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Even the best company in the world needs to work on it's image a bit from time to time and right now Microsoft could and should take action on improving it's global image. Microsoft is unquestionably the only provider of viable operating systems for business use and has demonstrated a solid commitment to product improvement and development. Windows has got steadily better over the years from 311 through Vista which has so many amazing features that it is going to take a while to get familiar with it all. Microsoft Office is also an amazing success story and a truly indispensable piece of business software. None of the alternatives offer the same degree of reliability, interchangeability, interoperability, stability and business friendly solutions. I have tried the rest now I stay with the best despite some of the annoying failures.

The first thing Microsoft needs to do is to improve it's current abysmal performance in Public Relations and general customer communication. Perhaps things are different in the United States but here in England it is almost impossible to get any kind of response out of Microsoft. Whether I need guidance on a new software purchase or advise on a system problem there is no one to talk to. Microsoft should initiate a hot line for customer inquiries with real live people answering the phone or email and the inquiries should be fielded by people who are knowledgeable enough to provide an answer or know where to refer the query. An in country center of excellence for product support and advice is a marketing initiative that would pay it's way through revival of customer satisfaction and appreciation.

Next Microsoft should review it's "Genuine Widows Advantage" policy. This is the big brother Microsoft attitude that alienates customers and drives those customers to seek alternative providers. My experience was a pop up message telling me that a copy of windows installed on one of my computers was not genuine together with another pop up note to the effect that I was excommunicated until the problem was rectified. In short , go out and by a new copy of windows. I was furious because I knew my copy of windows was genuine. I sent numerous emails to as many branches of Microsoft without any answers at all. I seriously considered a switch to an alternative operating system even though I did not want to do that. I eventually solved the problem by means of a friendly web site but I never did get any assistance from Microsoft. I know that piracy is a serious problem but solving it at the expense of customer alienation is a stupid move even for a giant like Microsoft.

Finally one more area where Microsoft could make a huge improvement would be to better publicize it's free software packages and training aids. I recently downloaded Visual Web Studio 2005 Express Edition and Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition together with many hours of free tutorial video. This is without doubt the best training package I have ever experienced and it certainly beats anything I could pay for at my local technical college. Excellent tuition from Bob Tabor on the videos had me up and running with visual basic in no time whereas previously I had struggled to understand books on object orientated programming. Web site development using active server pages and data base management has been made easy by using Visual Web Developer and my personal development has been boosted into orbit by the availability of the free software and videos. Personally, if I were a Microsoft marketing man, I would be shouting this one from the rooftops.

Learn more about this author, John Waters.
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