Microsoft Talk

Reveals extensive enhancements for simplified application life-cycle management, provides sneak peek at all key focus areas for Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.0.

Microsoft Corp. today provided the first look at the next version of its developer tools and platform, which will be named Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.0. Microsoft described the next release through the following five focus areas: riding the next-generation platform wave, inspiring developer delight, powering breakthrough departmental applications, enabling emerging trends such as cloud computing, and democratizing application life-cycle management (ALM).

Today’s announcement included an in-depth look at how Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) 2010 (code-named “Rosario”) will help democratize ALM with a unique solution that brings all the members of a development organization into the application development life cycle, and removes many of the existing barriers to integration. Additional details on the other focus areas will be disclosed over the product development cycle.

“With Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.0, we are focused on the core pillars of developer experience, support for the latest platforms spanning client, server, services and devices, targeted experiences for specific application types, and core architecture improvements,” said S. “Soma” Somasegar, senior vice president of the Developer Division at Microsoft. “These pillars are designed specifically to meet the needs of developers, the teams that drive the application life cycle from idea to delivery, and the customers that demand the highest quality applications across multiple platforms. You can expect to hear a lot more about Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.0 in the coming months.”

Democratizing Application Life-Cycle Management

Today, much of application development remains siloed throughout the enterprise, leading to decreased productivity and lengthy product development cycles. With VSTS 2010, Microsoft is taking the next step forward in giving individuals and development organizations an advanced solution that enables them to integrate effectively and build and deliver high-quality applications.

Green IT solutions can bring small businesses cost savings.

Small businesses increasingly rely on technology to help the environment and save money, according to results of a survey released today. Findings show that 60 percent of small-business decision-makers save money by using sustainable technologies.

The telephone survey — conducted on behalf of Microsoft Corp. by KRC Research — of 250 small-business IT decision-makers nationwide discovered a growing focus on environmental concerns. Thirty-eight percent of respondents reported that their companies are more focused on being environmentally friendly than they were one year ago.

An overwhelming majority (69 percent) of respondents reported that environmentally friendly practices are important for their business. When it comes to methods for greening their business, 94 percent of those surveyed also believe technology is an important tool to help accomplish that goal.

“Technology can play a significant role in helping businesses lower their impact on the environment,” said Francois Ajenstat, director of environmental sustainability at Microsoft. “Microsoft helps by reducing the energy consumption of technology, helping manage environment footprint and rethinking business practices. This enables organizations to improve both their bottom line and the sustainability of their operations.”

The survey results reveal practices that small businesses see as most beneficial for the environment. Respondents identified a paperless office as the No. 1 green IT practice they feel also offers the greatest cost savings.

One survey participant, Joseph Hommel, chief operating officer and co-owner of Maui Office Machines and Furnishings, considers environmental practices for his business a natural extension of his personal lifestyle.

The survey results highlight sustainable practices that small-business decision-makers believe represent the most savings potential for their business including the following:

• Setting up standards to manage power consumption for computers, such as setting computers or monitors to sleep mode after a period of not being used (28 percent)

• Allowing employees to telecommute (26 percent)

• Upgrading server infrastructure with the most energy-efficient technology available (16 percent)

• Using mobile technology (15 percent)

• Conducting live meetings that share resources over the Web such as presentations (14 percent)

Technology Companies Dominate Findings With Focus on Innovation, Localized Products and Regional R&D Presence

Once again, readers voted software giant Microsoft Corp. as Asia’s overall top company. It occupies first place for the 12th consecutive survey. Microsoft placed second in the innovation category, up from eighth place the in 2006. Readers again voted Microsoft No. 1 in two of the five categories: long-term vision and financial reputation.

Canon Inc. was selected No. 1 for quality of products and services, and BMW AG was voted tops for corporate reputation.

Toyota Motor Corp., Nokia Corp., and Intel Corp. round out the overall most-admired top five.

A total of 2,477 executives and professionals participated in the survey, which was conducted last year between May 11 and July 3. On behalf of The Wall Street Journal, market-research firm Colmar Brunton polled subscribers as well as other businesspeople in 12 Asia-Pacific countries.

Quest for Innovation

Asia now plays a key part in Microsoft’s global quest for innovation. Microsoft invests $7 billion annually in research and development, and today two of Microsoft Research’s five labs are in Asia — one in Bangalore, India, and one in Beijing. “Microsoft Research Asia has also achieved many technological breakthroughs. More than 200 innovations from the Beijing lab alone have been transferred to Microsoft products, including Windows Vista, Microsoft Office 2007, Xbox and Windows Live. In addition, the Microsoft India Development Centre in Hyderabad has filed over 220 patents over the last four years,” says Mr. Umeoka.

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More than just mouth-watering recipes, the site will focus on the culture and people behind the food we eat every day.

Hearst Magazines Digital Media, a unit of Hearst Magazines, and MSN today announced the launch of Delish.com (http://www.delish.com), a new online food destination. Delish.com, also available at http://www.msn.delish.com, features thousands of quick and easy food and cocktail recipes from Hearst Magazines and other sources, as well as fan blogs on the most popular food television shows, and the latest on food events and festivals worldwide. With an authoritative point of view that is simultaneously fun and informative, the site’s content will provide everyday chefs and busy individuals with the tools to expand their cooking and entertaining skills and knowledge of what is happening in and around the world of food. MSN and Hearst anticipate that Delish.com’s traffic numbers will immediately place the site into the top 10 food-related destinations on the Internet.

“Delish.com is very serious about the subject of food, but our writers, bloggers and overall editorial slant also look at the cultural and whimsical side of what we’re all eating,” said Chuck Cordray, vice president and general manager of Hearst Magazines Digital Media. “Together with MSN, we developed Delish.com to go way beyond a typical recipe site. We are confident that consumers will come to us for both information and entertainment.”

Delish.com will be accessible through the MSN home page and in editorial programming across its network, including on the MSN Lifestyle Channel and other relevant channels. In addition, all the advertising inventory for Delish.com will be sold by Microsoft Advertising. As part of the deal, MSN will sell targeted inventory in the food category on four Hearst properties: Countryliving.com, Goodhousekeeping.com, Quickandsimple.com and Redbookmag.com.

Many popular brands that have signed up as initial advertisers on the site include Hellmann’s/Best Foods, Knorr and Bertolli Frozen, Simply Orange, and Kraft.

“The combination of the reach of MSN and the brand integrity and programming depth of Hearst is a competitive powerhouse that exponentially delivers on MSN and Hearst’s commitment to the food category,” said Sandy Henson, senior director, MSN Health and Lifestyles. “Consumers and advertisers on Delish.com will be able to choose from a wide variety of content that integrates food and entertainment in a personal and socially relevant way that has not been done before.”

Microsoft continues its commitment to advancing Hispanics through technology as New Technology Founding Partner for National Hispanic Business Information Clearinghouse.

In celebration of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC) 29th Annual National Convention, Microsoft Corp. today announced its partnership with the National Hispanic Business Information Clearinghouse (BIC) as part of the company’s commitment to advance Hispanic entrepreneurs and businesses in the United States through the use of technology.

“The BIC is a unique, multilingual Web site that provides Latino entrepreneurs and small-business owners with top-rated business resources,” said Sal Gomez, founder and CEO of BIC. “At www.nhbic.org, you will find a wealth of information on starting, marketing and managing your business, as well as local resources and training to help you succeed.”

A 2002 U.S. Census Bureau study showed that close to 70 percent of all Hispanic-owned businesses make less than $50,000 a year in gross sales and close to 70 percent have fewer than four employees. According to the Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy, nearly one-third of all Hispanic-owned businesses fail to survive four years. Much of the success of a business depends on operations and management.

Microsoft has teamed with the BIC as the founding technology partner of this online initiative for Hispanic business owners and entrepreneurs. “Technology is a critical tool that will help Latinos advance in both their life and career,” said Jose Piñero, director of Multicultural Marketing for Microsoft. “At Microsoft we are very excited to provide content for the BIC’s technology section and empower Latinos to succeed in their business enterprises.”

As Hispanic entrepreneurs strive to start their businesses and keep them alive and profitable, access to resources and technology becomes a key component of their entrepreneurial success. “Our partnership with Microsoft will allow us to provide greater content and tools, including several free software solutions, technology disaster planning and recovery guidance, and even a technology budget worksheet for entrepreneurs,” said Michael Barrera, president of the BIC and former president of the USHCC. “These tools will also give local chambers another tool to help Hispanic entrepreneurs run a more efficient business and eventually obtain more contracts.”

U.S. military and families recognized with a special performance of Radio City Christmas Spectacular and a weekend in New York City.

During this year’s Veterans Day weekend, Nov. 7–9, 2008, Microsoft Corp. will partner with the USO to recognize and thank the military community by hosting the second annual A Salute to Our Troops through a unique New York weekend experience. A Salute to Our Troops is a national program honoring the many faces of courage and inspiration belonging to individuals who demonstrate selfless dedication to our country. The program seeks to inspire others into action and show unified support for our service men and women and their families.

Tickets for a private showing of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular are being made available today for service members and their families and can be reserved online at http://www.salutetoourtroops.org. The private showing of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular maintains the USO tradition of entertaining the troops and gives them a chance to spend valuable time with their families during the holiday season. As part of the commitment to ensuring that troops around the globe get to experience the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, the show will be rebroadcast multiple times on American Forces Network and the Pentagon Channel over the holiday season.

In addition, Microsoft and the USO will host 25 wounded warriors from the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Naval Medical Center to take part in a variety of distinctive activities throughout the weekend in New York City, including a U.S. Coast Guard tour of New York Harbor and the Statue of Liberty, lunch in Little Italy and an evening at New York’s Hard Rock café.

“Our service members and the USO volunteers who serve them exemplify leadership, duty and discipline, inspiring us to consider the various ways we can give back,” said Curt Kolcun, vice president of Microsoft U.S. Public Sector. “A Salute to Our Troops is our way of recognizing their sacrifices and honoring their efforts by providing some exciting New York moments they won’t forget.”

“A Salute to Our Troops once again aims to bring joy and show gratitude to our service men and women and their families for all they do for this country,” said Brian Whiting, president of USO of Metropolitan New York. “As we host them here in New York, in the proud tradition of partnership with our USO-Metro D.C. counterparts, we hope Americans will join us in considering ways they themselves can give back to those who give so much.”

A Salute to Our Troops also offers the opportunity for Americans to salute a USO volunteer or thank someone in the military for their service through the sharing of online stories in the A Salute to Our Troops community at http://www.salutetoourtroops.org.

At Photokina, the world’s largest photography trade show, Microsoft’s Kostas Mallios provides insight into how the company is sharpening its focus on photography to solve real problems for photographers.

In part, Kostas Mallios talks about:

It’s an exciting year for Microsoft in digital photography and we’re talking about a number of things this week at Photokina including some of our existing offerings for both enthusiasts and professional photographers as well as some of the cool new products we’ve been working on. For consumers, we’re talking about built-in tools like Windows Live Photo Gallery that give people a very intuitive way to view, manage, and refine their photos. And for pros and advanced enthusiasts, we’re showing applications like Expression Media 2 which, in partnership with Phase One, we’re offering as a product bundle with Capture One. This brings the best in RAW processing with world class digital asset management, helping photographers organize, preserve and share their photos. In addition to these products, we’re showcasing the investments we’re making in the future of digital photography. You’ll see a number of our new ideas featured at Photokina, including Photosynth, a service that allows you to experience digital photography in an entirely new 3 dimensional way.

You may have also heard, today we announced the Metadata Working Group (MWG), formed by Adobe, Apple, Canon, Microsoft and Nokia and, recently, Sony, each of whom embrace the goal to develop metadata guidelines that are compatible across all applications, devices and services. These guidelines will ultimately reduce interoperability problems that make finding, organizing and searching for digital photos a challenge.

Our focus is solving real problems whether they’re problems we’ve heard other photographers tell us they’ve had or those we’ve experienced ourselves. We have a blog and a Web site dedicated to serious photographers. We also have a program called the Icons of Imaging Program, where we get input from some of the top photographers in the industry who tell us what problems they’re hoping we can solve.

As an industry, digital photography is still in its infancy, so in addition to solving key problems that exist today, we’re also exploring the potential of digital photography for tomorrow. We’ve made big investments in research and are delivering products like Photosynth that are changing the way we think about and use digital photography. Our goal for our work today and our investments in tomorrow is to make it easier for photographers to organize, preserve and share digital images so photographers can be more efficient and spend more time behind the lens.

of Microsoft’s Second Annual ICT for Development Conference: Microsoft kicks off a week of activities focused on the developing world with a conference in Washington, D.C.

It’s easy to forget that the vast majority of the world’s population — some five billion people — still lack access to even basic information and communication technology (ICT). Many of those who are underserved by technology live in countries that can’t yet provide all their citizens with the basic necessities of food, clean water, sanitation and health care. Experts agree that technology can be an essential component in addressing these issues and raising a country’s population out of poverty by creating sustainable economic growth and development.

Microsoft, though its Unlimited Potential effort, is committed to using its technology and resources to help address the world’s social, economic and health problems. On Sept. 22 and 23 in Washington, D.C., the company is hosting its second annual ICT for Development Conference, a gathering of leaders from government development agencies, inter-governmental organizations (IGOs), the private sector and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). The focus this year is on the importance of public-private partnerships in addressing development issues.

The ICT for Development conference is just one of the ways Microsoft is focusing on global development this week:

• On Sept. 23-26, the 2008 Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Annual Meeting will be held in New York City. Microsoft is a co-sponsor of this gathering of current and former heads of state, CEOs, philanthropists and NGO leaders. This meeting has been held annually since 2005 and this year’s agenda addresses critical global challenges, like the food and energy crises, climate change, global health and poverty alleviation.

• On Sept. 25, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, in his capacity as co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, will address a special session of the United Nations (UN) on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a set of ambitious international development goals that UN member states, international organizations, and Microsoft and other private companies have committed to trying to achieve by the year 2015.

Cheick Diarra, Microsoft’s chairman for Africa, will attend both the ICT for Development conference and the UN MDG conference, where he will address how ICT investment can help boost economic and social development in African countries, stimulate growth and increase innovation.

Gurdeep Singh Pall, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Unified Communications Group, talks about why businesses are embracing Microsoft’s unified communications platform and the importance of providing customers with a single infrastructure and user experience.

In part;

Why should customers prefer an integrated product set over rival offerings that stitch together multiple systems?

Pall: Selling unified communications like a puzzle that customers need to assemble and configure themselves runs counter to the whole concept of unified communications. Our competitors are offering, in effect, an “un-unified” communications system. The risk for customers is that a patchwork system is slower to roll out, harder to train people on and more expensive to manage and maintain – resulting in a dramatically lower ROI.

By contrast, our unified communications is just that: “unified.” Deployment can be ramped up extremely rapidly with deeper reach into the organization by promoting wider user adoption. Businesses reduce costs – an all-important consideration in today’s financial climate. Our customers tell us that our system slashes their overall telephony costs by 30 to 60 percent, with their long distance charges reduced by up to 76 percent, and almost one-third sliced off their mobile telephony overhead. Those are some pretty compelling economics.

Consider the following case in point: a European university began installing Office Communications Server during the summer break in August. By the end of September when students and professors returned, instant messaging, video conferencing and voice technology were fully operational across campus. Now, professors, researchers and students can more easily communicate with each other from their office computers, mobile phones and home or dorm-room laptops. Across campus, there are richer discussions and more frequent contact through words and images without incurring any higher communication costs for the university.

With Connected Services Drives Down Travel Costs and Eases Stressful Commutes

Microsoft Corp. launched Microsoft® Streets & Trips 2008 with Connected Services. The updated version of the program combines the No. 1 best-selling travel and mapping software1 for the United States and Canada, a sleek Global Positioning System (GPS) locator, and the inclusion of a new MSN® Direct receiver, providing drivers with current traffic updates and competitive gas prices without needing an Internet connection.2 Streets & Trips 2008 with Connected Services also integrates with Live Search Maps, allowing consumers to find up-to-date local information that can easily be saved to take on the road. This affordable full-navigation solution is a unique synergy of offerings that will keep drivers on track so they can travel with less stress while enabling them to save money by knowing what to expect along the way.

According to a new Consumer Federation of America report, the average price of a gallon of gas escalated from $1.12 to $2.72 (U.S.) between 1998 and 2007. Americans can only expect this trend to continue and are looking for help to be more economical and efficient when traveling. And when, according to ABC,News, “220 million adults average an hour and a half a day in their cars,”3 it becomes painfully obvious that driving is expensive and time consuming. This year Microsoft Streets & Trips 2008 with Connected Services is packed full of useful tools to help consumers manage these concerning trends.

Traveling for the Budget Conscious

Road trips are a vacation tradition for many families, and despite increasing costs, Americans are still hitting the roads. Streets & Trips 2008 with Connected Services will arm consumers with all the tools they need to make the most out of their next road trip. Travelers will be able to easily locate and compare prices of nearby gas stations and plan their route accordingly to help them save even more money with the new MSN Direct gas feature. The program’s fuel consumption manager provides a cost estimate for the trip based on the car’s tank size and mileage per gallon and will alert travelers when it’s time to refuel. The new Automatic Re-routing feature will catch that inevitable wrong turn and get them back on track in no time.

Mike Neil, Microsoft’s virtualization strategist, talks about security, cloud computing and other virtualization topics from the floor of the VMworld conference in Las Vegas.

A growing roster of customers has discovered that both desktop and server virtualization are no longer technologies of the future; they are cost-effective, secure, dependable, and easy to implement and manage today. The 14,000 IT professionals, developers and technology providers attending the VMworld 2008 virtualization conference this week understand that virtualization has matured into a priority for many enterprises because it allows businesses to reduce their IT costs and be more nimble in responding to changing IT needs.

Microsoft is highlighting several new virtualization product milestones at the conference, including:

• the recent release of Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and the release within 30 days of Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 hypervisors;

• a new version of Microsoft Application Virtualization, available through a new edition of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP);

• the release within 30 days of System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 along with the rest of the System Center suite of management software; and

• progress on the company’s work with industry partners to ensure interoperability with non-Microsoft software.

In part he alsp discusses:

Most people associate virtualization with servers, but application virtualization is really heating up. Application virtualization offers capabilities like dynamic provisioning, which allows end users to connect to their applications from multiple devices. Think of it as applications on demand: IT maintains management control over the applications, and users have instant access to them without worrying about software installations, application management or potential software conflicts.

Microsoft’s latest application virtualization package, Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5 (App-V 4.5), was released and will be available soon as part of MDOP 2008 R2. App-V 4.5 is a big step forward toward making application virtualization a universally deployed desktop technology. We’ve included new capabilities that will help IT pros support large-scale virtualization implementations across many sites and provide multiple delivery options, including over-the-Internet application delivery.

App-V has been popular among commercial and public-sector customers, as well as with software vendors. For example, manufacturing-software supplier AspenTech has used App-V to give its process-manufacturing customers faster access to its aspenONE software package, while streamlining interoperability testing and version upgrades. One customer’s deployment time was cut from months to just weeks.

So far there have been almost 10 million units of MDOP sold since it was first introduced.

For the past two weeks, millions of people have watched the series of Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld television ads with the Windows logo at the end and wondered: “What’s next?”

Tearing Down Walls
Microsoft signaled the next phase of the Windows brand campaign with full-page newspaper ads carrying the headline: “Windows vs. Walls”. The copy in the ads lays out the driving philosophy behind the new Windows marketing approach. Veghte says: “At the core, Windows is about enabling each one of us, as individuals, to live our lives without walls … I want to work when I want to work, I want to play when I want to play. I want to communicate and share with friends and family and co-workers.”

The “Life without Walls” tagline brings another key facet of the Windows brand to life: Windows connects people not only via the PC, but also via phones, devices, and the Web. The Windows platform of Windows Vista, Windows Mobile, and Windows Live were built to work together and to expand the Windows experience beyond the PC to the phone and the Web. The campaign will reflect this holistic, connected approach.

“On our journey to make sure that Windows enables a life without walls, we’ve taken a step back, reevaluated and tuned and tweaked our approach. So you’re seeing that in the advertising, in the products, in the experience at retail and on Windows.com,” notes Veghte.

Multiple Approaches for Multiple Devices
Microsoft will extend the “Life Without Walls” campaign via billboards, digital “walkway” ads in airports and other advertising components. Additionally, new outdoor and print ads show how Windows has evolved to work across multiple devices: the desktop PC, laptops, phones and TVs.

Microsoft LifeCam users get bonus with access through new Windows Vista gadget.

Microsoft Corp. unveils Video Messages, a groundbreaking service that combines the flexibility of e-mail and voice mail with the personal expression of a video call; it is the video version of voice mail. Video Messages allows consumers to record and send personalized videos that their friends and family can access anytime, anywhere they are online* the perfect solution when they are not available for a live video chat.

Microsoft is offering this new service through a LifeCam video messages gadget and a Web site so everyone can get in on the fun. Video Messages is the perfect way to send a personalized “happy birthday” message to a friend or have the kids leave a quick “hello” message to grandma across the country when she is not home.

“Video Messages offers a groundbreaking way to communicate,” said Bennie Soto, product marketing manager at Microsoft. “It provides a free, easy and fun way to stay connected and share the special moments in your life without thinking twice about time zones or busy schedules; you’ll never have to plan a specific time for video calling again.”

Go, Go LifeCam Gadget

The best way to experience Video Messages is with a LifeCam video messages gadget, available for people running Windows Vista and using a supported Microsoft LifeCam. By downloading the new gadget, LifeCam users can create, send and receive video messages from their desktop. They can even select six of their top friends who will always be visible in the video messages gadget just like storing top friends’ numbers on speed dial for easy access. This added convenience is a great benefit for LifeCam customers because the Video Messages controls are always available; they can just click on a friend’s image, record a video and hit send. A demo of the LifeCam video messages gadget in action is available at http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/digitalcommunication/videomessage.mspx.

Evolving platform continues to offer new ways to connect with new music, media and the community, anywhere, anytime.

A Clear Channel from Discovery to Purchase

In a groundbreaking move, the 3.0 release makes the Zune’s FM tuner more interactive by using the RDS and RT+ information feeds that are used in the signal of most radio stations — Zune can now match that information with Marketplace, allowing users to click any song they hear to instantly tag and purchase it, or download it through their Zune Pass subscription.

If the Zune is in a recognized Wi-Fi hotspot, the song will immediately download. If not, a queue of songs will be ready to download when the Zune is next connected, either physically or wirelessly.

According to Jeff Littlejohn, executive vice president for distribution development at Clear Channel Radio, the new functionality from Zune comes at a perfect time for radio stations worldwide, as they seek new ways to distribute content of all kinds. Radio reaches more than 200 million people every week, and studies show that more than half of new music discovery still happens via FM stations.

“People spend a lot of time with radio,” says Littlejohn. “This Zune technology puts two things together that have been dying to get together for years — discovery of new music on FM radio and the purchase of music, which is getting to be more and more digital.”

According to Littlejohn and others in the broadcasting industry, putting those two things together creates the instant gratification that really compels consumers.

“To hear a new song on the radio and then purchase that song and own it within minutes is a pretty magical consumer experience I think,” he says. “We’re making FM radio interactive. It’s exciting for broadcasters, for consumer-electronics providers and, of course, for consumers, which is the most important.”

Zune’s Buy from FM functionality will work with any RDS or RT+ information feed from any radio station in the United States. Clear Channel alone will have more than 450 stations enabled for RDS feeds on the day Zune’s functionality goes live, and the company is also working with other broadcasters to standardize the feeds and improve the customer experience.

“We see this as an industry coalition,” he says. “This needs to be ubiquitous to reach its potential, and Zune brings so much depth to the game, since it’s so connected and focused on the listener.”

Service update represents the first in a series, Microsoft’s rapid innovation.

The Internet marketing capabilities allow businesses to utilize the Internet as a revenue-generating marketing channel and an integral part of their CRM strategy, especially in conducting search engine marketing (SEM) campaigns. The new Internet marketing functionality will enable organizations to do the following:

• Create and manage online and search engine campaigns

• Research and bid on key words using search engine optimization

• Gain insight into marketing return on investment according to click-through and conversion rates

• Capture sales leads from the Web using pages hosted by Microsoft or the organization’s own Web site

• Unify search engine intelligence with CRM analytics to optimize campaign performance

“This update will help customers maximize marketing returns from online advertising spending by allowing them to monitor and measure the effectiveness of online ad campaigns,” said David J. Buggy, vice president of Beringer Associates Inc., a Gold Certified Microsoft Partner. “Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online’s automatic update means we’re able to take advantage of advances like this on a far quicker cycle, so we don’t have to worry about being left flat-footed by changes in business.”

The service update also will provide customers with increased scale for teams of multiple thousands of employees and provide a direct link from the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Resource Center to the Microsoft Pinpoint marketplace, where they can connect with more than 200 Microsoft Dynamics partners and choose from approximately 250 products and services. Future service updates will provide enhanced enterprise integration, enterprise analytics and extended service benefits.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online is an on-demand customer relationship service, hosted and managed by Microsoft, that comprises a full suite of marketing, sales and service capabilities.

Availability

The Internet marketing module will be available initially to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online customers in the United States with a version extended to customers in Canada in a subsequent update. To learn about Microsoft Dynamics CRM and to sign up for the online service, customers can visit http://crm.dynamics.com or call (877) CRM CHOICE (276-2464).