We are excited to announce that the ExchangeOn-Premises TAP Programis accepting nominations!
The purpose of this post is to provide you with the opportunity to nominate your company for the Exchange On-Premises Technology Adoption Program (TAP) Program. Joining the Exchange On-Premises TAP Program provides companies with a number of advantages, such as providing input and feedback for future releases, developing a close relationship with the Exchange Product Team; receiving pre-release information about Exchange, and more.
Exchange On-Premises TAP Program Overview
The Exchange On-Premises TAP Program is designed to validate the next version of Exchange Server by having customers test deployments of pre-release builds of Exchange in their own production environment. This gives participants the opportunity to provide feedback to the Exchange product development team. Customers in the TAP Program are provided free support from Microsoft Customer Services and Support (CSS) for issues encountered with Exchange. Additional information on the TAP Program is discussed in this blog entry from a number of years ago, which is still quite relevant today: http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2004/12/29/343848.aspx
What's in it for TAP Program customers?
- A close relationship with the Exchange product team.
- An opportunity to provide feedback on future releases of Exchange directly to the product team.
- Technical conference calls with members of the product team.
- Production grade pre-release builds of Exchange Server.
- Access to free CSS Support for Exchange issues for the duration of the Exchange TAP Program (CSS support is 24/7 for any critical issues found in production).
- A head start in the next deployment cycle, taking advantage of new and enhanced features available in the next version of Exchange Server.
What do I have to commit to in order to participate in the Exchange TAP Program?
- Jump through a few legal hoops (signing some legal documents such as an NDA).
- Go through a few steps that will help assure easy communication between you and Microsoft (details will be provided when applicable)
- Deploy pre-release versions of Exchange Server in your production environment.
- Commit to timely response of surveys and feedback requests from Microsoft.
- Commit to providing resources for TAP Program activities for the duration of the program - people/time as well as machines needed for testing and production, and associated operating system software licenses.
- Provide us with deployment plans, including details of network topologies and additional reports, as applicable. (Required before we can give production approval for the pre-release code.)
What makes a good TAP Program candidate?
- Willing to dedicate the resources (people/time and machines) to testing pre-release builds of Exchange in production. We find that we get some of our best feedback through production deployments, and so we will prioritize nominations from customers willing to be aggressive in their production rollouts higher.
- Responsive to our requests for feedback, including responding to surveys and attending conference calls and participating in a distribution list.
- Gives constructive criticism with context - don't just stop at "I don’t like feature X," provide us more information like "Here's why feature X won’t work for my Exchange environment, and here's why I think doing it another way would be better."
- Gives feedback even when not requested. We may not have sent out a survey or had a call about a topic, but if something about the product is problematic for you-- or you love it! :-) - we want to know.
Summary
If you feel your Company fits what we are looking for, you can nominate yourself by filling out this form:
On-premises TAP Program self-nomination form
Note: This form is located on an Office 365 site and is for our business customers to self-nominate for inclusion in future Office pre-release programs. If you are a Microsoft representative and would like to nominate a customer you are working with, please contact us directly and we will provide appropriate guidance.
All nominations, internal and external, are reviewed and screened prior to acceptance into a program. No customers are allowed access to any pre-release downloads or information until all legal paperwork is properly executed. Nomination does not mean acceptance… not all nominees will be chosen for a program.
Thank you!
Senior Program Manager, Customer Experience Team