In October 2010, we successfully delivered our first session under Microsoft's new Customer Immersion Experience (CIE) program. The program was developed to help Microsoft and partners such as Compugen show customers how the Microsoft stack of products can integrate to further reduce cost and infrastructure complexity and enable better productivity for information workers. A CIE session covers everything from Windows and Office in the front end, to Exchange, SharePoint, SQL Server and Lync (formerly Office Communications Server) in the back end. It targets primarily a business audience–executives, line-of-business managers and even users, who may not be fully aware of the features of their Microsoft products nor have realized the added benefits of integrating them. The half-day program, delivered in any meeting room-type setting, accommodates about a dozen participants, each of whom is provided a laptop equipped with a Webcam. Through what is very much a hands-on, interactive experience, rather than a conventional 'demo', participants work together to complete a typical mock business scenario–an account manager has three days to respond with a proposal to a customer's request for pricing. They see first-hand how to efficiently search for experts within the organization, connect and collaborate with team members, gain insights from the data, work together to build the proposal, and be productive on the road. The unique approach of the CIE is to let customers learn for themselves how to best apply the solutions to improve personal and business productivity … as Confucius said, "What I hear I forget; what I see I remember; what I do I understand". In addition to the business scenario, and based on what our customer might need or want, our CIE session can drill down into any of the following topics:

• Take Control of your Inbox
• Maximize your Meetings
• Do More with the Cloud
• Make Better Decisions to React Faster
• Power your Personal Productivity
• Transform your Business Communications
• Connect People with Social Computing
• Prioritize, Plan, and Collaborate on Projects
• Share Customer Insights Using CRM

For our many customers who seem to be using their Microsoft products in silos, the CIE session will show how integration can be brought about to reduce complexity and enhance productivity. My next post will describe how a CIE session helped Edmonton-based Fountain Tire with its decision to upgrade its e-mail platform to Microsoft Exchange 2010.