News from Microsoft Ireland: Office

Microsoft Debuts Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Release 2

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 14:23:13 GMT

Amsterdam: October 14th, 2008 - Microsoft today debuted Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Release 2 (R2), an update to the award-winning Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, at the VoiceCon event in Amsterdam. Office Communications Server 2007 R2 delivers important new functionality that extends software-powered voice communications, particularly for remote and mobile workers; provides on-premise audio conferencing to help reduce operational costs; and introduces new developer advances, including the ability to build communications-enabled business processes. These enhancements will improve business communications through a unified infrastructure and user experience.

eircom is using Office Communications Server 2007 to help drive its New World of Work initiative which aims to improve working lives and productivity. Staff quickly identified the connectivity benefits of features such as presence and IM while working away from the office and the advantages of simple videoconferencing offered by Office Communicator 2007, the client application for Office Communications Server 2007. eircom estimates that a conservative time saving of 30 minutes per week for just 1,500 eircom employees would amount to approximately €950,000 in productivity gains.

“Office Communicator 2007 will be a ubiquitous tool at eircom,” said Stephen Mulligan, Web and Mobility Technology manager at eircom. “Microsoft technologies are agile and intuitive enough to automate business processes without forcing us to change; that’s the New World of Work.”

“Microsoft’s Unified Communications software is providing Irish companies with new choices in how they communicate, bringing a unified approach to voice, video conferencing, instant messaging and presence, which delivers improved productivity and a proven reduction in cost,” said Richard Moore, Business Manager, Information Worker, Microsoft Ireland. “With Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 we have taken a significant step towards a fully software-based PBX, which improves customer communications and delivers an even greater level of flexibility and control.”

Software-Powered Voice for Today and Tomorrow

Since the solution became available in 2007, businesses have begun migrating their workers off their PBXs to Office Communications Server for all their telephony needs. Customers such as Royal Dutch Shell plc are already taking a load off their PBXs by using Office Communications Server and Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 for mobile and remote workers in place of PBX phones to provide global employees with innovative communications solutions to quickly and efficiently reach their colleagues and help reduce operational costs.

“As a global company with employees dispersed in various time zones and geographic locations, Royal Dutch Shell has benefitted from Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 with improved communications and more flexibility for our employees,” said Johan Krebbers, group IT architect, Royal Dutch Shell. “Today Royal Dutch Shell has over 5,000 employees who frequently travel and use Office Communications Server 2007 as their primary voice solution.”

Customers are leapfrogging an entire generation of Internet protocol (IP) PBX technology to move straight to unified communications and software-powered voice over Internet protocol (VoIP). Office Communications Server interoperates with legacy PBX and IP PBX investments, allowing customers to transition to the new platform without undergoing an expensive rip-and-replace upgrade of their network. Office Communications Server 2007 R2 allows customers to take the next step toward replacing their PBX with Microsoft’s unified communications software and managing voice in the same way as other applications such as e-mail and instant messaging.

New Capabilities on a Strong, Unified Foundation

Through deep integration with Microsoft Office, Microsoft Exchange Server and Office SharePoint Server, Office Communications Server delivers organizations the power of one: one infrastructure for enterprise communications and one cohesive user experience. Customers do not need to deploy and adopt dozens of different applications to make unified communications a reality. Office Communications Server 2007 R2 builds on that foundation with new capabilities that provide flexible business communications solutions for end users and gives IT pros the tools needed to control and manage their organization’s communications needs.

Key new features of Office Communications Server 2007 R2 include the following:

Next-Generation Collaboration

Dial-in audio conferencing. Office Communications Server 2007 R2 enables businesses to eliminate costly audio conferencing services with an on-premise audio conferencing bridge that is managed by IT as part of the overall communications infrastructure.
Desktop sharing. This feature enables users to seamlessly share their desktop, initiate audio communications and collaborate with others outside the organization on PC, Macintosh or Linux platforms through a Web-based interface.
Persistent group chat. This enables geographically dispersed teams to collaborate with each other by participating in topic-based discussions that persist over time. This application provides users with a list of all available chat rooms and topics, periodically archives discussions in an XML file format that meets compliance regulations, provides tools to search the entire history of discussion on a given topic, and offers filters and alerts to notify someone of new posts or topics on a particular topic.

Enhanced Voice and Mobility

Attendant console and delegation. This allows receptionists, team secretaries and others to manage calls and conferences on behalf of other users, set up workflows to route calls, and manage higher volumes of incoming communications through a software-based interface.
Session Initiation Protocol trunking. This feature enables businesses to reduce costs by setting up a direct VoIP connection between an Internet telephony service provider and Office Communicator 2007 without requiring on-premise gateways.
Response group. A workflow design application manages incoming calls based on user-configured rules (e.g., round-robin, longest idle, simultaneous), providing a simple-to-use basic engine for call treatment, routing and queuing.
Mobility and single-number reach. This extends Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile functionality to Nokia S40, Motorola RAZR, Blackberry and Windows Mobile platforms, allowing users to communicate using presence, IM and voice as an extension of their PBX from a unified client.^*

New Developer Tools for Business Applications

APIs and Visual Studio integration. This improves the efficiency of everyday business processes by enabling businesses to build communications-enabled applications and embed communications into business applications.

More information about Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 is available at http://www.microsoft.com/uc/products/ocs2007.mspx

Meteor Makes Right Connections with Microsoft Office 2007

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 08:42:21 GMT

Dublin: October 2nd 2008: Meteor Mobile Communications, Ireland’s third largest mobile communications provider has rolled out Microsoft Office 2007 across the entire organisation to over 800 people. Meteor has standardised on the Microsoft Office 2007 system to optimise productivity and to enable both local and remote users to collaborate more effectively.

Paul Kirwan, IT Infrastructure Manager, Meteor Mobile Communications said, “We need systems that maximise the ability of our people to find the right information, use the right processes and work together wherever they are, resulting in greater productivity. We have moved from Office 2000 to 2007 and achieved these objectives in a very short space of time. The combination of our own planning and efforts, with the Microsoft conversion tools and the quality of the Office 2007 applications enabled us to complete the migration quickly and painlessly and we’re already seeing the benefits.”

Pictured from left: Paul Kirwan, IT infrastructure manager, Meteor Mobile Communications and Richard Moore, business manager, Information Worker Microsoft Ireland

Microsoft Office 2007 provides productivity and information management software designed to help you save time and stay organised. The tools in Office 2007 make it easier to quickly accomplish routine tasks, effectively manage sales and marketing activities, produce professional-quality communications, and organise your customer and business information.

Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server 2007 enables Meteor employees to communicate more efficiently and effectively inside and outside the office, reducing costs and increasing productivity while providing a secure environment.

Paul Kirwan continues, “As a communications company it’s imperative that we are able to connect easily with colleagues and partners both in the office and on the go. Effective and productive communication is a key part of Meteor’s framework. With Microsoft Office 2007 and Sharepoint we were able to realise a better service injust eight weeks with no negative feedback from users.”

The Microsoft Office 2007 software and supporting applications are easy to install with minimum interruption to normal daily workloads. The system has a more intuitive user interface which requires minimal training and as part of the upgrade package with Microsoft, Meteor benefited from free consultancy support and end user training and staff were provided with useful aids such as a downloadable Help Bar and video aids such as the “New to Microsoft Office Guide.”

“Microsoft Office 2007 is the result of in-depth research into how we can help office and home workers to become more productive whether they are working alone or in a team,” commented Richard Moore, Business Manager, Information Worker for Microsoft Ireland. “The applications solve many of the oldest productivity killers such as finding the right information, or not being able to use the more advanced function of an application. It’s fantastic when you see a company like Meteor gaining the full benefits of this technology.”

“The other major trend is collaboration. With people increasingly working on the move or from home, the ability to have integrated online workspaces where you can share calendars, documents, lists etc. is very important. SharePoint makes the entire collaboration process simpler and more efficient. When you have a team where all participants work with the same data set, you eliminate the possibility of errors which arise from working with multiple copies of the same document and you can get projects done more quickly,” added Moore.

With Office 2007, commonly used functions are no longer buried in sub menus and applications are better integrated across the entire 2007 Office system. This enables users to take advantage of functions which previously went unused. The result is proving to be dramatic in realisation of greater productivity and collaboration across the board.

It is easier to share information with colleagues via applications such as Word by directly accessing the document from SharePoint, thus eliminating repeated storage of the same data in different areas with the risks of various revisions being used by different users which could lead to unnecessary mistakes and errors.

Meteor’s upgrade to Microsoft Office 2007 using Microsoft Systems Manager Server and SharePoint 2007, illustrate that the upgrade can be easily and successfully achieved without significant education and training of non-technical users. The right attitude combined with the right tools can achieve painless upgrades and significant business improvements.

Microsoft Showcases Sharepoint as Enterprise 2.0 Platform of Choice and Releases Podcasting Kit

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 21:28:57 GMT

Boston: June 9th, 2008 — Microsoft today announced the Podcasting Kit for SharePoint (PKS), an open source initiative that helps partners and customers accelerate the development and deployment of podcasting solutions. Microsoft made the announcements today at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference, an event that brings together the latest trends and practical information about Enterprise 2.0 in one place.

The need for social-computing tools is a natural extension of digital collaboration and is increasingly becoming incorporated into business productivity solutions. According to an April 2008 Forrester Research Inc. report, “Global Enterprise Market Forecast: 2007 to 2013,” 56 percent of North American and European enterprises consider Web 2.0 to be a priority in 2008, and the market will increase from $764 million in 2008 to $4.6 billion by 2013. Microsoft is helping to lead that trend by providing the social-computing solutions and platforms today in SharePoint Server that balance end-user empowerment without sacrificing IT control.

Screenshot: Podcasting Kit for Sharepoint

“What we refer to today as Enterprise 2.0 will tomorrow just be considered a natural part of the way we all work,” said Tom Rizzo, director of SharePoint Server at Microsoft. “SharePoint is leading the Enterprise 2.0 revolution by providing a comprehensive business productivity platform that combines traditional collaboration solutions with newer social-computing technologies in an enterprise-capable product. Using rich blog, wiki, RSS, mashup and social-networking solutions combined with the enterprise content management and search capabilities of SharePoint, SharePoint customers are well positioned to deliver real Enterprise 2.0 solutions today.”

Partners Betting on Office SharePoint Server 2007 for Social-Networking Capabilities

Microsoft is tapping into the power of its network of partners to foster innovation that complements the existing social-computing technologies it delivers with SharePoint Server. As a result, more partners are turning to the productivity platform as the foundation for social-computing, as evidenced by a number of new social-computing technologies from the following companies:

Atlassian Pty. Ltd. Microsoft partner Atlassian offers the SharePoint Connector for Confluence, a leading enterprise wiki. With the connector, Confluence and SharePoint Server integrate by providing bidirectional content embedding and linking, cross-product search, and single sign-on. More information can be found at http://www.atlassian.com/sharepoint.

Awareness Inc. Awareness integration with SharePoint Server allows SharePoint Server users to seamlessly engage with external-facing Web 2.0 communities from within SharePoint Server. More information can be found at http://www.awarenessnetworks.com/what/sharepoint.asp.

blueKiwi Software. The blueKiwi SharePoint connector and blueKiwi OfficeAssistant, a set of components that enable the integration of blueKiwi’s enterprise social software suite with SharePoint Server and Office, provide SharePoint Server customers with dynamic expertise identification, social-network visualization, and an aggregated view of all conversations happening across the entire enterprise.

Connectbeam Inc. Connectbeam, a Microsoft partner, is announcing Spotlight Connect for SharePoint, a bookmarking and tagging add-on module to its enterprise social search-and-discovery application. A demo of Connectbeam’s integration with SharePoint Server can be found at http://www.connectbeam.com/demo/sharepointintegration.

Leverage Software. Leverage Software’s innovative Web 2.0 social-networking tools extend the reach of a SharePoint Server implementation and allow a company to connect with and learn from its customers, partners and corporate alumni, while maintaining the security and privacy demands of the enterprise.

NewsGator Technologies Inc. NewsGator is announcing NewsGator Social Sites 2.0 plus Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, which delivers positive and tangible social-computing business results.

Telligent Systems. Through its REST API, mail gateway, shared authentication and single sign-on, Community Server Evolution provides deep integration and interoperability among Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft Active Directory and Telligent Community Server, an industry-leading social-computing and online-community platform built on Microsoft .NET.

Tomoye Corp. Tomoye is delivering a SharePoint Server-ready offering to enable organizations to deploy communities of practice using proven process and technology.

WorkLight Inc. WorkLight is announcing its new WorkLight for SharePoint, which enables SharePoint Server users to more securely view and update information from SharePoint Server through familiar consumer tools such as Windows Vista gadgets and Facebook applications.

Customers Benefit From SharePoint Server’s Social-Computing Features

SharePoint Server also is rapidly becoming the collaboration tool of choice for many organizations. According to an April 2008 Forrester report, “Topic Overview: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007,” 96 percent of enterprises are considering, planning on, in the process of or have already completed deploying at least some part of the Microsoft Office system server software. For example, Pfizer Inc., the world’s largest research-based biomedical and pharmaceutical company, uses SharePoint Server blogs and wikis for collaborations among its worldwide employees.

“SharePoint gives us a powerful social-computing tool for collaboration,” said David Biersach, Pfizer’s associate director of Document and Collaboration Solutions. “We have teams distributed all over the world, and the ability to create wikis and blogs helps everyone stay on top of rapidly changing information and team dynamics in real time.”

Podcasting Kit for SharePoint

Demonstrating its commitment to bring the latest innovating trends of social-networking technologies to its customers and partners, Microsoft today announced the release of the PKS, a free, open source initiative that provides organizations with a centralized, easy-to-manage solution to create, manage and distribute podcasts. Built on the SharePoint Server and Microsoft Silverlight platforms, and compatible with the Zune, Windows Mobile devices, PCs and other devices that play podcasts, the PKS provides a new medium to record and distribute video and audio information via the Internet and intranet. The Microsoft sales organization implemented the PKS internally over the past year.

Additional features of the PKS allow users to do the following:

Access audio or video podcasts on PCs, Windows Mobile devices, Zune devices and any other devices that play podcasts
Share content by producing personal podcasts and publishing content on PKS
Connect and engage with podcasters via integrated instant-messaging programs
Find the most relevant content using a rating system, tags clouds and search functions
Receive automatic podcast updates by subscribing to RSS feeds, fully compatible with Zune and other devices that play podcasts
Play podcasts in real time using Silverlight and progressive playback

Many organizations are now using podcasting technology to provide company news, improve training and increase employee participation. Accenture, a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, participated in the PKS pilot program, along with its client BT Group plc. Accenture is using and extending the kit’s capabilities to offer Web 2.0-based learning and collaboration solutions, coupled with its experience in Microsoft technologies, to its global client base.

“Corporate and public-sector learning organizations have traditionally only addressed 20 percent of how employees learn,” said Tom Hoglund, global lead of Accenture’s Collaboration and Knowledge Management Practice. “The PKS, combined with Accenture’s learning and collaboration experience, enables our clients to facilitate and accelerate learning exactly when and where it is needed, independent of location or device. That’s a huge advantage.”

Customers can download the PKS at CodePlex, Microsoft’s open source project hosting Web site at http://www.codeplex.com/pks.

More information about SharePoint Server social-computing is available at http://www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/capabilities/collaboration/overview.mspx.

More information on Enterprise 2.0 Conference is available at http://www.enterprise2conf.com.

Microsoft Expands Document Format Support in Microsoft Office

Wed, 21 May 2008 19:52:54 GMT

Move enhances customer choice and interoperability with Microsoft’s flagship productivity suite.

Dublin: May 22nd, 2008 - Microsoft is expanding the range of document formats supported in the Office productivity suite, offering customers greater choice and more flexibility among document formats, as well as creating additional opportunities for developers and competitors.

The 2007 Microsoft Office system already provides support for 20 different document formats within Microsoft Office Word, Office Excel and Office PowerPoint. With the release of Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 2 (SP2) in the first half of 2009, the list will grow to include support for XML Paper Specification (XPS), Portable Document Format (PDF) 1.5, PDF/A and Open Document Format (ODF) v1.1.

When using Office 2007 SP2, customers will be able to open, edit and save documents using ODF and save documents into the XPS and PDF fixed formats from directly within the application without having to install any other code. It will also allow customers to set ODF as the default file format for Office 2007. In order to also provide ODF support for users of earlier versions of Microsoft Office including Office 2000, Office XP and Office 2003, Microsoft will continue to collaborate with the open source community in the ongoing development of the Open XML-ODF translator project on SourceForge.net.

In addition, Microsoft has defined a roadmap for its implementation of the newly ratified International Standard ISO/IEC 29500 (Office Open XML). IS29500, which was approved by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in March, is already substantially supported in Office 2007 and the company plans to update that support in the next major version release of the Microsoft Office system, code-named “Office 14.”

Microsoft is also committed to providing Office customers with the ability to open, edit and save documents in the Chinese national document file format standard, Uniform Office Format (UOF). It is done so today by supporting the continued development of the UOF-Open XML translator project on Sourceforge, and Microsoft will take additional steps to promote the distribution and ease of use of the translator. As UOF develops and achieves market adoption in China we will distribute support for this format with Office to our customers in China.

Consistent with its interoperability principles, in which the company committed to work with others toward robust, consistent and interoperable implementations across a broad range of widely deployed products, the company has also announced it will be an active participant in the future evolution of ODF, Open XML, XPS and PDF standards.

Microsoft will join the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) technical committee working on the next version of ODF and will take part in the ISO/IEC working group that is being formed to work on ODF maintenance. Microsoft employees will also take part in the ISO/IEC working group that is being formed to maintain Open XML and the ISO/IEC working group that is being formed to improve interoperability between these and other ISO/IEC-recognised document formats.

The company will also be an active participant in the ongoing standardization and maintenance activities for XPS and PDF and continue to work with the IT community to promote interoperability between document file formats, including Open XML and ODF, as well as Digital Accessible Information System (Daisy XML), the foundation of the globally accepted DAISY standard for reading and publishing navigable multimedia content.

“This announcement underlines our commitment to provide Office customers with greater choice among the document formats they wish to use, and enhances the interoperability between those different formats and the software applications that implement them,” said Richard Moore, Information Worker, business manager at Microsoft Ireland. “We are increasing the openness of our products and also participating actively in the development and maintenance of document format standards. We believe that this commitment can help to create opportunities for software developers and competitors, including members of the open source communities, to innovate and deliver new value for customers.”

Microsoft recognises that customers care most about real-world interoperability in the marketplace, so the company is committed to continuing to engage the IT community to achieve that goal when it comes to document format standards. It will work with the Interoperability Executive Customer Council and other customers to identify the areas where document format interoperability matters most, and then collaborate with other vendors to achieve interoperability between their implementations of the formats that customers are using today. This work will continue to be carried out in the Interop Vendor Alliance (http://www.interopvendoralliance.org), the Document Interoperability Initiative (http://www.microsoft.com/interop), and a range of other interoperability labs and collaborative venues.

"Microsoft's support for ODF in Office is a great step that enables customers to work with the document format that best meets their needs, even as it facilitates interoperability in the marketplace," said Roger Levy, senior vice president and general manager of Open Platform Solutions for Novell. "Novell is proud to be an industry leader in cross-platform document interoperability through our work in the Document Interoperability Initiative, the Interop Vendor Alliance and with our direct collaboration with Microsoft in our Interoperability Lab. We look forward to continuing this work for the benefit of customers across the IT spectrum."

This work on document formats is only one aspect of how Microsoft is delivering choice, interoperability and innovative solutions to the marketplace. Microsoft will continue to work with its customers and partners and the rest of the industry to continue advancing in the area. See http://www.microsoft.com/interop for more information.

Microsoft Launches Document Interoperability Initiative

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 20:13:14 GMT

Cambridge, Massachusetts: March 6th 2008 — Microsoft today announced the launch of its Document Interoperability Initiative, which is aimed at promoting user choice among document formats and expanded opportunity for developers, partners and competitors. The launch of this initiative is an important step in Microsoft’s commitment to implement a set of strategic changes in its technology and business practices to expand interoperability through the implementation of its interoperability principles. The Document Interoperability Initiative focuses on bringing vendors together to promote interoperability between document format implementations through testing and refining those implementations, creation of format implementation test suites, and the creation of templates designed for optimal interoperability between different formats.

Microsoft hosted in Cambridge today a number of independent software vendors (ISVs), including Novell Inc., Mark Logic Corp., Quickoffice Inc., DataViz Inc. and Nuance Communications Inc., to launch this collaborative, community-based initiative. The Cambridge event is the first in a series of labs around the world that will bring together vendors to test interoperability between their implementations of well-known document formats, and between implementations of different formats. The Cambridge lab will test interoperability between existing implementations of Microsoft Office Open XML Formats and the Open Document Format (ODF) on a variety of platforms and devices including Mac OS X Leopard, iPhone, Palm OS, Symbian OS, Linux and Windows Mobile.

“Microsoft believes that the industry has a responsibility to come together to address the interests of users in achieving greater interoperability and effective data exchange between widely deployed document format implementations,” said Jean Paoli, general manager for Interoperability and XML Architecture at Microsoft. “The labs are designed to bring technical staff together to roll up their sleeves and test interoperability between implementations of formats and address issues that are identified either in those implementations or in the translation technologies used to work across formats.”

“We are pleased to collaborate with Microsoft to meet customer demands for content solutions that easily interoperate. Utilizing open document standards, such as Open XML and ODF, will improve the way organizations work across disparate platforms,” said Andy Feit, senior vice president of Marketing at Mark Logic. “Enhancing document format interoperability between MarkLogic Server and other products in the marketplace will make it much easier for our customers to deploy applications for content assembly, reuse and delivery.”

The labs will also include a set of integrated round table discussions between vendors about what steps should be taken to promote real-world interoperability between document format implementations in the marketplace. This will include discussions about how testing can be refined, how best to develop conformance testing suites for popular formats, and how to create document templates that are optimized for interoperability between different format implementations.

“Microsoft recognizes that users want to choose the document format that best suits their needs and that vendors have a responsibility to work together to achieve interoperability between different format implementations,” said Tom Robertson, general manager, Interoperability and Standards at Microsoft. “The Document Interoperability Initiative brings vendors together to achieve real-world interoperability between documents that customers use through testing of implementations, building conformance test suites and creating document formats that optimize interoperability between different formats. As part of the interoperability principles we announced on Feb. 21, this initiative helps achieve our goal of reshaping business practices to meet the interoperability needs of our customers and the market.”

New Translator Embraces Interoperability Principles

Also announced today is the 1.1 release of a translator between ODF and Open XML for Microsoft Excel (spreadsheet) and Microsoft PowerPoint (presentation) applications. This is the result of an ongoing open source project for which Microsoft announced its support in July 2006. Key performance enhancements and end-user improvements reflected in the new translators are based on feedback received from numerous public and private organizations.

Microsoft has committed to support future releases of the translator taking advantage of the improvements in Microsoft Office converter APIs announced as part of the interoperability principles on Feb. 21 to provide a better integrated experience for customers to open and save ODF files. These APIs and the guidance provided by the OpenXML-ODF Translator project will also make it easier for users to take advantage of other document formats, such as UOF and DAISY.

Microsoft’s Feb. 21 announcement of its interoperability principles described four new interoperability principles and corresponding actions across its high-volume business products. Additional Microsoft-sponsored document interoperability labs are currently planned in Seoul, Korea, the week of March 10, and in Berlin, Germany, in early April. Further details on these labs, the broader Document Interoperability Initiative and Microsoft’s interoperability principles can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/interop/principles.

Microsoft Announces Online Office Workspaces Beta Now Available in Ireland

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 13:57:01 GMT

Dublin: March 3rd 2008 - Microsoft today announced the public availability of Microsoft Office Live Workspace beta (http://workspace.officelive.com) in Ireland, the new Web-based extension of Microsoft Office that lets people access their documents online and share their work with others. Office Live Workspace is among one of the first entries in the new wave of online services in Microsoft’s software plus services vision.

Office Live Workspace is now available in Ireland. People can sign up for free at http://workspace.officelive.com and will be granted immediate access to the service. Microsoft is also unveiling a number of new Office Live Workspace features, such as an activity panel, notifications, direct links and multifile upload.

“Office Live Workspace is a great example of how you can combine the best of desktop software with rich online services. Irish consumers and small businesses can now create and edit documents using the rich set of features in 2007 Office and then share and collaborate with those documents over the Internet,” commented Richard Moore, Information Worker Business Manager at Microsoft Ireland. “Office Live Workspace also provides customers with a whole set of online tools that then tie back to their desktop applications.”

Access Anywhere, Share and Extend the Microsoft Office Experience

Office Live Workspace lets people organise documents and projects online and work on them from almost any computer. People can save more than 1,000 Microsoft Office documents to one place online,* and access and share them via the Web. They can view and comment on documents in the browser as well as create simple Web lists and Web notes, and share documents in real time through integration with Microsoft SharedView.

Microsoft has also added several new features to Office Live Workspace, based in part on feedback from early beta participants:

Activity panel. A new activity panel shows all the activity in a workspace at a glance.
Notifications. People can now receive e-mail notifications about changes made to their workspaces or documents.
Direct links. People can now bookmark their workspace or a workspace item via a unique URL in a browser window.
Multi-file upload. People can now upload several files simultaneously by simply dragging and dropping from their desktop.
Improved sharing. New sharing functionality includes an easier user interface and auto-completion of e-mail addresses.

Microsoft Office Live Workspace is being offered free of charge. The company expects to release the final public version of Office Live Workspace later in the year.

Microsoft Launches RoundTable Videoconferencing in Ireland

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 15:16:29 GMT

Innovative RoundTable 360-degree videoconferencing system now available

Dublin: February 7th, 2008 — Microsoft today announced that the unique Microsoft RoundTable videoconferencing system is now available in Ireland. Companies across Ireland can now enjoy the next generation of videoconferencing, maximising effective communication, reducing costs and giving businesses the opportunity to turn meetings into corporate assets.

Microsoft RoundTable is an all-in-one videoconferencing device that broadcasts synchronised audio and video over a standard Windows-based PC. A tabletop device, not much bigger than a traditional speakerphone at the base, it captures and provides a 360-degree panoramic view of everyone in the meeting. Microsoft RoundTable follows the conversation, identifying individual speakers and broadcasting their image in close-up as they talk; as people enter the conversation, the system cuts seamlessly between active speakers.

Traditional audio teleconferencing presents problems, with effective interaction falling away as the number of participants increases — establishing who is speaking at any given time becomes more and more difficult. Videoconferencing systems overcome this obstacle but are expensive and difficult to install, and can be complicated to operate. The results are a limited number of expensively adapted meeting rooms, which often need to be booked days in advance. The inflexibility of each solution can mean that physical meetings are unavoidable, with attendant costs and complications.

Unlike standard videoconferencing systems, Microsoft RoundTable is easy to use, requiring little or no training to operate. Its plug-and-play deployment means that, once the system is connected via Universal Serial Bus (USB) to either Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 or Microsoft Office Live Meeting service (2007), it is ready to use.

“Microsoft RoundTable changes how we think about videoconferencing,” according to Richard Moore, business group manager for the Information Worker group at Microsoft Ireland.

“It is simple to use, but brings the power of group videoconferencing to any room in the time it takes to attach a USB cable to a computer with a network connection — at a fraction of the cost of traditional videoconferencing systems. We’ve been showcasing RoundTable with customers over the past few months and the response has been staggering. RoundTable is another example of how Unified Communications, over voice, instant messaging, e-mail and now videoconferencing is changing how we think about communications – for the better,” according to Moore

Leveraging meeting value, Microsoft RoundTable can also turn discussions into corporate assets. By recording them the system allows users to see content, view any Microsoft Office PowerPoint presentation used and, importantly, understand the meeting dynamic by watching participants in real time. Recorded audio and video is synchronised with meeting content so users can easily fast-forward and rewind to relevant sections of the meeting.

Microsoft RoundTable is now available for customers to purchase at an estimated retail price of $3,000 (US) through a direct Microsoft order process and, shortly, via authorised resellers in Ireland.

More information about Microsoft Unified Communications and Microsoft RoundTable, including purchasing information, is available at http://www.microsoft.com/uc/products/roundtable.mspx.

Microsoft Announces Offer to Acquire Fast Search & Transfer

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 12:33:36 GMT

REDMOND, Wash., and OSLO, Norway: January 8th 2008 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that it will make an offer to acquire Fast Search & Transfer ASA (OSE: “FAST”), a leading provider of enterprise search solutions, through a cash tender offer for 19.00 Norwegian kroner (NOK) per share. This offer represents a 42 percent premium to the closing share price on Jan. 4, 2008 (the last trading day prior to this announcement), and values the fully diluted equity of FAST at 6.6 billion NOK (or approximately $1.2 billion U.S.). FAST’s board of directors has unanimously recommended that its shareholders accept the offer. In addition, shareholders representing in aggregate 37 percent of the outstanding shares, including FAST’s two largest institutional shareholders, Orkla ASA and Hermes Focus Asset Management Europe, have irrevocably undertaken to accept the offer. The transaction is expected to be completed in the second quarter of calendar year 2008.

“Enterprise search is becoming an indispensable tool to businesses of all sizes, helping people find, use and share critical business information quickly,” said Jeff Raikes, president of the Microsoft Business Division. “Until now organizations have been forced to choose between powerful, high-end search technologies or more mainstream, infrastructure solutions. The combination of Microsoft and FAST gives customers a new choice: a single vendor with solutions that span the full range of customer needs.”

The companies possess a number of complementary strengths that advance a shared vision for helping businesses deliver information worker productivity and improved business results. FAST has a deep talent pool and is respected throughout the technology industry for its expertise in best-in-class, high-end search solutions. Microsoft offers worldwide customer reach and an extensive partner network, and is the recognized leader in business productivity with the popular Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, which combines search with best-in-class collaboration, business intelligence, portal and content management capabilities.

“This acquisition gives FAST an exciting way to spread our cutting-edge search technologies and innovations to more and more organizations across the world,” said John Lervik, CEO of FAST. “By joining Microsoft, we can benefit from the momentum behind the SharePoint business productivity platform to really empower a broader set of users through Microsoft’s strong sales and marketing network. It validates FAST’s momentum and leadership in enterprise search.”

In addition to bolstering Microsoft’s enterprise search efforts, this acquisition increases Microsoft’s research and development presence in Europe, complementing existing research teams in Cambridge, England, and Copenhagen, Denmark, with new and significant capabilities in Norway.

The offer will be subject to customary terms and conditions, including receipt of acceptances representing more than 90 percent of FAST shares and voting power on a fully diluted basis, and receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals on terms acceptable to Microsoft. The complete details of the offer, including all terms and conditions, will be contained in the offer document, which is expected to be sent to FAST shareholders during the week of Jan. 14, 2008. The offer will not be made in any jurisdiction in which the making of the offer would not be in compliance with the laws of such jurisdiction.

News Teleconference and Playback

At 10:15 a.m. PST Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2008, Microsoft and FAST will hold a teleconference to discuss the acquisition. To participate, U.S. residents can dial (877) 917-3408, Norwegian residents can dial 800-18393, and those outside the U.S. and Norway can dial +1 (630) 395-0346. The passcode is 5926426. A recording of the call will be available starting one hour after its conclusion and ending Saturday, Feb. 9, 2008, at 3 a.m. PST. To access this recording, callers can dial (800) 945-5760 (U.S.) or +1 (402) 220-3547 (international).

About FAST

FAST, which was founded in 1997, creates the real-time search and business intelligence solutions that are behind the scenes at the world’s best-known companies with the most demanding information challenges. FAST’s flexible and scalable integrated technology platform and personalized portal connects users, regardless of medium, to the relevant information they need.

FAST is headquartered in Norway and is publicly traded under the ticker symbol ‘FAST’ on the Oslo Stock Exchange. The FAST Group operates globally with presence in Europe, the United States, Asia, Australia, the Americas, and the Middle East. For further information about FAST, please visit http://www.fast.no/.

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The offer will not be made, directly or indirectly, in or into the United States. Any and all materials related to the offer, should not be sent or otherwise distributed in or into the United States, whether by use of the United States mail or by any means or instrumentality of United States interstate or foreign commerce (including, but without limitation, the mail, facsimile transmission, telex, telephone and the Internet) or any facility of a United States national securities exchange, and the offer cannot be accepted by any such use, means or instrumentality, in or from within the United States. Accordingly, the offer document and any related materials are not being, and must not be, sent or otherwise distributed in, into or from the United States or, in their capacities as such, to custodians, trustees or nominees holding shares of FAST for United States persons, and persons receiving any such documents (including custodians, nominees and trustees) must not distribute or send them in, into or from the United States. Any purported acceptance of the offer resulting directly or indirectly from a violation of these restrictions will be invalid. No shares of FAST are being solicited from a resident of the United States and, if sent in response by a resident of the United States, will not be accepted.

Microsoft Ships 2007 Microsoft Office System Service Pack 1

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 21:27:20 GMT

2007 Office System SP1 Provides Customers with Enhanced Stability, Performance and Security

Dublin: December 11th 2007 - Microsoft is today announcing the shipment of Service Pack 1 for the 2007 Microsoft Office system, which includes both client and server products under the Office umbrella.

Today’s release draws on extensive feedback from customers to deliver the stability, performance and security enhancements that they identified as most important.

SP1 can be downloaded from here.

Additional Resources:

• Q&A: Microsoft Office Product Manager Reed Shaffner discusses the release of Service Pack 1 for the 2007 Microsoft Office system

• 2007 Microsoft Office System Service Pack 1 White Paper (.docx file, 146 kb)

• Download 2007 Microsoft Office System SP1

• Office System News on PressPass

Microsoft Announces Microsoft Word Plug-in for Computer Users with Visual Impairment

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 14:39:49 GMT

REDMOND, Wash., and ZURICH, Switzerland: November 13th, 2007 — Today Microsoft and the Digital Accessible Information SYstem (DAISY) Consortium announced a joint standards-based development project that will make it possible for computer users who are blind or print disabled to make better use of assistive technology in their daily lives. This project will deliver a free, downloadable plug-in for Microsoft Office Word 2007 that can translate Open XML-based documents into DAISY XML, the foundation of the globally accepted DAISY Standard for reading and publishing navigable multimedia content.

In recent decades, individuals with print disabilities have increasingly accessed information using a wide variety of assistive technologies such as screen readers, large print, refreshable Braille and text-to-speech synthesizers. However, because these individuals cannot visually navigate complex page layouts, they often struggle to keep up with the demands of today’s information-rich society.

The structure within DAISY publications makes it possible to navigate quickly by heading or page number and to use indexes and references, all with correctly ordered, synchronized audio and text. In addition to clear benefits for the print-disabled community, the Open XML to DAISY XML translator also offers the potential for further innovation in the information-intensive markets of publishing, training and education.

“We at St Josephs School for Visually Impaired believe that this new feature will prove of immense benefit to us, and I am looking forward to trying it out,” commented Aisling Lowe, IT Manager at St. Joseph’s School for the Visually Impaired in Dublin.

“As CEO of the internationally recognized voice of blind and low-vision people around the world and as a reader of DAISY books, I believe this project represents a breakthrough for me both personally and professionally,” said Penny Hartin, CEO, World Blind Union. “The ability to make highly functional, accessible content available on desktops everywhere in the world is critical, and this Open XML to DAISY XML translator for Microsoft Office Word is a remarkable move toward that goal.”

“In our information age, access to information is a fundamental human right,” said George Kerscher, secretary general of the DAISY Consortium. “This is why leading organizations of and for the blind throughout the world are committed to the advancement of the DAISY Standard. The ability to create DAISY content from millions of Open XML-based documents using this translator for Microsoft Office Word will offer substantial and immediate benefits to publishers, governments, corporations, educators and, most important, to everyone who loves to read.”

“We are keenly tracking these developments for the benefit of our members and students around the world,” said Charlene Gaynor, CEO of the Association of Educational Publishers. “Not only will the Open XML to DAISY XML translator support an outstanding critical need for individuals with print disabilities, but it will also help us fulfill our commitment to improve the learning experience for those students served neither by text-only nor audio-only books today.”

“The Open XML to DAISY XML translator for Microsoft Office Word will begin the translation of Open XML-based content into an enriched multimedia format accessible to users around the world, regardless of the degree of their visual impairments,” said Jeff Raikes, President of the Microsoft Business Division. “This accessible technology is something that our customers have asked for, and we are pleased to be able to work collaboratively with the DAISY Consortium to realize this goal.”

Open XML adoption continues to expand across the software industry for use on various platforms that include Linux, Windows, Mac OS and the Palm OS. Solution providers interested in creating their own Open XML to DAISY XML translators may find the project on SourceForge at http://sourceforge.net/projects/openxml-daisy. The resulting “Save As DAISY” plug-in will be available as a free download for Microsoft Office Word (Word XP, Word 2003 and Word 2007) customers in early 2008.

Perspectives from members of the print-disabled community about this news are available at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2007/nov07/11-13daisy.mspx. More information about Microsoft’s accessibility solutions is available at http://www.microsoft.com/enable. More information about the Ecma Office Open XML open standard document format specification is available at http://www.openxmldeveloper.org and http://www.openxmlcommunity.org.

About the DAISY Consortium

DAISY denotes the Digital Accessible Information SYstem. The DAISY Consortium was formed in May 1996 by talking book libraries to lead the worldwide transition from analog to Digital Talking Books. Now nearly 70 non-profit organizations make up the Consortium, and actively promote the DAISY Standard for Digital Talking Books. The DAISY Standard has revolutionized the reading experience for people unable to read print due to a visual, physical,

More information about the DAISY Consortium and the DAISY Standard is available at http://www.daisy.org/.

Microsoft Expands Enterprise Search Offering, Introduces Search Server 2008 Express

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 14:00:37 GMT

Free enterprise search product is quick, easy, powerful.

Dublin: November 6th 2007: Microsoft today unveiled Microsoft Search Server 2008 Express, a new addition to its enterprise search line-up. Search Server 2008 Express, which will be available as a free download, combines simplicity of installation and ease of use with a powerful set of search features, including new security-enhanced capabilities that help businesses connect to a wide range of information. A release candidate of Search Server 2008 Express is available today at http://www.microsoft.com/enterprisesearch for download and evaluation.

“Search Server 2008 Express delivers on Microsoft’s goal of unlocking the potential of any company, whatever its size or need, by making it easy for people to find and act on information,” commented Richard Moore, Business Manager for the Information Worker Group at Microsoft Ireland. “These search features are easily downloaded and free. With Search Server 2008 businesses will increase productivity by significantly decreasing valuable time lost and wasted through inadequate search facilities. The cost savings in time wasted by workers is significant and could add up to millions of Euro annually.”

In delivering Search Server Express, Microsoft has taken the enterprise class search capabilities of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and made them available as a stand-alone server for free. Search Server Express is designed to be easy to configure and administer, allowing IT professionals to go from download to search in as little as 30 minutes. In addition, Search Server Express has no preset document limits, so it will scale to meet a company’s evolving needs. For users, Search Server Express provides advanced security and easy access to relevant, action-oriented results using a familiar Web search experience.

New Enhancements Help Businesses Connect to a Wide Range of Information

Enterprise search has the greatest impact when it links companies to a variety of information. Today Microsoft announced two important search product portfolio enhancements that provide connectivity to a number of common customer information sources.

First, free connectors that index content from EMC Corp.’s Documentum and IBM Corp.’s FileNet are scheduled to be available across the portfolio of Microsoft search products in early 2008.

Microsoft has also added new federated search capabilities based on the OpenSearch standard. Many applications and services already support OpenSearch, and Microsoft is working with a number of partners, as well as with its own product groups, to create new connections based on the standard. Several companies — including Open Text Corp., Business Objects SA, Cognos Inc. and EMC — have already signed on to develop federated search connectors that will enable Microsoft’s enterprise search customers to easily connect to their information systems.

Microsoft’s Enterprise Search Portfolio

Search Server 2008 Express is the newest addition to Microsoft’s enterprise search line-up, which includes the new Microsoft Search Server 2008, and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.

The addition of Search Server 2008 Express allows IT departments to scale their search investment as organizational needs grow. Because products are based on the same core search technology, customers can have enterprise-class capabilities no matter which solution they choose. For example, the new connectors and federation model will work across Search Server 2008 Express and the broader Office SharePoint Server offerings. By using a common platform, Microsoft can offer a range of products that meet the needs of small, medium-sized and large businesses.

“Both Search Server 2008 and Search Server 2008 Express offer an enterprise-ready search solution that empowers people to find the information they need to get work done quickly and easily,” added Richard Moore. Microsoft Search will harness the power of the familiar Internet search experience to help people find information within a business.”

More information about Microsoft enterprise search is available at http://www.microsoft.com/enterprisesearch.

Microsoft Launches Unified Communications in Ireland

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 10:30:38 GMT

Dublin: Tuesday, 23rd October 2007 –Microsoft Ireland today launched its Unified Communications software in Ireland at a customer event in Dublin. Microsoft’s Unified Communications software streamlines workplace communications bringing together phone calls, voicemail, e-mail, meetings, conference calls and instant messaging into one integrated application which makes it easier for people to manage the growing volume of communications they use on a daily basis. Unified Communications increases productivity by enabling people to more effectively manage their communications wherever they are. It also uses new cost effective technologies such as VoIP which reduce the cost of communications.

The launch event was held with a number of partners including BT, HP and Plantronics. It also included presentations from a number of Irish customers who are already using Unified Communications.

“We needed a solution which would manage our desk to desk communications and organise all of our inbound channels. One of the greatest benefits for us with OCS is the ability to access desks remotely giving staff and customers the support they need when they need it,” commented Tim Willoughby, Assistant Director of LGCSB. “We’re now looking forward to rolling out the whole unified communications package by deploying Microsoft Office Communicator, Live Messaging and Roundtable. Being able to manage information and communications better through a single inbox will ultimately increase productivity and efficiency throughout the organisation. In the future we intend to work with a number of different local authorities, starting with Waterford County Council, to create a meaningful platform for communications with greater richness and reach. We’ve found that Microsoft’s unified communications software offers a holistic approach to our communications needs,” added Willoughby.

According to Harris Interactive Online Survey the average office worker receives 95 different communications every day from seven different sources. We waste 50% of our time when making a call, looking up the number. Today, 85% of us believe that emails have made our work day easier. Gartner also provided that by the end of the decade, all employees with business e-mail accounts will also have business IM accounts while by 2013, 95% of workers in global 100 organisations will use IM client as their primary interface for real-time communications.

Microsoft demonstrated unified communications and VoIP software which includes the following:

· Microsoft^® Office Communications Server 2007. Software that delivers VoIP, video, instant messaging, conferencing and presence within the applications people already know and use such as Microsoft Office system applications and upcoming versions of Microsoft Dynamics™ ERP products and the Microsoft CRM release due later this year

· Microsoft Office Communicator 2007. Client software for phone, instant messaging and video communications that works across the PC, mobile phone and Web browser

· Microsoft Office Live Meeting. The next version of Microsoft’s advanced conferencing service that enables workers to conduct meetings, share documents, utilise video and record discussions from virtually any computer

· Microsoft RoundTable™. A conferencing phone with a 360-degree camera that captures a panoramic view of meeting participants, tracks the speaker and can record meetings

· Service pack update of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. The industry’s leading e-mail, voice mail, calendaring and unified messaging platform

Early adopters of UC deployed Microsoft’s UC software earlier this summer and have seen the true value and future of unified communications. In June of this year LGCSB installed Office Communications Server 2007 (OCS) to 30 – 40 users throughout the organisation.

Microsoft unified communications software increases flexibility, bringing together project teams and employees, business partners and customers no matter where they may be physically located. Workers will get more done, better and faster with UCs instant and consolidated access to information and resources.

“Microsoft’s Unified Communications software will provide our customers with the choices on how they communicate, wherever and whenever they need to. Enterprise customers and their employees will reap the benefits of greater productivity which will reduce cost and create a true environment for a work life balance,” added Richard Moore, BI Managerof Microsoft Ireland.

BT’s approach to the UC market is designed to help enterprise customers manage their journeys to a converged environment where collaboration tools can be used to increase efficiency, productivity and competitive position. They offer a single interface for messaging, conferencing, collaboration and telephony, streamlining and managing the complexity of communications and collaboration.

“To help them fulfil the promise of convergence, enterprises can benefit from an experienced partner that brings a network-centric perspective and years of global networking experience to the challenge,” said Nick Forbes, Head of Systems Integration and Consulting. “BT can unify the necessary elements and assist in charting a roadmap toward unified communications that makes the most sense for each enterprise. With BT’s scalable solutions, customers can start implementing UC on a small scale and then increase the integration into their IP and IT environments on a global scale.”

“BT is a key partner in bringing this to the Irish market,” commented Richard Moore. By partnering with BT, we have merged our respective solutions to enable organisations’ communications infrastructure, mobility, desktop and applications to work together so that users can take part in almost any form of communication with anyone at any time by securely linking voice, mobile and data services with the desktop.”

Also linking with Microsoft at the event were Plantronics whose Voyager 510Bluetooth headset enhances Microsoft’s UC software, replacing the standard handset with a state-of-the-art easy to use headset allowing your experience in answering calls and switching from mobile to desktop communications without confusion or fuss.

“Plantronics is furthering its strategic relationship with Microsoft to develop unified communications solutions that make company communications integrated, life-like and immediate. Our headset solutions are developed specifically to optimize the performance of unified communications environments, helping companies improve collaboration through ‘in-person’ quality voice fidelity independent of the worker’s location,” commented Paul Dunne, channel manager, UK & Ireland.

Microsoft Launches Next Wave of Business Communications Software

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 15:41:55 GMT

Customers report savings of 25 percent to 30 percent from VoIP, conferencing software; more than 50 partners announce new products and services.

San Francisco: October 17th, 2007 — Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corp., and Jeff Raikes, president of the Microsoft Business Division, have announced the worldwide availability of Microsoft’s unified communications software, taking the first step toward streamlining workplace communications and helping reduce the cost of the average corporate voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) system by half.

“In the next decade, sweeping technology innovations driven by the power of software will transform communications,” Gates said. “Working with partners, we’re making rapid advances that will enable fundamental advances in the way people communicate and collaborate at work.”

Microsoft executives launched unified communications and VoIP software that includes the following:

· Microsoft Office Communicator 2007. Client software for phone, instant messaging and video communications that works across the PC, mobile phone and Web browser

· Microsoft RoundTable™. A conferencing phone with a 360-degree camera that captures a panoramic view of meeting participants, tracks the speaker and can record meetings

· Service pack update of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. The industry’s leading e-mail, voice mail, calendaring and unified messaging platform

“Unified communications software will transform business communications as fundamentally as e-mail did in the 1990s,” Raikes said. “Today, Microsoft is in the VoIP game, and our customers and partners are already winning with better economics and new business opportunities.”

Forrester Consulting found in a study commissioned by Microsoft that organisations may achieve significant productivity improvements and cost savings with unified communications. The Forrester study, created from the results of 15 in-depth interviews of Microsoft unified communications customers, found that these customers can achieve more than 500 percent return on investment (ROI) over three years by deploying Office Communications Server 2007.

To view the keynote address, learn more about Microsoft’s unified communications software or download evaluation copies, customers can visit http://www.microsoft.com/uc.

Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 Extends Microsoft’s Business Intelligence Solution

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 16:32:37 GMT

Dublin: Wednesday, 19^th September 2007 - As part of its commitment to providing industry-leading business intelligence solutions, Microsoft has launched Microsoft^® Office PerformancePoint™ Server 2007, an application that enables companies to drive performance through monitoring, analysing and planning their business using one integrated solution. Microsoft Business Intelligence (BI) allows more people at all levels of an organisation to make better decisions, and has the vision of reaching every decision-maker and adding value to every decision. With Office PerformancePoint Server 2007, Microsoft is building on its existing BI solution to enable companies to drive strategy development, alignment and accountability across the entire organisation.

“Companies today have access to more information on the performance of their business than ever before,” said Richard Moore, Information Worker Business Manager at Microsoft, Ireland. “The challenge isn’t about having data, it’s about how do you access, analyse and use that information to improve your business. Our approach to Business Intelligence is to give companies an integrated, easy to use approach that enables the relevant people in a business to use the right information to make the right decisions in a timely manner.”

Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 takes the same approach as the rest of the Microsoft Business Intelligence product line — Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 is simple to use because of the familiar look and feel of the Microsoft Office interface, and it puts intelligence right where people work and collaborate. Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 is built to meet the functional and performance requirements of a large enterprise, but its competitive pricing allows companies of all sizes to use the application broadly throughout the organisation. The application is very flexible, allowing businesspeople to build and manage plans, workflows and rules, while IT centrally controls security and information.

Strong Customer and Market Momentum

“Microsoft has developed and assembled and is launching a formidable business intelligence and performance management (BI/PM) strategy that will change market dynamics…,” said John Hagerty, vice president of AMR Research Inc. “Because of Microsoft’s ubiquitous presence within enterprises of all sizes, its BI/PM products will certainly have long-term impact on how buyers perceive and purchase information-based products across all areas of their companies.”

Customers have expressed their interest in implementing a performance-management application from Microsoft, as witnessed by the overwhelming size of the Community Technology Preview (CTP) program. In fact, at more than 10,000 organisations, the CTP program was larger than most performance-management application vendors’ installed base. Many of the customers involved in the CTP program were large, multinational organisations with very complex requirements.

“Microsoft Office PerformancePoint 2007 offers customers a cost effective CPM (Corporate Performance Management) solution that can leverage their existing BI infrastructure and enables senior management to conduct, monitor and analyse their corporate planning process,” commented Donal Olden, Managing Director, PM Centrix.

“With Office PerformancePoint Server 2007, you have metrics, key performance indicators (KPIs) and reports delivered to every desktop through intuitive scorecards, dashboards and the 2007 Microsoft Office system environment. A key component of the Microsoft Business Intelligence (BI) offering, Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 helps you understand how performance can align with personal and departmental goals and objectives,” added Olden.

Greater Business Opportunities for Partners

Microsoft’s complete and integrated Business Intelligence product line consists of SQL Server™ and the Microsoft Office system, and it gives solution providers and systems integrators a greater opportunity to develop comprehensive BI solutions that are customised to meet needs specific to a particular customer or industry. Microsoft has already extensively trained almost 1,000 partners worldwide on the application.

Microsoft Welcomes National Standards Authority of Ireland’s Conditional Approval of Office OpenXML Standard

Mon, 03 Sep 2007 08:39:13 GMT

Dublin: September 3rd 2007 - Microsoft today welcomed the conditional acceptance of the OpenXML document standard by the National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI). The unanimous decision, taken by the NSAI’s ICT Standards Consultative Committee, means that subject to a number of minor alterations, Ireland will support the fast tracking of the Office OpenXML document format as an International Standards Organization (ISO) standard.

The consultative committee unanimously supported the conditional approval of Office OpenXML including leading technology organisations including IBM, Intel, Microsoft and Oracle.

“The adoption of OpenXML will benefit customers and information workers who already create, share and integrate documents across their business,” commented Sean Foley, DPE Lead at Microsoft Ireland. “Over one hundred organisations in Ireland have indicated their support for OpenXML as an ISO standard and the NSAI decision is the next step in a process for making OpenXML an ISO standard.”

According to a study of European and US companies commissioned by Microsoft, IT managers at large organizations are increasingly interested in employing XML-based standards, including Open XML, among their document standards. The majority of respondents cited interoperability between productivity tools, long-term archiving, and ease of transition from an existing base of documents to a new standard as the primary criteria used to evaluate organization wide adoption of a given standard.

About Office OpenXML

Office Open XML is an open document standard that was approved by the Ecma International (www.ecma-international.org) standards body in December 2006. In December 2006, this standard was also submitted for consideration by the Joint Technical Committee 1 (JTC 1) of the International Standards Organization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) via JTC 1’s “Fast Track” process.

Since Microsoft submitted the technology to Ecma International in November 2005, the company has been working in an open and collaborative manner with others to further develop the formats for the benefit of the broader industry. Microsoft expects that through this open standards process, these formats will continue to evolve and improve.

The members of Ecma Technical Committee 45 (TC45), which includes representatives from Apple, Barclays Capital, BP, The British Library, Essilor, Intel, Microsoft, NextPage, Novell, Statoil, Toshiba, and the United States Library of Congress, have worked together as part of a cross-industry collaborative effort, to help make the Open XML formats as useful and interoperable as possible.

Thanks to the depth of the technical resources on the technical committee, the Ecma Open XML standard also includes information for assistive technology products to use the formats and properly process documents. As a leader in product development and support for the accessibility community, we are grateful to Ecma International for the importance placed on these efforts.

Trinity College Dublin Blocks 11.1 million Spam E-mails in 20 Days with Microsoft’s Exchange Hosted Service

Mon, 28 May 2007 16:09:20 GMT

Dublin; 28th May 2007: By switching to Microsoft’s hosted e-mail solution, Trinity College Dublin (TCD) has dramatically reduced the volume of spam e-mails reaching its 20,000 users. Of the 20 million messages sent to students and staff at the college each month, 80% were found to be spam.

Using their traditional e-mail solution, the situation had become critical. When there was a large volume of e-mail it sometimes took up to a day for a message to get to its intended destination because vital messages were often delayed as spam filters try to cope with the deluge of junk mail. Finding the right solution to the problem became a priority for the IT department.

“We conducted a trial of Microsoft’s Exchanged Hosted Server (EHS), the results were immediate and spectacular. Over a period of 20 days 12.1 million emails were sent to addresses in the TCD domain. The service managed to identify and block 11.1 million spam messages which accounted for 92% of all our incoming e-mail traffic,” commented John Murphy, deputy director of IS Services at Trinity College Dublin. ““Microsoft’s EHS couples effective e-mail management with great value for money, it could end up being one of the best investments we’ve ever made.”

Following the successful trial, TCD signed a deal under Microsoft’s Campus Licensing agreement which is backed up by a Service Level Agreement (SLA) which provides 100% virus protection and a minimum of 95% spam filtering. Microsoft’s high specification SLA ensures a high level in accuracy promising only one in 250,000 legitimate emails will be quarantined. EHS allows the quarantined mail to be self-managed by individual users as false positives are sometimes a possibility.

“The terms reflect our unique insight on these potential threats,” commented Jordi Munoz-Royo, Security Business Manager, Microsoft EMEA. “Our advantage is the huge volume of email that we see - billions every month globally, giving us insight into how spam is behaving on a worldwide basis which differentiates us from our competitors. When we see a virus outbreak happening in the Far East we don’t need to wait until it reaches Europe. We can stop it before it reaches the rest of the world.”

Deployed over the web as a ‘Software as a Service’ (SAS) model with no additional hardware or software required makes the service fast and easy to install with limited IT resources being expended. The platform is agnostic and works with a mixed email environment. A managed Exchange Hosted Service enables organisations to protect themselves from email-borne malware, data encryption, satisfies retention requirements for compliance and allows access to email during emergency situations.

The managed service has helped liberate the IT department from day-to-day involvement with email allowing them to focus on issues that deliver more value to TCD.

SAP and Microsoft Deliver Extended Road Map for Duet™ Software

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 21:09:48 GMT

Continued commitment to empowering information workers with simplified access to key business data and processes through Microsoft Office.

ATLANTA: April 24, 2007 — SAP AG and Microsoft Corp. today announced that they have deepened their relationship and extended their product road map for Duet software for Microsoft Office and SAP, a solution that allows information workers to interact with select SAP business processes and data through Microsoft Office applications. The companies will jointly enhance Duet with additional business scenarios, platform capabilities and development tools. The upcoming version, Duet 2.0, is planned for the end of 2008 and Duet 3.0 is planned to be released soon after the next generation of SAP Business Suite applications and Microsoft Office software, including Microsoft Office SharePointServer.

This announcement from SAP and Microsoft underscores the companies’ continued investment in shaping the future of Duet to ensure that it benefits their joint customers. The news was released at SAPPHIRE ’07, SAP’s international customer conference, being held in Atlanta April 22 – 25.

“Today’s announcement is a win for customers, another example of SAP’s ongoing tradition of co-innovation with partners and evidence of our continued commitment to our relationship with Microsoft,” said. Léo Apotheker, president of Customer Solutions and Operations and deputy CEO of SAP AG. “Duet started out as a revolutionary combination of two industry leaders and continues as the only commercially available product that is jointly developed and supported by both Microsoft and SAP. With this Duet road map, customers and partners can count on richer business scenarios, new collaboration features and simpler, more flexible ways for information workers to leverage their organization’s business processes and information.”

For organizations to succeed, all employees need instant access to relevant enterprise information and processes. Originally announced in April 2005, Duet is the result of groundbreaking collaboration between SAP and Microsoft which extends the benefits of SAP to information workers through the familiar Microsoft Office environment. Duet makes SAP applications useable right away without the need for training on a new user interface.

“The incredible level of interest in Duet by our customers motivated us to share specifics around the future direction of the product,” said Jeff Raikes, president of the Microsoft Business Division at Microsoft. “The broadened capabilities of Duet coupled with the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server integration will bring businesses new value and people the tools to help them drive business success.”

Duet is a model for how applications perform in the age of enterprise service-oriented architecture (enterprise SOA). Combining the power of enterprise SOA capabilities in the coming versions of SAP Business Suite applications, Microsoft Office software and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, Duet will help customers create software building blocks that they can use to easily deploy and customize Duet without disrupting their current IT infrastructure. As a result, Duet continues to be embraced by customers and partners with more than 250 customers and 400,000 licenses sold in less than a year. The upcoming features are based on feedback from this growing community of Duet customers.

Both industry leaders continue to co-innovate using their rich portfolios of enterprise SOA technologies to empower information workers with access to critical business processes and information, and collaborate via their preferred user environment. Following are some new features customers can expect in Duet 2.0 and Duet 3.0:

Enhanced and new business scenario support for sales and supply chain management, and other business scenarios — extended capabilities will allow sales professionals to manage sales leads and opportunities within SAP Customer Relationship Management (SAP CRM) from Microsoft Office. Additionally, supply chain managers will have new capabilities for purchasing and legal contract management. There will also be support for selected governance, risk and compliance scenarios.
Expansion of Duet to support unstructured processes, information and team collaboration through embracing Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, Microsoft’s business productivity platform. The combination of SAP Business Suite and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server streamline the way people do business by truly connecting people, process and information.
Enhanced Duet tools and infrastructure interwoven with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, so customers and partners can customize existing scenarios and create new ones. New scenario templates and development tools allow organizations to adapt existing Duet scenarios and build new scenarios that meet their evolving business needs.

For more information on Duet, visit http://www.Duet.com.

Microsoft Set to Deliver Enhanced VoIP Solutions as Unified Communications Shift to Software

Wed, 07 Mar 2007 06:45:47 GMT

Microsoft predicts that in the next three years 100 million Office users will “click to call”

Public beta version of Office Communications Server and Communicator 2007 Available

7th March, 2007 — In a keynote address at VoiceCon Spring 2007, Jeff Raikes, president of Microsoft Corp.’s Business Division, today predicted that in just three years, the average voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) solution for business will cost half what it does today, as VoIP systems move from hardware to software. Raikes also predicted that in the same time frame, 100 million people — twice the number of current business VoIP users — will have the ability to make phone calls from Microsoft^® Office applications.

“Software is set to transform business phone systems as profoundly as it has transformed virtually every other form of workplace communication,” Raikes said. “Over time, the software-based VoIP technology built into Microsoft Office Communications Server and Microsoft Office Communicator will offer so much value and cost savings that it will make the standard telephone look like that old typewriter that’s gathering dust in the stockroom.”

Outlining Microsoft’s progress toward delivering its enterprise voice solutions, Raikes also announced that Microsoft will distribute the public beta-test version of Office Communications Server 2007, Microsoft’s VoIP and unified communications server, and Office Communicator 2007, Microsoft’s unified communications client, to millions of testers later this month.

Changing the Economic Equation

Raikes discussed the challenges and costs that IT departments face managing multiple communications systems for telephony and software-based communications. For example, according to a report from Gartner Research, the cost of branded IP handsets — typically 40 percent to 45 percent of the cost of telephony installation — is still a main obstacle for companies adopting IP telephony.

By bringing a new approach to traditional telephony, Microsoft asserts that Office Communications Server will deliver the following:

• Software economics. Built on a proven software platform, Office Communications Server works with a broad array of devices, phones, applications, services and common management tools, via open, published interfaces and standards — increasing choice and, in the long term, helping reduce costs. A prime example: Microsoft’s partner ecosystem will give customers a choice of phones and devices, dramatically reducing the overall cost of VoIP for businesses.

• Voice quality. The listening and call quality offered by a pre-release version of Office Communications Server 2007 was “considerably better than that provided by [a leading provider’s] IP phones and CallManager,” according to an independent benchmark study conducted by Psytechnics, a firm specializing in voice-quality research.

• Easy transition. Companies can get more value from their existing PBX systems, networks and desk phones by using Office Communications Server to add VoIP and unified communications capabilities without ripping and replacing existing investments.

Raikes also showcased how several customers are reducing operating expenses by consolidating their communications infrastructure, and how many more customers are banking on Microsoft’s unified communications platform to deliver breakthrough economics in the coming years.

“Office Communications Server 2007 represents a compelling glimpse into the future of collaboration and information worker environments,” said Robert Sincavage, section manager of Web and Collaborative Systems for the BMW Group. “This product sets the stage for a back-end infrastructure where archaic hardware PBXs will be replaced by software and industry-standard servers, potentially resulting in dramatic economic benefits.”

Most Important Communications Tool Since Outlook

Raikes illustrated the inefficiencies of the standard telephone by pointing to a Harris Interactive Service survey that found that two-thirds of business phone calls end in voice-mail messages.* As a result, 25 percent of information workers spend the equivalent of three full work days each year playing phone tag and leaving voice-mail messages.

Raikes described Office Communications Server 2007 and Office Communicator 2007 as the most important new communications technology since Microsoft Outlook^® 1997, an e-mail and personal information manager. He predicted the new products would change the way people contact each other by providing more efficient and effective communications:

• Streamlined communications. Click-to-call features make it possible to call someone by simply clicking on the person’s name within other Microsoft Office applications, such as Microsoft Office Outlook and Microsoft Office SharePoint^®Server.

• Advanced “presence.” The technology can quickly determine colleagues’ availability and the best way to contact them at work or while they’re away.

• More ways to meet. The technology can bring together people in multiple locations for meetings via the most convenient communications method, whether it’s a voice call, audio or video conference, or Web-based document sharing.

• Tools that travel. Mobile workers can use their office phone number and other corporate communications tools, including instant messaging and audio- or videoconferencing, when working from home or on the road. With lower-cost calling options and simple, secure access without a virtual private network, remote and mobile workers can be more productive with lower communications and support costs.

Extending Opportunities for Partners

Microsoft also announced that for the first time it is making the interoperability specifications for Office Communications Server 2007 and Office Communicator 2007 available to partners, enabling them to deliver a unified experience with Session Initiation Protocol interoperability between their PBX and Office Communications Server 2007 and Office Communicator 2007. As a result, customers can avoid the costs of ripping and replacing their existing telephony system. They can also gain productivity benefits from less complexity and better management of their telephony systems, Raikes said.

“We’re embarking on a software transformation similar to what we saw from the mainframe to the PC,” Raikes said. “With a shift of this magnitude, there will be tremendous opportunities for our industry partners worldwide.”

Availability

Customers can register for the public beta version of Office Communications Server and Communicator 2007 at http://www.microsoft.com/uc. Partners can register for the Office Communications Server 2007 interoperability specification at http://www.microsoft.com/uc.