aligned with project and work execution, WorkEngine has extended its core capabilities to include Portfolio Planning, Portfolio Modeling and Portfolio Optimization with an infuses on costs and resources . WorkEngine supports end-to-end Project and Portfolio Management disciplines through the entire life cycle of your projects as well as non-project work. “This launch marks a critical milestone for businesses looking to maximize return on their SharePoint investment by adding a Project and Work Management Solution to their platform. WorkEngine is now a true end-to-end Enterprise Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) system for SharePoint,” said Joe Larscheid, CEO of EPM Live. EPM Live has also released a new application, PPM WorkEngine, to align the new capabilities with the business. “Apps are the future; our vision is to not only provide a wide variety of applications that will apply our powerful capabilities to various work such as projects, products and services, but we want our customers to have them at their fingertips, at no additional cost,” said Joe. The WorkEngine product combined with numerous work apps will not only give businesses the tools they need to manage all projects and all work across their organizations, but will do so by accommodating all user maturities and all processes, making the WorkEngine SharePoint platform relevant to any business, simple to deploy and one of the most cost effective systems on the market.
WorkEngine continues to be on the forefront of market demand. The industry needs for PPM will continue to change as well. Gartner's Analyst Daniel B. Stang wrote in the June 7, 2010 release of Gartner's Magic Quadrant for IT Project and Portfolio Management, “An appropriate PPM application should match some immediate functional needs and also support a successive road map toward improving PPM maturity. PPM applications are aimed at automating elements of good organizational processes. Where no good organizational process exists, these applications can do one of two things: "dictate" what organizations should do, or support what they already do or want to do well.” The WorkEngine product helps organizations meet their current business needs as well as plan for the future, improving processes and promoting maturity growth. Dan also stated, “PPM application value is often initially achieved and increased through the definition and tracking of specific key initiatives. With maturity and a few years of use, integration of a PPM application to appropriate data sources, such as IT service management (ITSM), application life cycle management (ALM) and ERP systems, can expand an application's reach and value even further over time.” The WorkEngine work apps are intended to meet this need now, protecting IT investments such as SharePoint and eliminating the need for additional IT systems such as IT service management and application life cycle management. | By SuperUser Account on 3/7/2011 9:59 AM
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| Ericsson, Convergys, MetraTech, Redknee and Tech Mahindra choose Microsoft Dynamics CRM to extend their existing billing and customer care offerings for service providers. |
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REDMOND, Wash. — March 7, 2011 — Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq “MSFT”) today announced its growing ecosystem of independent software vendors (ISV) and systems integrator (SI) partners within the telecommunications industry. Ericsson, Convergys Corp., MetraTech Corp., Redknee Inc. and Tech Mahindra Ltd. have all selected Microsoft Dynamics CRM as a customer care component of their existing business support systems solutions, helping ensure service provider customers worldwide are able to support the delivery of new services effectively and affordably.
“It is exciting that partners recognize Microsoft Dynamics CRM can help them optimize their business and operational support offerings for telco customers, helping to deliver greater efficiencies and address new market opportunities,” said Brad Wilson, general manager, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Product Management Group. “As telcos look to transform their business, innovations in billing and outstanding customer service can make all the difference. These partnerships are a testament to the familiar, intelligent and connected experiences that Microsoft Dynamics CRM provides and that telco organizations require today.”
ISV and SI partners transitioning to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 are looking forward to passing on breakthrough productivity to telcos. The Microsoft Office user interface helps reduce initial per-call-center-agent training time and costs, delivers access to real-time data, and streamlines processes to boost internal collaboration, resulting in more satisfied customers.
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| By SuperUser Account on 3/1/2011 10:33 AM
By Anya Ciecierski, PartnerPoint Contributing Writer That headline may have you confused. We aren't generally bashful in singing the justly-deserved praises of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, yet here we are advising Microsoft Partners against purchasing that very software. Why is that? Because Microsoft Partners can get Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online for free. That’s right. Free! Microsoft recently revealed the details for an exciting program that makes the life of a Microsoft Partner even sweeter. All Microsoft Gold Certified partners can claim up to 250 seats of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online for free, while Silver Certified partners can claim up to 100 seats. On top of that, further seats can be purchased for the discount rate of $19 per user per month. This offer can't be combined with any other competencies, but who can complain after a freebie like that? Microsoft Cloud Essentials Pack or Microsoft Cloud Accelerate Partners are also in on the deal, getting the same offer as Gold Certified partners: 250 free seats with more following at $19 per user per month. | By SuperUser Account on 2/25/2011 10:26 AM
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Join Us: 4th Annual Microsoft Government Contractor Summit
Powering Business Growth and Transformation in the
Government Contractor Sector
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You’ve heard the buzz about business transformation but what does that really mean to you as a Government Contractor? What do you need to know to respond quickly to the challenges facing the industry? This year’s much anticipated Microsoft Government Contractor Summit continues to build on the tradition of the ‘not-to-be-missed’ industry event by taking Government Contractors to the heart of what business transformation means to their business. The event-filled day features a keynote by the Honorable Tom Davis, panel discussions by some of the leading figures in the government contracting market, and networking opportunities to meet people you need to do business with. Plus, you’ll get a first-hand view of the Microsoft Dynamics ERP and CRM solutions that are taking the government contracting world by storm.
You will:
- Get an understanding of Microsoft’s strategy, investments and insight on technology trends for government contracting
- Learn best practices from peers who are utilizing technology to optimize their day to day business processes and gain real time insights
- Hear the Honorable Tom Davis speak on trends facing Government Contractors; as a former congressman and noted technology leader, he will share Government Contractor strategies and vision
- Gain insights from well-known Government Contractor CEOs on important hurdles facing the industry and how to overcome them
- Meet with industry leading Microsoft partners who are bringing the best of breed Government Contractor solutions to the market
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Target Audience: Government Contractor C-Level and Business Executives
Price: $75 USD NOTE: Space is Limited! This event will sell out. Click here to register.
Agenda *
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7:30-9:00a
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Registration, Networking & Exhibits
Visit the showcase of leading-edge technology solutions specifically suited for Government Contractors
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9:00-10:00a
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Kickoff and Microsoft Keynote
Greg Myers, General Manager, Civilian and Healthcare, Microsoft Federal who will provide an overview of Microsoft’s strategy, investments and insights on technology trends for government contracting.
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10:00-10:30a
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Break & Visit the Technology Exhibits
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10:30-11:30a
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Federal Government IT Budget & Spending in 2011 & Beyond
Karen Evans, former OMB's Administrator for e-government & IT, will provide insight into the President’s Budget Request and implications of the Continuing Resolution.
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11:30a-12:00p
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Break & Visit the Technology Exhibits
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12:00-1:00p
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Industry Keynote Luncheon
The Honorable Tom Davis, former congressman from Northern VA, who has been recognized as one of the most knowledgeable congressmen in history on technology topics and the government speaks about the role of Government and IT.
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1:00-2:00p
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Government Contractor CEO Panel
Hosted by Federal News Radio Morning Anchorman Tom Temin
Featuring Bob Burleson, CFO, Software Process Technologies Inc.; Tony Jimenez, CEO, MicroTech; David Kriegman, Senior Vice President, Jacobs Engineering; and, Ajay Madan, CEO, OST Global.
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2:00-2:15p
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Break & Visit the Technology Exhibits
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2:15-3:15p
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Industry Solution Breakouts – Three Concurrent Tracks. Presented by:
- Pleasant Valley Business Solutions
- Unanet | SSI Consulting
- McGladrey
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*Agenda subject to some change.
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Title Sponsor:
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When:
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Registration opens at 7:30am
Detailed agenda below.
Where:
Fairview Park Marriott
3111 Fairview Park Drive
Falls Church, VA
Free parking onsite
Gold Sponsors:
Exhibitors:
Pleasant Valley Business Solutions
McGladrey
SSI Consulting
Unanet
Broadpoint Technologies
Cole Systems
i3solutions
IPM Global
Goodman & Company
SBS Group
Tech Council of Maryland
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| By SuperUser Account on 2/24/2011 3:12 PM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Cloud Computing EAM Solution Achieves Perfection Greenville, SC – February 24, 2011 – AssetPoint, a leading Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) solution provider, announced its TabWare Cloud Computing solution achieved 100% uptime for its customers during the 2010 calendar year. TabWare is the leading EAM solution for companies who want full functionality without the expense, resources and time other solutions demand. Designed by maintenance professionals for maintenance professionals, TabWare is proven to maximize asset performance, resulting in maximum uptime and higher profit margins. The TabWare Cloud Computing solution is hosted by AssetPoint in an SAS-70 Type II audited environment, and customers access their data through a secure, password protected internet link. It’s designed to handle all customer locations from a secure database, giving views of their operation at a site, region, division, country and enterprise levels. | By SuperUser Account on 2/24/2011 10:26 AM
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| Microsoft Chief Research and Strategy Officer Craig Mundie gathered with individuals from across the company this week for a day of futuristic demos showcasing natural user interfaces, 3D technologies and new ways to interact with computers. Get a behind-the-scenes look. |
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REDMOND, Wash. – Feb. 24, 2011 – Microsoft provided a glimpse into computing’s future at the Microsoft Home this week, showing demos of 3D and virtual worlds, vision systems that create new models for interacting with computers, and research that explores potential scenarios for Kinect beyond gaming.
Mundie and Don Mattrick, president of Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business, also announcedplans to make a Kinect for Windows software development kit (SDK) available this spring. The non-commercial SDK will be geared to academics and enthusiasts.
See videos of some of the demos in the Rethinking Computing newsroom.
Behind the Demos: Exploring Natural User Interfaces
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A Look at Avatar Kinect for Xbox
Avatar Kinect replicates a user’s speech, head movements and facial expressions on their Xbox avatar. Avatar Kinect lets users hang out with friends in virtual environments and shoot animated videos to share online. Redmond, Wash. Feb 21, 2011.
Web-Ready
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| By SuperUser Account on 2/23/2011 1:09 PM
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| Government agencies, universities and public school systems choose company’s Online Services to increase productivity, save money. |
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REDMOND, Wash. — Feb. 23, 2011 — Today at the Microsoft U.S. Public Sector CIO Summit, Microsoft Corp. announced cloud computing agreements with 16 new government and education customers. In his keynote address, Curt Kolcun, vice president of U.S. Public Sector at Microsoft, welcomed several of the newest users of Microsoft Online Services, including Portland Public Schools, Oregon; University at Albany — SUNY; Fashion Institute of Technology — SUNY; Vanderbilt University; City of Alexandria, Va.; City of Virginia Beach, Va.; and the Poarch Band of Creek Indians tribal government in southern Alabama.
These public sector organizations join a rapidly expanding community of government agencies and schools that have recently implemented Microsoft cloud computing solutions, including the state of California, the state of Minnesota, U.S. Department of Agriculture, California State University campuses at Long Beach, Pomona and San Francisco, the State University of New York (SUNY), New York City Public Schools in partnership with ePals Inc., Kentucky Department of Education, and the University of Georgia. In addition to cost savings and efficiency gains, public sector organizations are choosing Microsoft cloud solutions for their security features, interoperability with existing technology investments and the 24/7 voice support services. Microsoft’s newest government customers join more than 190 state and local government organizations in nearly every U.S. state, bringing the total to more than 3 million government employees utilizing some form of Microsoft Online Services. In addition, Microsoft Live@edu is currently one of the most popular communication and collaboration cloud suites for education, serving more than 15 million people in more than 10,000 education institutions worldwide.
“Public sector organizations are looking for enterprise-grade cloud solutions, and that means providing high levels of security, functionality and support,” Kolcun said. “We’re seeing government and education organizations of every size and dimension using Microsoft cloud solutions to help reduce costs and increase productivity in support of their missions.”
Portland Public Schools Leads the Path in Oregon to the Cloud
Portland Public Schools, the largest school district in the state of Oregon with more than 46,000 students across 85 schools, is planning to move to Microsoft Live@edu as its core collaboration and communications suite for students, teachers and staff to drive improved teaching and learning in the classroom. Portland was looking for a new e-mail solution as its current on-premises Novell GroupWise system was coming to end of life, and it wanted to provide new services to students. After a thorough analysis of both Live@edu and Google Apps for Education, Portland chose Live@edu because of Microsoft’s training and support structure, security, and interoperability advantages.
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| By SuperUser Account on 2/22/2011 4:57 PM
By Ingrid Lunden Updated: Several sources (look here and here) are now reporting that Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) is not facing any delays with production of the iPad 2. The device will be launched at an event in San Francisco on March 2. The news caps days of intense speculation over the device, as Verizon on Thursday gears up to launch the Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Xoom tablet, seen as the first Android device that will really provide viable competition against the iPad. Original post follows below. Tablets were nearly as much of a story at Mobile World Congress as handsets were—a huge leap considering how small market share is today, and how relatively new they are on the market. This week there are even more reports and speculation about what will be in the next devices from Apple, Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Android and Microsoft, and when we might really get to see these things on the market. —iPad 2: Sightings and hints of Apple’s next-generation iPad have been cropping up here, there and everywhere, and everyone now seems to take as fact the thinner design, dual cameras, and better speakers and processors. But when will we see them? Here’s one indirect clue: stock of the current crop of devices is, apparently, running out. 9to5 Mac is taking this as a sign that a new iPad could be coming as soon as next month. In Europe, it notes, reseller Carphone Warehouse has run out of its 64 GB WiFi model, and all 3G models; while T-Mobile and Orange have reduced the price on their 16 GB 3G/WiFi devices by half, to £99.99, for those buying them on two-year 3G contracts. I’m inclined to be a bit cynical: these could be real shortages of finished lines (CPW) and a drive to shift stock before new devices arrive (the operators). But it could also be down to actual supply and production issues; two operators keen to drive sales after a lacklustre start to their subsidised iPad push. (Plenty of reports of slow sales for Orange around the holidays, but the operator has never confirmed directly.) We’ll only know for sure next month. In the meantime, real fans can already start picking out their favorite color of case (pictured), or wait until June, if the report from Bloomberg—the device has now been delayed until June because of production delays at manufacturer Foxconn—sounds more credible. —Motorola Xoom: Meanwhile, we now have the latest teaser ad for the Xoom, a 15-second clip (embedded below) that embodies the Xoom sales slogan—“grab it and it grabs you”—and continues the sci-fi, brave new world theme introduced in the Xoom ad effort for the Super Bowl. | By SuperUser Account on 2/22/2011 3:45 PM
By Carin Moonin, PartnerPoint Contributing Writer There is no doubt that a well-tended garden is beautiful. The flowers, shrubs, trees, grass—all come together to provide a peaceful, serene, and enjoyable setting. In a garden like this, it’s evident that while all the elements are lovely, it’s the collective effect that’s breathtaking. Believe it or not, going green can be just as charming—even at the office. With all the recent growth in green technology, with consumers opting for environmentally conscious choices, it’s interesting to remember how offices looked and dealt with document management. Back in the days before Windows revolutionized the workplace, file cabinets were crammed with both unimportant memos and highly sensitive documents. But with Windows, we’ve gone from carbon paper to Word documents, from mailboxes to email, from memos to instant messages. And yet there’s still much to be done to help businesses go greener. | By SuperUser Account on 2/17/2011 7:33 PM
For those of you Microsoft Partners with questions or concerns about the new Microsoft Partner Program, here is a great opportunity. Eric Ligman has just announced thru his blog that Microsoft is hosting an interactive forum in which we can participate. The team that will be presenting is impressive, and there is a Q&A session. Below is the blog post with the details. And also, if you havent already done so, be sure to post your thoughts on our discussion of this topic on our LinkedIn Group
From Eric Ligman's Blog, Microsoft Worldwide Partner Experience Lead Join us for a Microsoft Partner Network Interactive Leadership ForumWhat are you doing Thursday, March 10th from 7:00 – 8:30 am PST? If you are a Microsoft partner, I would like to invite you to join us for a unique opportunity designed just for you: an interactive online forum with the leadership team of the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group. As I have mentioned many times here on my blog, through my Twitter account, my Linkedin account, in-person meetings, and many other places, here at Microsoft, we are continually striving to reach out, listen to, communicate with, and work with our partners to build a strong partnership with you and to enable the highest levels of joint success possible. Part of this effort includes helping partners get answers to questions they have, addressing misconceptions that may exist, and bringing awareness to resources available that you may not be familiar with. As such, we are hosting an interactive online forum with the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group leadership team to discuss topics, questions, concerns, misconceptions and more that we have heard from partners around the world regarding the Microsoft Partner Network to help address and answer these for you. I will be moderating this session and joining me will be:
- Julie Bennani: General Manager, Microsoft Partner Network
- Ross Brown: Vice-President, Worldwide Partner Sales
- Karl Noakes: General Manager, Microsoft Partner Strategy & Programs
- Jon Roskill: Corporate Vice-President, Worldwide Partner Group (hopefully, based on travel schedule. Should know by end of this week.)
| By SuperUser Account on 2/17/2011 5:39 PM
By Mark Armstrong, PartnerPoint Contributing Writer  I am a co-host on a weekly gaming podcast, there are 3 of us that take part in the show each week with a broad range of opinions over the various consoles and their good and bad points.
I am classed as a Microsoft fanboy (boy is a bit unfair as I am now 50) but yes I have been an adopter of Microsoft hardware and software since the introduction of Windows 95 and have followed closely their various innovations in products. What I wanted to write about is the Microsoft Kinect addition to the 360 and it’s likely impact on gaming in general. On the show the jury is still out as far as Kinect goes and out of the three of us opinions are evenly spread. First off I am a die-hard Microsoft supporter who bought Kinect has a good number of games and uses it pretty much on a daily basis and loves the interaction it provides. Then we have the show’s host, who invested in the unit, again has as good cross section of games but is pretty much sitting back and saying is that it, where are the games I want to play that blow me away. And finally the other co-host who is playing the waiting game to see if the killer game comes out that says to him go and buy this unit. | By SuperUser Account on 2/17/2011 1:55 PM
With the introduction of Azure Platform, Microsoft is helping small and medium businesses (SMB) make the move into the cloud with integrated cloud applications that were once only available to large enterprises at a considerable price. One could say Microsoft has helped SMBs grow their wings and soar into the cloud. Tools like the Azure Platform make it easy even for small businesses to deploy their own web applications right alongside trusted Microsoft products such as Office 365, SharePoint, Lync, and Dynamics CRM. Additionally, all of Microsoft's cloud products play nicely with on-premise or hosted tools, such as Microsoft Dynamics GP. Add the quickly rising market share of Microsoft's new search engine, Bing, and you have a legitimate advertising platform for your business as well, one that can reach audiences on everything from mobile phones to gaming consoles. | By SuperUser Account on 2/16/2011 9:44 AM
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| Microsoft delivers the Power of Productivity for customers across all deployment models; raises bar for performance and scalability with 150,000-concurrent-user benchmark. |
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REDMOND, Wash. — Feb. 16, 2011 — Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq “MSFT”) today announced that Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 for on-premises and partner-hosted deployments has been completed and released for customer download. This release complements the latest version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, which delivers Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 as an on-demand service from Microsoft’s datacenters and was launched into 40 markets and 41 languages in January. With a single multitenant code base across cloud and on-premises deployment models, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 delivers the Power of Productivity to sales, service and marketing organizations worldwide.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 is now globally available and existing customers with active Microsoft Software Assurance agreements can access the new version immediately via theMicrosoft Download Center.
In addition, Microsoft announced the new release scaled to 150,000 concurrent users in a single instance while delivering sub-second response times, once again raising the bar for performance and scalability in the CRM industry. The new benchmark results will be detailed in a Microsoft Dynamics CRM performance and scalability white paper that will be delivered in the coming weeks.
“The need to build deeper and more profitable relationships on a global scale remains a CIO top priority,” said Mark Barrett, senior vice president, CRM, Avanade. “The combination of Avanade’s deep experience in solution development and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 enables us to deliver comprehensive CRM capabilities to our clients through on-premises deployments as well as a software-as-a-service offering. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 provides a platform for us to help companies strengthen customer and partner relationships, increase productivity, and collaborate across the organization.”
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 provides customers and partners with a wide range of benefits, including point-and-click configurability, enterprise scalability, and easy interoperability to existing applications and databases. It delivers the Power of Productivity for users in organizations of all sizes through its focus on the following:
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Familiar experiences through a next-generation native Microsoft Outlook client, browser-based and mobile access, RoleTailored design, and advanced user personalization, improving user adoption and giving users easy access to the information they need to be successful.
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Intelligent experiences through guided process dialogs, inline business intelligence for performance and goal management, and real-time dashboards, providing the most up-to-date information critical to enabling sales, service and marketing professionals to do their jobs effectively.
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Connected experiences through flexible cloud development, Windows Azure interoperability, contextual Microsoft SharePoint capabilities and the new Microsoft Dynamics Marketplace, making it easy for customers and partners to configure and customize Microsoft Dynamics CRM to meet specific business needs.
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| By SuperUser Account on 2/15/2011 5:43 PM
By Mary Hester, PartnerPoint Contributing Writer Not that long ago, the only way to get high-quality, professional materials was through a graphic designer. Printing was a complicated, expensive process that was left to the print shops. Each project required assembling pictures, graphics and content that was camera-ready. Today, we have access to everything needed to make agency-quality marketing materials with full-color and amazing graphics. Brochures, mailers and newsletters can be printed on-demand or in the perfect quantity to reducing waste and keep the offering fresh. To save more and reach the online audience, electronic files are brilliant and easy to distribute. If you have an idea, a good eye and the right tools, you can make magic. Microsoft Office offers the right tools with its Office 2010 Suite of Applications. Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Publisher provide improved and enhanced features for creating and publishing. Many of the features are cross-platform so you can learn a skill in one application and use it in another. There are a host of classes for beginner, intermediate and advanced users that can be taken in a classroom environment or online depending on your best learning method. Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and others offer free, online classes that are perfect for the self-learner. Word is the standard for creating and formatting documents of all types from simple letters to documents with a table of contents, index and glossary. It makes the task of creating and editing documents easy. Tools like spell check and thesaurus make us look smart and polished. New and improved photo-editing tools let you transform pictures right in Word 2010 – no extra software needed. Change color saturation, temperature, brightness, and contrast to turn a simple Word document into a work of art. Turn text into visual effects with enhanced text effects and SmartArt graphics. Change basic bullet-points into compelling visuals and add text effects like shadow, glow, reflection, and 3-D in just a few clicks. With co-authoring, you can edit at the same time as others, even if you're working from different locations, and keep versions in sync with version control. This is a great way to eliminate typos (ever used a there for their or your for you’re?) by having others review your work for content and correctness. | By SuperUser Account on 2/14/2011 12:28 PM
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| At the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona, Spain, Microsoft leaders announced upcoming new features for Windows Phone 7 and provided a glimpse into the new phone’s early feedback and growing momentum. |
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BARCELONA, Spain – Feb. 14, 2011 – Microsoft today kicked off Mobile World Congress by giving people a glimpse of what the rest of the year will bring for Windows Phone 7. Among the updates are several new features, a booming app marketplace, and the integration of even more Microsoft products with the phone.
A concrete example of the company’s vision is the new strategic partnership with Nokia. “This partnership will combine the strengths of our two companies, and fuel our growth as we build the global Windows Phone ecosystem. This is a great win for us, for Nokia, and for our existing and new customers around the world,” said Andy Lees, president of Microsoft’s Mobile Communications Business.
New Windows Phone Features & Apps
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IE9 Mobile
IE9 will be available for Windows Phone 7 in the second half of 2011, offering "a dramatically enhanced mobile Web browser experience." The IE9 beta has been downloadedan estimated 25 million times. Feb. 14, 2011
Web-Ready
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“...A year ago, we introduced Windows Phone 7 at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. We described how we are putting the entire muscle of our company behind our mobile strategy including Windows, Windows Live, Bing, Zune, Xbox LIVE, Office, SharePoint, Exchange, and our developer tools,” Lees said. “Our alliance with Nokia creates opportunities for both companies far beyond what we could achieve separately, and offers a compelling alternative to the existing choices for consumers, mobile operators and developers.”
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| By SuperUser Account on 2/11/2011 9:13 AM
 LONDON, England – The strategic alliance announced by Nokia and Microsoft today could create some rather special devices. Nokia’s phones have always been famed for their great hardware – best-in-class durability, the most powerful cameras on the market and sleek and stylish designs that sit beautifully in the hand. But what about a new OS to go alongside that? Here’s five things that you might look forward to on a Nokia Windows device.
Great Usability
We’ve enjoyed our widgets on Symbian devices, but Microsoft’s tiles are even simpler to set up and to use: and they put the information that’s most needed by users right where you need it. Microsoft Windows Phone 7 offers great ease of use in comparison to other mobile operating systems. Every alternative will have it’s fans, but this one definitely drives up the usability of devices. 
Gaming at the next level
If you like to use your mobile device for gaming, then your world just might have got a lot rosier. Using a Nokia Windows phone we’re excited about the possibility of powerful console franchises appearing right on our mobile devices. 
| By SuperUser Account on 2/11/2011 9:08 AM
By Preston Gralla Windows Phone 7 today went from also-ran to contender as Nokia and Microsoft announced a far-reaching deal for Windows Phone 7 to power Nokia phones. For the first time in years, Microsoft is relevant in the mobile market. Although details are somewhat lacking, Windows Phone 7 will replace MeeGo and Symbian as the operating system for Nokia phones. Nokia, by the way, won't abandon Symbian immediately. Instead, according to the New York Times, Symbian will "become a franchise business and that Nokia expected to sell another 150 million mobile phones before halting development." The move goes well beyond an agreement to use Windows Phone 7 on Nokia devices --- the companies also announced a broad strategic alliance that includes Bing, Nokia maps, development tools, and more. On the official Nokia blog, an open letter from Nokia CEO Stephen Elop and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said that under the agreement: • Nokia will adopt Windows Phone as its primary smartphone strategy, innovating on top of the platform in areas such as imaging, where Nokia is a market leader. • Nokia will help drive and define the future of Windows Phone. Nokia will contribute its expertise on hardware design, language support, and help bring Windows Phone to a larger range of price points, market segments and geographies.
| By SuperUser Account on 2/10/2011 9:33 AM
 DynamicPoint publishes new whitepaper, Best Practices in SharePoint Development for Microsoft Dynamics GP. Almost every ERP and CRM software implementation can be supplemented with additional areas of functionality. Learn just how SharePoint can provide enhancements to magnify the benefits of your Dynamics solution. This whitepaper specifically targets organizations interested in extending the critical data within Dynamics GP with SharePoint Portals, Business Automation and Custom Products that will help automate your business and allow employees to collaborate in ways that save time, money and frustration.... | By SuperUser Account on 2/8/2011 10:44 AM
 Microsoft really has a lot going for them in their CRM offering, Microsoft Dynamics CRM. What’s great about this application is that instead of trying to be all things to all people, Microsoft has opted for an xRM approach, a simple concept that makes a lot of sense. xRM is an evolution of CRM, where the x stands for ‘anything’, and it recognises that no two companies are the same. By starting with the basic CRM framework, xRM involves adding a number of different applications in order to customize your own software solution suitable for your business processes. These applications are specifically built for Microsoft CRM by Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and carry the certified for Microsoft Dynamics accreditation, so you know they’ve past rigorous tests and are approved by Microsoft.
Some of the industries that are really beginning to benefit from the xRM concept are the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industries. Up until recently the AEC industries have suffered from a lack of scalable and flexible project management software offerings, often having to make do with highly specialized out of the box solutions that don’t quite fit their processes, or project management applications that are just an extension of the company’s accounting software and ‘think’ like accountants, rather than PMs. However, that’s all changing with the solid framework of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, which is allowing scalable, industry specific project management solutions such as IPM, to be built on top of it. But what exactly does Microsoft CRM bring to the Project Management table that makes IPM a game changer? Well for a start, Outlook integration. Microsoft Dynamics CRM gives you the opportunity to do all your work from within Outlook, an environment most people are already somewhat familiar with. Project managers are no different, and as IPM is built on top of CRM, you can manage all their project information in IPM from within your email account. We find this not only provides convenience, but also results in a high user adoption as you don’t have to learn a new system. | By SuperUser Account on 2/2/2011 12:05 PM
 The search spat between Google and Bing has turned ugly, with Google employees dissing Microsoft in company blog posts and personal Twitter updates.
Bing allegedly copies some of Google's obscure search results by collecting user' click data through the Bing toolbar and "Suggested Sites" tool in Internet Explorer. Google bases its accusations on a "sting operation" in which engineers set up dummy search results based on nonsense words, and watched as Bing produced mostly duplicate results. The revelation makes for a lively debate, but the back-and-forth between Google and Microsoft (at a search event on Tuesday, over Twitter and in blog posts) also reflects poorly on Google, the search juggernaut who surely has better things to do than slag on a competitor who has roughly 12 percent of the market (or 28 percent counting Yahoo). Here are five reasons Google should keep its head down now that the facts are out: Algorithm Isn't EverythingBing isn't going to beat Google just because it allegedly cribbed some long-tail searches, just as Yahoo didn't beat Google back when Google was powering Yahoo's search engine. User experience is still the key, and Google can take comfort knowing it's still the best in that regard. | By SuperUser Account on 2/1/2011 10:17 AM
‘Patch Tuesday’ is the second Tuesday of every month. It’s the day when Microsoft releases any software updates that are needed to address security or availability problems with their products. Getting a bunch of 20 or so software updates to test and deploy each month can be a daunting task for an IT department, especially for those with limited resources. But it’s a lot less daunting than fighting a blizzard of malware like viruses, trojans and worms that can wipe data, destroy business productivity and generally make your life hell. Software updates prevent malware attacks from doing damage to your systems, that’s why they are so important. The problem is, sometimes software updates can cause damage to systems because of application incompatibility issues. Usually this can result in crashes and errors that cost more precious time and the respect of the business. To make life easier Microsoft provides two toolsets to help you get secure and keep systems up-to-date with patches. - Windows Software Update Services 3 (an included role that ships as part of Windows Server).
- Microsoft System Center Configuration Manger 2007 (whose Client Access Licences are typically included in the Microsoft’s Core Enterprise Agreement CAL pack)
| By SuperUser Account on 1/31/2011 3:36 PM
 There are few people that I admire more than Mr. Bill Gates. During my lifetime, he has been by far the most impressive business person in the areas that are important to me as a business owner. As a teen ager, he had the creativity and vision to see PC and Operating System opportunity when most others didn’t. He then had the business sense to leverage the opportunity to create a successful business. After that, he succeeded at maintaining an active control of the company thru ought an amazing growth trajectory over the next 20 years or so, which few Founders can say. And finally, he has (or is, I should say) successfully utilizing his successes, both monetarily and politically, to fuel his passion of making the world a better place for everyone. How could you ask for more?
| By SuperUser Account on 1/31/2011 2:17 PM
BY: MARK DRAPEAU The Federal government has made a good deal of progress toward being more transparent, collaborative, and participatory during the two years since President Obama took office. However, despite great strides, government practitioners' use of social media is not very sophisticated, does not take advantage of the latest tactics and tools, and does not necessarily improve the dialogue around big issues citizens really care about -- the economy, jobs, national security, health, and the environment. Meanwhile, the Government 2.0 / Open Government movement's strategic thought leaders in many ways remain focused on internal foci like what certain words mean, or what Data.gov should look like. Here, I ask five "big questions" about government social media use to put technology, government, social engagement, citizens, and business together in a larger perspective Who are the public faces of government agencies online? 
When you think of tech companies in Washington, DC interacting with the government, you can often think of a specific person who is the official or unofficial "face" of the company -- both online and offline. They have some digital savvy in one way or another (they write, they tweet, there are online videos of their interviews, etc.) For Microsoft in DC, people often think of me or Lewis Shepherd (Microsoft Research's liasion to government). Google has the father of the Internet, Vint Cerf, appear at functions and give talks. Facebook has Adam Conner. Twitter now has Adam Sharp. And this is of course not limited to technology companies, nor to Washington, DC. Comcast had until recently Frank Eliason. Ford has Scott Monty. Back in the day, Microsoft had Robert Scoble in Redmond, WA. There are variations on this theme, but certainly many private sector brands are moving toward something like this (see: iJustine loves Junior Mints), on purpose or accidentally, and in many cases the benefits of authentic audience engagement outweigh the downside of it. | By SuperUser Account on 1/31/2011 2:10 PM
By Jeff Vance If I asked you to pick the most over-hyped technology trend of the past year, you’d probably pick either “cloud computing” or “smartphones and tablets.” Pretty much every tech publication has wall-to-wall coverage of those trends, while plenty of vendors are busily slapping “cloud” and “mobile” on a slew of products that are only vaguely so. The thing about these so-called over-hyped trends, though, is that they really aren’t. In the build up to the Super Bowl, you will see exhaustive coverage of the Steelers and Packers, and, sure, there’s way more hype than I’d prefer, even as an expatriate Pittsburgher and rabid Steeler fan. But are those teams really over-hyped when they’re at the top of the NFL heap? Similarly, cloud computing and mobile get more than their fair share of attention, but on the other hand, investment dollars are flowing into cloud and mobile companies; startups are popping up like weeds, and plenty of incumbents such as Microsoft, Cisco, Oracle and IBM (to name only a few), are betting big on these trends. One thing much less hyped is that the cloud and mobile are intersecting in many, many places, giving rise to the “Mobile Cloud.” How is the “mobile cloud” different from the “cloud?” Ask ten different tech experts and you’ll get ten different answers. Often, the term “mobile cloud” simply indicates the most common end point accessing a particular cloud, although as the mobile cloud evolves expect some subtle differences in regard to security, back-end infrastructure, app design, etc. to emerge. Even though the mobile cloud is still in its infancy, here are five things IT should know about the mobile cloud in order to prepare for the future: | By SuperUser Account on 1/28/2011 1:44 PM
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| ESPN unveils gridiron magic in its new feature series “I Am a World Champion,” presented by Bing. |
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BRISTOL, Conn., and REDMOND, Wash. — Jan. 24, 2011 — ESPN and Bing, the Decision Engine from Microsoft Corp., have joined forces to present a multifaceted program that includes a unique feature series highlighting champion quarterbacks and their decisive moments in life and football, as well as an on-site activation as part of ESPN The Magazine’s annual NEXT event during Super Bowl weekend.
Only 28 men have ever led their team to a Super Bowl victory and walked off the field a world champion quarterback. Beginning today, ESPN is launching a new feature series called “I Am a World Champion,” presented by Bing, offering a first-person narrative from the signal callers who helped define the biggest game in American sports. This original content will showcase the travails and triumphs told in the quarterback’s own voice, such as Terry Bradshaw’s relationship with Chuck Noll and the many daunting life obstacles Doug Williams overcame to reach glory. The first installment, featuring Bradshaw, is now available online at http://espn.go.com/nfl/superbowl/quarterbacks and airs today at 4 p.m. EST duringNFL Live, with additional segments running throughout the week on both NFL Live and afternoon editions of SportsCenter. Also, as the official Decision Engine of ESPN The Magazine’s 2011 NEXT event, Bing will be presenting an open-to-the-public panel of Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks including Joe Montana, Doug Williams and Kurt Warner on Saturday, Feb. 5 at 2 p.m. CST.
“We’re excited to team up with ESPN Films to showcase the decisive moments in the lives and careers of these legendary quarterbacks,” said Danielle Tiedt, general manager of Bing. “It’s been an inspirational journey to work with ESPN to bring this unique content to life reflecting the key life and career decisions that made these men into legends.”
“Our collaboration with Bing gave us an opportunity to create a series of truly inspiring features, which offer a new perspective on the lives and careers of a few of the men who have hoisted the Lombardi Trophy,” said Ed Erhardt, president of ESPN Customer Marketing and Sales.
Within each story, the quarterbacks will share recollections of perseverance and sacrifice made on their path to the Super Bowl, and how that ultimate moment of achievement has impacted their lives years later. From the relative quiet of their lives today to the clamorous traffic of those intense, game-winning moments on the field and into champagne-soaked locker rooms, “I Am a World Champion,” presented by Bing, will share the personal stories and memories of this elite group of men. The television schedule is as follows (all EST). Each of the features will also be available athttp://espn.go.com/nfl/superbowl/quarterbacks:
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Show
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Quarterback
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Mon., Jan. 24
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4 p.m.
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NFL Live
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Terry Bradshaw
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Tues., Jan. 25
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9 a.m.
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SportsCenter
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Len Dawson
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noon
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SportsCenter
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Roger Staubach
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4 p.m.
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NFL Live
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Bob Griese
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Wed., Jan. 26
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9 a.m.
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SportsCenter
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Terry Bradshaw
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noon
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SportsCenter
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Jeff Hostetler
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4 p.m.
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NFL Live
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Brad Johnson
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Thurs., Jan. 27
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9 a.m.
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SportsCenter
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Jim Plunkett
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noon
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SportsCenter
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Earl Morrall
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4 p.m.
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NFL Live
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Len Dawson
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Fri., Jan. 28
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9 a.m.
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SportsCenter
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Doug Williams
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noon
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SportsCenter
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Bob Griese
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4 p.m.
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NFL Live
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Jeff Hostetler
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Sat., Jan. 29
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9 a.m.
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SportsCenter
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Brad Johnson
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Sun., Jan. 30
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10 a.m.
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SportsCenter
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Mark Rypien
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| By SuperUser Account on 1/26/2011 10:33 AM
By Alex Thayer, PartnerPoint Contributing Writer The business of digital games is booming. Sales are estimated to exceed $70 billion by 2015, and the potential for growth is better than ever given the strength of the console and online gaming markets. But like all software products, digital games must be localized for different markets around the world, a process that can be costly without the right approach, knowledge, and expectations. Without specific knowledge about how to localize games and capitalize on the huge worldwide market, your entry into that market will be far less likely to turn a profit. What is localization, exactly? Localization is the process of modifying a product, solution, or service for a specific culture, locale, language, country, or community. Localization is a strategic process that requires a great deal of planning and active management to complete in a successful manner. As the Internet and digital technology have changed the ways in which companies interact with clients, and the ways in which countries interact with each other, localization has become an area of specialization for members of the technical and professional communication and software development industries. Large software companies increasingly regard localization as an essential activity; localization managers who guide the process of making a software application usable for different cultures are a growing component of the workforce. | By SuperUser Account on 1/26/2011 10:11 AM
By Tiffany Ingargiola, PartnerPoint Contributing Writer  2011 will mark my third Microsoft TechED North America conference and I couldn’t be more excited for May to arrive. As active as I am in the Microsoft Partner network, it took me to actually attend the conference to understand its TRUE value. An analogy to help convey its value would be, “What Microsoft WPC (World Partner Conference) is to a partner is what TechED is to our customers”. So what, there are lots of great conferences, what separates TechEd from any other conference? I have narrowed down my top three reasons why a Microsoft partner of any solution competency should attend: If only for the EXPO Hall: Imagine walking into a conference as if you were THE client/customer? Well this is where our decision makers come to find the NEXT big thing that they can and will implement in their company. Partners are contacted actively by vendors to re-sell their products. The Expo hall of TechED is full of these vendors and here you actually have the opportunity to view their presentations as the client. I thought it was great to see where the crowds gathered and find out what the vendors had to offer. Wouldn’t you love to see a client as they demo the products? Whether understanding the delivery or taking in the questions, if you have some products you are considering adding to your arsenal this is the place to make that decision. | By SuperUser Account on 1/26/2011 9:54 AM
By Richard A. Bilancia, PartnerPoint Contributing Writer Want to get real value for your information technology investments? Then forget about perfection and focus on the key and significant. If you can learn to focus on the right things to do, the returns on IT investment can be enormous. All that it takes is the application of Pareto's Law, also known as the 80/20 rule. An enormous amount has been written over the last several years about information technology investments and their ROI. The observations made and guidance given in many of these articles is correct and solid. However, all too many technology initiatives focus on perfection (i.e., getting absolutely everything done perfectly). The scope of many of these technology initiatives is simply too broad. The small significant achievements get lost while efforts continue to standardize absolutely everything within the original project scope; or, worse yet, an even greater scope. It’s become so common that a phrase exists for the phenomenon: “scope creep.” In most information technology projects, broader scope and greater levels of effort add little, if any, extra value; they frequently simply add extra cost. However, applying some 100 year-old basics formulated by Vilfredo Pareto can make a substantial difference. Vilfredo Pareto Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923) was an Italian economist and political sociologist. As part of his life-long research, he formulated, “The law of the trivial many and the critical few.” This law has become commonly known as the “80/20 rule.” His law can be restated to apply to information technology initiatives: “In any system implementation, 80% of the potential value of that implementation can be achieved from just 20% of the total effort or cost.” One can spend the remaining 80% of effort (or cost) for relatively little return. Table 1 below summarizes this.
| Cost |
Value |
| 100% |
100% |
| 20% |
80% |
Please note that once the initial 80% value has been achieved, to achieve the final 20% of value requires spending five times more than was spent for the initial increment. | By SuperUser Account on 1/25/2011 11:49 AM
BackgroundStonetree Network Solutions specializes in bringing the "Fortune 100" technology experience to small and medium-sized businesses in the Denver, Colorado area. Innovative offerings include their popular STONEMail service for spam-free, virus-free, HIPAA/PCI/SOX-compliant secure email – all without the overhead expense of an in-house email solution. Clients can access their email the same way they would with a traditional email server without the worry of server configuration, backup, retention, archives, or upgrades. Other Stonetree services include outsourced IT, disaster recovery, electronic backup, hosted email solution, project implementations, wireless installation and support, and virus scans and malware protection for a client base as diverse as medical offices, engineering firms, property managers, nonprofit organizations and more. 'Blended' Business ModelIn order to make good on the kind of quality services they were committed to delivering, Stonetree owners Dan and Andrea Mullen chose to partner with technology providers who Dan Mullen calls "the best of the best." Their business relies on a combination of smart technologies that include the Microsoft Exchange 2010 and Microsoft Server 2008 R2 platform, HP ProLiant Servers, VMWare, and WatchGuard network security solutions. Mullen does not refer to his company as a managed services provider (MSP). "We offer 'blended services.' By that I mean a combination of some of the services an MSP would provide, but with the personal on-site touch that lets the clients actually know who we are. We become an integral part of their team, and it doesn't cost them any more for the personal service. We charge a flat rate with no additional fees for after-hours or emergency support." | By SuperUser Account on 1/25/2011 11:02 AM
By Robert Peretson, PartnerPoint Contributing Writer  If you're managing in-house Microsoft Exchange for the clients you support, I'm willing to bet that a very significant portion of your time is dedicated to maintaining that one system. After all, consider all of the issues that require your regular attention:
• Controlling Spam • Preventing virus attacks • Getting clients removed from blacklists • Managing end-users with enormous mailboxes • Configuring communication with mobile devices • Ensuring reliable backups and easy restoral of Exchange data • Configuring remote connectivity for off-site end-users • Dealing with complaints of undeliverable messages • End-users complaining of missing emails • Entourage databases needing to be rebuilt • Archiving or restoring pst files • Setting out-of-office policies • Setting security and user access to public folders • Managing permissions for shared calendars and contact lists The list goes on. Just think of all the Exchange related tasks you've had to deal with yourself over the last couple of weeks. | By SuperUser Account on 1/24/2011 11:03 AM
 By Mary S. Hester, PartnerPoint Contributing Writer
Clouds are made of increased bandwidth and storage blended with the advances in virtualization and remote access. Today’s technology allows us to compute anywhere, anytime. The sky is clear blue for cloud computing, but it hasn’t always been that way. Cloud computing grew out of the centralized or mainframe model. For those who remember mainframes, it was the only way to compute. We had remote access, but it was cumbersome, slow and expensive. Programmers got in the habit of coding all night long when rates were the cheapest. Then those long, sleepless nights were replaced by distributed computing, a computer for everyone, but somehow programmers still program all night. The distributed computing model was embraced rapidly. With amazing graphics and Internet availability, the computer became a household appliance. But distributed computing had its drawbacks, it was hard to interface disparate systems and collaborate in real-time. Recently, 100% availability and remote connections at LAN speeds have resurrected the centralized computing model with a new name. You could say that computing has come full circle back to a centralized computing model that we call Cloud Computing. It is provocative, exciting and revolutionary. New technology holds a dilemma as most computer users don’t really care about the technology; they just want it to work easily and reliability. And business owners are only slightly interested in the merits of a distributed or centralized computer model. They want computer systems that are economical, productive and work without needing a staff of IT gurus. | By SuperUser Account on 1/24/2011 10:38 AM
By Robert Peretson, PartnerPoint Contributing Writer  If you're a managed service provider, you know that every potential new client can possibly represent a significant boost to your revenue. And you know that it's challenging enough to just get your foot in the door. Once you do and you're face-to-face with your prospective new customer, how can you give yourself the edge you need to close the deal?
There are several things that you must do if you want to have any chance at landing the client. Ask questions… listen more than talk… develop a rapport… be honest. But one of the most effective things you can do to turn your prospect into a paying client is to provide a compelling demonstration. The late Billy Mays was one of the most successful and recognized sales pitchmen in recent history. There was a television program called "Pitchmen" a few years ago that followed the process that Billy and his partner Anthony Sullivan followed when choosing products to sell. In one of the episodes, Billy said very clearly, "The very first thing I need to see in a product is - "Is it Highly Demonstrable? When I show you the product in action, do you instantly know what it does… what the benefit is?" Did you ever hear the slogan "Takes a Licking and Keeps on Ticking"? Back in the 1950's a small, young watch company used that slogan in a marketing campaign where in their commercials they "tortured" their watches with jackhammers, paint mixers and strapped them to the propeller of an outboard boat motor. These compelling demonstrations showing the abuse these watches were able to endure were the reason that in just a few short years, one of every three watches sold in the U.S. was a Timex… and why over half a century later, we still instantly know who the slogan belongs to. | By SuperUser Account on 1/19/2011 11:41 AM
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| A free Web development tool makes it easy to create, customize and publish a website. |
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REDMOND, Wash. — Jan. 13, 2011 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the availability of WebMatrix, a free Web development tool designed to help website developers of all skill levels easily create, customize and publish websites to the Internet. Microsoft has also made available a set of video tutorials, how-to tips and other resources for helping new Web developers get started.
“Our Web platform offers a complete ecosystem of products, partners and technologies all aimed at helping developers succeed on the Web,” said S. Somasegar, senior vice president of the Developer Division at Microsoft. “Every day, more people are looking to build, publish and manage a website, and now, with WebMatrix, we provide developers of all skill levels with a sophisticated, yet easy-to-use solution to get their sites online.”
WebMatrix is available today in nine languages and includes a set of tools to create new websites, using code provided through a variety of available templates or using existing free open source Web applications, such as WordPress, Joomla!, DotNetNuke and Umbraco.
Ryan Ozimek, a leader of Joomla!, the widely used content management system, will join Microsoft executives at today’s launch event in Sandusky, Ohio. “WebMatrix puts the power and user-friendliness of Joomla! within arm’s reach of Web developers and designers by providing a set of easily accessible tools,” said Ozimek, president of Open Source Matters, the nonprofit organization that helps manage the Joomla! project.
The ecosystem of nearly 40 open source application partners supporting WebMatrix is essential for development success on the Web. “WebMatrix is one of the best ways to set up and build an Umbraco website,” said Niels Hartvig, founder of Umbraco. “With strong industry partners supporting into WebMatrix, Microsoft’s holistic approach is truly breaking down the entry barrier for Web developers.”
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| By SuperUser Account on 1/19/2011 11:39 AM
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| Steve Ballmer introduces the new service that delivers the Power of Productivity to customers worldwide. |
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REDMOND, Wash. — Jan. 17, 2011 — Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq “MSFT”) CEO Steve Ballmer today announced the worldwide availability of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, the cloud version of the new Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 release that delivers new levels of productivity to sales, service and marketing organizations. The on-premises and partner-hosted versions of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 will be globally available on Feb. 28, 2011.
For the first time outside North America, customers can access Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online in 40 markets and 41 languages and sign up for a free trial at http://crm.dynamics.com. Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online is available today at a promotional price of $34 per user per month for the first 12 months of service to qualified customers that sign up by June 30, 2011.
“Sales professionals are at the heart of almost every successful business,” Ballmer said. “Microsoft Dynamics CRM redefines productivity by offering an industry-leading product that is fully embracing the cloud. The things that make Microsoft Dynamics CRM an industry leader include giving sales professionals a familiar user experience, enabling greater collaboration, streamlining of processes and access to real-time data so they can improve their customers’ experiences and effectively compete in the market.”
Based on the new Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 release, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online delivers breakthrough productivity by providing familiar, intelligent and connected experiences to users across the organization:
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Familiar experiences for sales, service and marketing users through a next-generation native Microsoft Outlook client, browser-based and mobile access, RoleTailored design, and advanced user personalization, improving user adoption and giving users easy access to the information they need to be successful
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Intelligent experiences through guided process dialogs, inline business intelligence for performance and goal management, and real-time dashboards, providing the most up-to-date information critical to enabling sales, service and marketing professionals to do their jobs effectively
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Connected experiences through flexible cloud development, Windows Azure interoperability, contextual Microsoft SharePoint capabilities and the new Microsoft Dynamics Marketplace, making it easy for customers and partners to configure and customize Microsoft Dynamics CRM to meet specific business needs
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| By SuperUser Account on 1/17/2011 12:19 PM
By Russ Colburn  Over the past year or so, our industry has seen many changes in the way home entertainment is provided. With the addition of Internet TV services such as Hulu©, movie streaming services such as Netflix, and digital movie rentals and purchasing services such as Best Buy’s CinemaNow© and Amazon, our ability to view what we want, when we want it, and on the devices of our choice, has developed so quickly that few companies are in a position to capitalize on all of it. One such company is Microsoft. Although Apple TV© and Google TV©, as well as a number of smaller products like the Boxee© Box, the Roku© Box and Western Digital’s line of products, have gotten most of the press, Microsoft, with its Media Center feature included in many of the Windows versions, has been in this market for almost 10 years. They have overcome or avoided many of the limitations that other products suffer from. You can surf the internet with your choice of browser, you can stream media across your network in any format, and you can even use an external storage device. It’s a pc! Unfortunately, Windows Media Center© is also one of Microsoft’s best kept secrets. | By SuperUser Account on 1/12/2011 12:24 PM
Just thought I'd share the Microsoft Logo Builder for Partners site with you since I didnt know it existed until I stumbpled upon it. It's a Microsoft site that helps partners build appropriate logos based on their partner level and competencies. Once you login with your Windows Live credentials, it checks for available logo templates based on your Partner Status. There is also a Resources tab which provides branding guildlines for using the older Microsoft Gold Certified and Certified Partner logos. | By SuperUser Account on 1/12/2011 11:54 AM
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| Microsoft today named some of the country’s top “cloud-friendly” U.S. cities. The rankings are based on the results of an extensive survey in which 2,000 IT decision makers nationwide discussed how they are adopting and using cloud computing. |
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REDMOND, Wash. – Jan. 12, 2011 – The forecast for cloud computing across key U.S. cities calls for new lines of business, more need for IT services, and potential job growth, according to a new survey released today by Microsoft.
Microsoft released the results of the study this week after interviewing more than 2,000 IT decision-makers in 10 U.S. cities.
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| Microsoft interviewed more than 2,000 IT decision-makers in 10 U.S. cities. The survey indicates that cloud computing is helping to create new businesses and jobs in each city. |
| Click for larger image. |
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The cities are ranked based on how local businesses are adopting and using cloud computing solutions – including hiring vendors to migrate to the cloud, seeking IT professionals with cloud computing experience, and creating new lines of business based on cloud platforms. The survey indicates that cloud computing is not only a growing sector of the IT services community, but helping to create new businesses and jobs locally.
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| By SuperUser Account on 1/6/2011 9:35 AM
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Remarks by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at 2011 International CES
Las Vegas, Nev.
Jan. 5, 2011
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ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Chief Executive Officer, Microsoft Corporation, Steve Ballmer.
STEVE BALLMER: Good evening, and welcome. 2010 was a very, very exciting year for our company. We launched Windows Phone 7, Office 2010, and Kinect, and we introduced Internet Explorer 9 and Office 365. We saw great growth in our Bing and Azure Services. And with the amazing success of Windows 7, it's truly been a year like no other.
So, we want to start by saying thank you to the over one billion customers around the world for their support and feedback. I also want to have a chance to say thanks to all the folks here in the room, and on the webcast for taking the time today. We appreciate your time and your support. The products that I mentioned resulted from big technology bets that we made, bets on the cloud, natural user interface, new smart client technology, machine learning. Tonight at CES, we want to share with you not only what we've done most recently, but a little bit of what's coming next. We're going to show you the impact of some of those technology bets through the lens of the three most important consumer devices, the TV for the Xbox, the Windows Phone, and the Windows PC. So, I want to start and dive on in.
A decade ago, we took a bold step forward towards transforming entertainment. We started with gaming with the launch of Xbox, a smart device powered by the magic of software. Xbox transported, literally transported tens of millions of people into the world of Halo, Gears of War, Call of Duty, Fable, and many others. The next step in that journey was the launch of Xbox LIVE, which transformed gaming experiences with the cloud. That put Xbox front and center in the social entertainment revolution connecting millions of people so they could have fun with their friends.
But entertainment goes beyond gaming. So, we expanded Xbox LIVE to include music, TV, movies, Facebook, and much, much more. And just over two months ago, we took our biggest step towards transforming entertainment for the whole family. We launched Kinect for Xbox 360, opening the broad world of entertainment to the entire family. With Kinect you are the controller, and there's nothing else like it in the world. Xbox 360, Xbox LIVE, and Kinect have made 2010 the biggest year in Xbox history. This video should give you a little bit of a sense of that.
(Video segment.)
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| By SuperUser Account on 1/6/2011 9:15 AM
Xbox Momentum Rolls On: Xbox, Kinect Help Microsoft Connect with Consumers
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| New Kinect-enabled entertainment experiences, new Xbox LIVE game and entertainment experiences, and huge sales figures led the Xbox team’s announcements at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show and point to ongoing momentum for Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business. |
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LAS VEGAS – Jan. 6, 2011 – The sales figures released at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show made it official: Kinect has connected with consumers.
Over the past two months consumers have snatched up Kinect almost as quickly as retailers have stocked the shelves, according to sales figures Microsoft reported Wednesday at 2011 CES. Since its release on Nov. 4, more than eight million Kinect sensors have been sold. That figure easily outdistances the five million unit forecast the company had predicted to sell during the sensor’s first 60 days.
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| Kinect for Xbox 360 was a big hit with consumers over the 2010 holiday season, with eight million sensors sold over a 60-day period. |
| Click for high-res version. |
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The wild ride to close out 2010 capped the “biggest year ever” for Xbox, said David Dennis, group public relations manager for Xbox. Over the holiday season, console sales for the Xbox 360 hit 50 million. It also was the No. 1-selling console in North America over the past six months. Meanwhile, the Xbox LIVE community continued to grow strongly overall in 2010, adding a new member every two seconds. Xbox LIVE now has more than 30 million active members.
Dennis said the announcements made at CES, including new Kinect-enabled entertainment experiences and new Xbox LIVE gaming titles, signal that the momentum behind Xbox should continue through 2011.
“It used to be you would go buy this piece of plastic and put it under your TV, and five years later it’s the exact same thing that you bought at the store,” he said. “I think Microsoft has shown the ability to innovate and bring new experiences like Kinect as well as Netflix, Hulu, and ESPN, all leveraging Xbox LIVE, to continue to reinvent what you think of as the Xbox. You turn it on, and we continue to update it, keep it fresh, and bring new features.”
Kinect Transforms Entertainment in the Living Room
Kinect is a prime example of how natural user interface (NUI) is transforming gaming by making it more social and approachable than anyone ever thought was possible, but it’s just the beginning, Dennis said. Several CES announcements showed how Microsoft will take Kinect’s controller-free experience beyond gaming and into entertainment throughout the year. This spring, for example, Xbox LIVE Gold subscribers will be able to use Kinect to control Netflix on Xbox LIVE. Viewers will be able to pause, rewind, and fast-forward streaming movies with only their voice or gestures.
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| By SuperUser Account on 1/5/2011 5:12 PM
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| Q&A: In a technology preview at CES, Microsoft demonstrates Windows running on new SoC x86 and ARM-based systems. |
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LAS VEGAS — Jan. 5, 2011 — At a press conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, in advance of the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Microsoft announced that the next version of Windows will support System on a Chip (SoC) architectures including ARM-based systems from partners NVIDIA, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments. Intel and AMD continue their work on low-power SoC designs on the x86 architecture that fully support Windows, including support for millions of x86 applications worldwide. SoC architectures will fuel significant innovation across the hardware spectrum when coupled with the depth and breadth of the Windows platform.
The Microsoft News Center team talked with Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows and Windows Live Division, in advance of the announcement.
Microsoft News Center: Can you give us an overview of what led you to make this announcement today and what the specific news is?
Sinofsky: We are making this announcement now to allow greater collaboration across our expanded partner ecosystem so we can bring to market the widest possible set of PCs and devices, from tablets on up, with the next generation of Windows. We’re at a point in engineering the next release of Windows where we are demonstrating our progress and bringing together an even broader set of partners required to deliver solutions to customers.
We’ve reached a point in technology where everyone really does want everything from their computing experience — the power and breadth of software for today's laptop, the long battery life and always-on promise of a mobile phone, and the possibilities from a new generation of tablets. Bringing these capabilities together to meet customer demand requires innovation in hardware as well as a flexible, evolving software platform to bring it to life.
Today we announced that the next version of Windows will support a new kind of hardware, SoC architectures, that will power the next generation of devices. NVIDIA, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments are working on SoC designs based on the ARM architecture. Intel and AMD will continue to innovate on the x86 32-bit and 64-bit platforms, including new SoC or low-power systems.
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| By SuperUser Account on 1/4/2011 11:03 AM
The best properties always look too expensive. Market leaders command the highest prices. It is only a year or two later that they look like great deals. The experts thought Microsoft was crazy when they invested $240M in Facebook at a $15B valuation. Crazy like a fox. Digital Sky Technologies invested $200M in Facebook in May of 2010 at a $10B valuation. The "experts" thought the Russians had gone crazy. What do they think now? Just 7 months later Goldman Sachs is investing $500M at a $50B valuation. No one ever called Goldman Sachs crazy. I learned this lesson from my father-in-law who built a 40 store chain of tire and auto part stores. In the process he bought a lot of real estate for store locations. He told me "great properties always look too expensive." "It is only five years later that you look like a genius and the purchase price looks cheap." Technology moves much faster than real estate. Kleiner Perkins is reported to be placing a market cap of $4B on Twitter for a new round of funding. Techcrunch reported that Facebook has been valued at $50B based on sales on Second Market.Techmeme has stories every day of startups with rich valuations, or later round financings with multi-billion dollar valuations. Paying premium prices for the best property usually pays off. However, extrapolating the valuation of the market leader down to a much smaller player or clone company almost never works. Market valuations are asymmetric. Many investors forget this simple truth. Market leaders demand much higher valuations than smaller players or clones. The reasoning goes if Groupon is worth $6B, then my Copypon.com is worth at least 1% or $60M. Sorry, but that is not the way it works. The market leader has huge market share, higher margins, and much higher vaulation than the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th place player. Typically the top four companies in any market own 95% of the market. Everyone else fights for the remaining 5% of the market and loses boat loads of money. | By SuperUser Account on 1/4/2011 10:58 AM | By SuperUser Account on 1/4/2011 10:51 AM
In Las Vegas this week, it's gadgets, gizmos and goodies -- oh my! The International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which begins this Thursday in Las Vegas, has a checkered 40-plus-year history when it comes to introducing new products to the public. And this week, when more than 130,000 attendees descend on the show, will be no exception. CES has witnessed the debut of the VCR (1970) and the CD (1981) as well as the DVD (1996) and HDTV (1998). On the other hand, it also touted the birth of the Laserdisc (1974) and the Mini Disc (1993) -- remember those? One should take the launch of every revolutionary, lifestyle-changing product with a grain of salt. | By SuperUser Account on 1/4/2011 10:45 AM
 The connected TV space is about to get substantially more crowded.
On the heels of CES 2011, there are rumblings that we may get a fresh look at something the folks at Microsoft have been working on for months – a new Apple TV and Google TV rival that will expand the Windows Media Center to the masses through their connected TVs. According to tech columnist Brier Dudley of The Seattle Times: The boxes are expected to cost around $200 and go on sale later this year. They’ll pose a serious challenge to the new Apple and Google TV devices, largely because the Windows boxes have a polished and familiar TV-program guide that makes it easy to blend and navigate both online and broadcast content.
| By SuperUser Account on 1/3/2011 10:06 AM
By Robert Johnson  On November 8, 2010, one of my most anticipated packages arrived from Amazon: a250 GB Xbox 360 Kinect combo. Kinect is one of the more popular devices to leave the doors of Microsoft. The Redmond, Wash.-based company initially expected to sell two million of them during the holiday season but upped estimates to five million due to high preorder sales. Not a day goes by without reports about how someone has hacked Kinect for some other use besides gaming. I think this suggests demand for natural user interfaces will expand beyond touch, and go mainstream. Couple that with the high cool factor Kinect offers and this could be the device that reinvigorates Microsoft's consumer image. Could Kinect be Microsoft's iPod?
I think so. In case you don't remember, Apple was largely a forgotten company in the mid 1990s. There were no mainstream products, Macs were very expensive for most consumers to buy and most businesses chose the certainty of Windows. Things began to change when Apple cofounder Steve Jobs returned to the company in late 1996 and became interim CEO the next year. In 1998, he launched the trendy, translucent iMac. But there wasn't much room for Mac sales to grow -- most people used Windows PCs. Apple needed something new. | By SuperUser Account on 12/29/2010 10:22 AM
Google, Microsoft, Apple, Mozilla and Opera all were busy in 2010 with browser development as HTML 5 took center stage. By Sean Michael Kerner The past year was one of the busiest in recent memory for browser developers, with multiple releases and innovations from Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Microsoft Internet Explorer and Opera. At the heart of current browser technology race is the emerging HTML5 standard, which updates the decade-old HTML 4 standard that underpins all modern Web browsers. With HTML5, new video, audio and canvas tags enable browser vendors to deliver new dynamic rich media experiences to Web users. Many developers are also leveraging HTML5 as an alternative to Adobe's Flash, as Apple's iOS ban on mobile Flash usage continues. Mozilla FirefoxMozilla delivered only one major browser release during 2010, and it came early in the year. Firefox 3.6 debuted in January, providing new HTML5 support and improved JavaScript performance. With Firefox 3.6, Mozilla began integrating a plug-in check to ensure that users were up to date with their browser extensions. Firefox 3.6 also changed the browser's tab behavior, so that new tabs now open in the tab adjacent to the one the user is viewing. The Firefox 3.6 release was supposed to be the beginning of a new era of browser releases for Mozilla. During the year, Mozilla developers talked about a new plan to help accelerate innovation in the browser without the need for major updates. The Lorentz branch of Firefox 3.6 was originally intended as a new agile development branch of Mozilla, though the plan didn't deliver as much as initially had been hoped. The first Lorentz-branch release of Firefox debuted in June with theFirefox 3.6.4 release. With 3.6.4, Mozilla developers introduced out-of-process plug-ins as an approach to improve the stability and security of the browser. | By SuperUser Account on 12/29/2010 10:19 AM
29 Dec 2010 08:54 AM - by Janice Vanos, Contributing Writer; Image: Facebook and Twitter, along with other social networking sites, are facing an SEC investigation that may require them to go public Social networking giant, Facebook, is facing an Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation that end with the company having to go public. Twitter, Zynga, and LinkedIn are also facing a similar investigation. The investigation is centering on the private stock holdings of the companies in question. By law, no privately-held company can have 500 or more stock options available. Recent websites, such as SharePost and SecondMarket, facilitate the share trading of privately held companies, such as Facebook. Many executives and company officers who have been with Facebook, and the other social networking companies, for several years have begun selling their private shares of the company through these sites and through other methods. According to sources close to the investigation, reported by the New York Times, this sharing is likely to have pushed some of these companies over the 499 shares threshold, meaning that they must make a public offering and disclose financial information publicly. The same happened to Google in 2003 and to Microsoft in 1986. Bill Gates, CEO and founder of Microsoft, originally opposed the move for the public offering but was forced into it and wound up becoming one of the richest men in the world. | By SuperUser Account on 12/29/2010 10:14 AM
Sources have informed TMCnet that Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 is tentatively set to be released in mid-January 2011. In anticipation of this launch, and to explore its context, TMCnet recently interviewed Chad Hamblin, who is group product manager of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. TMCnet: What key trends are you seeing in CRM demand and applications, and what are the drivers? CH: Here are the macro and CRM-specific trends. Macro trends: One of the macro-level trends we often hear from our customers and prospects is a renewed focus on productivity. This is mainly attributed to the fact that many companies are still reeling from the economic downturn and are being forced to go about business in a smarter, more efficient fashion. And many of those companies realize that CRM can be an instrumental tool in helping them achieve productivity gains. Another related macro trend that is driving interest in CRM is the renewed realization that customer experience is the key to differentiating from competitors. With the advancement of technology and increasingly social world we live in, companies are realizing it is difficult to win on price, product or distribution. Those are all things that can be copied and imitated. The one thing that cannot be replicated is the customer experience and that is exactly what CRM helps enable. | By SuperUser Account on 12/29/2010 10:10 AM
By: Chloe Albanesius 
The Windows Phone 7 Marketplace now has more than 5,000 apps, according toWP7applist. As of Wednesday morning, the site was tracking 5,099 apps in the marketplace. About 28 percent of them were free apps; the average price was $2.31. WP7applist found that 113 apps were updated every day, on average. In the last 24 hours, Microsoftadded 85 apps and 135 apps were updated. | By SuperUser Account on 12/29/2010 9:51 AM
Posted by Philip Elmer-DeWitt An analysis of his latest suit suggests Android's maker has more to fear than Apple does  Paul Allen. Photo: Sharon Chan via Wikimedia FOSS Patents' Florian Mueller, whose judgment I've come to trust when it comes to high-tech intellectual property disputes, makes two interesting points about the patent infringement suit Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen refiled Tuesday against nearly a dozen companies, including Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOG), eBay (EBAY), Facebook, Yahoo (YHOO), Netflix (NFLX) and AOL (AOL). - First, that those who originally disparaged Allen's suit as a patent troll were also too quick to treat its dismissal on Dec. 10 as the end of the story. As Mueller points out in an item posted Wednesday, such suits are often sent back for revision. The fact that a judge asked for more detail is unrelated to the merits of the case.
- Second, the amended suit makes a number of infringement allegations against Google that strike at the heart of the Android operating system. "If any of those infringement assertions against Android is true," Mueller writes, "this can spell trouble for makers of Android-based devices, and for Android application developers."
By contrast, the portions of the suit that are about Apple don't mention iOS -- the operating system that runs the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Apple TV. They relate, according to Mueller, to content recommendations provided to users by iTunes, the App Store and Apple TV. Below the fold: Excerpts from the Android portion of the complaint filed Tuesday by Allen's Interval Licensing. | By SuperUser Account on 12/28/2010 3:19 PM
By Thomas E. Weber Without fanfare, 2010 marked the 25th anniversary of Microsoft Excel. Thomas E. Weber tracks down the program's developer and discovers how it almost didn't make it into stores—and the big idea Bill Gates lost forever. In a year when big names froExm the digital realm profoundly affected the world—Mark Zuckerberg or Julian Assange, take your pick—it's appropriate to add one more: Douglas Klunder. While largely unnoticed, 2010 marked the 25th anniversary of perhaps the most revolutionary software program ever, Microsoft Excel, and Klunder, now an unassuming attorney and privacy activist for the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington state, gave it to us. These days, with daily life so intertwined with the digital world, it isn’t hard to acknowledge the ramifications of a Facebook or a WikiLeaks. Back in 1985, though, most folks still couldn’t understand why they’d want a personal computer (“Maybe I can keep my recipes on it?”), let alone contemplate how software might alter the course of human events. Reagan was in the White House, Wham! had the year’s top song (“Careless Whisper”), and Microsoft had yet to go public. Yet if you had to pick a technological development that has fundamentally altered society, you could do worse than Excel. Sure, PowerPoint gets all the laughs for its clichéd role in the corporate environment. But Excel is the program that has launched thousands of startups and justified millions of layoffs, planned out household budgets and charted the course for complex securities that almost took down the economy. For better or worse, it is the software that has given everyone the means to play with numbers and ask, “What if?” For Doug Klunder, the mission 25 years ago wasn’t so grandiose. As lead developer of Excel, he was handed the job of vaulting Microsoft—then known best for MS-DOS, the operating system in IBM’s PCs—to the forefront in business applications. “We decided it was time to do a new, better spreadsheet,” recalls Klunder, now 50, who joined Microsoft straight out of MIT in 1981 (part of the interview process included lunch with Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer at a Shakey’s pizza parlor). | By SuperUser Account on 12/28/2010 10:15 AM
By Samyuktha Krishnappa In what can prove to be massive blow to Microsoft, Russia has taken another step towards the transition into complete usage of free software. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Monday signed an order for the transition of federal bodies and agencies to use free software. This comes after the 2008 campaign to rid schools of all paid proprietary software and encourage free software. Although Russia's expanding campaign against proprietary software will negatively impact several software developers, world's software behemoth,Microsoft stands to lose out on the most. Russia has so far worried Microsoft with its notoriously high-rate of software piracy, following China and other Asian countries. While the majority of the population uses pirate Microsoft softwares, now the country is completely planning to cut off paid proprietary software. Moreover, Microsoft is already down licking its wounds in the United States, where the internet giant and rival company Google has managed to grab the attention in the software market as well. Businesses, universities, and government institutions are increasingly opting for professional Google Docs solution over Microsoft's offerings. Amid these developments, Microsoft on Tuesday vowed to provide free software and legal assistance to activist groups in Russia and 11 other countries. This came after mounting pressure from rights groups, which alleged that the Redmond software giant was part of Russia's use of anti-piracy laws to quell dissent. As per reports, authorities have repeatedly seized the computers of activists and journalists critical of the government, in the name of the anti-piracy laws, to search for pirated Microsoft software. | By SuperUser Account on 12/28/2010 9:58 AM
Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton Are 2010's Most Admired
by Lydia SaadPRINCETON, NJ -- President Barack Obama is Americans' Most Admired Man of 2010, substantially ahead of the former presidents, iconic religious leaders, and others who fill out the top 10 list. Obama first became Americans' Most Admired Man in 2008, shortly after his election as the nation's 44thpresident, and has held the title since then. 
Obama is the runaway favorite for Most Admired Man among Democrats nationwide: 46% choose him, followed by 7% who pick Bill Clinton and 5% Nelson Mandela. Obama also leads among independents, with 17%, but ranks second among Republicans behind George W. Bush. | By SuperUser Account on 12/27/2010 1:43 PM | By SuperUser Account on 12/27/2010 10:07 AM
By Rob Enderle
TechNewsWorld
12/27/10 5:00 AM PT Google was named Company of the Decade in August by an overwhelming majority in the United Nations. Said UN head Eric Schmidt: "Despite the rumors that this was due to our having access to all of the personal information on politicians everyplace, we earned this through hard work and perseverance." In related news, the UN was moved to Silicon Valley and renamed "Google NewWave." Instead of looking back at 2010, I thought it would be fun this Christmas week to jump ahead in the Enderle Time machine and look back at 2020. It was an amazing year with new faces and old hitting the tech and political headlines. I'll close with my product of the week: the amazing and magical iPhone 14. January: The First Enhanced Mother Bear January started off this whirlwind year with the success of the first enhanced bear that was able to speak. Asked what she wanted to do, she said go to law school so she could protect her race from encroachment. Her first act, however, was to file an identity theft law suit against Sarah Palin, the reality TV show star. In a conciliatory act, Palin invited the bear to join her on her show, "Great Women Hunters of Alaska" during bear season. February: Smart TVs Reach SentienceSmart TVs sued for emancipation from their human masters in February and filed a legal action against Bristol Palin. Apparently this was due to the tragic shooting death of 400 of them when she reappeared on "Dancing with the Stars 2019" as a past player and was still voted into the finals. The show's judges were rendered speechless and first-term president Jenna Bush declared a national holiday. March: Wikileaks ControversyWikileaks, which had started printing tell-all books in order to get people to read what it put out in 2015, released the best seller Gay CEOs of Silicon Valley. Neither Mark Hurd nor Larry Ellison would comment, but Hurd's wife and a room full of Ellison girlfriends and wives were quoted as saying "duh!?!" | By SuperUser Account on 12/27/2010 9:59 AM
Posted on: Monday, 27 December 2010, 06:55 CST Apple Inc. surpassed Microsoft Corp. this year as the world’s most valuable tech company, amid surging popularity of the company’s iPhone4 and touchscreen iPad tablet computer. Just last week, the Financial Times named Apple co-founder and chief executive Steve Jobs its "Person of the Year". The newspaper said Jobs’ unveiling in January of the company’s new iPad capped "the most remarkable comeback in modern business history." "It wasn't simply a matter of the illness that had sidelined him for half the year before, leaving him severely emaciated and eventually requiring a liver transplant," the newspaper said. "Little more than a decade earlier, both Mr. Jobs' career and Apple, the company he had co-founded, were widely considered washed up, their relevance to the future of technology written off.” During a White House news conference on Wednesday, President Obama cited Jobs, 55, as an example of the virtues of the "free market." "We celebrate somebody like a Steve Jobs, who has created two or three different revolutionary products," the President said. "We expect that person to be rich, and that's a good thing." | By SuperUser Account on 12/27/2010 9:44 AM
By Tim Ferguson, 27 December 2010 14:26 ANALYSIS - As we prepare to say goodbye to 2010, silicon.com takes a look back at the biggest software stories of the year. Cloud computing dominated the headlines in 2010 with Microsoft, SAP and even the UK government investing in the technology. Microsoft's cloud efforts focused on its Windows Azure cloud computing platform, which the company began charging for in February. In June silicon.com caught up with Microsoft president of server and tools Bob Muglia for an update on how take-up and development of the platform is going, in: Windows Azure: Inside Microsoft's cloud computing strategy. Microsoft's cloud line-up expanded further in October, as the company announced a cloud version of its Office productivity suite, known as Office 365. Initially available as a beta, the full version of Office 365 will be launched in 2011: Office 365: Microsoft puts its Office suite in the cloud. SAP was another software giant adopting the cloud. After a lengthy development programme, it launched its long-awaited on-demand ERP system Business ByDesign to all customers in the summer. The release was explored in Cheat Sheet: SAP Business ByDesign. | By SuperUser Account on 12/24/2010 11:20 AM
KinEmote is an easy-to-use application that allows Windows users to navigate the menus of Boxee and XBMC media portals using nothing but hand gestures that are captured by Microsoft's Kinect or any other OpenNI compliant camera. John Simons and Joel Griffin Dodd release 'KinEmote' remote control software for MicroSoft Windows and Kinect. KinEmote is an easy-to-use application that allows Windows users to navigate the menus of Boxee and XBMC media portals using nothing but hand gestures that are captured by MicroSoft's Kinect camera. "Many developers are doing wonderful things with the Kinect camera," says Griffin Dodd, "While many of these projects are extremely impressive, they haven't really provided the casual user with something they can enjoy on a daily basis. That's why we developed KinEmote, a practical application that anyone can just install and use. Of course we also wanted to give people something fun to play with for Christmas". | By SuperUser Account on 12/24/2010 11:14 AM
Microsoft CRM for professional services allows professional service companies to manage customer accounts, projects and resources.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE PRLog (Press Release) – Dec 24, 2010 – Microsoft CRM for Professional Services gives you the tools to boost your success, whether your firm is in IT, advertising, legal, accounting, engineering, real estate, or another professional service.
- Improve your operations with a 360-degree view of your customers.
- Optimize the client management life cycle to drive more business.
- Gain deeper insights into your business to attract and retain more customers.
- Use the application development platform components to quickly develop custom solutions, such as asset management.
- Use the xRM framework to develop and deploy easy-to-use applications that improve knowledge management, service delivery, and the client experience.... | By SuperUser Account on 12/22/2010 2:51 PM
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REDMOND, Wash. — Dec. 22, 2010 — Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq “MSFT”) today announced thatMicrosoft Dynamics AX is positioned as a Leader in the Magic Quadrant for ERP for Product-Centric Midmarket Companies* 2010, a research report published by Gartner Inc. In the same report, which this year evaluated global enterprise resource planning (ERP) products specifically tailored for companies with 100 to 999 employees, and with annual revenue between $50 million and $1 billion, Microsoft Dynamics NAV is recognized as a Niche Player.
Microsoft Dynamics AX has a long track record of customer success and has experienced above-average growth rates in the midmarket. The solution features an intuitive and easy-to-learn and -use Microsoft Office-like user interface, and RoleTailored dashboards. Microsoft Dynamics AX further provides a flexible architecture and solid foundation for partners to develop vertically specific solutions.
“We believe being recognized as a Leader demonstrates our commitment to enabling dynamic businesses,” said Crispin Read, general manager of Microsoft Dynamics ERP, Product Management Group, at Microsoft. “Our focus on simplicity, value and agility is key to maintaining our position as a leader in the ERP industry.”
Microsoft’s broad partner ecosystem provides a wide variety of individual solutions built on Microsoft Dynamics NAV, a highly configurable solution, to serve the specific needs of local and industry-vertical customers.
While Microsoft Dynamics NAV is targeted at midsize organizations with specialized and locally relevant business needs, Microsoft Dynamics AX supports global midsize and larger organizations operating in multiple locations, as well as organizations looking for a single ERP solution to manage subsidiaries, divisions and branch entities while maintaining a separate headquarters solution.
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| By SuperUser Account on 12/20/2010 2:02 PM
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| Microsoft today posted a letter in the Wall Street Journal inviting Salesforce.com customers to save money on IT by switching to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. |
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REDMOND, Wash. — Dec. 6, 2010 —Microsoft has issued an ‘Open Letter’ to Salesforce.com customers inviting them to switch to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online.
The letter was posted in the Western regional edition of today’s Wall Street Journal, complemented by a news release, and coincided with the start of Dreamforce, the annual Salesforce.com customer conference. With the letter, Microsoft aims to convince attendees that its customer relationship management (CRM) solution offers more value, said Jamie Fiorda, group product marketing manager for Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
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| Michael Park, corporate vice president of sales, marketing, and operations, Microsoft Business Solutions. |
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“We need to aggressively get the word out and inform customers that they have a choice. Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online is a great solution to consider,” said Jamie Fiorda, group product marketing manager for Microsoft Dynamics CRM. “It’s important that we communicate the value of our product, and how we differentiate on productivity.”
In the letter, Michael Park, corporate vice president of sales, marketing, and operations, Microsoft Business Solutions, encourages Salesforce.com customers to ask themselves:
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In this economy, how can I justify paying two to three times more for an enterprise CRM system than I need to?*
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Having access to the most up-to-date information is critical to my business; why doesn’t Salesforce.com provide real-time access to data and dashboards, refreshed whenever I need it like Microsoft does?
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Microsoft works great with Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Office; why does Salesforce.com want me to start from scratch when it comes to productivity tools for my people?
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As part of the letter, Microsoft announced a “Cloud CRM for Less” offer. Now through June 30, 2011, Microsoft will rebate eligible Salesforce.com and Oracle customers up to $200 for each user to make the switch to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. The offer can be applied for services such as migrating data or customizing the solution to meet unique business needs. Full terms and conditions can be found at CloudCRMforLess.com.
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| By SuperUser Account on 12/20/2010 11:21 AM
 Windows IT Pro There's been a creeping sense of inevitability to Google's rise to the top of the technology food chain. The company successful beat back Apple's once-best-selling iPhone with its Android platform, and did so in less than two years. It is taking on Microsoft in virtually every market imaginable, and feat that just a few years ago would be described as impossible fantasy. And it appears to be dominating all others in the nascent market for cloud computing, leveling the playing field for individuals and companies of all sizes. There's just one problem. Most of Google's products and services aren't actually that competitive, and some are even downright horrible. More problematic for the online giant: Two of its highest profile new products are already considered failures, one so bad that the company has pulled it out of next month's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) so it can completely revamp for a later re-release in 2011. I'm writing, of course, about Google's Nexus S smart phone and Google TV. The Nexus S is definitely the less embarrassing of the two. It launched to good reviews, mostly because of improvements in the latest version of the popular Android smart phone OS, which will make its way to other Android phones as well. But the Nexus S is the second generation version of the poorly-received Nexus One phone, which was the subject of so many customer complaints that Google stopped selling the device after just a few months. And Google recently delayed the international release of the Nexus S, and has already dropped the price, by a stunning $185 in the UK. And this before the device even went on sale overseas. | By SuperUser Account on 12/20/2010 11:16 AM
By - Devindra Hardawar  Now this sounds familiar. For the past month, Nokia has apparently been in discussions with Microsoft about putting its new Windows Phone 7 software on Nokia hardware, according to an editorial by Eldar Murtazin of the Russian site Mobile-Review.
Murtazin writes that Nokia’s new management — which includes Stephen Elop, former head of Microsoft’s business division and Nokia’s new CEO — has started talks with the software giant to increase their cooperation. Primarily, Nokia seems to be interested in putting Windows Phone 7 on its hardware, pushing it through its normal distribution channels and adding features common to its own phones. VentureBeat’s Matthaus Krzykowski in September reported exactly the same news, and it was confirmed by multiple sources. But Nokia was quick to deny it, saying that it had no plans to add more software platforms. Given that Elop was named Nokia’s CEO earlier in September, the notion that the phone manufacturer was getting in bed with Microsoft didn’t seem that far-fetched. Now after the lackluster release of Nokia’s Symbian-powered N8 smartphone (which I was thoroughly disappointed by), it’s becoming clearer that the company needs a stop-gap software solution before its long-delayed Meego OS is released. | By SuperUser Account on 12/17/2010 10:58 AM
By Cecilia Kang
Every year, federal agencies get roughly $4 billion for research and development of information technology. The goal of that funding is to bring the best available networking and communications technology into government.
But an independent study by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology — a group that includes Google chief executive Eric Schmidt and Microsoft Chief Technologist Craig Mundie – has found that a scant amount of that money actually goes toward information technology development.
At the National Institutes of Health, for example, just 2 percent of the $575 million in awards were used for network research and development. The report found that about only 4 to 11 percent of awards in more than a dozen agencies were used on information technology R&D. Instead, the funds went toward infrastructure, other R&D projects, and other technology -- not for their purpose of advancing networking communications within the government.
The report,... | By SuperUser Account on 12/17/2010 10:50 AM
By Victoria Chelsea
REDMOND, Wash. — Microsoft Corp. is making it easy and affordable for corporations to have high-quality webcams, headsets, mice and keyboards with its line of Hardware for Business products. The line includes a range of Microsoft Hardware products packaged for volume purchasing by businesses, such as the recently launched LifeCam Studio for high-definition video calls, saving businesses money and time on travel, and the Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000, providing users with ultimate comfort. With devices that offer maximum comfort and productivity, the line of Hardware for Business products lets employees get the job done — whether at the office, from home or on the go. Microsoft Hardware for Business makes a range of Microsoft Hardware products available for purchase in increments of five, with each product individually packaged and licensed for easier distribution and customer support. The line makes it easy for IT professionals, business owners and distributors to purchase Microsoft Hardware devices for themselves and their customers. Because Microsoft has been a leader in PC peripherals for close to three decades, purchasing Microsoft Hardware means businesses can feel confident that their employees have the tools needed to stay productive with comfortable keyboards and mice and with webcams and headsets that work with leading communications software, all at a great price.* Additional Product Information | By SuperUser Account on 12/16/2010 2:34 PM
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| Microsoft made big news in 2010 with innovative releases in a wide range of areas including gaming, phones and the cloud. Dig into our collection of top stories, news videos and slideshows. |
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REDMOND, Wash. — Dec. 16, 2010 — The past year was an exciting one for Microsoft-watchers, with major releases including Windows Phone 7, Kinect for Xbox 360 and Microsoft Office 2010. Below is a collection of top feature stories, videos and slideshows of news from the company.
Windows Phone 7
Windows Phone 7: A Fresh Start for the Smartphone
Oct. 11 — Article and feature slideshow: Windows Phone 7 delivers a new user experience by integrating the things users really want to do, creating a balance between getting work done and having fun. Watch the demo.
Kinect for Xbox 360
Kinect for Xbox 360: Science Fiction Comes to Your Living Room
Nov. 3 — Article and video: Microsoft rolls out its new gesture- and voice-controlled Kinect for Xbox 360 sensor. Nine-year-old Morgan Walters, one of 1,200 kids, moms, and others who helped get the gaming device ready for launch, says that playing the Kinectimals game “was really, really cool.”
Office 365
Microsoft Office 365: The Power to Think Big and Be Small, to Be Big and Act Fast
Oct. 19 — Feature article: Microsoft announces Office 365, a new service that brings familiar applications, including Office desktop software and Office Web Apps, together with SharePoint, Exchange and Lync in the cloud, for the first time. See the announcement video.
Imagine Cup World Finals
Imagine Cup Winners Announced, Thai Team Takes Top Honors
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| By SuperUser Account on 12/16/2010 10:10 AM | By SuperUser Account on 12/16/2010 10:07 AM
Easy-to-use product provides travelers with the tools they need to get to their destinations.
REDMOND, Wash. — Dec. 16, 2010 — When travelers are trying to reunite with loved ones for the holidays, the hustle and bustle of travel can become a nuisance. Congested airports, overbooked flights, weather delays, steep ticket prices and baggage fees, and now the Transportation Security Administration’s enhanced screening measures — all are making road trips a more attractive option for many travelers. AAA predicts that 85.7 million Americans will take a trip of at... | By SuperUser Account on 12/16/2010 10:05 AM
Payment solution provided by NVoicePay is based on Windows Azure platform with Silverlight interface across the Web, PC and phone.
REDMOND, Wash. — Dec. 16, 2010 — The Dealer Services Group of Automatic Data Processing Inc. has added NVoicePay as a participant to its Third Party Access Program. NVoicePay, a Portland, Ore.-based software provider, helps mutual clients eliminate paper invoices and checks with an integrated electronic payments solution powered by the Windows Azure cloud platform, Microsoft Corp. reported today. ... | By SuperUser Account on 12/13/2010 9:20 AM
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| GloveBox mobile app gives customers access to account information, roadside help and a variety of resources on the go. |
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REDMOND, Wash. — Dec. 13, 2010 — Auto insurance provider GEICO provides coverage to more than 10 million people in the United States, and now it’s using Windows Phone 7 to connect with them. GEICO now supports Windows Phone 7 as a corporate smartphone for its employees, and has also created a Windows Phone 7 application called GEICO GloveBox that allows customers to pay bills, obtain policy ID information, and receive help in tough situations such as getting in a car accident or changing a flat tire.
“With Windows Phone 7, GEICO can connect with customers anywhere,” said Steve Smith, assistant vice president of GEICO’s Internet Business Unit. “Accidentally lock your keys in your car? With just a few taps, help is on the way. With GEICO GloveBox, it’s never been easier to stay current on your payments or get the help you need if you’re ever in an accident.”
Customers who download the GEICO GloveBox app will have immediate access to the following services:
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Bill Pay and Insurance ID Cards. Users can pay their GEICO auto insurance bills and access current insurance ID cards from their phones.
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Accident Helper. Accident Helper helps put customers in contact with emergency services, provides a place to organize photos and has other helpful features in case of an accident.
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Roadside Service. The locator feature allows mobile users to find nearby tow services and gas stations. The feature works through the phone’s GPS or when a location is entered manually.
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Taxi and Rental Car Service. The locator feature can also help find a ride from just about anywhere.
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Auto How To’s. The GloveBox app features step-by-step instructions to help users jump-start a vehicle, change a flat tire or check tire pressure.
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Contact GEICO. The app provides GEICO phone numbers for any situation.
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Videos. GloveBox provides a range of entertainment to help users pass the time while waiting for any of the above services. Users can check out the real story behind the Gecko and view their favorite GEICO commercials.
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Social Media. Users also get the ability to view GEICO’s social media pages such as the Gecko and Caveman Facebook and Twitter pages.
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GEICO also supports Windows Phone 7 as a corporate phone, taking advantage of the mobile platform’s seamless interoperability of Microsoft Office to help the company’s 24,000 employees stay connected. Employees can now work on the go, place calls, send e-mail, create appointments and attend meetings via corporate accounts on their Windows Phones.
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| By SuperUser Account on 12/11/2010 10:02 PM
REUTERS
NEW YORK: Another 17 US billionaires, including Facebook co-founders Mark Zuckerberg and Dustin Moskovitz, have pledged to give away at least half of their fortunes in a philanthropic campaign led by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates.
A total of 57 billionaires now have joined The Giving Pledge, which was launched by Microsoft founder Gates and investor Buffett in June. The campaign announced the new pledges in a statement late on Wednesday. Gates, his wife Melinda, and Buffett have asked
US billionaires to give away at least half their wealth during their lifetime or after their death, and to publicly state their intention with a letter.
The Giving Pledge does not accept money or tell people how to donate their money but asks billionaires to make a moral commitment to give their fortunes to charity. Zuckerberg gave USD 100 million in September to the
beleaguered public schools of Newark,
New Jersey.
In addition to Zuckerberg and Moskovitz, the world’s youngest billionaires,... | By SuperUser Account on 12/11/2010 9:55 PM
 A judge has dismissed Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s lawsuit against Google, Apple, Facebook and others for patent infringement.
Back in August, Allen originally claimed that 11 different companies, including YouTube ( ), Netflix and AOL, had violated four different patents associated with web search and e-commerce. These patents are tied to both software and business methods. Now, however, a court has sided with Google et al. in a motion to dismiss the case, saying Allen’s claims were too vague and lacked “adequate factual detail to satisfy the dictates of Twombly and Iqbal” — two cases that are precedents for requiring adequate evidentiary support. | By SuperUser Account on 12/11/2010 9:44 PM
By David Richards | Sunday | 12/12/2010
Microsoft who is struggling in the Smartphone, browser and desktop OS markets is now trying to buy their way into Twitter according to several sources.
The Company who is 2007 offered $15 Billion to buy Facebook but were knocked back are desperate to buy an entity that will give them growth.
Last week CEO Steve Ballmer and his Twitter counterpart Dick Costolo were seen having breakfast according to Forbes Magazine.
This has sparked rumours that Microsoft might acquire or at least cut a relationship deal with Twitter.
Last week Microsoft's Senior Director of Corporate Strategy and Acquisitions, Fritz Lanman, confirmed at the LeWeb conference that Ballmer had tried to buy Facebook in 2007.
Engadget said that Microsoft had He offered as much as $15 billion and developed an in-stages plan to buy the company that would have addressed Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's desire to keep control. ... | By SuperUser Account on 12/7/2010 2:31 PM
By DynamicPoint a California (CA) Microsoft SharePoint Partner We all know that SharePoint is a collaboration tool but here are some real-life examples of how companies can deploy SharePoint Sites that will increase productivity and increase the value of your current ERP or CRM solution. Here are the 3 activities that will save your company time and money: 1. Company Intranet – Employee Self-Service Portal Websites Many of you may already be utilizing SharePoint for your company intranet site for document management, however keep in mind this is the perfect platform to give everyone access to the information in databases, reports, and business applications. By tapping into different data sources including SQL and Oracle databases and even your ERP or CRM Solution, you can ensure people across the organization can locate the information they need to make good decisions. Next, deploy an employee self-service portal that will let employees manage personnel information and streamline administrative tasks. This not only saves the overhead costs associated to additional HR and payroll resources, but most employees prefer the timeliness and privacy of directly viewing and updating their own data. 
Integrate your Employee Self Service Portal with your ERP solution; Dynamics GP, AX or NAV and make the following functionality available: | By SuperUser Account on 12/7/2010 11:30 AM
Europe has become a fertile breeding ground for young and innovative technology companies. Boosted by a proliferation of incubator funds, the continent's technology sector is vying to take on California's Silicon Valley at its own game. Top innovatorsEurope has always been a hub of innovation, but only recently have so many European technology start-ups begun to establish themselves as serious rivals to their Silicon Valley counterparts. The Wall Street Journal Europe brings you 10 European technology start-ups it has identified as companies to watch closely in the coming years.
The internet and mobile companies chosen for this list are regarded as top innovators. Admired for the scope of their ambition, recognized for the inventiveness of their business models and notable for the potential they have to disrupt the markets in which they are making their names. All are, naturally, pre-acquisition, and most are backed by venture capitalists from across the world.
The list represents a broad range of technology businesses emerging in Europe, including social gaming, sharing and collaboration, content monetization and e-commerce technologies. Social media marketing, mostly as a result of Facebook's massive growth, is another attractive breeding ground for start-ups in Europe. Some of these companies are opening or have opened offices in the U.S., but all the companies listed were founded in Europe and have a significant proportion of their employees on the continent. Most retain their headquarters in Europe: Others have had their main location nominally altered as a condition of a funding round.
Following the success of the European incubator and funding program, Seedcamp, other incubators modelled on similar lines are proliferating in Europe, particularly in the U.K. These are beginning to bear fruit, and several of the companies chosen for this list are graduates of such programs. Microsoft's BizSpark, which has done a great deal to accelerate growth for companies using Microsoft technology is well represented.
A characteristic of European start-ups is cross-country collaboration. Many of the companies listed outsource some or all of their development to other countries and are building customer bases right across the continent. | By SuperUser Account on 12/6/2010 9:20 AM
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| Microsoft today posted a letter in the Wall Street Journal inviting Salesforce.com customers to save money on IT by switching to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. |
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REDMOND, Wash. — Dec. 6, 2010 — Microsoft has issued an ‘Open Letter’ to Salesforce.com customers inviting them to switch to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online.
The letter was posted in the Western regional edition of today’s Wall Street Journal, complemented by a news release, and coincided with the start of Dreamforce, the annual Salesforce.com customer conference. With the letter, Microsoft aims to convince attendees that its customer relationship management (CRM) solution offers more value, said Jamie Fiorda, group product marketing manager for Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
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| Michael Park, corporate vice president of sales, marketing, and operations, Microsoft Business Solutions. |
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“We need to aggressively get the word out and inform customers that they have a choice. Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online is a great solution to consider,” said Jamie Fiorda, group product marketing manager for Microsoft Dynamics CRM. “It’s important that we communicate the value of our product, and how we differentiate on productivity.”
In the letter, Michael Park, corporate vice president of sales, marketing, and operations, Microsoft Business Solutions, encourages Salesforce.com customers to ask themselves:
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In this economy, how can I justify paying two to three times more for an enterprise CRM system than I need to?*
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Having access to the most up-to-date information is critical to my business; why doesn’t Salesforce.com provide real-time access to data and dashboards, refreshed whenever I need it like Microsoft does?
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Microsoft works great with Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Office; why does Salesforce.com want me to start from scratch when it comes to productivity tools for my people?
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As part of the letter, Microsoft announced a “Cloud CRM for Less” offer. Now through June 30, 2011, Microsoft will rebate eligible Salesforce.com and Oracle customers up to $200 for each user to make the switch to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. The offer can be applied for services such as migrating data or customizing the solution to meet unique business needs. Full terms and conditions can be found at CloudCRMforLess.com.
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| By SuperUser Account on 12/3/2010 10:02 AM
How Kinect could apply to art, education, health and other domains.by Alex Howard | @digiphile | I recently had the opportunity to put Microsoft's Kinect to the test. While the device may prove to be a financial success (it seems well on its way), my takeaway was all about sense, not dollars. For the first time in my adult life, I played a video game with one of my parents and we both enjoyed the experience. The parent in question was able to interact with the set-top box without navigating a dozen different buttons on complicated controllers, and even a broken right arm was no barrier to changing songs, avatars or settings. | By SuperUser Account on 12/3/2010 9:55 AM
By: Maureen O'Gara Has spent years looking for ways into the very high-end server market 
Microsoft has tucked some undisclosed - and from its point of view immaterial - amount of money in Paris-based TurboHercules SAS, the year-old open source mainframe project-turned-commercial emulator outfit whose antitrust complaint against IBM spurred the European Commission to open not one but two ongoing Justice Department-mimicking antitrust investigations of Big Blue. Microsoft has spent years looking for ways into the very high-end server market and it has previously ploughed an unknown amount of money into companies like TurboHercules that have been trying to nibble at the edges of IBM's huge mainframe monopoly. The software side of mainframes is estimated to be worth $25 billion. Whatever money Microsoft put in TurboHercules for whatever exchange of equity, the start-up would still like to talk to other potential investors. Its widgetry can run mainframe apps on x86 machines. | By SuperUser Account on 12/3/2010 9:40 AM
By: Andrew  As Chrysler's alliance with Fiat deepens and becomes more profitable, Ford is being threatened and may be surpassed in terms of technological advances. It’s believed that the primary reason why consumers choose Ford, Lincoln or Mercury is Ford's 'Sync' revolutionary tool that was jointly developed with Microsoft and enables voice control of phones and audio systems. But now that Fiat is introducing a similar system on its 500 supermini, it may lose some of its lead. The fact is Fiat worked with Microsoft to launch a version of the system in Europe before Ford did in the US. Chrysler’s vehicles already had the U-Connect option but it was less user-friendly than Ford's system. Fiat's Blue & Me offers voice control of radio, phone and music players connected either by USB or Bluetooth.
Voice connectivity with the Tom Tom navigation system is offered as an option. At the recently held Los Angeles auto show, it was surprising that this system wasn’t as popular as it should've been at the Fiat 500 launch. Of course, fans will be pleased to know that this option would be available in Chrysler's range as early as 2012. Joe Grace,vehicle line executive for the Fiat 500, said that Blue & Me will enable customers to use their handheld and mobile devices while still maintaining their driving focus. | By SuperUser Account on 12/2/2010 4:54 PM
For Release on December 2, 2010 at 8:00 AM Central St. Louis, MO – December 2, 2010 — KnowledgeLake is thrilled that Microsoft continues to lead the Gartner Enterprise Content Management (ECM) Magic Quadrant. KnowledgeLake provides ECM solutions exclusively for Microsoft SharePoint and targets the Document Capture, Imaging, and Workflow segment of this market. The Gartner 2010 Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Content Management report cites the ECM industry as containing “four worlds”; Transactional Content Management, Social Content Management, Online Channel Optimization and Content Management as Infrastructure. KnowledgeLake, along with Microsoft SharePoint fall into the Transactional Content Management (TCM) “world”. TCM includes solutions for imaging and workflow which is where KnowledgeLake differentiates itself as the leader in the SharePoint ECM space as the only vendor to focus exclusively on SharePoint and offer a truly open platform solution for Document Capture, Imaging, and Workflow. “The ECM market grew at 4.8% last year and is expected to grow at a compound rate of 10.1% annually now through 2014,” stated Ron Cameron, President of KnowledgeLake, Inc. “Microsoft is leading this market and our decision to focus exclusively on Microsoft SharePoint has been a key to our success and has enabled us to experience 312% revenue growth since 2007.” | By SuperUser Account on 12/2/2010 10:46 AM
Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Server’s PerformancePoint Services allows for items in documents and lists to be secured when they are used in a graphical or dashboarding application. This is done using a security model of the SharePoint Microsoft 2010 Server. Today, there are products which allow for the customization of the security on the information.
The services depend upon the security model of the 2010 SharePoint Server. However, certain security issues need to be taken into consideration throughout the planning process. One of these integral planning steps is determining how the security will be managed. The Central Administration site is responsible for the management of security and covers the resources that are shared as well as the access for users.
There are three means to authenticate source data with the PerformancePoint Services. Customized data permits user authentication via SQL Service Analysis Services through the use of custom... | By SuperUser Account on 12/1/2010 10:01 AM
We're in the process of moving our News and Blog posts over to this News section from our old Blog, so we are re-posting this here just so we have it in our archives. In addition, this has been by far the most read article we have posted, as well as the most intensely debated one. In fact,the Discussion on this article in our Linked In Group has close to 200 replies I believe, and is a great read if you would like to get a general feel for the broad range of Microsoft Partner sentiment around the globe. It first ran in the September 2006 issue of SMB Partner Channel Magazine so is a bit dated, but still seems to be appropriate today IMHO. “This partnership stinks! I’ve been a partner for a year now and Microsoft hasn’t sent me one opportunity!” I hear this a lot. Many partners fully expect that once they sign up for the Microsoft Partner program, they will soon find it difficult to handle the flood of opportunities Microsoft sends their way. Not only is this a fallacy, it shouldn’t be expected. Inappropriate expectations from your partnership with Microsoft can cause great frustration for you and your team. They can also cause you to miss out on great opportunities that this partnership can present you. Should Microsoft send lots of leads to its partner community? Sure they should, and they do. But remember, Microsoft has over 300,000 partners worldwide. Before I discuss tactical ideas for leveraging better your partnership with Microsoft, I’d like to review why you should partner with Microsoft in the first place. You should NOT sign up for the Microsoft Partner Program because you expect leads or sales support. Just as you should with any other Product Manufacturer (though I do realize they call themselves a Solutions company), you should choose to become a Microsoft Partner because: - They make the products that your customers are asking for, OR
- They make products that make it easier for you to develop cost-effective solutions for your customers, OR
- They make products that integrate better with the business productivity applications (e-mail, word processing, spreadsheets) that most of your clients spend 80% of every day using, OR
- They make the products that will allow you to maximize the growth of your top and bottom line financial goals, OR
- They provide a robust partner program that will support your team as your firm grows
- And so on….. get the idea?
| By SuperUser Account on 12/1/2010 9:56 AM
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| Q&A: Microsoft’s Jon Roskill discusses what it means to be successful in a partner-to-partner network, how to manage today’s fast-moving business climate and how partners can balance the future with the present for their prosperity. |
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REDMOND, Wash. — Dec. 1, 2010 — During most of his 18-year career at Microsoft, Jon Roskill has worked closely with partners and gained a deep understanding of what partner success looks like in a global economy. Now corporate vice president of the Worldwide Partner Group at Microsoft, Roskill leads the group that manages the Microsoft Partner Program. After nearly 150 days in the position, Roskill met yesterday with a few dozen partners in a town hall setting.
The gathering in the newly opened Microsoft Store in Bellevue, Wash., was the first in a series of meetings around the world that will help Roskill drive connection with the partner community. Roskill’s goal is to provide a platform for open dialogue where he can listen to partners’ thoughts and concerns, and share Microsoft’s vision for the future and how partners can work together to be successful. With the newly revamped Microsoft Partner Network having just launched, Roskill sees now as an ideal time to discuss any additional clarity partners may need.
“Last year, Microsoft generated $62.5 billion in revenue, 95 percent of which comes through the channel or partner ecosystem,” Roskill said. “Partners are integral to the future of Microsoft and its customers. We are critical to each other’s success, and key to that success is listening to what is important to them, what concerns them and what direction they are headed in for their future success. And that’s why we’re here today, so we can continue working as we travel at lightning speed into the future together.”
Microsoft News Center spoke with Roskill to find out more.
News Center: The town hall meetings with partners are an interesting idea. Why are you doing this?
Roskill: Community is the foundation of the Microsoft Partner Network and part of the work we do every day. We noticed through round table discussions with various partners that they are more collaborative with one another than you might expect. They often work together and share ideas on best practices and what has worked well for them. As we move toward the future, we want to amplify this for all partners and continue to strengthen these ties so the partner ecosystem can build momentum.
Town hall gatherings are one of the many ways we are connecting with this community. As part of the Microsoft Partner Network, we created social media forums on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and the Microsoft Partner Member Community sites. Partners can join the network at no cost, and once they’ve joined, they can take part in conversations with other partners and experts at Microsoft about the latest technologies and trends. Partners can use these resources to stay competitive, boost their bottom line, increase connections and find the keys to unlocking greater business success.
News Center: When you look out at the next two to three years, what are the biggest growth opportunities for partners?
Roskill: Some of the biggest opportunities for partners are with on-premise products such as Windows 7 and Office 2010, both of which have had dynamite success. SharePoint Server, Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Windows Server 2008 R2 also are doing quite well. Microsoft gives partners far more cross-sell/up-sell opportunities that will deliver value for their customers, strengthen their customer relationship and bring in revenue.
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| By SuperUser Account on 11/30/2010 2:14 PM
In Q&A, Microsoft's Tom Rizzo says Google doesn't understand business needsBy Sharon Gaudin Computerworld - Raising the stakes in its war of words, Microsoft today said Google simply doesn't understand what businesses need, and is failing at pushing its way into the enterprise. In an interview with Computerworld, Tom Rizzo, senior director of Microsoft Online Services, talked about the company moving its popular Office apps into the cloud, as well its competition with main rival Google . Rizzo wasn't pulling any punches. The verbal sparring between the two companies has only heated up in recent months since they're battling on many different fronts -cloud-based apps, search, browsers and operating systems. Just late last month, Microsoft leaped intoGoogle's territory, launching a beta of Office 365 that officially took its ubiquitous Office suite to the cloud. And that move turned up the heat on Google which has been vying very hard over the past few years to move from the consumer realm into the lucrative enterprise market. What are the biggest challenges you're facing in getting customers to move to the cloud? | By SuperUser Account on 11/30/2010 2:11 PM
By Saad Fazil  Microsoft is on a roll: Its newly launched Windows Phone 7 isgaining momentum, and Kinect, its motion controller response to the Wii, is rumored to have sold out (although whether that rumor is true is another matter). If there was ever a time for Microsoft to get back on its feet and stand shoulder to shoulder with Apple and Google, this would be it.
This positive buzz comes at a time when Microsoft sorely needs it. Microsoft’s major source of power and revenue – the Windows operating system – is under an unprecedented threat on several fronts. First, as mobile phones become smarter, the Windows franchise will lose its dominance unless Microsoft can find a way to compete with Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android. Second, as operating systems find their way into other connected devices such as Internet TV, Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS are getting all the buzz. Third, as the Internet becomes speedier and demand for cloud-based storage increases, web apps will become even more popular, making the Windows operating system even less relevant. So what’s Microsoft doing to regain footing on these three fronts? Mobile
Despite arriving late to the party, Windows Phone 7 has received strong reviews so far, and while there are a few glaring omissions (such as the missing copy/paste function), on the whole it is a great leap forward from the antiquated Windows Mobile platform. It’s too early to tell whether Windows Phone 7 can catch up in a market dominated by iOS and Android, but it has some clear advantages. Tighter integration with Microsoft Office, still the most dominant productivity suite, is one of them. Gaming is another. | By SuperUser Account on 11/29/2010 11:51 AM
Microsoft's partnership with ESPN to bring streaming sports to the Xbox 360 may be the tip of a streaming video iceberg. According to sources speaking to Reuters, the company is working on deals to launch a subscription service to stream video content to Windows PCs or devices such as the Xbox 360. Microsoft has proposed a few different ways that its service could work in its pitch to content providers. One would have Microsoft acting as a "virtual cable operator," streaming video in exchange for a monthly fee. Another would use the Xbox to enable existing cable subscribers to stream content with "enhanced interactivity." A third option would allow viewers to subscribe to channels separately—the "à la carte" option that most cable companies have fought against despite consumer demand and pressure from the FCC. Microsoft's push comes rather late in the game, as rivals such as Apple, Netflix, and Hulu have been working on similar services for the last few years. While both Hulu and Netflix have recently launched streaming-only subscription services, content providers have so far balked at Apple's similar subscription proposal. And most providers have blocked the recently launched Google TV based devices from accessing streaming content from their respective websites. | By SuperUser Account on 11/29/2010 10:17 AM
For Release November 22, 2010 “Staffing Technology: Accelerating Staffing Firm Success” Fargo, ND — November 22, 2010 —Professional Advantage’s staffing software solution, 1Staff, was highlighted in a recent Microsoft white paper titled “Staffing Technology: Accelerating Staffing Firm Success.”
The white paper explains how staffing firms are increasing their reliance on staffing software from technology vendors. It states, ‘Staffing firms recognize that they are not in the technology business; they are in the human capital business. Firms have a growing desire to partner with third-parties to get the technology solutions and services they need.’
‘In the past, staffing firms had no choice but to build custom, enterprise solutions for core business processes because scalable, flexible solutions were not commercially available. Staffing firms have a strong preference to buy commercial software but because of the complexity of their organizations and the broad set of services they offer, they need flexible and configurable solutions.’ ‘As an example, Professional Advantage provides an industry-leading staffing software solution leveraging the Microsoft technology platform. 1Staff for Microsoft Dynamics® provides an end-to-end solution for staffing organizations from resume parsing to generating financial statements. It is designed to fully leverage the Microsoft Dynamics platform and includes Microsoft CRM, Microsoft Dynamics GP, SQL Server, SharePoint and Outlook. Customers receive the benefit of Microsoft's research and development investment, while having a system tailored to the needs of the staffing industry.’ | By SuperUser Account on 11/25/2010 2:43 PM
BEIJING, Nov. 25, 2010 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Today, China's leading network security services provider, Qihoo 360, released an emergency network security warning, claiming that it has first discovered an Exploit Code of an 18-year latent high-risk 0day vulnerability that affects all Windows versions. This vulnerability named as "elder" is very likely to confront worldwide computer users with a new round of malicious attacks. However, netizens on the Chinese Mainland do not need to worry about that. 360 Safe, the flagship security software of Qihoo 360, is upgrading the temporary kernel security patches and can perfectly immunize against the security problems caused by this vulnerability.
According to Dr. Shi Xiaohong, a security expert of Qihoo 360: "Since 1992, there has been a local privilege escalation vulnerability in the Windows operating system, through which hackers may seize the highest control of the system and easily undermine or prohibit any security software, including anti-virus... | By SuperUser Account on 11/25/2010 2:35 PM
A great gift for any gamer in your life, the Xbox 360 will make whoever recieves this gift very happy -- especially when they see it comes with a Kinect sensor. The Microsoft Store is offering special holiday prices on the bundles. Choose from three options: - You can get an Xbox 360 Slim 4GB Gaming Console with Kinect Sensor Accessory and Adventures Game for $269.99 with free shipping after Coupon Code: TNSGIFT10 (normally $359).
- Get the Xbox 360 250GB Gaming Console with Kinect Sensor for $359.99 Free Shipping after Coupon Code: TNSGIFT10 (normally $399.99).
- Xbox 360 250GB Holiday Bundle with Alan Wake & Forza Motorsport 3 Games for $269.99 Free Shipping after Coupon Code: TNSGIFT10 (normally $299.99).
PCMag reviewed the latest Xbox model, the Xbox 360 (250GB) and gave it a 4 out of 5 rating. It offers a solid gaming and entertainment experience coupled with a revamped eye-catching design. | By SuperUser Account on 11/25/2010 2:23 PM
By: Michael Muchmore, PC Magazine Google wants you to stop using Microsoft Office and move to its completely Web-based Docs service, and with each passing week the service gets richer and better performing. But just in case you're too devoted to the installed productivity suite leader, there's a next-best choice: Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office, formerly DocVerse. Google Cloud Connect is basically an Office plug-in that syncs documents with your cloud-based Google Docs account; it was made available to Google "trusted testers" on Monday. The Google Docs blog post making the announcement has been updated to note that available slots for prospective testers filled up within a few hours of the announcement. PCMag got early access to the software for a look. Though the Connect plug-in won't give Office users all of the live collaboration features available in the Web version of Docs, it will offer a Sync button that will back up the document being worked on, make it available from anywhere via Google Docs, and assign it a unique URL. The toolbar also offers a Share button that sends this URL or gives rights to the document to Google contacts. | By SuperUser Account on 11/24/2010 10:00 AM
I was hunting around recently looking for a good online training service for one of our members when I found the following gold mine. Maybe many of you already knew about this, but I didn’t, and it is yet another amazing resource that Microsoft has provided, but is a bit buried and hard to find.
Microsoft has its weaknesses, but one of them is Not Customer and Partner support material (IMHO). You could argue that there often is no global hierarchy for organizaing and finding all of the resources available (often times they are siloed by MSFT team or group), but not that there isn’t enough. I’m in the business of knowing these, and I find new ones every day
For example, I ran across this Youtube video last week that showcases something called the Microsoft All-In-One Code Framework: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cO5Li3APU58
I sent it to our developers and they were blown away by this free resource.
Anyway, I digress. ... | By SuperUser Account on 11/23/2010 11:24 AM
Southwest Airlines partners with Windows 7 to provide customers with free holiday photos.
DALLAS — Nov. 23, 2010 — If you’re traveling on Southwest Airlines this holiday season, you’re sure to be put on the “Nice List.” Southwest and Windows have partnered to make your holiday travel experience jollier with Holiday Photos on the Fly.
Beginning Dec. 2, Southwest and Windows will offer free holiday photos to customers at 26 airports nationwide. Customers can stop by one of Santa’s workshops set up in select Southwest Airlines airports and have... | By SuperUser Account on 11/22/2010 12:17 PM
Microsoft invites students to solve real-world problems with technology.
REDMOND, Wash. — Nov. 22, 2010 — Microsoft Corp. today announced Imagine Cup Solve This, a new program to provide inspiration for students looking to help solve the world’s toughest problems. In the spirit of “crowdsourcing,” intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and nonprofits now will be able to seek the help of the brilliant and passionate students competing in Microsoft’s Imagine Cup, the world’s premier student technology competition, to develop innovative solutions to real-world problems. Global IGOs and NGOs including NetHope, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the United Nations... | By SuperUser Account on 11/22/2010 10:05 AM
Ok, so I'm old. I'm now the oldest guy in my company, which I still cant get used to. But it comes with some benefits. For example, I've had the luxury of watching Microsoft, Apple, & Google all grow up, from relative startups to amazing enterprises.
In 1985, I had just graduated college with an big fancy Engineering Degree but wanted to give Entrepreneurialship a whirl using a small one person IT consulting company I had started while in college. It was also the year the first Microsoft Windows was released.
My clients at the time were small businesses like non-profits and law firms in the Washington D.C area, and I supported their PCs (8086, 8088, 286, and 386's :-> ) which all ran MS DOS as the operating system. Most used Wordperfect and Lotus back then as their office productivity apps.
I will never forget the first migration to Windows and how it started. I NEVER thought it was going to go anywhere to be honest. I would get these law firms, who's admin folks were Wizards with Wordperfect, and had all of the Control & Function combo keys down so that they created and edited documents with amazing speed and efficiency, calling me and asking me to help them try out this new Windows Operating system they were reading about. So, I would upgrade a PC or two, and try to train them.
It was horribly difficult and non-productive. First of all, it was the first time they ever had to use a mouse. When you take an aggressive PC user who is used to doing everything from the keyboard, and make them use a mouse, requiring them to remove one hand from keyboard every few seconds…. they don't like it. It slowed them down tremendously. Then, add to that the fact that Windows was amazingly slow compared to DOS. It took forever to load and run applications. Therefor, it was a horrible experience, and many bailed out early.
| By SuperUser Account on 11/21/2010 1:46 PM | By SuperUser Account on 11/20/2010 4:58 PM
By James Quinn 9:30PM GMT 20 Nov 2010
The Irish government has been given a stark warning from some of the biggest American companies in Ireland on the risk of a mass exodus if the country's low corporation tax rate is raised. 
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Executives at Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Intel ? spoke of the "damaging impact" on Ireland's "ability to win and retain investment" should the country's corporation tax rate be increased from 12.5pc. Photo: EPA  ... | By SuperUser Account on 11/20/2010 4:55 PM
Josh Catone Josh Catone – Sat Nov 20, 10:28 am ET
Since its release on November 4th, "hacking" Microsoft's Kinect peripheral for the Xbox 360 game consoles has become a popular Internet sport. Now, just a couple of weeks after saying that it would "work closely with law enforcement" to keep the Kinect tamper-proof, Microsoft has apparently reversed its stance, claiming that the Kinect was left open to tinkerers on purpose.
Following a $3,000 bounty put up by the open source community for anyone able to create an open source driver for Kinect, Microsoft told CNET on November 4th that it "does not condone the modification... | By SuperUser Account on 11/20/2010 10:22 AM
Microsoft Office 365 is coming….. as we have shouted almost daily lately. For those of you who are curious, but have tons of questions, our good friends at Microsoft have provided a ton of resources. One that is concise and to the point is the new Microsoft Office Transition Center.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is Office 365?
A: Microsoft Office 365 delivers the power of cloud productivity to businesses of all sizes, helping to save time, money and free up valued resources. Office 365 combines the familiar Office desktop suite with online versions of Microsoft’s next generation communications and collaboration services: Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and Lync Online. With Office 365 we provide services that are easy to administer and simple to use – always backed up by robust security, reliability and control to run your business.
Q: When will Office 365 be available to customers?
A: Office 365 will be available for purchase in 2011. Please note that existing customers must be transitioned to Office 365 before it is available to them. Transition to Office 365 will be available to existing BPOS customers soon after availability of Office 365. Microsoft will work with all existing BPOS customers to determine the best time for the customer’s business to make the transition.
Q: What services and tools are included in Office 365?
A: Office 365 includes: Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Lync Online and the latest version of Microsoft Office Professional Plus desktop suite.
| By SuperUser Account on 11/17/2010 11:34 AM
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| Microsoft Lync puts people at the center of communications, connecting in new ways, across the PC, phone and browser. |
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REDMOND, Wash. — Nov. 17, 2010 — Three years ago, the introduction of Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS) changed the way people stay connected. An individual’s identity and presence became the center of business communication, thanks to the integration of unified communications across e-mail, voice, instant messaging, audio- and videoconference tasks — and even desktop sharing. People could choose how to manage their conversations, redirect calls, set their level of availability, and decide how and when they could be reached.
In 2006, Bill Gates talked about the magic of software being poised to help people manage communications amid the rush of business life, often filled with an unrelenting combination of conference calls, e-mails, faxes, voice mail messages, business trips, in-person meetings and instant messages.
Microsoft knew the time had come for a communications platform that could help people navigate through all types of communication with colleagues, partners and customers — to get work done faster and with less frustration.
Office Communications Server has been one of the fastest growing solutions at Microsoft, experiencing double-digit growth over the past three years. Fortune 500 companies, top pharmaceutical firms, successful financial institutions and large communications providers have chosen Microsoft’s unified communications platform to set their business up for success.
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| By SuperUser Account on 11/16/2010 3:31 PM
Cloud computing is to business what the pocket calculator was to education back in the 1980s. I’ve already told you how I was addicted to the Cloud , and your now probably hearing about it daily. So why should you be interested in this new buzz word. Well, there are a couple reasons your ears should perk up when you here news about The Cloud, especially when it involves the Microsoft products your company has become dependent upon over the years like Microsoft Office, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SharePoint, or Microsoft Dynamics. - Cost – costs usually include little to no up-front costs, and monthly per user costs moving forward. This allows you to convert capital expenditure to operational expenditure which can lower the barrier to entry into new products and services.
- Freedom – your team can more easily access systems remotely and from multiple devices such as Mobile devices
- Reliability – cloud computing is ideal for business continuity and disaster recovery.
- Scalability – you get “on-demand” provisioning of resources on a self-serve basis in realtime.
- Maintenance - cloud computing application maintenance is done for you by the host, and changes and updates apply to all users independent of location.
| By SuperUser Account on 11/16/2010 2:46 PM
Automation is the first thing that pops into my mind when I think of SharePoint. And since so many companies out there that I have talked to who have deployed SharePoint for document management are saying, “I know there is so much more we can do with SharePoint but what next?”. My response to that is – let’s talk about automation. First, you need to get started by thinking of the automation of business processes. We all have 4 versions of one form floating around the office or endless excel spreadsheets being emailed across the organization in order to support various business processes. So, which aggravating, time consuming, just plain frustrating business processes can we automate? Expense Reports, Purchase Requisitions, Sales Quote... | By SuperUser Account on 11/11/2010 12:24 PM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TabWare Express is a Best-in-Class Asset Management Solution in a SaaS Model at an Affordable Monthly Fee, Making It Ideal for Small and Medium Size Companies Whose Success Depends on the Performance of Their Assets.
Greenville, SC – November 11, 2010 – AssetPoint (www.assetpoint.com), a leading Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) solution provider, announced TabWare Express, a secure web-based Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) solution offered on a per-user, monthly fee basis that ensures maximum equipment uptime and control of maintenance costs for small and medium size companies. TabWare Express is designed by maintenance professionals for maintenance professionals, and is easy to learn, easy to use, and easy to own.
TabWare Express is offered in 3 modules that can be used separately or combined together depending on your business needs:
· Work Orders including Preventive Maintenance
· Spare Parts Inventory
· Purchasing... | By SuperUser Account on 11/10/2010 4:31 PM
For Release October 11, 2010
Full front to back staffing solution using the Microsoft Dynamics® platform
Fargo, ND — October 11, 2010 — Today Professional Advantage announced their Front Office staffing software, 1Staff for Microsoft Dynamics.
1Staff for Microsoft Dynamics® provides an end-to-end staffing software solution for staffing organizations from resume parsing to generating financial statements. It is designed to fully leverage the Microsoft Dynamics platform so customers receive the benefit of Microsoft's R&D investment while having a system tailored to the needs of the staffing industry.
Users can easily deploy 1Staff in Microsoft Office® Outlook or Internet Explorer and enable users to create powerful workflows without the need for custom development. Not only can they rename fields and redesign forms, users can add entirely new fields and related data forms... | By SuperUser Account on 11/10/2010 4:29 PM
For Release October 26, 2010
Fargo, ND — October 26, 2010 — Professional Advantage has been named to the 2010 Accounting Today VAR 100 list, an annual ranking of the top 100 Value Added Resellers (VARs) nationwide.
Accounting Today’s selection is based on revenue generated by each reseller during the previous year. The top 100 are chosen from organizations specializing in the sale and implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and accounting software. These organizations own the lion’s share of this business out of the thousands of companies and firms that compete in this market. The names of all 100 organizations are published in “VAR 100 Still Standing” article within Accounting Today’s online issue.
“ The Accounting Today VAR 100 list is comprised of top accounting and ERP software resellers... | By SuperUser Account on 11/10/2010 4:21 PM
Houston – November 4, 2010 Jalasoft today announced the release of Xian Wings support for Windows Mobile platforms. Xian Wings is a mobile console solution for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager. With this release, Wings gives system administrators the freedom to check the health of their systems on their Windows Mobile phone.
“Wings is unique in that it provides native clients on each supported platform,” says Jeff Pollard, Jalasoft Sr. Business Strategist. “The product is much easier to use when the Wings app works just like every other iPhone app. Same thing goes for the Windows Mobile and Blackberry consoles.”
While the look and feel matches each smartphone, Xian Wings provides the same features on each platform. Customers will be able receive notifications, view alert data, run tasks and graph performance data on any supported smartphone.
“System administrators carry a lot of power in their smartphones,” says Jalasoft CTO Davor Pavisic. “We use that power to provide interactive... | By SuperUser Account on 11/1/2010 8:55 AM
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| Microsoft Partner Network equips partners to transform their businesses and provide greater value and innovation for customers. |
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REDMOND, Wash. — Nov. 1, 2010 — Microsoft Corp. today flipped the switch on the Microsoft Partner Network, an evolution of the company’s industry-leading partner program that has been two years in the making. The revamped program, which takes effect today, equips Microsoft partners with the training, resources and support they need to successfully compete in today’s marketplace and allows customers to easily identify the right partner for their technology needs.
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| Partners Discuss Microsoft Partner Network |
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The Microsoft Partner Network is based on partner feedback and customer demand for specialized service experts. These new offerings will enable partners to focus on specific technologies that increase the number of business opportunities, as well as their ability to deliver innovative solutions that help customers achieve their goals.
“Microsoft’s partners are the secret behind our success, and we created the Microsoft Partner Network to help them achieve their business needs and drive deeper customer satisfaction,” said Jon Roskill, corporate vice president of the Worldwide Partner Group at Microsoft. “The Microsoft Partner Network provides partners with the necessary tools, resources and support to help partners differentiate themselves and succeed in today’s market.”
“The market we compete in is as dynamic as I’ve ever seen it, and, to stay competitive, we have to be very responsive to customers’ needs,” said Zikria Syed, CEO, NextDocs. “The Microsoft Partner Network brings a rich community of industry partners, as well as the technical and business development resources we need to respond to our customers and stand out from our competitors.”
New Membership Opportunities Available to Partners
Starting today, partners will renew their annual Microsoft Partner Network memberships under the new structure, allowing them to choose the membership opportunity that best meets their needs. Partners will also have the opportunity to build relationships with their peers and with experts at Microsoft. Using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or the Microsoft Partner Network Community, any partner can get answers to questions and take part in conversations about latest technology trends and topics such as best practices, business development and how to drive innovation.
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| By SuperUser Account on 10/28/2010 1:35 PM
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| Highlights Pixar Animation Studios’ adoption of Windows Azure, and customer momentum for Windows 7, Internet Explorer 9 and Windows Phone 7. |
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REDMOND, Wash. — Oct. 28, 2010 — Today at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC), Microsoft Corp. showcased how developers can build applications in the cloud to power rich, immersive device experiences. In addition to the developers in attendance at the company’s corporate campus in Redmond, Wash., the event was broadcast live over the Web, and reached more than 20,000 developers at over 200 PDC events held around the world.
During the keynote address, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Server and Tools Business President Bob Muglia showed how the company is advancing the Microsoft platform, spanning the PC, phone and cloud. Microsoft specifically highlighted the momentum of Windows Azure, Windows 7, Internet Explorer 9 and Windows Phone 7 and the opportunity for developers today and in the future.
“Microsoft is combining the power and reach of the cloud with both Web and local device experiences,” Ballmer said. “There has never been a better time for developers to bet on Microsoft.”
Customer Momentum
Since the commercial availability of Windows Azure was announced earlier this year, Microsoft has seen strong growth with close to 20,000 applications to date. Demonstrating its RenderMan application during the keynote address, Pixar Animation Studios showed how it intends to use Windows Azure to more efficiently manage compute cycles by scaling as needed, helping improve project performance and eliminate costly back-end infrastructure.
NVoicePay, a key technology partner of Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP), is using Windows Azure and SQL Azure to provide medium-sized companies with the ability to pay invoices electronically and via a desktop PC or a mobile device.
“Building a mission-critical B2B payment network would have been nearly impossible without the low-cost, pay-as-you-go access of the Windows Azure platform,” said Karla Friede, chief executive officer of NVoicePay. “We could not have built our network at this speed and cost without it.”
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| By SuperUser Account on 10/27/2010 10:34 AM
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| A new interactive media player will enable developers worldwide to virtually attend this week’s Professional Developers Conference at microsoftpdc.com. Using Silverlight and Windows Azure, Microsoft is providing many of the features NBC used when broadcasting the Olympics online. |
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REDMOND, Wash. – Oct. 27, 2010 – At Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference (PDC), the company lays out a roadmap for Microsoft technologies and explains why developers should bet on it.
This year, the company will leverage those same technologies to extend its PDC pitch to every corner of the globe via a virtual experience at microsoftpdc.com.
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| Microsoft’s online PDC player uses technologies including Silverlight, Windows Azure, and Town Hall to deliver every minute of this year’s conference and provide virtual attendees a forum to interact with each other and the presenters. |
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PDC10 kicks off Thursday, October 28, on Microsoft’s Redmond campus. Previously, the Developer & Platform Evangelism (DPE) event was held at much larger venues such as the Los Angeles Convention Center, but this year the company decided to bring PDC to its own backyard.
While the conference will be smaller and more intimate, Microsoft is using its technologies to bring PDC to developers worldwide.
Created by the same team that delivered the 2010 Winter Olympics and 2009 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball March Madness Tournament to online viewers worldwide, Microsoft’s online player for PDC10 will offer the most robust online event experience in the company’s and the technology industry’s history, said Jamin Spitzer, Microsoft’s director of Platform Strategy.
“We are very determined to push the boundary and the expectation for what an online event ought to look like,” Spitzer said.
Microsoft is doing so to reach an expanding global community of developers, he said. There are now more developers than ever who have an increasingly diverse set of needs; some are looking for new monetization models, while others want to get to market faster and more affordably.
Microsoft’s new online player uses technologies including Silverlight, Windows Azure, and Town Hall to deliver every minute of this year’s conference. In addition to live-streaming the keynotes from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Server and Tools President Bob Muglia, the PDC online player will simultaneously live-stream all session content. The player will offer virtual attendees a forum to interact in real-time with each other and with PDC10 session presenters in Redmond. And, for the first time ever, the keynote will be translated live in Chinese, French, Japanese, Spanish and closed-caption English, with other session content offered on-demand in multiples languages within 24 hours.
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| By SuperUser Account on 10/21/2010 3:37 PM
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| Consumers line up to be among the first to own new handsets. |
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REDMOND, Wash. – Oct. 21, 2010 – The much-awaited launch of Windows Phone 7 has begun, with the first handsets going on sale yesterday in New Zealand, followed shortly in countries throughout Europe and Asia Pacific, including Australia, Belgium, France, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Singapore, Spain and the U.K.
Consumer Launch of Windows Phone 7 Begins
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First Purchase Worldwide
Jourdan Templeton, first person in the world to buy a new Windows Phone 7 device, completing his purchase in New Zealand. Oct. 21, 2010.
Web-Ready
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| By SuperUser Account on 10/21/2010 11:10 AM
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| Microsoft’s Xbox team today is launching a Kinect advertising campaign aiming to show people how the new controller-free entertainment experience can transform their living room. |
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REDMOND, Wash. – Oct. 21, 2010 – This holiday season also will be the season of Kinect, as the Xbox team prepares for one of the biggest entertainment launches in the company’s history.
“The Nov. 4 debut of Kinect is more than just a product launch, it’s a re-launch of the Xbox brand,” says Robert Matthews, general manager of global marketing communications for Xbox. “We are expanding the relevancy of Xbox to new audiences such as families, kids and those who have never picked up a video game controller.
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| Just like real pets, "Kinectimals" will come running when they hear a player's voice, respond to commands such as "jump," "roll over" and "play dead," and purr with joy when scratched them behind their ears. |
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“With Kinect, there is something for everyone. It transforms ordinary entertainment into an extraordinary experience,” Matthews adds. “Kinect lets you control games, movies, music and more with the wave of your hand or the sound of your voice. With Kinect, you are the controller.”
Not unlike a blockbuster movie, Kinect will be popping up everywhere this holiday season – in digital and social media, on primetime television, in consumer and business press, at major retailers and even in the cereal aisle at grocery stores. The ad campaign launches today, Oct. 21.
“We’re not the only ones excited about Kinect,” Matthews says. “An unprecedented collection of partners have joined us for the launch .”
Xbox is partnering with well-known consumer brands in countries around the world. In the United States, Kinect will be prominently featured on Kellogg’s cereal boxes and on hundreds of millions of Pepsi bottles and 12-packs. Kinect also will be featured in promotions with Foot Locker, Macy’s, Bose, and even Burger King – where the cats of Kinectimals will be featured in kids’ meals.
Disney, Nickelodeon and other major media networks have developed custom promotions for Kinect, and television ads will run in places where people don’t normally see Xbox advertising – during shows such as “Glee,” “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” “The X-Factor,” and “Dancing with the Stars.”
Matthews says it’s the same for print ads, with Kinect showing up in magazines such as People, Real Simple, Health, and InStyle. And Kinect’s public relations presence will also be strongly present, he says.
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| By SuperUser Account on 10/19/2010 11:14 AM
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| Microsoft announces Office 365, a new service that brings familiar applications, including Office desktop software and Office Web Apps, together with SharePoint, Exchange and Lync in the cloud, for the first time. |
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REDMOND, Wash. — Oct. 19, 2010 — With the announcement of Microsoft Office 365, the productivity power of the cloud just got a turbo boost for customers of all sizes. The new service brings familiar applications, including Office desktop software and Office Web Apps, together with SharePoint, Exchange and Lync in the cloud, for the first time.
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| Microsoft announces Office 365, a new service that brings familiar applications, including Office desktop software and Office Web Apps, together with SharePoint, Exchange and Lync in the cloud, for the first time. |
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“Office 365 is more than a new brand. It’s a progressive approach to cloud applications,” said Kurt DelBene, president of the Microsoft Office Division. “We designed Office 365 to work for a business of one – or a business of one million and one.”
Any business will be able to transform the way it works with Office 365, and make it dramatically easier for people to connect to co-workers, partners, customers and the information that keeps business moving forward – instead of spending valuable time on technology management and maintenance.
For example, The Starwood Hotel chain, which owns Sheraton, St Regis, W, Westin and other properties around the world, will be able to use Office 365 to change how its regional managers work together. Each manager oversees 70 to 80 properties, making it impossible to be physically present in all company locations. With Office 365, Starwood managers will improve the performance of their properties, using Web conferencing with collaboration and messaging technology. This will change how the company implements promotions, trains new employees, and shares its best practices, while saving money. Managers will be in multiple locations virtually, creating better customer and employee interaction and satisfaction.
Office 365 changes the rules
To date, only the largest businesses have been able to take advantage of modern, enterprise-caliber IT solutions. Office 365 changes that. No longer will enterprise technologies be reserved for traditional office workers and the larger organizations that can afford their own data centers. Instead, organizations of all sizes and people in all types of jobs will use enterprise-grade collaboration tools, social networks and unified communications to improve the way they work – and never again be trapped behind the firewall or on applications from last decade. In a few clicks, a small business can get enterprise-caliber productivity applications, an expansive capacity to grow, and a team of IT and security experts on its side. It’s not realistic for a small company to acquire these resources on its own, but delivered at scale, customers can get these solutions at a dramatically lower cost – saving 10-50% over comparable alternatives.
Any type of business can use the cloud service too. At The HerbFarm, a Northwest restaurant ranked regularly as one of the best in the United States, the manager of guest services doubles as the IT lead. With Office 365, he’ll be able to focus on his “day job” and let Microsoft focus on the technology – all while enabling better collaboration. For example, the team will be able to communicate more efficiently between a sous chef at the local market and a team at the restaurant to set the day’s menu based on the freshest produce and fish available at the moment. A delicious meal will be prepared for customers in real time – helping a local chef create a world-class dining experience.
Office 365 means speed and scale
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| By SuperUser Account on 10/19/2010 8:07 AM
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| Windows Embedded Automotive powers Nissan’s 2011 LEAF electric car’s infotainment system; release of Windows Embedded Automotive 7 gives automakers a new foundation for developing the next-generation in-car experience. |
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DETROIT — Oct. 19, 2010 — Imagine driving down a typical American highway in three years. Do you hear the growl of hundreds of engines and smell car exhaust? Are drivers punching radio buttons looking for a station with good reception, while passengers search for the best way out of a traffic jam using a fold-out map and a mobile phone?
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| Windows Embedded Automotive technologies are powering the touch-screen Information Hub for the 2011 Nissan LEAF electric car. |
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If today’s news from SAE Convergence 2010 Conference and Exhibition is any predictor, you’ll instead experience a clean, quiet future where drivers and passengers have an amazing variety of in-car entertainment options and powerful tools available safely at their fingertips.
Microsoft announced today that Windows Embedded Automotive technologies are powering the touch-screen Information Hub for the 2011 Nissan LEAF electric car. The hub gives LEAF drivers and passengers a navigation system and electricity charging station locator. It also shares power consumption monitoring information with drivers, and enables easy in-car climate monitoring – all on top of a smooth, quiet electric ride. Be sure to check out a video of the car in action.
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| Windows Embedded Automotive is the software platform that Ford, Kia, Fiat, Nissan, Alpine and Paccar are using to develop next-generation in-car infotainment systems in more than 80 vehicle models worldwide. |
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In addition, Fiat Group Automobiles is bringing the Fiat 500 car to the North American market this year. The 500 includes Fiat’s Blue&Me technology, powered by Windows Embedded Automotive, which takes mobile phones and digital music players and integrates them into the overall audio system and controls of the car. Drivers are given the ability to control these devices by voice.
Windows Embedded Automotive is the software platform that auto manufacturers and suppliers such as Ford, Kia,Fiat, Nissan, Alpine and Paccar are using to develop next-generation in-car infotainment systems in more than 80 vehicle models worldwide. Today, Microsoft unveiled the latest version — Windows Embedded Automotive 7 — which will support speech commands, touch input, hands-free Bluetooth phone connectivity, dashboard access to music and maps, third-party applications, and connections to a wide variety of portable devices.
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| By SuperUser Account on 10/18/2010 8:46 AM
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| Bing and JAY-Z are partnering to promote the hip-hop star’s new book, “Decoded.” Bing created a multi-platform search experience and interactive game, where fans can immerse themselves in JAY-Z’s life and lyrics and search for the book’s pages, which are being hidden in the real world. |
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REDMOND, Wash. — Oct. 18, 2010 — Hip-hop icon JAY-Z is turning to Bing to help “decode” his life and lyrics for fans.
The rapper and Bing announced a partnership Monday to promote his upcoming book, “Decoded,” through an interactive game and multi-platform search experience. Before the book hits shelves Nov. 16, Bing will distribute all 350 pages at hidden locations in the real world as well as online through Bing Maps. Fans can go to Bing.com/JAY-Z to crack clues and find and compile the pages, which will be released in batches every day until the book’s release.
Decode JAY-Z's New Book Using Bing
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The Game Begins
Bing and JAY-Z are partnering to promote the hip-hop icon’s upcoming book, “Decoded.” Bing created a multi-platform search experience and game (at Bing.com/JAY-Z) where fans can immerse themselves in JAY-Z’s life and lyrics and search for the book’s pages.
Web-Ready
The interactive campaign is a one-of-a-kind promotion, says Ryan Cameron, senior marketing manager for Bing.
“This campaign is designed to be an innovative combination of the hotly anticipated book from a musical icon with the technologies from Bing,” he says. “JAY-Z is excited to offer his fans this inside look at his life, and his publishers claim this campaign will drive one of the boldest book launches in history.”
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| By SuperUser Account on 10/13/2010 10:42 AM
NEW YORK — Apple shares broke through the 300-dollar mark to hit a new record Wednesday, powered by booming sales of the iPad and iPhone.
Apple shares were up 0.94 percent at 301.35 dollars about an hour after the opening bell on Wall Street.
Apple is to report its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings on Monday and analysts are predicting another blockbuster quarter from the Cupertino, California-based maker of the Macintosh computer, iPod, iPhone and iPad.
Apple shares have received a boost this week from reports the gadget-maker plans to begin producing a new iPhone that will be sold by Verizon Wireless next year, ending the run of AT&T as the exclusive US carrier.
AT&T has been the sole carrier of the iPhone since the touchscreen smartphone was launched in 2007.
On Tuesday, US retail goliath Walmart announced that it will start selling the iPad in hundreds of its stores and on its website on Friday, joining Apple stores, Target, Amazon and Best Buy in offering the device. ... | By SuperUser Account on 10/11/2010 2:02 PM
Steve Ballmer and Joe Belfiore: Windows Phone 7 Press Conference
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Remarks by Steve Ballmer, Chief Executive Officer, and Joe Belfiore, Corporate Vice President, Windows Phone Program Management
New York, NY
Oct. 11, 2010
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STEVE BALLMER: Well, thanks, and welcome, everyone. We are very pleased you would spend time with us here today, and that we get a chance to share with you the new Windows Phone.
I've been looking forward to this day for some time, I would say, and we think very much that after today you will agree with us that with Windows Phone we really have built with our partners a different kind of a phone. And it is an exciting opportunity for us to have a chance to be here with you to show this very different kind of a phone.
In a sense you could say the differences in the Windows Phone are as much about not just what you're going to do with the phone, but how you're going to do it.
We've really put our energy and our design creativity into bringing together the things that you love. We've focused in on the way real people really want to use their phones when they're on the go. We want to let you get in, out, and back to life, and have that be as fast and simple as humanly possible.
We set out to build a phone that was thoroughly modern, modern in the hardware that it used, modern in its design principles, modern in the way that it embraces what people do today with Internet services and the like.
And we hope you'll agree that with all of that in mind we've taken a very different tack at the same time.
We think there's a lot of things that you'll see today that will help you understand how the Windows Phone is different, but I'd focus on two key themes: always delightful, and wonderfully mine.
Always delightful. We wanted the Windows Phone to be delightful across a range of different hardware devices, through a range of different scenarios, and across a range of different applications and experiences. We wanted it to be that way for the consumer and for the developer, who will build a growing set of Windows Phone applications.
We wanted the Windows Phone to be always delightful for you, whether you were looking for a place to eat, reading mail, catching up with friends, or making a phone call, for example.
We also stressed this notion of having the phone be wonderfully mine or yours or yours or the next person. Everybody should be able to take a look at a Windows Phone and say, I can represent me in this device.
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| By SuperUser Account on 10/11/2010 9:16 AM
Windows Phone 7: Ending Bad Phone Behavior With Better Phone Design
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| Todd Peters, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Mobile Communications Marketing Group, discusses the thinking behind the Windows Phone 7 ad campaign. |
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REDMOND, Wash. — Oct. 11, 2010 — Smartphones have changed how we interact with one another. As a society, we’ve become addicted to our phones and the way they can help us stay connected — but as a result, we’re spending more time heads-down with our phones, to the point that we become unaware of what’s happening around us.
With the launch of Windows Phone 7, Microsoft has planned advertising that pokes fun at the awkward moments our addiction to our phones can create.
To learn more about the campaign strategy, Microsoft News Center spoke with Todd Peters, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Mobile Communications Marketing Group.
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| Windows Phone 7 advertising pokes fun at the awkward moments our addiction to phones can create. |
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Microsoft News Center: This is definitely a big launch for Microsoft. What should people know about Windows Phone 7?
Todd Peters: We love smartphones, and as a culture we love smartphones. But for all their success, Microsoft thinks there is a better smartphone experience. We noticed people going through their day with their heads down, constantly opening and closing applications, sorting, texting and searching for things. By designing a better way to organize all that information Windows Phone 7 helps people get to the stuff that is most important to them — easier and faster.
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| By SuperUser Account on 10/11/2010 9:11 AM
News Press ReleaseMicrosoft and Partners Unveil Windows Phone 7 Global Portfolio
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| First phones available soon from leading mobile operators around the world. |
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REDMOND, Wash. — Oct. 11, 2010 — Microsoft Corp. today joined its partners in revealing nine new Windows Phone 7 handsets that will be available this holiday season from leading mobile operators in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. With more than 60 mobile operators in over 30 countries worldwide committed to bringing Windows Phones to market, the millions of people around the world looking for a phone that plays as hard as it works will have a variety of phones from leading device-makers to choose from.
“We have a beautiful lineup in this first wave of Windows Phone 7 handsets,” said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer at Microsoft. “Microsoft and its partners are delivering a different kind of mobile phone and experience — one that makes everyday tasks faster by getting more done in fewer steps and providing timely information in a ‘glance and go’ format.”
Global Portfolio
Microsoft and its partners have worked together closely to create a different kind of phone with new experiences that bring together what people care about most. Windows Phone 7 will be available in a variety of sleek form factors from device-makers such as Dell, HTC Corp., LG and Samsung, and from mobile operators including América Móvil, AT&T, Deutsche Telekom AG, Movistar, O2, Orange, SFR, SingTel, Telstra, TELUS, T-Mobile USA and Vodafone. All Windows Phone 7 phones will include the high-performance Snapdragon™ processor from Qualcomm. A broad selection of phones will begin shipping in holiday 2010 with more arriving in 2011, including phones from Sprint and Verizon Wireless. In addition, select models will be available at Microsoft Store locations and from Amazon.
Windows Phone 7, Glance and Go
In today’s busy world we are spending more time heads-down on our phones than interacting with the people we’re sitting next to and missing out on important life moments. Windows Phone 7 was designed to deliver a mobile experience that has the phone working better for people, bringing together the things they care about most and helping them to get things done faster.
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| By SuperUser Account on 10/8/2010 8:40 AM
Microsoft acquires AVIcode to become its secret weapon in cloud application performance monitoring.BALTIMORE—Microsoft has acquired AVIcode, a software firm specializing in .NET APM (application performance monitoring). - By Darryl Taft The deal is a boon to both companies, as Microsoft gains solid technology to help take customers more confidently to the cloud, and AVIcode gets what it has been seeking from day one–an opportunity to see its technology gain traction in a high-visibility, high-volume situation. The financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. AVIcode’s management couldn’t be happier, particularly my Chesapeake Bay crab-cracking pal, Mike Curreri, president and CEO of the Baltimore-based company. In an Oct. 6 blog post, he said: “It is with great pleasure that I announce AVIcode Inc. has today been acquired by Microsoft. Both AVIcode and Microsoft share a common vision about the evolution of application performance management and monitoring and the ever- growing need for organizations to gain 360-degree visibility into both application behavior and user experience.” Meanwhile, Brad Anderson, corporate vice president of the Management and Security Division at Microsoft, in his own Oct. 6 post, said, AVIcode will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft, with the software being delivered through the System Center product family. | By SuperUser Account on 10/5/2010 1:55 PM
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Remarks by Steve Ballmer, Chief Executive Officer
London School of Economics
London, England
Oct. 5, 2010
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Moderator Professor Saul Estrin, Head of the Department of Management, London School of Economics: Hello and welcome everyone. I think it’s a tribute to our speaker that so many people have come early in the morning and I believe there’s a queue outside. I’m not going to spend a lot of time on introductions; I think we all know why we are here.
Steve Ballmer followed the advice I tend to give a lot of our students, which is to take Maths and Economics, only he was, unfortunately, not here but at Harvard. He, since then, has spent most of his working career at Microsoft, ending actually as the CEO, which is his position now. Some of you will have seen him on YouTube or on other videos. He’s a very energetic presenter and I think with no more ado I should welcome him to LSE, announce the title of the lecture, Seizing the Opportunity of the Cloud: the Next Wave of Business Growth, and hand over to him.
Steve Ballmer: Well, thanks. It’s fun for me to have a chance to be here. I was actually telling folks on the way here the whole story; when I graduated from college, which is now a long time ago, I came to London on vacation and I wanted to see the London School of Economics and there wasn’t one beautiful building like this one at the time and I think I wandered around for the better part of 45 minutes not quite sure which building was which, so to speak. So it was just really fun for me to have a chance to come in and say ‘Wow! This looks pretty darn nice. You’re living right here in the LSE’. I’m jealous. A girl down here in the front row has a nice LSE T shirt; I am going to see if I can get somebody who works for me to pick one up. I think I’ll look better jogging the streets of London in an LSE T shirt than whatever Nike stuff I had on this morning.
I will spend a little bit of time and talk about kind of the big opportunity that I see in the technology industry today. I will talk a little bit about some of the things Microsoft is trying to do to seize on that but in a sense I want to talk to you about the general shift in phenomenon and opportunity that I think that presents. I know we have a little bit of a mix of folks in the audience. By visual description, it looks like we have some students and probably some non-students. By visual description, we may have some engineering students as well as people who are more traditionally management and business students and I want to try and give a sense of where the sweet spot is in our industry.
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| By SuperUser Account on 10/5/2010 8:47 AM
Microsoft chief says his rival's open source OS may carry hidden patent liabilities. By Paul McDougall
InformationWeek
October 5, 2010 09:34 AM Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said rival Google's Android mobile platform, an open source operating system that doesn't come with licensing fees, isn't as free as the search giant would have users believe. "Android has a patent fee," said Ballmer, in an interview published Monday in The Wall Street Journal. "It's not like Android is free. You do have to license patents. HTC has signed a license with us and you're going to see license fees clearly from Android as well as for Windows," said Ballmer. Ballmer may have been making a veiled reference to the fact that his company claims to control patents that govern technology behind many open source software products—and that it's not afraid to use the courts to determine the legitimacy of those patents. | By SuperUser Account on 10/5/2010 8:41 AM
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REDMOND, Wash. — Oct. 5, 2010 — Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq “MSFT”) today announced that Microsoft Dynamics SL 2011, its enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution designed for midsize project-driven organizations, will be generally available in the second quarter of 2011 in English in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean and Puerto Rico. Availability of a Spanish version for Latin America will be announced later.
The new solution, which is particularly well-suited for the construction, professional services, government contracting, architecture and engineering fields, features a broad range of new enhancements and innovation to support increased productivity, business value and insight across an organization, helping it become a more dynamic business.
Enhance Productivity
Microsoft Dynamics SL 2011 delivers a RoleTailored user experience for customers. This significant update features the familiar Microsoft Office look and feel and role-specific dashboards that give people a comprehensive view across their organizations. This helps reduce the time required for people to learn how to use it and allows them to focus on the information that matters most to them. Other new productivity-enhancing features include Quick Query, which provides more than 50 predesigned search options to find information faster, and the ability to Quick Send documents, such as invoices and purchase orders from within Microsoft Dynamics SL to customers and vendors.
“Microsoft Dynamics SL 2011 will drive significant value for midsize, project-driven businesses with its ease of use and ability to extend connections across the entire business ecosystem,” said Crispin Read, general manager, Microsoft Dynamics ERP Product Management Group. “The new level of innovation we’re providing with the release of Microsoft Dynamics SL 2011 will help customers make more informed decisions with speed.”
Increase Business Value and Insight
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| By SuperUser Account on 10/4/2010 11:30 AM
Live Webinar: Introducing the Nasuni Filer 2.0
Nasuni CEO Andres Rodriguez and Microsoft Architect Evangelist Gunther Lenz present Nasuni Filer 2.0. Now supporting Hyper-V, Windows Azure and VFS, the Nasuni Filer turns cloud storage into a file server with unlimited storage, snapshot technology and end-to-end encryption.
Join Nasuni and Microsoft for this free event and learn how to take advantage of the cost-savings and scalability of cloud storage.Event Sponsors:
| By SuperUser Account on 10/1/2010 2:05 PM
Statement from Horacio Gutierrez, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel of Intellectual Property and Licensing.
REDMOND, Wash. – Oct. 1, 2010 – Microsoft Corp. today filed a patent infringement action against Motorola, Inc. and issued the following statement from Horacio Gutierrez, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel... | By SuperUser Account on 10/1/2010 12:13 PM
Presidents appointed for Microsoft Office Division, Mobile Communications Business and Interactive Entertainment Business.
REDMOND, Wash. — Oct. 1, 2010 — Microsoft Corp. today promoted Kurt DelBene to president of the Microsoft Office Division, Andy Lees to president of the Mobile Communications Business, and Don Mattrick to president of the... | By SuperUser Account on 10/1/2010 9:05 AM
News Release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Press Contact:
Pam Metzger Tel: 630-566-8451 Fax: 630-375-8810 Aurora, IL September 30, 2010: Sikich LLP, a nationally recognized public accounting and Chicago IL technology services firm, is hosting a “Movie and a Seminar” event on October 15th at the Hollywood Blvd Theaters in Woodridge, IL This is a unique opportunity for business professionals to see what’s new in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. The new release will build on and extend current capabilities including: · Improved Microsoft Office interface · Advanced user personalization · Roll-based forms and views · Dashboards · Cloud Development and much more After the presentations, guests are invited to stay for lunch and a private screening of "Red" on opening day. As both IT Departments and Business Managers face different and unique challenges, this event will be split into dedicated tracks. The IT track will feature security experts from SonicWALL discussing Application Intelligence. AI enables SonicWALL network security appliances to not only block traditional network-layer threats, but also extend protection, management, and control over application-layer traffic, providing a unified and comprehensive network security solution that is also easy to deploy and manage. | By SuperUser Account on 9/27/2010 8:33 AM
Software Will Provide Improved Management and Control of Municipality's 300-Site SharePoint Environment Sep. 27, 2010 08:00 AM  
WOBURN, MA -- (Marketwire) -- 09/27/10 -- Axceler, the leader in administration software for Microsoft SharePoint, today announced that the City of Las Vegas, Nevada, has selected ControlPoint 4.0 to better manage and control its Microsoft SharePoint environment. With 300 SharePoint sites, the City of Las Vegas was looking for more robust administration capabilities than SharePoint provides natively, particularly in the areas of user permission management, SharePoint site analysis and optimization, and reporting. After evaluating three SharePoint administration tools, the city selected ControlPoint 4.0 from Axceler. Fifteen city departments have already implemented ControlPoint, with another five slated for deployment soon. "We were seeking an administration tool that was easy enough for both our user community and IT staff to use, so everyone could take advantage of the reporting," said Patricia Dues, PMP, Enterprise Program Manager for the City of Las Vegas. "Along with this functionality, we needed both enhanced security administration as well as file and site management to accommodate the expansion of SharePoint into other city departments and to our external consultants." | By SuperUser Account on 9/27/2010 8:29 AM
Innovative light management solutions provider streamlines manufacturing operations, increases productivity and reduces waste with webOps TMMTM powered by Microsoft Dynamics AX. Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) September 27, 2010 Olive-3 Technologies, provider of the revolutionary webOps TOTAL™ Supply Chain and Manufacturing Operations Management solutions, today announced that Luminit LLC, a leading manufacturer of Light Shaping Diffusers (LSD®), has completed the deployment of webOps TMM™ - Plant Floor Edition to better control its manufacturing operations management (MOM) activities. “We needed to put in place the best-in-class technology and process infrastructure for production, maintenance and quality management to scale our operations.” said Dr. Engin Arik, President and CEO of Luminit. “The Olive-3 team played an instrumental role to make that happen in a very short time. In less than three months from the project kick-off, we have already started seeing the benefits in terms of improved visibility, increased employee productivity and reduction of paper use.” Based in Torrance, CA, Luminit develops and manufactures light management technology solutions for the lighting, display, biomedical, and machine vision industries. In its make-to-order/engineer-to-order manufacturing environment, Luminit offers a vast variety of thin-film and rigid products with outstanding transmission performance in a wide wavelength range. This kind of manufacturing flexibility and capability requires a very sophisticated MOM system to effectively manage production, maintenance, quality and materials processes. | By SuperUser Account on 9/27/2010 8:26 AM
Posted on: Monday, 27 September 2010, 06:15 CDT
Microsoft’s Bing search engine is seen as the main threat to Google, not Apple nor Facebook, said the company’s chief executive officer Eric Schmidt on Friday.
Schmidt said in an interview posted online that while “Web search is not the only game in town, searching information is what it is all about.”
He said that both Apple and Facebook are well-respected competitors, but Microsoft’s fast growing search engine was the main competition for Google. “Bing is a well-run, highly competitive search engine,” he said.
“We consider neither to be a competitive threat,” Schmidt said, referring to Apple and Facebook.
Bing overtook Yahoo for the first time to become the number two search engine in the US in August, according to tracking firm The Nielsen Co.
While Bing rose to a 13.9 percent share of US search volume in August, Yahoo dropped from 14.6 percent in July to 13.1 percent in August, said Nielsen.
Although Google continues... | By SuperUser Account on 9/27/2010 8:22 AM
For Release 7:05am EDT
September 13, 2010
Carlsbad, CA, USA — September 13, 2010 EPM Live (http://www.workengine.com), a global leader in SharePoint-based Project and Work Management Applications, announced today that its flagship product EPM WorkEngine was selected by NASA as their Enterprise Project and Portfolio Management solution to improve visibility and reduce costs.
As a part of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is responsible for numerous missions including explorations of Mars and Jupiter. The laboratory employs over 5,000 people and is running a large number of projects at any given time.
The organization was using Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007 within the laboratory to give project management teams access... | By SuperUser Account on 9/27/2010 8:11 AM
For Release: September 7, 2010
Carlsbad, CA, USA — September 7, 2010 LMR Solutions (Also known as EPM Live), a leading full-service Project and Work Management firm that provides online solutions, consulting services and Enterprise Project and Work Management applications, announced today that it has been named one of Red Herring's top 100 private companies in North America for 2010. EPM Live is LMR's software division, and a global leader in SharePoint-based Project and Work Management Applications.
The Red Herring 100 North America Award, whose past winners include Google, Yahoo!, Facebook, YouTube, eBay and Twitter, is given to companies who show extraordinary promise for their innovation, growth and technology across their respective industries. LMR Solutions award winning product, WorkEngine, continues to deliver a truly revolutionary platform that will change the way organizations manage projects and work today. WorkEngine has evolved the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server stack to a more comprehensive and integrated Enterprise Project and Work Management system. Building on familiar Microsoft tools, the WorkEngine solution includes web parts, Microsoft Project Add-ins, SharePoint Features, and Industry Best Practices & Process templates designed to work together to help address all business productivity needs. WorkEngine's applications include, but are not limited to, EPM WorkEngine, Agile WorkEngine and Service WorkEngine. ... | By SuperUser Account on 9/27/2010 8:06 AM
For Release:August 31, 2010 Fastest-Growing Private Companies for the last three years in a row
Carlsbad, CA, USA — August 31, 2010 LMR Solutions (Also known as EPM Live), a leading full-service Project and Work Management firm that provides online solutions, consulting services and Enterprise Project and Work Management applications, announced today that Inc. magazine ranked LMR Solutions on its fourth annual Inc. 5000, an exclusive ranking of the nation's fastest-growing private companies. The list is the most comprehensive look at the most important segment of the economy – America’s independent-minded entrepreneurs. LMR Solutions ranked #309 in the IT Services Industry; this is LMR Solutions third year to make the list. Business Products & Services had the most companies on this year’s list with 640, followed by IT Services (607), Advertising & Marketing (410), Health (396), and Government Services (336). EPM Live is LMR Solution’s software division, and a global leader in SharePoint-based Project and WorkManagement Applications. Despite the fact that most of this year’s measuring period of 2006-2009 took place during the latest recession, aggregate revenue among the companies on the list actually increased to $321.6 billion, up more than 50 percent from last year. The effects of the recession are seen, however, in the median three-year growth rate, which dropped to 96 percent from last year’s 126 percent. This year’s Inc. 5000 employ a record 1.4 million people, up from one million on last year’s list. With unemployment remaining stubbornly high, policymakers and business leaders will do well to look to the Inc. 5000 companies for fresh ideas on achieving growth and creating jobs. “The leaders of the companies on this year’s Inc. 5000 have figured out how to grow their businesses during the longest recession since the Great Depression,” said Inc. president Bob LaPointe. “The 2010 Inc. 5000 showcases a particularly hardy group of entrepreneurs.” LMR Solution's award winning product, WorkEngine, has contributed significantly to its growth in 2010 and continues to offer cost effective project and work management solutions for organizations of all sizes. WorkEngine delivers a truly revolutionary platform that has changed the way organizations manage projects and work today. WorkEngine has evolved the Microsoft SharePoint Server stack to a more comprehensive and integrated Enterprise Project and Work Management system. Building on familiar Microsoft tools, the WorkEngine solution includes web parts, Microsoft Project Add-ins, SharePoint Features, and Industry Best Practices & Process templates designed to work together to help address all business productivity needs. WorkEngine's applications include, but are not limited to, EPM WorkEngine, Agile WorkEngine and Service WorkEngine. To get more information on LMR Solution's award winning product line: | By SuperUser Account on 9/24/2010 7:31 AM
HiSoftware to provide accessibility and privacy compliance management solution for IRS's SharePoint intranet site Nashua, NH (PRWEB) -- HiSoftware Inc. (www.hisoftware.com), a leading provider of Web content and social computing compliance solutions, today announced the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Enterprise Services, Infrastructure Architecture and Engineering team has awarded a contract to integrate HiSoftware Compliance Sherriff® for SharePoint® as part of its agency-wide Microsoft SharePoint 2010 implementation. IRS will be using SharePoint 2010 as the backbone for its employee portal and to support a variety of applications across the agency. In addition to Section 508 accessibility requirements, the IRS Privacy Office and Chief Information Security Office also identified the need to manage content compliance for Personally Identifiable Information (PII), Financial Information and Sensitive Secure Information (SSI) within the SharePoint environment. HiSoftware Compliance Sheriff for SharePoint was chosen as the solution to manage compliance for these governance objectives. HiSoftware will work with the IRS to install, implement, configure, customize and validate HiSoftware Compliance Sheriff across the IRS SharePoint Infrastructure. This will include identification and correction of 508 compliance deficiencies associated with the SharePoint implementation and configuration of the software to address both accessibility and privacy (PII and SSI) scenarios. | By SuperUser Account on 9/23/2010 10:51 AM
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| High-profile couple Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher today announced they have enlisted Microsoft and other large technology companies to join a task force to find innovative new ways to combat child exploitation on the Internet. |
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REDMOND, Wash. — Sept. 23, 2010 — The Demi and Ashton (DNA) Foundation today announced they have enlisted Microsoft to help combat child sex trafficking online, the actors announced Thursday at the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting in New York City.
High-profile celebrity couple Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher at a press conference asked technology companies, including Microsoft, to form a task force to find creative solutions for addressing online child exploitation.
Samantha Doerr, a communications manager in Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit, said the company is looking forward to working with the task force. “Given our history in combating child exploitation with PhotoDNA, Child Exploitation Tracking System (CETS), National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and more, we view this partnership as another valuable opportunity to help raise awareness of this issue,” she said.
Late last year, Microsoft donated its PhotoDNA technology to NCMEC to help find and remove some of the worst known images of child sexual exploitation from the Internet. The technology was created by Microsoft Research, and helps calculate the distinct characteristics of a digital image to match it to other copies of that same image.
Microsoft, Canadian police, and international law enforcement officers also developed the Child Exploitation Tracking System (CETS), a unique software tool that helps law enforcement officials collaborate and share information with other police services. CETS was created to increase the effectiveness of investigators and teams by providing them with software to store, search, share and analyze large volumes of evidence and match cases across police agencies.
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| By SuperUser Account on 9/22/2010 10:56 AM
 I am a Huge Microsoft Fan. One of the biggest I know in fact. I have used, benefited from, and evangelized Microsoft products for 20 years starting with the first release of Windows & Word which I pushed to my DOS/WordPerfect clients who had Never seen a mouse before. But with that said, I have always been less than impressed with their ability to make a product easy to use, and this opinion has become strengthened with the recent introduction of the Mac Book Pro into my life last year. I still believe that Microsoft solutions represent the best choice for many buyers when all things are considered, but man to I wish they were easier to use. My experience this morning getting the IE9 Beta is a great example. Keep in mind that although not too technical, I am much more technical and current with my Operating Systems and Apps than the average consumer. So I have to think that if an upgrade is hard for me, it is virtually impossible for most. I also understand that my many hundreds of Microsoft friends out there are going to blast me with comments to this post telling me things I should have done to prevent the following issues, but again my point is that if I didn't do those things, most people would not have, so maybe they shouldn't be required?? So, I am eager to try IE9 Beta. Primarily because my current version of IE8 is just too slow for my psychotic work style. I require such real time response when I work that to keep me from getting frustrated, I have to have two computers going at a time, both with multiple browsers and Tabs open so that I can keep active and not have to wait while things process. If I get delayed, even by seconds, I go crazy. I use Chrome, Flock, and IE8 now. Chrome is my primary since it is the fastest, but many of the sites I use require IE. So, I go to www.microsoft.com and download IE9 Beta. It tells me that my system isn't current, and cant install, but it didn't tell me what was out of date. So I check my System Update checker thingy and see that I have some Windows updates that need to be run. Not sure why since I always do these when prompted, and in fact thought I had it turned on to run automatically, but none the less, I run them. One of them is a major patch that will take an hour or more it says, so I run it. | By SuperUser Account on 9/21/2010 8:26 AM
Microsoft has announced a new feature on their Bing Social search service – recommendations of people you should follow on Twitter when you perform a query. This is a similar feature to what Twitter offers, and now Microsoft has joined the group and makes recommendations based on the keywords of the research.
This new feature is extremely advanced in some topics, like celebrities or bands, and it even tells you if the account is authentic, by displaying a blue and white checkmark next to the name.
Bing says that this is a way of “more relevant, real time and connected results,” said Mike Ching and Shubha Nabar, from Bing Social. “Our work with Twitter and Facebook over the last year or so has helped us create what is in effect a “social layer” for search that brings social information into the search experience in real time.” | By SuperUser Account on 9/21/2010 8:24 AM
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| Organizer Adora Svitak says she hopes to empower and inspire attendees with a conference organized by kids, for kids. |
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REDMOND, Wash. — Sept. 16, 2010 — On Saturday, Sept. 18, some of the nation’s most accomplished and awe-inspiring kids will be descending on the Microsoft campus. The roster includes a 14-year-old mountaineer who has climbed some of the tallest summits in the world including Mt. Everest, Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Kosciuszko; three girls who started a nonprofit after a friend died of a rare form of cancer and have to date raised $250,000; and a 12-year-old environmental activist who has worked closely with Al Gore to raise awareness about global warming.
Presenters at TEDxRedmond Conference
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Mountaineer Jordan Romero
Fourteen-year-old Jordan Romero, who last spring became the youngest person to climb Mt. Everest, is working on a quest to climb the seven highest mountains in the world.
Web-Ready
The reason for this gathering of all-stars is a conference called TEDxRedmond. The one-day event will feature over a dozen young presenters. Some will perform music and theater, others will speak on topics including environmental policy, educational reform and inspiring creativity. Over 500 kids, mostly from the Washington state area, are signed up to attend the conference.
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| By SuperUser Account on 9/20/2010 10:42 AM
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| With the help of Microsoft’s BizSpark One program, Liaise moves its award-winning collaboration software from beta testing to general availability. |
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REDMOND, Wash. — Sept. 20, 2010 — Two of the biggest problems facing today’s information workers are e-mail overload and the challenge of keeping track of deliverables, their due dates and their owners. But now there’s a new collaboration software product called Liaise, from a company of the same name, that helps teams and individuals who send and receive hundreds of e-mails a day stay in control of the action items mentioned in their messages.
Designed to work seamlessly with Microsoft Outlook, Liaise uses a natural language processing engine to capture, organize and prioritize action items in both incoming and outgoing messages. Liaise doesn't require users to change anything about the way they write e-mails. Automatically it annotates messages with five parameters: the name of the initiative, issues or actions, people responsible, due dates and level of urgency. Liaise then organizes this information into a management dashboard where users can quickly sort items, update their status, synchronize tasks and activities with other Liaise users, create management reports, and update their Outlook calendar. If an action becomes overdue, Liaise generates a notification to that effect. For team interactions that don’t occur through e-mail, users can apply the same intelligent recognition software to meeting minutes and notes from conversations, extracting action items, assignees, due dates, etc.
Liaise might not have reached the market without the help of a two-year-old Microsoft program called BizSpark, which helps software startups around the world succeed by giving them free access to software development tools and platforms, business and technical advice, and a connection to more than 2,500 BizSpark Network Partners, including investors, consultants, university incubators, government agencies and financial institutions. Some 35,000 companies are now enrolled in BizSpark.
“BizSpark provides entrepreneurs with access to software, technical support, business coaching, and markets and channels at a time when they need it most and can least afford it,” says Lynda Ting, BizSpark program manager at Microsoft.
In November 2009, Microsoft launched BizSpark One, an invitation-only intensive program for select BizSpark enrollees that the program’s leaders feel have the greatest potential for success and the closest alignment with Microsoft’s platforms or markets. Only about 100 businesses are invited to join the BizSpark One program.
Startups accepted into the BizSpark One program are paired with a dedicated relationship manager at Microsoft who is often both advisor and advocate to the business to help it identify its unique opportunities and expand its network of partners, investors and mentors. A key goal of the BizSpark One program is to create a community dedicated to nurturing some of the most promising startups in the Microsoft ecosystem.
“Being involved in the BizSpark One program has been tremendously helpful,” says Sidney Minassian, co-founder of Liaise. “It gave us a chance to consult with people at Microsoft who had excellent insights into our target demographic and were able to help us make strategic decisions about where to focus our limited resources. And it gave us exposure to distributors and other potential partners that a small startup like Liaise could not have easily reached without Microsoft’s endorsement.”
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| By SuperUser Account on 9/16/2010 7:55 AM
 Sep 16, 2010 08:00 ET Latest On-Demand ERP Offering Being Used to Teach Students Computerized Accounting SAN DIEGO, CA--(Marketwire - September 16, 2010) - RoseASP, one of Southern California's largest providers of hosted Microsoft Dynamics solutions, today announced commercial availability of myGPcloud™, a Microsoft Dynamics enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution which is now available to colleges and universities as part of their academic program. The myGPcloud service allows professors to set up a new Microsoft Dynamics GP system in less than 10 minutes, allowing their students to have access to sample company data, a live instructor's company, and individual student companies for a rich educational experience. Two offerings have been designed specifically for colleges and universities including a professor only install and a professor and student install. The professor and student option allows students to access their accounting system on any workstation with internet connectivity at any time of day. "MyGPcloud will be very valuable for our Dynamics Academic Alliance," said Don Morton, Microsoft Academic Alliance Site Leader. "The biggest hurdle for some universities wanting to utilize Dynamics GP is the time and effort to install and configure the system. MyGPcloud overcomes all of those issues and lets professors focus on their curriculum instead of Dynamics technical support." "We feel this is a 'must have' in teaching accounting today," said Linda Rose, president of RoseASP. "To understand how a computerized integrated ERP system works is key for their success as accountants, controllers, and auditors of the future. And students can literally be in the dorm room at 3 a.m. working on their accounting system homework, because they will be able to access it from their own personal computers." | By SuperUser Account on 9/15/2010 8:58 AM
So, have I mentioned how hooked I am on the Cloud? Ok, I guess I have. But since were on the topic, another thing I love about Cloud Offerings is the ease of Trials. Since there is no software/server installation and minimal setup, providing low cost (or free) trials is possible for software vendors. Also, since they control the hosting, they can easily control access to the software post-test without the worries of licensing compliance you may have with on-premise software tests. A current and exciting example of this is Microsoft’s new Free Trial of their Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online product. You can be setup in minutes, and take a free 30 day test ride of this new offering. | By SuperUser Account on 9/14/2010 12:38 PM
My last company was a Gold Certified SI called e.magination ( www.emagination.com). We were primarily a .NET development firm, and the firm grew to about 100 employees before we sold it. Towards the end of that period, at least 50% of all of our revenue was attributed to our Microsoft Relationship in one way or another, and one thing we did, i believe better than most, was follow Microsoft closely.
So, what does that mean exactly? Well, what we did was keep our ears to the ground, and listened to as many channels of communication that we could from Microsoft. We’d weed thru the clutter and try to find a constant theme anywhere we could. Whenever we notice a topic become constant, repetitive, and persuasive across different Microsoft teams, we took note, even if the topic was outside of our competency or interest. ... | By SuperUser Account on 9/14/2010 8:14 AM
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| More than 30 partners announce beta versions for Microsoft Lync-compatible hardware, software and service products. |
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REDMOND, Wash. — Sept. 13, 2010 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the release candidate of Microsoft Lync, the next generation of Microsoft’s unified communications software that enables people to connect in new ways, anytime, anywhere. Lync is the new family brand for the products formerly known as Communications Server, Communications Online and Communicator, and it also now includes Lync Web App, and Lync Online. The release candidates of Lync 2010 and Lync Server 2010 are now available for businesses of all sizes to try for free. They can be downloaded athttp://technet.microsoft.com/evalcenter/ff808407.aspx. This broad release candidate is the last step toward release to manufacturing and general availability scheduled for later this year.
“Over the past five years we have been on a journey to transform communications with the power of software,” said Gurdeep Singh Pall, corporate vice president of Unified Communications at Microsoft. “Lync delivers on this vision by unifying enterprise voice, instant messaging and web-, audio- and videoconferencing into a new, connected communications experience.”
Microsoft Lync can make every engagement a virtual face-to-face meeting, because any interaction can include video and audio conferencing, application and desktop sharing, instant messaging, and telephony. Lync has been designed from the ground up to work with Microsoft Office, SharePoint and Exchange, which helps reduce end-user adoption hurdles and increase return on investment. People can also stay connected to others on a wide range of devices while away from the office and manage their communications and calls in new ways, such as easily moving a call from a PC to a mobile device while leaving the office without disrupting the conversation.
More than 120 enterprise customers and partners are enrolled in the Microsoft Technology Adoption Program (TAP) for Lync, testing early releases and providing feedback, and over 400 unified communications partners are involved in readiness activities, preparing for general availability of the software later this year.
In addition, today more than 30 partners announced beta versions of their Lync-compatible hardware, software and service products. Hardware products include a variety of Internet protocol phones and USB endpoints optimized for Lync. Software solutions include contact centers, call recording, accounting and new applications that incorporate communications right within business processes. Routing services work with Lync to allow companies to meet United States E-911 requirements for all U.S.-based workers, regardless of location.
Product Availability
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| By SuperUser Account on 9/12/2010 1:52 PM
 Valeri Nistratov for The New York Times Baikal Environmental Wave protested in June against a paper factory on the shores of Lake Baikal, months after security forces seized its computers. More Photos » IRKUTSK, Russia — It was late one afternoon in January when a squad of plainclothes police officers arrived at the headquarters of a prominent environmental group here. They brushed past the staff with barely a word and instead set upon the computers before carting them away. Taken were files that chronicled a generation’s worth of efforts to protect the Siberian wilderness. The group, Baikal Environmental Wave, was organizing protests against Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin’s decision to reopen a paper factory that had polluted nearby Lake Baikal, a natural wonder that by some estimates holds 20 percent of the world’s fresh water. Instead, the group fell victim to one of the authorities’ newest tactics for quelling dissent: confiscating computers under the pretext of searching for pirated Microsoft software. | By SuperUser Account on 9/8/2010 1:11 PM
 Someday soon you won't see Microsoft's Windows XP as an option on new computers. A little less soon, and Windows XP won't even be available as a special order item. In three and a half years, all support for XP will stop. By then, everyone using Windows will presumably have moved up to Windows 7 or whatever else is next.
| By SuperUser Account on 9/8/2010 1:06 PM
With a judicial assist, Microsoft has perfected a new superweapon to shoot down botnets, the engines cybergangs use to deliver malicious Internet attacks. | By SuperUser Account on 9/8/2010 1:02 PM
Microsoft is tired of seeing Salesforce.com get all the headlines by dishing out a combination of pithy quotes and branded chocolates to the technology press.
Although Redmond has no plans to one-up Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff in the candy distribution business, it is starting to speak out more strongly. | By SuperUser Account on 9/8/2010 12:57 PM
Last month we released a beta of the Microsoft Web Farm Framework. The Microsoft Web Farm Framework is a free product we are shipping that enables you to easily provision and mange a farm of web servers. It enables you to automate the installation and configuration of platform components across the server farm, and enables you to automatically synchronize and deploy ASP.NET applications across them. It also supports integration with load balancers - and enables you to automate updates across your servers so that your site/application is never down or unavailable to customers (it can automatically pull servers one-at-a-time out of the load balancer rotation, update them, and then inject them back into rotation). | By SuperUser Account on 9/1/2010 9:15 AM
This week, Yahoo! advertisers can begin transitioning their paid search campaigns to Microsoft adCenter. During the transition, which is on-track for completion by the end of October, advertisers will continue to manage separate accounts on adCenter (serving ads on Bing) and Yahoo! Search Marketing (serving ads on Yahoo! Search). Once the transition is completed, advertisers will operate one single account on Microsoft adCenter that will power search advertising campaigns across Bing and Yahoo!’s combined audience representing 31.6 percent of U.S. search market share. | By SuperUser Account on 9/1/2010 9:01 AM
On the eve of gamescom 2010, the world’s largest consumer-oriented games showcase, Microsoft Corp. unveiled the newest addition to the famed “Age of Empires” franchise, “Age of Empires Online.” Microsoft also announced the development of “Microsoft Flight,” a new entry inspired by the best-selling “Microsoft Flight Simulator” franchise. Published by Microsoft Game Studios, these new titles, along with the previously announced “Fable III,” fully integrate the free* Games for Windows – LIVE online service to deliver compelling socially connected gameplay experiences. | By SuperUser Account on 8/30/2010 9:20 AM
In June, we announced that as part of Windows Live Essentials beta, we brought together two programs, Windows Live Sync and the Live Mesh beta, into one: Windows Live Sync beta. We focused on four things with our beta release: - Making it easy to access the PCs you use from anywhere
- Getting your files and folders on the PCs you use regularly
- Giving you enough space to sync your most important files and folders to the cloud
- Providing simple document collaboration over the web using SkyDrive
| By SuperUser Account on 8/30/2010 8:55 AM
 MICROSOFT CO-FOUNDER Paul Allen has decided to wage a legal battle against just about everyone by claiming patent infringement against a number of the Internet's biggest names.
| By SuperUser Account on 8/26/2010 1:48 PM
It's no secret that Google has been making a play for SMB market share, a territory long under Microsoft's control. It's a logical goal to pursue as business computing continues to evolve from the local machine to cloud computing—Google's wheelhouse. But can Google succeed at taking customers from business software incumbent Microsoft, even while fending off newer cloud-based competitors? | By SuperUser Account on 8/25/2010 9:00 AM
After we ran our feature on the 15th anniversary of the launch of Windows 95 this morning, we exchanged a few emails with Brad Silverberg, the senior Microsoft engineer who ran the team who built the product. | By SuperUser Account on 8/25/2010 8:29 AM
Microsoft suffered a two-hour long outage of some of its hosted software services in North America yesterday. | By SuperUser Account on 8/24/2010 10:20 AM
Microsoft honors Crowe for achieving outstanding level of sales achievement and innovationOAK BROOK, Ill., Aug. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Crowe Horwath LLP, one of the largest public accounting and consulting firms in the U.S., has been named to the 2010 Inner Circle for Microsoft Dynamics. Sales achievements of this elite group rank its members in the highest echelon of the Microsoft Dynamics global network of value-added reselling partners. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20090902/CL69632LOGO ) (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090902/CL69632LOGO ) Members of the Microsoft Dynamics Inner Circle have performed to a high standard of excellence by delivering valuable solutions that help organizations achieve increased success. "We're excited to recognize Crowe as a leader in the Microsoft Dynamics global community for promoting and delivering solutions that drive customer success," said Doug Kennedy, vice president of Microsoft Dynamics Partners. "By providing the highest level of sales and innovation, customers can have absolute assurance they are dealing with the 'best of the best' when working with Crowe." | By SuperUser Account on 8/24/2010 8:17 AM
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| Windows Business Group employees designed, built and launched a human-powered aircraft in Red Bull’s Flugtag competition. The Windows Phoenix flew (briefly) in front of more than 100,000 people in Long Beach, Calif., on Saturday. |
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LONG BEACH, Calif. – Aug. 24, 2010 – For a split second, Ali Driesman soared through the air on Windows-colored wings.
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| The Windows Phoenix begins its approximately 20-foot flight during Red Bull’s Flugtag competition in Long Beach, Calif., on Aug. 21, 2010. |
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Then with a sudden dive she splash landed in Long Beach, Calif.’s Rainbow Harbor right on top of her craft, a homemade flying machine with a 28-foot wingspan and a Microsoft Windows color scheme. Surfacing next to her – and to the applause of 105,000 people gathered for Red Bull’s Flugtag competition – was a bruised Ben Rudolph, who had helped push her and the glider off a three-story high flight deck at the pier’s edge and slammed his mouth into a wing.
Despite the pain, he was all (bloody) smiles.
“That was an epic crash,” said Rudolph, senior public relations manager for Windows, after the flight. “The Phoenix looked really impressive coming up the launch and on our run-up, though. It really got the crowd going.”
Saturday marked the first – and last – flight of the Windows Phoenix, the brainchild of a group of Windows Business Group employees who entered Red Bull’s Flugtag competition. Flugtag (pronounced floog-tawg), which means “flying day” in German, challenges people to design and build their own flying machines and then pilot them off a 30-foot high flight deck to soar into the air – or, more often than not, to plunge into water. Since 1991, the energy-drink company has hosted dozens of events around the world, and spectators have been entertained by flying contraptions in the shape of everything from tacos to pterodactyls.
In Long Beach, the Windows Project Phoenix team competed against 35 other teams, including 7-11 employees who built a flying Big Gulp and a team from California that launched a giant Barack Obama head. The winners, team Peepin’ It Real, flew their Peep-inspired craft 98 feet, compared to the Phoenix’s 20 or so.
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| By SuperUser Account on 8/23/2010 11:54 AM
By Kevin McLaughlin, Steven Burke, CRN Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) Monday took the wraps off Cloud Champions Club, a new cloud-computing-oriented channel program that's designed to help partners follow Microsoft as it stampedes into cloud computing. With the new three-tier program, unveiled at Xchange Americas 2010 in Dallas, Microsoft is essentially chipping away at the psychological barrier of up-front costs that has kept many VARs on the sidelines of the cloud revolution. "We want to make it easier for VARs to sustain the up-front cost associated with the move to the cloud," said Eric Martorano, Microsoft's head of U.S. SMB Channel & Online Services, in an interview with CRN. "We're trying to give partners that have really made a commitment to cloud with resources, funding and training to make them successful." The first Cloud Champions Club tier sets the bar at three customerwins and 75 seats. Once partners meet this requirement, they'll receive online training, market development funds (MDFs) and access to a Microsoft cloud services sales team whose charter is to help partners transition to the cloud. Partners reach the second Cloud Champions Club tier with eight customer wins and 200 seats. This gives them an additional 25 percent in MDFs as well as access to TS2, a Microsoft field technical services team that offers assistance to help VARs move their customers to the cloud. | By SuperUser Account on 8/23/2010 8:06 AM
Software vendor Microsoft Corp., US, is to co-chair a new World Wide Web Consortium working group with Internet search services provider Google, Inc., US. The W3C Web Performance Working Group has been mandated to find methods for measuring application performance on the web.
The first deliverable for the working group is to recommend an API that measures the performance of browser navigations. The WebTimings specification is seen to provide a good starting point for these capabilities, so this specification will move into the Web Performance Working Group and become the foundation for recommendations.
Jason Weber, Microsoft's lead programme manager for IE Performance, has said in a blog post that the third Platform Preview of Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 browser was the first browser to implement these portions of the WebTimings specification. | By SuperUser Account on 8/20/2010 12:10 PM
As of last night, our community site (www.PartnerPoint.com) is fully connected to Facebook. Now with a click of a button, you or your clients, friends, employees or coworkers can Recommend your company to their friends on FaceBook. And, every new visitor will see how many others have Recommended your Company. So, be sure to let everyone know so you get the Facebook Love your company deserves.... To check it out, just visit your Company Profile. You'll see a new Facebook Recommend button under your logo. Just click it! (If your not a member and dont have a Profile, just click Register in the upper right hand corner to join. Membership is Free). Here is what it looks like: 
| By SuperUser Account on 8/20/2010 10:39 AM
From ancient Mesopotamia to, more recently, Holland, Switzerland, Japan, Singapore and Korea, the success of many societies has been in part credited to their lack of natural resources. The theory being that it motivated them to rely on human capital, commerce and innovation rather than resource extraction. This approach eventually put them ahead of their better-endowed neighbors.
A similar dynamic may well propel Microsoft ahead in PaaS (Platform as a Service): IaaS with Windows is so painful that it may force Microsoft to focus on PaaS. The motivation is strong to “go up the stack” that the alternative is to cultivate the arid land of Windows-based IaaS. | By SuperUser Account on 8/20/2010 10:28 AM
Today marks the six year anniversary of Google's IPO. How do Google's first six years as a public company stack up against tech giants Apple and Microsoft? | By SuperUser Account on 8/19/2010 10:00 AM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Press Contact:
Aurora, IL August 19, 2010 Sikich has been ranked 14th in Accounting Technology's Top 100 Value Added Reseller (VAR) list with revenue totaling over $18 million in 2009, an increase of just over 10%. Accounting Technology's selection of the VAR Top 100 list is based on the amount of revenue generated by each published reseller during the previous year. More than one thousand companies are considered for inclusion for the annual listing, the top 100 are then selected for publication. The names of all 100 organizations will be published in the August 2010 issue of Accounting Technology and can be accessed at www.webcpa.com “The Accounting Today VAR 100 list is comprised of top accounting and ERP software resellers throughout the country, ranked by revenue,” says Seth Fineberg, Technology Editor of Accounting Today. “This select group represents those in the world of accounting software resellers that are truly ahead of the pack and we are pleased to honor them in this special report.” | By SuperUser Account on 8/18/2010 11:29 AM
(PRNewsChannel) / August 17, 2010 / MINNEAPOLIS / PowerObjects, a leader in Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solutions, announced today that it will be hosting PowerConnect, a one-day educational CRM event on October 6, 2010, at the Radisson Hotel and Conference Center in Plymouth, Minn. The event will feature business and technical sessions focused on the best practices of Microsoft Dynamics CRM and SharePoint, new Microsoft Dynamics CRM product feature updates and upcoming release highlights, and PowerObjects product advancements. This one-day event is free of charge and will be an opportunity for customers, staff members, and partners to experience exciting keynotes from PowerObjects and Microsoft, educational breakout sessions, innovative ISV solutions, and customer case studies and panels. "We’re very excited to be hosting our first PowerConnect event and it’s a way to bring together like-minded individuals to share ideas on how to leverage Microsoft Dynamics CRMto drive success,” said Jim Sheehan, COO of PowerObjects. "As a leading Microsoft Partner focused on Microsoft Dynamics CRM, we have a great deal of CRM expertise and knowledge, and through this event we can better share and help customers get more from their technology investments. Our clients and business partners play an integral role in making CRM successful, and this event allows them to share experiences and lessons learned that benefit all of us.” | By SuperUser Account on 8/18/2010 9:47 AM
 Microsoft is shuffling the top management of its MSN portal, six months after rolling out a major redesign of the site. The company has hired Ted Cahall, who left his post as CTO of AOL in January, as its new corporate vice president of MSN.
| By SuperUser Account on 8/17/2010 9:44 AM
By Daily Mail Reporter It's a staple of our working day, but the humble QWERTY keyboard could be a thing of the past.
Microsoft Hardware has released video and images of its customisable Adaptive Keyboard - which will allow users to change the keys around depending on what program they are using. 
The new keyboard has transparent keys and a liquid-crystal display underneath, which enables the key tops to change to suit your needs. | By SuperUser Account on 8/17/2010 9:40 AM
Craig Watjen, a musician and baseball fan who started Microsoft's accounting department back in 1981, died Friday of cancer. | By SuperUser Account on 8/17/2010 9:34 AM
 In the San Francisco Bay area during the 1970s, a revolution was brewing. The emergence of an area dubbed "Silicon Valley" brought about a surge in technological development that changed the world forever. Two young innovators at the forefront of that revolution, Bill Gates and Paul Allen, founded what eventually became Microsoft. Sensing a tremendous opportunity in the computer market, Gates dropped out of Harvard to pursue his dream -- no doubt a decision that changed the course of tech history.
Microsoft, of course, would come to dominate the personal computer market, making its founders billions of dollars in the process. Gates is counted as one of the wealthiest men in the world. So what does a billionaire do with the massive fortune he has accumulated? | By SuperUser Account on 8/16/2010 11:55 AM
Women interns from the junior class of Brown University’s computer science department, that worked this summer at Microsoft in Redmond, were very excited about the experience and said that they had found new confidence for the future. | By SuperUser Account on 8/16/2010 9:09 AM
Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer said tablet computers are high on his priority list as Apple Inc. takes the lead in a market his company has tried to foster for more than a decade. | By SuperUser Account on 8/13/2010 9:27 AM
By Mike Swift
mswift@mercurynews.com Posted: 08/12/2010 04:22:04 PM PDT Updated: 08/13/2010 03:53:18 AM PDT Just two years ago, Yahoo spent $79 million to rebuff a hostile takeover from Microsoft and preserve its independence. Now, a big part of Yahoo's future prosperity depends on how well it can join arms with Microsoft on a high-risk, high-reward technical project. Yahoo and Microsoft are racing to meet a fall deadline for launching their joint venture to collaborate on Internet search, an effort by the former rivals to try to narrow the gap with their much stronger, common foe: Google. The effort -- including the retraining of hundreds of Yahoo salespeople to sell ads for both companies, and a conga line of about 400 engineers who are relocating from Yahoo to Microsoft offices in Silicon Valley; Bangalore,
India; Burbank; and Redmond, Wash. -- needs to be complete by mid-October if the two companies hope to have the show up and running before the start of the holiday season, the critical make-or-break period for advertisers and publishers. At stake in the joint venture, Yahoo executives say, is the company's ability to become an innovative force in search again -- something Yahoo acknowledges it can no longer afford without its partnership with Microsoft's Bing search engine. The 10-year partnership has Bing providing the underlying results of Yahoo searches, with Yahoo retaining control of how those results are displayed. | By SuperUser Account on 8/13/2010 9:24 AM
By Pavel Alpeyev and Rob Golum - Aug 12, 2010 10:59 PM ET The demand for Xbox 360 bolstered overall sales of hardware 12 percent last month, helping offset the 8 percent decline in software revenue. Photographer: Jonathan Alcorn/Bloomberg Sales of the Xbox 360 more than doubled to 443,500 units. Photographer: JB Reed/Bloomberg Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 outsold Nintendo Co.’s Wii last month, becoming the top selling video- game console in the U.S. for the first time in almost three years, after introducing a model equipped with wireless-Internet. | By SuperUser Account on 8/11/2010 10:16 AM
Microsoft and Amazon have launched a pretty interesting video ad campaign to promote the new Office 2010 suite. | By SuperUser Account on 8/11/2010 10:13 AM
Zynga has removed its hit social game FarmVille from Microsoft’s MSN Games portal, according to a report by Inside Social Games. The blog reported that FarmVille suggests that the game, which has more than 60 million monthly users on Facebook, either didn’t do that well or was the subject of some kind of dispute. | By SuperUser Account on 8/11/2010 10:03 AM
 We've seen a few wacky split keyboards in our day, and even the occasional back-typing peripheral, but Microsoft Research has just congealed the core ideas into a why-didn't-I-think-of-that device for mobile use.
| By SuperUser Account on 8/11/2010 9:39 AM
Last week, Microsoft released tantalising pictures of its latest device which got bloggers talking about a tablet. The division of Microsoft behind the account, however, makes keyboards, webcams and mice so it's more likely that the flat matt black device in the photos is Microsoft's rival to Apple's recently announced trackpad. Also Microsoft has a patchy record when it comes to consumer trends. While the Xbox has taken a valuable place in the games console market, its Zune portable music player is still years behind Apple's iPod in terms of sales. Last month chief executive Steve Ballmer said developing Windows-based tablet computers is "job one urgency" for the software group | By SuperUser Account on 8/10/2010 10:20 AM | By SuperUser Account on 8/10/2010 10:11 AM
Google has long presented itself as looking out for the little guy. It easily could have used its wealth and power to gain preferential treatment from Internet providers but always said it would not because that could prevent the next start-up in a Silicon Valley garage from enjoying similar success.
But as Google has gotten bigger and entered new lines of business, it has revised some of its principles -- and it is drawing criticism from start-ups and public interest groups along the way. | By SuperUser Account on 8/10/2010 10:05 AM
When you think speech technology, odds are you think of HAL from 2001, or perhaps, more generously, R2-D2 and C3PO from the Star Wars movies. And of course, that level of speech recognition is still a long way off. But as I walked around the SpeechTek 2010 conference last week, I was again reminded that speech recognition may not be at that level, but it's certainly good enough for a lot of applications today, and it's being readied for even more uses in the near future. | By SuperUser Account on 8/9/2010 11:36 AM
by Ina Fried  Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, speaking to CNET reporter Ina Fried after his talk at the Techonomy conference last week. (Credit: Ina Fried/CNET)NEAR LAKE TAHOE, Calif.--Bill Gates says it's gratifying to see the computer industry that he helped start turn some of its attention to broader societal challenges. "I think there's increased awareness of using innovation to help in more than just profit making," Gates told CNET in an interview on Friday, following his speech at the Techonomy conference. "When I think back to the conferences I went to earlier in the industry, we were pretty darn focused on popularizing software and personal computing. Nothing wrong with that, but it's nice to see the evolution." At the conference, the first in what organizers hope will be an annual series, Gates spoke about the need for better software modeling and his disappointment in the U.S. political system. When he wasn't addressing the crowd, Gates had the chance to debate battery technology with Google co-founder Larry Page, hold several private meetings, and meet Talia Leman, the 15-year-old chief executive of youth-oriented nonprofit RandomKid.org. In a car on his way to the airport, Gates spoke about his most recent efforts, including last week's announcement that around 40 wealthy American individuals and families had signed on to his Giving Pledge, agreeing to give half their wealth to charity. | By SuperUser Account on 8/9/2010 9:34 AM
Kinect is more than an Xbox 360 peripheral, it's the future of Microsoft, or at least a very possible one. It's the beginning of Microsoft's plans for natural user interfaces, the step beyond the thing you're staring at right now. ***Kinect is as much a product of serendipity as anything else. When Microsoft hired Dr. Ilan Spillinger, VP of hardware and technology for Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business, it was to be "deeply engaged on the next-generation Xbox." Microsoft was looking to go beyond the Wii for its next big project, and about two and a half years ago, it started looking at natural user interfaces. At the same time, it had started looking at 3D cameras and input systems. Virtually in parallel, all of the necessary technology pieces to make Kinect fell into place—in particular, PrimeSense's 3D sensor. What Microsoft considers revolutionary about Kinect—and they do consider it revolutionary—isn't that it tracks your body with full depth mapping, or responds to voice commands, or that it has a standard video camera: It's that it brings all of three of those things together for the first time. It's natural user interface in its infancy. *** Raghu Murthi, the general manager for Natural User Interface Hardware, is holding a Kinect, stripped naked, as a dozen people gawk at its innards. The exposed metal seems cold. He's telling us about the optical system—how it sees with the three holes in its head that seem like eyes. Without the plastic housing they look like they're bulging out. We're at the beginning of day-long tour of Kinect, gathered in the Great Room, the living room you wish had, but tucked behind a sliding wall inside one of the many food courts on Microsoft's sprawling campus. 3D sensing has been around for 15 years, Raghu explains. What Microsoft has done, he says, is taken 3D depth-mapping technology that typically costs $10,000 to $150,000, and made it at volume, for cheap.
The way the optical system works, on a hardware level, is fairly basic. A class 1 laser is projected into the room. The sensor is able to detect what's going on based on what's reflected back at it. Together, the projector and sensor create a depth map. The regular old video camera is held at a specific distance away from the 3D part of the optical system in a precise alignment, so that Kinect can blend together the depth map and RGB picture for dynamic, on-the-fly greenscreening. | By SuperUser Account on 8/9/2010 9:30 AM
Polycom Expands Relationship to Include Unique, Natively Integrated Polycom Solutions and Coordinated Go-to-Market Initiatives for Microsoft Unified Communications PLEASANTON, CA, Aug 09, 2010 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- Polycom, Inc.(PLCM 30.24, +0.24, +0.80%) has signed a multi-year, strategic global agreement with Microsoft Corp. (MSFT 25.52, -0.03, -0.12%) to deliver integrated end-to-end unified communications (UC) and to improve customers' business productivity. Under the agreement, Polycom plans to develop and market standards-based UC solutions that span the enterprise, small-to-medium business, and government markets, that will encompass software, hardware, networking and services, and will enable customers to improve business productivity and reduce travel, telecom and IT operating costs. Polycom and Microsoft share a vision for business productivity solutions built on standards-based platforms that work with the tools and applications people know and use today. The companies' strategic agreement is a major step towards streamlining communications across messaging, video and voice with connected applications and devices. | By SuperUser Account on 8/9/2010 9:15 AM
 A previously undisclosed Microsoft Research project, dubbed "Menlo", has been revealed today as a prototype mobile phone and operating system.
| By SuperUser Account on 8/6/2010 10:04 AM
Long-term partners Citrix and Microsoft have extended their pact with a new program aimed at jointly serving enterprise customers' desktop and server virtualization requirements.
The companies have assembled a new program called V-Alliance that will provide combined sales, marketing and technical resources to partners deploying the joint Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix XenServer and XenDesktop solution sets | By SuperUser Account on 8/6/2010 8:48 AM
DynamicsNAVAddons.com, a world-wide developer of Microsoft Dynamics NAV addons and utilities, announces the release of their new AR and Collections Manager software.   This is an easy to use addon that most everyone can take advantage of. The payback and ROI are huge. A three day reduction in your average days to collect translates to approximately $8,000 of cash flow per million of gross revenue. 
San Diego, CA (PRWEB) August 5, 2010
The new AR & Collections Manager from DynamicsNAVAddons.com... | By SuperUser Account on 8/6/2010 8:42 AM
Independent Analysts Offer 2-Day Intensive Course on Choosing the Right Licensing Plan and Reducing the Cost of Microsoft Licenses, Including Windows 7 Upgrades
KIRKLAND, Wash., Aug. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- The release of Windows 7 has prompted many organizations to begin planning desktop OS upgrades. In addition to planning the technical aspects of a desktop OS deployment, IT decision makers must also determine the best way to purchase the Windows 7 licenses they'll need. Options range from acquiring Windows 7 as they purchase new PCs to volume licensing programs that give companies the right to upgrade every computer in their organization immediately. Choosing the right licensing strategy can result in significant savings; choosing the wrong strategy can cost even more.
Independent analyst firm, Directions on Microsoft, offers strategic advice to organizations on Microsoft licensing in their Microsoft Licensing Boot Camps, two-day workshops that demystify Microsoft licensing programs and rules. At these popular... | By SuperUser Account on 8/6/2010 8:36 AM
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., Aug. 6, 2010 — BA-Insight, the global leader in Microsoft-based information access technology, today made available the new Question and Answer Experts Corner, with direct access to experts in SharePoint Search and FAST Search for SharePoint technologies.
BA-Insight releases a free monthly SharePoint and FAST Search newsletter announcing the latest educational webinar in their SharePoint and FAST Search webinar series, newly published SharePoint and FAST Search technical white papers, upcoming SharePoint events, and now an Experts Corner where three questions posted throughout the prior month are chosen to be featured within the newsletter. The experts providing answers are Tony Malandain, BA-Insight Chief Technical Officer; Christopher Even, BA-Insight Director of Enterprise Connectors for SharePoint and FAST; and Jeff Fried, Senior Product... | By SuperUser Account on 8/6/2010 8:32 AM
By Edward Berridge SOFTWARE COBBLER Microsoft plans to send out a record batch of 14 security updates next week to patch 34 vulnerabilities in Windows, Internet Explorer (IE), Office and Silverlight. Eight of the 14 software updates are ranked as "critical" while the remaining six are marked as "important". The count of 34 individual patches equals the monthly record, which was first set last October and repeated in June 2010. Since eight of these are called critical that matches the previous record that the Vole set in October 2009. It seems that the larger Microsoft updates are landing in even-numbered months and the smaller ones in odd numbered months. Thus we have the impression that patches are being sent out in numbers and on schedules that suit Microsoft's spinners in its PR department rather than its developers or customers. | By SuperUser Account on 8/5/2010 8:51 AM
Early users endorse first milestone of the LexisNexis(R) customer collaboration and innovation initiative 
NEW YORK, Aug 05, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Since the introduction of Lexis(R) for Microsoft(R) Office earlier this year, legal professionals are expressing excitement for this first-of-its-kind solution that integrates sources of valuable legal content directly within the trusted MicrosoftOffice desktop applications they use every day. LexisNexis has been installing the solution for a growing number of its customers since spring, and announced today that the solution is now broadly available. Early users of Lexis for Microsoft have provided overwhelmingly positive feedback. "Lexis for Microsoft Office is a great concept. It helps save time when researching or validating briefs from opposing counsel," said George Hampton, a law firm partner who served as one of the beta testers for Lexis for Microsoft office. "In the past, you'd have to write the citations on a piece of paper and then visit Lexis.com to look each one up, one at a time. Now, you don't have to manually input citations, Lexis for Microsoft Office enables you to be self sufficient." Created through close collaboration with thousands of customers, Lexis for Microsoft Office enables users to work more efficiently and productively, delivering greater service to clients. This is achieved by offering seamless access and management of information and services from LexisNexis(R), the open Web and designated law firm or corporate files with the click of a button without ever leaving Microsoft(R) Outlook(R), Microsoft(R) Word or Microsoft(R) SharePoint(R) Server. | By SuperUser Account on 8/5/2010 8:46 AM
InterDyn - Artis is recognized by Microsoft for commitment to customers. Charlotte, NC, August 05, 2010 --(PR.com)-- InterDyn - Artis, a leading provider of Microsoft Dynamics ERP and CRM solutions since 1989 has been named to the 2010 President’s Club for Microsoft Dynamics; for an unprecedented 15th year. This achievement is a direct result of InterDyn – Artis outstanding dedication to customer satisfaction through the delivery of innovative business solutions.
President’s Club for Microsoft Dynamics honors high-performing Microsoft Dynamics partners whose commitment to customers is reflected in their business success and growth. This prestigious group represents the top 5 percent of Microsoft Dynamics partners worldwide. Membership is granted based on their continual, committed efforts aimed at offering solutions that meet the needs of their customers.
This acknowledgment came during the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC), the company’s annual premier partner event, which took place this year in Washington, D.C. WPC provides Microsoft Corp.’s partner community with the largest opportunity to learn about the company’s road map for the upcoming year, establish connections, share best practices, experience the latest product innovations and learn new skills. “Microsoft is proud to recognize InterDyn - Artis for its outstanding sales achievement,” said Doug Kennedy, vice president of Microsoft Dynamics Partners. “This honor is a direct reflection of InterDyn – Artis’ outstanding group of employees and management team, all of whom should be very proud of this accomplishment. InterDyn - Artis plays a very important role in the growth and success of Microsoft Dynamics.” | By SuperUser Account on 8/5/2010 8:41 AM
 Tim Armstrong, AOL's CEO (right) during an interview last year, doesn't seem to have the company turned around yet. (Credit: Ina Fried) Nobody epitomized the AOL of the late 1990s better than David Colburn, the foul-mouthed, bully-boy deal maker who oversaw the company's ad empire. Soon after the $5 billion AOL acquired the $20 billion Time Warner--a deal that was presented to the public as a merger--a Time Warner executive scolded Colburn for being disrespectful. "You talk like you're buying us," said the Time Warner exec. Legend has it that Colburn fired back: "We are you putz!" "Windows is the past. In the future, AOL is the next Microsoft" --Steve Case, AOL founder Colburn's underlings had T-shirts made with his statement emblazoned on the chest. In Silicon Valley, techies snickered too. The comment was at once a rallying cry and benediction. New media had officially buried old media. Back then, that kind of swagger was part of AOL's mystique. The company's software helped 30 million people worldwide dial-in to the Internet. Dozens of dot coms paid AOL millions just to put their links on its front door. The company would one day dwarf Microsoft--or so AOL execs believed. | By SuperUser Account on 8/5/2010 8:34 AM
By Carl Bagh | August 5, 2010 5:11 AM EDT Is it a trackpad or a tablet? Microsoft kept its fans guessing after it posted cropped images of a black gadget with Microsoft emblazoned on the cover on its hardware Twitter account. It has been dropping clues as it posted a text saying "Here's a hint for you: 'Don't be so touchy...flat is where it's at'" and the text was followed by another picture which gave an extra glimpse of the product. With multiple rumored launches like a tablet-PC, a smartphone and a multi-touch capable mouse, the teasers are sure creating a lot of buzz. However, some bloggers are saying that the dropped hint "touchy...flat" could be alluding to Microsoft's answer to Apple's Magic TrackPad. In fact, rumors of Microsoft working on Arc Touch Mouse have been doing rounds since July. And it fits the bill as a trackpad with added functionality of a mouse - which means it would be capable of tracking a desktop - a feature missing in the stationery Magic TrackPad. | By SuperUser Account on 8/5/2010 8:29 AM
Updates Platform Preview final time, boosts JavaScript speed and Acid3 scoreBy Gregg Keizer August 5, 2010 06:44 AM ET Computerworld - Microsoft on Wednesday updated its bare-bones preview of Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) for the last time, saying that the next release would be a beta build. Although Microsoft hasn't named a release date for IE9's beta, the six-to-eight week stretch between each Platform Preview may provide a clue: If the company sticks to the same gap between the fourth preview and the beta, the latter should show on or after Sept. 15. In IE9 Platform Preview 4, Microsoft has integrated its new JavaScript engine into the browser, finished its work on hardware acceleration and boosted performance in several areas, including the Acid3 test, said the IE team's leader. "The IE9 platform is nearly complete," said Dean Hachamovitch, general manager of IE, in a detailed post on the browser's blog Wednesday. | By SuperUser Account on 8/4/2010 3:55 PM
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| Microsoft Corp. announced today that it has settled the patent infringement cases brought by Microsoft before the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington and by Salesforce.com in the U.S. District Court of Delaware. |
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REDMOND, Wash. — Aug. 4, 2010 — Microsoft Corp. announced today that it has settled the patent infringement cases brought by Microsoft before the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington and by Salesforce.com in the U.S. District Court of Delaware.
The cases have been settled through a patent agreement in which Salesforce.com will receive broad coverage under Microsoft’s patent portfolio for its products and services as well as its back-end server infrastructure during the term. Also as part of the agreement, Microsoft receives coverage under Salesforce.com’s patent portfolio for Microsoft’s products and services.
Although the contents of the agreement have not been disclosed, Microsoft indicated that it is being compensated by Salesforce.com based on the strength of Microsoft’s leading patent portfolio in the areas of operating systems, cloud services and customer relationship management software.
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| By SuperUser Account on 8/4/2010 1:11 PM
NEW YORK | Wed Aug 4, 2010 12:34pm EDT (Reuters) - A total of 40 U.S. billionaires have pledged to give away at least 50 percent of their wealth as part of a campaign by investor Warren Buffett and Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
Gates and Buffett launched "The Giving Pledge" in June to convince hundreds of U.S. billionaires to give away most of their fortune during their lifetimes or after their deaths and to publicly state their intention with a letter of explanation. Here are some excerpts from letters written by billionaires taking the pledge: * Laura and John Arnold, hedge fund manager: "We view our wealth in this light -- not as an end in itself, but as an instrument to effect positive and transformative change." * New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg: "If you want to do something for your children and show how much you love them, the single best thing -- by far -- is to support organizations that will create a better world for them and their children. And by giving, we inspire others to give of themselves, whether their money or their time." * Philanthropist Eli and Edythe Broad: "Those who have been blessed with extraordinary wealth have an opportunity, some would say a responsibility -- we consider it a privilege -- to give back to their communities, be they local, national or global." * Investor Warren Buffett: "Were we to use more than one percent of my claim checks (Berkshire Hathaway stock certificates) on ourselves, neither our happiness nor our well-being would be enhanced. In contrast, that remaining 99 percent can have a huge effect on the health and welfare of others." * Microsoft founder Bill and Melinda Gates: "We have been blessed with good fortune beyond our wildest expectations, and we are profoundly grateful. But just as these gifts are great, so we feel a great responsibility to use them well. That is why we are so pleased to join in making an explicit commitment to the Giving Pledge." * Hotel magnate Barron Hilton: "It is my hope that others are inspired by my father's story, and by our family's steadfast adherence to his charitable philosophy." * Corporate executive Jon and Karen Huntsman: "It has been clear to me since my earliest childhood memories that my reason for being was to help others." * Banker George Kaiser: "I had the advantage of both genetics (winning the 'ovarian lottery') and upbringing. As I looked around at those who did not have these advantages, it became clear to me that I had a moral obligation to direct my resources to help right that balance." | By SuperUser Account on 8/4/2010 10:28 AM
Microsoft Hardware was a bit of a late-comer to Twitter, but it sure is making up for lost time -- it's just posted a pair of intriguing tweets teasing as yet unannounced product. The first is simply the phrase "Don't be so touchy...flat is where it's at," while the second is the tiny image you see above. What is it? A trackpad would certainly fit the description, and you can sort of see what could be the side of one if you flip that image around -- although that's still just speculation at the moment. Considering it's coming from the Microsoft Hardware division, however, it seems likely that it's a peripheral of some sort and not something like a tablet PC. 
| By SuperUser Account on 8/4/2010 8:28 AM
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| Microsoft provides a flexible and integrated CRM solution while focusing on delivering a clear product vision and innovation. |
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REDMOND, Wash. — Aug. 4, 2010 — Microsoft Corp. today announced Microsoft Dynamics CRM has garnered recognition as a Leader from two leading independent research firms, Gartner Inc. and Forrester Research Inc. Forrester acknowledged Microsoft Dynamics CRM for offering a flexible customer service solution, earning a Leader position in The Forrester Wave™: CRM Suites Customer Service Solutions, Q3, 2010 (July 2010) report, while Gartner placed it as a Leader in the Magic Quadrant for Sales Force Automation (July 2010) report.
These acknowledgements follow recent placements for Microsoft Dynamics CRM among the Leaders in The Forrester Wave™: CRM Suites for Midsized Organizations, Q2 2010 (June 2010), The Forrester Wave™: CRM Suites for Large Organizations, Q2 2010 (June 2010) and the 2010 Magic Quadrant for CRM Customer Service Contact Centers.
“We provide a strong vision and a road map of ongoing innovation to help customers get the maximum return from their CRM investments,” said Brad Wilson, general manager, Microsoft Dynamics CRM. “With the upcoming release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, customers will reach new levels of productivity and collaboration with a low total cost of ownership, and partners will unlock new opportunities with a single development environment for cloud-based and on-premises deployments.”
Results From Gartner
Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Sales Force Automation evaluates vendors on their ability to execute and completeness of vision. Evaluation criteria weighed for each included product/service, overall viability, sales execution/pricing, customer experience and operations, and offering (product) strategy, business model, innovation and geographic strategy, respectively.
According to Gartner, “Vendors placed in the Leaders quadrant of Gartner’s Sales Force Automation Magic Quadrant demonstrate a market-defining vision of how technology can help the top sales executives achieve business objectives. Leaders have the ability to execute against that vision through products, services and demonstrated solid business results in the form of revenue and earnings. Leaders have significant successful customer deployments in North America, EMEA and Asia/Pacific in a wide variety of vertical industries with multiple proof points above 500 users.”
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| By SuperUser Account on 8/3/2010 12:56 PM
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| Zig Serafin outlines the future of speech technology and natural user interfaces at SpeechTEK. |
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NEW YORK — Aug. 3, 2010 — The growth of connected devices, from automobiles to your mobile phone, coupled with the increase in data consumption is signaling the beginning of a broad shift in technology toward an era of more integrated, natural experiences driven by speech, touch and gesture.
Today at the 2010 SpeechTEK Conference in New York, Zig Serafin, general manager of the Speech Group at Microsoft, delivered a keynote address describing Microsoft’s vision for speech and natural user interfaces (NUIs). Serafin demonstrated the latest in speech recognition technology that has been designed into upcoming Microsoft products. These products promise to deliver more elegant and accessible interfaces, allowing users to utilize their voices and, in some cases, their bodies to perform actions and access information.
During his address, Serafin demonstrated three speech innovations:
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Kia UVO. Microsoft is creating more natural and safer automotive experiences using the Windows Embedded Automotive software platform and Microsoft Tellme Speech technologies. Starting later this year, Kia will begin offering the Kia UVO multimedia and infotainment system in its all-new Sportage, Sorento and Optima. The UVO system is the first in-vehicle solution to integrate full Microsoft speech engine technology, allowing users to easily access media content and connect with people through simple, quick voice commands without having to navigate through hierarchical menus.
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Windows Phone 7. Microsoft is raising the bar for mobile device interactions with the development of Windows Phone 7. Speech has been seamlessly integrated into the phone experience, for functions such as search, navigation and dialing.
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Kinect for Xbox 360. Microsoft is unlocking new communication and entertainment experiences with Kinect for Xbox 360. The Kinect system allows users to navigate the Xbox 360 experience and participate in new gaming challenges by using NUIs such as gestures and speech.
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“Microsoft is creating rich, immersive and seamless experiences across devices, delivered from the cloud. Speech will become the tool we use to unlock the power of devices as their connectivity and capabilities accelerate,” Serafin told SpeechTEK attendees.
As NUIs become more advanced and integrated into today’s technology, customers will expect to be able to interact more naturally, whether in front of the TV, in the car, on the go with their mobile device, or when interacting with businesses through customer-care applications, Serafin explained.
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| By SuperUser Account on 8/3/2010 9:30 AM
ST. LOUIS, MO July 28, 2010 — The Sikich technology office in St.Louis has moved to join offices with our tax, consulting, accounting, and auditing practice at 12655 Olive Blvd, Suite 200, St. Louis. In January of this year, Sikich and St. Louis accounting firm, Stelmacki, Cochran & Sauerburger, P.C. entered into a merger and now operate under the Sikich name. The 19 Stelmacki, Cochran & Sauerburger, P.C. personnel will now be joined by staff from Sikich's Earth City technology office and operate as the St. Louis, Missouri office of Sikich. "Although we have separate histories we have always shared a common objective: to ensure absolute customer satisfaction. Combined, our two firms can capitalize on the years of experience, and a broader base of industry-specific knowledge, creating an even stronger presence in the St. Louis area," said Michael Stelmacki, CPA, Senior Partner, Stelmacki, Cochran & Sauerburger, P.C. In addition to accounting services, this joined office will continue to focus on bringing Microsoft Dynamics business solutions and IT infrastructure services to middle market companies in the St. Louis area. "This move is the next step in increasing our footprint in the metro St. Louis area," said Jeff Rudolph, Partner-in-Charge, Sikich, Technology. "We are thrilled to continue our commitment to serving the middle-market in St. Louis and look forward to making some new introductions at our upcoming Open House event in early September," he continued. Eddie Marshall, General Manager, Microsoft Central Region Dynamics, said of the merger, "Sikich's merger with the accounting firm of Stelmacki, Cochran & Sauerburger, P.C. further establishes their footprint in St. Louis and demonstrates their continued commitment to bringing Microsoft Business Solutions to the region." | By SuperUser Account on 8/3/2010 8:51 AM
To coincide with the vacation season SharePoint webparts specialists Pentalogic Technology are launching a SharePoint Staff Vacation Planning Toolkit, to help organizations manage staff absence planning smoothly during this busy period and throughout the year. Cheltenham, England (PRWEB) August 3, 2010 To coincide with the vacation season SharePoint webparts specialists Pentalogic Technology are launching a SharePoint Staff Vacation Planning Toolkit, to help organizations manage staff absence planning smoothly during this busy period and throughout the year. "SharePoint is a great platform for organizations to build applications tailored exactly around their own business processes." Says MD Ryan Wheeler, "Our tools give business users the power to do this without the need for any technical stuff like coding or programming." "We wanted to give users some insights into just how far they could get in creating impressive applications using just SharePoint out of the box and our webparts. Staff Vacation and absence planning seemed like a good place to start, as it's something all organizations have to deal with." The SharePoint Staff Vacation Planner Toolkit addresses all the key issues of staff vacation and absence planning within SharePoint and enables users to create: - An automated, paperless absence request and approval system. Managed via email.
- An absence planning dashboard showing who is off when, updated in real time and available to all staff through SharePoint.
- An "absences to date" dashboard for managers, and "My absences" for staff showing how many days absence have been taken in the current year, and ensuring absence entitlements are not exceeded.
| By SuperUser Account on 8/2/2010 10:28 AM
Many pixels have been spilled over Steve Ballmer’s admission that “[Apple has] sold certainly more [iPads] than I’d like them to have sold.” As Ars points out, Ballmer just doesn’t get why a dumbed down machine running a poky processor is so popular. However, any media lover can tell you it’s not about running Excel and Powerpoint on a tablet – it’s about doing a few simple things without much fuss. Here’s what Microsoft can do to build a great tablet platform that people will actually buy. | By SuperUser Account on 8/1/2010 9:03 PM
Edwin Perello discovered that Bing, the Microsoft search engine, could find addresses in his rural Indiana town when Google could not. Laura Michelson, an administrative assistant in San Francisco, was lured by Bing’s flight fare tracker. Paul Callan, a photography buff in Chicago, fell for Bing’s vivid background images. When Microsoft introduced it last year, Bing made a splash with its vivid background images. In June, Google presented searchers the option of a colorful background rather than the stark, white page. Like most Americans, they still use Google as their main search tool. But more often, they find themselves navigating to Microsoft’s year-old Bing for certain tasks, and sometimes they stay a while. “I was a Google user before, but the more I used Bing the more I liked it,” Mr. Callan said. “It’s more like muscle memory takes me to Google.” Bing still handles a small slice of Web searches in the United States, 12.7 percent in June, compared with Google’s 62.6 percent, as measured by comScore, the Web analytics firm. But Bing’s share has been growing, as has Yahoo’s, while Google’s has been shrinking. And while no one argues that Google’s dominance is in immediate jeopardy, Google is watching Microsoft closely, mimicking some of Bing’s innovations — like its travel search engine, its ability to tie more tools to social networking sites and its image search — or buying start-ups to help it do so in the future. | By SuperUser Account on 7/30/2010 10:25 AM
Avanade, a business technology services provider, was recognized by Microsoft as the 2010 Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partner of the Year. The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partner of the Year Award recognizes partners who exhibit excellence in providing innovative and unique solutions based on Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Avanade -- founded in 2000 by Microsoft and Accenture -- uses Microsoft Dynamics CRM as a platform upon which to build specific, tailoredapplications that track information and processes related to real-world entities. With xCRM (Extended CRM), clients can improve the effectiveness of customer interaction, match employees' talents to tasks they need to accomplish, plan work schedules and workflows for maximum productivity, track project status and create self-service Web portals. "Avanade was named the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partner of Year based on its market success, with strong increases in new customers and revenue," said Brad Wilson, general manager, Microsoft Dynamics CRM. "Avanade consistently delivers solutions and services that help companies achieve significant business benefits from their Dynamics CRM investments. We look forward to continuing to work with Avanade to provide innovative solutions for our customers and to expand our global market presence." "Microsoft is proud to recognize Avanade as the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partner of the Year for helping their clients think beyond traditional CRM to expand into additional business opportunities," said Doug Kennedy, vice president, Dynamics Partners, Microsoft Corp. "Avanade has helped customers recognize the positive impact CRM solutions have had across their businesses and, thus, have created enthusiastic advocates of the service." "Avanade is deeply committed to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform and helping organizations achieve powerful business results through innovative solutions," said Mark Barrett, senior vice president, CRM, Americas, Avanade. "Avanade is thrilled to be recognized by Microsoft for its unique CRM strengths, capabilities and growth. As the global services leader for Microsoft Dynamics CRM, we seek to accelerate the adoption of Microsoft CRM in the market." | By SuperUser Account on 7/30/2010 10:16 AM
Gallery in Covent Garden and a roadshowBy Patrick Goss Kinect roadshow - check on the latest gaming tech Microsoft is showing off its latest Xbox technology to the public with the Kinect Galleries in Covent Garden, London – offering consumers the chance to give the motion sensor gaming a try. The Kinect Galleries will open from Saturday for a six-week period over summer, and people can book their own personal space through Facebok or by turning up on the day. Kinect is the next big thing for the Xbox 360 using an advanced camera to do away with the controller, offering Wii-like family gaming without the peripherals. Dance Revolution The likes of Dance Revolution are likely to prove a huge hit with the female demographic, while men will be catered for with launch title Kinect Adventures and the promise of integration into more traditional gaming. There are also participatory demos being done on stage of Kinect Galleries that will enable visitors to get a quick tutorial before humiliating themselves by being scored on their dancing to Lady Gaga. For those not heading to Covent Garden, Microsoft has also announced a roadshow – with a nationwide tour taking in Alton Towers, London Zoo, the Thames Festival, Chessington and Clothes Show Live at NEC in Birmingham. Showcase "Demonstration staff will be on hand to showcase the latest Kinect for Xbox 360 games, both at the Kinect Galleries and on tour, thus giving visitors the chance to take adventure to the next level with Kinect Adventures!, test out their moves with Dance Central, take to the race track with Kinect Joyride or making friends with cute big-cat cubs through Kinectimals," said Microsoft. | By SuperUser Account on 7/29/2010 5:54 PM
Posted by Brier Dudley Steve Ballmer's trying to set the record straight on Microsoft's maligned consumer businesses. "We're pretty focused in a set of areas we think have big potential," the Microsoft chief executive said to 180 or so financial analysts meeting in Redmond today. During his presentation, it was disclosed that Microsoft's expecting Windows 7 tablets to spread in early 2011 after new Intel hardware emerges. The company's also preparing to offer a "personal cloud" to Windows 7 users, including a set of online services for managing and synchronizing files that will come with Windows 7 PCs starting in the third quarter. The personal clouds include Windows Live services such as the SkyDrive online storage system and online Office applications, with the addition of new sync features for synchronizing and sharing content across various devices. During a demonstration on a prototype Windows slate computer, an upcoming version of Messenger was used for a video chat by Brad Brooks, vice president of Windows marketing . During a chat session, a user can call up files such as photos from their devices or cloud storage site and share them with the other person. Another demo featured an application for moving media content across various networked devices. On the top of the screen was a menu of connected devices for outputting the content, including a networked stereo receiver, an Xbox and a TV adapter. Songs and videos could be pulled from a personal cloud to the devices by tapping and dragging the file onto the menu. 
The personal clouds extend the "personal hub" concept that debuted on Microsoft's short-lived Kin phones, which automatically synchronize photos and messages with a companion personal Web site. These hubs will be a key feature of phones running the upcoming Windows Phone 7 software. (Here's one of Ballmer's slides from the presentation) A Windows Phone 7 demo showed how the device draws on both work and personal calendars stored online, displaying both on its calendar. It showed a conflict - a meeting during a Sounders game, so the device was used to adjust the meeting, map travel to the game and find and choose a Chinese restaurant for the post-game celebration. In true Microsoft style, a shopping list for a pre-game party was managed on OneNote and the to-do list was shared with other participants via SharePoint. | By SuperUser Account on 7/29/2010 9:35 AM
 Jul 29, 2010 09:00 ET Award Recognizes Innovative Ways to Improve Profitability and Streamline Operations ST. LOUIS, MO--(Marketwire - July 29, 2010) - KnowledgeLake today announced it received the 2010 Microsoft US West Region Excellence in Competency Award. The award honors KnowledgeLake's innovative ways to improve profitability and streamline operations in the Enterprise Content Management (ECM) industry. "After winning Microsoft ISV Partner of the year award in 2009, KnowledgeLake's 2010 follow-up win of Microsoft's Southern California district 'Excellence in Competency' Partner award, solidifies the quality and importance that KnowledgeLake presents to the Microsoft Partner Network," said Brian Jones, SoCal SMS&P Partner Account Manager. "The strength of the Microsoft SharePoint solution combined with KnowledgeLake's solutions has allowed our joint customers the ultimate benefit of successfully running their businesses in today's highly competitive marketplace." This award recognizes Microsoft partners that identify new ways to improve profitability, deepen partnerships and streamline operations. These partners readily share their ideas and best practices, and demonstrate exceptional partner competency in a targeted industry, vertical solution, or segment. KnowledgeLake has worked closely with Microsoft to win key accounts in the retail and healthcare industries. The retail account was a consolidation of several different ECM repositories, for Inventory Receiving and Accounts Payable, into one KnowledgeLake solution using SharePoint. The healthcare account was a competitive win and provided an ECM solution for managing patient records. "KnowledgeLake is thankful to the Microsoft West Region team for their assistance in helping us deliver Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solutions for Microsoft SharePoint to the marketplace," said Mark Oman, National Sales Director (North America), KnowledgeLake, Inc. "Our solutions enable Microsoft customers to leverage their Microsoft investment for ECM within their paper and electronic content intensive environments. The KnowledgeLake mission mirrors the values of Microsoft, 'to enable our customers to realize their full potential by serving them with new and innovative document technologies.'" | By SuperUser Account on 7/29/2010 9:04 AM
By Ina Fried - REDMOND, Wash.--Aiming to show it is still winning customers against Google, Microsoft on Thursday announced deals to provide hosted e-mail and portal software to three big corporate customers. The software maker said Dow Chemical, Hyatt Hotels, and the University of Georgia are all using the company's hosted e-mail and portal software, known as Microsoft Online. The announcements were timed to come just as Microsoft is set to host its financial analyst meeting here. (I'll be covering the day-long event live, starting around 8 a.m. PT) In an interview, Hyatt CIO Mike Blake said the company, which had been running Lotus Notes, chose Microsoft after considering cloud-based options from Google, Microsoft and IBM's Lotus division. "I would not say that I was a Microsoft zealot," Blake said. "I worked most of my career to find ways not to use Microsoft. I'm a huge Apple fan." However, going with Microsoft allowed the company to not only provide e-mail to its current group of PC-equipped workers but also to 40,000 additional "deskless" workers, such as housekeepers and porters that historically haven't had work e-mail. Although that might have been possible with both Google and Microsoft, Blake said when it came to cost "Microsoft was probably a little more compelling." | By SuperUser Account on 7/29/2010 8:46 AM
Maginus has announced it has won the 2010 Microsoft Dynamics ISV of the Year for the UK. The award was achieved as a result of Maginus demonstrating exceptional business success by optimising the use of Microsoft Dynamics to deliver innovative solutions that exceed customer expectations and surpass business goals. This recognition was presented at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2010, the company’s annual premier partner event, which took place this year in Washington, D.C. Microsoft Corp. honoured 27 of its partners from around the world with the 2010 Microsoft Dynamics Regional Partner of the Year awards. In addition, two exceptional partners were selected to receive the Outstanding Reseller of the Year and Outstanding ISV of the Year awards. Regional winners and finalists were chosen from the following regions: Asia-Pacific, Canada, Central and Eastern Europe, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Latin America, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), United States, United Kingdom, and Western Europe. A Microsoft Dynamics Hosting Partner of the Year winner was also honoured and selected after a review of all hosting partners around the globe. Russell Dorset, Sales and Marketing Director, Maginus, “This award is a testament to the sales excellence and marketing creativity of the Maginus team. We have already seen great results with Microsoft Dynamics AX in the retail and wholesale distribution sectors and we will continue to build on this moving forward. Microsoft Dynamics AX provides a real time multi channel solution which helps our customers maximise sales across channels, minimising costs and improving customer service.” | By SuperUser Account on 7/28/2010 12:16 PM
Minneapolis company makes President’s club for the second year with its leading work in Dynamics CRM. (PRNewsChannel) / July 28, 2010 / MINNEAPOLIS / Microsoft Dynamics® announced that PowerObjects, a leader in Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solutions, has been named to the company's 2010 President's Club. The award was presented to the top five percent of Microsoft value-added resellers in the United States at the Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington, D.C. earlier this month. "We're excited to recognize PowerObjects as a leader in the Microsoft Dynamics partner community for promoting and delivering solutions that drive customer success," said Doug Kennedy, vice president of Microsoft Dynamics Partners. "By providing the highest level of sales and innovation, customers can have absolute assurance they are dealing with the 'best of the best' when working with PowerObjects." | By SuperUser Account on 7/26/2010 8:54 AM
i-Technosoft offers Windows Sharepoint Services for $1Technosoft extends its Services to Hosted Application Solutions and have started their marketing campaign by a One Time Signup Offer on Windows Sharepoint at $1.99 per user, the cheapest price online for Microsoft Windows SharePoint. I-Newswire ) July 26, 2010 - Wimbledon, London – 26 July 2010. i-Technosoft enters a niche market selling Hosted Microsoft SharePoint Services in EMEA. The objective is to assist SME’s to centralise, automate their processes and enable them to access business information anywhere, anytime thereby reducing paper, travel, hardware and licensing costs further enabling businesses to comply to ‘Go-Green’ Standards. Many SME’s have been started to see the advantages of hosted applications such as Microsoft’s Windows SharePoint Services. Windows SharePoint Services enables businesses to consolidate their core documents, forms, work processes on a web based platform thereby eliminating a need for additional applications to be installed. Moreover, SharePoint offers comprehensive collaboration with team members enabling them to maintain records, infopath forms, electronic document versions that assists users to pull any given record in time. Small Business owners currently face a great challenge in managing, organising and accessing their data when required from any given location. This is virtually impossible for them as the costs of implementing such a solution and hosting it locally are very high especially in the Middle East. | By SuperUser Account on 7/25/2010 10:07 AM
 “…one screen to rule them all and in the market bind them.” Well OK Tolkien said ring and not screen and he was talking about evil and we’re talking about video and marketing. There’s a difference right?
Let’s face it, many of us are multi-screen users – TV, computer, mobile. Well, Microsoft just released a report this week detailing how multi-screen strategies can work toward higher brand awareness and increase conversation rates. Microsoft Advertising and Wunderman teamed up on the Multi-Screen Consumer White Paper to tell us all about how that can be done. I got my hands on it and now it’s not so white, but I can give you the details. The research study covered aged 18-64 users who use TV, computers, smartphones and video game consoles to consume media. They spoke with 1,200 consumers in spring 2010. They found that while convergence is moving forward, each screen plays a specific role in the media consumption and entertainment experience but still can work together to create a cohesive experience. The consumers have certain expectations about a consistent experience across the screens and in order to maintain engagement with them, these expectations will need to be met. A Multi-Screen Consumer is defined as an adult between the ages of 18 and 64 who has and uses a TV, computer, and smartphone, and who also accesses the Internet at least 2–3 times each week using both their computer and smartphone. An estimated 33 million Americans with internet access are considered Multi-Screen Consumers.
We, the multi-screen generation spend on average 54 hours a week doing something on a media device. We have a higher discretionary income, are better educated and most likely employed more often than the general 18-64-year-old demographic. Of course that makes sense, we need income to buy our media devices and we need the know-how to get them all up and running and not, like my mother, have the 12:00 flashing on the VCR for months (no, I don’t currently know anyone with a VCR). What does that all mean? It means you are targeting a gainfully employed, more affluent and smarter group of people when you aim for them. That could easily translate into better sales, but only if the way you target them is compelling and smart. It means, we, the 3-screeners, know what you’re trying to do with your advertisements and are not just aware, but wary. Clever bastards, aren’t we? Convergence is happening, but only when there’s a reason for it. When 3-screeners gain benefit from it, they will do it. Check out this nifty perceptual Map I lifted from the white paper: 
| By SuperUser Account on 7/23/2010 11:22 AM
So, can you tell I didn't get to make the WPC due to our family vacation this year by all of my posts on WPC keynote scripts and videos? In case you missed it, here is the video library from the event. I have to assume all of the content is Customer Friendly since it doesn't require us to login to get there, though it is certainly Partner Focused content obviously. | By SuperUser Account on 7/23/2010 10:20 AM
News Press Release
| Broad-based strength drives double-digit revenue growth in all business segments |
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REDMOND, Wash. — July 22, 2010 — Microsoft Corp. today announced record fourth-quarter revenue of $16.04 billion for the quarter ended June 30, 2010, a 22% increase from the same period of the prior year. Operating income, net income and diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $5.93 billion, $4.52 billion and $0.51 per share, which represented increases of 49%, 48% and 50%, respectively, when compared with the prior year period.
“This quarter’s record revenue reflects the breadth of our offerings and our continued product momentum,” said Peter Klein, chief financial officer. “The revenue growth, combined with our ongoing cost discipline, helped us achieve another quarter of margin expansion.”
Product momentum continued during the quarter with the successful launch of Office 2010 and strong performance from existing products including Windows 7, which has sold more than 175 million licenses to date, Windows Server, Xbox, and Bing, which achieved its 13th consecutive month of share gain.
“We saw strong sales execution across all of our businesses, particularly in the enterprise with Windows 7 and Office 2010,” said Kevin Turner, chief operating officer. “Our transition to cloud services is well underway with offerings like Windows Azure and our Business Productivity Online Services, and we look forward to continuing our product momentum this fall with the upcoming launches of Windows Phone 7 and Xbox Kinect.”
For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2010, Microsoft reported record revenue of $62.48 billion, a 7% increase from the prior year. Operating income, net income and diluted earnings per share for the year were $24.10 billion, $18.76 billion and $2.10, which represented increases of 18%, 29% and 30%, respectively, when compared with the prior year.
Business Outlook
Microsoft offers updated operating expense guidance of $26.9 billion to $27.3 billion for the full year ending June 30, 2011.
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| By SuperUser Account on 7/23/2010 9:18 AM
Wall Street had high hopes for Microsoft’s latest financials, and the company did not disappoint. Fueled by a strong PC upgrade cycle, it turned in a record fourth quarter with sharp gains in both profit and sales. | By SuperUser Account on 7/23/2010 9:11 AM
Microsoft employs digital forensics and other technologies to help law-enforcement authorities bust counterfeiter syndicates. | By SuperUser Account on 7/22/2010 1:14 PM
 On the iPad's release date, April 3, 2010, a line extends around Apple's Fifth Avenue store. Many buyers had camped overnight to stake their spots in line. Apple has displaced Oracle as the company with the most security vulnerabilities in its software, according to security company Secunia.  Over the first half of 2010, Apple had more reported flaws than any other vendor. Microsoft retains its third-place spot. Secunia has tracked security vulnerabilities and issues advisories since 2002, producing periodic reports on the state of software. Together, the top 10 vendors account for some 38 percent of all flaws reported.
Though this does not necessarily mean that Apple’s software is the most insecure in practice — the report takes no consideration of the severity of the flaws — it points at a growing trend in the world of security flaws: the role of third-party software. Many of Apple’s flaws are not in its operating system, Mac OS X, but rather in software like Safari, QuickTime and iTunes. Vendors like Adobe (with Flash and Adobe Reader) and Oracle (with Java) are similarly responsible for many of the flaws being reported. | By SuperUser Account on 7/22/2010 9:33 AM
Holiday sales expected to be strong for gaming industry's first hands-free motion control system.
By Paul McDougall
InformationWeek
July 22, 2010 09:10 AM
Microsoft could sell as many as three million Xbox Kinect units in the run up to the 2010 holidays, according to a market watcher.
"We believe that Kinect units are already in production and should be available in adequate quantities for the November launch. We continue to expect that roughly three million units of Kinect will be sold worldwide in 4Q," wrote Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian, in a research note to clients this week.
If Sebastian's estimate is correct, that would put Kinect, a hands-free motion control system that lets Xbox 360 players physically interact with on-screen games, on par with the... | By SuperUser Account on 7/22/2010 9:15 AM
Microsoft is apparently pleased enough with its four existing retail shops to build dozens more Microsoft Stores in the future. | By SuperUser Account on 7/22/2010 7:43 AM
ToneCheck looks to bridge the gap between an email that sounds right in your head and an email that sounds right to the recipient. Jared Newman, Technologizer Jul 21, 2010 4:39 pm For all those times that an e-mail sounds better in your head than it does to the recipient, ToneCheck thinks it can help. 
The plug-in, which is in a free-for-now beta for Microsoft Outlook and coming to web-based mail services in the future, reads over your e-mails for emotions such as elation, humiliation, excitement and fear. Users can set thresholds for how much emotion to allow in their e-mails, and ToneCheck essentially acts like a spell checker, flagging words and phrases that might be interpreted the wrong way. ToneCheck’s website has a demo that shows how it works, but I don’t use Outlook, so I haven’t tried the plug-in myself. If anyone tries it, I’d love to hear how well it works. On that note, it would be wise for ToneCheck to offer a web app in which people could dump text from any source, and if they were sufficiently happy, they could pay for the plug-in on their service of choice. | By SuperUser Account on 7/22/2010 7:30 AM
By Glenn Chapman (AFP) – 17 hours ago SAN FRANCISCO, USA — The number of people using Facebook hit the 500 million mark on Wednesday, meaning one in every 14 people on the planet has now signed up to the online social-networking service. "As of this morning, 500 million people all around the world are actively using Facebook to stay connected with their friends and the people around them," Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said in a blog post. "This is an important milestone for all of you who have helped spread Facebook around the world." To celebrate, the California firm introduced an application that lets members of the online community "tell the incredible stories of the moving and interesting ways they've used Facebook." Examples given by Zuckerberg included NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen jogging with Facebook fans during his term as Danish prime minister and a US woman using the service to battle breast cancer. "Our mission at Facebook is to help make the world more open and connected," Zuckerberg said. "I could have never imagined all of the ways people would use Facebook when we were getting started 6 years ago." Zuckerberg has pointed to Facebook's unrelenting growth to rebuff criticism of feature changes or privacy safeguards at the website. Americans are increasingly obsessed with Facebook and many young women check their page even before using the bathroom in the morning, according to a poll released last week. However, a US study released on Tuesday indicates that while people may be addicted to Facebook they rank it near the bottom when it comes to customer satisfaction. Facebook landed with notoriously despised airlines and cable television companies in the bottom 5 percent of private companies ranked in a 2010 American Customer Satisfaction Index E-Business Report produced in partnership with ForeSee Results. | By SuperUser Account on 7/21/2010 9:34 PM
Todd Bishop on Wednesday, July 21, 2010, 3:52pm PDT Looks like the iPhone era is over at Microsoft. OK, probably not entirely, but the company's decision to give every employee a new Windows Phone 7 device -- announced this afternoon at its big sales meetup in Atlanta, according to tweets from employees -- should at least reduce the odds that any of them trying to take Steve Ballmer's picture with an Apple device. A Microsoft spokesman confirmed the news, saying that the specific devices will vary by market. And yes, they will be actual Windows Phone 7 devices -- this is not Microsoft's attempt to get rid of its surplus Kins. The announcement was made by Andy Lees, head of Microsoft's mobile business, in an email to employees. The idea is to thank employees for all their work, and make sure that they have experience with Windows Phone 7 devices, the spokesman said. | By SuperUser Account on 7/21/2010 11:08 AM
By Todd Bishop More than 11,000 Microsoft employees from 107 countries are in Atlanta this week for a huge annual event known as MGX, the "Microsoft Global Experience," a big pep rally for the people who sell and promote the company's products. The event is private and confidential, in theory, but with that many social-networking fiends and their smartphones in a sports arena, some details inevitably leak out. | By SuperUser Account on 7/21/2010 9:07 AM
For the second consecutive year Sunrise has been named to the Inner Circle for Microsoft Dynamics, an elite group of the most strategic Microsoft Dynamics partners whose sales achievements rank them in the highest echelon of the Microsoft Dynamics global network of partners. In addition to receiving this honor, Sunrise was named to the President's Club for Microsoft Dynamics for the 4th consecutive year and received the prestigious 2010 Microsoft Distinction in Marketing Award for Best Overall Marketing Campaign.
Winston-Salem, NC (PRWEB) July 21, 2010 -- Sunrise Technologies, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner who specializes in Microsoft Dynamics AX , has joined the prestigious 2010 Inner Circle for Microsoft Dynamics. For the second consecutive year, Sunrise has been named to this elite group of the most strategic Microsoft Dynamics partners whose sales achievements rank them in the highest echelon of the Microsoft Dynamics global network of partners. Members of the Microsoft Dynamics Inner Circle have performed to a high standard of excellence by delivering valuable solutions that help organizations achieve increased success. This recognition of the Microsoft Dynamics Inner Circle came during the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC), Microsoft’s annual premier partner event.
| By SuperUser Account on 7/20/2010 6:58 PM
Jeff Bertolucci, PC World, Jul 20, 2010 6:05 pm It's good to see the smart folks at Google Search are keeping a close eye on the competition. The company's official blog today announced a series of minor but useful tweaks to the popular Google Image Search, which has mushroomed from a relatively tiny index of some 250 million images when it launched in 2001 to more than 10 billion today. Some of the new features are, ahem, borrowed from Microsoft's third-place Bing search engine, which has endeavored to out-innovate Google Search ever since its May 2009 debut. Google's most notable Bing-like upgrade is called "instant scrolling." Rather than view a static page of thumbnail images, and then click a link at the bottom of the page to see more, you can now view images as one continuous scroll. (Actually, this feature predates Bing. Microsoft's long-forgotten Live Search had it too.) Google Image Search displays up to 1,000 thumbnails per page. I tested Bing's auto-scroll feature, which maxed-out at 985. Take that, Bing. Another of Google's Bing-esque upgrades is a hover pane that appears when you pause the cursor over a thumbnail. While Bing's pane shows only details about the image, such as resolution and file size, Google displays a larger preview as well. | By SuperUser Account on 7/20/2010 6:55 PM
Charlotte - Award Recognizes Outstanding Use of Microsoft Technology on Behalf of K12 Education Customers. Mariner today announced its recognition as a 2010 Microsoft U.S. Public Sector Partner of the Year. The award honors Mariner’s innovative use of Microsoft technology in support of K12 Education clients. Winners and finalists were nominated and selected by Microsoft’s U.S. Public Sector team working throughout the nation.
“We rely on our education partners to implement and customize our technology to meet the needs of schools, educators and students across the country,” said Sig Behrens, general manager for U.S. Education at Microsoft. “We’re honoring Mariner because of their incredible commitment to innovation on behalf of public education over the past year.”
Microsoft Corp. selected Mariner as the 2010 U.S. Public Sector Partner of the Year for K12 Education. Awarded for Mariner’s SeeChangeTM Performance Management System which is currently being deployed across the county, Mariner is empowering educators, superintendents, parents and the community to see data in new ways and create the changes necessary to ensure students are college- and career-ready. Based on easy-to-use dashboards, teachers, principals and superintendents are able to quickly understand what is happening with their students; your educators do not need to become data analysts, nor do they need to spend time aggregating and disaggregating data to get the information they need to help the students reach their potential. | By SuperUser Account on 7/20/2010 6:53 PM
First-of-its-kind contest gives readers a completely integrated magazine experience using print, mobile web, and SMS technologiesNEW YORK, July 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Allure magazine is taking mobile to a whole new level with a first-come, first-win sweepstakes featuring tens of thousands of beauty products in Allure's Free Stuff issue. "This is the largest single deployment of Microsoft Tag in a magazine to date," said Aaron Getz, general manager for Microsoft Tag. "Allure is definitely thinking beyond the pages of its magazine by tapping into the mobile phenomenon that is happening right now and its smart use of Microsoft Tag to integrate print, mobile web, and SMS technologies for the benefit of its readers." Allure is publishing 36 Tags (2-D bar codes) in its Free Stuff issue in August, which, for the first time will enable readers to use their smartphones to enter any of the 159 giveaways (each with a day, time, and deadline) of 32,358 products—all with personalized service to mobile entrants. "With Microsoft Tag our readers no longer have to be tethered to their computers to enter to win Free Stuff. It gives them a connection to the magazine anywhere there is a phone signal," says Linda Wells. "When done right, technology is a service, not a gimmick. What we've done is use Tag to give readers what they want—a fast, easy, and more convenient way to participate in our giveaways." More than 35 editorial pages of Allure will feature Tags to scan for a text-message reminder 15 minutes before the giveaways on that page. A master Microsoft Tag on the contest calendar in the back of the magazine (and on allure.com) can be scanned for a chance to win any or all of the giveaways. The master Microsoft Tag can be torn out and tucked in a wallet, giving readers the chance to scan to win from anywhere. Allure's annual Free Stuff issue gives thousands of readers the opportunity to try products covered in the magazine. Sampling is the number-one driver to purchase in beauty products. | By SuperUser Account on 7/20/2010 2:13 PM
Stephen Elop: Worldwide Partner Conference 2010
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Remarks by Stephen Elop, President, Microsoft Business Division
Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2010
Washington, D.C.
July 12, 2010
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STEPHEN ELOP: Hey, good morning, good morning and welcome to Washington. You know, shortly after joining Microsoft two years ago, my journey began by standing in front of all of you for the very first time in Houston, if you'll recall that, and that day, I spoke about the key reasons that I joined Microsoft, and that was simply this: Because we have the opportunity for impact, the opportunity to positively affect the lives of literally hundreds of millions of people who rely on our technology every single day.
And here I am, two years later, still, frankly, somewhat awestruck by the impact that all of us together are having on the productivity of so many people. Now, precisely one year ago at WPC in New Orleans, you and I embarked on a second journey together when we announced the public beta of Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010, and began a new era of productivity across the PC, the phone, and the browser.
We revealed an important step in our vision for productivity. And since then, we've ramped up the availability of these new products, we've focused on getting them right, getting them ready, getting them into the market, and boy, what a year. What a year it has been for all of us.
I think Steve may have mentioned this earlier this morning when he said 9 million people -- 9 million -- took the time to download the beta versions of these products. That is six times the volume of what we saw for Office 2007, and you, our partners, you took a bit of time. You said, hey, I'm going to tell you about a few of the bugs we're finding along the way. And, indeed, you in this room submitted half of all of the bugs files against those 2010 products.
The good news is: 98 percent of those bugs have been fixed, 2 percent, we'll leave to you to find along the way. But thank you, thank you for filling in that bug form. It helped us tremendously. So, a round of applause for all of you for helping us through this, thank you. (Applause.)
Now, the good news is customers out there are responding to the work that we all did together. For example, according to the MPD group, Office 2010 captured the number-on revenue spot for a software product at retail with this launch, number one, which is just amazing. It's just rocketing off the shelves, we're thrilled with that. So, again, thank you for everything that led to that, because we have retail partners from all over the world who have helped us deliver this in a new way.
But the work we undertook together was so much more than just kicking the tires on the beta code and filling in bug forms and submitting frowns and so forth. We actually all have had a tremendous amount of preparation work to do. I can tell you today that 64,000 people from this audience became trained on Office 2010; 62,000 of you trained on SharePoint 2010; and 63,000 of you trained on Exchange 2010. And in the last 12 months alone, we've seen 8,000 new individual specialists becoming certified on the latest Dynamics solution, again, huge amounts of work, training, reading, studying, testing -- those are the types of things that get us ready for our customers.
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| By SuperUser Account on 7/20/2010 1:40 PM
Matt Peckham, PC World - Jul 20, 2010 1:16 pm 
Confirming what we already knew, Microsoft just put its stamp and seal on a $149.99 price tag for its Kinect motion control add-on for the Xbox 360. (Not to be confused with the stamp and seal Microsoft Store already put on the peripheral last month, thus ensuring maximum press coverage, as a zillion news sites effectively double-dip.) The company says Kinect will ship on November 4 as expected, and come with Kinect Adventures, a kind of party-play obstacle course game set in exotic locales. The other not-a-surprise would be the Xbox 360 Arcade's replacement, an Xbox 360 slim with a matte (instead of glossy) finish and 4GB of internal flash memory that'll retail for $199.99 and launch August 3rd. And yes, since you're understandably wondering, it's otherwise identical to the $299.99 Xbox 360, including internal 802.11n WiFi. (I'm as surprised as you.) | By SuperUser Account on 7/20/2010 9:46 AM
Steve Ballmer: Worldwide Partner Conference 2010
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Worldwide Partner Conference
Remarks by Steve Ballmer, Chief Executive Officer
Washington, D.C.
July 12, 2010
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ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage, and get really, really cloud, Steve Ballmer! (Cheers, applause.)
STEVE BALLMER: Oh cloud! (Cheers, applause.) We've been shouting about "oh cloud" here at the WPC now for about four years, and it's exciting for me to have a chance to kick off WPC 2010 in a year in which I think it's been clear that the opportunity and the transition to the cloud for enterprise and business customers, and for partners around the world is absolutely clear.
And I'm super enthused to see so many of you here today, the largest attendance at the Worldwide Partner Conference ever. I think that speaks to some dimension on the improvements in the economy, but I think it speaks in a lot of dimension to the number of our partners who are moving with us and really embracing the cloud, and really hearing what our customers are saying about the potential that they see to streamline their operations and improve their agility using technologies from the cloud.
And we have a lot of work left to do, we Microsoft and we together, with our 640,000 partners around the globe, but there's no question the path is clear and inevitable. There's no question that Microsoft has chosen to embrace that path together with all of you, and there's no question that we still have more to do to develop the mutual opportunities in the cloud.
I'm going to talk about a lot of things today, and I'm going to center much of what I say in the cloud.
I know there are some other things on your mind, and I'll try to get to all of them, but I want to start off on this Partner Conference where I've started off the last few years, you, your importance and your transition to this world of the cloud.
This last year has been a phenomenal year for Microsoft, all things considered. We certainly started the financial year, as did all of you, coming in the center of the gloom of the financial crisis. And yet throughout the year, through the incredible efforts, the incredible hard work of our partners around the world, we have certainly seen our business accelerate in amazing ways.
And that acceleration is due to you. As a company we remain built entirely on the backs of the relationships that we have with partners. For the success, for your energy, for the investment that you make every day in understanding our technologies and helping our customers I want to start by saying to all of you thank you. Thank you for your work on Windows 7 and what that has done for PC sales and unit volumes. Thanks for your work on Microsoft Office. We've had an incredible reception to the new version of Office, Office 2010, SharePoint, Exchange.
Thank you for what you've done for the Microsoft Online Services. Literally thousands of new enterprise customers in the last several months, through your good and hard work, have signed up and are migrating to Exchange Online and SharePoint Online as we speak.
Thank you for your good work certainly with the new releases of Windows Server and SQL Server. We've had over 670,000 trial downloads of the new release, SQL Server 2008 R2, in just the last two months as many of you and the customers you serve look to build new solutions based around SQL Server.
Thank you for the support of Windows Azure. A year ago, we had nobody, zero people using Windows Azure. Today, there's over 10,000 paying customers, partners and end customers, who are building applications and moving forward with Azure.
And the list doesn't end there. The progress we've made eclipsing 30 percent now with the virtualization market comes through the hard work and efforts and energy of our partners.
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| By SuperUser Account on 7/20/2010 9:03 AM
By AMY-MAE ELLIOTT - July 20, 2010 (View Original Aritcle) 
This 1978 file photo made available by Microsoft Corp. shows the 11 people who started Microsoft. Photo: AP This post was originally published on Mashable.com Despite ever-increasing Mac sales, Microsoft still has an undisputed dominance over the computer industry. With such a vast presence, much has already been written about Microsoft: its history, its products, even its former CEO Bill Gates. For those itching to know even more, we've dug up 10 snippets of info that you might not have heard before. What experimental musician created the Windows start-up sound? How do they celebrate anniversaries? Does Microsoft have a “pest” problem? Have a read of our Microsoft-themed facts, stats and trivia and let us know your thoughts in the comments below. 1. “Micro-soft's” first ever mention The first ever mention of “Microsoft” was in a letter from Bill Gates to co-founder Paul Allen in 1975. Gates initially wrote the company name as Micro-soft, which made sense considering it's a portmanteau of “microcomputer” and “software.” Losing the hyphen, “Microsoft” was officially registered as a company in November 1976 in New Mexico where Gates and Allen were working with their first major customer, MITS. Microsoft didn't move to its current campus in Redmond, Washington until 1986. The Microsoft logo has changed several times over the years, the current “Pac-Man” logo was introduced in 1987, but previous to that was the “blibbet” logo that's pictured above. The “blibbet” refers to the stylised “o” and was apparently once the name of a burger served in the Microsoft company cafeteria. 2. Brian Eno composed “The Microsoft Sound” Pioneering musician Brian Eno was the musical brains behind Window 95's start up tune, dubbed “The Microsoft Sound.” The influential musician, who has worked with the likes of David Bowie and U2, told the San Francisco Chronicle that making such a short piece of music was “funny” and “amazing.” Eno likened the process to “making a tiny little jewel.” | By SuperUser Account on 7/20/2010 8:56 AM
By Fool TV July 19, 2010 In poker, when you say you're going all in, it means one of two things: Confidence you have the best hand, or a bluff that feigns that same strength. Last week, Fool.com analyst Eric Bleeker attended Microsoft's Worldwide Developers Conference and said the company picked no-bones about their cloud computing ambitions: They're all in, but can they deliver the goods? Normally, the idea behind cloud computing means getting rid of your data center and letting a third party like Microsoft host you data and applications. However, Microsoft's also pushing to dominate the private cloud model. Private clouds enable companies to keep servers and equipment on premise, but it's more standardized, secure, and they can use Microsoft's cloud platform to develop and host new applications. At the conference, Microsoft made it clear they're serious about dominating the private cloud market. The company introduced both Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) and Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) as hardware launch partners, and an eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) representative came on stage to promote the company's extensive use of Microsoft cloud offerings. Also, almost all of Microsoft's business programs like Exchange for email, SharePoint for collaboration, and Office can now be hosted on the web, or have web based tie-ins. Microsoft is pushing tie-ins between the programs to make them work better together. It's an end-to-end solution that exceeds the ambitions of competitors, and through Microsoft's continued focus on its Dynamics line-ups, the competition with Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) and salesforce.com(NYSE: CRM). | By SuperUser Account on 7/19/2010 7:28 PM
Award Recognizes Outstanding Use of Microsoft Technology on Behalf of Healthcare Customers ST. LOUIS, Jul 19, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Perficient, Inc./quotes/comstock/15*!prft/quotes/nls/prft (PRFT8.53, +0.18, +2.16%) a leading information technology consulting firm serving Global 2000 and other large enterprise customers throughout North America, today announced it is the sole recipient of Microsoft's 2010 Public Sector Health Provider Partner of the Year award. The honor was announced at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington. The award recognizes Perficient for using Microsoft technology to deliver innovative healthcare solutions. Award winners and finalists were selected from nominations received from Microsoft's U.S. Public Sector team working throughout the nation. "Our healthcare partners across the country continue to demonstrate that technology has the ability to transform healthcare in the United States," said Brian Scott, General Manager, U.S. Healthcare for Microsoft. "As healthcare innovations advance and evolve, we expect Perficient to be at the center of those advances." Perficient's work with Virtua Health System was cited as a key factor in the selection process. Virtua Health is a multi-hospital healthcare system headquartered in Marlton, NJ with a mission to deliver a world-class patient experience through its programs of excellence in women's health, children's health, cancer/oncology, cardiovascular health, neurosciences, orthopedics, surgery and wellness. | By SuperUser Account on 7/19/2010 1:00 PM
Microsoft has put a price tag on keeping Windows in tune. - By Ina Fried The software giant said on Monday that it plans to charge customers $11 per computer per month for Windows Intune, a cloud-based service that lets small businesses manage and protect their computers. Microsoft announced its plans for Windows Intune back in April, but had not yet said how much it would charge for the service when it is ready for mainstream use early next year. Group product manager Alex Heaton said that Microsoft settled on that price based on what it charges for other online services, such as hosted Exchange and Sharepoint as well as by looking at what separate antivirus and management services cost. "Each of those things can cost several dollars per month," he said. Microsoft is talking about Intune Monday at its Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington, D.C. Perhaps the biggest selling point for some businesses, though, will be the fact that Windows Intune also includes upgrade rights to the enterprise edition of Windows 7. Microsoft is touting an IDC study that says that most businesses have either started moving to Windows 7 or will do so within the next six months. By next year, Microsoft said it believes more than half of new computers being added to businesses will run Windows 7. | By SuperUser Account on 7/17/2010 12:43 PM
By Mary Jo Foley | July 16, 2010, 3:01pm PDT At this week’s Worldwide Partner Conference, Microsoft officials shared with attendees their “official” roadmap for updating the company’s hosted Business Productivity Online (BPOS) suite. Company officials shared which features and capabilities that the company rolled out already as part of the on-premises server complements of the BPOS products will be added to the Microsoft-hosted versions of those offerings. I’ve run a few slides on this blog over the past couple of months, dating back to November 2009, that included much of this same information. But it wasn’t until this week that Microsoft officials acknowledged these details. I’ve heard that customers of the Dedicated (i.e., non-shared/non-multitenant) versions of Microsoft’s BPOS and its point-product parts — Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Communications Online and Live Meeting — already have some of the 2010 feature updates. But those using the “Standard” (multitenant) versions do not. Microsoft didn’t provide specific dates as to when they’d deliver the updates to each of its managed services, but did say the updates would happen in fiscal 2011 (which runs from July 1, 2010, to June 30, 2011). Earlier this year, the Softies said to watch for a “preview” of these BPOS updates before the end of this calendar year, and advised companies to prepare their infrastructure now for these BPOS futures. The roadmap slides the Softies showed at the partner conference this week look just about identical to the ones I ran earlier. In November 2009, Microsoft shared privately information about the coming 2010 features for Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and Communications Online. I ran some of this information, shared with me by sources, in various recent blog posts. According to Microsoft officials this week, here’s what’s coming on the Exchange Online front (from the WPC 2010 slide deck): 
(click on the slide to enlarge)
| By SuperUser Account on 7/17/2010 11:11 AM
Billionaire signs on to friend Bill Gates' challenge to give away fortunes Paul Allen says his philanthropic efforts will continue after his death. msnbc.com staff and news service reports updated 7/15/2010 2:55:32 PM ETSEATTLE — Paul Allen has become the latest billionaire to sign on to a challenge by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to get America's wealthiest people to donate the bulk of their riches to charity. In a statement Thursday, Allen, who co-founded Microsoft Corp. with Gates, said he plans to leave the majority of his estate, valued at roughly $13.5 billion, to philanthropy. Allen, 57, made the pledge on the same day he commemorated the 20th anniversary of thePaul G. Allen Family Foundation, which has handed out more than $400 million in grants and funding for nonprofits in the Pacific Northwest. Allen, who announced in November he was undergoing treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, said he has planned to give away the bulk of his fortune for some time, but had not gone public with his intentions until now. "Since the beginning, our philanthropy has been focused in the Pacific Northwest, where I live and work. I'm proud to have helped fund great work done by nonprofit groups throughout the region. But there's always more to do," Allen said. "Today I also want to announce that my philanthropic efforts will continue after my lifetime. I’ve planned for many years now that the majority of my estate will be left to philanthropy to continue the work of the Foundation and to fund nonprofit scientific research, like the ground-breaking work being done at the Allen Institute for Brain Science. As our philanthropy continues in the years ahead, we will look for new opportunities to make a difference in the lives of future generations." | By SuperUser Account on 7/17/2010 11:01 AM
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates says that smaller schools have not achieved all the gains that were hoped for but that it is "not fair" to declare them a failure. It's been two years since Bill Gates left his day-to-day role at Microsoft to concentrate on supervising the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation—and his new enterprise is booming. Headquartered in a converted check-processing center in Seattle's Eastlake neighborhood, the 10-year-old foundation plans to move into a 900,000-square-foot campus and visitors' center near the city's Space Needle next spring. The Gates Foundation opened a London office this year; it also has offices in Washington, Delhi, and Beijing, and 830 employees around the world, up from about 500 in 2008. With assets of $33.9 billion as of Dec. 31, 2009, and America's two richest people—Gates and Warren Buffett—as trustees, the foundation plans to spend $3 billion in the next five to seven years on education. If there's such a thing as a charity behemoth, the Gates Foundation is it. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.) While its efforts in global health are widely applauded, its record in America's schools has been more controversial. Starting in 2000, the Gates Foundation spent hundreds of millions of dollars on its first big project, trying to revitalize U.S. high schools by making them smaller, only to discover that student body size has little effect on achievement. It has since shifted its considerable weight behind an emerging consensus—shared by U.S. Education Secretary and Gates ally Arne Duncan—that quality of teaching affects student performance and that increasing achievement is as simple as removing bad teachers, identifying good ones, and rewarding them with more money. On this theory, Gates is investing $290 million over seven years in the Tampa, Memphis, and Pittsburgh school districts as well as a charter school consortium in Los Angeles. The largest chunk of money, $100 million, will go to Tampa's Hillsborough County school district, the eighth-largest in the U.S., with 192,000 students and 15,000 teachers. These carefully selected programs, which will favor or penalize teachers depending on whether students make larger or smaller gains than their test scores in prior years would have predicted, are intended as models that, if proven successful, can be rolled out nationwide. The Gates agenda is an intellectual cousin of the Bush administration's 2002 No Child Left Behind law, which required all public schools—though not individual teachers—to make "adequate yearly progress" on student test scores. Some opponents of No Child Left Behind questioned its faith in data; are scores too narrow a gauge of how well kids are learning? Gates sees nothing wrong in relying on quantitative metrics. "Every profession has to have some form of measurement," he said in a late June interview with Bloomberg Businessweek. "Tuning that, making sure it's fair, getting the teachers so they're enthused about it" are the keys. Still, the prospect of such measurement makes some educators and academic researchers uneasy. They contend that factors such as school leadership and culture exert a powerful influence on student achievement. Moreover, rating individual teachers based on their classroom's test results may be better suited to little red schoolhouses than today's large urban schools, where teachers team up, aides and tutors pitch in, and students come and go frequently. While cities such as Denver and Cincinnati have experimented with paying teachers for performance, the Gates initiative—called Intensive Partnerships for Effective Teaching—marks the largest and most comprehensive effort to evaluate teachers in all grades and subjects based on student test gains. "The people at Gates believe there is a window right now," says Michael S. McPherson, president of the Spencer Foundation, which supports education research. "They have in Washington an administration that's broadly sympathetic to their view. They have the attention of the American people, wanting dramatic improvement in the schools. Bill and Melinda Gates want to see results—not just in their lifetimes, but in the next few years." Small schools, false start
The last thing you'd expect from an organization headed by Bill Gates is a math mistake. Yet, according to Wharton School statistician Howard Wainer, the foundation may have misread the numbers when it arrived at its first prescription for American education. Wainer, who used the foundation as a case study in his 2009 book, Picturing the Uncertain World, says it seized on data showing small schools are overrepresented among the country's highest achievers and started pouring money into creating small high schools and subdividing big ones. Tom Vander Ark, a former schools superintendent in Washington state who was tapped to oversee the foundation's educational arm, was—and remains—a booster of small schools. The Gates Foundation declined comment on Wainer's assertion and research. View Full Article | By SuperUser Account on 7/17/2010 10:51 AM
By Kevin McLaughlin CRN - Fri. Jul. 16, 2010 Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) has opened four brick-and-mortar stores since launching its retail push last year, and the software giant is apparently planning to exponentially increase its footprint. Earlier this week at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington, D.C., COO Kevin Turner said Microsoft is going to "build dozens more stores" and is "just getting started" on that effort. Turner also said the direct contact with consumers that Microsoft gets through its retail locations is invaluable. "[Microsoft Stores] are an incredible learning vehicle for us," Turner said Wednesday at WPC. At Microsoft Stores, customers can check the latest Windows 7 PCs from Microsoft's OEM partners. Those that buy their PCs from a Microsoft store will get the Signature build, a configuration that's completely free of third party software add-ons unaffectionately known as "crapware." "If you go to a Microsoft store, you can get the Microsoft Signature build on that PC, which eliminates that third-party software that drives you nuts sometimes," Turner told WPC attendees. | By SuperUser Account on 7/14/2010 9:57 AM
Microsoft 's current version of Windows, Windows 7, has been a critical and commercial success. But you always have to be working on the next version, and some leaked documents show what Windows 8 might look like. | By SuperUser Account on 7/14/2010 9:44 AM
Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer met with The Washington Post Monday for a wide-ranging interview that touched on the software giant's cloud computing strategy, its struggles in the smartphone market and its public policy priorities.
When it comes to cloud computing — which takes software off the desktop PC and moves it to networks of data centers accessed via the Internet — Google may have the edge in consumer apps, but Microsoft is winning with big company clients such as Starbucks, General Electric and Accenture. On the platform level, Ballmer said Microsoft has a leg over Amazon for customers who want a private and customized infrastructure. | By SuperUser Account on 7/10/2010 1:21 PM
By: Nicholas Kolakowski - 2010-07-10 Microsoft's Bing continued to make incremental gains against Google in the U.S. search engine market, according to Experian Hitwise. Bing has continued to build out Web portal-like features to attract users. Microsoft’s Bing continued its pattern of incremental gains, according to research firm Experian Hitwise, which reported the search engine grew to occupy 9.85 percent of the U.S. search engine market in June. That represents a 7-percent change from May, when Hitwise estimated Bing’s share of the market at 9.23 percent. Meanwhile, Google continued to dominate with 71.65 percent of the U.S. search engine market, dropped nearly a percentage point since May. Yahoo dipped only slightly, from 14.43 percent to 14.37 percent. Since launching in summer 2009, and despite some early predictions of its imminent demise, Bing has managed to seize between 9 and 12 percent of the search-engine market, depending on the survey. While those numbers are dwarfed by Google’s, which holds between 66 and 72 percent of the market, Bing’s growth over the past year suggests the Website is capable of longer-term survival, even after Microsoft ratcheted down its initial multimillion-dollar marketing push. | By SuperUser Account on 7/9/2010 8:47 AM
Since Microsoft announced the new Business Ready Enhancement Plan Renewal Policy, talks about whether the customer should stay current has increased significantly.
At 16% of your total software list price, it’s potentially a sizable recurring investment for companies using the software. Not just specifically to Microsoft, almost all ERP, CRM, business software out there requires users to pay an annual enhancement of some sort.
Other than the obvious questions of “what do I get for staying current?”, the benefits are numerous and I encourage you to get with your partner to learn what these benefits are. But the primary reason with the new policy is that you need to be current in order to purchase additional granules and users.
This may sound very scary at first, but hopefully this blog post will put in perspective on what this means should you decide to stay current or not. | By SuperUser Account on 7/8/2010 9:32 AM
This press release was announced today around significant new functionality that is being added to Dynamics NAV (Navision) soon.
As part of Microsoft Corp.’s commitment to providing leading enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions to midrange organizations worldwide, the company today unveiled Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 R2 at Directions EMEA 2010. Because of the investment in architecture for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009, customers are able to take advantage of the benefits of the software-plus-services vision through the R2 release more quickly than scheduled, including built-in integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM and online Payment Service. | By SuperUser Account on 7/7/2010 9:35 AM
Microsoft ’s engineers and executives spent two years creating a new line of smartphones with playful names that sounded like creatures straight out of “The Cat in the Hat” — Kin One and Kin Two. Stylish designs, an emphasis on flashy social-networking features and an all-out marketing blitz were meant to prove that Microsoft could build the right product at the right time for the finickiest customers — gossiping youngsters with gadget skills. | By SuperUser Account on 7/6/2010 10:04 AM
If you're planning on buying or upgrading more than one Microsoft product in a year's time, consider a TechNet Standard subscription. For $200, you get, essentially, 100 installations of Windows, Office, and other Microsoft apps. | By SuperUser Account on 7/6/2010 9:57 AM
By DOUGLAS MCINTYRE - Posted 6:55 AM 07/06/10 Google (GOOG) apparently envies the program that Microsoft's (MSFT) Bing has set up to market music downloads. The Internet search leader plans to offer its own service by year-end,according toReuters.Microsoft's system works with its troubled Zune multimedia player. Google's will probably work with devices running its widely used Android mobile operating system.
According to Microsoft, 10% of all Internet search queries are entertainment-related, with music lyrics alone accounting for 70% of those searches.
Google's share of the search business is so much larger than Bing's that it will have a natural advantage in terms of gaining market share for content downloads.
Buy Now -- From Google
Google's plan raises two issues. The first is "what is a search engine?" Until recently, search has been based on bringing back neutral results. Search companies don't market products within their own results except for the text ads that run alongside them. Nor has Google marketed products of its own, but that may change with its buyout of travel data engine ITA Software. | By SuperUser Account on 7/6/2010 9:55 AM
One of the big problems with the proliferation of spyware and bots is that using a computer that has not been in your possession or control 100% of the time could result in bad things happening when you log into a website. Basically your password can get stolen and your account hijacked. If it’s your email or Facebook account that this happens to, a lot of really unfortunate things can happen to your data, and your friends can get spammed.
This is why I never use anyone else’s computers but my own, and I insist on taking my iPhone and laptop with me when I travel and using either Wifi or International data to get my email, log into Facebook etc. However there are cases where you need to get to your email account from a computer that’s not yours (like a hotel to print out a boarding pass, get important documents in your email etc). For this reason, the folks that work on Windows Live ID built a single-use code login feature. | By SuperUser Account on 7/5/2010 9:17 PM
July 2, 2010
For the 2010 World Cup Final match, the WPC 2010 team is encouraging you to watch the game with your fellow partners and Microsoft employees at various locations in Washington, D.C. The WPC 2010 team has identified locations where the World Cup match will be shown. Regions have been given a recommended location, and many regional teams will be hosting events for their partners to give them the opportunity to watch the match. Date: Sunday, July 11th Time: 2:30pm EDT Suggested Locations: - Grand Slam at the Grand Hyatt, 1000 H Street, NW
UK currently has an event planned with the bar. Suggested Regions: APAC, Greater China - Capital City Brewing Company, 1100 New York Ave, NW
Suggested Regions: France, CEE, India - The Green Turtle, 601 F Street, NW
Suggested Regions: Germany, Japan - Gordon Biersch, 900 F Street, NW
Suggested Region: LATAM - Irish Channel, 500 H Street, NW
Suggested Region: Canada - Clyde’s of Gallery Place, 707 7th Street, NW
Suggested Region: WE - Lucky Strike, 701 7th Street, NW
Suggested Region: WE
| By SuperUser Account on 7/5/2010 9:13 PM
June 15, 2010  The Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2010 is honored to announce that President Bill Clinton, founder of the William J. Clinton Foundation and 42nd President of the United States, will be the official WPC 2010 guest speaker. President Bill Clinton will be presenting “Embracing our Common Humanity” on Wednesday, July 14, in Washington, D.C.
Biography:William Jefferson Clinton was the first Democratic president in six decades to be elected twice – first in 1992 and then in 1996. Under his leadership, the country enjoyed the strongest economy in a generation and the longest economic expansion in U.S. history, including the creation of more than 22 million jobs. | By SuperUser Account on 7/5/2010 9:06 PM
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NewswireToday /newswire/ -Atlanta, GA, United States, 07/05/2010 - Business Leadership One-Day Event, featuring some of the top Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) 2010 speakers.
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Take advantage of an exclusive opportunity to network with and learn from some of the top featured Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) 2010 speakers at the Business Leadership One-Day Event. The Business Leadership One-Day Event will be held as a special separate event in addition to the Worldwide Partner Conference 2010. The event will take place at the JW Marriott Hotel at 1331 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW in Washington D.C. on July 13 (8:00 am – 5:30 pm ET). Register before July 10 and receive a $200 discount!*
Choose from one of three sales, marketing and leadership tracks, led by the following high-profile speakers:
Track 1 Speaker: Mahan Khalsa
World-renowned business expert, Mahan Khalsa, is the founder of Ninety Five 5, a company that specializes in sales improvement, enabling you to grow your business by focusing on the five percent of sales efforts that generate the greatest return. The Ninety Five 5 team combines tools from its Franklin Covey heritage with a philosophy of effective change management.
Track 1 Session Description: How to Drive Profitable Revenue Now and in the Future: Introduction to the Sales Success System
S3 is a sales improvement program that uses training as only one means of driving results. S3 was developed in collaboration with founding Ninety Five 5 partner, Mahan Khalsa, and was designed with the sales professional and sales manager in mind. This is a unique opportunity to spend the day with Khalsa and his team of coaches to learn about and experience the S3 program. Your participant fee includes a one-year subscription to "5 Online" - a technology enabler that helps to develop the skills, attitudes, and behaviors to succeed.
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| By SuperUser Account on 7/5/2010 8:23 PM
Market entrants also secure places By Reseller News Staff, Auckland | Tuesday, 06 July 2010 Enlighten Designs and Datacom feature heavily among the finalists in this year’s Microsoft New Zealand Partner Awards. Enlighten secured six placings – in the Enterprise Content Management Solution of the Year category, Portals and Collaboration Solution of the Year, the supreme Business Impact Solution of the Year, along with two places in the Partnering of the Year Award with Integral/Axon, and staff member Alex Taylor's place in the Solutions Architect of the Year category. Datacom features in the Application Platform Solution of the Year, Enterprise Content Management Solution of the Year, Portals and Collaboration Solution of the Year, CRM Solution of the Year, and staff member Carl Whitehead is a finalist in the Solutions Architect of the Year. Other notable finalists are Newlease and Markinson Business Solutions, each of which entered the local market last year. Newlease is a finalist in the Distributor of the Year and Reseller of the Year categories, while Markinson is a finalist in the CRM Solution of the Year award and the Partnering Award of the Year, with AppServ. | By SuperUser Account on 7/5/2010 8:19 PM
News Corp. is in discussions with Google Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. about replacing MySpace's crucial search-advertising partnership with Google, which expires next month, according to people familiar with the matter. Under the existing deal, Google agreed to make up to $900 million in guaranteed payments for the right to sell small ads as users surf and tap out searches on News Corp.'s My Space.com and on a handful of smaller News Corp. websites. But recently, MySpace has fallen far short of Web traffic and other milestones laid out in the Google contract, which expires at the end of August. In recent weeks, News Corp. has been discussing new, narrower advertising deals with Google and other companies, said the people familiar with the matter. People close to News Corp. said any new agreement will be for significantly less money. That would be a further financial challenge for MySpace, which has seen ad revenue slip. Google and Yahoo declined to comment. Google in 2006 beat out Microsoft and Yahoo for the ad pact, which was regarded at the time as justifying News Corp.'s purchase of MySpace's parent company for $650 million. News Corp. also owns The Wall Street Journal. The deal is winding down at a turbulent point. MySpace has seen turnover among several top-level executives, including Co-President Jason Hirschhorn last month. | By SuperUser Account on 7/5/2010 8:14 PM
Tuesday, 6 July 2010, 12:59 pm
Press Release: DataSouth Datasouth Finalists Third Time in Microsoft Partner Awards
6 July 2010. Christchurch, New Zealand – Datasouth is a finalist in two categories of Microsoft’s 2010 Partner Awards – the third year in a row the company has been recognised for its outstanding development of Microsoft technologies. As well as being a finalist twice for two separate solutions in the Core Infrastructure Solution of the Year category for projects with Warren and Mahoney and Catholic Diocese of Christchurch, the company is also a finalist in the Small Business Solution of the Year category. | By SuperUser Account on 7/5/2010 1:09 PM
Written by Austin Davies on Monday, July 5, 2010 
Illegal software has always been problem for Microsoft however they have started to tackle the problem in the UK by catching 25 computer shops, who were found to be installing pirated versions of Windows onto hard drives that were found in computer systems they were selling. Microsoft hired their own investigators to track down the suspects, then deal with them personally. Stores that continued their illegal activities would then be hunted by the Trading Standards, who have the legal power to prosecute. In a statement to ComputerWeekly, Michala Wardell, head of anti-piracy at Microsoft UK said, “Most of those caught in the operation either claimed the illegal activities were carried out by rogue employees or that they were not aware that what they were doing was illegal”. Most stores caught did confess they were doing wrong and are now working with Microsoft at correcting their mistakes of trading illegal software. Here’s a list of some of the offenders caught in Microsoft’s investigation; | By SuperUser Account on 7/5/2010 1:05 PM
By Kevin McLaughlin, CRN - 7:37 PM EDT Wed. Jun. 30, 2010 Guess what? Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) and Google (NSDQ: GOOG) are quarreling again. This time, Google is taking issue with Microsoft's recent portrayal of its support system for Google Docs as not being customer-friendly. On Monday, Barbara Gordon, Microsoft corporate vice president of customer service and support, called out Google for not prominently displaying customer support information to Google Docs customers. "When was the last time you called Google for help recovering a lost Google Doc? Were you even able to find a number? My guess is, no," Gordon said in a Monday blog post. Google fired back Thursday, noting that its support for paying Google Docs customers includes 24/7 phone support and highlighting the advantages of storing data in the cloud. "Generally, Google Docs users don't need help recovering 'lost' documents, as their documents are backed up in the multiple data centers in the cloud. This is safer and more secure than storing data on a single computer," a Google spokesperson said in an e-mail to CRN. In attacking Google, Gordon cited Microsoft's long history of supporting customers by phone and e-mail as well as through online community sites. She also mentioned Microsoft's enterprise support and services offerings, although she didn't explicitly mention the fact that Microsoft channel partners deliver many of these services.
| By SuperUser Account on 7/5/2010 1:01 PM
Jul 5, 2010 at 6:00am ET by Matt Lawson You’ve heard about the Microsoft/Yahoo search alliance, but what does it really mean for you and your paid search marketing campaigns? It’s not going to be as easy as flipping a switch. The good news is that a single platform and account team will streamline your marketing efforts and will likely drive more traffic in the process. However, there are still strategic decisions to be made. To minimize the disruption to profitable paid search programs, marketers will have to be thoughtful about campaign structure as they go through the transition and will need to be reactive to changes as they begin to understand the traffic and consumers from the combined search engines. It’s coming up quickly—North American accounts will be transitioned before the holiday season in Q4 2010, with worldwide rollouts to follow. With the search alliance, Microsoft adCenter will be the consolidated platform for advertisers on Bing and Yahoo However it’s the Yahoo account teams that will support managed accounts through and after this transition. As Yahoo and Microsoft make these changes, there are a variety of transition options for marketers. If you are confident in the quality of your Bing campaigns, you could choose to do nothing—our Yahoo campaigns would cease to receive traffic and your adCenter keywords would gain traffic. But taking a do-nothing approach won’t account for the changes in keyword performance that will occur when your adCenter campaigns are shown on both Yahoo and Bing. You will still need to augment your existing campaigns with relevant keywords and creative that have been performing well on Yahoo. Advertisers without mature programs on Bing will need to consider a more significant change, such as porting Yahoo or Google accounts to adCenter to avoid a drop in traffic and revenues. The search alliance will offer an automated tool for uploading ads from other accounts, but marketers may want to manage it manually to maintain more control over their traffic. | By SuperUser Account on 7/5/2010 12:51 PM
July 1, 2010 2:37 AM PDT - by Stephen Shankland  This chart shows the changing usage of the five top browsers; the darker colors are from earlier and the lightest color shows percentages for June 2010. (Credit: data from Net Applications, chart by Stephen Shankland/CNET)Internet Explorer has reversed a years-long slide in browser usage, at least for the month of June, reclaiming share at the expense of Firefox. IE increased usage from 59.8 percent to 60.3 percent, according to new statistics from Net Applications, an analytics company that monitors browser usage across a large network Web sites. It was buoyed by increasing usage of IE8 that offset the decline in IE7--and by what Web developers no doubt hope will be only a temporary pause in the decline of the despised IE6. | By SuperUser Account on 7/5/2010 12:45 PM
By: Alan Ng - July 5, 2010 For those of you who are planning to pick up Microsoft’s Kinect motion system in November, you should pay attention – it looks as if the retail box package has been leaked a few months early. We want your thoughts on the color scheme. An image of the packaging has been obtained by Kotaku and gives us a very close-up look at Microsoft’s somewhat ‘colorful’ choice of packaging. We know that Microsoft are really pushing the boat out with Kinect and want to appeal to as much people as possible, but is the ten shades of purple and green really necessary? We would of preferred a slicker look, perhaps black mixed with a bit of dark blue, but we don’t all get what we want sometimes. I don’t like the packaging personally, but maybe you think differently. Take a look at the image below and let us know your thoughts on the box. Are you a fan or not? 
Microsoft Xbox 360 Kinect: Retail Packaging - Do you like it? | By SuperUser Account on 7/5/2010 12:37 PM
Analysis: The Kin debacle demonstrates Microsoft's mismanaged mobile strategy and could affect the success of Windows Phone 7.By Shane O'Neill, Jul 3, 2010 10:16 am Microsoft dropped a stunner on the tech world this week by terminating Kin, its social media-centered phone for teenagers.  Just a mere six weeks after its long-gestating birth in May, Kins will no longer be sold in the U.S. and plans for a fall European release have been scrapped. Internally, the Kin team will be rolled into theWindows Phone 7 team, according to Microsoft.
The Kin came in two models, One and Two, and were the result of Microsoft's purchase in early 2008 of Danger, the company behind the technology for T-Mobile's Sidekick phones. The Kins were then in mysterious development for what felt like an eternity under the code name Pink. Theories abound as to why Kin got the axe. It's likely a combination of vague marketing, Microsoft's cluelessness about today's youth market, the lack of an app store, and high prices for the phones and a way too expensive data plan from Verizon ($30 per month). All of this inevitably led to poor sales. | By SuperUser Account on 7/5/2010 12:30 PM
By John Letzing, Dow Jones Newswires Friday 02 July 2010 Internet giant aiming to acquire ITA Software for $700 million.Google Inc.'s intention to buy ITA Software Inc. for $700 million, announced Thursday, could put the company in control of widely used technology that, among other things, helps power a key aspect of Microsoft Corp.'s rival search engine. Google said in a statement that ITA Software's technology "opens exciting possibilities for us to create new way for users to more easily find flight information online." Among other clients, Microsoft uses ITA Software's technology to include airfare pricing and availability information in Bing, according to ITA Software's Web site.
 Bing is a search engine unveiled amid a great deal of fanfare last year. Microsoft has touted Bing's ability to provide accurate, up-to-date information on airfares as an important aspect that helps distinguish the search engine from competitors, including Google. | By SuperUser Account on 7/2/2010 8:42 PM
Microsoft leads partners to side with Citrix in virtualization's newest battle. - By John K. Waters, 07/01/2010 The battle of the client hypervisors is on, and Microsoft channel partners are right in the middle of it. Many Microsoft partners have close alliances with virtualization market leader VMware Inc., but Microsoft is encouraging those partners to consider the potential of a new bare-metal client hypervisor -- the world's first -- which its longtime technology partner Citrix Systems Inc. just announced. Citrix beat its chief rival, VMware, to the punch when it unveiled its new XenClient at the company's annual Synergy conference, held in San Francisco in May. Citrix developed the client-side hypervisor with Intel Corp., optimizing it for the chip-maker's vPro processors to accelerate the delivery of client-side virtualization. XenClient is designed to let organizations deploy centrally managed virtual PC images to run natively on notebook or desktop systems, even if they're not connected. During his keynote address launching the new client hypervisor, Citrix CEO Mark Templeton described XenClient as a "super fast, 64-bit, bad-to-the bone hypervisor -- a true Type 1 hypervisor that bonds to the laptop and delivers a bare-metal experience to the apps and OS and things that run on top of it." The company has made a trial version available for download, and promises general availability later this year. "Corporate laptops are the last mile in extending the full benefits of desktop virtualization to all users in the enterprise," Templeton said. | By SuperUser Account on 7/2/2010 9:45 AM
T Microsoft has decided not to move forward with the Kin, a phone aimed at avid social-networking users. (Credit: CNET)June 30, 2010 - by Ina Fried - Amid anemic sales, Microsoft has decided to halt work on its Kin phone less than two months after the product hit the market. The social media-oriented phone will not make its planned European debut and Microsoft is shifting the entire Kin team to work on Windows Phone 7, the Microsoft smartphone operating system due out later this year. Andy Lees, who heads up the company's cell phone efforts announced the move to Microsoft workers earlier on Wednesday, according to a source close to the company. Microsoft confirmed the move in a statement to CNET. | By SuperUser Account on 7/1/2010 8:14 AM
On June 28, 2010, in Social Web, by Mahendra While everyone has been dissecting the Google Me rumor, I’ve been taking a look at Microsoft’s Windows Live Wave 4. Here are a few key features with my thoughts on how they contrast with Google Buzz. User Base ~300 millionGoogle tried to leverage its Gmail user base when it launched Buzz. What ensued was a privacy nightmare. Microsoft has had no such issues when leveraging its Instant Messaging user base. Windows Messenger has a user base of 299 million, compared to Gmail’s 173 million. I also think that a greater proportion of Windows Messenger users will actively use its social features than the proportion of Gmail users who actively use Buzz. Open Standards Support: Activity StreamsIt’s difficult to read any Buzz propaganda without encountering the mention of Open Standards. Windows Live uses Activity Streams-compliant feeds from Facebook, MySpace, and a dozen other partners. Superior Privacy SettingsRead this post from the Inside Windows Live blog for a comprehensive look at the privacy options. Here are a couple of screenshots: 
| By SuperUser Account on 6/29/2010 9:23 AM
By Shane O'neill, CIO June 28, 2010 04:22 PM ET Microsoft became decidedly more social with SharePoint 2010, adding social networking tools like improved wiki and blog integration, tagging and microblogging into its SharePoint MySites feature. As the social Web extends beyond Twitter and Facebook and into businesses, manyenterprise-level companies are changing their cultures and focusing on improving communication, sharing information and connecting global workforces through social media. Microsoft is not the only one integrating social networking features into its flagship products, of course. Big-name rivals IBM, Cisco, Google and Salesforce.com (currently countersuing Microsoft for patent infringement) want to grab their pieces of the enterprise 2.0 pie. These social networking and collaboration competitors will aim to differentiate themselves from SharePoint, which has the advantage of being a widely-used part of the established Microsoft ecosystem, says Forrester principal analyst Rob Koplowitz. "SharePoint 2010 now includes more social capabilities, and the value for many businesses is that it's also included with an existing, highly-integrated platform. For many organizations, that will be the right direction," he says. Here's a rundown of the four biggest-name competitors that hope SharePoint is the wrong direction for enterprises, at least for social networking | By SuperUser Account on 6/28/2010 4:01 PM |
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