What Is The CIE?

1.What is the CIE?The Microsoft Customer Immersion Experience (CIE) provides a facilitatedhands-on environment where business and IT decision makers test driveMicrosoft technologies including Office 365, Office, Exchange, SharePoint, Lync,Project, Visio, Windows, Windows Phone, Dynamics CRM and System Center.2.How does it work?Unlike traditional product presentations and demos, the CIE puts a customer inthe driver’s seat for a rich, interactive experience. It is a unique, risk-freeopportunity to explore Microsoft’s Office applications by role playing in a“true-to-life” environment. A trained facilitator leads our customers to discoverthe right solutions for their business and helps them experience the “future ofproductivity”. The CIE is usually set up at a Microsoft or partner office location, aconference room in a hotel or onsite at the customer location. It is designed tobe interactive, experiential, and fun.3.Which products and solutions are covered?The CIE demonstrates the richness of Microsoft’s Information Worker (IW)product stack with its out-of-the-box functionality and integrated feature set.Only Microsoft products currently available to our customer (on the standardMicrosoft pricelist) are showcased (no product betas or 3rd party software).The CIE highlights the following products: Office 365 Office 2010 SharePoint 2010 Lync 2010 Project 2010 Visio 2010 Windows 7 Windows Phone 7 CRM Dynamics 2011 System CenterPage 1

4.Where does the CIE fit within the sales cycle?The CIE is most effective during the earlier stages of the sales cycle (20%-40%).In particular, schedule a CIE for a customer when:5. It is time for their Microsoft EA or updated EA renewal The customer is interested in the purchase of a new EA The customer is evaluating switch to a competitor (compete situation) The customer has right to but hasn’t deployed the latest Microsoft productsWhy should I leverage CIE for sales opportunities?An increase in the number of projects, a faster sales cycle, and a reduction in thenumber of POCs are all attributable to successful CIE sessions. Customers aremore likely to jump in and explore new solutions/ products as it pertains to theirbusiness in a risk free environment. CIE can help partners to: Accelerate sales cycle Increase deal size Reduce cost of sales Improve partnership with local Microsoft account teams Help drive closure in competitive situationsA testimonial from one of our partners in Mexico says it all – "The CIE shortenedour sales cycle (up to 65%). Also, because the customer 'lives' the value of thesolutions they’re buying in a CIE session, CIE helped us close volume licensingcontracts more quickly, made it easier to sell the enterprise desktop, and to setdeployment targets." - Mario Moreno, Perifel6.How do I qualify? Is the CIE for everyone?The CIE showcases Microsoft’s Information Worker (IW) product stack. To ensurethat our customers derive an unforgettable experience, we require that partnershave demonstrated BPIO competencies to qualify as CIE partners. In particular,we require our partners to meet both these criteria:1. Be an actively managed partner with an assigned Microsoft Partner AccountManager Page 2

2. iedCommunications with gold competency in at least one The Microsoft Partner Account Manager or the local CIE Lead approve allrequests of onboarding a new partner7.What is the upfront investment?The setup costs vary widely depending on hardware costs in your region, theneed to localize content, and your choice of facility/ facilitator. Here’s a roughbreakdown and estimates of the costs to consider:DescriptionHardware Facility SetupFacilitator TrainingPlatform Localization Setup Costs8.Low Estimate 10K 0 0 0 10KHigh Estimate 20K 3K 2K 15K 40K Significant cost saving opportunity by partnering with local OEM providers Cost applicable to non-English-speaking subs onlyCan I customize CIE for my customers? Can I build on top of CIE?Microsoft provides the CIE environment (made available as 6 virtual machines)featuring rich out-of-box functionality. If you believe that adding your customsolution on top of this stack, enhanced customer value, please feel free to do so.However, Microsoft will not provide any support in such a situation.9.Can I leave it as a customer location?The software made available through the CIE virtual machines leverage standardtrial licenses (which means they will cease to fully function after the expiration ofthe trial key, usually 180 days). As long as the customer plans to use CIE fortraining or demonstration purposes, they are in full compliance of Microsoft’sEULA.10.Can I use my MSDN or partner licensing to activate CIE so I do not have todeal with rearming the environment?The entire CIE 3.0 platform is meant to be deployed before each CIE session,Page 3

thus there is no need to activate the clients or servers. If for some reason theplatform must be activated (not to be confused with the Windows Server 2008R2 Evaluation activation), then keys may be obtained online through MSDN orTechNet.11.Do I need to buy any licenses to run a CIE session?The software made available through the CIE virtual machines leverage standardtrial licenses (which means they will cease to fully function after the expiration ofthe trial key). So, under the current EULA, you are not required to buy anysoftware licenses to run a CIE session.12.How often do you refresh the CIE images?The CIE team at Microsoft refreshes the virtual machines as needed to ensurethat the product stack is up-to-date. Updates usually include bug fixes andadditional scenarios to further strengthen the overall business plot.13.How do I stay abreast of all the latest on CIE?The CIE partner portal (www.microsoftcie.com) should be your first stop for allthe latest information on CIE. In addition, please contact your local MicrosoftPartner Account Manager or local CIE Lead for specific questions.14.Is the CIE focused on a specific industry vertical?The CIE content is not industry focused and has been intentionally kept genericto support all our customers.15.Do you have a version of CIE for the public sector and/ or the educationsector?The CIE has been used successfully to showcase the value of the Microsoftproduct stack to governments and educational institutions across the world witha few innovative tweaks to the story line (the underlying infrastructure remainsunchanged). At this time, the CIE core team has no plans of providingprescriptive guidance on how the CIE can be used for our public sector andeducation industry customers.16.Why should I use the CIE vs. individual product demos?The CIE is not a replacement for the individual product demos; instead, it is aPage 4

complement. The CIE focuses on how our products help solve real worldbusiness issues. It allows our customers to experience the Microsoft productivityplatform and appreciate how it improves efficiencies in real world businesssituations. In a typical CIE, dwelling on products/ product features is secondary;the discussion tends not to be around what the features are, rather, they tend tobe around why one would them.17.How do I get the right customer audience to come to CIE? Who is the rightaudience?Identifying and securing the right audience for a CIE session is critical to thesuccess of the overall session. Business Decision Makers (BDMs), like Line ofBusiness Managers, and IT Decision Makers (ITDMs) are the right audience toinvite for a CIE session. It is imperative that the CIE be positioned as a businesssession and not a technical session (in fact, it is not uncommon for the facilitatorto be a non-technical person). Use your champion inside the customerorganization to identify and pull in the decision makers (e.g. department heads)and influencers.18.How do I get customers to spend so much time out of their day with us?A typical CIE session is approximately 4 hours in duration. While this mightappear to be a lot of time to get on the calendars of senior leadership, it ispossible for the senior leaders to come for 2 hours while their direct reportspartake in the entire session.An alternate strategy, if travel is an issue for your customer, would be to take theCIE onsite to their location.19.Where do I set up the CIE facility?Our customers are experiencing the CIE all over the world. The CIE program iscurrently available in over 135 Microsoft locations. Depending on your situation,many options are available to you:3. Deliver CIE sessions at a Microsoft office 4. Delivery CIE sessions at a MTC (Microsoft Technology Center) 5. Delivery CIE sessions at your own office 6. Deliver CIE sessions at the customer location Page 5

7. Delivery CIE sessions at a public location (hotel, conference, etc.) Work with your Microsoft Partner Account Manager to assess the feasibility ofdelivering CIE sessions at a Microsoft location. A few locations/ partners have opted for their CIE infrastructure to be mobile.So, instead of investing in a permanent facility, the hardware is housed in aspecial case (www.customcases.com) that can be wheeled in and out of acustomer location or offsite with minimal oversight.20.Can I deliver CIE’s at a Microsoft location?The CIE program is currently available in over 135 Microsoft locations.Depending on your location, you have two options:1. Deliver CIE sessions at a Microsoft office 2. Delivery CIE sessions at a MTC (Microsoft Technology Center) Work with your Microsoft Partner Account Manager to assess the feasibility ofdelivering CIE sessions at a Microsoft location.21.Does Microsoft have any special pricing if I want to purchase a set ofhardware?Microsoft provides only the virtual machines and guidance on how CIE sessionsshould be executed. We do not offer any special pricing on CIE hardware. Weencourage you to liaise with local OEMs to get optimal pricing on hardware inyour region.22.Does Microsoft provide any funding towards CIE?Microsoft doesn’t provide any funding toward building, owning and executingCIE sessions. We strongly believe that the ROI on CIE is very high and the upfrontinvestment pays for itself in a relatively short period of time.23.How do I get involved in the program? What do I need to get started?If you are a qualified partner, please visit us at www.microsoftcie.com and submityour information to request the CIE virtual machines. Once approved, you will beprovided detailed instructions on downloading the CIE virtual machines to getstarted.Page 6