I’ve now completed my second week of employment at Microsoft – and I haven’t sprung any leaks yet. So what’s been happening?
– I spent my first couple of days in Minneapolis receiving district training. Kelly did a wonderful job making sure that the details of switching to a new company went smoothly. After a few minor bumps, I am in all the HR systems. I have enrolled in all the benefits programs. I have received my insurance cards. I’ve gotten the 401K enrollment taken care of. And I’ve gotten enrolled in the employee stock purchase program.
– I spent a day in the Kansas office getting security tokens and setting up my voicemail and PBX mailbox.
– On day four, I headed out to Seattle. I spent the first two days in Seattle receiving training as an Account Technology Specialist. The ATS Bootcamp was very good. I even got to go through a Meyers-Briggs personality profile (under a differnt label).
– I then spent the last week at a Microsoft technology conference entitled TechReady2 (a readiness seminar on upcoming products). The content was wonderful. Unfortunately, much of the content is protected via non-disclosure agreements.
However, there are some things I can say… First, the wave of change is huge. Indeed, it was this wave of change that inspired me to join Microsoft. Here are some of the elements of that wave of change:
1. The launch of SQL Server 2005 went incredibly well. The new database engine is immensely more scalable and manageable than any previous version of the product. But beyond the blandishments, I can confidently state that MS SQL Server 2005 is a real enterprise competitor. Most corporations can easily consider SQL for the majority of their database needs. And this fact has Oracle scared. Indeed, I believe that one of the reasons for drving deeper into the enterprise application stack is because they recognize the threat that Intel/AMD, Microsoft and the open source databases represent. Well, it’s time to push these products into their rightful place in the enterprise. And the real winners will be our customers.
2. The launch of Visual Studio 2005 represents a huge milestone in the distributed computing environment. While many would argue that “.Net” may need some brand burnishing, few can argue that Microsoft’s original vision for script and DHTML is now overtaking the web. Today, the young programmers call it Web 2.0 and may tout AJAX. But this ignores the fact that this strategy was the heart of DHTML (and even “Hailstorm”). With the latest version of Visual Studio, Windows developers now have a complete platform for connected and disconnected applications.
3. Office 12 is phenomenal. First, the product has everything that has made this product the most successful office product of all times. It includes: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access and OneNote. Second, the product team has improved on existing features. Pivot table usage is simple and more powerful. And every product ahs a new look an feel. The new “themes” have a 3-D look that is quite appealing. Third, there are new features that are quite compelling. I love the fact that all documents support user-defined classification. In the Internet era, this is called tagging. And tags are everywhere. Finally, each Office product plays a huge part in the enterprise collaboration framework. When combined with SharePoint, the entire office suite becomes part of a comprehensive organizational content platform. I will write about this in more detail as the products get closer to release. But until then, know that I am really excited about this product.
4. Vista is coming. The December CTP was a huge milestone in many ways. First, it is an excellent preview of what is coming later this year. Second, it is a huge milestone because it represents another step in our efforts to engage the user community in product development and product “fit and finish.”
5. Windows Mobile is starting to roll. Last quarter, Sprint rolled out the PPC 6700. I want this phone! This month, Verizon rolled out the Treo 700W. Both of these phones represent the fundamental truth that our day-to-day computing platform is starting to get smaller and more mobile. In fact, I am writing this entry on my Toshiba M4 tablet PC. This system is a wonderful platform that sits between the traditional laptop and the smaller form factor table devices. There are some things that I love about this system and some things that could be improved. But the realithy is becoming crystal clear: computing is moving to a small and mobile form factor. This transformation is key to the evolution of the next wave of computing power. And Windows Mobile is starting to emerge as a pivotal player in these emerging platforms.
As I look up the face face of this wave of change, my heart is skipping a beat (figuratively, not literally). The changes are awesome. The opportunity for our friends and customers is great. So let’s grab the rail and shoot the pipe!
-CyclingRoo-

By the third day of God’s creation, the trees began bearing fruit. Well, by the evening of the third day at Microsoft, I began to see fruit from the bureaucratic trees. Here is the summary of the first three days:
Day One:
I got up at 3:30 today after only three hours of sleep. I generally don’t ever have trouble sleeping. But this is the first real job change I’ve experienced in over eighteen years. So getting to sleep was tough. Fortunately, waking up was easy. I got up and headed to the Kansas City International airport.
Yes, you read that right. Kansas City does have an international airport with flights to Arkansas and Oklahoma! OK, that’s an unfair, cheap shot. But the Kansas City airport is a severely under-utilized asset in our country. It is centrally located with good equipment support. But few airlines use it for any kind of regional hub. So it is a glorified endpoint.
When I arrived, I found out that my 6:00 AM flight to Minneapolis was cancelled. So I had to scramble to get on a different flight. Fortunately, I found a direct flight from KCI that got me into Minneapolis a full hour before my original schedule. So what looked like a disaster (i.e., a cancelled flight) became an early start to my first day. Boy, I love it when a challenge becomes a victory.
When I got to the Minneapolis office, I met the hardware tech who was provisioning my gear. Unfortunately, he ran into a curious challenge. When my equipment was provisioned, it was provisioned with a password that did not meet corporate standards. So I spent the first three hours working with an offshore help desk representative who could not “push the right buttons” and resolve the problem. Fortunately, the network administrators were engaged and the problem was resolved rather quickly – once the right resources got engaged.
So what is the “lesson learned” from this incident? What is the “least-common denominator” for all U.S. corporations? All companies have a finely-tuned bureaucracy that demands constant feeding and attention. I met that bureaucracy in the first few hours of my new career. But the more important lesson is that every bureaucracy works through people. And most people have an innate desire to help. Fortunately, I was able to “connect” with some great people who really helped me through the bureaucratic maze. Thanks to Kelly, David and the network administrators from Redmond!
I spent the balance of the day learning about the systems that were finally being alerted to my presence. Like most corporations, few things can be successfully pre-provisioned. So I had to wait for many downstream systems to receive confirmation of my employment before they could begin their processes. It took two days to be able to sign up for medical coverage. Now that the Microsoft systems have my elections, this information must now flow to the external coverage providers for their systems to get updated. When I started at Sprint, this process took weeks. In this case, it looks like it will take days. And given the number of process interconnects, I think that a few days is an amazing feat. In a few years, I am sure that this “delay” will soon be measure in hours, not days.
So here is the summation of my first day. I was reminded that all corporations operate on fixed processes and procedures that are always under revision. But despite these process “hiccups,” real success is always marked by the attitude of the people that use these systems. And after a few days, I am ultimately impressed by the attitude and competence of the many people that are working to make me the most productive employeee that I can be. Thanks to the entire team. I am glad to become part of a group with such a “can do” attitude.
Day Two:
I am still waiting form many of the downstream systems to recognize my existence. I can get into many sites, but some of the pivotal sites are still not recognizing my credentials. Fortunately, I have been able to get my smart card activated. This will allow me to access the corporate network from my home (and while I travel). Unfortunately, while the card is “active” in some systems, it is not in my possession. The card has been sent to my Kansas office where I will pick it up tomorrow. At the same time, I have received confirmation that my travel and expense application has been accepted. With any luck, I’ll have a corporate travel card when I get home.
The rest of the day was consumed with a process orientation for the North Central District. Kelly was immensely helpful. Hopefully, my aging brain will be able to retain most of the data that I am receiving. I’ll try and provide metrics on “content retention” in a few weeks. I’ve been told that the fire hose effect will continue for several weeks. OK. Let’s hope that this sponge can absorb all of the water that is being thrown at it.
Day Three:
I am finally in my local office. I have a “semi-permanent” place to locate my miscellaneous gear. Since this is a “progressive office,” there are no official cubicle assignments. But since most employees work from home, I think I’ll be able to take advantage of “squatter’s rights” on an office cubicle.
I now have my access card and I have self-provisioned its use. This is a really cool system. When I got my PC, I got a PCMCIA smart card reader. I installed the card and loaded the drivers. Then I stumbled through the activation process. Like most written processes, some important pieces of information were ommitted (or not clearly articulated). So it took an hour to get it right because I was creating a PIN with embedded spaces. Apparently, that doesn’t work. But once I got rid of the spaces, everything else worked amazingly well. Total time to provision/activate the card for remote access: thirty-five minutes.
And I am finally percolating through the various HR systems. I’ve finally got benefit elections complete. I’m now waiting for the outbound updates to Fidelity so that I can complete my 401K tasks. I expect that everything will be humming along within the next few days.
Summary:
After eighteen years with one employer, I didn’t know what to expect when joining a new company. I can certainly say that this beat my previous experiences. But the process wasn’t without its flaws. And I couldn’t say that the process was a “best-of-breed” process as I have no salient point-of-reference. But I can say that when there were problems, there were people available to help solve the challenges. And the people were attentive and courteous. So I am thrilled with my first excursions into the Microsoft bureaucratic jungle.
-CyclingRoo-

Boy, I’m grinning like a Cheshire cat. Everyone likes to hammer MSFT for a history of fierce (and often exclusionary) competition. I won’t comment on that history because the past is the past. But I can say that Microsoft is competing to open up new markets these days. Here are two great examples:
1. Tomorrow, Verizon will start selling the Treo 700w (formerly known as the Treo 670). This new device will be based upon Windows Mobile 5. It will be fun to see whether or not Windows Mobile 5 will look as good on the small screen of the Treo. Currently, I like the HTC 6700 (Apache) sold through Sprint. But either way, I love the fact that two of the hottest smart phones now boast Windows Mobile 5. In this case, Microsoft is opening up the smart phone market.
2. Microsoft has released a beta version of Iron Python. Since ActiveState dropped their Visual Python tool, the new Iron Python will be the only real way of incorporating Python into the .Net framework. In short, Python developers can use one of the foremost scripting environments available today. Maybe a Visual Studio plugin for Javascript will come next!
-CyclingRoo-

Charlie Bess has a very interesting piece on the “EDS’ Next Big Thing” blog. He was asked to articulate what 2006 held for the open source movement and for innovation. And rather than just bloviate on key open source products (like Firefox or Songbird), he notes that innovation comes from people. So if the best and most innovative people are contributing to the open source codebase, then open source projects will generate innovative solutions.
This is an excellent point. I’ve seen many open source projects live and I’ve seen most of them die. The same is true for commercial products. Some have thrived while most have perished. But innovative people come in all forms. Some believe in a strict set of ethics concerning intellectual property. Most are just trying to make a living and provide for their families.
But long-lasting success is always built upon the foundation of others. I am reminded of a very intriguing scene from an Adam Sandler movie – “50 First Dates.” In this movie, the female lead (played by Drew Barrymore) has a debilitating memory problem. She has a condition where she starts each new day as if it was a specific day BEFORE she was in a serious accident. Everything that occurred after the accident is lost when she sleeps. In one scene, the neurologist (Dan Akroyd) tells us of the scientist who “discovered” this condition. As a sufferer of the condition, it took this scientist years to simply record his findings since he couldn’t remember them from one day to the next.
As funny as the movie was, it made an important point. Every day we live, we must depend upon the knowledge we have gained beforehand. This is especially true for software development. No one builds computers from the ground up anymore. We rely upon hardware, firmware and infrastructure that we are often unaware of. We must stand on the shoulders of previous generations of programmers.
So while innovation can occur in any context, real products must be delivered from a complete foundation that is based upon recognizing and building upon the efforts of others. Does such a framework require a commercial or “free” IP perspective? Certainly not. But it does require the humility to voluntarily stand on other’s shoulders. And it requires the civility to attribute our foundation to its appropriate source. Think of it as footnotes required in your senior essay. Finally, it does require that we allow others to stand upon our shoulders.
-CyclingRoo-

It had to happen sooner or later. The systems management vendors have been stable for a few months. There are three big players (IBM, HP, and Microsoft), a small subset of moderately-sized players (like CA), and a gaggle of niche players. Over the years, innovation has come through the niche players while stability and scalability have come from the platform vendors.
But the big guys haven’t moved much recently. Yes, we’ve seen Microsoft MOM grow into a tenable enterprise player. But the other frameworks haven’t really modernized – until now. IBM has signalled that they will augment their framework by acquiring the network management wizards at Micromuse. This is a great move by IBM. While the Tivoli suite has some good components, its weakest flank was network management. So the Netcool line will be brought in to offset (i.e., displace) some of the aging NetView componentry. More importantly, this signals the importance of VOIP management for tech-savvy enterprises.
But is IBM doing more than just filling in some gaps? I think so. I believe that this is the first in a larger series of enterprise management tool consolidations. In my view, the next big folks to get consumed will be the provisioning specialist. Specifically, I see Opsware and Bladelogic as being ripe for the M&A spotlight. This is espcially true as virtualization is driven further into mainstream enterprise management. As more folks virtualize, there will be an increased need to rapdily (and seamlessly) provision (and decomission) systems.
So the big question is this: when will HP start its acquisition/integration efforts?
-CyclingRoo-

Yesterday, Microsoft released the December CTP for Windows Vista. This marks the third CTP in the development cycle. And with yet another beta to follow shortly, I am left to ponder whether or not Microsoft is adopting one of the key advantages of the “open source” model: many eyes looking at the code.
Before you start to question my sanity, I will remind everyone that there is a big difference between what Microsoft is doing and what the “open source” community does. In particular, the source code for these CTP builds is not available for review. But let’s be serious. In the release cycle of the Mozilla Foundation, most of the “eyes” aren’t looking at the source. Instead, they are testing features and functions – and they are reporting bugs. Yes, some folks do look at the source code. But most testers do not.
So is Microsoft using a “release often” and “use many eyes” approach? I would have to say “yes.” First, there will be a lot of eyes on this release. According to Information Week, up to 500,000 testers will be examining the latest Vista CTP. This truly represents “many eyes.” And this CTP is the third release of the platform that has been submitted for customer (community) review. And if rumors hold true, there will be other CTP and/or beta releases to be reviewed. So from my perspective, Microsoft will reap huge benefits by releasing the software more frequently, embedding incremental featurs in each subsequent release, and distributing each release to a wider audience. At the same time, this will build the kind of excitement that has made products like Firefox so “buzz-worthy.”
-CyclingRoo-