Title: Entourage feedback
Dear Andy,
Thank you for your candid responses on the Mac Enterprise list.
> Here is a bit of insight--we make decisions on what we are going to do by
> gathering your feedback. Generally, we make better decisions if you provide
> a priortized list of your needs and an idea of what trade-offs you'd make
> (e.g. if you could have A and B but not C, would you rather just have C).
> So, what's the best way to provide feedback? I don't think this list is the
> place to do so- Instead, here are some suggestions (the appropriateness of each
> varies depending on the feedback):
>
> 1. Account Reps, if you have them
> 2. Product support (for problems with existing behavior)
> 3. Entourage newsgroups on microsoft.com
> 4. Entourage Talk mailing list
> 5. We're always at WWDC and MacWorld SF
I only have a few comments.
First, thank you and your team for all the hard work recently. I for one am glad for all of the recent improvements and stability. You have made my life much much easier and I look forward to each new update.
Second, in my opinion the most important thing for the entire MacBU is to get Office to be Universal ASAP. I have resisted buying new Macs specifically because Office isn’t ‘native’. I won’t be able to resist much longer. I was appalled at the launch times of Office when I tried it out at an Apple store recently. Granted an Apple store isn’t the best test environment but even on a Mac Pro it took over 20 seconds to launch Word! If I have to buy a new machine and subject my users to that I will never hear the end of it.
The third thing is for Entourage specifically. Make it work with the rumored Calendar server in the Upcoming OSX Server 10.5. Yes, I know it is not a released product and Apple probably hasn’t issued any specs yet. I think this will be a major feature for folks who are not on Exchange. If I have to use iCal plus Entourage my users will hate me.
I hope you don’t mind but I have taken the liberty of cross posting your post from the Mac Enterprise list here.
Kind Regards,
- Cris Thomas
On 9/29/06 12:00 AM, "MACENTERPRISE automatic digest system" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2006 10:52:27 -0700
> From: Andy Ruff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject: Re: Entourage Opinions
>
> Hey folks,
>
> I'm the Lead Program Manager for Entourage in Microsoft's Macintosh Business
> Unit (MacBU). I've been a member of this list for some time and presented
> the June MacEnterprise Webcast on Exchange and Entourage. There are quite a
> few members from across the product teams in the MacBU on this list--we are
> listening in, despite the lack of responses.
>
> I am not going to make excuses. I know that previous versions of Entourage
> have been unreliable and difficult. Heck, prior to Entourage 2004 SP2,
> downloading the public folder hierarchy inside Microsoft took a whopping
> nine hours (compared to the many orgs I've seen, we don't have that many
> public folders)! Don't think that I sat in my office within Microsoft back
> in 2004 satisfied that my PowerBook was unable to share my calendar with
> other members of the team.
>
> We fixed these problems and we'll continue to fix issues with our current
> design while also aiming to provide additional Exchange functionality.
> Exchange support in Entourage is an iterative process of improvement. We
> are not aiming to be Outlook, but we are aiming to solve your problems. In
> the three years I've been with the team, we've shipped four major versions
> (as determined by the engineering work involved, not the app's version
> number). Each of these has added Exchange functionality. Each of these has
> brought about greater reliability. We're not a big team, but we are hard
> working.
>
> It's also important to note that Entourage first shipped in 2001 and was not
> an Exchange client. Exchange users are important, but they certainly are
> not our only users. We have to balance our decisions and resources such
> that we deliver value for both sets of users. It's my belief we can do this
> in a win-win manner, such as the 11.2.5 release earlier this year that
> provided Sync Services and Spotlight support--features that benefit all
> users. Nonetheless, while I'd love to solve each and every problem for each
> and every user, we simply cannot do so.
>
> Here is a bit of insight--we make decisions on what we are going to do by
> gathering your feedback. Generally, we make better decisions if you provide
> a priortized list of your needs and an idea of what trade-offs you'd make
> (e.g. if you could have A and B but not C, would you rather just have C).
> While not every user's needs are equal, we have a farily sophisticated
> process for aggregating this feedback and determining how we can deliver the
> most benefit to the largest number of users. Last year's Service Pack 2 is
> a solid example of this: among other things, we added full delegation
> support, permissions, sharing, stronger calendaring, better GAL support,
> while fixing a large number of poor design decisions from the past. All of
> these were at the top of nearly every bit of prioritized feedback we
> received. Your lists aren't empty now, but, for many of you, what once was
> request #8 is now #2.
>
> So, what's the best way to provide feedback? I don't think this list is the
> place to do so--Mac Enterprise is a great community for practicing Mac
> enterprise experts. MacBUers are reading here to get an idea of your
> issues, but generally not responding as to avoid hijacking the value of this
> community. Instead, here are some suggestions (the appropriateness of each
> varies depeneding on the feedback):
>
> 1. Account Reps, if you have them
> 2. Product support (for problems with existing behavior)
> 3. Entourage newsgroups on microsoft.com
> 4. Entourage Talk mailing list
> 5. We're always at WWDC and MacWorld SF
>
> I also read every blog post with the word "Entourage" in it via Technorati
> (yes, I read a lot about the TV show). There are a lot of ways to share
> feedback--you may not always get a response, but that hardly means we didn't
> hear nor consider it. We want to make Entourage a great product. But we're
> not the judge of that, you are. We can only get there by knowing what you
> want.
>
> -Andy
>
> ---
> Andy Ruff ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
> Lead Program Manager, Entourage
> Macintosh Business Unit, Microsoft
Kind Regards,
- Cris Thomas
