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Your questions: With SAP and Microsoft partnering, where do I go for Duet support?

DuetContinuing my effort to cover at least one customer and partner challenge or issue per day, today, it’s about Duet for Microsoft Office and SAP. (Also, info is available on Duet here on our main website.)

Duet is a solution from Microsoft and SAP that enables seamless access to SAP business processes and data via Microsoft Office, revolutionizing how information workers interact with enterprise applications. (More details are available in this overview on our main website.)

Who is providing support for this solution? This from the support page in the link at left…

"Since Duet was jointly developed, it will be jointly supported. Support will be provided by a joint team from Microsoft and SAP and centralized in two locations that will serve the Americas and EMEA markets. If a customer purchased Duet from Microsoft, the first-level support (logging the initial question) will follow the Microsoft Customer Support Services escalation procedures. Second-level support (implementation and use questions) will be done by the joint co-located teams. Third-level support (break-fix) will be completed by back-end experts from each company."

Get that? Duet is jointly supported by both companies.

If you’re a Duet customer, you should get support through the company from which you acquired your licenses. For Microsoft, Duet customers may visit the Duet for Microsoft Office and SAP Support Services Web site for more information, or as your Technical Account Manager if you have one to open a support ticket. Our teams work closely together with SAP and also address customer issues jointly when the need arises. More information is available in the support frequently asked questions.

Other resources:

Duet Insider’s is a community created to connect with customers and partners that are interested in making the most out of their SAP investment. Microsoft customers and partners can find answers, downloads, give feedback, and receive early updates on Duet and complementary technologies developed by Microsoft and its partners.

Duet blogs are managed by the Microsoft and SAP product teams directly. The teams are committed to share valuable first-hand product information and technical knowledge. Customers are free to read postings and ask questions and contribute to the organic growth of this newsgroup.

 

Tags: Microsoft, how to, customer support, Microsoft Product List 2010, feedback, customer service, Duet, SAP.

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Heading down to SXSW this year? Consider taking a travel power pack

Heading down to SXSW this year? Long flights? Worried about not finding a power outlet when your devices are running on low?

imageI have to recommend the Energizer XP8000 Rechargeable Power Pack. (And no, I’m just an energizer customer, not shilling for Energizer. But in the interest of full disclosure, Microsoft and Energizer have been close, as with Microsoft managing some of the company’s IT operations as noted here.)

On a recent trip, the compact unit – about the size of a deck of cards provided many extra hours of use of our phones, PDAs and small electronics as well as one netbooks. It has several power outputs and comes with a bundle of extra connector tips for popular mobile phones and mini netbook PCs.

I was able to lave several power bricks behind at home on our last trip and travel much lighter (important when you’re also arranging a vacation’s worth of family electronics). I used the USB charger/sync cables for our mobile phones and game units in place of the wall warts that we have for them, and left the power supply for our HP netbook. image

I found the Energizer XP8000 available at Amazon if you can’t find it locally: on sale, you can find this available for in the $70 range.

For smaller uses, there’s also a mini Energizer XP4001 that runs about half as much on sale (many if the office supply stores carry it – I found it locally on sale for under $40). 

 

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Blast from the past: Connectix Virtual PC

Another interesting find in my effort to cover at least one customer and partner challenge or issue per day…

Over the weekend I did a little spring cleaning and came across a number of old application floppies (yes, applications used to come distributed on floppy discs). One of the discs I came across was the Virtual PC: Microsoft acquired the virtual machine systems via Connectix back in 2003 (details here) for Macintosh and Windows computers. Although the product is no longer generally supported, there are still several references and support documents available here on the Microsoft support site, as well as information here on TechNet.

Today, you can find our more about how the technology has evolved into support available on Windows 7 (in the Professional and Ultimate SKUs) with Windows XP Mode and Windows Virtual PC here on Microsoft.com.

 

Tags: Microsoft, how to, customer support, Microsoft Product List 2010, feedback, customer service, Virtual PC.

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Your questions: Windows Essential Business Server 2008 (EBS2008) was discontinued… what are my options?

Windows Essential Business Server 2008


From Daniel… timely in my effort to cover at least one customer and partner challenge or issue per day …



“I read the news today… EBS2008 [Windows Essential Business Server] was discontinued… what are my options?”


The news in question is from this post on the Essential Business Server blog…



Today, we announced the decision to streamline our server product portfolio and will discontinue future development of EBS, effective June 30th, 2010.


Since the launch of EBS, several changes have occurred that drove our decision to streamline our server product portfolio. First, midsize businesses are rapidly turning to technologies such as management, virtualization and cloud computing as a means to cut costs, improve efficiency, and increase competitiveness. Those capabilities are already available through other offerings, including Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft System Center and the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS).


This information is taken from the EBS 2008 FAQ page…


2008 Discontinuation of Future Development


Q. I just bought EBS 2008.  Should I stop deploying it or move to another set of products?


A. There is no reason why you cannot or should not move forward and deploy it. Microsoft will continue to support EBS 2008 through the normal product lifecycle.  EBS 2008 is a suite that includes several individual products, each with different support lifecycles. So support will last through 2017 for some components and through 2018 for others. For more detailed information on the lifecycle for the EBS 2008 suite, customers can go to the Microsoft Support site.  If you acquired EBS 2008 with OEM hardware, contact the manufacturer of your server hardware that came with EBS 2008 for the OEM’s support policies.


Q. If I am an existing EBS 2008 customer, what happens now?


A. Your EBS 2008 product will still receive support through the normal product life cycle.  Because EBS 2008 is a suite that includes several individual products, each with different support lifecycles, support will last through 2017 for some components and through 2018 for others. For more detailed information on the lifecycle for the EBS 2008 suite, customers can go to the Microsoft Support site.  If you acquired EBS with OEM hardware, contact the manufacturer of your server hardware that came with EBS for the OEM’s support policies. 


Next, we recognize that discontinuing EBS could result in additional cost and complexity for customers when they decide to upgrade.  Because of this we are going to provide a one-time limited offer for all EBS 2008 customers.  Beginning on June 30, 2010 until December 31, 2010, current EBS 2008 customers can get most of the individual component software from the suite for free (local taxes, shipping and handling charges may apply).  This means EBS 2008 customers can get copies of Windows Server 2008 Standard, Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Standard and Microsoft System Center Essentials 2007. To learn more about this offer, EBS customers should visit the EBS Promotions and Offers page.


Q. What are you doing for EBS Volume Licensing customers who purchased Software Assurance?


A. EBS customers who purchased Software Assurance will be able to take advantage of the same offer listed above and will also receive next versions of individual software products from the suite.  For EBS 2008 Standard customers, those products include: Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard, Exchange Server 2010 Standard, System Center Essentials Standard 2010 and Forefront Threat Management Gateway 2010.  EBS 2008 Premium customers who have purchased Software Assurance will also be entitled to SQL Server 2008 R2 Standard edition. 


Q. Will I be able to purchase more CALs for EBS 2008?


A. Yes, customers can continue to purchase EBS 2008 CALs from either the Microsoft Volume Licensing program or through Microsoft partners. 


Q. I have been an EBS partner, what should I recommend to my customers now?


A. Windows EBS was based off the Core IO model.  Partners can still implement the Core IO model by implementing standalone products according to the capability maturity model by workload of Core IO.    For more details on Core IO, please visit the Core Infrastructure page of the Partner Sales Resources site.  


More Questions? You can email the team at askEBS.



Added 030510: For additional commentary and views see these posts…



Tags: Microsoft, how to, customer support, Microsoft Product List 2010, feedback, customer service, EBS 2008.


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Your questions: What are the support options for Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio Concurrency and Coordination Runtime (CCR) and Decentralized Software Service (DSS) Toolkit 2008? (Whew!)

Microsoft Office Clip ArtToday I continue the effort to cover at least one customer and partner challenge or issue per day … Turns out I wasn’t far off in my estimate of current supported products. Thanks to Jared I have the current list of in-support products we have today, most noted on the Microsoft Lifecycle support Information site.

Ignoring the various versions (e.g. Service Pack 1, 2 and 3, I’ll look at the latest supported SP), I’ll pass by the Alacris Identity Validation Server/Client and look today at the Concurrency and Coordination Runtime and Decentralized Software Service Toolkit 2008 (aka, thankfully, "CCR and DSS Toolkit 2008 R2" ;).

The CCR and DSS Toolkit delivers a set of .NET and Compact Framework class libraries and tools that enable developers to better deal with the inherent complexities in creating loosely-coupled concurrent and distributed applications. (More info on the Toolkit is available here.)

It’s designed to help developers take advantage of the CCR and DSS, originally released as part of Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio (Microsoft RDS), a Windows-based environment for academic, hobbyist, and commercial developers to easily create robotics applications across a wide variety of hardware. The CCR and DSS Toolkit targets early adopters by providing access to select technologies today, transitioning to Microsoft’s .NET Framework in the future.

You can see the various support options here on the CCR and DSS support page, including these support forums on MSDN:

You can also get Assisted Support via a Microsoft Support Professional; MSDN Subscribers can contact a Microsoft Support Professional using an incident provided with their subscription.

Or, if you need Worldwide support for CCR and DSS, you can find worldwide support resources here.

 

Tags: Microsoft, how to, customer support, Microsoft Product List 2010, feedback, customer service, CCR, DSS, Toolkit, Robotics.

Clubhouse Tags: Clubhouse, how-to, customer service, CCR, DSS, Toolkit, Robotics.

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