BMS Blog: SBS Consulting in the UK

So day 1 is over and what was the message from Steve Ballmer et al?

From an SMB perspective the biggest announcement without doubt is the information released about the next version of SBS codenamed “aurora”.

In fact there are two version of the product, a lite version aimed at being a first server and an on-premise version. Aurora will be a hybrid solution with email and collaboration tools hosted in the cloud: Think SBS combined with BPOS lite. The other version will be a traditional on-premise solution with a refresh of the components to reflect the latest offerings.

I think this is a very clever move on Microsoft’s part. It proves Microsoft’s commitment to its partners and at the same time moves someway to helping clients get better ROI.

12 months ago the PAL’s were asked what we thought of the idea and there was mixed reactions from complete agreement to utter disbelief. It seems like a natural evolution to me so I’m comfortable with the idea and I suspect many other partners will think likewise. Let me know what you think!

You can sign up for the beta and get more information over at:

http://www.microsoft.com/sbs/en/us/beta.aspx

It was very obvious from Steve Ballmer that if as a partner you “aren’t all in with the cloud”, now is the time to get out, and he said as much during the keynote. He also re-enforced Microsoft’s commitment to partners.

The breakout sessions I’ve attended today have mainly been around how to make money from cloud computing and how to transition successfully to a new business model. It was refreshing to see so many partners sounding positive about the changes rather than last year when a lot of people seemed much less sure.

I also had chance to catch up with Eric Ligman, my fellow PAL’s and Susanne Dansey in the UK lounge and SMB booth (known as the yellow room)

More keynotes tomorrow and of course tomorrow night is the infamous UK party! I’ll be posting the incriminating photos of that as soon as I have them!

This post is completely off topic so apologies if you aren’t interested. there again it’s my blog and I can post about anything I like

A couple of months ago I somehow managed to volunteer myself,  my other half, our 2 small sons and half my work colleagues to tow a Cambridge Punt through Braunston Tunnel for the Help for Heroes charity. I’m still not sure how it came about to be honest but it seemed like a good idea at the time – It almost certainly had something to do with consuming too much alcohol though.

Well the last couple of months have passed in a blur of engine servicing, painting, polishing and general preparations of our narrowboat Eclipse and the big day is fast approaching. Sunday the 27th of June to be exact. Already on the way to Braunston from Cambridge is Toby and his intrepid crew aboard the aforementioned Punt, currently on day 3 and probably wondering what on earth they’ve started!

As luck would have it, and assuming they survive the tow through the tunnel, they will be slap bang in the middle of the Braunston Historic Boat Rally which should help to swell the coffers somewhat as there will be hundreds of gongoozlers and historic boat enthusiasts to wave the donation buckets at!

I should explain for the uninitiated the reason we are towing them through the tunnel. Braunston tunnel is one of the longest on the inland waterway system at 2042 yards long and takes approx 20 mins to traverse in a powered craft. As the punt is powered by nothing more than a long stick and some (by then very tired) muscles they aren’t allowed in the tunnel on their own and must therefore be towed through.

The boat rally is also particularly significant for me this year as there is to be a gathering of star class Grand Union Canal Carrying Company boats. Eclipse is a replica star class boat so I’m hoping to get some good photos and talk to the owners of these boats to gain a better insight in to their history.

So, if you haven’t got anything better to do on Sunday 27th June why not pop along to the Braunston Historic Boat Rally, see some terrified students after their tunnel ordeal and count some rivets with a bunch of historic narrowboat geeks. If you thought IT geeks were bad, you ain’t seen nothing yet!

More info on the Help for Heroes charity and the punt and its crew can be found over at:

http://camoxpunt.wordpress.com/

Why not come along and support us!

I’ve been meaning to find out more about Sharepoint 2010 for some time now but what with CRM customisations and trying to implement the CRM Customer Portal Accelerator (which I  still haven’t finished) I’ve just not had the time so it was good to get an insight into what Sharepoint can do from AMITPRO’s very own “Mr Sharepoint”, Andy Parkes.

Andy gave an excellent demonstration of how to build a helpdesk system from Sharepoint 2010 with very little effort and programming knowledge. It took less than an hour to get from a vanilla install to a functioning helpdesk system with auto-generated alerts/emails, historical case info etc. I had no idea Sharepoint was as flexible as Andy’s demo proved and I’m very excited to get on and learn more. I’m particularly interested in how it can integrate with MS CRM and was going to look at using it as a customer facing portal for ticket management (I might still do that if I can’t get the Customer Portal Accelerator up and running soon!)

While I was digging around for info I came across this MS keynote video from Microsoft UK’s Architect Insight Conference and was interested in the comments Terry Smith (Senior Director, Partner Technology Unit) regarding the “tooling” now available in Sharepoint and the joined up thinking around integration with Visual Studio etc.

I probably shouldn’t be looking at this stuff as I’m going to get dragged back in to working in the business rather than on it if I’m not careful but sometimes the geek in me surfaces for a while and then it’s hard to get it back in the box!

This is an interesting project sponsored by Microsoft and just goes to prove there is more than one way to skin a cat as the saying goes!

During the last few years, Microsoft has gone all-in competing against Linux, Google, and SaaS vendors. Much of the work and success has redefined the company in terms of how it interacts and plays with competitors as well as the community. It wasn’t simply enough for the company to tout its strengths and showcase a competitor’s weaknesses, Microsoft wanted to identify its own weaknesses. From that endeavour, some major technology shifts occurred, primarily a huge focus around interoperability.

Microsoft is investing in making sure the free ecosystem of open-source technology, both competitive and complimentary, works well regardless of a customer’s choice in software infrastructure. Umbraco and Drupal, are two popular CMS systems that are free and have a very dedicated community of users. In the case of Umbraco, which happens to already leverage .NET, Microsoft wanted to make it better, easier and more capable than something like WordPress.

This video highlights some of the projects goals and gives an insight in to how the Microsoft machine works from ground roots perspective.

I will be watching how this project goes with interest over the coming months!

It’s hard to believe its been nearly 12 months since I took up the role of Microsoft UK Partner Area Lead (PAL) but here we are rushing headlong towards WPC10 and a new financial year for Microsoft.

First off I’d like to thank Andy Trish who has been my fellow PAL for the past 12 months and has done a sterling job of helping the SBSC community grow and mature via his business school live meeting series. Andy has decided to step down from the role this year but I’m sure we haven’t heard the last of him as he is will be on stage at WPC10 “telling it like it is” to Microsoft Corp!

Secondly I’d like to welcome on board the new PALs for this year, Richard Tubb and Guy Gregory. I can’t think of anyone more dedicated to the SBSC community than these 2 guys and I’m really excited to be working alongside them over the next 12 months as we help the community with the burning issues of MPN transition, cloud computing and growth in a difficult financial climate. We’ll be having our first FY11 PAL meeting at WPC10 in July, so expect to hear lots of exciting news after that about what we’re going to be doing over the coming months.

As far as the last 12 months of my PAL tenure are concerned it has to be said it hasn’t been an easy ride for most SBSC partners! As if the economic crisis wasn’t bad enough we’ve all had to get used to the idea of the MPN changes, rumours that the SBSC designation was going to disappear, the postponement of the Small Business competency and if that wasn’t enough we’ve also had to worry about cloud computing and what that means for our existing business models.

I clearly remember sitting at that first PAL meeting at WPC09 and hearing Birger Steen saying the SBSC designation/badge was to be no more, the reaction from the audience of PALs was one of bewilderment to say the least. Once we had gathered our thoughts a barrage of questions issued forth and it was clear from that moment on Microsoft would have to reconsider their position. The feedback from the PALs acting as the conduit for partners was I believe, instrumental in ensuring the community retained its own unique identity.

There have been several eye-opening and eyebrow raising moments during the last 12 months and one that stands out is the amount of registered and SBSC partners that never get involved in the community and sit on the sidelines. These partners could learn so much from joining in by going to events, user groups, live meetings etc. This year your PALs will be making every effort to engage with these partners and encourage them to embrace the community in the same way you have.

When I look back on the last 12 months I feel we’ve done a lot to help the SBSC community grow and thrive; Business schools, Technical schools, bite sized training, user group visits, spreading the word via blogs and other social media, as well as help and advice on a one to one basis when required, but there is much more to do over the coming months and I’m looking forward to the challenge with relish.

One thing I do know is we wouldn’t have been anywhere near as effective without Dell Quinn. Dell has been our guiding light and her passionate and unerring commitment to the community is evident in everything she does. It’s important to realise that Dell’s role encompasses more than just looking after the SBSC community which makes her contributions and efforts even more impressive.

If the past 12 months has taught me anything its that Microsoft really do listen to partners. We can’t always effect change and sometimes change takes a long time, but if we are persistent and put our case forward in a coherent and reasoned argument we will at least be listened to and acknowledged.

The PALs exist to help the SBSC community in any way we can so please feel free to let us know what we did well, what we can improve and any suggestions you might have for the next 12 months. And if you’re one of those partners sitting on the sidelines get off your backsides and come and join in – I guarantee you’ll get something great out of the community.

Black Marble talk about their move from Java to .net and how they have embraced the Microsoft stack. This is an expanded video which provides more detail around their decision to move to the Microsoft stack 

/RANT MODE ON

We took on a customer a while back that with hindsight I should probably have told to get lost. But sometimes you can’t see the warning signs.

This particular customer came to us because the previous support company were “incompetent and didn’t know what they were doing” we were told. On enquiring on who said company was it turns out they are a well respected Microsoft Gold partner. I guess the alarm bells should have started ringing then!

This company has been nothing but trouble. Have you ever had one of those customers who blames you every time something goes wrong, even though you never sold them the kit in the first place and the kit is old and frankly not fit for purpose anymore? Every little issue becomes “our fault” and when we don’t wave a magic wand and fix it at no expense we are evil people that don’t know what we are doing.

If you’re in the business of repairing car bodywork ad reading this and thinking “I think he’s talking about us” then you’re probably right. Hopefully you’ll be reading this just before the email hits your inbox that tells you we’ve terminated your contract for breaching several clauses including:

• Failure to allow us adequate time to resolve an issue
• Being abusive to our employees
• Failure to allow us to complete our commitments under the terms of your contract due to refusing access to your equipment at agreed times.

I could go on but frankly I have customers that:

a) understand what good customer service is when they see it
b) Pay us on time
c) Aren’t hell bent on self destruction

So if you are an IT company who gets approached by a car bodywork repair company in the next few weeks do yourself a favour – give me a ring first!

/RANT MODE OFF

There has been a change of date for the March Business School:

Business School: Cost-effective digital marketing tips

Business Schools are a series of monthly Live Meetings specifically for the Small Business Specialist Community (SBSC) and Registered partners who specialise in targeting the small to medium size business market. Taking place on 25 March from 15.00-16.00 (GMT), the next Business School, will be presented by Alana Griffiths, Marketing Strategy Planner for B2B technology marketing agency, Mason Zimbler. Alana will provide cost-effective digital marketing tips to help you target SMB customers. Review a recording of last months’ Business School Meeting which discussed how to structure your business for growth.

On 15 February, customers running Windows 7 Release Candidate will begin receiving automatically generated notifications, warning them that their operating systems will expire and that they need to back-up their data. Beginning 1 March, Windows 7 RC will reboot or go to a blue screen every two hours, depending on the PC’s system failure settings. Start talking with your customers about migrating to Windows 7 before the Release Candidate expires.

Technical Schools are a series of monthly Live Meetings specifically for the Small Business Specialist Community (SBSC) and Registered partners who specialise in targeting the small to medium size business market. Taking place on 22 February from 11.00-12.00 (GMT), the fourth Technical School led by Frank Bennett and Dan Lewis, will provide an overview of the opportunities associated with Microsoft Online Services from a small and medium size business (SMB) perspective. Review a recording of last months’ Technical School meeting, which discussed SharePoint.