Swiss IT Professional and TechNet Blog : Online

Microsoft Bing - The Decision Engine

mepprecht — Fri, 29 May 2009 15:24:18 GMT

Introducing Bing Search by Microsoft. A Decision Engine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=et0rUzRAXGE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CK5IYlZECmE

http://www.microsoft.com/emea/presscentre/pressreleases/ProductLaunchPR_280509.mspx

So from 3 June 2009, don’t Google It, or Live It, Bing It!

Support of Outlook 2003 on BPOS

mepprecht — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 14:41:40 GMT

We have been getting a few questions from Customers and Partners about BPOS. One of the questions is "Will BPOS support Outlook 2003?".

It is expected that from June 2009, Outlook 2003 will be supported, but there are clear limitations. See this extract from a MS Field Blog:

Outlook 2003 WILL BE supported in Exchange Online Standard by June 2009. However, there are two very critical caveats:

No Free-Busy: While Exchange Online Standard will support Outlook 2003, the Free-Busy functionality in Outlook 2003 will be completely disabled when connected to Exchange Online. In other words, there will be NO Free-Busy support or capability in Outlook 2003 when used with Exchange Online. We are investigating possible mitigations for this issue, but we cannot commit a date for Free-Busy support in Outlook 2003 when used with Exchange Online.

Possible Workaround: Free-Busy WILL work in OWA. So an end-user could switch to OWA to schedule a meeting when they need to see Free-Busy info for another Online user (note that Exchange Online still will NOT expose Free-Busy information in a co-existence scenario to on-premises users -- this limitation still exists and will not be fixed until Wave 14 - see F/B Coexist Topic)

Outlook 2003 Not Supported By Exchange Online 2010 Version (Wave 14): Be aware that Outlook 2003 support for Exchange Online will end at Wave 14 when Exchange Online moves onto Exchange Server 2010.

Possible Mitigation: Customers have 12 months to opt into platform upgrade of BPOS. So a customer who is on BPOS Standard who needs Outlook 2003 support could have it for up to 12 months after Wave 14 platform upgrade if customer chooses to stay on the current platform. But it does mean they will not get the benefits of Wave 14 capabilities. So customer will have to weigh Outlook 2003 support against Wave 14 benefits.

We will provide more information about exactly what this support will look like shortly. (I.e. will the Sign-In Tool configure Outlook 2003 as it does Outlook 2007, etc.)

Refer to Outlook 2003 WIKI Topic page for subsequent updates.

UPDATE: A third caveat to consider - just added this to the WIKI topic: Outlook 2003 Mainstream Support Ended 4/14/2009: Be aware that mainstream support ended for Outlook 2003 on 4/14/2009. So Outlook 2003 is now in Extended Support phase. Customers currently running Outlook 2003 should be reminded of this when considering to stay with Outlook 2003 versus moving to Office 2007.

Original post from Schweizer IT Professional und TechNet Blog by Stefan Hagenbuch.

Microsoft Online Services – Read the current Release Notes

mepprecht — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 19:12:00 GMT

The most current release notes on Microsoft's website for Online Services has been published. You will find information about issues that some users may be experiencing, or where they need more information. Topics like Single Sign On; Internet Explorer 7, 8 and firewall settings; the Directory Sync Tool; plus others are covered.

If you are using Online Services (BPOS etc), or intend to, have a read-though and see how it affects your plans.

Test Microsoft Online Services for Free for 30 days

mepprecht — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 14:46:27 GMT

On the 19th March, at x.Days, Microsoft Online was officially launched in Switzerland. Microsoft Business Productivity Online suite (BPOS) is this offering’s name which encompasses Services like SharePoint, Exchange and Unified Communications (IM, Presence and Live Meeting). Planned future enhancements are Online Versions of CRM.

BPOS is hosted in Microsoft Data Centers, under Microsoft Control. Currently for Europe, the data centers are in Dublin, Ireland and Amsterdam, Netherlands.

The whole suite costs about CHF 22.- per month, per user.

You have the opportunity to test the services for free for 30 days, and have a chance to win a HTC Touch Phone.

To test the service, following the following procedure:

Create a Live ID if you don't have one yet https://signup.live.com
Subscribe to the free 30 days Test Suite of Microsoft Online (“Sign up for a trial”) at https://mocp.microsoftonline.com
Wait for the confirmation e-mail. During this time, your Microsoft Online account will be provisioned.
Visit the Customer Portal to retrieve the Administrator Account Information.
Login to the Administration Center with the Administrator Account https://admin.emea.microsoftonline.com
Create your first user accounts, configure Outlook and create your SharePoint site.

Further Technical Information can be found on TechNet (English / German / French). If you want to continue to use the service after the trial 30 days, you may wish to have a Qualified BPOS partner guide you further. These Partners are capable of helping you with Migrations, further Setup and can answer questions relating to your specific needs.

Originally posted on http://blogs.technet.com/chitpro-de/archive/2009/03/20/microsoft-online-services-30-tage-gratis-testen.aspx

BPOS – The Partner Website is online

mepprecht — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 11:45:00 GMT

BPOS is the abbreviation for Business Productivity Online Suite. From March/April 2009, Microsoft will be releasing diverse Online Services like Live Meeting, Communications Online, SharePoint Online and Exchange Online for end-customers. This is a larger step in the realization of Microsoft's S+S (Software plus Services) Strategy.

Microsoft Partners can now get skilled-up on the subject and win cool Prizes.