My OneCare Status: Green and on track

First, on MBS and Reviews… It’s review season at Microsoft and I spent the last two days with our MBS team, specifically the people dedicated to improving customer and partner satisfaction. (OK, a caveat here: really, just about everyone in the MBS/Dynamics business group is super involved — it’s hard to find a more dedicated group anywhere interested and passionate about providing the best product and business experience for our customers.)

More about that as I come up for air, and out from under two days worth of email… thankfully, I had my Windows Mobile Smartphone with me that allowed me to keep up on urgent mail and schedule changes. But in short, it was great to be around a group of the satisfaction leaders from Dynamics and hear about our relationships with our customers and partners. And when it comes to connecting with our customers, Dynamics really works hard, esp with their page on how to connect with Business Solutions, ranging from on-line support to a “call me back” request form.

Now, on to OneCare: If you’ve seen the news, you know that yesterday we announced more details around OneCare, the new Windows PC security service. The team outlined the annual cost ($49.95) and commercial availability (planned for release in early June). If you sign up for the beta test by the end of April ’06, the is $19.95. Ever since I have been able to back up to an external and off-PC drive (in addition to CD and DVD), my back-ups are happening when they should and my little OneCare icon in the lower right corner is green (or so I’m told, as I’m colour blind).

Check out the forums at http://forums.microsoft.com/windowsonecare/, And more details on OneCare and other Live services can be seen at http://ideas.live.com/.