BMS Blog: SBS Consulting in the UK

Well I think its fair to say the transition from Eopen to VLSC has been fraught with issues!

First of all the VLSC site “went down for maintenance” for several days after the transition which didn’t help and I’ve had problems accessing the site ever since.

However, the biggest problem by far is there is no way to add new agreements to the site! Yep you read that right – Microsoft have removed the ability for me to add my own agreements electronically! In Eopen I simply had to drop the agreement and licence number in and job done – I could access the downloads and licence keys.

I logged a support call with the VLSC help centre about a week ago (after being on hold for 45 minutes) complaining about the lack of being able to add agreements and was told that it was being worked on and a fix would be available soon. A couple of days later I got a call back apologising for the delay and letting me know it was still being worked on.

Today I called again (another 35 minute hold) and this time was told that the only way to add agreements was by telephoning the VLSC help line and they would add the agreements. When I questioned this they said it was for “security reasons”.

There’s something not right here. First of all I’m told they are fixing the problem and then they deny there is a problem and we have to call them to get them to add the licences! No wonder there is a 45 minute wait on the phone – Microsoft are asking every single partner and customer who used to add their own licences to call them so Microsoft can add them instead. What’s that about!

I suspect there has been a major cover up here and the representative I spoke to did nothing to disguise the fact the whole thing has been a fiasco and even went as far as to say they hadn’t even been able to access the training resources themselves in able to learn the new site and features before launch.

What we deserve is an apology and compensation from Microsoft for causing delays in us being able to install Open licences and therefore delaying customer installations. I won’t be holding my breath…

Details of Business School and Technical School for Jan have been announced as follows:

Business School: Developing new routes to market

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. Each month, a business expert will provide guidance on a specific topic. Taking place on 21 January at 15:00 (GMT), the third Business School, led by Caroline Egan of Giant Step, will discuss how to develop new routes to market. Review a recording of last months’ Business School meeting, which focused on how to use public relations to publicise your business.

Technical School: SharePoint for small and medium size business

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. Each month, a Microsoft technology expert and/or Microsoft partner will provide advice on how to make full use of the opportunities associated with Microsoft technologies. Taking place on 27 January from 16.00-17.00 (GMT), the third Technical School led by Microsoft’s Jessica Meats, will provide an overview of the opportunities associated with SharePoint from a small and medium size business (SMB) perspective. Review a recording of last months’ Technical School meeting, which discussed Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS).

For those that missed it (or want to see it again) the recording of the BPOS Technical School live meeting is now available at:

https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastRegistrationConfirmation.aspx?culture=en-GB&RegistrationID=1304293125&Validate=false