NETNew WebLog

Join us for an upcoming webcast with RedPrairie and Microsoft on December 8, 2009

2009-11-25T15:10:14Z

RedPrairie is one of our premier partners in supply chain execution, focusing on warehouse management and transportation planning. We have a webcast coming up on December 8, 2009 at 11:30 Eastern featuring Tom Kozenski, VP Product Strategy for RedPrairie, and Greg Walker, Supply Chain Market Development Manager for Microsoft.

The webcast will cover:

How to have complete visibility to supply chain data in a familiar Microsoft Office environment
How to get sophisticated supply chain solutions at a fraction of the expected cost
How Microsoft's proven scalability can support the largest manufacturers, distributors and retailers
How leading customers are using this technology to realize benefits today

Please join us by registering here.

Thanks and Happy Thanksgiving!

Technorati Tags: supply chain,redprairie,microsoft,warehouse management,transportation planning.

Microsoft Windows 7 to sponsor Saks Fifth Avenue holiday windows!

2009-11-23T20:14:39Z

This year, the Saks Fifth Avenue holiday windows will be powered by Windows 7 to bring life to the children’s book Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Flake with 3-D animations and interactive window displays. In addition, there are two PC lounge areas on the 8^th and 9^th floors where customers can check out Windows 7 PCs. And, a live Twitter feed in two windows on 50^th Street will allow everyone to share their holiday wishes with the world – and New Yorkers visiting the Saks windows in person by using the Twitter tag #holidaywindows.

If you are in midtown NYC today, head over to Saks (Fifth Ave. between 49^th and 50^th Streets) at 6PM for a special concert featuring Kristin Chenoweth!

Technorati Tags: microsoft,windows 7,kristin chenoweth,saks fifth avenue,holiday windows,new york,twitter

Upcoming webinar on smart energy reference architecture with OSISoft

2009-11-23T19:50:00Z

OSISoft is one of our premier partners in the process and energy industries, and are extending their reach into new markets such as energy management for large data centers, including Microsoft’s own. Join us for an upcoming webcast with this great partner, hosted by Warren Causey of Energy Central, in which OSIsoft and Microsoft will discuss Microsoft's Smart Energy Reference Architecture (SERA), a document intended to help utilities understand how Microsoft technologies address their implementation of the smart grid and smart energy ecosystem.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009 1PM EST

Register here!

Technorati Tags: OSISoft,smart grid,SERA,smart energy,utilities,energy central,microsoft,data center

Check out PTC’s Social Product Development blog!

2009-11-23T19:41:00Z

PTC is one of our premier partners in the Product Lifecycle Management space. We have some great customer case studies together, and Microsoft itself uses PTC solutions in some areas of product design. PTC recently participated in the Sharepoint Conference annoucements around Sharepoint 2010 as they are making a big bet on the concept of "Social Product Development”. The concept is that traditional PLM systems are primarily in place for governance and rigor once an idea has made it far enough to enter the formal NPI process at a company. But there are a lot of ideas floating around before that happens, and with the advent of social media, it’s anticipated that many of those collaborative interactions will happen outside of traditional PLM systems.

Specifically:

High-performing development teams need a way to have a “team” presence to foster morale, improve productivity, and share successes with other teams.

“Communities of practice” exist in which engineers or developers from different disciplines may share best practices, and social media is one of the best ways to do this.

Product developers need to have a two-way conversation with customers way in advance of putting a design proposal on paper. It’s well recognized that social media is one of the best ways to interact with customers in a non-marketing, low-cost way to solicit feedback on what they want.

Check out PTC’s Social Product Development blog for some of this great thinking and a demo, and check out Owen Allen’s blog for his commentary on how this relates to Sharepoint 2010.

Technorati Tags: sharepoint,ptc,plm,product lifecycle management,microsoft,manufacturing,owen allen,social product development

Sitting in on an OSISoft Regional Seminar in New York

2009-09-16T04:24:16Z

I've looked forward to this session at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square. The focus is on power generation, distribution, and process industries, with speakers from Con Edison, Rock Tenn, and Mohawk. Our own Brian Willson will be speaking later this afternoon on how Sharepoint is being used to connect the real-time data in the OSISoft Pi system to executives who need the "morning reports" and KPIs, and how Microsoft is using the Pi system for energy and performance management in our data centers. OSISoft is a great partner in the process industries and I'm impressed by the customer base they've been able to draw, which in NYC is a tough thing to do.

Topics on the agenda:

The new market of corporate data centers - massive facilities that rival large plants in terms of monitoring points and energy consumption (20-60 MW). How to incorporate server management, virtualization, and building/facilities management systems to maximize energy efficiency.
Microgrids - applying power measurements and knowledge to manufacturing processes and generating revenue from energy savings by selling the excess back to the grid.
Using Microsoft Virtual Earth and Bing Maps to visually represent real time performance data on the steam infrastructure beneath Manhattan.
Correlating high-resolution oscillo data at the cycle level with monitoring and SCADA data to pinpoint what equipment caused a fault or transient and to plan voltage step-up/step-down needs based on forecasted demand.
Correlating operational data down to the unit or equipment level in power plants with fuel commodity data in real time to maximize fuel buys on the commodity markets.
How in October OSISoft will be integrating Office Communications Server into the Pi system, taking personalized notifications, team collaboration, presence, and workflow to the next level.

Good stuff from an industry leader and great partner!

Technorati Tags: OSISoft,utilities,microsoft,times square,power grid,power generation,power distribution

Technorati Tags: sharepoint,office communications server,instant messaging,virtualization,microgrids,virtual earth,bing,power quality,PUE,data center,SCADA,Pi

Microsoft Tag featured on New York 1 today

2009-04-14T18:21:00Z

Today, New York 1, NYC’s 24 hour cable news channel, is running a piece on Microsoft Tag featuring an interview with mobility specialist Kevin Kerr.

Advertisers Only A Snapshot Away With ‘Tag’ Technology

April 14, 2009

New York 1 Story

It's a use for the mobile phone that's taken off in Japan, and now Microsoft is hoping to bring the same excitement to the United States. In Japan, they're black and white and called "quick response" or QR Codes. Here they're color and called Tags. Tags are kind of like high-tech barcodes that you take a picture of with your cell phone's camera. The image then immediately takes you to wherever the creator of that tag wants to take you online.

"Using the camera on your phone, you can read a Tag and be taken to a website for information, you can get contact information, you can be provided text information," said Kevin Kerr, Microsoft. "So imagine reading a Tag at a movie theater and being able to play the trailer for that particular movie, or reading a Tag for a particular product at a store or a sign at a bus stop to understand when the next bus in coming for that particular bus stop. So these Tags can exist in magazines, you can put them in posters, on websites, digital signage."

While these types of technologies have been tried in the past with little success, those who own a G1 Google phone have recently warmed to the idea thanks to an application that lets you snap shots of barcodes on products and instantly comparison shop online.

In fact, those QR Codes started a test run a year ago in San Francisco. So why do Tag developers think their concept is the one that will finally take hold? And the other obvious question -- why not just link to barcodes that are already all over the place?

"The QR Code and those other things are black and white. They were designed for industrial usage. These are colors, so we have the ability to do logos and other things that are much more interesting," said Kerr. "If you want to target demographics with this new type of mobile technology you have to do something interesting as well as functional."

Tags work on just about any phone with a camera, including iPhones. Go to www.gettag.mobi for the free download to make it work.

Right now, Tags are in beta, or development, which means anyone can go to tag.microsoft.com and create a Tag for free. What that Tag points to can be updated every day, or even every hour if you want. Microsoft says if, down the line, it does start charging to create tags, any created during the beta period will be grandfathered in and remain free forever.

Technorati Tags: microsoft tag,QR code,RFID,windows mobile,New York,microsoft

Just released case study - ADM (Archer Daniels Midland) - web presence based on Sharepoint

2009-04-13T21:38:00Z

A new case study was just released on ADM (Archer Daniels Midland), about how they chose to revamp their web presence using Sharepoint in a externally-facing way supported by our partner Avanade. This is a trend we are seeing among larger companies as they recognize that their external web presence needs to be less about static content publishing and more about the ability to manage dynamic content, provide advanced customized user experiences, and particpiate in inbound/outbound content syndication as a social network.

Another case study showcasing Sharepoint as an external web solution is Cadence Design Systems: http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000003532

Technorati Tags: ADM,Archer Daniels Midland,Sharepoint,Cadence,Avanade

Wall Street Journal Article on cyber security for utilities

2009-04-08T15:29:01Z

Interesting article yesterday in the Wall Street Journal about cyber security issues in the nation's electric grid and some of the emergin threats in this area. Part of the issue seems to be slow adoption of NERC compliance around the asset protection, including virtual assets.

Jon Arnold penned an article on his power and utilities blog about how to use Sharepoint to make compliance easier and less costly.

Microsoft's utilities home page contains information on NERC compliance, solution providers that can help, and other solutions.

Technorati Tags: utilities,power grid,wall street journal,NERC,Jon Arnold

This is cool - GM/Segway P.U.M.A. vehicle on the streets of New York today!

2009-04-07T18:35:21Z

Now here's some forward thinking worthy of some investment - today GM and Segway are demonstrating their new P.U.M.A vehicle in New York. Kind of like a pedicab "rickshaw" without the driver. Even in NJ I could use one of these for days when I have a simple commute. We need something from GM to feel good about given the last few weeks of news - way to go Detroit!

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=15888

Technorati Tags: GM,General Motors,Segway,New York,ZDNet

DigiGirlz NYC - opening technology careers to women

2009-04-07T17:48:54Z

Great Huffington Post article on the DigiGirlz events held recently in NYC that aim to introduce high school girls to the possibilities of high-tech careers and a love of technology in general. I am proud to work for a company that does this type of outreach.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/betsy-perry/a-digi-dud-does-digigirlz_b_182236.html

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,DigiGirlz,Huffington Post

Obama talked to Bill Gates...

2009-03-26T19:45:00Z

I'm watching the Obama Town Meeting at http://www.whitehouse.gov - he is talking to a teacher, and said he just talked to Bill Gates yesterday about how to use video technology to assist with teacher coaching and development. Glad Bill has a seat at the table.

Technorati Tags: Bill Gates,Barack Obama,White House

Leaning people-based processes

2009-03-26T18:30:00Z

A couple of thoughts on "leaning" people-based processes. This is an interesting problem whether you are coming at it from a lean or a six sigma perspective. I believe that the key issues are: 1) identifying the major areas of waste and addressing the low-hanging fruit ("quick hits"), 2) ensuring basic repeatability and predictability, while giving people with expertise the ability to make on-the-spot decisions to deal with uncertainty, and 3) using the methodology not to enforce 100% improvement, but rather to change the cultural mindset to one of continuous improvement and focus on the customer. The last point ensures that even when the project ends, it will be a sustained effort that empowers and engages people.

I recently took on a six sigma project in a champion role that focused on how we could improve the ROI of certain marketing and sales processes within our team. In reality it was closer to DFSS than DMAIC. I found that it was an interesting balancing act between asking the team to be rigorous in finding the root causes vs. delivering quick hits. The team was able to deliver about a 1.3 sigma improvement in the first pilot project, which took about 6 months including belt training, etc. While I believe we can approach the people-based process threshold of about 3 sigma in another 6 months, the net improvement even from this initial phase was sufficient to validate the approach and shine a light on some very easy, cheap improvements that can be made that are behavioral, not dependent on systems or tools. One of the biggest insights gained was that while the easiest scapegoat was the CRM system (since it can't defend itself), the real root causes were in our own behavior and accountabilities, and they were pretty easy to address.

Another example of Starbucks trying to use lean to improve store-based processes was recently detailed by Mark Graban in his Lean Blog. This is an interesting study because it highlights both the pros and cons of this approach, which again generates some delicate balancing acts between getting the most out of the process while still helping people feel empowered as opposed to robotic.

Appreciate any feedback from readers on their own experiences with trying to apply lean or six sigma to processes that are 80-90% people-based.

Technorati Tags: six sigma,lean manufacturing,DMAIC,DFSS,Starbucks,Microsoft,Mark Graban

Launch of ExecTweets aggregator for Twittering executives

2009-03-26T05:39:40Z

On Monday, Microsoft and Federated Media launched the ExecTweets site, a Twitter aggregator that allows you to easily follow the tweets of leading executives in many industries. Check it out at http://www.exectweets.com

There's a good article on the launch on Mary Jo Foley's blog at http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=2344

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,ExecTweets,Mary Jo Foley

Announcement on Microsoft platform partnership with Cisco UCS

2009-03-19T18:27:00Z

Earlier this week Cisco announced its Unified Computing System datacenter architecture, and Microsoft was part of that announcement. This is great news on the server virtualization front. Robert Scoble has an interesting post of some inside access to Cisco that he was able to land. The official announcement can be found here.

BusinessWeek Interview with Steve Ballmer

2009-03-19T18:08:00Z

Interesting summary of an interview this morning by the editor of BusinessWeek with Steve Ballmer. Bullish on cloud computing, Smartphones, XBOX, even Zune. Great perspective that although the markets will be in turmoil for an unknown period, when the recovery happens it will drive great growth on the business front.

http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20090319/live-from-new-york-microsoft-ceo-steve-ballmer/

Technorati Tags: Steve Ballmer,BusinessWeek