PC, Phone, Browser - 90 Seconds to Why Microsoft

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I recently read the CIO Magazine "State of the CIO" survey.  What I found interesting was that 63% of CIO respondents said 'improving end-user workforce productivity' would be the one of the most significant accomplishments in the year ahead. So for the upcoming release of Office/SharePoint 2010, we've been talking a lot about our investments in PC, Phone, Browser (the 3 screens) to meet this need for CIO's.  How do we enable better productivity, drive new scenario's and in effect, 'do more, with less'.    

As a result I am often asked in customer meetings to show them something very quick that paints a scenario of something 'only Microsoft' can do for their users.  I've seen lots of great demo's by my peers that show all sorts of scenarios, but one of my favorites is a demo that quickly points to how we are redefining productivity with PowerPoint Broadcast.

Specifically the demo shows how Microsoft:

  1. Enables new ways of collaboration. (Share a simple slide deck without having to email the file)
  2. Interoperability across browsers. (let users access the file on IE, Firefox, Safari)
  3. Support for Mobile. (share with confidence to a mobile worker who does not have a pc/mac handy)
  4. High Fidelity Viewing across multiple modalities. (everyone is on the same page by seeing the content that way it was meant to be seen)
  5. IT Management and Control. (IT control to determine use of internal or external servers for broadcast).

List goes on and on.  In the demo below I use PowerPoint Broadcast (Config articles for this) to show how User A can leverage the PC to share a PPTX file with two other users (Users B&C) who do not have Office installed on their machines. The user leverages SharePoint 2010 to broadcast the slideshow to User B, who is using Firefox, while User C is mobile with a WinMobile device (this works on iphone, etc. I just don't have one to demo this).

In less than 90 seconds, you visually see a unique scenario that alternative solutions have a difficult time matching and "Why Microsoft" is not really a question, but a statement.