According to the Guinness Book of Records, Happy Birthday To You is the most recognised song in the English language and has been translated into 18 different languages. The melody comes from a song called Good Morning to All. In the US the copyright is owned by the Time Warner Group and it is alleged to be illegal to perform this song for profit unless you pay a royalty.
Where is the tenuous link to Microsoft, I hear you ask? October sees the first year anniversary of one of our most significant products, Windows 7. The product became available for general release on October 22nd 2009. For Amazon in the UK it became the biggest grossing pre-order product of all time beating a book featuring a wizard called Harry. In the world of business, we are also seeing increased adoption as customers move from previous versions such as Windows XP. To mark the anniversary, I thought I would highlight some of the resources available to customers looking at deploying Windows 7 onto their desktops:
Optimised Desktop Event:
On the 1st of November our colleagues from Microsoft US will be in the UK presenting a workshop on deploying Windows 7 (and Office 2010). Places are available on a first come, first served basis. More details and registration can be found online here or you can reserve a place by phone on 0870 166 6670 quoting Event reference: 3449.
Information on the benefits of deploying Windows 7:
Our Windows 7 web site has the latest information as to why you may want to deploy including white papers and customer examples
Self Service Proof of Concept:
If you are looking at a running a proof of concept, our Developer and Platform team have produced a Windows 7 digital guide with detailed steps on how to implement a proof of concept project.
So if you’re celebrating a birthday in October then add another candle to the cake and join us in wishing happy birthday to Windows 7.
Posted by Dan
Microsoft technology is renowned for its worldwide applications and has funded free Microsoft Office Language Interface Packs (LIPs) for many languages, giving users the opportunity to experience the features of Microsoft Office Excel, Office Outlook, Office PowerPoint, and Office Word in their native language. The Welsh LIP is also available for Windows operating systems, including Windows 7.
Welsh is one of Europe’s oldest languages. Although the number of Welsh speakers has decreased historically, it rose from 509,098 in 1991 to 582,000 in 2001. This is attributed to an increase in the number of speakers among young people, particularly between the ages of five and 15 years. Schools have played a large part in this shift, as has the Welsh Language Act of 1993, which requires public bodies providing a service to people in Wales to implement a Welsh Language Scheme, providing those services in both Welsh and English. The act emphasises that the Welsh language is: “an essential and enduring component in the history, culture, and social fabric of the nation.”
There is a fascinating new case study from the Microsoft Local Language Program about how localized software helps Welsh students use technology in their own language and help them to perceive that their native language is relevant in their everyday use of technology.
Here’s a snippet from the article that illustrates why this makes a difference:
While students could create documents in Welsh, and look up Welsh websites, the interface of the applications students used was in English. “The tool bar and menus were in English. I found myself having to use English words to talk about the technology,” says Thomas. “This was interrupting our practice of immersive learning, and giving the impression that Welsh is not a language used within modern technology.”
Read the full story here.
And, if you want to know what you actually call “sign in”, or “recycle bin” or “link” in Welsh, check out the online search Microsoft Language Portal which contains the Welsh translations of Windows 7 and Office 2007 terms.
Finally, for some light-hearted observations on Welsh pride in their native language take a look at this YouTube excerpt of Michael McIntyre performing in Swansea.
Posted by Ian
This is to remind you that we are re-starting our regular series of Microsoft Live Meetings for the Public Sector starting on Friday October 1st with the topic of Cloud computing.
You can read about and register to participate in all of the Live Meetings in our October series here.
The Live Meeting on Cloud computing will explore:
Cloud computing has the potential to be a game-changer in empowering employees, liberating information and transforming organisations. Our Live Meeting on Cloud Computing for the Public Sector on Friday October 1, 11:00-12:00 will help you translate all the talk about Cloud into a strategy and provide an overview of the Microsoft cloud technologies that makes sense for your organisation.
Our Live Meeting includes practical demonstrations and relevant examples from the Public Sector such as the RNLI and the European Environment Agency where Microsoft Cloud solutions are already being used innovatively to provide the ability to scale applications to support thousands of users quickly and cost-effectively with no requirement for the customer to invest in additional infrastructure.
Microsoft is an innovator in Cloud - both in our business and for your business. Our experience for over 15 years, with consumer solutions such as Hotmail and LiveID, can help you define what the cloud means to you and where you should start. It might simply be email in the cloud, or it might be comprehensive communication and collaboration in the cloud. Whatever it is, our Live Meeting is a great opportunity to hear from Microsoft experts and help you to define and communicate your cloud strategy and journey for your organisation, your employees and your customers.
You can register for our Live Meeting on Cloud Computing here
Every public sector organisation is striving to reduce the costs of their ICT operations. One area of investigation by many organisations is virtualisation. But which technology and what savings can be expected in ICT operations?
Microsoft has just published independent research which examines which platform is less expensive in IT labour to operate on an on-going basis, and do the systems management products used to manage the environment impact the cost of managing either or both platforms (i.e. Hyper-V or VMware ESX).
Here’s a ‘taster’ of the top-line results:
The comparison figures are in $ but I am sure you can extrapolate the potential for savings in £ for your environment.
You can obtain a copy of the full report here. Go to the ‘related resources’ heading and you can download a copy of the report entitled ‘Hyper-V vs. VMware ESC and vSphere: Operations & Management Cost Analysis.
The stimuli for today’s posting are the ‘news’ that Super Mario reached the ripe ‘old age’ of 25 on Monday and Microsoft released the latest version of the Halo game for Xbox 360 – Halo:Reach. Computer gaming has definitely come of age and its revenues are the envy of many a Hollywood movie studio. Halo:Reach is forecast to exceed 6 million unit sales this year.
Fans will know that Halo is one of the leading franchises in ‘first-person shooter’ gaming. Most of the readers of this blog will now be wondering what this has to do with Government ICT.
The answer is Generation Y. This is the ‘digital native’ generation that has grown up with their own PC, social media and gaming – and is now increasingly entering your workforce. I am not advocating that this new, fully IT-literate workforce needs access to gaming consoles in the workplace but their use and application of technology to every aspect of their personal and professional lives is changing the culture, environment and expectations of ICT in the workplace in both commercial and public sector organisations.
Microsoft has recently produced fascinating reports on the role and relevance of organisations in a future defined by economic uncertainty, changing workforce demographics, globalisation and rapid developments in social and business technologies under the title of the Hybrid Organisation. You can download the Hybrid organisation white papers here and listen to a Financial Times(FT) podcast about the concept here.
So, whether your experience of computer gaming stopped with Super Mario or you are already engrossed in Halo:Reach gaming is here to stay and a whole new world of possibilities is about to open up with the imminent arrival of Microsoft Kinect.
"Business Intelligence is quite simply taking the hand cuffs off right across the organisation — even a limitless budget couldn’t have liberated us in this way." These are the words of Andy Hall, Associate Director of Performance at Nottinghamshire County Primary Care Trust (PCT)
Business intelligence, or performance management if you prefer, is a deliberately recurring theme of this blog. Empowering individuals with the information they need, when they need it, in formats that are easy to understand is one of the best ways to improve productivity and the ability of employees across the public sector to deliver more personalised and effective public services.
NHS Nottinghamshire County PCT commissions healthcare for 650,000 county residents. The trust wants to leverage business intelligence to transform its systems and equip its people to function more efficiently. Priorities include unlocking data hidden in multiple disparate legacy systems and creating a new, highly accessible and automated system that can be easily used by a wide range of staff.
The PCT management also wants a solution that would help at a strategic level, particularly with commissioning. As with all NHS PCTs, commissioning is a process to ensure that the healthcare provided effectively meets the needs of the population. It includes assessing population needs;prioritizing health outcomes; procuring products and services; and managing service providers.
Nottinghamshire PCT began its progressive approach to business intelligence by teaming with Microsoft technology partner 21C who specialises in providing health and social care business intelligence portals based upon Microsoft technologies and best practice data warehouse design methodologies.
The PCT is deploying a business intellgience solution built on Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and SharePoint Server 2010. The soluiton is delivering productivity improvements across the PCT's operations, from increased time-savings for individuals and teams, as they become operationally more efficient, to calibrating demand for clinical services, so that patients can be treated more effectively. Previously, trust analysts spent frustrating hours on mundane data manipulation because the information was siloed. Now, with a single point of entry to fully integrated data, these experts have more time to focus on performance management priorities. You can read the full NHS Nottinghamshire PCT story here and find out more about Microsoft business intelligence solutions here.
The PCT is deploying a business intellgience solution built on Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and SharePoint Server 2010. The soluiton is delivering productivity improvements across the PCT's operations, from increased time-savings for individuals and teams, as they become operationally more efficient, to calibrating demand for clinical services, so that patients can be treated more effectively. Previously, trust analysts spent frustrating hours on mundane data manipulation because the information was siloed. Now, with a single point of entry to fully integrated data, these experts have more time to focus on performance management priorities.
You can read the full NHS Nottinghamshire PCT story here and find out more about Microsoft business intelligence solutions here.
Partners are vital to helping Microsoft deliver customer solutions built on the Microsoft platform. I was reminded of this when reading a recent press release from Quest, about Kingston University’s project to to give staff and students virtual access to their university desktop and learning resources from any location, on a wide range of devices, at any time.
With 23,000 students, and 2,000 full-time staff to serve, their project is aiming to create a ‘university without walls’, so that their users can access their files and applications from any of the 9,000 university PCs or from users’ own personal computers – wherever they are.
What caught my eye was this quote from Daniel Bolton, who’s a technical analyst at the University:
"Kingston University has been researching Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solutions for two-and-a-half years with the aim of providing our staff and students the best solution for flexible access to learning resources regardless of their location. Our aim of achieving a ‘university without walls’ when it comes to flexible virtual access has been truly recognised with Quest vWorkspace. We initially looked into Citrix and VMware solutions, but felt that Quest’s user environment management and personalization features were more advanced."
The whole solution has been deployed on Hyper-V, which is part of Windows Server 2008 R2, and is now the largest planned deployment for both Quest and Microsoft to date. Phase one of implementation is due to complete in October.
You can read the full release on Quest’s website.
As a software company you could argue that Microsoft would say that technology saves money. On this occasion it is the Local Government Association saying it in their report on the value of geospatial information in the delivery of public services.
Putting it more simply, the report clearly demonstrates the increasingly valuable use of mapping and location-based applications, enabled by the growth in the use of smartphones, to inform and empower citizens and improve their experience of public services. There are numerous examples in the report which demonstrate how sophisticated and easy to use technology is dramatically improving the citizen experience of fundamental council services such as fly-tipping, vandalism, parking, bus services, planning and refuse collection – and reducing the cost of delivering these services for councils.
The examples cited in the LGA report are technology ‘agnostic’ in the respect that the report does not go into technology details so I am not asserting that the examples are Microsoft-based. The important learning is that mobile internet-enabled devices such as smartphones are the devices that are likely to increase the level of digital inclusion of the vast majority of citizens in the UK. According to one source at the end of 2008 there were over 75 million registered mobile phones in the UK for a population of 61 million and an increasingly larger percentage of these phones are fully Internet-enabled smartphones.
Several of the Microsoft customer examples I have profiled recently in this blog clearly demonstrate the innovative use of mapping and location-based technology to improve the delivery of public services at lower cost. Take a look at the LoveCleanStreets solution for reporting local environment issues via smartphone that is now being rolled out across all 33 London boroughs and the Leicestershire Police example where mapping technology is being used to improve community safety.
We are re-starting the Microsoft series of Live Meetings (web seminars) for our Public Sector customers in October. Initially, we are planning three on alternate Fridays from October 1st, starting at 11:00 for approximately one hour. These are the topics that we shall cover in the October series, including the links you need to register to take part: Friday October 1st 2010, 11:00-12:00 Cloud Computing for the Public Sector Cloud computing has the potential to be a game-changer in empowering employees, liberating information and transforming organisations. Our Live Meeting on Cloud Computing for the Public Sector on Friday October 1, 11:00-12:00 will help you translate all the talk about Cloud into a strategy and provide an overview of the Microsoft cloud technologies that makes sense for your organisation. Register here Invitation Code: 30434D Friday October 15th 2010, 11:00-12:00 Performance Management for the Public Sector Our Live Meeting on Performance Management for the Public Sector on Friday October 15th, 11:00-12:00 provides an insight into the Microsoft technologies for Business Intelligence and how public sector organisations, such as local authorities and police forces, are fully capitalising on their investment in Microsoft software to improve performance management throughout their operations. Register here Invitation Code: F07918 Friday October 29th 2010, 11:00-12:00 Unified Communications for the Public Sector Our Live Meeting on Unified Communications for the Public Sector on Friday October 29th, 11:00-12:00 provides an insight into the Microsoft technologies for Unified Communications and how public sector organisations are fully capitalising on their investment in Microsoft software to improve collaboration and lower the cost of their communications. Register here Invitation Code: 6F1CBE I hope you and your colleagues will be able to join us for one or more of these Live Meetings. They provide an easy and quick way to get up to speed on developments in Microsoft technologies and help you ensure you are making the most of your investment in Microsoft software to fully support the business and organisational challenges you need to address. Posted by Ian
We are re-starting the Microsoft series of Live Meetings (web seminars) for our Public Sector customers in October. Initially, we are planning three on alternate Fridays from October 1st, starting at 11:00 for approximately one hour.
These are the topics that we shall cover in the October series, including the links you need to register to take part:
Friday October 1st 2010, 11:00-12:00 Cloud Computing for the Public Sector
Register here
Invitation Code: 30434D
Friday October 15th 2010, 11:00-12:00 Performance Management for the Public Sector
Our Live Meeting on Performance Management for the Public Sector on Friday October 15th, 11:00-12:00 provides an insight into the Microsoft technologies for Business Intelligence and how public sector organisations, such as local authorities and police forces, are fully capitalising on their investment in Microsoft software to improve performance management throughout their operations.
Invitation Code: F07918
Friday October 29th 2010, 11:00-12:00 Unified Communications for the Public Sector
Our Live Meeting on Unified Communications for the Public Sector on Friday October 29th, 11:00-12:00 provides an insight into the Microsoft technologies for Unified Communications and how public sector organisations are fully capitalising on their investment in Microsoft software to improve collaboration and lower the cost of their communications.
Invitation Code: 6F1CBE
I hope you and your colleagues will be able to join us for one or more of these Live Meetings. They provide an easy and quick way to get up to speed on developments in Microsoft technologies and help you ensure you are making the most of your investment in Microsoft software to fully support the business and organisational challenges you need to address.