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Our approach to the enterprise customer is simple: provide feature-rich products at very
competitive prices, support their people with training, and commit to helping them develop
new business opportunities. It’s an approach that is resonating with customers. Two
examples: General Electric standardized on Microsoft Exchange, and now links 150,000
people worldwide while Compaq runs their entire enterprise on a Microsoft infrastructure.The appeal is clear. Windows NT Server and Workstation, along with server and desktop
applications, work together to help customers integrate their entire systems architecture.
Then, they can share documents across divisions, access sales and customer service
information, link order entry to manufacturing and distribution, manage personnel, and
integrate supply chains – even launch and manage electronic commerce ventures –
with software that adapts to users, eliminates the difference between remote and local,
and reduces complexity. These are some of the most powerful tools ever conceived to help
companies seamlessly re-engineer their operations for greater, more effective control.
Just as the popularity of Windows helped
make PC computing more powerful, less costly, and easier to maintain, Windows NT is having
the same effect in the enterprise computing space. With thousands of companies at work on
enterprise solutions based on our Windows NT environment, customers in any size business
will be able to choose from an unprecedented number of applications and support
organizations.
As extensive as these combined efforts
are, they share one critical component: the customer. Developing an understanding
of our customers’ specific business needs is the only way in which we can provide the
answers that truly solve customers’ problems – helping organizations move from
the sometimes random mix of systems and programs deployed today to a truly integrated
method of collecting and applying data. We are committed to having the resources and the
mindset to provide our customers with a comprehensive solution. In fiscal 1999, this will
be the focus of thousands of Microsoft people, worldwide. And further, more than 270,000
independent Microsoft Certified Professionals will share this goal by working on customer
satisfaction, one-on-one. These relationships serve another long-term goal: feedback from
our customers’ experiences with our software is key in developing new feature sets
and functional enhancements.
Another way we help our customers is to
follow our own advice. Microsoft itself is a laboratory for our customers. We have
deployed Microsoft technology throughout our company: from order entry to virtual
meetings, and distributing information through our corporate intranet. We are running a
multi-billion dollar enterprise on a Microsoft infrastructure. In our finance,
procurement, human resources, and other departments, Microsoft has experienced increased
efficiency, improved communication and workflow, and uniformly lower costs. As we confront
and resolve problems, we’re not only helping ourselves, we’re helping our
customers realize the maximum benefit our products offer.
The potential of this technology and what
it offers an enterprise is just now becoming clear. Innovations are arriving at an
accelerating pace. Microsoft Exchange Server offers the stability, storage, and security
to enhance communication and collaboration on nothing short of a global scale. Increased
scalability and natural language capability highlight our upcoming SQL 7.0 database
program. Office 2000 will adapt to individual user preferences and will perform a variety
of routine tasks automatically. These are evidence of the way in which we are engineering
software to provide our customers with an increased sense of immediacy and productivity in
their work.
We are focused on putting the productivity
and innovation software enables at the center of everything an enterprise does. To
accomplish this we are introducing a broad range of competitively priced products to a
market that has historically been offered only a narrow selection of the high priced
products of other companies. Our goal is nothing short of helping our customers build a
Digital Nervous System tailored specifically around their needs and capable of reaching
out to every aspect of their operations to create a profoundly rich and effective
infrastructure. And in making the software transparent, and the support effective, our
customers can concentrate fully on running their businesses and responding to
opportunities in ways that give them new advantages, every day, in every aspect of their
operations. |
