MicrosoftI have been eagerly awaiting "general availability" for some time. I run IT for a 1000(ish) user company and was so excited when I saw the GA announcement. That's where the excitement ended.
It's bad enough that MS did their BETA program with seemingly huge companies selected BY Microsoft, and as usual, completely ignored the small to mid-size business categories. Now you add the game they decided to play (stating the only real requirements were M365 E3 or E5) with pretty specific minimum seat requirements along with having an EA agreement - something they have been pushing companies away from for years (at least in my sector), we have a perfect storm of BS. At the very least, Microsoft should have announced that M365 Copilot is now in limited/select availability. "General Availability" implies that it's generally available - which as many of you have commented is certainly not the case.
What's more frustrating is the lack of trials/POC's. For a company like the one I work for, making an annual commitment of over $100k without any ability to see, test, demo a new tool/platform is a non-starter. Ironically, Microsoft has taken the stance of "well the savings and efficiencies you'll see will more than pay for it." I'm supposed to toss $100k to the wind and take Microsoft's word for it? This, coming from a company that routinely pushes product updates that fix one problem and breaks 10 other things or rolls out "new" versions of Outlook and Teams that are completely unusable? I wouldn't buy a car without test driving it regardless of how amazing the seller said it was.
It seems Microsoft is taking lessons from Apple in their business practices. Build excitement, make announcements, create a "buzz".... then underdeliver and treat their customers like garbage. This is a huge misstep for Microsoft. During the time it will likely take them to correct this nonsense, companies like mine will be looking for alternatives and hopefully finding a partnership that realizes that every dollar from every US company is green and worth the same amount.
Shame on Microsoft for this shell game...... I certainly won't forget it.
