The $100 Million Apps
Microsoft has lots of news coming out of its Professional Developers
Conference this week, much of it centered on Windows Vista. For
ISV partners, this may be the biggest nugget: a new
$100
million co-marketing effort dubbed the Windows Vista Partner
Showcase Program. The program is designed to encourage the development
of all types of new apps on Vista and promises participating ISVs
access to new distribution channels, co-marketing opportunities
and financial incentives.
Vista Previews Coming Fast and Furious
Microsoft is also this week distributing the first of what promises
to be many Community
Technology Previews of Windows Vista -- the company says it
plans to release CTPs on a monthly basis. Although it comes little
more than a month after Vista Beta 1, this first CTP nonetheless
includes lots of new features, with catchy names like SuperFetch,
SideShow and Flip 3D, along with peer-to-peer collaboration, an
updated Taskbar, fast on-off and more. If that fast on-off really
works in two to three seconds, as advertised, it will quickly become
my personal favorite. (Is it just me or does patience wear thinner
with age?) It also has the potential to reduce telephone support
costs by millions, by nearly eliminating time spent on awkward,
idle chit-chat while waiting for those interminable reboots. Not
that Vista will need any reboots ...
Gates Demos Office Facelift
Office 12 also got some stage time at PDC, as Bill Gates used part
of his keynote for the first public demo, showcasing its new
user interface. The UI overhaul is intended to make it easier
for users to employ the various features available within Office
applications, such as by using "galleries" that present
different format options from which users can choose -- even if
they don’t know how to do the actual formatting. Another enhancement
is I scream for every time Word changes fonts on me: less automatic
formatting.
Patch Tuesday
The lone patch scheduled to be released on yesterday’s "Patch
Tuesday" was scratched
due to a quality issue. No word yet on whether Microsoft will
release the patch before next month’s Patch Tuesday, assuming
it can fix the problem before then.
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Get Yourself a HUG
The Microsoft Healthcare Users Group (MS-HUG), along with Microsoft,
yesterday announced it has added a new category to its MS-HUG
Annual Awards, to recognize healthcare solutions developed by
Microsoft partners. The awards, for best solutions for a local or
regional health information organization (RHIO), will be given in
each of five categories: Acute Care: Clinical or Patient Information
Systems; Administrative and Financial Systems; Ambulatory Care:
Clinical or Patient Information Systems; Enabling Technologies;
Interoperability/RHIO. Entries must be submitted by Nov. 11.
Awards can be an effective way for Microsoft Partners to gain visibility
-- both with customers and with Microsoft itself -- as our story
in the September issue of Redmond Channel Partner points out.
Partnering for Katrina Victims
The cover story for the inaugural issue of Redmond Channel Partner
magazine was called "Partners
Helping Partners." That would aptly apply to what’s
going on in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas in the wake of Hurricane
Katrina. The Austin, Dallas, Houston and Little Rock, Ark., chapters
of the International Association of Microsoft Certified Partners
(IAMCP) have raised
nearly $20,000 so far and handed it off to the Louisiana IAMCP
chapter to distribute to partners and others affected by Katrina.
Microsoft is stepping up with free software to help businesses get
up and running along with advertising dollars, to get the word out.
More fundraisers are planned and U.S. IAMCP President Bill Breslin,
who is based in Houston, is inviting other IAMCP chapters -- and
any Microsoft partner -- to join the cause. Now that’s partners
helping partners.
Posted by Paul Desmond on September 14, 2005