[Macpartners] Fwd: Advice for providing Entourage feedback to Microsoft

Fri Sep 29 12:58:37 EDT 2006

Hello everyone:

	Occasionally I hear complaints about lack of feature parity of  
Entourage with Outlook.  Yesterday there was an interesting thread on  
the MacEnterprise mailing list in that regard.  The following is a  
response from the Lead Program Manager for Entourage in Microsoft's  
Macintosh Business Unit.  Andy points out Microsoft's commitment to  
making Entourage a great product, and offers advice on how customers  
can best provide feedback to Microsoft for enhancements.

While there isn't much that Apple can do directly to rectify  
Entourage issues, I hope Andy's advice will be beneficial.  Also, if  
you're not already subscribed to the MacEnterprise list, I highly  
recommend it (http://www.macenterprise.org).

Mateja.

-- 
Mateja Miljacki, ACSA
mateja at apple.com
Systems Engineer
http://www.apple.com/education/technicalresources/
-- 
>>> From: Andy Ruff <andyruff at GMAIL.COM>
>>> Date: September 28, 2006 12:52:27 PM CDT
>>> To: MACENTERPRISE at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
>>> Subject: Re: Entourage Opinions
>>> Reply-To: Mac OS X enterprise deployment project  
>>> <MACENTERPRISE at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU>
>>>
>>> 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 (aruff at microsoft.com)
>>> Lead Program Manager, Entourage
>>> Macintosh Business Unit, Microsoft
>>>
>>> _____________________________________________________
>>> Subscription Options and Archives
>>> http://listserv.cuny.edu/archives/macenterprise.html

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