A

MIS (Management Information System)

Group report on
Microsoft

Department of Management

BITS Pilani

Submitted To : - Submitted By :-

Prof. S. Kannan Group 4

Introduction-

Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation headquartered

in Redmond, Washington, that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports and sells computer
software, consumer electronics and personal computers and services. Its best known software
products are the Microsoft Windows line of systems, Microsoft office suite, and Internet
Explorer web browser. Its flagship hardware products are Xbox game console and the Microsoft
Surface series of tablets. It is the world's largest software maker measured by revenues. It is also
one of the world's most valuable companies.

Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen on April 4, 1975 to develop and
sell BASIC interpreters for Altair 8800. It rose to dominate the personal computer operating
system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by the Microsoft Windows. The
company's 1986 initial public offering, and subsequent rise in its share price, created an
estimated three billionaires and 12,000 millionaires from Microsoft employees. Since the 1990s,
it has increasingly diversified from the operating system market and has made a number of
corporate acquisitions. In May 2011, Microsoft acquired Skype Technologies for $8.5 billion in
its largest acquisition to date.

As of 2013, Microsoft is market dominant in both the IBM PC-compatible operating system

and office software suite markets (the latter with Microsoft Office). The company also produces
a wide range of other software for desktops and servers, and is active in areas including internet
search (with Bing), the video game industry (with the Xbox, Xbox 360 and Xbox One consoles),
the digital services market (through MSN), and mobile phones (via the Windows Phone OS). In
June 2012, Microsoft entered the personal computer production market for the first time, with
the launch of the Microsoft Surface, a line of tablet computers.
Business and supporting IT environment at Microsoft-

 Microsoft is now involved in almost every aspect of the computer and computer-related
telecommunications markets and is emerging as a major player in Internet commerce and on-line
media ventures. It controls the operating system of 94.1% of the personal computers sold on the
market today (Dataquest numbers) and just finished off a $150 million investment in Apple
Computer to tie the other 5.9% of new desktop sales into an alliance. At times Microsoft faced
various challenges in business environment whether it is Competitive edge over others or
expanding into different segment, the extensive use of information technology to upgrade and
stabilize its position Microsoft successfully accomplished its goals and overcome its challenges.
Microsoft has steadily expanded its market share- in the case of word processors from barely a
third of the market in 1995 to over 80% in 1997. When posed with threat in newly developing
Server market it has used its Windows NT server software to rapidly enter the business
workstation, client-server and large-scale "enterprise" computing segments. Over sixty-five
percent of new intranet sites are deployed on Windows NT servers, while Windows NT
workstation clients are growing 177 percent annually. In lieu of market expansion and to avoid
already crowding market Microsoft is employing its information technology resource in forging
commercial partnerships with both commercial and academic training institutions in order to tie
them into the Microsoft framework.

The pressure of expanding and exploring new markets for information technology led Microsoft
to launch financial server software; Microsoft is emerging as a key player in shaping the on-line
financial transaction system of the future. Microsoft is establishing on-line commercial ventures
in airline ticket sales, auto sales, news, games, local events and entertainment (along with local
advertising revenue), and a range of other on-line commercial ventures. Its ownership of the
Microsoft Network (MSN) and its partnership with NBC in the creation of the MSNBC venture
are giving Microsoft strong distribution outlets for its emerging range of media content.

The Internet, while a potential threat to Microsoft's dominance, is also an opportunity for the
company to seize control of those Internet standards and thereby gain new network footholds on
every computer connected to the Internet. Through the combination of controlling standards in
the Web browser market, Web servers, development tools for Internet software developers and
development of standards for financial transactions on the Net, Microsoft is not only quickly
dominating markets for software sales related to the Internet, it is using its dominance of
software technology to leverage a commanding position in consumer-oriented Internet
commerce, from auto sales to classified advertising over the Internet. Through its investments in
WebTV and cable companies, it is seeking to further reinforce its dominance by controlling
standards and connections to the Internet right from the home.  Microsoft has not been averse to
engaging in outright anti-competitive practices as needed to assure its dominance of markets, as
a string of lawsuits and complaints trailing in its wake can attest to. When competitors have
released new software, Microsoft has announced upcoming better features on its own software -
improvements which often would not materialize for months, even years after their "scheduled"
release. The result of such "vaporware" announcements was to freeze software purchases in the
market until Microsoft had time to marshal its financial and technical resources to overwhelm its
opponents. Hidden features of its operating system have been used to give its own application
developers a leg-up on the competition. And the bundling of software has allowed Microsoft to
use dominance in one market to jump-start a presence in another market by linking software
purchases in both markets together. It has used every advantage of its monopoly control of the
desktop to leverage dominance of Internet standards and in turn use that control to achieve a
dominant position in Internet commerce.

Microsoft Cloud Analysis Tool and Infrastructure Optimization Tool-

The Microsoft Cloud Analysis Tool helps to build a roadmap to the Cloud based on your
business needs, constraints, and desired attributes.  It’s a “what if” for the Cloud, that you can
play out the possibilities by changing your parameters.  That’s a mighty powerful thing if you
are trying to cycle through various options and understand the trade-offs.   In fact, independent
of the actual content in the tool, I think the most valuable part is the framing of the decisions.  If
you use nothing else, you can at least use the frames to help you accelerate your own Cloud
decision making, and make more informed choices.

Summary of the tools:

 Infrastructure Optimization Self-Assessment Tool – You can use the Assessment tool
to understand the company’s current “as is” environment and at the same time set the
desired “to be” roadmap.   The Infrastructure Optimization Self-Assessment Tool
provides a personalized Optimization score for the organization.  The tool generate
reports that can serve as the baseline for planning an effective roadmap and as an
incentive for optimizing your IT infrastructure. The detailed Roadmap plan will be
generated as part of the Discovery tools.

 Cloud Analysis Tool - This tool will help you Plan the migration to the cloud deployment
of your choice based on prioritized Business and IT needs, Services and Applications,
and Risks and Constraints. The Cloud Analysis Tool will evaluate what you select
against your current environment’s maturity level and provide you with the information
required to make decisions about which cloud architecture is right for you -- and more
importantly -- how to get there. Selecting your preferred cloud deployment option will
generate a transformation plan including project information, ROI/TCO data, and
architecture diagrams – the information you need to plan and achieve your cloud
transformation.
Here is the home page of the Microsoft Cloud Analysis Tool and Microsoft Infrastructure
Optimization Self-Assessment Tool:

Data warehousing and Data Management at Microsoft

The traditional structured relational data warehouse was never designed to handle the volume of
exponential data growth, the variety of semi-structured and unstructured data types, or the
velocity of real time data processing. Microsoft’s modern data warehouse solution integrates all
traditional data warehouse with non-relational data—and it can handle data of all sizes and types,
with real-time performance.

Transact-SQL (T-SQL) is Microsoft's and Sybase's proprietary extension to SQL. SQL, the

acronym for Structured Query Language, is a standardized computer language that was
originally developed by IBM for querying, altering and defining relational databases,
using declarative statements. T-SQL expands on the SQL standard to include procedural
programming, local variables, various support functions for string processing, date processing,
mathematics, etc. and changes to the DELETE and UPDATE statements. These additional
features make Transact-SQL Turing complete.

Transact-SQL is central to using Microsoft SQL Server. All applications that communicate with
an instance of SQL Server do so by sending Transact-SQL statements to the server, regardless of
the user interface of the application.

Today, non-relational data sources like web logs, sensor data, social sentiment, and devices are
being collected to provide deeper insights and gain competitive advantages. The traditional
strategy of extracting and cleansing relational data into a central repository needs to adapt for
this new world of data. A modern data warehouse solution from Microsoft can accommodate
new storage technologies like Hadoop to incorporate non-relational sources and provide
integration between the relational warehouse and the Hadoop cluster.

With traditional data warehouse technologies, your scale is capped and you’ll need to buy new
hardware as more capacity is required. The Microsoft modern data warehouse scales to the most
demanding enterprise requirements. As data requirements grow, you can scale from tens of
terabytes up to the multi-pet bytes by incrementally adding nodes to your existing infrastructure.

With traditional data warehouse technologies, queries can take minutes, hours or even overnight
to process. The Microsoft modern data warehouse gives users near real-time results. With
breakthrough query processing and in-memory technologies, customers have seen 10x to 100x
faster completion times to their longest running queries.

Enterprise integration management provides a portfolio of solutions that enable organizations to

trust the credibility and consistency of their data so they can make critical business decisions

The Microsoft SQL Server Express is a free database system which draws inspiration from the
early Microsoft Access package. Robust security features, and the removal of the obnoxious
‘governor ‘has boosted the flexibility if the package. Another plus is definitely the 1 GHz
recommended CPU speed with 512 MB RAM and 170MB of disk space for the package.
However, in case you need your CPU to process faster, there is no need to add a second CPU
unit; the single-user scheduler thread application used in this case does not allow the
simultaneous use of both. While it is one of the most preferred DBMS packages for start-up
organizations, there are several restrictions such as the 4 GB database size limit and 1 GB buffer,
the limitation on the number of users.

Network Technologies at Microsoft

Microsoft Windows NT : Enterprise Networking Scenarios, Cloud Networking

Technologies, and Host Server Configurations

Windows NT is a family of operating systems produced by Microsoft, the first version of which
was released in July 1993. It was a high-level-language-based, processor-
independent, multiprocessing, multi-user operating system. "NT" was expanded to "New
Technology" for marketing purposes but no longer carries any specific meaning. It was intended
to complement consumer versions of Windows that were based on MS-DOS. NT was the first
fully 32-bit version of Windows, whereas its consumer-oriented counterparts, Windows 3.1x and
Windows, were 16-bit/32-bit hybrids. Windows 2000 and its successors are members of the
Windows NT family, although they are not branded using the name "Windows NT. Windows
Server Networking and Access Technologies provide an end-to-end solution to get people in
your organization connected, allowing them to seamlessly share applications and data—whether
those resources are on your enterprise network, your small office or branch network, or in a
public, private, or hybrid cloud environment.
Cloud Networking Technologies

Security concerns and ITs used to at Microsoft-

The growing popularity of cloud computing increases security concerns for many users. As more
content moves to the cloud—versus being stored locally, where users carry the majority of the
burden of ensuring the security of their content—the security demands of cloud service providers
becomes more important. Users need to be assured their content is secure.

It is critical for organizations to control and customize security in cloud services. Commonly
used productivity tools that require security include:
 Email
 Calendars
 Content management
 Collaboration
  Unified communications

IT teams are required to deliver access to services from more devices, platforms, and places than
ever before. Clearly, multi-device access to corporate assets benefits users, but broader access
makes security management more challenging. Each endpoint represents a potential attack
surface and another point of management for security professionals. At the same time,
organizations face ever-evolving threats from around the world—they must manage the risk
created by their own users accidentally losing or compromising sensitive data.

Organizations require a cloud service that has built-in robust security features and a wide variety
of customizable security features that organizations can tune to meet their individual
requirements.

Organizations expanding remote access while maintaining security best practices may find it
difficult and expensive to add this combination of security functionality if they deploy
productivity services solely on-premises.

Microsoft IT Manages Computer Vulnerabilities -

Microsoft IT has developed a preventative approach to managing computer vulnerabilities.

Designed to reduce the occurrences and severity of attacks, Microsoft IT’s security methodology
includes the development of processes to reduce open ports and vulnerable systems and services,
manage user permissions, regularly assess risks, and regularly monitor compliance with security
guidelines. 

Microsoft IT provides information technology services internally for Microsoft employees and
resources. Microsoft IT manages 600,000 devices for 180,000 users across more than 100
countries and regions worldwide, with approximately 2 million remote connections per month.
Safeguarding a computing infrastructure of this size requires implementation of strong security
policies, technology to help keep malware off the network and away from mission-critical
resources, and dealing with malware outbreaks swiftly and comprehensively when they occur.

This section of the report compares the potential impact of malware to the levels of antimalware
compliance from approximately 350,000 workstation computers managed by Microsoft IT
between January and June 2013. This data is compiled from multiple sources, including System
Center Endpoint Protection, Network Access Protection, Direct Access, and manual submission
of suspicious files. Comparing the nature and volume of the malware detected on these
computers to the level of protection they receive can illustrate significant trends and give insights
as to the effectiveness of antimalware software and security best practices.

Microsoft IT Protects Its Networks -

Microsoft IT uses Network Access Protection to ensure the health of computers in two scenarios
—within the enterprise and for remote access. The Microsoft intranet includes a community of
managed computers that uses Microsoft Domain Isolation IP Security (IPsec) technology and
NAP. Machines accessing the intranet remotely use NAP for both Virtual Private Network
(VPN) and Microsoft Direct Access, which establishes bidirectional connectivity with the
intranet every time a remote user’s Direct Access–enabled computer connects to the Internet. In
January 2010, 359,771 computers were evaluated and silently auto-remediated when necessary
by the NAP Windows System Health Agent (SHA), a client component that maintains and
reports one or more aspects of system health. Of that total, there were 36,147 remote machines in
NAP Full Enforcement mode, in which computers that are not in compliance are isolated from
the network. The agent checks to see that antimalware and antispyware programs are installed,
signatures are up to date, and real-time monitoring is enabled; that the computer is configured to
receive security updates; and that the Windows Update Agent service is enabled. If the Windows
Firewall is disabled, the agent enables it and forces it to remain enabled while the computer is
connected to the network. In addition, because approximately one-third of the enterprise’s
domain-joined laptops are regularly taken out of the intranet environment and connected to the
public Internet, auto-remediation ensures that important and critical updates are installed.

How Microsoft IT Guards Against Email Threats

Microsoft IT’s messaging protection challenges are similar to those of other enterprise
environments. Like most IT organizations, Microsoft IT faces an ever-escalating stream of spam,
viruses, and unwanted message submission attempts to mailboxes, contacts, distribution groups,
and public folders. These attacks waste resources, distract recipients, put assets at risk, and
provide an avenue for social hacking and phishing scams, among other security issues. In
addition to these common threats, Microsoft IT sees advanced attacks that exploit messaging
systems, involving spy-ware, worms, botnets, and polymorphic malware.

Inbound mail to Microsoft goes through a three-tiered cleansing process—anti-malware

scanning, file removal, and spam filtering. In keeping with Microsoft IT’s goal of stopping
harmful messages at the earliest possible point, Microsoft IT has deployed Forefront Security for
Exchange Server on all mail servers, which uses five different antimalware engines to provide
protection for incoming and outgoing email. On average, Microsoft filters between 5 and 10
million email messages a day that contain malware or spam and removes more than 100 different
types of executable files from incoming messages.

Microsoft IT Protects Its Software -

The Microsoft Product Release & Security Services (PRSS) Anti-malware Scanning Service is
chartered, through corporate compliance policy, with ensuring that all Microsoft products are
malware-free during the product release life cycle. The Scanning Service’s charter is met by
using an automated system that provides a comprehensive, dynamic, and easy-to-use process that
implements the latest decompression algorithms combined with numerous state-of-the-art
malware scanning tools. As part of the Scanning Service’s priorities, the occurrence of false
positives at the time of release is mitigated through the Scanning Service’s collaboration with the
antimalware industry.

Office 365security

Microsoft is an industry leader in cloud security and implements policies and controls on par
with or better than on-premises data centers of even the most sophisticated organizations.
Office 365 security consists of three parts:
 Built-in security features
 Customers controls
 Enabling User Access

Office 365 is a security-hardened service that has security features built into the service.
Office 365 customers benefit from in-depth security features that Microsoft has built into the
service as a result of experience gained from two decades of managing online data and
significant investment in security infrastructure. Office 365 has implemented and continues to
invest and improve processes and technologies to proactively identify and mitigate security
threats before they become risks for customers.

Office 365 offers security controls that enable customers to customize their security settings.
Office 365 is trusted by customers of all sizes across virtually every industry, including highly
regulated industries such as healthcare, finance, education, and government. Because Office 365
manages productivity services for such a wide range of industries and geographies, it offers
feature choices that customers can control to enhance the security of their data.

Office 365 has scalable security processes that allow for independent verification and
compliance with industry standards. This paper describes three aspects of security in Office 365.

Built-in security

24-hour monitored physical hardware

Office 365 data is stored in the Microsoft network of data centers, run by Microsoft Global
Foundation Services and strategically located around the world. These data centers are built from
the ground up to protect services and data from harm by natural disaster or unauthorized access.
Data center access is restricted 24 hours per day by job function so that only essential personnel
have access to customer applications and services. Physical access control uses multiple
authentication and security processes, including badges and smart cards, biometric scanners, on-
premises security officers, continuous video surveillance, and two-factor authentication. The
data centers are monitored using motion sensors, video surveillance, and security breach alarms.
In case of a natural disaster, security also includes seismically braced racks where required and
automated fire prevention and extinguishing systems.

Isolated customer data

One reason Office 365 is both scalable and low cost is that it is a multi-tenant service (that is,
data from different customers shares the same hardware resources). Office 365 is designed to
host multiple tenants in a highly secure way through data isolation. Data storage and processing
for each tenant is segregated through Active Directory structure and capabilities specifically
developed to help build, manage, and secure multi-tenant environments. Active Directory
isolates customers using security boundaries (also known as silos). This safeguards a customer’s
data so that the data cannot be accessed or compromised by co-tenants. For additional cost, a
version of Office 365 that stores data on dedicated hardware is available.

Automated operations
Within Microsoft data centers, access to the IT systems that store customer data is strictly
controlled via role-based access control (RBAC) and lock box processes. Access control is an
automated process that follows the separation of duties principle and the principle of granting
least privilege. This process ensures that the engineer requesting access to these IT systems has
met the eligibility requirements, such as a background screen, fingerprinting, required security
training, and access approvals. Engineers request access for particular tasks into a lock box
process. The lock box process determines the duration and level of access independently of
determining whether another engineer needs to be involved in a monitoring capacity.

Secure network
Networks within the Office 365 data centers are segmented to provide physical separation of
critical back-end servers and storage devices from the public-facing interfaces. Edge router
security allows the ability to detect intrusions and signs of vulnerability. Client connections to
Office 365 use secure sockets layer (SSL) for securing Outlook, Outlook Web App, Exchange
ActiveSync, POP3, and IMAP. Customer access to services provided over the Internet originates
from users’ Internet-enabled locations and ends at a Microsoft data center. These connections are
encrypted using industry-standard transport layer security (TLS)/SSL. The use of TLS/SSL
establishes a highly secure client-to-server connection to help provide data confidentiality and
integrity between the desktop and the data center. Customers can configure TLS between
Office 365 and external servers for both inbound and outbound email. This feature is enabled by
default.

Encrypted data
Customer data in Office 365 exists in two states:
 At rest on storage media
 In transit from a datacenter over a network to a customer device

All email content is encrypted on disk using Bit Locker Advanced Encryption Standard
(AES)encryption. Protection covers all disks on mailbox servers and includes mailbox database
files, mailbox transaction log files, search content index files, transport database files, transport
transaction log files, and page file OS system disk tracing/message tracking logs.

Office 365 also transports and stores secure/multipurpose Internet mail extensions (S/MIME)
messages. Office 365 will transport and store messages that are encrypted using client-side,
third-party encryption solutions such as Pretty Good Privacy (PGP).

Customer controls

Office 365 combines the familiar Microsoft Office suite with cloud-based versions of our next-
generation communications and collaboration services: Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft
SharePoint Online, and Microsoft Lynch Online. Each of these services offers individualized
security features that the customer can control. These controls allow customers to adhere to
compliance requirements, give access to services and content to individuals in a customer’s
organization, configure antimalware/anti spam controls, and encrypt data where a customer
holds the keys.

Advanced encryption
A key value that Office 365 provides is the ability to empower customers with the option of
using encryption with intelligence as an additional security measure. Office 365 provides this
ability through Rights Management Service (RMS).Using RMS, users have the flexibility—from
 wherever they are—to select items they want to encrypt, wherever the content is located. In
addition, a unique feature of RMS is that it provides the ability to reason over content to provide
intelligent protection. A user can encrypt a piece of content and apply intelligence to it, such as
identifying who can access the content and defining the kind of access they have to it. As an
example, Alice can allow a small group of people to view content but not to edit or forward that
content to anyone else. Email encryption with non-federated users is available with Office 365,
enabling ad hoc encryption services with any recipient. Office Professional Plus offers advanced
security with native support for Cryptographic Agility by integrating with the Cryptographic
Next Generation (CNG) interfaces for Windows. Administrators can specify cryptographic
algorithms for encrypting and signing documents.

Enabling user access

Office 365 data and services are secured at the data center, network, logical, storage, and transit
levels. In addition, it is critical for customers to be able to control who can access data and how
they can use data. Office 365 uses Windows Azure Active Directory as the underlying identity
platform. This enables Office 365 customers with strong authentication options granular control
over how IT professionals and users can access and use the service. Office 365 also allows
integration with On-Premises Active Directory or other directory stores and identity systems
such as Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) or third-party secure token systems
(STSs) to enable secure, token-based authentication to services

M-Commerce and its Initiative in Microsoft-

M-Commerce is a term used for transaction conducted by mobile phones, personal digital
assistants (PDAs) for promotional and financial activities using wireless internet connectivity.
Mobile Commerce is referred as M-Commerce, which brings the new possibility for small
business to sell and promote their product and business. M-Commerce is growing rapidly and
providing new options for Business Website Promotions via Mobile Devices.

M-Commerce is essential part of Business: M-Commerce is now turning to be an essential part of

your Internet marketing strategies. As Internet goes to mobile devices and M-Commerce can easily
fit in your Business process, you can make huge benefits from it.

M-Commerce Applications
M-Commerce applications let users make payments across a variety of industries such as
Hospitality, Retail, Banking and Airlines to name a few. Generic mobile marketing apps such as
coupons and merchandising are other variations of m-commerce solutions.

Most apps require integration with payment systems such as Master™, Visa™ and PayPal™
networks, and are often customized for various mobile platforms such as iPhone9™, Android™,
BlackBerry™ and so on. Apps may also be store-specific and require personalization features to
make them more effective.

Here are some examples of m-Commerce solutions:

 Ticket Sales
Ticketing applications let the mobile user buy or sell movie, theatre, airline tickets using the
mobile phone. The mobile user could view the various list of events, and buy or sell tickets.
 Restaurant Apps
The Hospitality industry continues to make forays into the mobile space. Ordering apps let
you order a complete meal using the mobile phone. For example, the user can customize a
pizza, or create a take-away order from the list of items.
 Mobile Concierge Apps
Mobile users can search for theatres, shopping arcades, restaurants, lounge bars etc., and they
can make reservations, buy tickets and so on. Each user can have a personalized program,
which can be saved and changed at a later date.
 Social and Gaming Apps
Mobile gaming apps are beginning to integrate in-game content purchase by integrating with
payment systems. Mobile browser-based games are used to generate revenue by letting users
purchase virtual currency via standard payment systems. When such games are based on a
social networking platform, it lets the gaming app have instant access to many millions of
other users, thus creating a better distribution network.
 Banking Apps
Mobile banking services are increasingly popular. Most banks offer many banking services
such as credit card payments, bill payments, on-the-go access to financial services and real-
time personalized messages to consumers.
While m-Commerce continues to evolve, mobile merchandising, contactless payment solutions,
mobile coupons, mobile wallet, banking applications and B2B mobile platforms are expected to
make in-roads in the near future.

MICROSOFT’S INITIATIVE IN M-COMMERCE

Windows Mobile is a family of mobile operating system developed by Microsoft for

Smartphone’s . Windows Mobile is the predecessor of Windows phone.

In February 2010, Microsoft announced Windows phone to supersede Windows Mobile. As a

result, Windows Mobile has been deprecated Windows Phone is incompatible with Windows
Mobile devices and software. The last version of Windows Mobile, released after the
announcement of Windows Phone, is 6.5.5

MICROSOFT MOBILE APPLICATION

Microsoft has its own app store with thousands of applications.
Market share of Microsoft as compared with Google.
ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

SOCL : Microsoft’s Social Network

Microsoft opened up registration for its new project, the aptly named Socl, to users with
Microsoft and Facebook accounts in December 2012 .Soclwas launched in 2011 but was in beta
for Microsoft employees and college students until December 2012. Socl isn’t exactly a
traditional social network. It's more like Pinterest than Facebook as its landing page is filled with
photo collages. Socl was born from Microsoft Research FUSE Labs’ research into social search
for students.

Now, anyone can sign up for the site and find content either generated randomly on Socl’s
homepage or do a Bing-powered search by topic. To create a post, we can pull content from
other parts of the Web—photos, videos, links, etc.—and the site puts together a collage for
ourselves. We can “riff” or comment on others’ posts and share related links and images. The
profile page is a gallery of the posts we have created and the interests and people we follow–no
wall posts or 140-character bon mots here. The emphasis is less on friends than content. If we
sign in using your Facebook login information, Socl will find our Facebook friends, but the site
encourages us to explore and connect with others based on common interests and posts we like.

This social network, helps students connect with one another .However, it’s clear Socl is not
designed to compete with Facebook. Microsoft says Socl (pronounced “social”) “is an
experimental research project, developed by Microsoft’s FUSE Labs, focused on exploring the
possibilities of social search for the purpose of learning.” The primary focus of Socl is helping
“people find and share interesting web pages in the way students do when they work together”
by combining social networking and search.

Microsoft is sneaky in the way they present the focus of Socl, which seems to be designed
specifically for students. However, it’s clear that Microsoft has attempted to take a swing
at Google‘s social network, Google+, which was also designed to combine social and search. To
differentiate the two, Microsoft (seemingly) focused on a niche of users (students), and also
encouraged users to share data a little differently by creating “montages of visual web content.”

Microsoft even goes as far as to say they expect students to use other social networks such as
Facebook in addition to Socl.  The reality is, though, that anyone can sign up to use Socl.
Currently, Microsoft has partnered with schools (including University of Washington, Syracuse
University, and New York University) but “anyone can participate in the FUSE Labs research
community,” which includes the Socl project. Signing up for the Socl social network is as easy
as (and somewhat ironically) connecting your Facebook account.
Even if Microsoft is feigning its focus on students for the sake of user acquisition, the outlook
for Socl doesn’t look good either way. Google has tried painfully hard for this combination to
succeed with Google+, and despite Google dominating the market share in search, barely
anyone is really using Google+. At the same time, Facebook didn’t exactly fail by extending its
reach beyond the initial batch of college kids.

MICROSOFT ERP PACKAGE

Microsoft Dynamics ERP is enterprise resource planning (ERP) software primarily geared

toward midsize organizations as well as subsidiaries and divisions of larger organizations. Its
applications are part of Microsoft Dynamics, a line of business management software owned and
developed by Microsoft.
Microsoft Dynamics ERP comprises four primary products: Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft
Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics NAV, and Microsoft Dynamics SL.

Microsoft Dynamics ERP includes five primary products:

 Microsoft Dynamics AX (formerly Axapta) is designed to help organizations do business

across locations and countries by standardizing processes and helping to simplify
compliance. The latest version is Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.
 Microsoft Dynamics GP (formerly Great Plains Software) can help companies adapt to
new opportunities and growth by managing changing markets, enabling unique business
requirements, and connecting business processes across the organization. The latest version
is Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 (version 11.0).

 Microsoft Dynamics NAV (formerly Navision) is designed to help organizations

streamline specialized and industry-specific business processes. The latest version is
Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013.

 Microsoft Dynamics SL (formerly Solomon IV) can help project-driven organizations

obtain reports and business analysis and automate projects across company divisions and
locations. The latest version is Microsoft Dynamics SL 7.0.

 Microsoft Dynamics C5 (formerly Concorde C5) can assist with finance, manufacturing,
supply chains, analytics and electronic commerce for small and medium-sized enterprises.
The latest version is Microsoft Dynamics C5 2010.
Microsoft Dynamics ERP applications are designed to help customers:

 Connect the entire supply chain.

 Make current financial data and reports accessible for business planning and regulatory
compliance.

 Automate repetitious and routine functions so that employees can focus on more critical
tasks.

 Minimize the cost and complexity of administering salaries, benefits, recruiting, and
performance management.

 Provide greater visibility into key performance factors, such as profitability and potential
issues.

 Meet industry-specific needs with functionality for vertical business processes.

MICROSOFT CRM PACKAGE

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a customer relationship management software package developed

by Microsoft. Out of the box, the product focuses mainly on Sales, Marketing, and Service (help
desk) sectors, but Microsoft has been marketing Dynamics CRM as an XRM platform and has
been encouraging partners to use its proprietary (.NET based) framework to customize it to meet
many different demands.
The Microsoft Dynamics family of business applications includes other related products such
as Microsoft Dynamics AX(ERP application), Microsoft Dynamics GP, (ERP
application) Microsoft Dynamics NAV (ERP application), and Microsoft Dynamics SL (ERP
Application) and also Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System; also known as Dynamics
RMS.
Dynamics CRM is a server-client application, which, like Microsoft SharePoint, is primarily
an IIS-based web application which also supports extensive web services interfaces. Clients
access Dynamics CRM either by using a Browser or by a thick client plug-in to Microsoft
Outlook. Beside the Microsoft Internet Explorer the Chrome and Firefox browsers are fully
supported since Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup 12.
The current version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM is 2013 with over 40,000 customers
MICROSOFT INTER ORGANISATION INFORMATION SYSTEMS

INTER-ORGANIZATION REPLICATION TOOL:

The Inter-Organization Replication tool, was first released as part of Microsoft Exchange Server
5.5 Service Pack 3 (SP3), with an updated version for Microsoft Exchange 2003. The tool is also
compatible with Exchange Server 2007 and with Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack
1 (SP1).

The Inter-Organization Replication tool is used to replicate free/busy information and public
folder content between Exchange organizations. It enables the coordination of meetings,
appointments, contacts, and public folder information between disjointed Exchange
organizations.

The tool consists of two programs: the Replication Configuration program (Exscfg.exe) and the
Replication service (Exssrv.exe). The Replication Configuration program creates a configuration
file for setting the replication frequency, logging options, folders to be replicated, and accounts
to be used. The Replication service uses a configuration file that is created by the Replication
Configuration program to continuously update information from one server (designated as the
Publisher) to one or more Exchange servers (designated as Subscribers).

Schedule+ free/busy information is replicated from Publisher to Subscriber only. Because of

this, you must have two free/busy sessions to bi-directionally update free/busy information.
Public folders can be replicated bi-directionally between Publisher and Subscriber. You can
configure the replication frequency, the logging of message and folder replication, and how
much processing power you want devoted to the replication process.

The Inter-Organization Replication tool allows for detailed management of intra-organizational

content access and security for files transported outside of the Exchange organization's security
layer. 

MICROSOFT BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE TOOLS

 Microsoft SQL Server Accelerator for Business Intelligence (BI Accelerator) is

designed to help developers rapidly create analytical application prototypes. With BI
Accelerator, developers can provide schema information and then generate iterative
prototypes of an analytical application programmatically. Each prototype includes a
Staging database, a Subject Matter database, an Analysis database containing
multidimensional cubes, application files and a data movement system. The data
movement system moves data from external sources into the Staging database, from the
Staging database to the Subject Matter database, and from the Subject Matter database to
 the Analysis database. As data is moved through these structures, Data Transformation
Services (DTS) tasks perform data transformations, data lookups, error checking and
cube processing.

 SQL Server 2008:

SQL Server 2008 includes a master data management system branded as Master Data
Services, a central management of master data entities and hierarchies. There is a Multi
Server Management, a centralized console to manage multiple SQL Server 2008
instances and services including relational databases, Reporting Services, Analysis
Services & Integration Services.

SQL Server 2008 R2:

It includes a number of new services, including Power Pivot for Excel and SharePoint,
Master Data Services, Stream Insight, Report Builder 3.0, Reporting Services Add-in for
SharePoint a Data-tier function in Visual Studio that enables packaging of tiered
databases as part of an application, and a SQL Server Utility named UC (Utility Control
Point), part of AMSM (Application and Multi-Server Management) that is used to
manage multiple SQL Servers.

A typical Business Intelligence System Architecture based on the Microsoft SQL Server
and Business Intelligence Platform

When we talk about designing a Business Intelligence System, there are certain components
which need to be planned, designed and developed as you can see below:
 Data Integration or ETL (Extract, Transform and Load) Pipeline

The Business Intelligence System can leverage SSIS (SQL Server Integration Services), a
component of the SQL Server platform, for data integration into the data warehouse. SSIS
provides the ability to have a consistent and centralized view of data from different source
systems and helps to ensure data confidence through integration, cleansing, profiling and
management. SSIS features a fast and flexible ETL (Extraction, Transformation and Loading)
framework and has in memory transformation capabilities for extremely fast data integration
scenarios. SSIS has several built-in components to connect to standard heterogeneous data
sources (RDBMS, FTP, Web Services, XML, CSV, EXCEL, etc.), along with a rich set of
transformation components for data integration. SSIS also includes DQS (Data Quality Services)
for data cleansing, matching and profiling.  MDS is another component in SQL Server which
provides Master Data Management platform for managing organizational master data centrally.

SSIS packages can be developed using the Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS) in
SQL Server 2008 R2 and earlier versions (SSIS is available from SQL Server 2005) or SQL
Server Data Tool (SSDT) in SQL Server 2012 and can be configured during execution based on
the meta data stored in meta data repository. There are several ways of SSIS Package
Deployment and SQL Server 2012 introduced even more robust Package Deployment Model.

 SQL SERVER 2012 :

Introduced in SQL Server 2012 and focusing on Self Service and Corporate Business
Intelligence. It includes the Standard Edition capabilities and Business Intelligence tools:
Power Pivot, Power View, the BI Semantic Model, Master Data Services, Data Quality
Services and velocity in-memory analytics.
 SQL Server 2012's new features and enhancements include Always On SQL Server
Failover Cluster Instances and Availability Groups which provides a set of options to
improve database availability, Contained Databases which simplify the moving of
databases between instances, new and modified Dynamic Management Views and
Functions, programmability enhancements including new spatial features, metadata
discovery, sequence objects and the THROW statement, performance enhancements such
as Column Store Indexes as well as improvements to Online and partition level
operations and security enhancements including provisioning during setup, new
permissions, improved role management, and default schema assignment for groups.

 Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS) is the former IDE from Microsoft,

and was used to develop data analysis and Business Intelligence solutions utilizing the
Microsoft Analysis Services, Reporting Services and Integration Services. It is based on
the Microsoft Visual Studio development environment, but customized with the SQL
Server services-specific extensions and project types, including tools, controls and
projects for reports, ETL data flows, OLAP cubes and data mining structure.

BIDS functionality could be augmented with BIDS Helper, a Visual Studio add-in with
features that extended and enhance business intelligence development functionality in
SQL Server 2005, 2008, and 2008 R2 BI Development Studio (BIDS) and SQL Server
2012 SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT). BIDS Helper is hosted on Microsoft's open source
project hosting website CodePlex.

Business Intelligence Markup Language (Biml) can be used in BIDS to create end-to-end

BI solutions by translating Biml metadata into SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
and SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) assets for the Microsoft SQL Server platform.

BIDS is not supported with Visual Studio 2010 and later, and has been replaced by SQL
Server Data Tools - Business Intelligence

 Microsoft Business Intelligence Tool helps your business to connect with employees so
they can take responsibility for data and information. Connection and communication
between your people is enhanced and management of your IT systems is also improved.
Microsoft Business Intelligence lets your employees to continue using familiar tools such
as Microsoft Excel while allowing your IT staff to manage and monitor your
 organization’s data and procedures. This maintains the integrity of your data and gives
your business greater control over its processes.
Automated and integrated reporting processes provide a clear and consistent overview of
data in real time. Microsoft Business Intelligence makes it easier for your people to take
ownership of processes and information and for everybody across your organisation to
have a clear picture of the data which is available to them. Connection, communication
and collaboration between people throughout the business infrastructure can easily be
centralised and monitored.

The Benefits of Microsoft Business Intelligence:

Microsoft Business Intelligence is built on the powerful Microsoft SQL Server, and is
available as part of Microsoft's popular Office and SharePoint Server packages. With the
strength of some of Microsoft's most powerful products behind it, Microsoft Business
Intelligence gives your business and employees the capability to:
 Share Expertise across the organization
 Increase productivity
 Knowledge Share
 Increase collaboration throughout the company.

Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services ships with SQL Server, allowing your business
to dig into the data at its disposal to really understand the driving force behind the
performance. This detailed analysis can be accessed through Excel and SharePoint Server
which means your employees can produce analysis and reports quickly and easily
through familiar platforms.

User adoption of Microsoft Business Intelligence is supported by integration with

Microsoft Office and SharePoint, providing an end user experience that is familiar and
intuitive to users of Microsoft Office.

 Microsoft’s new analytics platform system : BIG DATA IN A BOX:

Microsoft has recently announced its new Analytics Platform System that’s now
generally available. The new platform falls in line with the company’s intention to
 deliver services that enable a data culture across every organization, team, and individual
by allowing these entities to be more flexible in how they manage their data.

With this new platform, users can now query across both traditional relational data
warehouses and data that’s stored in a Hadoop region, either in an appliance or separate
Hadoop cluster. Although there’s not a whole lot of details on the new platform, it seems
to be treated as an appliance, where Microsoft is currently calling it ‘Big Data in a Box’.

Decision Support Systems

A Decision Support System (DSS) is a computer-based information system that supports

business or organizational decision-making activities. DSSs serve the management, operations,
and planning levels of an organization (usually mid and higher management) and help to make
decisions, which may be rapidly changing and not easily specified in advance (Unstructured and
Semi-Structured decision problems). Decision support systems can be either fully computerized,
human or a combination of both.

A DSS application contains five components: database, model base, knowledge base, GUI, and
user (see Figure 1.1). The database stores the data, model and knowledge bases store the
collections of models and knowledge, respectively, and the GUI allows the user to interact with
the database, model base and knowledge base. The database and knowledge base can be found in
a basic information system. The knowledge base may contain simple search results for analyzing
the data in the database. For example, the knowledge base may contain how many employees in
a company database have worked at the company for over ten years. A decision support system
is an intelligent information system because of the addition of the model base. The model base
has the introduction calculations and analysis. These models allow the decision support system
to not only supply information to the user but aid the user in making a decision. The model base
has the models used to perform optimization, simulation, or other algorithms for advanced
Given the above definition of a decision support system, we have developed several

spreadsheet-based DSS applications in Excel. Using the spreadsheet functionality in

Excel and the VBA programming capabilities, a complete decision support system can

be developed.

Microsoft CSR

Microsoft has been synonymous with CSR always. As a testimony to this , the Reputation
Institute, one of the world’s leading reputation management consultant firms, announced
Microsoft ranked #1 overall when it released its 2012 CSR RepTrak™ 100 report naming the
companies with the best reputations for corporate social responsibility around the world.

Microsoft Youth Spark

In 2012, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced Microsoft Youth Spark, a company-wide,
global initiative to create opportunities for 300 million youth over three years. Through 30+
programs and partnerships with 186 youth-serving nonprofits , in one year only , Microsoft
Youth Spark has created new opportunities for more than 103 million young people in over 100
countries around the world.

Youth Spark Grants

Microsoft provides cash grants to eligible organizations whose missions and activities support
youth development.

Microsoft also donates software and services to a broad array of eligible nonprofit organizations.

Empowering Youth – Transforming Education & Expanding Digital Inclusion

 Partners in Learning is a long-standing program that provides professional

development to educators to help them with new approaches to teaching and learning,
using technology to help students develop 21st century skills. Partners in Learning has
equipped more than 7,37,000 government school teachers in India with IT skills through
Project Shiksha.

 Project Jyoti, provides learning for young adults, especially women, in rural and
underserved communities, through Community Technology Learning Centers (CTLCs).
Run in partnership with 14 NGOs currently, over 5,00,000 young adults trained, of whom
70% have been placed in jobs. 700* youth enterprises have been started.

Office365 is free for all students and teachers around the world and provides ready access
to technology tools that power learning and collaboration: email, instant messaging,
group video and voice chat, and online document viewing and editing.
 Microsoft Learning is a comprehensive program which is aimed at developing the skill
sets and enhancing the employability of the students and IT professionals through
training and certification. Through this program Microsoft provides a diverse range of
offerings including- classroom training, e-learning, certification, Microsoft Press books,
skills assessments and more, to address the need gaps among the students and
professionals. Every year, more than 100,000 people are certified; and in the last 14
years, the program has impacted over 1 million people. There are more than 400 ITAs
currently in the country.

Imagine – Unleashing Future Innovations

 DreamSpark is a program under which students are provided access to the latest
Microsoft software designer tools at no charge. The program means to equip a new
generation of technology leaders with the knowledge and tools they need to harness the
magic of software to improve lives, solve problems and catalyze economic growth. The
 DreamSpark initiative in India is designed to join the dots between software access,
which means making training and enablement complement simple access to technology
In India, 4.5 million students have already gained access to the latest MS tools.

 Imagine Cup is the world’s premier youth technology competition, providing an

opportunity for high school and university students to learn new skills and apply their
knowledge and passion to develop technical solutions for some of the world’s toughest
problems. 50,000 students from India participated in last year’s contest.

Realise – Increasing Employability & Entrepreneurship

 Imagine Cup Grants are a direct output of the Imagine Cup competition, these grants are
given to a select number of winning student teams to help them take their project to the
next level through a comprehensive grant of cash, software and mentoring support.

 BizSpark gives software startups access to Microsoft software development tools and
connections with key industry players, including investors, help young entrepreneurs
starting a new business. In three years, the program has provided professional software at
no charge to 2,000 startups, and 2725 startup members.
 Microsoft works with 1.2 million developers, over 1000 Independent Software Vendors
and more than 2000 System Integrators in India to empower them with the tools,
technologies and training required to develop high-end skills and compete in a global
marketplace.

Microsoft has also developed a range of new youth-focused Citizenship initiatives, including:

 Give For Youth: a global micro-giving marketplace focused specifically on raising

funds for nonprofits that support youth causes around the world;
 Microsoft YouthSpark Hub: an online space where young people can explore and
access all of the services, programs and resources provided by Microsoft and select
nonprofit partners for education, skills, employment and entrepreneurship;
 Innovate For Good: a global online community enabling youth to collaborate, inspire
and support each other while using technology to make a difference in their communities.

Project Bhasha promotes local language computing, lowering the barrier for people who prefer
computing in native tongue. This project is Microsoft India’s commitment to provide local
language interface packs for flagship Microsoft products – including Windows & Office - in 12
Indian languages. The initiative also looks at building a vibrant local language community that
defines and contributes to the efforts.
Employee Volunteer Program and Giving Campaign

The Employee Volunteer Program (EVP) and Giving Campaign, in line with the development
goals of Indian government and country’s commitment to Millennium Development Goals, has
had a strategic focus on ‘Promoting Inclusive Growth through Education’ since 2006.

Microsoft matches employee nonprofit donations through the year, and encourages employees to
volunteer with a nonprofit of their choice. The program has raised more than INR 6,65,45,146
since 2006.

Responding to disasters.

The Microsoft Disaster Response program improves disaster preparedness and response through
the delivery of technology and expertise for citizens, lead responders, and businesses.

Current responses. Access Microsoft’s Ready Reach response portal in the event of a current
large-scale natural disaster. Here you will find situational information and resources to help keep
you safe, enable you to connect with others, and provide details for ways you can help.

Past responses. Over the last few decades, Microsoft has provided support for more than 200
natural disasters. The following represent a few of our response efforts over the years.

Fast Facts

 Project Shiksha – has so far equipped more than 7,37,000 government school teachers
with IT skills, impacting more than 37 million students across the country.
 Every year 1,00,000 people are certified through Microsoft Learning.
 Microsoft Innovation Centers – 1,00,000 students reached.
 Under DreamSpark, there have been over 12 million free downloads of developer and
design tools by students since 2008.
 3,50,000 Indian students have registered for Imagine Cup since it started in 2003.
 Over 2,000 start-ups benefit from technology insights, software, tools, and opportunity
mapping via the BizSpark program.
 Project Kshamta – 30,000 jawans trained since 2009.
 Project Jyoti - IT training for over 5,00,000 young adults, of which more than 70% are
now in formal employment.
  The Windows platform is accessible and compatible with a wide range of assistive
technology products.
 We work with 1.2 million developers, over 1000 Independent Software Vendors and
more than 2000 System Integrators in India.

Microsoft is Going Carbon Neutral

Microsoft is instituting a companywide commitment to achieve carbon neutrality beginning in

fiscal year 2013. The foundation of this new commitment is an internal carbon fee, which will
place a price on carbon based on current market pricing for a portfolio of renewable energy and
carbon offset projects.

Reducing Travel and Carbon With Unified Communications

Microsoft’s Unified Communications (UC) streamlines communications and collaboration. By

reducing the need for business travel and commuting, our UC solutions improve business
outcomes, lower costs and enhance environmental sustainability. Last year alone, UC enabled us
to save 17,000 metric tons of CO2 and reduced our travel costs $92 million.

Reducing and Managing Computer Energy Consumption

To help it meet its environmental goals, Microsoft IT has deployed System Center Configuration
Manager 2007 R3 and greater power management controls to 165,000 desktop and laptop
computers.
The result was a 27 percent drop in the amount of power used by managed desktop computers, as
well as a projected cost savings of $12 to $14 per computer, per year.

Energy-Smart Buildings

Through a pilot program and white paper, Microsoft is sharing knowledge of how organizations
can use IT successfully to improve the bottom line and reduce environmental impacts. Many
organizations do not need to retrofit buildings in order to realize significant energy savings and
Microsoft has shown that smart buildings are accessible and affordable for any organization.

Keechi Wind Project

Microsoft has signed a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) for wind energy in Texas that
will be funded in part by proceeds from Microsoft’s carbon fee. The agreement with RES
Americas will see Microsoft purchase all of the energy from Keechi Wind project, a 110 MW
wind facility 70 miles northwest of Ft. Worth, Texas, near the town of Jacksboro.

Global e-Sustainability Initiative

Microsoft is on the board of the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) — a collaboration

between leading IT companies, government agencies and nongovernmental organizations
(NGOs) whose purpose is to achieve environmental sustainability through technology
innovation.
Microsoft has helped lead and enable GeSI's influential research and work on critical issues
ranging from how IT can address climate change to responsible sourcing in the hardware supply
chain.

Addressing Environmental Challenges in the Cloud

Hosted on our cloud-based Windows Azure technology, and visualized through Bing Maps, Eye
On Earth provides 600 million people with near real-time access to localized, easy-to-understand
environmental data like air and water quality. It is available in 26 languages and reaches 32 EEA
member states.

Microsoft business partnerships-

Microsoft Partners with UTSA to Develop Sustainable Technologies

Microsoft Corp. has entered into a three-year agreement with the University of Texas at San
Antonio (UTSA) to research and develop sustainable technologies. The goal is to make
Microsoft’s data centers more energy efficient and economically viable

Microsoft partners Lenovo, Tencent for XP tech support in China

Microsoft Corp has partnered Lenovo Group Ltd and Tencent Holdings Ltd to provide software
security services for Windows XP users in China

NetApp and Microsoft Alliance

For over 10 years, NetApp and Microsoft have teamed to develop and provide innovative storage
and data management solutions for Microsoft® technologies

 NetApp remains in the forefront of providing an agile data infrastructure for Microsoft
applications

The NetApp and Microsoft Alliance Relationship 

NetApp is a Microsoft Global Independent Software Vendor (ISV) and Microsoft Partner with
the following Gold Certified competencies:

 Independent Software Vendor (ISV)

Messaging

 Portals and Collaboration

  Content Management
 Data Platform
 Business Intelligence
 Server Platform
 Communications
 Virtualization (Silver)

NetApp and Microsoft have been working together for more than a decade to provide innovative
solutions that make it easier for our customers to rapidly transform their data centers for the
future. NetApp also has Silver Certified competency in Virtualization.

EPCOR

made a strategic decision to partner with Microsoft for infrastructure and technology and focus
our resources on extending business value to the customer. Epicor leverages innovative
Microsoft technologies such as .NET, Microsoft Office System, Microsoft SharePoint
technologies, Visual Studio, SQL Server, and Azure in developing end-to-end, industry-specific
solutions that enable companies to immediately drive efficiency throughout business operations
and build competitive advantage

Microsoft partners with BT for private Azure links

As security and data privacy continue to hold CIOs back from dabbling with cloud services, BT
and Microsoft announced a partnership that will see the former provide private links for the
latter’s Azure public cloud service. The move comes the day Verizon announced a dark fibre
service linking its public cloud platforms with Microsoft’s, with plans to support other platforms
in the near future.

BT said will be teaming up with Microsoft to provide VPN access to Azure, which it said would
provide more secure and more resilient connectivity to the public cloud platform
REFERENCES

 research.microsoft.com

 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Research

 research.microsoft.com/en-us/collaboration/.../northam-awards.aspx

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Dynamics_ERP
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Dynamics_CRM
 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa902671(v=sql.80).aspx
 http://www.mssqltips.com/sqlservertip/2970/microsoft-sql-server-business-intelligence-
system-architecture--part-2/
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_SQL_Server
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Intelligence_Development_Studio
 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee307369(v=exchg.80).aspx
 http://www.microsoft.com/en-in/download/details.aspx?id=7290
 http://econewsnetwork.org/2012/03/top-ten-sustainability-initiatives-of-microsoft/
 http://www.eweek.com/cloud/microsofts-green-initiatives-stretch-into-its-supply-
chain.html
 http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/here%E2%80%99s-microsoft
%E2%80%99s-impressive-green-datacenter-initiative-set-launch-summer
 http://www.computerweekly.com/feature/What-does-the-future-hold-for-Microsofts-business-
model
 http://www.netaction.org/msoft/world/MSWord2World.html

 http://www.microsoftbusinesshub.com/News_Updates/Cindys_Blog