Based in Portugal, Xpand IT has been working with enterprise mobility for the last 6 years, and our experience goes from simple digital publishing apps to complex mobile banking apps. When Project Siena was released we understood that we could use it to our advantage because of the agility we could gain in developing some of the apps we were asked to build.

To be honest, some people in the company were skeptical and developers specially were looking at it as “yet another code generator”. However, after they saw it working they understood that Project Siena could be the first step to create a customer app that could later be extended and help prove the mobile value proposition with a small amount of effort.

There was another big advantage: Siena could help reduce the investment in some of the apps that help win projects. More projects mean more devices, and after devices are being used it’s a matter of time until more apps are needed.

We have been doing a lot of different initiatives using Project Siena internally, with customers and partnering with Microsoft. Below are some of the things we’ve been doing.

Sales / Pre-Sales support

• Using Siena in pre-sales initiatives with customers allows us to quickly show a concept and get the customer’s feedback on the possible way an app could be created.
• It’s a great tool to prototyping quickly, iterate and get to something that business users can understand. And it can be built and iterated by them also.

Prototype apps

• We chose the health industry as the target for a PoC, and we created a simple app that maps the process of going through the rooms asking patients what they would like to eat. We then explain that this info could be synched to Azure and then show in a screen in the kitchen with totals for meals / floor.
• We built it in order to show a specific example of something that could be built quickly and, combined with competitive devices, could make a difference in a hospital scenario.

Microsoft Initiatives

• We’ve been partnering with Microsoft to include Siena in some Customer Immersion Experiences – and the result is always awesome. It’s impressive to build something in under 20 min that can make a real difference in the customer’s business. They are always surprised when things like Galleries were created, and with the ease of creating data sources and using them. They see me creating things right in front of them so they know that with a small amount of knowledge they can built them by themselves.
• One example was an app with multimedia content for hospitals with Multilanguage (using Bing). 15-minute magic! Now that we have Office 365 integration I think the results will be even better since we are more and more integrating with systems used in the customer’s day to day business.
• We have also started doing customer workshops where we train customers to use Project Siena in their reality.

Training Business Users

• We have partnered with a Microsoft Partner that has popular Excel and Powerpoint courses. They understand that we could have a specific training focusing on enterprises that buy these courses for their business users because these are the people that will take more advantage of Siena. Xpand IT does a 2-day workshop where we teach them how to use to tool in their advantage without any specific IT skills.

Project Siena has been a real help in some scenarios and I have no doubt that, as time goes by and more functionality is added, we will have more and more situations where we could use it to start mobile initiatives in customers, promoting not only apps but also devices from partners.

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Project Siena, since its release in Beta, has provided great opportunities not just for those who wish to be able to develop a modern mobile app without the need to know how to code, but is also proving to be a useful solution for sales teams in their engagements with customers.  The ability to demonstrate the functionality of an app in real time, while simultaneously appealing to the customer by using their assets and branding, is proving insofar to be an invaluable tool in the sales process.

Aditi is pleased to be assisting Microsoft in these conversations by producing customized client-focused apps serving multiple industries and verticals.  Our goal with Siena is to share a vision, to understand a need, and provide a solution for that need.  

To facilitate this process, the Aditi team attended a two-day Project Siena workshop hosted by Microsoft in which a team of ten team members comprised of developers, designers, project managers and marketers learned how to build an app in Siena from start to finish.  They learned not only how easy building an app can be, but also became aware of the unlimited potential harnessed within Siena.

With this training as a foundation, the Aditi team now had tools for not only how to build engaging, visually compelling apps, but also how to draw up concepts and a whole host of ideas for brainstorming.

Transforming Sales Conversations

In the time since the Aditi team built their first apps in the Siena workshop, they have been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to conceive and build several prototype-level apps.  The ability to work with new teams and their customers has introduced a variety of new possibilities within Siena app development, and has given the team a chance to fully explore just what can be accomplished within Siena.

To date, we have been able to work within the following industries:

• Healthcare:  Based upon the needs of the OEM client, the Aditi team was able to draw up concepts for three applications that can be utilized in a medical office environment, easing communications between medical staff and their patients.  Some of the features of Siena that have been integral to these concepts include image capture, annotation, search functionality, data entry, form submission, and signature verification.
• Education:  In working closely with the needs of the Microsoft sales teams, Aditi developed a "Student Portal" application which not only allows a student to track their courses, instructors, and academic progress, but also incorporates social media APIs such as Twitter, enabling them to view their Twitter feed, compose Tweets, and keep track of their social calendar.

Because Siena is so user-friendly (anyone with Excel and PowerPoint-level skills can build an app) all you need is an idea, a spark of creativity, and a few hours to build a visually compelling app in Siena.

In this post we take a look at how Persistent has been using the capabilities of Microsoft Project Siena to enhance its existing business interactions.

Persistent is a global company specializing in software product development and technology services. For more than 20 years, we've partnered closely with pioneering start-ups, leading enterprises and the world's largest technology brands helping them accelerate innovation, time to market and enterprise transformation. Persistent’s customers benefit from the industry’s best and brightest software engineers and technology consultants whose expertise spans from niche technologies, to the most advanced next generation Big Data & Analytics, Cloud, Social and Mobile technologies. Our 7,800+ team members share a passion for pushing the limits of the technology frontier and an unwavering commitment to quality, efficiency and innovation.

Persistent has been involved with Project Siena from its inception and has built quite a few apps with its Rapid Application Development approach. Microsoft has also chosen Persistent as one of the partners to conduct workshops on behalf of Microsoft and spread the reach of Windows 8 app development using Siena.

Siena is indeed a breakthrough technology that enables users with very basic technical skills to quickly build applications with rich visuals, filled with intelligence and functionality. With Siena, Windows 8 apps no longer have to go through the rigorous process of Software Development Life Cycle. You can connect to an Excel data source based in your SkyDrive account (or use local files), SharePoint, REST, Azure or RSS feeds. Images, News, Video and Web data from Bing search can be used on the fly. Similarly translation API from Microsoft can be used for creating translation or speech apps. The possibilities are endless. The applications built using Microsoft Project Siena can take advantage of features offered by many new age mobile devices like touch input, hand writing recognition, camera, voice, etc. and connect to popular social platforms using REST APIs.

What does it take to make a great Siena App?

• Have an idea for a custom app
• Get familiar with the Siena Workspace
• Gather your data
  • Business data (Excel, SharePoint etc.)
  • Media (Images, Music, Videos)
• Learn about Excel Expressions
• Plan your app layout
• Build the app – Connect the visuals and its behavior
• Know how an app is deployed/published and you are all set

We conducted few Siena workshops on behalf of Microsoft where attendees comprised of people in roles of Designer, IT Managers, Sales, Business owners or Decision makers. They were excited at the idea of building Windows app without prior experience or programming background. Everyone had a Windows 8.1 device. We started with demo of few apps to showcase the capabilities of Siena like the one we built for Xbox Music Library. The application presents the data from Xbox music library (music.xboxlive.com) exposed via REST API. The application provides a preview capability whereby users can listen to track previews (audio streaming from music.xboxlive.com).

Click to enlarge.

The app uses Microsoft Translator API for language support. It even allows the user to post his activities and likes to Facebook.

Click to enlarge.

Siena apps caught everyone’s attention and they were eager to get started. We made them familiar with Siena interface and acquainted them with various visuals. Adding screens, visuals, navigating between screens, connecting data sources, displaying data ………. it was all so easy for the users. They were excited with the new acquired freedom of being able to develop apps on their own schedule, with peers. The only help needed from IT was in generating WADL files (a new tool is now available for WADL generation in alpha release) and in formulating Excel expressions. During brainstorming session, participants came up with brilliant ideas where Siena apps could help their org excel.

Similar workshop was held within our own organization. We randomly selected and trained 50 personnel from different verticals. As they got used to building Sienna Apps, they in turn trained others and apps started flowing. Library staff quickly built Persistent Enterprise Library app using simple REST based interfaces of Persistent Enterprise App Server (PEAS)

Sales and Marketing teams have built Siena apps to showcase Persistent’s offerings. Pre-sales team is actively using it for rapid prototyping of customer products. One app that our presales team built during engagement discussions was for a company in Real Estate business.  They required a mobile app which could help their associates in showcasing property information. Siena came handy in building the prototype where users could search properties using zip code, city or address and quickly get the property listing. Screenshot of the visually rich app is given below:

Project Siena presents countless options for building Windows 8 apps. It greatly reduce the efforts required to deliver high quality enterprise applications that mash-up the data available from different systems.

Microsoft Partners can use Siena in pre-sales engagements to include apps easily and cost effectively in early sales conversations with customers. They can even train commercial customers on using the tool.  Customers creating apps with Siena increase their need for additional value added services provided by partner such as hosting, data services and mobility solutions.

If you are looking for providing value added services for your partners and customers, Project Siena is here to help – Low investment with high returns and promising future!

Using a single-click users can add to their apps the capabilities of Email, Meetings (Calendar) and knowledge about the people in their organization all powered by Office 365.

Transforming productivity for your business

Imagine an app that allows an on-site elevator technician performing an inspection by keying of his calendar. Choosing an appointment will provide all the related context, without him ever leaving the app. Consider the following example used to generate a work order:

The technician sees his calendar and selects the #JOB1033 appointment, this takes him to the capture screen below with all the relevant information like customer details, elevator models and parts being populated based on his appointment.

Now he can capture pictures, add tags or notes and saves his work. This work order is then pushed up to the appropriate system based on the information pulled from his appointment.

Siena with power of Office 365 can enable countless such apps, enabling productivity in a whole new set of business scenarios.

Siena Beta Refresh

This release is another major step addition to Project Siena’s empowerment of business experts and analysts. Key new functionality includes:

• One-click read/write connection to Office 365 (People, Mail, Meetings) and SharePoint online including Azure Active Directory based authentication
• Create either landscape or portrait apps optimized for Surface Pro 3
• Grouping and multi-selection editing of visuals
• Across the board improvements, including more control over interactivity and design.

Summary

Project Siena Beta Refresh is another major milestone in our quest to empower business users to transform their business through purpose-specific apps now with the power of Office 365.

Please install the latest release of Project Siena from the Windows Store, check out https://microsoft.com/ProjectSiena, watch a tutorial video, download a sample app for inspiration, and then bring your own ideas to life in a Siena app.

Bill Staples, General Manger, Azure App Platform

Note that we have done an unusually "deep" globalization and localization. For example, it's not just the UI menus that will appear in Japanese and German. Every formula, every function, every property name will now be in the right language. That is what Siena users have asked for.

Thank you to our German and Japanese customers and partners for bearing with us, it's here now!

This is the first of many other languages that we will support.

See https://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/Microsoft-Project-Siena/App-Tour-Salesforce-Dress-by-Color for an app that delivers a novel fashion selection experience, with the key product data coming from Salesforce.com.

Also see https://www.wadewegner.com/2014/08/build-a-windows-8-app-for-salesforce-with-no-code-using-project-siena/ for how Wade Waggoner built a Siena + Salesforce.com app, including insights about the required WADL.

This is an exciting development, as it opens the window to an even larger number of apps.

I wanted to share two links:

• https://blogs.windows.com/business/2014/07/15/wpc-2014-partnering-to-win-in-the-mobile-era/
• https://www.fujitsu.com/global/about/resources/news/press-releases/2014/0714-01.html

Vijay Mital, General Manager, Project Siena

Wanted to share a couple of links:

• https://www.enterprisetech.com/2014/07/16/nadella-pep-talk-stresses-microsoft-ecosystem/
• https://www.pcworld.com/article/2454514/microsofts-nadella-preaches-productivity-to-partners.html

Vijay Mital, General Manager, Project Siena

Since we released Project Siena to the public, we have seen an immense level of excitement and usage from our enterprise customers and solution partners. We have seen business people create powerful, custom mobile-first apps, often in hours, without any programming needed at all. We have also seen mobile apps that transform business processes by extending back-end services and SaaS with signal-rich and media-rich experiences that simply couldn’t have been imagined before mobile devices.

But, most important of all, we have seen the beginning of a change in how people think about turning ideas into apps.

Transforming business processes

A perfect example comes from Toro, a leading provider of innovative turf, landscape, rental and construction equipment. A marketing manager and a web content manager saw Project Siena just four weeks before a major marketing event, a NASCAR race at the Talladega Speedway. Within days, they were able to conceive and create an impactful app that allowed attendees to explore and understand the Toro product catalog, with content and behavior crafted specifically for the race event.

Another example is Persistent Systems, a global company specializing in software product and technology services. Their business analysts and business architects use Project Siena to change the “app discovery” conversation with customers: now, they convert ideas into highly-functional prototypes right during the conversation, so the validation and refinement of the ideas happens on the spot.

Aditi Technologies is a global technology solutions partner focusing on cloud services, IT outsourcing and digital marketing. They have inserted Project Siena in their pre-sales efforts: the ability to create apps in near-real time gives Aditi an advantage by making on-the-spot changes, shortening their sales cycle and building stronger strategic relationships with their clients, particularly business decision makers and process owners.

Siena Beta 3

The Beta3 release is a major addition to Project Siena’s empowerment of business experts and analysts. Key new functionality includes:

• One-click read/write connection to Yammer, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Coursera, Bing Search, and Bing Translate.
• Connections to more types of RESTful services with OAuth 1 and OAuth 2 support.
• A WADL accelerator for the ecosystem to rapidly create connections to RESTful services – this will be released over the next four weeks.
• Write back to SharePoint lists.
• Data visualization through interactive charts.
• International languages support throughout the UI and in formulas and functions – this will be released over the next four weeks.
• Across the board improvements, including more control over interactivity and design.

 In Beta2, we introduced the concept, illustrated below, that non-programmers could consume services as easily as using an Excel function. And composing multiple services was just like linking two Excel functions.

Beta3 takes the ability to work with services to another level, where getting started with key services is now as easy as adding a PowerPoint slide layout to a deck.  

Summary

Project Siena Beta3 is a major step in our mission to empower the most creative business minds to truly unlock the power of mobile and cloud. 

Please install the latest release of Project Siena from the Windows Store, check out https://microsoft.com/ProjectSiena , watch a tutorial video, download a sample app for inspiration, and then bring your own ideas to life in a Siena app.

Namaste!

S. Somasegar, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft

In addition to providing super-simple connectivity to a select number of web services, with Project Siena Beta 2 you can connect to REST enabled web-service using Web Application Description Language (WADL) configuration files.

As a business user interested in connecting to your organization’s REST enabled web-services ask your IT department or developer to create the WADL configuration files.

WADL Configuration Files

As a developer of REST enabled web-services, you can empower your business users by giving them the ability to connect to your services using WADL configuration files. For example, you can write a WADL configuration file that connects to your corporate data store, reads data from an online dashboard, or allows you to post on your internal enterprise social network.

For instructions on how to write your own WADL configuration file, see our TechNet wiki article detailing everything you need to know to get up and running:

• Creating a WADL Configuration File

This article introduces the basic concepts and building blocks necessary to describe your service and its resources for your business users. Please note, this article assumes you have experience with basic HTTP and XML concepts involved in web development.

Bring your apps to life with the power of the cloud, upgrade to Beta 2 today!