1. What is the CIE? The Microsoft Customer Immersion Experience (CIE) is a hands-on introduction to Windows 8 and the new Office that gives business and IT decision makers the opportunity to experience these powerful new productivity solutions for yourself. The Microsoft Customer Immersion Experience (CIE) provides a facilitated hands-on environment where business and IT decision makers test drive Microsoft technologies including Office 365, Office, Exchange, SharePoint, Lync, Project, Visio, Windows, Windows Phone, Dynamics CRM and System Center. 2. How does it work? A CIE is not a generic demo about all the features Microsoft products offer. It s a true-tolife user experience that takes you through common work-related scenarios such as being productive while mobile, using social networking to get work done, and connecting in real time with coworkers and customers. It also gives you a first-hand look at the fast and fluid experience of Windows 8 and the exciting features of the new Office across a variety of devices, including tablets, PCs, and smartphones. The CIE is usually set up at a Microsoft or partner office location, a conference room in a hotel or onsite at the customer location. Sessions are led by a trained facilitator and are designed to be interactive, experiential, and fun. 3. Which products and solutions are covered? The CIE brings across the richness of Microsoft s productivity tools with its out-of-the-box functionality and integrated feature set. Only Microsoft products publicly available to our customers (no 3rd party software) are showcased. The current version of the CIE platform (CIE 4.1) includes the following products: Windows 8 Enterprise The new Office, including, Office 365 Consumer Preview Office 2013 Exchange 2013
SharePoint 2013 Lync 2013 Project 2013 Visio 2013 Windows Phone 8 Dynamics CRM 2011 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%). That being said, the CIE can be leveraged in any of these situations: 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 switching to a competitor (compete situation) The customer has rights to but hasn t deployed the latest Microsoft products 5. Why should I leverage CIE for sales opportunities? An increase in the number of projects, a faster sales cycle, and a reduction in the number of POCs are all attributable to successful CIE sessions. Customers are more likely to jump in and explore new solutions/ products as it pertains to their business in a risk free environment. CIE will help field sales to: Accelerate sales cycle Increase deal size Reduce cost of sales Help drive closure in competitive situations There is inherent value to our customers A testimonial from a customer says it all "The 'usual' demos do not give me the comfort level I need to understand and promote new technologies Microsoft made a very wise decision to provide this type of forum. I would recommend this to my peers." Phil Bertolini, Chief Information Officer & Deputy County Executive, Oakland County And, as a partner, a quicker sales cycle, an increased deal size or a reduced cost of sales is always helpful A testimonial from one of our partners in Mexico "The CIE shortened our sales cycle (up to 65%). Also, because the customer 'lives' the value of the solutions they re buying in a CIE session, CIE helped us close volume licensing contracts more quickly, made it easier to sell the enterprise desktop, and to set deployment targets." Mario Moreno, Perifel
6. Can partners use the CIE? Is there a qualification criterion? The CIE has been one of the most effective sales tools for showcasing productivity tools in the last few years. Partners are pivotal to the overall success of executing the CIE within corporate accounts (they help scale the reach of CIE to a larger set of customers). In fact, the program has over 650 partners worldwide (as of January 2013). The CIE showcases Microsoft s productivity tools. To ensure that our customers derive an unforgettable experience, we recommend that partners have demonstrated competencies to qualify as CIE partners. In particular, we recommend our partners meet these criteria: 1. Be an actively managed partner with an assigned Microsoft Partner Account Manager 2. Have competencies in Portals & Collaboration, Messaging, and Communications 3. Have gold competency in either Portals & Collaboration, or both Messaging and Communications. The Microsoft Partner Account Manager or the local CIE Lead approves all requests of onboarding a new partner 7. What is the upfront investment? The CIE environment comes in two variants: 1. Online variant leveraging Office 365 α 2. On-premises variant leveraging on-premises servers hosted in a hyper-v environment The setup costs vary widely depending on the variant you choose, hardware costs in your region, the need to localize content, and your choice of facility/ facilitator. Here s a rough breakdown and estimates of the costs to consider: Description Option 1 Office 365 Option 2 On-premises Hardware α $5-10K $10K-$20K Facility Setup $0-$3K $0-$3K Facilitator Training $0-$2K $$0-2K Platform Localization + $0 $0-$15K Setup Costs $10K $40K α Significant cost saving opportunity by leveraging OEM partnerships & Office 365 + Applicable to non-english speaking regions only Before making any investments, please check with your area/ region CIE lead to see if a
CIE facility or CIE mobile kit is already available. In addition, also check to see if a Microsoft Technology Center (MTC) exists in your area all MTCs are equipped with the hardware to effectively deliver a CIE session. Partners should check with their Partner Account Manager to see what Microsoft facilities are available to them. 8. Can I customize CIE for my customers? Can I build on top of CIE? Microsoft provides the CIE environment (either on-premises or online via Office 365) featuring rich out-of-box functionality. If you believe that adding your custom solution on top of this stack enhances customer value, please feel free to do so. However, Microsoft will not provide any support in such a situation. 9. Can I leave the CIE environment at a customer location? The Windows 8 Enterprise operating software made available through the CIE VHDs (onpremises variant) leverages trial licenses (which means they will cease to function after the expiration of the trial key, usually 90 days). The Office 2013 software and the Office 365 Consumer Preview Trial Tenant (created as part of the setup process) is valid for 30 days. As long as our customers plan to use CIE for training or demonstration purposes, they are in full compliance of Microsoft s EULA. 10. Can my partner use their MSDN or partner licensing to activate CIE so they do not have to deal with rearming the environment? The entire CIE platform is meant to be deployed before each CIE session, thus there is no need to activate the clients or servers. If for some reason the virtual machines need be activated (not to be confused with the underlying host server), then keys may be obtained for Windows Server 2012 online through MSDN or TechNet. 11. Do I need to buy any licenses to run a CIE session? Under the CIE EULA, you are not required to buy any software licenses to run a CIE session. The software made available through the CIE leverages standard trial licenses (which means they will cease to fully function after the expiration of the trial key). 12. How often do you refresh the CIE images? The team at Microsoft refreshes the CIE as needed to ensure that the technologies are upto-date. In addition, there are periodic updates to address bug fixes and issue content patches to further strengthen the storyline. The current version of CIE is 4.1. 13. How do I stay abreast of all the latest on CIE? The CIE portal (www.microsoftcie.com) should be your first stop for all the latest information on CIE. From within the Microsoft corporate network, you can also visit this location by pointing your browser to http://cie. In addition, please contact your local Microsoft Partner 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 generic to support all our customers. 15. Do you have a version of CIE for the public sector and/ or the education sector? The CIE has been used successfully to showcase the value of the Microsoft technologies to governments and educational institutions across the world with a few innovative tweaks to the story line (the underlying infrastructure remains unchanged). At this time, the CIE core team has no plans of providing prescriptive guidance on how the CIE can be used for our public sector and education 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 a complement. The CIE focuses on how our products help solve real world business issues. It allows our customers to experience the Microsoft productivity tools and appreciate how it improves efficiencies in real world business situations. In a typical CIE, dwelling on products/ product features is secondary; the discussion tends to focus on the customers business problems and how the Microsoft stack helps with an appropriate solution. 17. How do I get the right customer audience to come to CIE? Who is the right audience? Identifying and securing the right audience for a CIE session is critical to the success of the overall session. Business Decision Makers (BDMs), like Line of Business Managers, and IT Decision Makers (ITDMs) are the right audience to invite for a CIE session. It is imperative that the CIE be positioned as a business session and not a technical session (in fact, it is not uncommon for the facilitator to be a non-technical person). Use your champion inside the customer organization 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 might appear to be a lot of time to get on the calendars of senior leadership, it is possible for the senior leaders to come for 2 hours while their direct reports partake in the entire session. An alternate strategy, if travel is an issue for your customer, would be to take the CIE 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 is currently available in over 135 Microsoft locations. Depending on your situation, many options are
available to you: 1. Deliver CIE sessions at a Microsoft office 2. Delivery CIE sessions at a MTC (Microsoft Technology Center) 3. Deliver CIE sessions at the customer location 4. Delivery CIE sessions at a public location (hotel, conference, etc.) Work with your local CIE lead or Microsoft Partner Account Manager to assess the feasibility of delivering CIE sessions at a Microsoft location. A few locations have opted for their CIE infrastructure to be mobile. So, instead of investing in a permanent facility, the hardware is housed in a special case (www.customcases.com) that can be wheeled in and out of a customer 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 local CIE lead or Microsoft Partner Account Manager to assess the feasibility of delivering CIE sessions at a Microsoft location. 21. Does Microsoft have any special pricing if I want to purchase a set of hardware? Microsoft provides only the virtual machines and guidance on how CIE sessions should be executed. We do not offer any special pricing on CIE hardware. We encourage you to liaise with local OEMs to get optimal pricing on hardware in your region. 22. Does Microsoft provide any funding towards CIE? Microsoft doesn t provide any funding toward building, owning, and executing CIE sessions. We strongly believe that the ROI on CIE is very high and the upfront investment pays for itself in a relatively short period of time. 23. How can partners get involved in the program? A managed partner wanting to get involved in this program can visit the CIE Portal at www.microsoftcie.com and submit their information for participation. Once approved, detailed instructions are provided via email to get started. 24. How do MS field facing roles get involved in the program? Please contact your local CIE lead to learn more about being involved in the program for your area.
25. Is there a CIE certification process? There is no formal CIE certification program. However, diligently reading through the CIE guide, reviewing the end-to-end recording (a click through demo with voice over) of a CIE session (only for the all-up scenario) and observing a CIE session run by a trained CIE facilitator are the first steps towards getting ready to leverage CIE. We encourage you to attend at least a couple CIE sessions in your region. Please contact your local CIE lead or Microsoft Partner Account Manager to learn more. 26. How do I get trained to be a facilitator? The key to delivering an optimal experience for our customers is a good facilitator. While effective facilitation is an art, every CIE facilitator should have the following minimum qualifications: Functional Expertise The facilitator should possess functional knowledge of the Microsoft s productivity workloads Unified Communications (Messaging & Communications), Collaboration and Business Intelligence (BI), Enterprise Content Management and Enterprise Search. Even though the CIE is not a technical session, the facilitator should be comfortable answering technical curveballs in these areas. Facilitation Experience The facilitator should have experience presenting, demonstrating and facilitating technology discussions with business decision-makers and high-profile executives. The facilitator should be comfortable driving an interactive experience and be flexible to improvise in real-time based on customer feedback. Speak with your local CIE Lead or Microsoft Partner Account Manager to find out if there are any readiness sessions near you. 27. How much time does it take to set up? The initial actual set up should take about a day. Detailed guidance is included in the technical section of the CIE Facilitator Guide. 28. What kind of support do you provide for CIE? Microsoft provides guidance on deployment and technical support for the platform (as long as the virtual machines have not been enhanced or localized to a non-english language). In addition, the marketing and sales collateral along with detailed facilitator guidance is provided. For general questions about CIE, please send an email to thecie@microsoft.com; for technical support, send an email to support@microsoftcie.com.