We’re starting May off with an interesting new webcast on how to “ Turn Economic Challenge into Opportunity ”. The state of the global economy poses challenges and opportunities for every business. Our team at Microsoft Canada wants to help you be prepared for whatever the economy brings over the year...

Microsoft Corp. recently released a full study of business challenges and technology priorities that SMBs are facing in this year ahead. As part of the first “ Microsoft SMB Insight Report ” , more than 600 SBSCs across 5 countries were surveyed – including the survey you received from us in Canada....

Microsoft’s Solution Profiler is a tool that allows you create detailed descriptions of your company’s customer solutions that use Microsoft technology, with the purpose of increasing the visibility of those capabilities to potential new customers. Your business growth depends on generating leads and...

Here is some great insight from leaders in the Canadian business world (not just technology either) about succeeding in times of economic uncertainty. It includes some information from Eric Gales, our VP of SMS&P at Microsoft Canada. It was written by Erin Bell with ConnectIT Canada. Read the full...

Written by Stuart Crawford , SBSC Community in Alberta There are a high number of IT Professionals acting as leaders in the virtualization world, practicing what they preach about the benefits of virtualizing our server environments and doing some wonderful things in the virtualization world. We have...

There’s an article from a week back in the Financial Post written by Mary Teresa Bitti, outlining how small businesses should be using technology to succeed today. A large portion of the article comes from discussion with Eric Gales , our VP of SMS&P at Microsoft Canada. I’ve pulled out some highlights...

The “recession” is a hot topic in the global economy and is on every Canadian’s mind. You can set yourself up for success by staying focused on reaching your full potential, and working on the right partnerships that will help guide you through these uncertain economic times. Take a minute to watch the...

This is a question I get from time to time – one that I would love to get asked more often actually: “ Does Microsoft have anything I can use at my event / a tradeshow I’m participating in? ” The answer is, YES ! There is an entire professional event-in-a-box kit available for you to use! What’s in the...

Business and technology assessments (or ‘needs assessments’) are a very effective way to jumpstart the conversation with a SMB customer. Whether you’ve already adopted this practice or not, there is an equally effective way for you to deliver them with the Microsoft Business and Technology Assessment...

Happy New Year! With 2009 here, I want to take a moment to share some of my resolutions for 2009 with you. Sharing resolutions is the most important part of making resolutions in the first place. When you make goals public – professional or personal – you arm others to keep you accountable to achieving...

Written by Stuart Crawford , SBSC Community in Alberta Social media and networking is all the craze in the marketing world today.  Professionals and small business are moving over to social networking and online marketing in droves.  However, many IT Professionals today still do not understand...

There are webcasts taking place all the time in the Microsoft SMB technology world led by Microsoft, members of the community, and/or third-party associations. It’s important for you to attend whenever you see topics that are of interest to you or even areas that you are already familiar with. Why? Because...

Want publicity for the awesome work you do? Want to represent the SBSC community in Canadian media? From time to time we see significant interest bubbling up on important topics from our small business customers. The best way for us to get the word out is, of course, PR! We’re calling out for SBSCs in...

Have no fear, we have one here! If you haven’t seen it on the Microsoft case study website , here is a brief description and PDF download link from Windows Live SkyDrive. This SBS 2008 solution was completed in the healthcare industry in Saskatchewan by local SBSC partner Bralin Technology Solutions...

Written by Stuart Crawford , SBSC Community in Alberta Once an afterthought to many businesses, marketing is rapidly becoming important as sales pipelines dry up, the phones have stopped ringing, word of mouth referrals are no longer propagating and the unemployment rate starts to rise. How does the...