CHICAGO, April 19, 1999 — Windows World 99/Spring Comdex blew into the
Microsoft Chairman and CEO Bill Gates kicked off the event with a keynote in which he commented on the excitement and readiness among customers, developers, retailers and other partners for Windows 2000, a response he has not seen in the industry since the launch of Windows 95.
He further elaborated on Microsoft’s enhanced mission as the company works to re-invent itself, and discussed how he envisions software and the Internet empowering a world in which PCs and many other devices make the way we work, play and learn simpler, easier and more powerful.
Specific announcements included:
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Channel Readiness — Microsoft is continuing to prepare and engage Microsoft Certified Solution Providers (MCSPs) and the broad channel to support Beta 3 deployment and ongoing customer demand for Windows 2000 solutions. New resources and investments announced today include:
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Multi-Million Dollar Training Investment aimed at training developers, channel and IT professionals worldwide on Microsoft Windows 2000. The investment will drive customers to the training channel in order to gain the expertise needed to plan deployment and development on Microsoft Windows 2000.
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The Windows 2000 Channel Readiness Kit and Windows 2000 Server and Professional Online Resource Center (https://mcsp.one.microsoft.com/), which will provide MCSPs with the tools and resources they need to help customers evaluate the Windows 2000 platform. The Channel Readiness Kit delivers Windows 2000 Professional, Windows 2000 Server and Windows 2000 Advanced Server beta 3 code; the Windows 2000 Beta 3 Resource Kit; training materials; technical product information; sales tools (including business and service opportunity information); and an Evaluation and Deployment Kit for customers. The Channel Readiness Kit is scheduled to be distributed to MCSPs in May, then rolled out broadly to more than 100,000 technology providers during the next three months.
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Corporate Preview Program (CPP) — Enables customers to begin working with an MCSP to evaluate and deploy the upcoming Windows 2000 beta 3. The Windows 2000 CPP Kit includes five licenses of Windows 2000 Professional, two licenses of Windows 2000 Server, as well as an Evaluation and Deployment Guide. In addition, the CPP Kit includes more than three hours of videotaped Windows 2000 Microsoft Official Curriculum content.
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Broad industry support “Building on last week’s announcement of support from over 75 independent software vendors (ISVs), leading System Integrators and PC and Server Manufacturers announced an array of integration, support and deployment services, as well as software and hardware solutions for assisting customers planning Windows 2000 evaluations.
At an event on Sunday night, Microsoft announced
“Winning on Windows, the ISV 75,”
a ranking of the fastest-growing ISVs for Windows in North America. These top 75 ISVs target are growing at an impressive 119 percent yearly – more than 8.5 times the industry average. In addition, the ISV 75 delivered more than $1 billion in innovative IT solutions in 1998, with Windows-based solutions in more than 56 vertical and horizontal segments, including products for accounting, systems management, ERP, health care, legal services, telecommunications, financial services and more.
The Microsoft booth (#600) will consist of theater presentations and product demonstrations of the tools, platforms and services that are the building blocks of Microsoft’s digital nervous system. Illustrating Gates vision of non-PC devices that will become more powerful and popular among users, the Microsoft booth included a demonstration of the beta version of the Terminal Server client for Windows CE Handheld PC Professional Edition, which enables users of Handheld PC Pro devices to access full-functioning Windows applications when connected to the corporate network via Terminal Server Edition 4.0 or the TSE capabilities to be included in Windows 2000 Server.
