Vic Gundotra summed up this deal by reusing the "Two turkeys do not make an eagle" quote. However, I think he is likely channeling some angst over losing it and may be missing the bigger picture that Microsoft and Nokia together may actually amount to the phoenix rebirth of both their mobile strategies that they both desperately need.

In the past week at their own press conferences and at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Nokia announced a deep partnership with Microsoft to build Windows Phones. There’s been lot of speculation on why Nokia decided to go this route rather than either adopt Android in a similar strategy or to continue to develop their own platform strategy. The introduction of Steven Elop, a former Microsoft executive, as the CEO is fueling some speculation that the Nokia decision may in part have been based on his former relationships rather than the objective best interest of the company. That seems to me to be a red herring.

I think this was exactly the right move for both Nokia and Microsoft (and Nokia’s employees and customers.) Here are some of my thoughts:

• Magic 8 Ball says "Outlook not so good": Microsoft has had trouble getting back into the mobile space and has needed bolder moves and stronger partnerships for some time. Word is that Nokia’s internal predictions for smart phone market share showed them diving into single digits before too long. Their "platform" (current state strategy) is burning and is taking them in the wrong direction.

• The Android Morass: I see the Android market as alive and vibrant, but also crowded and fraught with peril for anyone trying to differentiate. Android is becoming the mobile platform of choice for not only well executed devices but also for low end barely-smart phones. Nokia jumping on that bandwagon would have the potential to get them lost in the noise very quickly.

• Better Together: Microsoft and Nokia need each other in ways that Google doesn’t. Microsoft sells software and Nokia sells phones. Both of them need the other to make money to be successful and they can compliment each other that way. Google sells advertising and could care less if you have to give your stuff away for free as long as they get they eyeballs. They want a slice of every device out there, good or crappy, and a race to the bottom for hardware makers is just fine. Microsoft has much more to gain from a strong Nokia than Google would and building best in class devices that unite each of their strengths is aligned well with what they both need.

Will they succeed? Signs so far point to MSFT continuing to move too slow and being hamstrung by current partner relationships in some ways. Unless they break that cycle and get their development and engineering velocity higher than both Google and Apple they are going to have trouble keeping up. This is a big challenge for them that they are falling down on so far since the launch of Windows Phone 7. Hopefully a tight partnership with a premier hardware vendor can help them drive reference devices that will push the rest of their partner/carrier relationships forward and drive higher velocity.

Enterprise/Business Perspective

• iPhone is Bad for IT: My thoughts for some time is that iPhone and Android have been bad for business IT. Not because they aren’t capable platforms but because they come from a consumer oriented mindset and a lot of the best talent in the market place is getting tied up right now trying to build the next Angry Birds app. You can get business apps on those platforms but that isn’t where the energy is at right now. That coupled with the fact that the iPhone is not compatible with the development model of most IT departments and it’s a pain to get apps on outside the app store and you have a mobile platform that sets back business IT mobile development by years.

• MSFT Enterprise Roots: MSFT and their mobile platform has at least a little bit of business IT DNA. Microsoft is downplaying that for now, but hopefully not excising it all together. My expectation is that anything better than a total failure of the platform will provide an outlet for real enterprise class mobile application development to flourish once more.
• Calling All IT Devs: Bring on my ERP, CRM, HR applications… why aren’t I interacting with my core business tools via rich custom applications yet? There are a smattering of commercial applications in some of the marketplaces but my IT department should be making its own packaged and custom tools available, driving real business value to their mobile workforces.

Am I missing the mark here? What do you all hope to see from this partnership? What top apps from your IT department do you need on your mobile devices today?

For example, Salesforce.com, Microsoft CRM Live and a slew of other CRM cloud services are only one class of cloud applications begging for add-on services. Each of these has strengths and weaknesses and most are targeted at the core use cases specific to their horizontal solution space. Software product developers working in complimentary horizontal spaces, like Marketing Automation, or in verticals like Manufacturing, Professional Services, etc. are well positioned to tap into these enormous customer bases and offer their solution extensions if they can host them in a cloud of their own and integrate effectively.

At Technoligence right now we are working on a project that will use Azure to extend a CRM Live solution with a custom quoting and proposal generation engine. It looks something like this:

Similarly, some of the work our partners are doing with Marketing Automation could be implemented like this:

Why Azure?

So why do I think Azure is the right cloud platform to build these businesses on, as opposed to something like a hosted datacenter or clouds like Amazon EC2 or Google App Engine? Here are a few main reasons:

• Platform, Not Plumbing: Azure provides software developers a clean computing platform for implementing solutions without having to worry about the plumbing needed to get their solutions in place. The combination of Web Roles and Worker Roles provide a highly scalable container set for implementing workloads.

• AppFabric As The Bridge: A huge advantage that Azure has, especially as a compliment to many of the SaaS solution clouds, is the ability to deeply integrate into customer on-premise computing infrastructure through what Microsoft calls the AppFabric. This service bus allows cloud applications and on-premise platforms to easily and securely connect and interact.

• Codename "Dallas" Data Feeds: A very exciting component of the Azure platform that Microsoft is in the process of bringing online are the "Dallas" data APIs. Imagine having access to map, weather, traffic, AP news, financial data, etc. to draw on that a custom add-on solution can use to extend a core SaaS application. I think this is going to be a huge opportunity for complimentary services and mash-ups in the near future.

I’m compiling a list of add-on solutions that could be started today on SaaS platforms plus Azure. Let me know your ideas and I’ll write up a post listing the best.

First a definition of "cloud" in this context: There are various ways to virtualize platform layers in hosted internet services that can qualify as "cloud." You can virtualize the traditional infrastructure, the server hardware, and provide a virtual server environment hosted in an internet connected datacenter. Beyond that, you can move the level of abstraction up a layer and virtualize the application or solution platform as a service, and build custom solutions on it. While infrastructure virtualization is interesting, the development teams using it still need to configure or build the application platform plumbing. Greater value is provided by offering a cloud solution platform environment, as less plumbing needs to be implemented (even if it still does need to be considered.)

So what does Microsoft offer?

Windows Azure

Windows Azure is a complete set of custom application plumbing available as a cloud service. The core services are a layer above the idea of a virtual server, providing a scalable application platform for developers to build out custom solutions without having to worry (much) about platform configuration and scaling issues. Adjunct services of the platform provide SQL data services in the cloud as well as the ability to extend application integration to on-premise solutions.

While there is a cost to using application services like these, the benefits are often great and come in the form of reduced application plumbing complexity, faster time to market, better application/service scalability, etc.

However, Azure is merely a platform, similar to a .NET application server or a WebSphere server. It is up to application developers to build custom applications from the platform up. It’s on this point that CRMLive has something slightly different to offer.

Dynamics CRM Online and xRM

What Microsoft has provided with Dynamics CRM Online is a hosted version of their CRM solution. What has come along with that is the ability to customize the solution down to its roots, building completely new business applications, if desired, that may have no relation to CRM. Microsoft calls this customization xRM (where the "x" stands for whatever you want it to.)

In CRM Online the level of customization is slightly more constrained that in the on-premise installations of the product, but there are ways around that. Integrating additional application functionality from outside CRM Online (e.g. from a separate could based application service) can round out the customization possibilities. A custom engineering configuration and quoting system I’m working on now uses this approach.

xRM is great for entity relationship based custom business applications. Reporting, workflow, and business user customization are built into the platform. xRM doesn’t makes sense for a wide variety of custom services and solutions (where you would use something like Azure) but for the class of business solutions it does make sense for the benefits are huge. The strong business application framework is a whole additional layer of plumbing that is already done, allowing the architects and developers to focus directly on the business problem.

Microsoft seems to be downplaying the apparent strengths of the xRM solution approach from their initial marketing messages a year or two ago. I’d expect this is in an effort to not confuse their development platform messaging (which I may be doing right now.) However, I think the feasibility of xRM, especially in the cloud, is huge under the right circumstances.

Let me know if anyone needs more details and we can talk further on either of these or any other cloud computing  platforms.

I started to compile a list of public web sites on SharePoint to illustrate the “is it possible” questions and found this section of one of my favorite SharePoint demo sites that has already compiled a list of over 500! I’ve been pointing people to Hawaiian Air for years but as you can see on that site and in these screenshots the list of high profile sites built on SharePoint continues to grow.

So why are The Library of Congress, UK Department of Health, Viacom, etc. choosing SharePoint for their public sites and why might you consider it? These are a few of the reasons:

Content Management

As of MOSS 2007 Microsoft has rolled its former Content Management Server product into SharePoint, making it a very capable content management solution for large web site. Support for master layouts, staged content and approvals, multi-language variations are just a few of the features that drive site owners to SharePoint for their site platform.

Enterprise-Class Search

For those web sites that are a source of large amounts of content, the value of that content is often limited by how accessible it is to the site visitor. Advanced, enterprise-class search available via SharePoint, especially enhanced with Microsoft acquisition of FAST, provides dynamic access to deep content repositories that would otherwise not be accessible.

Wikis, Blogs, and Discussions

Though not necessarily best of breed out of the box SharePoint does provide a starter set of social and collaboration features required by most web communities. These are further enhanced by 3rd party solutions layered on top of this base functionality where extra power is needed.

Collaboration

Many organizations are finding they need their public web presence to provide a true collaboration environment for a subset of their user population. Document storage and management, shared calendars, business workflow, etc. are all core aspects of SharePoint that it makes sense to leverage in the right scenario.

SharePoint can be a bit heavyweight for small sites and certainly isn’t recommended in all cases, but when the above types of features come into play, using the enterprise server infrastructure of SharePoint can deliver significant value.

Thanks again to the WSSDemo site for the compilation of public sites built on SharePoint and thanks to Mike Gannotti and his blog where I found some other interesting public site links.

Found any other interesting reasons for going with SharePoint on public facing web sites? I’d love to hear about it.

I expect to put together a few blog posts on CRM over the next few weeks and wanted to start with an overview and some pointers to great material out on the web for anyone not yet familiar with Dynamics CRM in general. Down the road I’ll probably drill into accelerators, custom reporting capabilities, and custom business solutions built on Dynamics CRM as a platform in more detail.

I’d be interested to hear what others are doing with custom solutions on top of CRM lately. Business frustrated with some of the limitations of ACT or SalesForce have been migrating lately and hearing the good, the bad and the ugly of these migrations would be great.

History

Microsoft release a humble initial version of CRM in early 2003. At that point it was targeted at small businesses and didn’t extend too much farther than account and contact management. One important feature from a business productivity perspective was the early integration with Outlook, which has only improved over time and continues to be a strength of the solution.

By 2005 Microsoft made some significant upgrades to the overall solution in the 3.0 release. It was then that CRM was moved under the Dynamics line of business products. Support for hosted CRM was also as significant addition in that timeframe and was offered through the partner channel.

In 2008, the 4.0 version of CRM was introduced. The significant improvements to both the feature set and underlying platform continued pushing Dynamics CRM into serious contention as a best of breed solution at the small business level and has started it knocking on the door of medium/large businesses as a possible solution.

Feature Highlights – My Top Five

Outlook Integration

As you might expect, a key feature that Microsoft has done really well is integration with Outlook. In addition to Outlook exposing the CRM interface, in either an online or online/offline synched configuration, a toolbar is provided that integrates the account management, activity initiation and communication tracking capabilities of CRM into your Outlook workflow.

Incoming emails/threads can be tracked in connection to contacts, accounts, opportunities, etc. Contacts are integrated into your Outlook contact list, but only to the degree you wish, with the ability to filter to subsets such as "My Contacts" or more complicated queries involving any contact field.

Dynamic Custom Reporting

In addition to standard canned reports, this video gives a great overview of the add-hoc and custom reporting functionality available in CRM. User configurable custom reporting is very flexible and relatively easy to use.

In advanced configurations the CRM reporting capabilities can be extended through integration with SQL Server Analytics and/or Microsoft Performance Point to get even more power in reporting and analysis.

Customization and Extensibility

The capabilities for customization of CRM are designed to provide flexibility at the user, business administrator and developer levels. Many typical customizations of views, fields, workflows, etc. are designed to be accomplished by non-developer power users/administrators. Further developer levels of customization are fully supported and typically are portable between installations and through upgrades.

If you can stand to click through 11 pages, this introduction to the various customization capabilities of CRM is a good overview.

Workflow

Imagine a marketing event generates a contact lead. As a follow, up you might want to send a custom email the next day and follow up a week later with a phone call by one of your account reps. This kind of dynamic workflow can be configured right in CRM. Further custom workflow activities can be added on to CRM to provide access to complex custom actions. More background on workflow is available here.

Accelerators

One of my favorite and one of the most interesting aspects of CRM customization available now are the "Accelerator" packages. Posted on Microsoft Codeplex with full source code, the Accelerators are fully supported custom add-on solutions for CRM. Advanced Analytics, Notifications, and Enterprise Search configuration are among the eight accelerators currently available. We’ve begun deploying these internally and for our customers with great success. You can find them all at: http://www.codeplex.com/crmaccelerators

What other highlights have I missed here? Anyone else doing interesting things with CRM right now?

On the heels of that SKU announcement, Microsoft last week announced the features that will differentiate the “Enterprise” edition from the lower editions. This is of particular interest to businesses who will need to determine if the upgrade is worthwhile.

My thoughts at first glance are that BranchCache, VDI, and Network Booting are all aimed at specific uses that typically only a large, distributed enterprise would be interested in. On the other hand, some medium and even small business are probably going to end up with a need for one or more of the features on this list. DirectAccess has the potential to lower infrastructure complexity for remote workers. BitLocker will be key to any business with very high data security needs at the PC level. AppLocker will be cherished by any operations team.

Overall, I expect “Enterprise” edition uptake will be primarily in large, complex, distributed corporations, but medium and small businesses may also adopt it to pull in one or two of the specific features on this list. For example, I’ll be looking at DirectAccess in particular for our office and disconnected workforce.

The feature list additions for “Windows 7 Enterprise” include:

• DirectAccess: Windows 7, along with the network technologies in Windows Server 2008 R2, provides this network technology that enables the user to seamlessly access corporate network resources when on the Internet, without having to create a VPN connection.
• BranchCache: Windows 7 together with Windows Server 2008 R2 offers an alternative to alleviate the problems of slow connectivity, delivering increased network responsiveness of applications and giving users in remote offices an experience more like working in the head office. When BranchCache is enabled, a copy of data accessed from an intranet web site or a file server is cached locally within a branch office.
• Enterprise Search Scopes: allows IT administrators to populate links to the commonly used internal sites — for example, SharePoint sites – to the Windows Explorer UI or to the Start menu or in Windows 7, using Group Policy. These links simplify access to the target internal data sources on the network for business users.
• BitLocker & BitLocker To Go: protect data on PCs and removable drives, with manageability to enforce encryption and backup of recovery keys. Windows 7 extends BitLocker protection to USB storage devices while making the original functionality even easier to use. Note: BitLocker for PCs and BitLocker To Go for removal hard drives such as external USB drives.
• AppLocker: is a flexible, easy-to-use mechanism that enables IT professionals to specify exactly what is allowed to run on user desktops. It restricts unauthorized software while allowing applications, installation programs, and scripts that users need.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Optimizations: delivers desktop functionality in Windows 7 using virtual machines hosted on servers—a solution known as Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). VDI enables users to access their desktops remotely as well as the ability to reuse virtual machine (VHD) images to boot a physical PC. Windows 7 provides for better user experience in VDI scenarios, with better graphics, audio and local device support.
• Multi Lingual User Interface: the Language Packs in Windows 7 Enterprise enable you to support up to 36 different languages using a single Windows master image, rather than creating a separate image for each language used in the organization. 
• Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications (SUA)
• License rights to run up to four additional copies of Windows in virtual machines
• License rights for network booting of Windows

What are your thoughts on “Windows 7 Enterprise”? Is your company going to end up with “Enterprise” eventually or are the lower versions going to do the job?

Office Ribbon Search: http://www.officelabs.com/projects/searchcommands/Pages/default.aspx

This adds an extra tab with a search box into the ribbon bar for Word, Excel, etc. Just type all or part of the command you were looking for and related commands dynamically populate the ribbon.

I’m not sure why this doesn’t ship with the products. I liked the ribbon anyway, but I bet this would have eliminated 80% of the complaints about the ribbon from the start.

There are a bunch of other cool office projects available from the lab team up on their blog. Enjoy!

Have any other good productivity tips?

Angela Binkowski, one of the stellar team of developer and architect evangelists for Microsoft in the Midwest, pointed out last night that I needed more “Midwest” in my post listing Midwest user groups. She’s helped out by adding a few more of these excellent user groups that their team gets involved with in the WI, IN, MI areas.

A big thanks to Angela for the additions. Be sure to check out Angela’s blog and keep an eye out for her presentations. She gave a great walkthrough on Visual Studio 2010 and the updates to the architect tools to the CAG last night.

More Midwest User Groups

• Michiana Area .NET User Group (MADNUG)
• Michiana IT Professionals User Group (MITPUG)
• Wisconsin .NET Users Group
• Indianapolis’ .NET User Group (IndyNDA)

Links, Descriptions, Next Event

Michiana Area .NET User Group (MADNUG)

http://www.madnug.net

The goal of Our .NET User Group is sharing knowledge and experience between .NET developers. We make meetings on the first Tuesday every month and we organize a two-day Code Camp once a year. You can join us for free by submitting the form below.

Next Meeting: 2/17/2009 5:30:00 PM

Wade Wegner an Architect from the Developer and Platform division of Microsoft will present the new Cloud Services offering called Windows AZURE. This will be a joint meeting between MITPUG and MADNUG.

Michiana IT Professionals User Group (MITPUG)

http://www.sharepointgroups.org/mitpug/default.aspx

Welcome to the new home of the Michiana IT Professionals User Group. We hope to provide a lot of content and information about the user group here. We now have a location to host all presentations slides so you can refer to them later. We also will provide links to MITPUG members and other relevant blogs. Look for an updated event calendar and announcements section updated on a regular basis. Note that you can even subscribe to the events and announcements via your favorite RSS reader.

2009 event planning not posted on the site yet.

Wisconsin .NET Users Group

http://www.wi-ineta.org/

The Wisconsin .NET Users Group was founded on February 12, 2002 at the launch of Visual Studio.NET. Our mission from inception has been to develop a peer group of developers, architects, and managers who are interested in learning, sharing and growing their Microsoft .NET knowledge and capabilities. The group’s vision is to provide members with a forum to hear top industry experts speak, learn and teach others who are interested in the same technologies as you and are facing the same challenges. The Wisconsin .NET Users Group covers the entire spectrum of .NET technologies, including the Windows Server System, XML web services, application development with Visual Studio.NET and the .NET Framework (including web, mobile, and desktop applications.)

Next Meeting Listed: Tuesday, Jan 20, 2009 at 07:00 PM

Speaker: Angela Binkowski

In the spirit of an agile sprint, see how to use the next version of Visual Studio Team System to manage user stories and re-factor existing architecture. Learn how to diagnose real production problems, debug in-production virtual labs, capture test data to eliminate the no-repro bugs, and transparently plan, monitor, and adapt software projects.

Indianapolis’ .NET User Group (IndyNDA)

http://www.indynda.org/

IndyNDA is Indianapolis’ .NET user group. We are an organized group of professional software developers in the Indianapolis area with a specific interest in Microsoft’s .NET technologies. We meet on the second Thursday of every month on the north side of Indianapolis.

Next Meeting: February 12th, 2009 (Second Thursday)

The Future of Managed Languages: C# and Visual Basic

Presented by Mark Strawmyer of Crowe Horwath

Keep those user group recommendations coming. Any others I missed?

Let me start by saying thanks to the Microsoft Developer and Partner Evangelism Team for the Chicago MSDN Developer Conference this past week. The event was well attended, the content was solid, and the food was good! The event was designed as a road show showcase for core developer information that was announced and delivered at the 2008 Professional Developers Conference. There are a few more of these around the country this week and next if you didn’t make it to the PDC and want to catch the content live. You can get to them here: http://www.msdndevcon.com

I plan on writing up a few posts that cover my thoughts on the content, including perspectives on Azure and Silverlight, but wanted to kick things off with a summary of a series of Midwest Microsoft related user groups that Larry Clarkin highlighted at the close of the keynote. I’ve attended a few of these and plan on attending more this year. These are great groups and an excellent opportunity to discuss technology topics with peers in the industry.

Please add comments here on other technology groups around the Midwest that you would recommend and I’ll update this list over time.

I’ll likely be at the cloud computing group session downtown this Thursday. Hope to see you there!

Midwest Microsoft Developer Technology User Groups

• The Chicago.NET Users Group (CNUG)
• Lake County .NET Users Group
• Midwest Cloud Computing User Group
• Chicago Designers and Developers User Group
• Chicago Architecture Group
• Chicago Visual Studio Team System Users Group
• Chicago SharePoint User Group (CSUG)

Links, Descriptions, Next Event

The Chicago.NET Users Group (CNUG)

http://www.cnug.org/Default.aspx

Mission: To share deep .NET experience with individuals who are interested in learning, sharing and growing their Microsoft .NET knowledge and capabilities.

The Chicago.NET Users Group (CNUG) was founded in March 2001. The group’s vision is to provide members with a forum to hear top industry experts speak, learn and teach others who are interested in the same technologies as you and are facing the same challenges. The Chicago .NET Users Group covers the entire spectrum of .NET technologies, including the .NET Enterprise Servers, XML web services, application development with Visual Studio.NET and the .NET Framework (including web, mobile, and desktop applications.)

Meetings are held the 3rd Wednesday of Each month (Unless otherwise posted) at Microsoft’s Office in Downers Grove IL

Meetings are held the 2nd Thursday of each month at Clarity Consulting in Chicago (Unless otherwise posted)

Meetings start at 5:30PM and run until 9:00PM (Unless otherwise posted)

Lake County .NET Users Group

http://www.lcnug.org/Home.aspx

We normally meet from 7-9 PM on the last Thursday of the month at the College of Lake County in Grayslake, Illinois. November and December meetings are on different dates. The College of Lake County provides space for us in the Technology Building in room T326-328. Please register before each meeting.

January Meeting: Nhibernate – January 29, 2009 06:30 PM

Midwest Cloud Computing User Group

http://www.azureusergroup.com/group/midwestcloudcomputingusergroup
Cloud computing group for the Midwest Region.

Time: January 22, 2009 from 5pm to 7:30pm

Location: Chicago Microsoft

Street: 200 East Randolph Drive

City/Town: Chicago, IL

Register: https://www.clicktoattend.com/invitation.aspx?code=134422

Chicago Designers and Developers User Group

http://cd2ug.org

cd2 is a new user group in the Chicago area that is focused on nurturing the collaboration between designers & developers and the importance of the user experience.

If you’re interested in rich platforms and pairing functionality with creativity to provide better experiences for users, cd2 is for you. cd2 is the place for theory and application based presentations, discussions, and networking.

Join the cd2 group to become the coolest person ever! Seriously.

February 4 2009 6:30 PM CST

200 S. Wacker Drive, 15th Floor

Chicago, IL 60606

Chicago Architecture Group

http://chicagoarchitecturegroup.com

Enterprise, Solution, and Infrastructure architects are the hearts of their businesses. We each try to make sense of the landscape that is our business and form order out of chaos. We do this with knowledge and experience.

The Chicago Architects Group is founded with the goal to unite architects into a community for collaboration and knowledge sharing. The group is for people to meet their peers and share some stories and ideas. Architects and those aspiring to understand technical architecture better will enjoy the group.

We encourage members to join us for our monthly meetings. Incorporating a presentation by a fellow architect, our meetings engage members in collaboration to better understand our own and other architect’s challenges.

Monthly Community Meeting – January 2009

When: Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Where: Illinois Technology Association

Visual Studio Team System 2010 : Architect Edition Tools Preview

by Angela Binkowski

http://chicagoarchitectsgroup.eventbrite.com/

Chicago Visual Studio Team System Users Group

http://vsts.sogeti-chicago.com/default.aspx

The official site for VSTS Users in Chicago. Sponsored by Sogeti and Microsoft.

February/March event planning is in progress and will be posted on the site soon.

Chicago SharePoint User Group (CSUG)

http://www.sharepointusergroup.com/default.aspx

Midwest SharePoint group discussing all things MOSS.

January-February User Group Meeting: SharePoint Designer

Microsoft, 200 E Randolph, Suite 200 – MPR 2, Chicago, IL

February 10, 2009, 1-4pm

What other user groups or local events would you recommend?