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!

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!

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!

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!

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.

It’s been a bit of a mission of mine to try and attain Gold Certified status before the MPN changes take place. The reason behind this is simple. Once all the MPN changes are in place and we have competencies and advanced competencies I want to be able to say to prospects that we were Gold Certified before the changes!

Now that should tell you something about what I think about the changes or to be more precise, the names chosen to differentiate the levels. Everyone understands what Gold means, but does everyone understand what having a competency means? I think not.

At my weekly BNI meetings I stand up and say we are a Microsoft Small Business Specialist and a (Gold) Certified Partner. Now I appreciate unless I explain what is involved in getting to Gold the other members are non the wiser as to what it actually means, but the word suggests an achievement worthy of merit such as a gold medal for coming first.

Once the MPN changes take place I’m going to have to say we are a Microsoft Small Business Specialist and a competency partner. I can imagine it now – the very least we would be expected to be is competent! I’m not sure being an advanced competency partner sounds much better either.

I suspect it’s WAY too late for Microsoft to reconsider the naming convention now that the MPN changes have been “locked out”. Mind you that didn’t stop them postponing the Small Business Solution Provider competency!

Anyway, I’m very pleased we made it to Gold just in time and very proud of the team at BMS for always giving 110%. Now on to the next challenge!

Personally I don’t do a lot of development work, occasionally dipping in and out of Visual Studio to write bits of code for MS Dynamics CRM for internal use, but the intuitive interface means even I can be productive in a very short space of time!

As I mentioned before this really does provide us with the confidence that investing time and money in Sharepoint training will be worthwhile for us as we continue to build on our infrastructure implementations. For anyone looking to resell MS BPOS this sort of training will be essential to leverage the  consultancy opportunities around Sharepoint and other cloud services.

Webcast event: "Microsoft Partner Network for Small to Midsize Business (SMB) Partners"

A special webcast event will take place on May 4^th which will be entitled  "Microsoft Partner Network for Small to Midsize Business (SMB) Partners" and will be presented by Judy Kolde, Sr. Director, Worldwide Partner Sales at Microsoft.

This is a great opportunity for you to hear firsthand how Microsoft is committed to its SMB Partners through new and existing opportunities within the Microsoft Partner Network.  It’s also a unique occasion for you to ask questions directly to one of our global executives within the Worldwide Partner Group. 

Register for the event here:
https://training.partner.microsoft.com/learning/app/management/registrationex/LMS_Registration.aspx?UserMode=0&ActivityId=580853