Category Archives: microsoft
Office for Windows RT
A few months ago, Morgan Stanley Research conducted an in-depth study* on the future of the tablet market. Among other things, it found that 61 percent of potential tablet purchasers consider Microsoft Office to be the single most important software feature when considering a tablet purchase. People do, it turns out, want a device that can work hard and play hard.
Traditionally, tablets have been great for reading, listening to music, watching movies, or keeping the kids entertained, but they haven’t met everyone’s needs for staying organized and getting things done. All that changed with last week’s announcement of Microsoft Surface with Windows RT, which, like all Windows RT devices, comes with the preview release of Office Home & Student 2013 RT preinstalled at no additional charge.
This is one of the first opportunities to get the most vibrant, exciting release of Office ever. Office Home & Student 2013 RT provides a complete Office experience and includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. It is optimized for touch, long battery life and the tablet form factor. The new Office and Windows RT devices seamlessly blend form and function, portability and productivity, and play and work in a single device.
Customers who buy a Windows RT device will automatically receive the final release of Office Home & Student 2013 RT, a few days after they first use their new device (Wi-Fi connection required). Alternatively they can manually download the final release immediately via Windows Update.
Be among the first to experience new Office and Windows together by taking a look at one of the many Windows RT devices launching over the next few weeks.
Source : http://blogs.office.com/b/office-news/archive/2012/10/23/office-for-windows-rt.aspx
OneNote and Lync Come to Windows Store
With the launch of Windows today, we are introducing new versions of existing Office applications. The new OneNote and Lync apps are available today for free through the Windows Store. Both have been redesigned to take advantage of the Windows experience with immersive touch capabilities throughout. They also work well with mouse and keyboard, so you can have a great experience whether you’re on-the-go, on the couch or at your desk.
In OneNote, for instance, we’ve added the “Radial Menu,” a new touch-optimized approach to giving you access to common commands – like formatting your notes, making To Do lists and adding pictures directly from your tablet’s camera – all right under your fingertips and right next to the notes you are working on. You can see the radial menu in the upper right corner below, and you can see it in action in this video.
In addition to the great touch experience in OneNote, another Windows feature that I particularly like is the Share charm. If I want to save a web page from my browser, I swipe from the right to bring up the Share charm and send the page directly to OneNote. Additionally, if you have a stylus, you can add handwritten notes, like on the map above.
The new OneNote app allows you to do what OneNote does best – capture ideas, gather information, manage action items, create to-do lists and so much more – and you can sync it all to SkyDrive, so they’re available from virtually anywhere on virtually any device.
In addition to the new app available today from the Windows Store, the desktop release of OneNote 2013 is available as part of the new Office Preview or by getting the new Office when it goes on sale in the first quarter of 2013. OneNote also comes pre-installed on all Windows RT devices, as part of Office Home & Student 2013 RT.
Like the new OneNote app, the new Lync app has also been redesigned for a touch-optimized experience. If your organization uses Lync, you can now stay connected, communicate and conference using the new Lync app from Windows Store.
The new Lync app is fast and fluid, and it enables new communication scenarios. You can join Lync meetings with a single touch, participate in multiparty HD video conferences, view shared meeting content, take advantage of background connectivity and leverage a fantastic snapped/filled view experience. Learn more about the new Lync app here and check out the beautiful look and feel of the new Lync app in the screenshots above and below, together with OneNote.
We think these new OneNote and Lync apps, plus the new Windows experience will open up new ways of getting things done and staying organized – at home, at work and everywhere in between. Visit the Windows Store today to get the new OneNote and Lync apps, and let us know what you think!
Source : http://blogs.office.com/b/office-news/archive/2012/10/26/onenote-and-lync-come-to-windows-store.aspx
Microsoft's David Merzel shortlisted Marketeer of the Year 2011
Every year the business magazine Trends awards the best marketeer in Belgium the title Marketeer of the Year.This year is the first time that, among the final candidates, a Microsoft colleagues has been nominated. This means that Microsoft products really have become familiar in all households.
David Merzel is the country manager of Microsoft BeLux, responsible for Xbox and hardware products.He has been selected thanks to the way he put the Kinext console for Xbox 360 into the market last year.
How Microsoft Re-Invented Office for Touch, Social and the Cloud, via @davidmerzel’s BLOG
Since start of Sept 2012, I have the chance to work for Office (Consumer / SMB) in Latin America from Fort Lauderdale (USA).
This is a great personal experience with my spouse and kids to move from Belgium to USA.
It’s also a great opportunity to live from inside this fantastic launch and I learn every days so much 
I’ve seen an excellent article, regarding Office in Mashbale http://mashable.com/2012/09/25/office-2013-reinvent/ and I reaaly wanted to share it with you.
Here-below, I share with you this article.
In tech, apps come and go. Anyone working in publishing in the 1990s and early 2000s saw Aldus PageMaker give way to QuarkXPress, which eventually ceded to Adobe InDesign. No matter how good any app may be at a given time, technology doesn’t stop advancing, which in turn changes people’s needs. That opens up opportunities for more nimble competitors to win over customers with apps that better serve those needs.
Until recently, Microsoft Office has been fairly immune to this cycle. It’s been a mainstay of productivity software for more than 20 years — if you’ve worked with electronic documents at all, chances are you’re more than familiar with it.
However, the rise of mobile devices and cloud computing allows competitors to chip away at the office empire. Many people now turn to free and mobile-friendly alternatives, like Google Drive or QuickOffice for building documents, spreadsheets and presentations.
But there’s a reason Office was the go-to productivity software for more than two decades: Microsoft can adapt. And it’s doing so in a big way for the next version of Office, called Office 2013, which works hand in hand with Windows 8, set for a big debut this fall. Windows 8 re-invents the computing experience for touch screens, social networks and the cloud — and the new Office takes full advantage of that modern tech trinity.
“It’s going to start with how people get Office,” says P.J. Hough, Microsoft’s vice president of Office program management. “We’re going to stream Office to every user. We’ve done a lot of work to make the streaming incredibly fast. It’s single-digit minutes to get Office installed and up and running on your computer.”
Office 2013 doesn’t just download once and rest on your computer, either. Hough says the new Office will be as much as service as an app, with continual updates via the network. Microsoft’s also changing the how it sells the software — instead of buying it once, users will now subscribe, with different plans for personal and business use.
“It actually changes the relationship with the customer,” Hough says. “Your computer stops owning Office and you personally own Office. If you get a new computer and you’re a subscriber, office goes on the new computer. I go to office.com, I sign in, I say I want Office on this computer and we stream it down.”
The cloud also plays a big role in Office 2013. The default location for all saved documents will now be Microsoft’s cloud-storage service, SkyDrive, so you’ll be able to pick up documents right where you left off when you switch machines. In addition, content-based features that used to be delivered locally, such as document templates for Word and PowerPoint, will now be powered by the cloud.“We’ve already done a lot of this work with Office 365, our enterprise offering, but this is taking that same cloud-driven view of Office to the consumer” says Hough. “[Office 2013] is backed by relevant services — SkyDrive, Skype — so we think there’s an equivalent experience that I want as a consumer, that’s online and connected.”
However, Hough stresses that Office 2013 works just as you’d expect when you’re offline. The apps are installed locally, and work will get saved even if you’re off the network and set up to save to SkyDrive.
The re-invented Office also integrates social networks much more closely. While in previous years, social networking may have been looked at as a distraction from productivity, it’s become clear that Microsoft sees the value in being able to easily connect with contacts, colleagues and collaborators.
“Sometimes, the way that I get work done is not by starting work on an artefact, but by finding a person first,” Hough says. “Our acquisition of Yammer is yet more evidence of the merging together of social with productivity. They’re not two separate things. It’s not a waste of time to have a feed that shows you what people are working on or lets you get in touch with people easily.”
It’s Outlook that exhibits Office’s new social abilities the most, calling up a contact’s schedule and recent projects when you address them in an email. But Word and PowerPoint are more social, too, with improved ways to collaborate on documents with better organized footnotes and a streamlined Track Changes feature.
Finally, there was the hardware to consider. The new Office is made to work on both traditional PCs as well as tablets. That includes both full-functioning Windows tablets — which will run old Windows 7 apps — and the new Windows RT devices, which will come with a free version of Office. However, to unlock many abilities, such as seamless saving to the cloud, you’ll need to subscribe.
The big change in a tablet environment is the inclusion of touch interfaces. PowerPoint, for example, now supports pinch to zoom and typical gestures. The backbone of Office 2013 also benefits from improvements in Windows 8 to make sure apps respond quickly and properly to every tap and swipe.
“We’ve made a bet this time around in Office on graphics hardware acceleration — work that the Windows team did in Windows 7 that they’ve really doubled down on in Windows 8,” Hough says. “It’s allowed us to build a set of apps in Office that are responsive and fluid.”
Are all these improvements enough to keep competitors at bay and ensure Microsoft Office dominates for another decade? That’s the plan, and Microsoft has included many new features in Office 2013 — such as Excel predicting exactly what table you want and apps that can integrate real-time data — that competitors will find tough to match.
Has Office 2013 impressed you? Why? Share your thoughts in the comments
Windows 8 Release Preview is here! Download it now and here!
Windows 8 Release Preview is available! Download it HERE
Read also, here-below, the interesting POST from Steven Sinofsky. Original POST is HERE
Today, Windows 8 Release Preview is available for download in 14 languages. This is our final pre-release, and includes Windows 8, Internet Explorer 10, new Windows 8 apps for connecting to Hotmail, SkyDrive, and Messenger (and many more), and hundreds of new and updated apps in the Windows Store. Since our first preview release last September, millions of people now use the pre-release product on a daily basis and millions more have been taking it through its paces, totaling hundreds of millions of hours of testing. We genuinely appreciate the effort that so many have put into pre-release testing, and of course, we appreciate the feedback too. Direct feedback and feedback through usage contributed to hundreds of visible changes in the product and tens of thousands of under-the-hood changes.
Just nine months ago, we kicked off this blog as a dialog about the design and development of Windows 8. We’ve talked in depth about building Windows 8, including the features, the designs, and the background behind these. We’ve done so in over 70 posts totaling over 500 pages if printed out and 34 videos totaling over 90 minutes, all coming directly from engineers of the product. We’ve had about 18,000 comments from approximately 7,000 people. Over 170 Windows engineers contributed to the dialog, including over 200 comments I posted (though I was out-commented by one other pretty active reader!). Of course, we’ve been carefully watching the telemetry of the millions of tech enthusiasts using the product at each milestone.
Windows is unique in this way. No other product used by so many provides such an inside view of the choices and development of the product as it evolves—and sometimes we forget that we are talking about a product still under active development even while we are discussing the designs and actively using it. The affirmations, debates, and even disagreements play a crucial role in the development of Windows. This has never been truer, as we reimagine Windows from the chipset to the experience—new hardware support, new user interaction models, new scenarios, new APIs and more, are all enabled with Windows 8, while we bring forward and improve the way Windows 7 has been used on over 550 million PCs around the world. Coming soon, we will see a new wave of PCs designed for Windows 8, along with new apps powered by the new Windows 8 platform.
The team has the deepest respect for, and is always humbled by the responses on the blog and in the stories about the posts. Thank you!
Our next milestone is traditionally called RTM, Release to Manufacturing, and from today until RTM, we will still be changing Windows 8, as we have done in past releases of Windows. We thought it would be a good idea to outline the kinds of feedback we are acting on as millions download and use the Windows 8 Release Preview.
Our focus from now until RTM is on continuing to maintain a quality level higher than Windows 7 in all the measures we focus on, including reliability over time; security to the core; PC, software, and peripheral compatibility; and resource utilization. We will rely heavily on the telemetry built into the product from setup through usage to inform us of the real world experience over time of the Release Preview. In addition, we carefully monitor our forums for reproducible reports relative to PC, software, and peripheral compatibility. We’ll be looking hard at every aspect of Windows 8 as we complete the work on the product, but we want to highlight the following:
- Installation – We have significant telemetry in the setup process and also significant logging. Of course, if you can’t set up Windows 8 at all, that is something we are interested in, and the same holds for upgrades from Windows 7. Please note the specifics regarding installation requirements and cautions found on the download page.
- Security and privacy – Obviously, any vulnerability is a something we would want to address. We will use the same criteria to address these issues as we would for any in-market product.
- Reliability and responsiveness – We are monitoring the “crash” reports for issues that impact broad sets of people. These could be caused by Windows code, Microsoft or third-party drivers, or third-party apps. Information about crashes streams in “real time” to Microsoft, and we watch it very carefully. We also have a lot of new data coming on the hundreds of new apps in the Windows Store.
- Device installation and compatibility – When you download a driver from Windows Update or install a driver via a manufacturer’s setup program, we collect data about that download via the Plug and Play (PnP) ID program. We’ve seen millions of unique PnP IDs through the Consumer Preview. We also receive the IDs for devices that failed to locate drivers. We are constantly updating the Plug and Play web service with pointers to information about each device (driver availability, instructions, etc.) We actively monitor the use of the compatibility modes required when the first installation of a Windows 7 based product does not succeed.
- Software compatibility – Similar to device compatibility, we are also monitoring the installation process for software, and noting programs that do not install successfully. Again, we have the mechanism to help move that forward, and/or introduce compatibility work in the RTM milestone. Here too, we actively monitor the use of compatibility modes required when the first installation of a Windows 7-based product does not succeed. We have tested thousands of complex commercial products from around the world in preparation for the Release Preview.
- Servicing – We will continue to test the servicing of Windows 8 so everyone should expect updates to be made available via Windows Update. This will include new drivers and updates to Windows 8, some arriving very soon as part of a planned rollout. Test updates will be labeled as such. We might also fix any significant issue with new code. All of this effort serves to validate the servicing pipeline, and to maintain the quality of the Release Preview.
- New hardware – Perhaps the most important category for potential fixes comes from making sure that we work with all the new hardware being made as we all use build 8400. Our PC manufacturing partners and hardware partners are engineering new PCs, and these include hardware combinations that are new to the market and new to the OS. We’re working together to make sure Windows 8 has great support for these new PCs and hardware.
In fact, as some have noted, the RP itself was compiled over a week ago (build 8400). It takes time to complete the localized builds, validate the download images and process, as well as gear up all along the network edge for a fairly significant download event.
The path to RTM is well defined and critical to the careful and high quality landing of Windows 8 for our PC manufacturing partners. The changes we make to the product from RP to RTM are all carefully considered and deliberate, including some specific feature changes we plan on making to the user experience (as we talked about in previous posts). This is a routine part of the late stages of bringing a complex product like Windows to market. Throughout this process, every change to the code is looked at by many people across development and test, and across many different teams. We have a lot of engineers changing a very little bit of code. We often say that shipping a major product means “slowing everything down.” Right now we’re being very deliberate with every change we make and ensuring our quality is higher than ever as we progress towards RTM. The product is final when it is loaded on new PCs or broadly available for purchase.
RTM itself is a product development phase, rather than a moment in time. We continue to roll out Windows 8 in over 100 different languages and we are preparing final products for different markets around the world. As that process concludes, we are done changing the code and are officially “servicing” Windows 8. That means any subsequent changes are delivered as fixes (KB articles) or subsequent servicing via Windows Update. Obviously, our ability to deliver fixes via Windows Update has substantially changed the way we release to manufacturing, and so it is not unreasonable to expect updates soon after the product is complete, as occurred for Windows 7. There are no surprises here, but we’re making sure readers of this blog know what is coming down the road.
Once we have entered the RTM stage, our partners will begin making their final images and manufacturing PCs, and hardware and software vendors will ready their Windows 8 support and new products. We will also begin to manufacture retail boxes for shipment around the world. We will continue to work with our enterprise customers as well, as we ensure availability of the volume license tools and products.
Remember, if you buy a new PC running Windows 7 today, with the great support from our PC partners, you will be ready for Windows 8.
Delivering the highest quality Windows 8 is the most important criteria for us at this point—quality in every dimension. The RTM process is designed to be deliberate and maintain the overall engineering integrity of the system.
Ultimately, our partners will determine when their PCs are available in market. If the feedback and telemetry on Windows 8 and Windows RT match our expectations, then we will enter the final phases of the RTM process in about 2 months. If we are successful in that, then we are tracking to our shared goal of having PCs with Windows 8 and Windows RT available for the holidays.
On behalf of the Windows team,
Steven Sinofsky
PS: Please be sure to check the download page for system requirements, release notes, upgrade instructions, and other details on how to install and use the Release Preview.
What is the future of Gaming & Entertainment ? [SlideShare]
Yesterady, I had the pleasure to give a presentation on the Future of Entertainment in Luxembourg, for LU-CIX, http://www.lu-cix.lu/speakers-list.html
LU-CIX stands for Luxembourg Commercial Internet exchange. LU-CIX was founded in 2009 based on a cross-industries initiative set up by major national and international Internet players, with the aim of developing the Internet in Luxembourg.
How to Control Your Xbox with your Windows Phone ? via @davidmerzel’s BLOG
We have fantastic news for you. The Xbox Companion application for Windows Phone 7 is available for download today. Basically, it will connect your Windows Phone to your TV. Don’t forget checking out the killer video that shows all of the new things that will be possible with an Xbox 360, Xbox LIVE and Kinect in your living room.
This utility lets you find, learn more about and control content from Xbox LIVE Marketplace on your Xbox 360 straight from your Windows Phone.
- Find Content: Just like on your Xbox, the Xbox Companion gives you instant access to the Xbox LIVE Marketplace catalog of games, movies, music and TV shows.
- Learn more about what you’re watching, listening to, or playing: Once I found the movie and touched the movie tile, the Xbox companion app took me to an info page that has all the related details about.
- Control & Play: Once I selected the content and hit play, the Xbox Companion flips into “controller mode” in which I could navigate my Xbox, or control video playback of your video. The best part here is that controls are virtually instantaneous – easily as fast as using my controller or a TV remote.
 |
 |
 |
This app is free. How it works? Fire-up your Xbox 360s. The Xbox Companion app for Windows Phone connects your Windows Phone and Xbox LIVE experiences. Conduct searches with Bing, learn more about and control content from Xbox LIVE Marketplace on your Xbox 360 straight from your Windows Phone. Once you launch a movie, show or song, your phone becomes a remote control to play and control videos and music on your Xbox 360. Check out a demo of the Companion app
Don’t wait, try this new experience. Download Xbox Companion App here, it’s free
Remember that you can keep up on all the latest stuff from Windows Phone through the The Birdsflok website and @WP7BE Twitter handle.
Microsoft’s Vision of the Future [video], via @davidmerzel’s BLOG
The official Microsoft Blog recently published an article which demonstrated Microsoft’s glimpse into the future of productivity.
Kurt DelBene today announced a new video that shows their vision on the future of productivity. The video carries forward many of the themes laid out there, as well as introducing some new ones.
Natural user interfaces, displays everywhere, an ecosystem of devices, cloud computing are consistent.
New themes emerge in this video such as technology working on our behalf, and context plays a much bigger part in many scenes. As Kurt notes in his post, this vision is no flight of fancy – all of the ideas contained in the video are based on real technology – from Microsoft and others.
Job Opportunity @ Microsoft Belux : Retail Windows & Office Category Marketing Manager, via @davidmerzel’s BLOG
If you want to apply to this job, just go to this site by clicking HERE
Windows has become one of the most engaging and recognizable consumer brands in the world today. Yet even with this fantastic consumer presence, the opportunity for growth in both our traditional PC business, as well as our new online services business with Windows Live has never been greater.Retail plays a key role in selling more Windows PC’s to consumers. To confront strong competition in the PC category, we need to step up our game in transforming the consumer PC purchase experience.
Marketing Manager include:
1.Drive and execute a deep and comprehensive Windows, Office and Office:Mac integrated retail marketing strategy and vision in the country retail channel
2.Define and influence the various elements of the marketing mix and key retail programs within the country that will direct and influence ROI based on the Windows, Office and Office:Mac marketing and business goals
3.Maximize PC attach opportunities through collaboration and planning with OEM and SMSP teams
4.Provide in depth business analysis on the country Office and Office:Mac business performance for revenue and percent attach
5.Execute the retail channel component of a comprehensive brand strategy that encompasses the Office and Office:Mac products and services
6.Set overall retail strategy and direction for windows & Office product launches, marketing campaigns and consumer initiatives, e.g. ensuring appropriate pricing and SKU mix
7.Own the retail numbers for Windows & Office category including revenue, forecasting, attach rates, contribution margin and marketing spend
8.Set strategy and direction around account presentations and meetings
9.Co-own account relationships at the management level around the marketing aspects of each account
10.Land Windows @ retail category strategies at retail to maximize revenue and socket opportunity
11.Manage the relationship with Regional OEM marketing and Windows Consumer BG to Maximize PC opportunities through collaboration and planning
12.Attain Windows, Office and Office:Mac scorecard targets
13.Work with EMEA Retail Services to land the retail channel component of a comprehensive channel marketing strategy that encompasses the People, Place, Demo and On Line elements
14.Partner with Global Account Managers to drive pan EMEA programs and marketing activities across our top European Retail partners
15.Manage new license types and form factors as they come to retail e.g. Product Key Card ( PKC), Point of Sale Activation ( POSA), Electronic Software Distribution ( ESD)
Key Interfaces/ Relationships
2.Subsidiary channel marketing
3.RSM Belux Lead and Key Account Managers
•Office Retail sell tru units and revenue
•Office Attach to Retail PC’s
•Office Premium Units (Pro H&B)
•OfficeMac sell in and sell-through Units and Revenue
•Office Mac Attach
•Clear Retail Strategy established with Windows & Office Strategy lead
•Proactive communication on issues and opportunities to Office leadership in region
•Strong, credible, and proactive alignment across the Partner eco-system
•Windows @ Retail scorecard metrics
•Strength of relationship across Windows @ retail internal and external ecosystem including OEM, BG, CCG
•Landing of Windows 8 launch in the channel including retail offers
•Proactive communication on issues and opportunities to the Windows leadership in region
•Consumer retail experience
•Successful implementation of marketing assets in Belux
•Business analysis and insight and reporting through ROB
Business & Leadership Competencies
•Leader who has well developed competencies in developing retail strategies that drive customers to our Office products at retail.
•Strong understanding of relevant marketing experience in the retail channel or technology fields
•Broad skill set encompassing excellent marketing & relationship management capabilities, with proven ability to collaborate well with cross functional groups and virtual teams to achieve specific objectives
•Ability to drive and influence sub revenue and P&L performance as well as long-term success within country
•Demonstrated ability to develop innovative consumer marketing strategies that will drive core metrics at retail
•Strong analytical and problem solving skills
•Maturity in the following competencies: cross-group collaboration, dealing with ambiguity, Business and Strategy Leadership, Integrated Marketing Planning, and Customer Insight (as it relates to and through partners)
•Excellent written and verbal communication skills
•Solid understanding of the Microsoft channel sales model
•Great attitude and a passion for driving results and seeing projects through to completion•5 years experience working in consumer, retail, and/or online Marketing
•Ideal candidate will have prior consumer marketing experience, ideally of technical products such as PC HW or SW or consumer electronics products
1. Channel Marketing Manager Xbox/Kinect
Find job description HERE for this job and apply HERE
2. Partner Account Manager Retail
Find job description HERE for this job and apply HERE
We are hiring Marketing & Sales talents at Microsoft Belgium ! via @davidmerzel’s BLOG
As you probably know, Kinect is the fastest selling consumer electronics device ever (Guiness Book of Wold Records)
In order to sustain growth on Kinect / Xbox and other key Microsoft Consumer Products sold in Retail (Office, Windows PC, Windows Phone, PC Hardware), we are hiring Marketing & Sales talents at Microsoft, in Belgium / Luxembourg.
Take a look, here-below, at 4 open job postings for the Retail Sales & Marketing Division and don’t hesitate to contact me back for any additional info on this. Send me a mail : dmerzel@microsoft.com.
Don’t hesitate to spread this info, if you know talent people 
who want to join a GREAT company.
For people who want to apply, you can directly apply on internet for 2 following open job postings.
For the last job posting here-below, you can directly contact Virginie Vandenabeele, v-viva@microsoft.com
1. Product Marketing Manager Hardware
Find job description HERE, for this job and apply HERE
2. Channel Marketing Manager Xbox/Kinect
Find job description HERE for this jo and apply HERE
3. Partner Account Manager Retail
Find job description HERE for this jo and apply HERE
4. Brand Manager Xbox/Kinect
For this job, take a look at the job description here-below and apply by sending a mail to Virginie Vandenabeele v-viva@microsoft.com
Position Title: Brand Manager Xbox/Kinect
Reports to: Marketing Lead Xbox
Purpose:
Brand Manager has marketing responsibilities to develop and execute marketing programs that increase brand identity and brand awareness for Xbox, Xbox LIVE and the international award winning Kinect products.
This includes working with the Product and Channel Marketing managers, Finance and other Brand/Marcom Managers internationally, taking responsibility for developing plans and executing projects and initiatives that support the broader short and long-term marketing strategy. The Brand Manager ensures the brand remains relevant to consumers and that all initiatives support the brand promise. Additionally, Brand Managers take a lead in managing and communication agencies, and all other aspects of their projects.
Roles/Responsibilities:
- Plan, strategies and execute marketing designs and activities to establish and maintain brand presence in the market
- This includes partnerships, joint promotions and brand events
- 3rd Party contacts in cooperation with product manager
- Develop and sign Business to Business deals with brand partners around Xbox 36 consoles and Kinect products
- Define brand strategies and road maps
- Conduct competitive strategic market analysis, consumer segmentation, and consumer insight development
- Develop effective positioning in the market
- Develop mid-term plan and financial analyses (post mortem)
- Brief and train sales personnel
- Launch and oversee advertising and media planning
- This includes PR brand (leading communication agency) and owned social media
- Align and cooperate with local marketing team and overall EMEA Marcom marketing manager to develop, communicate & implement strategic marketing plans that fit with the EMEA/corp brand and product marketing guidelines and objectives.
- Shape and participate in cross EMEA dialogue between Marcom marketing functions – secure there are well-known forums to share best practices and learn from other regions.
- Manage the central Marcom Marketing budget according to strategic BeLux marketing plans. Ensure all agreed brand communication and sales objectives are met within budget to maximize effect.
Measurement & Analysis of Performance and Programs
- Measure the impact of planned and executed brand and communication programs (Post mortem)
Budget Management
- Manage budget according to strategic plans with no overspend.
- Ensure regular budget reviews with manager.
Contacts
This position has frequent contact with the Channel / Category marketing groups, Sales Managers, Product Groups, retailers and field account managers and reports to the Marketing or business group lead.
Qualifications Recommended
- A Bachelor’s degree and/or 4 years of marketing experience.
· A brand marketing manager must have a good grasp and understanding of consumer insights and needs. Strategic thinking and leadership skills are useful in securing brand manager jobs.
· One of the primary requirements for brand manager jobs is excellent communication skills both in verbal and written forms. People skills are also essential for brand manager jobs.
- Ability to communicate and collaborate effectively and concisely in Dutch, French and English
- Strong attention to detail, excellent organization skills and ability to effectively manage multiple projects required
- Product excitement.
- Excellent cross group collaboration skills.
- Ability to effectively influence others in multiple groups and collaborate to achieve specific objectives
- Ability to work independently and take action to achieve position goals and objectives
- Other competencies; Drive for Results, Decision Making, Creativity, Strategic Thinking, Organizational Agility, and Performance Management
- Eagerness and ability to take on specific additional responsibilities & projects during business peaks periods
About Xbox 360
Xbox 360 is a premier home entertainment and video game system. Thanks to the addition of Kinect, Xbox 360 has also transformed social gaming and entertainment with a whole new way to play — no controller required. Xbox 360 is also home to the best and broadest games as well as the largest on-demand library of music, standard- and high-definition movies, TV shows and digital games, all in one place. The entertainment center of the living room, Xbox 360 blends unbeatable content with a leading social entertainment network of nearly 35 million Xbox LIVE members to create a limitless entertainment experience that can be shared at home or across the globe. More information about Xbox 360 can be found online at http://www.xbox.com.
About Kinect
Kinect brings games and entertainment to life in extraordinary new ways without using a controller. Imagine controlling movies and music with the wave of a hand or the sound of your voice. With Kinect, technology evaporates, letting the natural magic in all of us shine. Kinect is also officially named as the fastest selling consumers electronics device by the Guiness Book of World Records
About Xbox LIVE
Xbox LIVE is the online entertainment service for your Xbox 360, connecting you to an ever-expanding world of games, movies, TV, music, sports and social entertainment. Xbox LIVE lets you play the best games, enjoy the largest on-demand library on any console, listen to millions of songs and share the fun with friends around the world. Xbox LIVE is also the exclusive home of controller-free online entertainment through Kinect, making your Xbox 360 more intuitive and interactive than ever before. With an active community of nearly 35 million people across 35 countries, Xbox LIVE, together with Xbox 360, provides you with instant access to the entertainment you want, shared with the people you care about, wherever you are. More information about Xbox LIVE can be found online at http://www.xbox.com/live.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
For any other open job positions, just go HERE
Innov@MIC, The Innovation Day @ Microsoft Innovation Center in Mons [23rd of June 2011], via @davidmerzel’s BLOG
The 23rd of June, we have the Innovation Day @ Microsoft Innovation Center in Mons : Innov@MIC.
The event looks very promising ! We have more than 20 speakers with some “guest stars”, as:
• Tom Palmaerts, elected Trendwatcher from the year 2010, unveil us the trends of tomorrow;
• Braden Kelley, author of the book “stocking your innovation bonfire”, will go thru the innovation process;
• Nao, the domestic humanoid robot, also will be part of this event…
I will be one of the speakers and I will announce the end of the “old school” marketing or the end of the 4P.
The day will close with the opening of the Technological Bussiness Accelerator, followed by the ceremony of Boostcamp # 3 and its traditional cocktail prices.
Click here-below to access MIC site for more info on the agenda
For more information, see below.
Registration: http://events.mic-belgique.be/event/innovmic-journee-de-linnovation-le-23-juin-au-mic
Program: http://blog.mic-belgique.be/?page_id=2621
LinkedIn: http://events.linkedin.com/Innov-MIC-Innovation-day-Microsoft/pub/632946
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/event.php?eid=160043400723040
E3 by the NUMBERS [infographic], via @davidmerzel’s BLOG
E3 is just done @ Los-Angeles. I was so happy to be there.
E3 is The Electronic Entertainment Expo. This is the premiere event of the year for everyone involved in the global interactive entertainment industry.
E3 Expo delivers an unmatched and highly qualified audience of developers, retail buyers, international and U.S.–based trade and consumer media, industry and investment analysts, venture capitalists and community influencers
These are the key players in the global interactive entertainment industry and this is your once-a-year chance to interact with them all, under one roof.
Let’s have a look at this infographic which comes back on key figures.
Click on the picture to enlarge
Source : http://gonintendo.com/wp-content/photos/e3_by_the_numbers_20110603002701769.jpg
Press Conference Microsoft / Xbox @ E3. [My Notes from Los-Angeles] via @davidmerzel’s BLOG
I had the chance to be, this morning, in the Xbox 360 Media Briefing @ E311 – Los Angeles.
You will find HERE the full conference
Here-below, some key outcome
The show started with a cool demo of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3.
Then, we saw a demo of tomb raider.
We discovered the Voice recognition Kinect on Mass Effect 3 and how Kinect (thru voice recognition) could influence the scenario of the game.
For Clancy’s Ghost Recon Future Soldier, you can use KINECT to tailore your weapon. Amazing demo. I really want to test it. All future titles in this franchise will leverage Kinect.
Xbox Live is also changing.
Tomorrow, you will use your voice to access your music, games, video.
Youtube is coming to Xbox Live. Bing is going to come to Xbox Live too.
You can search games thru Bing. You say it, Xbox finds it. Look at Demo Bing here-below.
Cliff Bleszinski presented GOW3 and Ice-T on stage for an amazing demo (see demo here- below)
2011 will be also the Year of Halo with Halo Anniversary including Fully Remastered Campaigns from previous editions. 15th of Nov is the D Day for this launch (see trailer here-below)
Forza 4 looks amazing too. Release is foressen this year the 11th of Oct (see trailer here-below)
Fable “the Journey” looks also great. You can ride the horse thru your Kinect and make other cool thinks (see demo here-below)
Disneyland Adventures is a Great game to experience Disneyland Parc’s Attractions. This will be Available this Holiday. My kids will be happy, I’m sure.
Kinect Star Wars. It looks so cool. My son will be happy. He is top fan of Star Wars. You use Kinect and that’s pretty cool (see demo here-below)
Kinect Funlabs will be available for Xbox Live Members.
You can create avatar like you. Amazing demo.
Kinect finger tracking is also coming.
Object capture. You can scan your favorite objects and bring them to live (see demo here-below)
Kinect Sport Season 2. Top franchise of Kinect today. That’s clearly a game for my parents who can play Golf and other games.
Last demo of the day : Dance Central 2. This is the perfect game for my doughter Noa. (See Trailer here-below)
Posted from WordPress for Windows Phone
A first look at the new “Windows 8″ user interface [video] via @davidmerzel’s BLOG
A first look at the new “Windows 8″ user interface.
The whole point of Windows 8, which is just a codename, is to be one OS that’ll run on regular computers or on tablets.
So Windows 8 will run two kinds of applications:
- A standard Windows application
- An almost mobile-like app.
All apps can be viewed in this tile-based UI, which Josh from TIMN says is, “Very impressive.
It looks super fast.” You can totally see the Windows Phone influence on the interface, from the Live Tiles to the touch keyboard, which even has a “thumbs” mode.
The animations and gestures and multitasking are all pretty damn smooth looking, as you can see in this demo video (or you know, up top).
Microsoft’s official list of new features shown off:
• Fast launching of apps from a tile-based Start screen, which replaces the Windows Start menu with a customizable, scalable full-screen view of apps.
• Live tiles with notifications, showing always up-to-date information from your apps.
• Fluid, natural switching between running apps.
• Convenient ability to snap and resize an app to the side of the screen, so you can really multitask using the capabilities of Windows.
• Web-connected and Web-powered apps built using HTML5 and JavaScript that have access to the full power of the PC.
• Fully touch-optimized browsing, with all the power of hardware-accelerated Internet Explorer 10
11 Free Microsoft Tools You’re Overlooking. Free downloadable content via @davidmerzel’s BLOG
Here-below, the list of 11 Free Microsoft Tools You’re Overlooking. Your will be enchanted !
Source : http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/227178/11_free_microsoft_tools_youre_overlooking.html
Hotmail
Hotmail was the first Web-based e-mail service, and one of the first to be free. The free Microsoft Outlook Hotmail Connector lets you view your Hotmail data from within Outlook, and Hotmail also supports Exchange Active Sync so your Hotmail e-mail, contacts, and calendar can be automatically synced with mobile devices. Exchange is Microsoft’s messaging server used by many businesses for e-mail, but Exchange Active Sync has emerged as a standard used by many devices to sync mail, contact, and calendar information.
Windows Live Essentials
Windows Live Messenger–a component of Windows Live Essentials–can integrate with your Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace social networks. Microsoft moved many tools (since Windows 7) to the cloud, and began to offer them as a separate download called Windows Live Essentials–a package comprising 7 of the 11 tools discussed in this article. The lineup in Windows Live Essentials 2011 requires Windows 7, Vista SP2, Windows Server 2008 R2, or Server 2008 SP2. If you want them, though, you can download Windows Live Essentials for free and get a whole suite that includes:
- Windows Live Mail: Whereas Windows Live Hotmail is a Web-based e-mail service, Windows Live Mail is a desktop e-mail client application that lets you add and view multiple e-mail accounts–including Hotmail and Gmail–from one interface. For users who don’t want to spend the money to get Outlook, Windows Live Mail performs many of the same functions for free.
- Windows Live Messenger: At its core, Messenger is simply an instant messaging (IM) tool. It integrates with Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace, it delivers MSN news, and it connects with your Hotmail account. Messenger is more of an online communications hub than an IM client. But if the aggregated view is too noisy for you, you can switch to the compact view which is more like a traditional IM client. Plus, its mobile app lets you stay connected on the go from a Windows Phone 7, BlackBerry, Android, or iOS mobile device.
- Windows Live Mesh: It can be daunting to keep information synced among various PCs and devices you use, or to make sure you have access to your data even on the go. Windows Live Mesh helps tie everything together and automatically keeps your data synced and available. You can keep files and folders automatically synced among different Windows or Mac OS X PCs running Live Mesh, or with Microsoft’s cloud-based SkyDrive data storage service (see below).
- Windows Live Writer: Microsoft Writer makes it simpler to write blog posts for a variety of blog platforms including WordPress and SharePoint. Rather than having to learn different blogging conventions, you can just type the post the way you want, and easily add photos, videos, or Bing maps to enrich your post with interactive content. I like using it to create my post like this for wordpress.
- Photo Gallery: For many, the PC has replaced the bookshelf photo album as the primary repository for photos. Windows Live Photo Gallery gives you the tools to import photos and videos quickly from your camera or smartphone and keep them organized on your PC. Its advanced editing tools let you fuse pictures together or combine elements from different photos to make the best possible picture. It also includes built-in search options that let you find photos based on when they were taken, or where, or to use facial recognition technology to find all photos of a given person.
- Windows Live Movie Maker: With HD video being virtually a default feature of smartphones, laptops, and tablets these days, everyone is an amateur director or producer. Edit and polish that lengthy, boring footage of your daughter’s fifth-grade play on Movie Maker before sending it to friends or family, publishing it online, or posting it on social networking sites like Facebook. Give it a title and intro, cut out parts you don’t want, add some background music, and more. Editing and producing a movie is simple with Movie Maker.
- Windows Live Family Safety: Family Safety 2011 enhances the parental controls already built into Windows and makes it even easier for parents to protect children from the darker side of the Web and to monitor or limit Internet activity. Parents can even limit e-mail and IM communications to approved contacts, and can log in to view activity reports from their own PC rather than checking in on each separate PC.
Windows Live SkyDrive
Everything seems to revolve around the cloud these days. In other words, we find ourselves using products and services that exist on the Internet rather than locally on our PCs. But if you happen to be without Internet access or if the service goes down, that can be a problem.
Luckily, services such as Windows Live SkyDrive are great for backing up data to the Internet, or for storing files and folders that you want to access from just about anywhere. As mentioned earlier, you can use Windows Live Mesh to sync data automatically from a local folder to SkyDrive cloud storage, where you can make sure it is backed up and available.
Windows Live MovieMaker turns anyone into a movie director or producer, and helps you polish those home movies.The 25GB of storage provided by SkyDrive is sufficient for most SMBs to back up critical data. (Data synced using Windows Live Mesh is limited to a separate 5GB space.) Plus, a Silverlight tool lets you drag and drop files and folders from any browser that supports Silverlight, Microsoft’s framework for delivering interactive Web content.
Office Web Apps
Along with SkyDrive, Microsoft also provides free, Web-based versions of the most popular Microsoft Office applications. Office Web Apps let you create, view, and edit Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote files directly from the Web even if Microsoft Office isn’t installed on your PC. Office Web Apps lack the complete inventory of bells and whistles found in the full Microsoft Office suite, but they are more than adequate for most users, and you can’t beat the price. The best part is that the files created in Office Web Apps are in the same format as their desktop Office counterparts, so compatibility is not an issue, and the files can be shared with peers for collaborative editing online.
Windows Live SkyDrive stores your files and folders on the Web so you can access them from virtually anywhere.But organizations that want more robust tools, or the full Microsoft Office experience, should look for the upcoming launch of Office 365–Microsoft’s replacement for Business Professional Online Services. Starting at only $6 per user per month, Office 365 will provide Exchange e-mail, Lync instant messaging, SharePoint collaboration, and the Office Web Apps productivity suite.
Security Essentials
Security software is unfortunately a requirement for Windows PCs. There is no shortage of attackers and malware developers targeting PC users with viruses, worms, phishing attacks, and other insidious things. Windows has a built-in firewall to keep unauthorized traffic and users out of your PC, and Windows Defender to identify and block spyware and drive-by downloads. But for more comprehensive antimalware protection, get the free Microsoft Security Essentials software. Security Essentials is simple and does what it needs to do with a minimum of user intervention or annoyance.
Joe Belfiore, shows off some of the new features coming in the Mango release of Windows Phone [video] @davidmerzel BLOG
Joe Belfiore, corporate vice president in Windows Phone shows off some of the new features coming in the Mango release of Windows Phone.
Microsoft Bing Controls 30% Of Search Market [STATS]
- Microsoft has secured 30% of the search market, largely at Google’s expense, according to data from Experian Hitwise.
- The new March numbers claim that Microsoft achieved 30.01% of the U.S. search market share in March — 14.32% from Bing.com and 15.69% from Yahoo Search, which Bing now powers. T
- he growth was pretty evenly distributed as well: Bing.com’s search market share grew by 6% from February while Yahoo search grew by 5%.
- Google, on the other hand, now controls 64.42% of the U.S. search market compared with its 66.69% share in February.
- Google’s market share is down 10% from August 2010, when it owned 71.59% of the search market. August was the first month Yahoo Search was powered by Bing, and since then, both search engines have grown. This is especially true for Bing.com, which only had 9.87% of the market in August.
- One of the reasons why Yahoo and Bing may be gaining on Google is that users are apparently achieving more success out of Bing-powered search: 81.14% of Yahoo Search users and 80.32% of Bing.com users clicked on a search result and visited a website.
- Google, on the other hand, only achieves a 65.91% success rate, according to Experian Hitwise’s numbers.
