No Fuss. No Muss. Quick and Easy Setup of Windows Phones Means More Happy Customers for You.

By John Zanni 

I am a technologist at heart. Working with technology comes naturally to me. Because of this, I always worry that we are asking a customer to do a task that looks easy for us but is not for them. For example, we know that most photos taken on digital cameras never leave the camera.

When working with hosters that provide Hosted Exchange email, I have seen this phenomenon repeated over and over again. One of the great features of Microsoft Exchange when connected to a Windows phone is that your email, contacts, calendar and tasks are always synchronized. If you lose your phone, you can remotely wipe and very quickly have all your contacts, email and meeting on your new phone.

In many cases, we ask the customer to create the link between their hosted email and their phone. While this might look simple (if a bit annoying) to you and me, it is a barrier to your customer. In order to eliminate this barrier we have created a whitepaper titled Managing Windows Phones for Hosted Exchange. With this whitepaper and sample code a hoster can automate the provisioning process and have the customer focus on the Wow! factor instead of trying to get it to work.

Try it out and let me know what you think.

John Zanni, general manager, Worldwide Software plus Services Industry, Microsoft Communications Sector