Demo Showcase

New Demo Showcase 2008 Preview Now Available

Mark Sargent — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 23:34:00 GMT

It hasn't been that long since Demo Showcase 2007 came out (July) but when you have a significant product launch like Windows Server 2008 it made sense that we create new scenarios to support our partners in understanding and demonstrating the new products.

Six new scenarios have been created and are available through the Partner Portal for download. The scenarios are in English only and available as simulations instead of the heavier virtual machine environment. The simulations are a quick download of 85mb that includes the scripts, simulations and Getting Started document. These 6 new scenarios are in addtion to the 24 current Demo Showcase 2007 scenarios. The availability of the 2008 Preview does not mean the 2007 release is going away. Use both!

https://partner.microsoft.com/demoshowcase

The new scenarios include 17 products and 8 of which are new in the Demo Showcase environment. All scenarios were built on the new Windows Server 2008 platform and 3 of the scenarios feature WS2008 prominently. Also included are Groove 2007, System Center Essentials 2007, Performance Point Server 2007, Silverlight, Visual Studio 2008 and more.

There are some new features in the Preview simulations. There is now a Forward and a Backward button, a new Chapter feature that let's you jump ahead or behind to specific sections in the demo and an enhanced Show Me feature that will show the user exactly where to click next along with an explanation. These new features should make the simulations even easier to run and be a great readiness tool. All the simulations are built using Microsoft Expression Blend.

One important thing to know about the new simulations - you MUST have the .NET 3.5 Framework installed on the host computer. The Demo Showcase 2007 simulations require the .NET 3.0 Framework but some addional features in the Preview require the upgrade to .NET 3.5 which can be downloaded at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=333325fd-ae52-4e35-b531-508d977d32a6&DisplayLang=en.

Download the new Preview Simulations now and see how these 17 Microsoft products work together to solve critical business issues.

New scenarios wanted

Mark Sargent — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 00:15:00 GMT

I'd like to find out if any of you have new scenario ideas that you'd like to see us develop for the next release of Demo Showcase. We try really hard to provide scenarios that are representative of real demos that you do in the field but I'm sure some of you have more suggestions for scenarios/demos that you'd like to see. Keep in mind that Demo Showcase is designed to be scenario driven based on the broad platform of technologies. There are lots of demos that show specific features of a particular product but what we're looking for is to support a broader workflow in an organization that takes advantage of a wide range of products.

I'm encouraging you to respond to this blog post so that others can comment as well. You may find that others have similar needs. What kind of scenarios/demos would be helpful?

演示示例 2007 is being localized

Mark Sargent — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 23:42:00 GMT

There are probably a few of you out there that can read this headline but the majority of us wouldn't know this is how you write 'Demo Showcase 2007' in Chinese. The point here is that many of our partners/customers don't use English to conduct business so the current version of Demo Showcase provides challenges to adopt no matter how great they think it is. If you can't put a demo in front of the customer it's probably a resource that you will rarely use except for internal training and education.

We recognize that having localized versions of sales tools is important and can help partners drive incremental revenue. So we're in the process of localizing the Demo Showcase 2007 release into 8 languages. The languages are Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese and Japanese. And actuallly there will be 9 languages total since Germany already has a local version of Demo Showcase called Contoso. The content to be localized includes the Virtual Machines (data and products), scenario scripts and the simulations.

So I can hear you yelling at your computer screen - "This sounds great but when am I going to get it??!!" All 8 language versions are scheduled to be delivered by the end of September. Of course since this is a rather difficult project delivery dates are subject to change but we just completed the Spanish beta last week with French and Italian finishing up this week.

If you're a partner and want to know when your language will be available please keep in touch with your PTS or PAM resources and keep coming back to this blog and I'll give you the updates here.

More coming soon.....

New Role Based Demo Showcase Training

Mark Sargent — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 20:37:00 GMT

We now have a completely new training experience for those that need information about what Demo Showcase is, how it can help your business and how to run it effectively. Check out the new, short, interactive training that is role based so you get the information you need. We have it split into sales and technical tracks to give you the right information the first time. And it's only 30 minutes to go through.

If you're technical you'll get information including how to set up different configurations for running the big VM environment effectively as well as how to modify the settings in Virtual PC to make Demo Showcase run better. For the sales team you will learn about the business value of Demo Showcase and how you can use this sales tool to create opportunites and close more deals. Take the training today and grow your business tomorrow!

Demo Showcase Training

The WPC experience

Mark Sargent — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 21:38:00 GMT

WPC never ceases to amaze me. What a great event and an incredible opportunity to talk to partners. While we didn't have the massive showing when Demo Showcase was first released at last year's WPC there was plenty of buzz over the new release. Our team was part of the Microsoft Partner Program booth and we were able to meet partners from every part of the world and they all told the same story - demos are extremely important and Demo Showcase is helping us reach customers more effectively. We gave away over 2500 of the DVD kits and 2500+ of a special Simuations disc that included all 24 click through simulaitons. I talked to partners from all the 'big' countries and many from smaller countries like Iceland, Ghana, Panama, Thailand, Vietnam and more. It's very cool to see so many partners taking advantage of the resources we provide.

The new DVD kits are in and available for partners to order from the Partner Portal. Download is also available for VMs, scripts, and simulations.

Next up is localization. I'm really excited that we'll be delivering in 8 additional languages including Japanese, Spanish, French, Brazilian Portuguese, Italian, Chinese, Dutch and Russian. The local subsidiaries are going to be responsible for the distribution of these languages. You can expect to see these releases coming out in the next 60 days or so. This should really boost adoption!

See Demo Showcase at WPC

Mark Sargent — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 21:48:00 GMT

If you've been to the Worldwide Partner Conference in the past you know what a great partner event this is. Over 8,000 partners and 3,000 Microsoft employees are there to learn about what's coming from the company and to exchange ideas. And of course there are the parties and late night festivities!

This year if you want to see, or get your hands on, Demo Showcase you'll have plenty of opportunities. Our team is integrating heavily with the overall Microsoft Partner Program team to show partners how many opportunities and programs they have to take advantage of. Sometimes I can't believe how many people and how much money is spent to support our partner community. It's an incredible investment and one that I think pays off both ways.

I'm shipping a couple thousand DVD kits and a few thousand special Simulation DVD's to hand out. If you are going to WPC you can stop by our booth in the Expo hall. We're part of the bigger MSPP booth where they are giving away some pretty cool prizes this year.

And if you really want to get your hands dirty you can come to any one of the 3 Hands on Labs sessions. We have an international flavor of presenters from the UK, Belgium and Canada. These guys are some the best partner technical specialists around. This year you don't even have to sign up ahead of time, just come by Room 107 and check the schedule for times.

It's a pretty exciting time of year and I hope to see you in Denver!

Demo Showcase 2007 is now available

Mark Sargent — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 20:32:00 GMT

The great news is that Demo Showcase 2007 is now available and the content on the Partner Portal is updated. Be sure to check out Demo Showcase on the Portal at https://partner.microsoft.com/demoshowcase. Lots of new content is available including case studies, information on ordering the DVD kits, downloads and more. One of the really cool things out there now is an on-line Scenario Index. Now you don't have to wait until the DVD kit shows up to take a look through the pre-defined scenarios. All 24 are in a table for you to review. And if you like what you see you can download the script immediately.

Now not only can you order the 2 disc DVD kits but we've made it possible for Gold and Certified Partners to download the three virtual machines through the Partner Portal. These 3 VMs make up Demo Showcase. However, be forewarned that these VMs will take a couple hours to download and extract but if you don't want to wait for the mail to arrive this is a quicker way to get Demo Showcase.

And for those you Gold and Certifed Partners you should be receiving the Demo Showcase kits in your June Monthly Toolkit. The kits began shipping this week so go find whoever has the box and get the discs. Only Gold and Certified Partners get the Virtual Machine environment.

Go check out the new Partner Portal pages and let me know what you think!

Next time - Simulations.

Finally, a Demo Showcase 2007 update and RTM release

Mark Sargent — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 01:22:00 GMT

It's really amazing how fast time goes by when you're heads down trying to get a 'product' out the door. Our team has been so focused that I've neglected to keep people updated in this forum how things are going. Sorry about that but the good news is that even though it's been a while since I've written things are going pretty darn well.

The best news is that the Demo Showcase 2007 will begin shipping to all Gold and Certiifed Partners next week through the Partner Monthly Toolkit. It may take longer to get the Toolkit if you're outside the US but you should get something in the next couple weeks. If you are one of these partners you need to find out who gets your toolkit and make sure to dig through and find the bag with the Demo Showcase flyer and 2 DVDs. There are three virtual machines included on the two discs and just make sure your machine meets the system requirements before installing and trying to run any of the scenarios.

You will also notice that the Demo Showcase pages on the Partner Portal will be updated by the end of this week. It will be a much better experience than what is up there now and finally we'll have some fresh content for everyone. There are quite a few changes being implemented including the ability to download the VMs from the portal to your machine. Again, just make sure you read the system requirements.

So the news for now is find your June Monthly Toolkit and check out the Partner Portal later this week. Lots more coming up that I'll post later this week.

Mark

Sneak peek at a new scenario in Demo Showcase 2007

Mark Sargent — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 15:14:00 GMT

The Demo Showcase is based on robust customer scenarios and I wanted to give you a peek at one of the scenarios coming in the Demo Showcase 2007 version. The scenarios have all been re-written and positioned in a way to represent the customer's broad needs. To get started let me introduce you to Julia the Marketing executive, John the company's star Sales Manager and Tim Litton Contoso's ultra reliable IT Operations Manager. Each of these personas has a role in a new scenario titled "Successful Product Launch Requires Close Collaboration".

Julia thinks a new tandem bicycle is going to help her company gain traction in the market. As a Contoso Marketing Executive, she is planning the manufacturer’s launch of the new product. But first, she has to work in-tandem with the company’s Sales Manager, John, to ensure a strong turnout at the sales-oriented event. The goal? Create excitement among potential customers and channel partners at the launch, generating media interest—and dealer orders. The plan? Showcase the high-performance bicycle’s best features through an array of promotional materials. To do so, she will need to work closely with John in Sales, engage team members from marketing, and link manufacturing with production to gather marketable stats and data. And she will need to steer the entire collaborative effort from across the country. In this scenario you will discover how Office 2007, Exchange 2007 and SharePoint 2007 work together to help deliver a marketing plan from start to finish.

I'll highlight some other new scenarios in upcoming postings but for the next two weeks I'm going to be in Europe talking to partners about how they're using Demo Showcase. I'll be in the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Russia and Switzerland and I can't wait to hear how they're using Demo Showcase to support their business. I'll let you know how it goes.

RTM date set for Demo Showcase 2007

Mark Sargent — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 23:30:00 GMT

We've been working towards establishing an RTM date for some time now and we finally have all the pieces together. When you support almost 30 Microsoft products under one roof getting everyone coordinated with evals, activation, etc. can be, let's just say, interesting. We will RTM Demo Showcase 2007 the first week in May. So what does this mean? It means that partners will have an updated demonstration environment that supports new customer scenarios and includes the cool new products like Office 2007, Exchange 2007 and Windows Vista. There will be new scenarios around mobility, workflow improvement, security, busienss intelligence and more. And it will all be built in a robust platform VM and simulation environment to support partner's demo needs.

Gold and Gold Certified Partners will be able to start downloading the VMs by May 11th. The great thing about download is that we can get it out to everyone before discs are even manufactured. But you'll need to bear in mind that the size of the downloads can be a barrier for some depending on your location and bandwidth. In all it's about 15GB of compressed data. Knowing that not everyone will be able to download the content, DVD kits will be manufactured and be available for ordering through the Partner Portal near the end of May. And for all you Gold and Gold Certified Microsoft partners you will be receiving the DVD kits in your June Partner Box so be sure and keep your eyes open for it.

Next time I'll give you a sneak peek at some of the scenarios that are going to be delivered with Demo Showcase 2007.

In the the beginning - What the heck is Demo Showcase anyway?

Mark Sargent — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 05:20:00 GMT

Since this is a new blog let me back up a bit and give everyone an idea about what this is all about. Without some context these other postings may not make a lot of sense to some of you. So here is some background.

A long time ago (last year) in a country not so far away (Germany) a tool was created to give partners the ability to demonstrate the Microsoft platform. It was called Contoso and was built with the premise that demo's should be based on customer scenarios and not just product features. They also found that partners wanted a virtual machine environment that they could use to customize and show more of the Microsoft platform with their own integrated solutions. Solution selling across the Microsoft stack isn't a new concept but Microsoft didn't provide many tools to the partner community for actually doing it. Contoso was that first step and now it's been taken worldwide.

At the Worldwide Partner Conference last year the Microsoft WW Partner Group released an English version of Contoso for everyone else called the Demo Showcase for the People Ready Business. Information about the current release is on the Partner Portal. Technical specialists, both Microsoft and the partners, loved it because it was a complete VM environment that contained over 20 Microsoft products and was customizable and already had content integrated. Business people loved it because of the 40+ customer scenarios that were already written making demos easier to give. And now I am the worldwide business development manager for Demo Showcase focusing on adoption and deployment.

So now the tool is breaking new ground with a new version that is currently in Beta. The new version is supporting Vista, Office 2007, Exchange 2007 and over 25 other products and technologies. New customer scenarios are being developed that support the Microsoft Customer Campaigns and to be consistent the same Roles (IT, Marketing, CEO, etc) are being used. New delivery methods are being created like having a hosted environment for partners to use at any time and simulations that are click-throughs of the scenarios. We're also working on making the whole thing localized in core languages. I'll throw out more information on these things later.

I hope this provides some context around Demo Showcase and you can count on seeing more information through this blog along the way.

Beta 1 is almost complete

Mark Sargent — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 23:24:00 GMT

We are now in the final stages of the Beta 1 release. We have are 75 participants and 20 of those are partners. We've had a fair amount of feedback so far despite the need for a robust machine to run the Beta. Of course we could always use more feedback. But with the new products being supported the RAM recommendation has increased from 2GB to 3GB so hardware has been a challenge for some people. But we are evaluating a number of system recommendations that should help everyone run the demos they need. Right now we have 5 alternatives each with pros and cons:

Single laptop (lots of RAM) - self explanatory

Two laptops - this breaks up the requirements but you would have to carry two machines

Addition of a small, non laptop PC - it's an additional thing to carry but smaller and worth it if you can get cover the RAM requirements

Simulations - these are pre-defined click through scenarios and while they are not customizable they will be built to follow each of the scenario scripts exactly and they are much smaller than the VM environment. We've had good feedback from partners about this option.

Hosted - this is a new option we're trying out in Beta. The client and server are both available in a fully functioning hosted environment that is easlily accessible via the web with no messy system requirements to worry about.

We're going to finish up the Beta period on Friday, March 16th then move to the Preview later in the month. I'll share with you the feedback from the Beta group as soon as we pull it all together and provide links to the Preview when available. More later....

Mark

Demo Showcase 2007 is Coming Soon (Really, it is.)

Mark Sargent — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 00:35:00 GMT

Hey everyone, Demo Showcase 2007 is coming and should be ready for field use by late March! I know that you all have been wondering when the new version is going to come out to support the cool new products like Vista and Office2007. I'm happy to report that the team is very close to finalizing the Beta release which will go out to a limted audience in late Feb. It will have 18 new and updated scenarios from v1 and contain all the new products. So get ready to demo the new Microsoft platform of products though Demo Showcase 2007.