REDMOND, Wash. — Nov. 5, 2012 — Major global brands, including Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution, Johnson & Johnson Services Inc., Rooms To Go Inc., Bank of America Corp. and PCL Constructors Inc., are among the early adopters deploying Windows 8-based apps to address their business needs and engage consumers in new ways.

From offering partners sneak peeks at TV shows and movies, to staying in lockstep with consumers at retail, to helping keep workers safe by preventing construction site incidents, these companies are discovering how Windows 8 apps can improve the way they do business.

“It’s so great to see a number of the world’s most well-known companies choosing Windows 8 to advance their businesses,” said Erwin Visser, senior director of Windows Commercial Marketing at Microsoft. “Windows 8 opens new doors for businesses to improve the way they collaborate and share information, enhance customer experiences, uncover new business opportunities, and much more.”

Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution

Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution, a division of Twentieth Century Fox responsible for the global distribution of its library of television series and feature films, has developed a Windows 8 app for its industry-leading customer site, FoxFast.com. FoxFast.com was created to give broadcast partners 24/7 access to screen the vast library of programs, as well as to easily access all the marketing materials needed to create and support launches.

With an increasingly mobile business landscape and the division’s transition to a fully digital distribution model, the studio needed a simple method for broadcasters to securely screen its products and download their marketing assets on-the-go. Creating the Windows 8 app was the next natural evolution for FoxFast.com — a touch-first app that scales to work on a variety of devices — making the site's offerings accessible anytime, anywhere around the world. Like FoxFast.com, the new app provides customers with an authenticated user experience to securely screen content and manage marketing assets. The FoxFast app is now available in the Windows Store for download.

Johnson & Johnson Services Inc.

Johnson & Johnson has developed a new Windows 8 app called the Digital Health Scorecard. Available in the Windows Store, the app provides consumers with a simple way to understand the state of their health and what they can do to lessen their long-term risk for developing chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease. According to the World Health Organization, these common conditions account for three out of every five deaths around the globe. The insight gained from the Digital Health Scorecard can help engage and motivate people to make small changes that can lead to healthier, happier lives.

The Digital Health Scorecard has been designed to be fast and easy to use. The app can and should be reused on a regular basis so that people can understand their progress over time. Johnson & Johnson has led the effort to develop the science behind calculating the score and will update it over time as new data becomes available.

Rooms To Go

Rooms To Go, a furniture retailer, has developed a Windows 8 line-of-business app that provides an intuitive, touch-enabled point-of-sale experience for customers, taking advantage of continuous connectivity. The app consists of a suite of mini-apps that allow the sales associates to stage the sales process and transaction in-store without leaving the customer’s side. Customers can also seamlessly browse the full line of available inventory through the app and conceptualize different room settings. This allows for a cost-effective solution for all sales associates across 175 stores.

Bank of America

Bank of America has developed the Bank of America Mobile Banking app for Windows 8 that gives customers a digital experience that is optimized for the Windows 8 user interface and takes advantage of features such as Live Tiles.

Customers have the convenience and accessibility of checking balances, paying bills, making transfers, locating ATMs and banking centers, making deposits, receiving alerts, and redeeming BankAmeriDeals offers from tablets, laptops and desktops.

PCL Construction

PCL Construction, a major construction company in North America and Australia, relies on technology to enable the business. PCL considered Windows 8 a promising new platform for improving the capabilities available to its employees, with a particular focus on field staff, executives and frequent travelers. The company developed a Windows 8 line-of-business app called the Safety Management Center that allows its field staff to record observations while on the construction site and simultaneously fill out inspection forms remotely — helping employees address potential incidents on the job site before they occur. More importantly, Safety Management Center is helping PCL deliver on its ongoing goal of zero safety incidents.

Read more about Windows 8 enterprise customers developing apps on the Windows for your Business blog. More information about how organizations are turning to Microsoft technology is available on the Microsoft Customer Spotlight newsroom.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

REDMOND, Wash. — Nov. 1, 2012 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that its next service update for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online will be released in December 2012. This new service update comes on the heels of continued success that the Microsoft Dynamics CRM business is experiencing in the market, as it completes its 33rd consecutive quarter* of double-digit revenue growth and closes the gap on its 3 millionth seat.

Delivering on the Microsoft Dynamics commitment to rapidly innovate, and help businesses attract, win and retain customers through solutions that delight users and proactively help them do business, the next service update will reimagine the way sales, customer service and marketing professionals work with CRM. Moving away from the traditional data-centric approach, this service update will add new experiences that simply and visually guide users through their business processes. New application capabilities in this service update also include pre-defined best-practice sales and service business process definitions, which are highly configurable and will accelerate time-to-value for organizations; deeper connection to Yammer and Skype; embedded Bing maps; Microsoft Office 2013 compatibility; and cross-browser support enabling new levels of communications and collaboration for customers.

“This release, the first in a planned set of rapid innovation, puts us in a position to redefine user experiences for business professionals,” said Bob Stutz, corporate vice president, Microsoft Dynamics CRM. “We’ve reimagined the business process and infused new communication and collaboration capabilities powered by Skype and Yammer. We continue to help sales and customer service professionals drive new levels of productivity on the browser of their choice, and across a wide range of devices.”

Enriched Business Process Definitions and Reimagined User Experiences

Microsoft is reinventing the way people work with Microsoft Dynamics CRM — whether they are on the road, at home or in the office. The service update will introduce new role-specific user experiences that guide sales and service professionals through pre-defined lead, opportunity and case management processes. The new user experiences will offer customers guidance and suggestions that can easily be tailored to a person’s specific role to drive maximum productivity. The service update will also add new business process definitions to track and manage leads, opportunities, contacts and accounts, making it simpler for people to understand their customer, and be able to better connect and collaborate with each other.

In addition, prospect and customer addresses will be displayed on embedded Bing maps as part of the new user experiences. Microsoft also remains committed to driving productivity for users of Microsoft Outlook and will provide support for customers who invest in the upcoming Microsoft Office 2013 release.

New Enterprise Social Collaboration and Communication Strength

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is delivering next-generation business collaboration and communication, with solutions powered by Yammer and Skype. Using Yammer, Microsoft Dynamics CRM users can collaborate with colleagues inside their organization or with customers, partners and other stakeholders. Yammer fosters simpler information sharing around customers, business processes and key business documents — all through social networking capabilities. Yammer marks a significant step forward in providing customers with the ability to project CRM information, activities and insights across their organization.

Skype capabilities connected to Microsoft Dynamics CRM address an organization’s need for direct interactions with customers and partners to drive new levels of productivity. With Skype, users of Microsoft Dynamics CRM can now initiate voice and video communications directly from Microsoft Dynamics CRM, enabling businesses to open communication channels and connect with individuals inside or outside of their organization.

Expanding Browser and Device Strategy With Support for Windows 8 and Apple iOS

To deliver value to the broadest range of organizations, the December 2012 service update expands browser support to include Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome running on Windows-based PCs, and Firefox and Apple Safari running on Macintosh desktop computers. Safari support will also be provided for Apple iPad to deliver a rich experience for sales users, which enables them to manage their customers, accounts and opportunities on the go.

To help customers access Microsoft Dynamics CRM virtually anywhere, Microsoft previewed a Windows 8-based application, which will deliver a unique experience for managing sales processes by providing customers with seamless and intuitive access to key information. This new Windows 8 Mobile Experience is planned to be available in the mid-2013 timeframe.

New Extensibility Options and Expanded Support for Compliance Standards

Enabling customers with increased flexibility for their Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online deployment, the December 2012 service update will add new cloud extensibility options, including support for custom Microsoft .NET Workflow Services and new bulk data APIs that will make it easier for customers to load and modify large datasets.

Microsoft will continue its commitment to trustworthy computing with the addition of support for the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS 140-2).

Stepping Forward in the Marketing Automation Space

To help marketers meet industry demand to drive overall strategy and execution of customer interactions across multiple channels, and to measure ROI on those interactions, Microsoft also recently announced the acquisition of MarketingPilot. More information on the acquisition of MarketingPilot can be read in a blog post by Bob Stutz at http://bit.ly/TIGb9T.

Further Information

More definitive information on the new capabilities in the December 2012 service update is provided in the release preview guide, which can be downloaded at http://crm.dynamics.com/en-us/polaris. The Microsoft Dynamics CRM team can be followed on Twitter at @MSDynamicsCRM and by using the hashtag #MSDYNCRM.

About Microsoft Dynamics

Microsoft Dynamics solutions empower your people to be more productive and your systems to last longer and scale as your business grows, while enabling you to derive the insights necessary to respond quickly in an ever-changing world of business.

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.

* As of Q1 Microsoft fiscal year 2013.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.