CTO Ross Elliott and Software Architect Sean Elliott talk with Microsoft Technical Evangelist Bruce Kyle about the new applications that are part of AccellosOne Mobile.

They explain why they chose Windows 8 as their platform, how they created two mobile applications that leverage their existing ASP.NET applications. They describe customer concerns and why Windows 8 applications are important to supply chain customers.

Sean and Ross describe how they leverage their skills with Silverlight in building the Windows Store applications.

Sean demos how AccellosOne Mobile take advantage of the Windows 8 features like Snap, Search, Semantic Zoom, Share, multi-touch and personalization.   

The first release of AccellosOne Mobile consists of AccellosOne Inspection and AccellosOne Pulse. 

• AccellosOne Inspection is designed for supply chain managers to easily implement inspection surveys which are administered using Windows 8 tablets by employees in manufacturing, warehousing or transportation operations.  Typical uses for such inspection surveys include product inspection, trailer inspection and vehicle inspections. 
• AccellosOne Pulse is the supply chain intelligence component of the AccellosOne suite and provides real time supply chain metrics and key performance indicators.  AccellosOne Pulse is now available to users on Windows 8 tablets as part of AccellosOne Mobile.

Both applications will be available directly from Accellos as side-loaded Windows Store apps.

Getting Started with Windows 8

See Learn to build Windows Store apps for videos and training for Windows 8 applications in both XAML and HTML5.

About Accellos

Accellos is a global provider of software solutions specifically designed for the unique needs of logistics service providers and midsized businesses. Over 3,000 companies trust Accellos to be the technology backbone of their global supply chains. Accellos provides solutions for warehouse management systems (WMS), third party logistics (3PL), fleet management, transportation management systems (TMS), trading partner integration (EDI), automated barcode data collection, parcel shipping, transportation optimization and supply chain business intelligence. Accellos solutions are built on the AccellosOne platform, a modern technology platform featuring a user-friendly interface and simplified technical administration. For more information, email info@accellos.com or visit www.accellos.com.

In contrast, AppDynamics' automatic instrumentation and configuration make it a perfect fit for managing cloud environments with a high rate of change. In addition, AppDynamics' auto-scaling feature allows Windows Azure customers to automatically provision Windows Azure resource based on the performance and throughput of business transactions.

In this video cloud solutions architect Neil Mackenzie talks with Stephen Burton of AppDynamics who explains how Windows Azure users can:

• Monitor the health of their Windows Azure application
• Troubleshoot performance problems in real time
• Rapidly diagnose root cause of performance problems
• Dynamically scale up and scale down their Windows Azure application

With the release of AppDynamics Pro 3.4.3, Windows Azure customers can now monitor and troubleshoot applications that leverage:

• Windows Azure Compute
• Windows Azure Service Bus
• Windows Azure SQL
• Windows Azure Storage

To provide the best possible solution for Windows Azure users, AppDynamics has made available its multi-tenant Monitoring-as-a-Service platform within Windows Azure itself. This minimizes the network bandwidth costs for Windows Azure customers using AppDynamics because they will not have to transfer monitoring data outside of Windows Azure. In addition, online support, documentation and training are all available directly through the Windows Azure Marketplace.

AppDynamics is available now on the Windows Azure Marketplace. Free trials of AppDynamics Pro for Windows Azure last for 30 days and then revert to AppDynamics Lite for Windows Azure, which is currently free. For more information, please visit www.appdynamics.com/azure

.NET application owners who currently manage production applications in their own physical data center can also benefit from AppDynamics. To take advantage of AppDynamics free solution for .NET monitoring, please visit www.appdynamics.com/free or register to try AppDynamics Pro for 30 days at http://www.appdynamics.com/30-day-trial.php

About AppDynamics

AppDynamics is a leading provider of Software-as-Service (SaaS) and on-premise application performance management for modern application architectures in both the cloud and the data center. The company delivers solutions for highly distributed and agile environments, helping companies such as Priceline, TiVo, AMICA Insurance, Hotels.com, StubHub, DSW, Staples, Insight Technologies, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Cornell University monitor, troubleshoot, diagnose, and scale their production applications. Over 80,000 people have downloaded AppDynamics Lite, the company's free troubleshooting solution for Java/.NET, and the company was recognized as an APM Innovator by Gartner.

Microsoft Principal Architect Evangelist Brian Loesgen speaks with Bryan Hall, co-founder of San Diego, CA-based startup Embarke. Bryan explains why they found in using the Azure platform compelling. Bryan shows the interfaces in the Embarke API, and shares best practices they learned along the way.

About Embarke

Embarke is the distribution center for all of your user's social conversations.  Your customers can initiate conversations with their contacts, regardless of which networks they're connected through. For example: One of your users could start a 4-way conversation with someone on Facebook, another in Email, and another on Twitter. None of those people would have to go anywhere special to be a part of that conversation.

In this video, Lingo Jingo's co-founder, Christian Hasker, speaks with Microsoft Architect Evangelist Allan Naim. Allan and Christian discusses why they chose building on Windows Azure. Christian explains the benefits realized from building on the Azure platform.

About Lingo Jingo

Lingo Jingo was founded with one goal in mind – to make it easier for the world to communicate with one another in different languages. If you've ever tried to speak a few words of a foreign language when you are on vacation you'll know how making a little effort to say "Hello, how are you?" can open up a whole new world of experiences.

If you know 500 words in any language, you'll be able to understand rudimentary conversations and make yourself understood. We'll help you gain that confidence.

In this video, iVoteSports CEO and co-founder, Dennis Peters, speaks with Microsoft Principal Architect Evangelist Brian Loesgen. Dennis discusses how iVoteSports delivers a consumer-oriented interactive social networking experience for sports fans while watching or attending sporting events, which creates a more engaging experience for fans.

Dennis also shares the Azure-based architecture that the mobile devices are interacting with, and discusses some of the unique challenges they needed to deal with.

About iVoteSports

iVoteSports was established in 2011 in Santa Ana, CA. iVoteSports was founded to deliver interactive social networking experiences for sports fans.

In this video, Software Development Manager Alex Hatzopoulos and Architect Greg Cannon speak with Microsoft Principal Architect Evangelist Brian Loesgen. In this wide ranging conversation, they cover their experiences in ramping up their team, setting up their environments, and share other first-hand application migration experience gained while moving their flagship Wireless Service Advisor™ (WSA™) product to Windows Azure.

WSA uses wireless and mobile technologies to streamline and standardize the Repair Order (RO) write-up process. WSA enables a service advisor to greet customers at their vehicle when they arrive at the dealership service department. Using a tablet PC, the service advisor scans or hand-writes the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) or license plate number and transmits the information to multiple databases to retrieve critical customer and vehicle data related to that particular vehicle identifier – the critical data includes repair history, recommended services, warranty and recall information, and customer contact information.

Additionally, the WSA allows the service advisor to complete a full inspection process, handle customer's questions, and provide maintenance recommendations in a timely and interactive fashion, all while standing at the customer's vehicle. The customer can provide service authorization by signing the RO on the tablet PC so they can avoid having to wait for a printed copy. The WSA also allows for the preparation of a printed repair order as well as the update of the DMS database. The WSA presents a user-friendly front-end application that both effectively represents the entire Repair Order write up process and efficiently standardizes the Repair Order write-up procedure. The WSA™ accomplishes all this via an Azure-based backend.

About MOC1 Solutions

Based in in Glendora, CA MOC1 Solutions is a traditional ISV that was founded in 2005 and was incubated in MOC Products until June 2006 when the company was spun out as an independent private entity. MOC1 offers software applications used by automotive dealership service departments and vehicle service facilities.

Like an antivirus for consumer privacy, PrivacyCentral exposes privacy threats to consumers, provides analysis and reports via a risk profile and risk score, and then empowers consumers with the ability to remove detected threats and monitor for future threats.

In this video, Privacy Central's CEO and founder, Zoiner Tejada, speaks with Microsoft Principal Architect Evangelist Brian Loesgen. Tejada discusses the benefits Privacy Central realized from building on the Azure platform, and how they run their Ruby crawlers on Azure. Tejada also goes on to share some lessons learned along the way during their development cycle, and offers up some tips for people new to the platform.

About Privacy Central

Privacy Central is a San Diego CA-based startup and is a member of Microsoft's BizSpark program, it is the first service to allow the consumer to regain full control over their sensitive information.

PrivacyCentral is dedicated to protecting consumer privacy, with powerful tools designed to make protection simple.

About BizSpark

Microsoft BizSpark is a global program that helps software startups succeed by giving them access to Microsoft software development tools, connecting them with key industry players, including investors, and providing marketing visibility to help entrepreneurs starting a business

ReponseLogix has integrated best of breed internet marketing practices and advanced internet marketing technology to deliver consumers an immersive and enjoyable car buying experience, and dealers higher close rates on internet leads. Auto dealers can now deliver a feature-rich, comprehensive and personalized, web-based quote response within minutes of Internet lead receipt, followed by a 180-day follow-up program with both email and web marketing dimensions.

Jagdish Rajan, VP Technology at ResponseLogix talks with Architect Evangelist Allan Naim of Microsoft about their choice of Windows Azure.

ResponseLogix chose Azure for cost effectiveness, worldwide development access, ease to deploy from staging to production. Recommends using Azure storage for read only data and PowerShell scripts for deployment to the Azure staging server.

About ResponseLogix, Inc.

ResponseLogix started in a car dealership. By observing the internet car buying sales process from both the dealer and the customer side, ResponseLogix determined that effective Digital Response Management is the key to achieving both immediate initial response and effective ongoing follow-up. With this in mind, the company created its powerful patent-pending solution suite, tailored to the needs of the fast-paced, multi-tasking dealer internet selling environment.

ResponseLogix delivers software as a service (SaaS) technology to auto dealers that engages the customer early in the car buying process and then propels her toward purchase. SmartQuote® delivers a relevant quote response within 10 minutes of internet lead receipt 95% of the time. SmartFollow® automatically follows-up and reactivates leads if the customer doesn't buy right away. SmartFacts® delivers powerful analytics to help optimize the performance of Internet sales departments. ResponseLogix products are available in 40 US markets for Toyota, Ford, Lincoln-Mercury, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Honda, Lexus, Audi, Acura, Nissan, Infiniti, Kia, Hyundai and Volkswagen dealers across the US. Additional OEM's will be supported soon. Additional information is available at www.responselogix.com.

Getting Started with Windows Azure

Are you a startup? Get BizSpark cloud access

Got MSDN? Get up to $3,700 of cloud benefits

Don't have MSDN? Here's cloud access

Key Points:

• You need Windows Azure SDK for .NET and Visual Studio Tools for Windows Azure (download from here)
• Run Visual Studio as Administrator to be able to use Windows Azure Emulators

Additional Resources:

• Windows Azure – How Do I: Sign-up a free 3-months Trial Account
• Getting Started with Windows Azure (Keynote by Scott Guthrie on 12/13/2011)

Enjoy the show.

Sanjay Jain
ISV Architect Evangelist
Microsoft Corporation
Blog: http://Blogs.msdn.com/SanjayJain
Twitter: http://twitter.com/SanjayJain369

Key Points:

• You need Windows Azure SDK for .NET and Visual Studio Tools for Windows Azure (download from here)
• Run Visual Studio as Administrator to be able to use Windows Azure Emulators

Additional Resources:

• Windows Azure – How Do I: Sign-up a free 3-months Trial Account
• Getting Started with Windows Azure (Keynote by Scott Guthrie on 12/13/2011)

 Enjoy the show.

Sanjay Jain
ISV Architect Evangelist
Microsoft Corporation
Blog: http://Blogs.msdn.com/SanjayJain
Twitter: http://twitter.com/SanjayJain369

Key Points:

• Free for 3-months
• Does require a Credit Card but comes with a  default spending limit of $0
• Monthly allocation includes 750 Small Compute Hours, 1GB Web Edition of SQL Azure, 20GB storage with 50K transactions, Unlimited inbound and 20GB Outbound bandwidth.

Additional Resources:

• 3-Months Free Trial
• Excellent Blog Post by my Colleague Jim O'Neil
• Windows Azure Spending Limits
• Getting Started with Windows Azure (Keynote by Scott Guthrie on 12/13/2011)

 Enjoy the show.

Sanjay Jain
ISV Architect Evangelist
Microsoft Corporation
Blog: http://Blogs.msdn.com/SanjayJain
Twitter: http://twitter.com/SanjayJain369

Marketing manager for Brand Manager Nick Howard and engineering manager Amit Nayar talk with ISV Architect Evangelist Bruce Kyle about how they chose Windows Azure.

The team describes several Azure features that are key to their choice.

• Windows Azure helps the scale the application to the right size, up when lots of jobs put big demands on the system, back when demand lessens.
• It provides global location
• Able to get to market quicker.
• More affordable for clients.

The team describes scaling as being able to meet the demands for multiple types of tenants and workloads. So with Azure, the meet the user demands for processing large print jobs, add new customers worldwide, and add users worldwide.

Amit describes how developers expand their current skill set, while learning how to build architecturally sound applications for the cloud. He says, "Developer wouldn't want me to take away Azure now. It just fits the way we want to do business."

Developers can quickly deploy, closing gap between their dev environment and production environment. Easy to replicate between the cloud and development computers. In addition, developers are able to quickly respond to changing needs, making them able to accept business deals that might have been more difficult to implement. Azure a familiar place to the developers.

Amit explains how they do continuous integration with the cloud.

About Brand Manager

Brand Manager helps provide marketing manager with ways to control how those inside and outside the organization use logos, printed material, and business marketing collateral. It provides a workflow for the approval process

• Create customized, brand-controlled marketing materials, produced by anyone, anywhere.
• Empower your distributed sales and marketing teams to create personalized and localized sales and marketing materials on-demand, in minutes.
• Collaborate with stakeholders — such as brand managers, agencies, and legal and subject matter experts — in the review and approval process.
• Maintain brand consistency and compliance with controlled elements such as colors, fonts, taglines, and logos.
• Increase efficiency with version control of customized documents so you don't have to waste time searching for the most recent version.
• Print at your convenience using your in-house printer, your preferred vendor or optionally with the Quark Brand Manager local print network for fast, convenient, cost-effective local printing.

Getting Started with Windows Azure

Windows Azure is an open cloud platform that enables you to quickly build, deploy and manage applications across a global network of Microsoft-managed datacenters.

You can build applications using any language, tool or framework.

Start with Developing on Windows Azure to get the tools for your particular environment.

Get the latest Azure Developer Training Kit.

The team explains the decision to use Windows Azure was based around the integration with Visual Studio for development tools, integration with Intuit in the cloud, their need add customers quickly, and up time across multiple geographies. Their capital investments are also reduced signifiantly by going with Microsoft's cloud solution.

The Corelytics financial dashboard is available at the Windows Azure Marketplace. The product enables small businesses to save time and money by providing unique insight into performance allowing business owners to monitor key indicators, see visuals of trends and forecasts and compare performance to their industry peers and annual goals.

About Coreconnex

Coreconnex helps small businesses save time and money accessing a clearer picture of financial performance using the Corelytics financial dashboard and predictive analytics.

About Windows Azure Marketplace

Windows Azure Marketplace is a global online market for customers and partners to share, buy, and sell finished SaaS applications and premium datasets.  Whether you are looking for new customers for your Windows Azure based application or datasets, or are seeking new Windows Azure solutions to power your business, the Windows Azure Marketplace is a one-stop location supported by Microsoft to help you succeed.

Other ISV Videos

For videos on Windows Azure Platform, see:

• Accumulus Makes Subscription Billing Easy for Windows Azure
• Azure Email-Enables Lists, Low-Cost Storage for SharePoint
• Credit Card Processing for Windows Phone 7 on Windows Azure
• Crowd-Sourcing Public Sector App for Windows Phone, Azure
• Food Buster Game Achieves Scalability with Windows Azure
• BI Solutions Join On-Premises To Windows Azure Using Star Analytics Command Center
• StorSimple Integrates On-Premises, Cloud Storage with Windows Azure
• How Quark Promote Hosts Multiple Tenants on Windows Azure
• NewsGator Moves 3 Million Blog Posts Per Day on Azure

The holidays are just about to end, but there's still time to boost your knowledge or learn something totally new.

Durint these 2 weeks we'll be giving the fourth and final topic of this summer issue their place in the sun, namely the Web and the web browser. Click through and you'll find all the best resources, presented based on the amount of time you want to spend on it.

Explore and dive into Web solutions

What is the most used application on a computer nowadays? Most likely it will be the web browser.  The Web and the web browser have quickly become a user's natural habitat, a familiar environment, and with Web 2.0, a place to work, interact and play.

You as an independent software vendor (ISV) can take advantage of this in many ways.  The Web provides you a marketing platform to reach out to millions of potential customers for your application.  In that case, you will want to fully show the beauty of the web on your website to stand out and attract these customers.

On the other hand, you can use the Web as your application platform to build web applications or to extend your desktop application with existing web services (e.g. mapping unctionality, social media integration, etc.) to augment your core application usiness value.

Have  look at our website and discover a handpicked choice of articles, white papers nd videos explaining what Microsoft web technologies can bring to you as an ISV.

Speaker : Nick Trogh

Other interesting Summer Campaigns :

-For IT Professionals : Virtualisation(Part 1), Desktop Deployment,Virtualisation (Part 2), Best of TechDays 2011

-For Architects : Cloud Power, the Windows AzurePlatform, Cloud Patterns and Practices, Windows Azure Platform Interoperability

-For Developers : Windows Phone 7 Mango, Visual Studio 2010 ALM, HTML5, The Windows Azure Platform

Multi-touch Application Showcase 'The Story of Phebus'

Take advantage of this special about mobility scenarios to dive a little deeper into one of the hot topics of the moment during the summer months. We have information geared to fit in with your busy schedule. Only have 30 minutes or half a day to spare? Choose from the basics through to the best tools and resources for getting to know these important mobile scenarios like the back of your hand.

Mobility scenarios is the third topic that we're diving into this summer. You can expect one last topic by mid-August on leveraging the Web.

So keep an eye on your mailbox and dive in this summer with MSDN!

Explore and dive into mobility solutions

Over the last couple of years, demand for mobile and remote work solutions has been growing.  This demand is being accelerated by various factors: on one hand, the technology for allowing this is commoditizing (e.g. smartphones, tablet PCs, ubiquitous Wi-Fi access); on the other hand, people are growing more and more accustomed to mobile applications, allowing them to be 'online' any time, anywhere (e.g. social media applications such as Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare, etc.); finally, as traffic density and the associated economic and social impact are continuously growing, telecommuting is becoming the norm in many organizations.

As an independent software vendor (ISV), how easy is it for your customers to accommodate remote and mobile work scenarios using your application?  Does it require significant network or hardware investments (e.g. VPN  infrastructure)?  Does the application need a network connection all the time or do you support offline scenarios?  Can you take advantage of new device form factors and user experiences, such as smartphones, tables PCs and multi-touch?

Have a look at our website and discover a handpicked choice of articles, white papers and videos explaining how you can add support for mobile work scenarios and make them a competitive advantage for you as an ISV.

Speaker : Nick Trogh

Other interesting Summer Campaigns :

- For Developers : Windows Phone 7 Mango, Visual Studio 2010 ALM, HTML5

- For IT Professionals : Virtualisation(Part 1), Desktop Deployment, Virtualisation (Part 2)

- For Architects : Cloud Power, the Windows Azure Platform, Cloud Patterns and Practices

Multi-touch application showcase : 'Altra Interactive Media'

User Experience Design Patterns for multi-touch devices

Speaker : Sigrid Vandeweghe - Human Interface Group

Keynote : Natural User Interfaces - a perspective

Speaker : Luc Van de Velde

Summer's here and for the most of us this is the time we take that well-deserved rest and stand back a little from
the daily grind. It's also a time for some reflection, a time to think about the things that we would like to do during the next couple of months.

This is why we will be serving you up with such a refreshing cocktail of new things to enjoy in 4 special issues of the MSDN newsletter. The second topic of this summer edition lets you dive into Business Intelligence.

Explore and dive into Business Intelligence

As you build line-of-business (LOB) applications, information workers need to have proper insights into their business data and ask for an appropriate analytics solution. Building these solutions is often a complex and time-consuming business, resulting in solutions that don't correspond precisely to the user's requirements and expectations. As an ISV, building applications on top of Microsoft SQL Server, you have the platform for business intelligence at your fingertips to help users unlock their business data through reporting, and self-service BI using Excel 2010 and PowerPivot.

Have a look at our website and discover a handpicked choice of articles, white papers and videos explaining what Microsoft BI has to offer for you as an ISV.

Speaker : Nick Trogh

Other interesting Summer Campaigns :

- For Developers : Windows Phone 7 Mango, Visual Studio 2010 ALM

- For Architects : Cloud Power, Windows Azure Platform

- For IT Professionals : Virtualization, Desktop Deployment

In this interview, Scott Price (CEO) and Roger Campbell (CTO) explain the process they went through while migrating their Java solution to Windows Azure, and how their company – CustomerCentrix – has benefited from using the Platform-as-a-Service offering from Microsoft.

About LoadStorm

LoadStorm is a web-based load testing tool for simulating what users do with a web site or web application. ISVs use it to build tests that send requests to your server in the same way that a user's browser sends requests to your server.  These tests are executed by LoadStorm's automated systems rather than by a user, and can be done repeatedly and in large numbers simultaneously. The tests can also be built using the LoadStorm tool in such a way as to simulate a large number of different users with different tasks to perform.

Other ISV Videos

For videos on Windows Azure Platform, see:

• Accumulus Makes Subscription Billing Easy for Windows Azure
• Azure Email-Enables Lists, Low-Cost Storage for SharePoint
• Credit Card Processing for Windows Phone 7 on Windows Azure
• Crowd-Sourcing Public Sector App for Windows Phone, Azure
• Food Buster Game Achieves Scalability with Windows Azure
• BI Solutions Join On-Premises To Windows Azure Using Star Analytics Command Center
• StorSimple Integrates On-Premises, Cloud Storage with Windows Azure
• How Quark Promote Hosts Multiple Tenants on Windows Azure
• NewsGator Moves 3 Million Blog Posts Per Day on Azure

Summer's here and for the most of us this is the time we take that well-deserved rest and stand back a little from the daily grind. It's also a time for some reflection, a time to think about the things that we would like to do during the next couple of months.

For this very reason, MSDN is highlighting a number of topics that might be of interest to you. Topics that allow you as independent software vendor (ISV) to build great software once the summer months are but a distant memory and the
pressure is back on, pushing you to be even more effective in what you are doing.

How does it work? There's a short introductory video, after which you have the chance to learn more about the topic at hand, depending on the time you have available or want to spend on it: half an hour, half a day or a full day. That
way you can explore the presentation content to suit your personal timetable.

Explore and dive into Cloud Computing

As an independent software vendor (ISV), why should you care about cloud computing? The answer is simple: using the cloud has the potential to increase your revenue and/or decrease your costs. Running code and storing data on
computers in large Internet-accessible data centers owned by somebody else can offer compelling advantages. Think about your agility to scale computing resources up and down in a matter of minutes, or speed up your time to market,
or expand your reach globally – and all within a managed, secured and high-availability environment.

Have a look at our website and discover a handpicked choice of articles, white papers and videos explaining what the cloud has to offer for you as an ISV.

Speaker : Nick Trogh

Other interesting Summer Campaigns :

- For IT Professionals : Virtualization

- For Architects : Cloud Power

- For Developers : Windows Phone 7 Mango

Speaker : Christophe De Baene

Speaker : Christophe De Baene