Microsoft Enhances Entourage 2004 for the Enterprise
Office 2004 for Mac Service Pack 2 delivers improved corporate
collaboration based on customer requests.
REDMOND, Wash. — Sept. 20, 2005 — Microsoft Corp.’s Macintosh Business
Unit (Mac BU) today announced availability of Office 2004 for Mac Service
Pack 2 (SP2), introducing significant enhancements to enterprise
collaboration. A result of the Mac BU’s close work with its corporate
customers, SP2 delivers new features to boost Microsoft Exchange Server
support in Entourage 2004. In addition, SP2 provides updates across all
Office 2004 for Mac applications to help improve overall product security
and address top issues identified by Microsoft and its Mac users.
“As a longtime Microsoft customer, we consistently have a positive
experience with Mac BU products and were eager to test the Office 2004 for
Mac SP2 beta,” said Joe Stevano, senior systems administrator for Sony
Pictures Imageworks Inc. “Our day-to-day operations depend on seamless
collaboration throughout the organization, so we held off on switching to
Entourage because we needed a more robust Exchange Server e-mail client for
Macs. We’ve benefited from the improved Exchange support in SP2 over the
past couple of months, and the last barrier to a full Entourage deployment
has been removed. We’ll soon make Entourage the default e-mail and calendar
application for all of our Mac users.”
SP2 expands on the Exchange Server functionality built into Entourage 2004
to deliver deeper support and help provide Mac users in an Exchange Server
environment with the necessary tools for effective and efficient
collaboration. Mac enterprise customers can benefit from improvements that
help enable better e-mail and calendar management, enhanced public folder
support, and faster client-server synchronization. Users also can
experience improved access to the Global Address List (GAL), including the
ability to browse the entire contents of the GAL and see full
organizational detail. In addition, enhanced delegate access enables new
setup entirely through Entourage without having to go through the Outlook
client on a PC.
“Being able to work so closely with other teams at Microsoft puts us in an
ideal position to meet the collaboration needs of our Mac customers,” said
Scott Erickson, director of product management and marketing for the Mac BU
at Microsoft. “For SP2, we worked with the Exchange Server team so that
together we can help our enterprise customers collaborate seamlessly across
platforms. We’re in constant communication with our customers, and we’re
acting on their requests for improved tools and a better Entourage
experience.”
SP2 also includes cumulative security updates and prioritized fixes for
issues identified by Microsoft and through customer feedback. The Mac BU
monitors and receives customer feedback through customer support calls and
tools such as Microsoft Error Reporting Protocol, which provides bug data
anonymously.
SP2 is available in English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese,
Spanish and Swedish. Customers will be notified and may download SP2 via
Microsoft AutoUpdate beginning later today, or can download it from
(http://www.microsoft.com/mac)http://www.microsoft.com/mac
(http://www.microsoft.com/mac)(http://www.microsoft.com/mac) .
The enhancements to Exchange Server support for Entourage 2004 are
compatible with Exchange 2000 and higher. Some organizations working in an
Exchange Server environment may require the deployment of Update for
Exchange 2003 (KB 888619) or Update for Exchange 2000 (KB 892896), both of
which are available from Microsoft AutoUpdate or from the Microsoft
Download Center. Information technology managers can find more information
for system requirements at
(http://www.microsoft.com/mac/resources/resources.aspx?pid=resourcekits.)http://www.microsoft.com/mac/resources/resources.aspx?pid=resourcekits.
About Microsoft Macintosh Business Unit
The Macintosh Business Unit at Microsoft is a leading developer of software
and online products for the Macintosh platform. The group is composed of
more than 180 full-time Mac product experts and is dedicated to creating
innovative software for Mac customers worldwide. For more than 20 years,
Microsoft has developed award-winning software for the Mac. Current
products include Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac, a productivity suite that
includes the e-mail application and personal information manager Entourage
2004, Word 2004, Excel 2004, PowerPoint 2004 and Messenger for Mac 5.0 and
Virtual PC for Mac 7.0. More information about the Mac BU and Microsoft
Macintosh products is available at
(http://www.microsoft.com/mac.)http://www.microsoft.com/mac.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in
software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize
their full potential.