BMS Blog: SBS Consulting in the UK

At the next AMITPRO meeting one of the speakers is from Brightpoint GB. I’ve got some more info on their proposition now:

Brightpoint GB is initiating a programme called The Mobile Enabler which provides the IT channel with access to devices (Windows Mobile), voice/data airtime (Orange), applications and device management, fully supported with technical back up, marketing and training in order for them to provide their SMB customers with a connected mobility solution based around the key driver for remote email.

The programme is designed to be modular and as flexible as possible, in order for the IT reseller to pick the items needed to deliver a mobility solution. Margin opportunities exist on the initial sale, potential ongoing airtime revenue and of course and service, support, training and maintenance.

This could be just the thing you’re looking for to get those extra sales on board or sway a prospect - so come along to the meeting and find out what it’s all about.

Forthcoming dates and speakers for the next 3 meetigns are as follows:

Next meeting is 12^th August

Speakers:

· Emily Lambert, Microsoft SBSC Programme Lead

· Microsoft Windows Mobile Team and Distributor Brightpoint (formerly Hugh Symmons) to discuss a potential mobile offering with Orange.

Emily will be the new point of contact for everything SBSC and is very keen to understand what we want/need/like/dislike about the SBSC programme, so you wont want to miss this meeting. Have your questions/suggestions/wish list to hand and let’s make sure MS understand we are the go to group for providing feedback on SBSC!

Sept 9^th Meeting

Provisional speakers:

· N-Able Technologies. www.n-able.com. IT Automation & Managed Services Solutions. Only 1 speaker this month as this is likely to be a longish presentation.

Oct 14^th Meeting

Provisional speakers:

· VSLnet: http://www.vsl-net.com/ : Managed Internet Solutions – start offering hosted solutions to your customers now or add to your existing portfolio.

Premier Finance and Leasing: Specialists in IT finance & lease. Gain a competitive edge over the competition by offering finance & lease to your customers and easily overcome their objections to cost.

Meetings are held at the Arden Hotel near to the NEC and we meet at 17.00 for a 17.30 start in the bar before going to the meeting room, so why not come along and join in.

Well if you can’t blow your own trumpet now and then! We have a couple of Windows Mobile case studies which I’m happy to announce have now been published on microsoft.com:

http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000002412

http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000002408

They will also be used for various other marketing and PR activity. Shame they’ve made us sound so American but you can’t have everything!

Several years ago we saw the writing on the wall for traditional photocopier dealers and completely re-invented ourselves - it was without doubt the best thing we have ever done in the company’s 16 year history - the question is, is it time to re-invent again?

There have been a lot of murmurings, opinions and in some cases rants banded around the SBSC and wider MS Partner community about what will and won’t happen with regard to S+S, SaaS, cloud computing and all the other fancy terms that get thought up to describe hosted services, and more to the point does that mean the end of SBSC partners who rely on selling traditional on-premise kit and support to end users, and if so, how soon?

Before we go any further, lets look at the average client supported by an SBSC partner in the UK. They may have 1 SBS 2003 server, 7 workstations and say 3 laptops. They are running a network version of Sage accounts Line 50 for invoicing and producing sales and purchase orders. They may have 5 licences for AutoCAD LT to produce drawings, a mix of Office 2003/2007 on most machines and a bespoke access database which was written by a small software house who have now gone bust, and the client doesn’t have access to any of the source code etc. Their Internet connection is limited to 2Mb ADSL as they are a long way from the BT exchange and the exchange is not SDSL enabled and is not yet ADSL2+ ready.

Now, let’s imagine what happens when we say to this customer they should switch to SaaS, I think you can probably see where this is going! You manage to convince Mr. Client that it would make a lot of sense to rent licences for MS Office as and when he needs them. Need to downsize? No problem, just rent less licences. Business picking up and you take on a Marketing lady? Just rent a Publisher licence. Now try that with Sage, or AutoCAD LT. Try calling Sage and asking them how their licensing model for hosted services works. It’s even worse for AutoCAD, not that AutoCAD is going to work in any kind of hosted TS environment anyway, and even if it did you wouldn’t get any support on it. That’s before you have to inform the client that their Internet connection is so slow and flaky that the only real alternative at this point is a 2Mb leased line which is going to cost around £5-6,000 setup and £500-800 per month!

So, is it time to re-invent? Well here’s the other side of the story. I know for a fact we lost 2 deals recently because the client ended up going for a hosted solution. I also had an email from an existing client who wrote the following:

Free software (like Google Apps and Open Office) is going to be very bad news for Microsoft.

In future, we may not need to pay the astronomical sums necessary to buy several Microsoft Office licences from you.

Thank you for your insight Mr. Client. I haven’t spoken to you in 12 months but you see fit to send me an email suggesting that my business model is going to go down the pan anytime soon as you are going to be able to get what you need for free. Your thought process is as flawed as your own business model judging by the infrequency you pay your monthly contract charges - but I digress.

Let’s cut to the chase. There are large corporates out in IT land that have realised they can make money from hosting applications, services etc. These companies have stolen a march on Microsoft and Microsoft are now playing catch-up. Hopefully in their rush for world domination Microsoft will spare a thought for their partners that don’t quite fit the new evolving partner model and won’t steam roller over them too quickly - but I doubt it. The point is only the quickest and fittest will survive, so start thinking about all this will effect you now.

So will we be re-inventing ourselves? Sort of. I see the change to SaaS, S+S or whatever you want to term it as an evolution rather than revolution. It isn’t going to happen overnight but we can be sure it WILL happen. Where will we start? By building on what we already do and adding services such as Sharepoint development, CRM consulting and hosted Exchange. Some of these will generate more revenue and bottom line than others, but together they will ultimately add up to more than we currently generate from selling bits of tin.

I don’t see our customer base disappearing into the sunset cloud just yet, but I can see that some of them are already asking what it is and what it can do for them - it’s only a matter of time.

As announced by Eric Ligman. SBS 2008 is launching on 12th November 2008!

From Eric’s MS smallbiz blog:

Getting ready for these new solutions is a very important step, so we are making a big investment in training and programs to help partners take advantage of the solutions. We are planning to train more than 25,000 partners through events and online tools in the next year and at WPC we expect to educate more than 2,000 partners. As should not be any surprise, Small Business Server 2008 and Essential Business Server 2008 are an important part of the current and future Microsoft Partner Program offerings.

If you have not seen these yet, the editions, pricing, beta, and more information on SBS 2008 & EBS 2008 were released previously.  Prior to the launch date, those customers purchasing SBS 2003 R2 with Software Assurance will receive the 2008 version of SBS included in their Software Assurance coverage.  When acquiring your SBS Software Assurance, be sure to use the Open Value or Open Value Subscription programs.

In addition to the announcement of the official launch date for these solutions, we are also announcing that both Solutions are reaching the Release Candidate 1 milestone, another step toward final release. Pre-release versions of Small Business Server 2008 and Essential Business Server 2008 are available for download and evaluation now through www.multiplyyourpower.com.

Bring it on!

While trawling the ‘net earlier I came across this Sharepoint blog which has some interesting content worth reviewing - worth dropping in your RSS feeds!

As I’m sure you are all aware the launch of SBS 2008 is just around the corner and Sonal Gathani is asking us what we want to see at the UK SBS 2008 launch. This is our chance to ensure the content is relevant and presented in the right format.

So if you’re an SBSC partner or sell and support SBS you are ideally placed to tell  Microsoft exactly what we need and want to see from the event, so lets make sure we all do our bit and provide some feedback.

You can email ideas directly to Sonal at sgathani@microsoft.com or reply to her blog post about the launch event here:

http://blogs.technet.com/sbsuk/archive/2008/06/27/what-do-you-want-to-see-at-the-uk-sbs-2008-launch.aspx

I’m proud to announce I have been voted the new AMITPRO Group Leader.

I’d like to say a personal thank you to Vijay who has done a sterling job of representing the group since he took on the role of group leader and I’m sure he will continue to positively contribute  and be an active group member.

I would like to take this opportunity to invite anyone who reads this blog to come along to the next AMITPRO meeting and find out what it’s all about. There are many SBSC and registered MS partners in the East/West Midlands, some of whom I know follow the AMITPRO members blogs and sit on the sidelines rather than become a part of what we are doing. If you’re one them this is an open invitation to get involved and make a difference.

The next meeting is on Tuesday 12^th August 2008 at the Arden Hotel (http://www.ardenhotel.co.uk) from 5.00pm for a 5.30 pm start. Vijay has kindly already organised the speakers for the meeting and they are:

· Emily Lambert, Microsoft SBSC Programme Lead

· Microsoft Windows Mobile Team and Distributor Brightpoint (formerly Hugh Symmons) to discuss a potential mobile offering with Orange.

I’m particularly looking forward to meeting with Emily as she will be helping to shape the SBSC program going forward.

So if you’ve been sitting on the sidelines wondering how to get involved come along and have your say at what is sure to be a great meeting. I might even be persuaded to buy a round of drinks to celebrate!

I was lucky enough last Thursday to be invited to a round table discussion with Scott Dodds, General Manager of Small to Medium Business and Partner Division at Microsoft, held at West Bromwich Albion Football Club (but we won’t hold that against them!).

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the challenges affecting Partners supplying the Small Business sector in the West Midlands. We’re actually in the East Midlands but our support cover does spill over into the West Mids as well.

Although the meeting was only an hour and a half lots of ground was covered including what partners believe Microsoft should be doing to help us raise awareness of MS products including the possibility of local case studies, videos and other marketing collateral that Partners can share.

With regard to building on the infrastructure stack most SBSC Partners provide it looks like the obvious way forward to drive more revenue and provide a better ROI for the customer is Sharepoint development. According to an MS survey the average consultancy time sold to a Sharepoint customer is 20-30 days - you have to shift an awful lot of tin to earn the same margins that that generates!

Interestingly Sharepoint is seeing a 250% growth year on year and is Microsoft’s fasting growing product to 1 million dollars ever. Now where did I put my copy of Sharepoint development for dummies…

From the The WSSG Community Lead Blog :

“The SBS Community Survey is floundering with very few responses.”

So if you haven’t already, get on over there and fill out that survey! How can we expect to be taken seriously if we don’t provide timely and concise feedback?

SBS WW Community Survey 2008