The Technology Adoption Program (TAP) at Microsoft® is designed to provide a consistent experience for customers partnering with Microsoft in obtaining real world customer feedback on Microsoft pre-release products. Participating customers find that some of the most powerful benefits include:
§ Product team engineering
§ help in deploying their Microsoft solutions.
§ Early product education.
§ An opportunity to influence product through their feedback.
§ The strategic edge all this can give them in their line of business.
TAP (Technology Adoption Program) is a framework that has been created to rationalize, simplify and centralize the former JDP (Joint Development Program), EAP (Early Adopter Program, RDP (Rapid Deployment Program) and related programs under a single umbrella. The goal is to improve customer/partner experiences in evaluating and adopting our technologies and improve our ability to track and manage customer/partner relationships across programs. TAP is not an additional program. There are currently four different types of TAPs (Product Validation, Product Evaluation, Rapid Deployment and Solutions Implementation) in the framework.
§ Agreement
o Single legal agreement for all programs under TAP
o Only 7 pages, clear language
o Governing law aligned with major geographical regions: e.g. Ireland, if your principal place of business is in Europe
§ Program Description
o Same format for all programs
o Flexible to accommodate your requirements
o Like MOU (Memorandum Of Understanding), no legal process necessary
§ Web Site
o Information about all programs available under TAP
o More information about all programs you are participating in
o Work with MS contact if you are interested in participation
o Easy access to pre-release software
§ Plus …
o Consistent / Clear taxonomy for Microsoft wide, cross product consistency: the customer knows what to expect
o TAP programs part of your strategic IT planning