Introducing Microsoft’s Demo Showcase Suite

The Microsoft Demo Showcase Suite is a set of resources made available to the Redmond company's partners, designed to streamline the process of putting together product demonstrations. On July 28, 2009, the software giant announced that Demo Showcase release 1.1.0 had been launched into production. In this regard, since earlier this week, Microsoft partners have been free to access not only a fresh version  of the Demo Showcase website, but also the new client application. The company underlined that the 1.1.0 milestone brought to the table fixes for a number of bugs, as well as new features.

“The Microsoft Worldwide Partner team have released and integrated platform for creating and publishing demo simulations or better known as click through demos,” Lachlan Cash, Microsoft product manager, revealed. “There are a number of tools that you can use to create click through demos in a simple form you can use PowerPoint. This tool suite has some nice features like being able to put text boxes on the screens so you can simulate data entry for text boxes and passwords. Also customization of where you place the buttons. Also a way to document your script per screen with talking points and click notes.”

With the new Demo Showcase application, partners can build their very own click-through product demonstrations and use them to showcase Microsoft technologies to customers. But, in addition to the client app, the Redmond company is also betting on the power of social networking when it comes down to partners. An integral part of the Microsoft Demo Showcase Suite is a community site.

According to the software giant, the website is dedicated to allowing partners to manage their demos, but also store, search and distribute materials, or even stitch different pieces of content together. The website requires users to sign in with a Windows Live ID.

“Another great feature is that you don’t have to use the record mode. You can import images you have captured with another tool like SnagIt or any other screen capture tool, thus allowing you to reposition the screens if you forget a screen in the record mode,” Cash added. “The two best features are that you have the ability to upload and share your demos on the Azure based platform they have built. This gives you the ability from the tool, then from the portal invite people to use the demo, which gives them the ability to preview the demo online and download the small .exe that it compiles the demo into.”