Microsoft appears to move on from its most loyal ‘customers’ – Contoso and Fabrikam

Microsoft appears to have moved on from two of its most loyal and enthusiastic "customers". The firms Redmond has shunned are called “Contoso” and “Fabrikam”, which for decades served as the subject of fictional case studies used in product demos and educational material. Microsoft describes Contoso as “a multinational …

[Bebu sa Ware]

"intelligent athletic apparel"

Clothing for the intelligent athlete—possibly a fairly small market.

Full on agentic AI home improvement… could be "interesting" in the rocks and glue pizza sense.

[Blackjack]

Re: "intelligent athletic apparel"

https://www.lifewire.com/what-are-smart-clothes-4176103

Is that with AI added in and 24 hours cloud service so forget about getting out the range of WiFi of whatever Mobile service you are using for Internet.

[Zarno]

Re: "intelligent athletic apparel"

"Your subscription to CoolPants has ended, please add credits. Starting heating, locking zipper."

[Rameses Niblick the Third Kerplunk Kerplunk Whoops Where's My Thribble?]

Re: "intelligent athletic apparel"

It's the wrong trousers Gromit, and they've gone wrong!

[NoneSuch]

Re: "intelligent athletic apparel"

They changed from contoso to zava because of the short attention span of todays youth. Three syllables was too much for the Gen Z'ers.

[Peter-Waterman1]

Re: "intelligent athletic apparel"

What about north winds trading!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "intelligent athletic apparel"

...and if you're really old, Bluesky Airlines.

[JLV]

Re: "intelligent athletic apparel"

Mens sana in corpore sano.

Did you mean instead to express the fact that `a fool and their money are easily parted via the sirens of "athletic" wear`? (esp. when they come in "intelligent" or "tactical" flavors)

As evidenced by $100+ sweat yoga pants?

[Anonymous Coward]

Whatever?

... a new fake brand called “Zava,” a retailer which “specializes in intelligent athletic apparel." Whatever that is.

Whatever?

Just more marketing bullshit from the usual brainless droids.

But the problem is not in the droids, they were spawned to do exactly that.

The problem is the DH who actually signed off on the idea.

.

[Richard 12]

The interesting part

Is that they're based in Washington State - essentially next door to Microsoft headquarters.

What does that say about their future market goals?

Perhaps they won't always have Paris.

[Pussifer]

Re: The interesting part

But hopefully they will still have Parrots.

[hedgie]

Re: The interesting part

Personally, I'd stick with the green blob over anything from Microsoft.

[stewrogers]

Re: The interesting part

Trump probably tried to put tariffs on them

[steviesteveo]

Re: The interesting part

I wonder if they've been getting jokes about tariffs in the sessions

[Strahd Ivarius]

It is a sad day for Microsoft

when your most loyal customers decide not to follow you on the road to AI...

[Dave K]

Re: It is a sad day for Microsoft

Yeah, looks like Contoso migrated to Linux and LibreOffice. Probably to get away from all the Copilot bollocks...

[jpennycook]

security

Hopefully Zava will be more secure. Contoso and Fabrikam always used predictable passwords in the training courses.

[seven of five]

Re: security

Does it really matter with Micros~1 and their updates? No point in locking a burning barn.

[TimMaher]

Re: “burning barn”

Red sky in the morning, shepherd’s warning.

Red sky at night, barn’s alight.

[hedgie]

Re: security

Depends on who would be trapped in the barn, wouldn't it?

[Dave Null]

MS has many more "brands" than just Contoso and Fabrikam

There are many - all cleared to be a) inoffensive in any language and b) not to infringe any copyright. There's even an internal tool to populate usernames for demos where you can pick a demographic/region etc. It makes sense given the crazy number of demos given at any given time by MSFT folks.

Other examples include AdventureWorks, Northwind Traders, A. Datum, Coho Vineyard etc. Each is tailored to a different demo audience.

Contoso has demos for pretty much anything Microsoft, Fabrikam tends to be more around identity/messaging etc in a traditional enterprise scenario etc.

I'd imagine that Zava's been picked as an example of a startup/cloud-first scenario - all the demos are very big-data heavy e.g. demand for products across seasons which presumably lend themselves well to AI conversations like demand prediction, supply chain etc for smaller, more agile potential customers rather than traditional heavy enterprise.

[Cruachan]

Re: MS has many more "brands" than just Contoso and Fabrikam

I recall Fourth or maybe 4th Coffee and Tailspin Toys as well from the far off days when I was doing MS certs on what seemed like a constant basis. Constant cycle of read a chapter that begins with "Don't use NETBIOS/WINS, it's outdated" and then they talk about it for ages as it's technically examinable. Much like the client OS exams where "boot to Last Known Good configuration" was almost always the answer for a boot failure question, ignoring that is never (IME) worked in the real world.

[simonlb]

Re: MS has many more "brands" than just Contoso and Fabrikam

"boot to Last Known Good configuration"

That was first boot after installation then. FTFY.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: MS has many more "brands" than just Contoso and Fabrikam

My guess is this is someone unaware of the legal dept list of approved brands who made one up. Happens all the time and takes an old timer to drop a massive hint that you can’t take chances like that in a company people would love to screw over. The list is there for a reason and has so many options including the Redmond farm

[Dave Null]

Re: MS has many more "brands" than just Contoso and Fabrikam

Old-timer here. Nah, this is an official "new" one to add to the list. MS doesn't mess about with this stuff any more, it's all quite regimented. You can set up an internal demo for a customer for the "brands" automatically using internal tooling which is pretty good: e.g. if you want to demo Fabric rather than have to manually set up a test environment, populate it with users and data manually - it can all be safely (from a legal perspective as well as a technical perspective) done in a few clicks. Massive timesaver as well as legally safe.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: MS has many more "brands" than just Contoso and Fabrikam

Haha yeah they had that while I was still there. I refused to use it as the demos were way too scripted and it just ended up with inexperienced people looking bad in front of extremely knowledgeable customers. You can’t script experience, especially on products like Fabric!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: MS has many more "brands" than just Contoso and Fabrikam

Well DUH

[Pigeon Post]

There may be trouble ahead...

www.zavamed.com uses brand name Zava. Just sayin'

[Juha Meriluoto]

Re: There may be trouble ahead...

They obviously nicked that name from Micro$oft beforehand! Time for a lawsuit!

[kmorwath]

Zara may want to have a word or two....

Can I call a company Micosoft?

[Bill Gray]

Re: Zara may want to have a word or two....

Apparently, there is a Macrosoft. Or at least, there was one; the site says it was last updated in 2005.

You do make me wonder, though. I assume if it's clear that you are intentionally trying to confuse people, you could be sued by the "real" company. If 'Micosoft' sells ice cream or plywood, I'd think you would be safer.

(The name of my business is Project Pluto. I have joked from time to time about possible issues with being sued by the notoriously litigious Walt Disney® megacorporation. But I write and sell software for astronomers and am a one-man show, too small even for Disney to get worried about.)

[Rahbut]

Re: Zara may want to have a word or two....

When I saw Macrosoft I was reminded of Macrohard - another fictitious AI company, but associated with the Elon Musk Reality Distortion Field.

I'm sure Disney have got bigger problems to worry about :)

From one man band to another, see icon ->

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Zara may want to have a word or two....

There used to be a small computer shop in Southall called "MicroHard".

[WolfFan]

Re: Zara may want to have a word or two....

Ahem. Whenever I see ‘Project Pluto’ I think of… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pluto which was possibly the most insane idea ever perpetuated by the US Air Farce. And they’ve had a lot of insane ideas.

[Paul Herber]

Re: Zara may want to have a word or two....

But then the British Operation Pluto https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Pluto

was an outstanding success!

[Bill Gray]

Re: Zara may want to have a word or two....

True. When I started the company in 1992, long before the concept of "just G__gle it" existed, I didn't know about the quite Strangeloveian "original" Project Pluto.

Some years later, I read a vaguely familiar-seeming article by Arthur C. Clarke with a spoofed press release for "Project Pluto", a futuristic DoD project to turn the sun off for half an hour. (The explanation was that the US needed to investigate this because foreign powers might use the capability themselves to attack the US under cover of artificial darkness. Concerns that the sun might not start up again after the half hour were dismissed as overblown.) I think I may have read it as a wee lad and had that bouncing around in the back of my brain.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Zara may want to have a word or two....

I know a company that registered 'PSP' as a trademark in the UK for a bit of software that ultimately never got released. Then Sony decided to name a new console Play Station Portable before checking that the trademakw for PSP was available everywhere.

I think the company ended up selling the trademark to Sony, not sure of the details though..

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Re: Zara may want to have a word or two....

Microshaft are sailing close to the wind on this one.

Zara may decide the call the Spanish Inquisition

[chivo243]

Re: Zara may want to have a word or two....

If your name is Mike Rowe you can...

https://www.theregister.com/2004/01/19/microsoft_lawyers_threaten_mike_rowe/

[Fogcat]

Re: Zara may want to have a word or two....

Looks like they won that one in the end Mike's domain now directed you to a Microsoft site.

[chivo243]

Re: Zara may want to have a word or two....

aaaannnnd, now you can't!

[T G Warren]

Dishonesty rules, still, it seems. Isn’t there some sort of EU regulations about this type of nonsense?

This is just a sort of an “anti-FUD” for those of us who had to deal with IBM back in the day; nostalgia eh? It’s not what it used to be..

[katrinab]

Only insofar as using a real company name could be probematic.

If you are providing worked examples, which they do, and it is perfectly reasonable for them to do it, then you need to give it a name.

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Satya's Tat Bazaar

Bugs-R-Us

[Henry Wertz 1]

EU regulations?

EU regulations? About using a new company name in their tutorials and tech demos? Admittedly I'm rather libertarian but... I'm not a Microsoft fan but that does not seem necessary to regulate.

[Terry 6]

I've often thought....

....that Microsoft's products were built to meet the needs of imaginary customers.

[Juha Meriluoto]

Re: I've often thought....

I think M$ is an imaginary company in our collective nightmare...

[tatatata]

From Microsoft's website:

"Contoso Corporation is a fictional but representative global manufacturing conglomerate"

"Every project the company runs with Microsoft products and partners finishes on time, within budget, and delivers amazing return on investment."

Can someone explain to me how that can be representative?

[Paradroid]

Unsurprising

Microsoft has no respect for their own history and tradition. They probably think that's being innovative but it's why they struggle with basic continuity and brand recognition across their products.

[Anon]

Wonder where they got the name from...

Maybe they were inspired to think of the name while tracking their cycling or running using a particular fitness-related app? Will Zava go the way of SkyDrive?

[Henry Wertz 1]

Are they retired?

Are Fabrikam etc. really retired thouigh? Maybe zava will be used JUST for AI nonsense, so when the AI bubble pops (not like there'll be 0 AI, but less than the AI vendors are hoping for), when that happens fabrikam ans coseco can carry on with examples of how to do normal stiff while Zava chases the next fad.

[Anonymous Coward]

Moving on?

It appears those ain't the only customers from which Micro$oft is "moving on". I submit that anyone who's not jumping immediately and fully on the AI bandwagon is included in the "moving on" group as well. Guess we're now all "fake customers".

[IGotOut]

So as pointed out..

“Zava,” a retailer which “specializes in intelligent athletic apparel."

So who has a go first?

The clothing retailer, Zara, or the fitness tracking company Strava, who could be loosely classed as an "intelligent athletic" company

[chivo243]

Farewel~

So long Contoso, I always laughed at your silly questions in the Fravo.com exam *prep*

[hoofie2002]

"fresher, modern narratives aligned with AI"

There are times when to be honest the elimination of Marketing Consultants, along with the telephone sanitisers, from the surface of the planet would be a positive move.

[Terry 6]

Remember (HHGG) what happened after the removal of telephone sanitisers.Marketing consultants however, to quote from The Mikado's Lord High Executioner instead, "They’d none of them be missed".

[Anonymous Coward]

Easy!

Should make the exams easier to pass given that the schtick with MS exams is "least administrative effort".

e: Do nothing, company has ceased trading.

[PM.]

Even Contoso ditched Microsoft ?!

Good Lord , Microsoft is in shambles if that's true !

I guess adding AI everywhere got to them , too ... And state Windows 11 is in ... and Teams ..

I think Contoso's infrastructure is now Postgres hosted on GCP, and the rest is Google too ....

[deadlockvictim]

When even your imaginary friends don't want to be your friend anymore...

[Mr Dogshit]

Don't forget alpineskihouse.com

[Anonymous Coward]

They’ve migrated

I heard that “Contoso” and “Fabrikam” migrated to Zorin OS!