discussUC

With all of the news coming from the sold-out SharePoint Conference 2011 this week, I sat down to compare SharePoint capabilities in Office 365 with features in Google Apps. Quickly, I realized that I was comparing substance and illusion. SharePoint Online...(read more)...

Authors: Julia White

The new year is starting off with a bang – a great new set of Notes customers decided to Exchange and SharePoint.  At this rate, 2011 could be one of our biggest Notes “switcher” years, yet.    With IBM’s annual Lotusphere conference starting next week, it means that Notes customers...

Authors: Julia White

Almost everyone knows the Toshiba brand, but you might not know that they recently switched from Lotus Notes to Exchange and SharePoint.   Toshiba has 130,000 employees worldwide and is a global leader in electronics manufacturing.  Their story is very typical of large, global companies that have switched from...

Authors: Julia White

In November 2009 Cisco Mail was introduced to the world, but yesterday Cisco announced that they were abandoning this hosted mail service.   It should come as no surprise that we have been watching the coverage with some interest and have some thoughts of our own to share.

The Wall Street Journal, in Cisco Pulls Plug...

Authors: Julia White

Exchange is fortunate to have a strong Partner community that helps our customers plan, deploy, and manage their Exchange environments.  Our Notes migration Partners have added an extra dimension by providing services and tools to move customers’ data and resources from complex and long-standing Notes

WPC 2010 was Microsoft’s largest partner conference ever with over 14,000 attendees from 130 countries. WPC provided an opportunity to meet with partners, congratulate and celebrate our partners’ successes, and share our business priorities for the upcoming year at our UC Pre-Day and WPC sessions. Walking away from WPC, there is a legion of Systems Integrators, Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), Resellers, Telco and Hardware partners readied and excited to help customers like you realize the full benefits of Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Communications Server ‘14’.

It is evident our partners are not only expanding their Exchange and Communications Server practices, but partners are also investing in Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft Office, enabling you to take advantage of our full productivity offerings. Cloud, cloud, cloud was the theme of WPC, and partners were eager to learn how to bring Business Productivity Online Services (BPOS) to your organization.

We hosted over 350 partners at our UC Pre-Day. Conference highlights include Stephen Elop’s vision keynote featuring a demo by Kirk Koenigsbauer, Chris Caposella’s value keynote, and breakout sessions from Kirk Gregersen and Julia White. Ian Hameroff and Gary Danoys teamed up to present an interactive session highlighting Exchange Online and how Microsoft and our partners are winning against IBM and Google. Jamie Stark’s session on deployment opportunities for the forthcoming release of Communications Server ‘14’ was standing room only, and partners were eager to learn about how CS “14” can be used to replace, enhance or add to a customers’ PBX. Watch keynotes and breakout sessions at www.digitalwpc.com.

A growing set of partners are realizing new business opportunities by developing applications on our Communications Server platform. Yancey Smith, Director of Communications Server Product Management, moderated a panel of six CEBP (communications enable business processes) application developer partners including Geomant, Clarity Consulting, Convergent, Post CTI, Wortell and Evangelyze. The panel focused on Communications Server ‘14’ as an extensible platform for building CEBP applications to further streamline business process..

Finally, Polycom, Aastra, Brocade, ClearOne, and Dialogic announced partner solutions along with a joint release from Polycom and BT.

Our team is excited to kickoff this fiscal year with a strong partner ecosystem that is activated and eager to deliver our unified communications solutions to you. Partners are coming to the cloud with us and are ready to advise you on how to take advantage of our growing cloud portfolio spanning Exchange Online, Office Communications Online, SharePoint Online, all the way to Windows Azure and Windows Intune.

For more information, visit digitalwpc.com and whymicrosoft.com.

Cheers,

Kristin Murray, UC Partner Marketing

The Office Communications Group recently published a video case study which focuses on a CEBP (Communication Enabled Business Process) implementation in which Office Communications Server (OCS) plays a critical role saving patients’ lives.  This video shows how a Russian hospital is able to use OCS as a Telemedicine solution to remotely diagnose patients.  One of Microsoft’s Gold Certified Partners in Russia (Lotsman Plus), built this custom hosted solution using OCS as a CEBP platform, integrating with SharePoint.

When patients in rural areas suffer a heart problem, they go to a local clinic which can often be kilometers away from major cities in Russia. While the rural clinic facility is critical for the community, the clinic doctor often does not have the level of expertise or equipment to conduct surgery operations.  They frequently only have diagnostic/imaging equipment and need to consult with other surgeons/specialists to diagnose critical situations.  Using this imaging equipment, they can scan a patient’s heart and the video & still images are automatically uploaded to SharePoint servers hosted at Lotsman Plus.  Clinic doctors can then start an OCS conferencing session with specialists in the Federal Cardiovascular Center in Penza, a major city in Russia.  During the OCS conferencing session, specialists can diagnose a patient’s heart on a real time basis, control remote-playback of videos/images uploaded to the OCS + SharePoint custom apps, then advise the patient on their condition.  This allows them to make important decisions about whether to immediately bring the patient to the Center for surgery.

I particularly like this video because it shows how technology can enhance the way doctors treat patients remotely, but also how the technology offered by OCS can help to prolong peoples’ lives.

Watch the video

Read the written case study

Kind regards,

Rainer Podjoutomo

Product Manager, Office Communications Group

Authors: JRG_MSFT

I participated in the Exchange and SharePoint Online Services Live Chat on Tuesday, Feb 23rd. This event was a first for me. It added a new level of “interrupt-driven” to the usual IM and e-mail traffic that we deal with every day. It’s hard to provide deep technical information in an IM chat format, but I think we were able to ans...

Over the last several weeks, I've been proud to highlight why customers of all sizes, geographies and industries have picked Microsoft over Google Apps. Some have left Google after realizing 'it's more pony than horse', others gave it a test drive and found out quickly it was 'more showroom than track ready'.  (Sorry, I couldn't resist) . Despite the hype machines running overtime at the GooglePlex in Mountain View, customers are voting with their feet to pick Microsoft.

This is why I am excited to highlight two more customers who have decided to share their reasons why Microsoft has become their trusted software vendor. As always, if you want more customer examples or content that outlines how our solutions differ to Google, you can always visit this website.

Leaving Google.  Why Even Free Google Apps Wasn't Worth It

Jared Morgan from Bradshaw and Weil in Paducah, KY has written a guest post over on the MS Online blog about their experience leaving Google Apps Standard Edition for MS Online. Standard edition is a free offering from Google that is limited to 50 users. They see the tremendous value in BPOS to now pay for the suite of services. Jared shares why as a small business the cloud offers a cost effective way to remain agile while gaining access to technology previously out of reach due to cost and on site company support. My favorite part about Jared's post is his singling out of SharePoint Online as a key benefit of the BPOS Suite, "What I thought I was getting as a simple throw-in with BPOS, SharePoint Online has turned out to be as valuable as Exchange Online, if not more so."

SharePoint is the fastest growing product in the history of Microsoft. It's received numerous accolades from industry analysts including top placement in all related Gartner Magic Quadrants. Imagine being a small business with under 50 employees and having access to such a product via the cloud? It's no surprise why SharePoint is a winner for Bradshaw and Weil and 'Why Microsoft' is an affirmative statement and not question at all.

Future Proofing Your Business - Cloud on Your Terms with Microsoft

On the Exchange Blog, David Aird, Head of IT for MITIE, a strategic outsourcing and asset management company, shares his insights into why they selected Exchange over Google Apps. He explains how Microsoft provides flexibility they need and how Google is an ultimatum full of hidden costs. We are the only company in the industry that allows you to run your solutions on prem, in the cloud, hosted with a partner or a hybrid. That means that companies like Bradshaw and Weil who are 'All In' can embrace the cloud immediately and for companies like MITIE, they can still run the systems themselves but by being on Microsoft, they have a product that is 'future proofed' because it allows them an 'on ramp' to go to the cloud on their terms.

"We looked at Google. They were competitively priced but with only three years in the productivity space, they lacked maturity and seemed like a risky investment… Ultimately, we choose Exchange 2007 for its manageability, reliability and enterprise class support. Despite all the recent focus on the cloud, we're not quite ready to move our data outside of our immediate control. When we do, we'll do it on our terms rather than being forced into a fit that's not right for our business." (see post for full transcript. I pulled from two paragraphs)

Stay tuned for more customer stories in the coming weeks as we continue to highlight 'Why Microsoft'.