Following my earlier post about BPOS and the lack of forwarding capability I carried out some further research and contacted the BPOS help team (who I have to say were very responsive once I worked out they were working to US timezone hours – the time zone issue will have to be addressed when the International roll out goes live).

Anyway conclusions were:

1. Although email forwarding and redirect rules are available in both the OWA and Outlook client rules wizard the server side functionality is turned off and hence this capability is not currently available in BPOS.  From BPOS support “The Outlook rule does not work because we do not allow email forwarding at all”
2. The BPOS team are aware of the desire for this capability and it is being “considered” for a future release.  From BPOS support “..this is a huge ask by many of our customers and is already visible as a top call driver”
3. There is a workaround (see below) however the support team have provided the following caution – “…the work around you are using should be used at your own risk, we have provided that work around for awhile however we have discovered it does not work for many customers”.  I don’t know if this is a real concern or a FUD comment to limit uptake, or if this is a loop hole that will soon be turned off, but so far in my testing it appears to work n.b. full disclaimer if it doesn’t work for you !!

Setting up distribution lists

Although as noted above there may be issues with some users with this approach it has worked for me.  The basic idea is:

• Create an email account inside BPOS that is like the one you want to be seen externally e.g. if the external address is fred@bedrock.com create one called i-fred@bedrock.com
• Add your external email address that should receive a copy of all emails sent to fred into the contacts list e.g. fred.flintstone@maincompany.com
• Now create a distribution list within BPOS called fred@bedrock.com and add then add the two emails to the distribution list i.e. i-fred@bedrock.com and fred.flintstone@maincompany.com (from the contacts list)

What is going on?  Third time in as many weeks that I am compelled to talk about a company that has offered great service.  Is this a general trend that reflects how good companies are showing their customer service colours during these challenging times? (Please let this be true) Is it my non confrontational approach that makes it easier for people to “help me”? (I’d like to think so).  Whatever the reasons I am a happy customer.

So on with the story… I purchased a Mont Blanc pen back in 2004 as a treat following a successful period in one of my businesses.  Since then it has been my “lucky pen” which I use for all important signing moments (the largest being on a contract with a lifetime value of GBP40M).  About a month ago I noticed that there was some chipping of the black enamel and called the Mont Blanc service centre.  They advised that this was not normal and I should either send it in for review or visit one of their retail outlets.  Today whilst in London I was in the area of Old Bond Street and so went to the Mont Blanc shop there.  The pen was inspected and the chipping confirmed.  After showing the warranty book I was advised that the pen was now out of of it’s 2 year warranty.  I then politely asked if this sort of chipping was normal, pointed out that this was a Mont Blanc one of the best pens in the world and asked if, on a good will basis, the chipped part could be replaced.  The very helpful member of staff smiled, said he would see what he could do and went to the back of the shop.  One minute later he returned with a smile and handed me back my lucky pen with the offending part replaced.

Thank you Mont Blanc for another example of great customer service. 

I have been following BPOS (Business Productivity Online Suite) for some time since presentations in Redmond back in 2007.  This is Microsoft’s move into the direct provisioning of hosted versions of Exchange, Sharepoint and Live Meeting (Office Communications also on the list but not generally available).  And after a North America only launch in 2008 the first phase of the international roll-out is due in April 2009.

Microsoft have been laying on a variety of partner events linked to this International launch and last week I was at an “Implementing BPOS” hands on session.  After this full day of “hands on admin” and a few days to experimenting with the trial service I thought I would share a few thoughts:

The Good

• For organisations with basic requirements especially for the email side of the service it is an easy way to enter the world of enterprise quality communications
• Pricing is aggressive, especially the suite bundle (USD15/GBP10 per user per month)
• It is easy to sign up (although see caveat below)
• The admin and user web sites are easy to navigate (accepting the functionality limitations noted below)

The Not So Good

• The “Partner” is not involved at the outset (*).  This maybe seen as positive by customers who do not wish to be beholden to a 3rd party (the partner)!! 
• Even though not complex for IT savvy people it may still be a challenge for many SMBs (*)
• The services are based on a mass standard platform, one for all and all for one, which is clearly understandable, however this does limit the chances to customise in any sophisticated way
• A number of features that are standard in the on-premise implementations of the products have been disabled.  Whilst one can make a reasonable argument for some of these due to the needs of a standard multi-tenant platform and the current limitations of the products (big changes with wave 14) there are some odd exceptions:
  • Email forwarding and redirect rules are not allowed
  • There is no anonymous access with sharepoint

(*) one of the key pieces of feedback to the BPOS team from partners was the desire for an “on behalf of” portal.  This would allow the partner to carry out the administrative and day to day management activities for the customer (as they probably do today for the on-premise s/w).  This is due to launch as part of the International roll out although the functionality was not available as part of the training course - watch this space.

Conclusion

For organisations with basic requirements the service it is an easy way to enter the world of enterprise quality communications at an aggressive price point.  However the service will have to mature at a rapid pace so organisations do not grow into the limitations.

Been a long, tiring but very enjoyable month.  I have been down in Australia targeting new business opportunities for “Cloud” consulting and as I get ready to return to the UK I am left feeling very positive.

One area that I discussed with a number of organisations (whether they be buyers or suppliers) was the readiness of Cloud service providers to assist customers who wished to leave the service.  This was not about bad leavers, but those who had naturally come to the end of their period of service use and wanted to “exit” as good leavers, taking their data with them.  Although there were plenty of “that is a good question” and “we would work with our customer” responses, when pushed nobody had a good answer.  Bear in mind that I am not talking about a 5 man startup, these were blue chip organisations on both sides of the buyer/supplier fence.

It makes me realise how advanced/visionary/lucky (!) we were at IMPAQ (now part of Procserve) when we designed our Supplier eProcurement service.  Built in was the self-service ability for a supplier to export all of their procurement documents that were held by the service in a choice of open/well known document formats.  The data was kept for a period of time after the customer left with repeated automated notifications that access would be removed.  Even after access was removed the data was kept for an “expended” period.

So given all of the above it was with interest that I spotted a link on The Register about Microsoft’s patent application that “..provides a system and/or a method that facilitates preserving and maintaining data and/or services associated with a network service”.  As with most patent applications it is a stimulating and interesting read (Not!!).  However the top and bottom of it is that it appears to be talking to the very issues that I have been discussing with buyers and suppliers.

Are Microsoft taking a smart lead or will we find that another party jumps out with a “prior arts” objection?  Interesting either way.

I recently posted the problem at the bottom of this blog, while trying to get my HTC TYTN to work with Windows 7 either via USB or bluetooth.  Well good news I found a solution.

1. From WinMob menu select Settings, then click the connections tab
2. Now click USB to PC
3. Make sure the “Enable advanced network functionality” check box is EMPTY

Now when you connect your WinMo device it will install other drivers and everything, including Bluetooth works (well at least it did for me)

RNDIS problem with Windows 7

There is only one unresolved problem and that is when trying to connect my mobile phone to the laptop.  Whether by bluetooth or USB cable Windows 7 detects that something has been connected and tries to install drivers but then reports an error with the RNDIS drivers.  Anybody help?