Microsoft Helps TE Data Improve Customer Service
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REDMOND, Wash., May 29  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Today Microsoft Corp.
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Microsoft announced a major support upgrade, clearer road maps, and a new financing option for its Dynamics range of business applications on Wednesday.
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Microsoft Corp. will give customers advance notice of its monthly security updates in an effort to help them prepare to install related software patches, the company announced Thursday.
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Software maker promises that the sales force automation revamp will help sales processes by pulling in more data.
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Microsoft Corp. has begun providing free tools so government organizations can better share technological information, in a move it says is aimed at helping cash-strapped customers save money.
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To overcome industry objections, Microsoft revises its Sender ID proposal.
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Microsoft Corp. has fixed a problem that made it difficult for users of the most recent Windows Mobile devices to synch with PCs running Vista.
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Company is upgrading current support and service program to draw more mainframe customers.
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Only days after OracleÂ sealed a deal to buy PeopleSoft, Microsoft is offering its advice to PeopleSoft customers.
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Microsoft Corp. continues to tweak its volume licensing programs to make it easier for business customers to purchase the company&#39;s software in bulk.
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Technologists have long dreamed of using the Internet to send data about consumer products to shoppers in real time, wherever they happen to be. Researchers at Microsoft Corp. claim they're getting closer to making that happen.
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(InfoWorld) - Two years after creating a division that offers managed services, MicrosoftÂ has signed three more pilot customers and continues to expand its datacenter investments to pave the way for more deployments. In addition to its flagship customer, battery maker Energizer Holdings, Microsoft now is providing managed services for XL Capital in Bermuda as well two other customers that do not wish to be named, said Ron Markezich, vice president of Microsoft managed services. He discussed the business in an interview on Monday at the TechEd 2007 conference in Orlando. The company has received a lot of feedback from its initial deployment with Energizer and is using that information as it expands its offering to other customers, he said. Microsoft hosts and manages only its own software products for customers, though those products often run in heterogeneous IT systems. Microsoft manages a deployment of Exchange Server, SharePoint, and Live Communications Server, as well as runs a remote desktop service through its System Management Server product for 8,000 Energizer desktop users, Markezich said. The software runs in Microsoft's datacenter outside of Seattle, where Microsoft also runs the back end for its Windows Live services. Microsoft entered managed services later than many of its competitors, such as IBM, Sun Microsystems, and a diminishing group of independent managed services providers that have found it hard to compete with large vendors or have been acquired. However, Microsoft considers hosted services -- including both online consumer services and enterprise services such as its managed offerings -- as a top priority for the next several years. Two years ago, Microsoft purchased e-mail managed services provider FrontBridge Technologies. The company recently opened a new datacenter in Quincy, Wash., a location chosen for its energy prices, Markezich said. Cost is only one reason customers find managed services an attractive option, Markezich said. He declined to comment specifically on how much Microsoft charges for its services, since it is different depending on the customer. He also wouldn't say how much customers stand to save by having Microsoft manage IT assets rather than host and deploy them on premises. But he said there are other perks to going the managed services route. Unlike many other providers of managed services, Microsoft does not charge customers for rolling out a software update, so customers can get the latest software from the company without having to purchase it and deploy it themselves. "We don't say, to roll it out you have to pay us more," Markezich said. "It just comes as part of the standard service fee." Microsoft is currently deploying the newest version of its Office suite, Office 2007, at Energizer, he said. Markezich said customers also like having Microsoft host and manage their software for them because it frees up IT employees and resources that can be used in another area of the business.
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The PC industry is doing a better job this year of satisfying its U.S. customers, and better technical support and easier-to-use hardware seem to have made a difference, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index.
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InfoWorld - Microsoft&#160;has taken another step to make it easier for customers and partners to customize its BI software suite.
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Microsoft says it's working to fix a glitch that stopped some customers from taking advantage of offer to get additional licenses for less.
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PC maker Dell and software company Microsoft have formed a development partnership to improve the way customers manage systems across the enterprise.
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Microsoft chief provides a few more details on company's effort to build a set of services in the Internet cloud.