Let me (re)Introduce myself, Part I

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<<Warning/Disclaimer: An overly enthusiastic newbie employee is probably about to insert foot in mouth. Incorrect information and/or gross generalizations may follow. If more severe symptoms appear discontinue use immediately and contact your doctor. >>

I recently switched companies (hello Microsoft !!) and got myself a new title (ye olde “Senior Consultant“), so I thought introductions might be in order. Especially since no-one knew me before anyway ;)

So, my name is Addy Santo and I'm a Senior Consultant with Microsoft. With the National Services group of Microsoft Consulting Services to be exact. Many people have misconceptions regarding MCS, so I'll start out by trying to explain what we do. I'll illustrate using a hypothetical conversation between two imaginary friends, lets call them (for no particular reason) Bill and Steve:

Bill: Say, what makes Microsoft’s stock go up?

Steve: Selling lots of software.

Bill: And who buys our software?

Steve: Satisfied customers do. (Dissatisfied customers don’t)

Bill: How can we make sure our customers are satisfied?

Steve: By ensuring that they have positive experiences with our products and technologies.

Bill: How can we do that?

Steve: Easy. Just set up a group who know our products better than anyone, give them all the imaginable training and tools (including access to the teams who wrote the software), and send them out to the customers. They canl help the customers leverage our software in the best way possible.

 

So, in case you didn't get it- The goal of MCS is to drive the adoption of Microsoft technologies by providing customers & partners with technical leadership and support. If your project absolutely positively has to be a success, you might want to get MCS involved.

 

If this post doesn't get me fired/demoted/sent to Microsoft Antartica, my next post will detail what is the role of National Services inside MCS and why it is the second coolest place in the world to work. The first being the playtesting team of Halo 2, of course.