Last week a colleague and I presented at UK TechDays . We talked about what CIO’s were thinking about the cloud.  Not just Microsoft’s cloud platform, but cloud platforms generally.  One area we discussed was business opportunities. The intention...

IE8 Web Accelerators and Web Slices add another mechanism for your customers to interact with you in the way they choose, from where they are. This video describes how ASOS have achieved this: ";" galleryimg="no" mce_src="http://blogs...

A while ago I posted about the value of exposing your business capabilities as services in order that others could use them, and in effect sell your products for you. Well Tesco.com have done it. Take a look at how to use them https://www.lansleytech...

Here's a big picture that I created a while ago to describe our Software + Services strategy:

I often hear of scenarios targeting the Surface unit that I think are actually appropriate for any multi-touch device. My view of Surface is that its optimum scenarios include object recognition and collaboration . So, if an object such as a mobile...

Or, ' Delivering Software plus Services (S+S) ' A while ago a small group of people in Microsoft started an incubation project code named ‘Motion’. Principally Motion is a methodology that establishes *what* a business does, and not how it does it...

Have you spotted what some toys now include? They have a tag that has a Web address and a secret code. Once at the Web site you can register your toy by entering the code, you then gain access into previously secret content. If the toy is a doll then...

Simply put, Web sites probably support two functions: one as a content provider, and the other as a channel that allows your users to interact with you or each other. Arguably the first describes the original Web; a collection of sites that publish...

What are notifications? My definition is small, timely, useful and usually actionable pieces of information that interest or enrich a receiver’s experience. Because my definition centres on the person receiving them, there are other attributes of notifications...

The interesting discussion about Gadgets for me is not a technical one, but a business one. My view is simply: If someone chooses to install a Gadget on the Vista Sidebar, they are dedicating a piece of their desktop to you. That can be valuable. Therefore...

How many grumpy developers do you know? Some developers continually ask questions in an attempt to understand what's required and to identify what could go wrong. Others seem to ask fewer questions, and don't appear to be as preoccupied with exceptions...

I've been thinking a lot about User Experience (UX) recently. How it's changed, why it's important, what the technology options are, ... The Microsoft platform offers so much choice, it can be confusing. So here's an attempt to offer some simplification...

What business scenarios does the DeepZoom technology support? Here are some I can think of: Showing additional information Showing additional, relevant information in situ without having to link off to another page. A great example of this is a...

I hosted a micro-presentation session at the Microsoft AIC. If you’re not familiar with this format of presentation, they’re very simple. 20 slides, 20 seconds per slide, the slides to be configured to change automatically. In addition be being good...

I seem to be having more conversations about the different version of Silverlight and their capabilities. My view is quite simple: I have not yet come across a business scenario that Silverlight 1.0 cannot deliver against (excluding those where Digital...

When Web Services as we know them today were in their infancy I started to work with a customer that sold a market leading product. Their product was successful because of the rich supporting data source that helped their clients make intelligent decisions...

Last week I presented a session on integration at an Architects Forum , along with some of my colleagues . The Forum was about Office Business Applications (OBA) . An approach to building composite applications that enable users to stay in their desktop...

It's only one week until Mix in the UK, and so I've been reflecting on Mix in Vegas earlier this year. One of the best sessions I attended was presented by Jesse James Garret and titled XB006 - Experience: A Star to Sail Your Ship By. Not only was...

I’ve recently been playing about with and exploring Popfly . Basically it’s about enabling easy creation of web pages and mash-ups by simply assembling pre-created ‘blocks’ of functionality from a library by dragging and dropping the components on a canvas...

Silverlight is a cross browser, cross platform plug-in that delivers a consistent user experience across browsers, and can reproduce deployed client performance in the browser. If you look a little deeper it could be considered a little more than a plug...

Welcome to the Business Value Blog. I'm a member of a team within the UK that works closely with customers to develop interesting solutions on the Microsoft platform. The primary purpose of this blog is to describe what business value can be gained...