Monitoring Steers Office Suite

Service Quality Monitoring (SQM), an optional monitoring feature introduced in Office 2003, is influencing design of the next version of the Office suite. SQM transmits anonymous performance data, command usage counts, and other statistics from customers to the Office product team for analysis. SQM has helped Microsoft fine-tune Office 12’s new user interface and identify hard-to-reproduce bugs, and could one day provide useful data for corporate help desks and ISVs. However, SQM data aren’t yet available for widespread use outside Microsoft, and Microsoft itself will have to interpret SQM results with care.

Live Application Statistics

Formally known as the Customer Experience Improvement Program, SQM saves data to the user’s PC at regular intervals and transmits them over the Internet when PC usage is low, typically daily. Statistics collected cover the following:

• Errors, including crashes and error dialog boxes shown to the user
• User interface events, such as menu pull-downs and