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Article: Seattle PI reports on the Changes in COSD

The Seattle PI reported today that “Microsoft Corp. announced plans Thursday to reshape the internal structure of its Windows engineering division…” known as the Windows Core Operating System Division (aka COSD), which Jon DeVaan leads.



“Microsoft said the changes announced for the Windows Core Operating System Division will take effect after Vista’s release, applying to work on future versions. They’re designed, in part, to streamline the division and make it more flexible. Microsoft said the changes won’t involve layoffs.


“It’s part of a broader revamp of Windows development efforts. Earlier this year, Microsoft brought in Steven Sinofsky, a Microsoft Office executive known for getting teams to meet deadlines, as the senior vice president for the Windows and Windows Live engineering group.


“The latest changes include the creation of a new team inside the Core Operating System Division that will “focus on a single, integrated development plan for Windows,” the company said.


A couple of the changes noted in the article include…



  • the move to combine our Security, Trustworthy Computing (TwC) and Engineering Excellence teams (which operate across the company) into a single group within COSD, led by Scott Charney (he’s led the TwC group),

  • and the venerable Jawad Khaki will manage a new group in COSD that works with hardware makers.

Good moves as these and the rest of Jon’s technical executives are focused on the needs of our customers (end users) and partners (IHVs, OEMs, manufacturers, service providers). Jon DeVaan is one of the best listeners, continually supports our efforts to improve customer and partner satisfaction across the company, and is particularly good at finding ways to bridge the communications gap that sometimes happens (even within the company). I’ll ask if he can make some time for a chat on TechNet.


And Scoble sat down with Jawad this summer and the interview is here on Channel9, and see this community/chat transcript on Technet. Jawad is great with customers and has forged some deep relationships with key manufacturers in the industry.

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Windows Vista RC2 public download closed

Techweb ran an article on how the public, free Vista RC2 download was closed. “As promised, Microsoft opened its newest build of Windows Vista to public downloading, but the short time that Release Candidate 2 (RC2) was available irked left-out users.”


The team noted on their blog that RC2 download was closed, and had apologies for those unable to get to the download. Said Nick:



“As you’ve probably already surmised, downloads of Windows Vista RC2 for the Customer Preview Program (CPP) have now closed and the links are no longer active.  We were bowled over by your response to RC2 — in fact, we hit our download target (200K+) within 72 hours of propping the files! This is an incredible response.


“Special thanks go out to everyone who participated in the CPP by downloading and installing this new build, and please keep the feedback coming — it makes a huge difference.”


Happy to see that the team is o responsive on their blogs. Very transparent to let customers know that we hit the targeted number of downloads, closing the program so that the team can process the customer feedback that comes in.


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Wired’s “Rebuilding Microsoft” article now available

As noted in a previous post on Ray Ozzie on connecting with customers and partners, the article I mentioned is new up on Wired.com: 



Rebuilding Microsoft: Bill Gates is on his way out. Now it’s up to Ray Ozzie to revive the flagging giant — and get it ready for the post-desktop era. By Fred Vogelstein from Wired

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Ray Ozzie on connecting with customers and partners via blog

(It’s been a busy week with mails, reviews, meetings and running the latest Vista and Offce builds on my machine at the office.)


In the latest print edition of Wired (not yet on the web – update 100806: the article, Rebuilding Microsoft, is now available), there’s an interesting, brief article on “Rebuilding Microsoft.” It takes a look at the move of Ray Ozzie in to the chief software architect role, one where you have to understand the needs of our customers and balance the efforts and capabilities to provide innovative solutions. Interesting to note is this old blog entry from Mr. Ozzie on blogging as a way to connect with customers and partners:



“By the way … restating the obvious:  another fascinating and unique thing about this [blog] medium is that I can speak directly to this special interest group right here, along with others who had similar questions.  For one who has attempted to leverage many customer communication vehicles over the years (press, speaking engagements, article placements, custom quarterly publications, executive briefings, developer and user conferences, …) this “direct touch” feels incredibly empowering.  It’s much faster, more direct – being unedited, it’s more conversational – enabling me to interact, not just speak.”


Although his external blogs may not be updated regularly, this from the man who gets it: in this Gartner interview, Ozzie says that he knows that “the most important person is the customer or integrator that understands how to match the capabilities of a specific technology to what’s needed.”


Customer connection is not just via blog, trip reports and email: it’s getting the feedback through our field and product teams, “listen and respond” systems (like Connect), from customers directly in their visits to Redmond, and venturing out to their sites to see and hear how our solutions meet their needs.


Or, in a few cases, not: always good to hear how we can improve.


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On Channel9: Interview with Kathleen Hogan, VP of Customer Service & Support

On Channel9 is an inteview with Kathleen Hogan, corporate VP of Microsoft Customer Service and Support, and is responsible for the strategy and delivery of technical support for Microsoft. Kathleen is also one of our execs sponsoring the cross-company efforts to improve the customer and partner experience (aka CPE).


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