I especially agree with the #1 item on this list. When/if you do implement some single sign-on capabilities, it would be great if it was a flexible/open system. By that I mean I would love to see some kind of API or web service that would let me integrate my BPOS user credentials and identity with other tools like DotNetNuke, custom applications, workstations and other Windows servers, etc. Heck, if I could authenticate directly against the BPOS servers from my workstations and other servers, I wouldn't even need my AD server around here anymore!

In my view, if the single sign-on is simply implemented as a more robust Active Directory Synchronization tool to an on-premesis AD server you will have missed a great opportunity to unify organizational identity on one platform for many users.

Great list! Nice to see that you're listening. I can't wait to see what future releases are going to bring to this already fantastic service. I'd add another suggestion: either improve support for Outlook 2003 or drop it altogether. If you're going to continue to support it, create a known-issues list for it, and a time line for when you're going to put in fixes.

Thanks!

Jake,

We will pull together a list of all known issues with Outlook 2003 and BPOS and post it . Thanks for the feedback.

Dharmesh

While this might be included under point 8, being able to connect the Mac Communicator application to the hosted Office Communications Server would be great!

Please let those of us with BES service have access to the "real" BlackBerry web browser instead of the WAP browser. It's not that the WAP broswer is so bad, it's just that I'm on ATT and to access their WAP browser you first have to go through ATT's "Media Net" screens suffering banal local news, weather, etc, from the home market of your telephone number whether you want it and regardless of where you really are. Having searched far and wide on the internet, there seems to be no way to disable this "feature" of ATT's WAP browser.

Thanks,

Harold

Any more accurate date when we can expect new release based on 2010 versions? Our organization is currently deciding between SharePoint Online and locally managed SharePoint Foundation 2010 since we want to have SharePoint 2010 features and user experience.

While I'm glad MS is listening, this isn't quite the list they would get from me. I get the impression, based on this list, that MS Online will begin putting more resources into wide-area integration of BPOS and on-premises customer infrastructure.

Now if that's what the feature set demands - hey, great. But there's lots of companies out here waiting for things much simpler that have nothing to do with on-premise infrastructure - because WE DON'T WANT OR NEED any of our own stuff. That's why we bought BPOS. Should make sense to anyone.

We would become frustrated if these online-to-on-premise advances squeezed out the much more basic things smaller companies are looking for. MS BPOS product management needs to run more than one target customer model here, and run simultaneous maturity curves tailored to different customer values.

Let me use this 12-item list against itself in this vein:

>>>1. Single SignOn:  The ability to sign in to Online Services and your own network with the same credentials

We'd settle for a Sign-On app that doesn't take 100MB when minimized, and can have buttons added to it.

>>>2. Sharing Free/Busy information in Outlook between on-premises and online users

This is not for us. We have never had on-premise, and never will.

>>>3. The ability to federate Office Communications Online instant messaging with Office Communications Server, business partners and via Public IM Connectivity (PIC)

Public IM would be nice... But, how about first just adding Communicator Web Access to BPOS?! Its an online, web-based SaaS service after all!

>>>4. Hosted Voice Mail and Unified Messaging:  Integrating Exchange Online with an on-premises PBX to provide a single inbox for voice mail and email

We might investigate this if it is offered, but if its not commodity priced or doesn't work well with our phone system... we already paid for our phone system, so we won't use this in that case. And the UCM? Too advanced for our users.

>>>5. Improved Blackberry Administration: Provide a web-based Blackberry Enterprise Server administration portal to enable customers to perform common administration functions without having to submit a service request

How about just making BES affordable for smaller shops? As BPOS was taking shape 1.5 years ago (we were an active beta customer), BES support was a fiasco, and ended with an MS<->RIM stalemate. Kudos for offering it, but >$5000 to just get in the door, when we had it for $10/person at our previous provider is ridiculous.

>>>6. SharePoint Enterprise Features:  Anonymous access and extranet capability, cross site-collection search, BI features, “social” features like tagging and more

First one I truly see us using - please do!

>>>7. OC Conferencing and Voice:  Converge instant messaging, voice and conferencing in Office Communicator

Way too advanced for our users. They hardly use Live Meeting and the telephone as it is.

>>>8. Server-Service Parity:  Provide the same rich features of Exchange Server, SharePoint Server and Office Communications Server whether hosted or on-premises

Duh? There better be a roadmap for this, and shame on you if there isn't.

>>>9. More Configuration Control:  Remote Powershell, large batch processing, more control over policies and settings

Before we go into the weeds, how about just fine grained permissions control for admins in MOAC?!

>>>10. More API’s and application integration opportunities

Fine, but spend time on the basics, too.

>>>11. Public Folder support with Exchange Online

See #8 above. We've needed this since Day 1 (Jan 15th, 2009).

>>>12. Email-enabled lists in SharePoint Online

Slowly, anything email-related in SharePoint online is being turned on. I count Alerts so far. Is that it? Why not look at a list of the email-integration features of SharePoint and run a dev thread to prioritize them ALL and publish the plan?

FINALLY - As you prioritize, could you please communicate the list/plan to your customers? As we sit aout here waiting for even the basic improvements, and you make a dreamy list like this, we are considering shopping for new providers - again. You see, they've dropped prices to compete with BPOS... C'mon, do some simple things for the smaller shops here.

Are IMAP email clients supported.

A minority of our users us non MS desktops such as OSX and linux and they need IMAP access to their mailboxes.

Is IMAP access supported.

I can see you can migrate from IMAP, but in client support I have only been able to find references to POP.

For us the #1 request is the ability to sync passwords with AD. It's a no brainer, people dont want to deal with another password, especially one as complex as required by BPOS that changes every 3 months.

Thanks a lot for implementing this feature as soon as possible

#1 for me is the single sign on.  The Sign-on utility is nice, but a bit of a step backwards for anyone moving from locally hosted to cloud services.  My second highest priority is IM federation.  Thanks for asking!

We rolled out BPOS, then later determined we need AD DS.  Need a way to connect independently created AD DS and BPOS user accounts.  I believe other startups may end up in this same situation where they want to start using directory sync but are stuck with a bunch of disconnected AD and BPOS user accounts because AD was deployed after BPOS.  Thanks.

I need a better way to actually migrate over. Working with a small company, an affordable way to make the switch is necessary. I've read about many third party tools, but still investigating which tool is right for what we've got.

We are writing software for BPOS using SharePoint web services. Will the web services in 14 be the same as those available in 12? Is there a program for BPOS developers?

Mac support for the BPOS Office Communicator is a MUST. I just about fell out of my chair when I found out BPOS's communicator platform doesn't work, but a stand-along install of MS Office Communicator 2007 R2 works. Going Google never felt so good.

When is Single signon integrated with AD going to be available?  This is what we are waiting for before considering BPOS.  I read somewhere that the BPOS name may be changing soon.  Is this true?

Does anyone have a list of limitations from BPOS versus on premise?