March, 2010

Microsoft Pakistan organized three back to back events in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad to launch Office 2010/Wave 14 for partners in Pakistan.

More than 250 representatives from top partners attended these events and were briefed on the upcoming product portfolio which includes Exchange 2010, Office 2010, SharePoint 2010, Project 2010 & Visio 2010.

Welcome speech was given by Shahzad Khan, Chanel Lead, Microsoft Pakistan and guest speaker was Ihsan Anabtawi, IW Business Group Lead, Microsoft NEPA. Technical sessions were delivered by Zafar Ul-Islam, Enterprise Technology Strategist and Salma Nisar, Technology Specialist, Public Sector at Microsoft Pakistan.

The speakers talked about many new features in Office 2010 including Office Web Application (office online), PowerPivot in Excel 2010, Enhanced Video/Photo formatting, Office backstage etc. The theme of the launch event was “The Best Productivity Experience Across the PC, Phone & Browser” and various capabilities were demonstrated to showcase this.

A live demo of Microsoft Unified Communication (UC) solution was also conducted which showed how Office 2010 along with Office Communicator 2007 R2 provides a seamless experience to users when it comes to connecting various communication channels e.g. Email/Calendaring, Voice Mail, Telephony, Video/Voice Conferencing, Web Conferencing etc.

It was announced that customer launch event of Office 2010 is planned in May 2010 in Pakistan, although the products would be available through retail channels a little later.