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Hopefully, if you’re based near Sydney, you’ve already registered to come along to The Big Picture Experience. The Sydney day for customers is this Thursday, the 1st December.
The event is run as an ‘experience’, rather than as a conventional conference, so we’ve thrown away the usual long, dry agenda with the audience sitting down for hours on end. Instead, we’re creating an experience more like a theme park - lots of different zones to explore and learn in:
The customer days have exactly the same look and feel as our partner day on Wednesday, but instead of a big keynote, there are a number of mini keynotes and case studies throughout the day. There will also be many members of the education team on hand throughout the day, so that you can put faces to names, and get a chance for a deep and meaningful conversation! Oh, and over 100 other Microsoft people will be around each day, so there’s bound to be an expert in whatever subject you’re interested in.
I can speak from experience of organising the Microsoft team at the world’s largest education IT exhibition at BETT, that having so many Microsoft people in one place means that it gives you access to knowledge that might normally take weeks to track down!
The Big Picture website has a full agenda and detailed event guide, so I’d recommend jumping over there for full details and to register.
You can either register in advance, or just turn up on the day
Sydney Thu 1 Dec - 9am - 6pm Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre – Hall 5 Bing Maps | Add to Outlook calendar Find out more and register
If you’re Sydney-based, and working for a Microsoft partner, then I’m hoping that you’re planning to come down to The Big Picture partner day this Wednesday, at the Sydney Convention centre at Darling Harbour. Although you can drop it at any time during the day, I’m hosting a specific briefing session for our education partners at 11:15-11:45am.
The aim of the education partner session is to ensure that you have the information you need on our licensing programmes and promotions, and we’ll take a look into three specific opportunities in the 2012 education market. The session is just half an hour long, and then there’ll be an opportunity to have a chat with other members of the education team who are going to be at the event (I can help hook you up with the person who looks after your target market, eg private schools, or TAFE, Higher Ed etc)
Partners who have attended other briefings we’ve run often find that the chance to catch up with our sales team is one of the most useful bits, as it can help them to get really clear insight into a market or sales scenario. But, of course, I’ll have some hand-crafted PowerPoint slides for our half-hour together too!
You can either drop in just for the Education partner session at 11:15, or come along earlier for the keynote and other sessions that are part of the whole Big Picture event.
Plan to arrive early? Here’s my suggested agenda: The keynote speaker, at 9:15, is Steve Vamos who’s talking about leadership, innovation and how the potential of people and organisations is greater than ever before. And then at 10:30 you join either the Cloud or Future of Productivity sessions before our session starts at 11:15. Plan to stay around afterwards? Here’s what you can do: If you have time after the education session finishes, there are plenty of individual demonstrations that I’d recommend you take a look at - for example, just after the education partner session, there’s the chance to join the mini-sessions on ‘Social Networks for the Enterprise’ in the Future of Productivity zone, ‘Moving from Data to Decisions’ in the Insights 24/7 zone, and ‘Cost Effective Disaster Recovery’ in the Mission Control zone.
The keynote speaker, at 9:15, is Steve Vamos who’s talking about leadership, innovation and how the potential of people and organisations is greater than ever before. And then at 10:30 you join either the Cloud or Future of Productivity sessions before our session starts at 11:15.
If you have time after the education session finishes, there are plenty of individual demonstrations that I’d recommend you take a look at - for example, just after the education partner session, there’s the chance to join the mini-sessions on ‘Social Networks for the Enterprise’ in the Future of Productivity zone, ‘Moving from Data to Decisions’ in the Insights 24/7 zone, and ‘Cost Effective Disaster Recovery’ in the Mission Control zone.
The Big Picture for Microsoft Partners event is open to any staff at Microsoft partners, and having spent the day at the The Big Picture down in Melbourne, I’d definitely recommend putting aside a few hours to see some of the ways that we’ve constructed demonstrations of our products and services - there’s plenty of ideas that could be applied in your customer demonstrations.
There’s plenty of information for the partner day on The Big Picture website, and you can use the link to register too. The event’s open from 8AM to 5PM, in Hall 5 of the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre in Darling Harbour.
Find out more about The Big Picture experience day
The Conversation, and other media, are carrying the story today of the cuts at the University of Sydney. Basically, what’s been announced is that they are to cut staff costs by $53m (7.5%) by reducing academic and general staff. The underlying causes are a need to make investments in buildings maintenance and IT systems, and because the forecast for student fee income was too optimistic - with domestic students deferring and a drop in international students. (As I’ve previously noted, across Australia generally, the forecast is for international students to be down by 23% this year.)
For the last few months, it’s been clear that there’s a perfect-storm of circumstances which will impact upon higher education in Australia:
With all of these changes, I’d expect to see more changes in individual universities, as the impact bites. And a increased focus on value for money of projects and investments.
Read the full article on The Conversation
After two weeks of discussions with various groups in universities in Australia about using the Cloud for research in higher education, here’s a couple of press items that caught my eye that are relevant to the discussions:
According to ComputerWorld, CSIRO are integrating its high performance computing infrastructure with Microsoft’s Windows Azure Cloud to support ‘computed tomography reconstruction’ and virtual labs. The CSIRO eResearch director, Dr John Taylor, is quoted in the article:
In addition, Taylor said Azure could provide a platform for CSIRO to build virtual labs that will enable scientists within CSIRO and Australia — with plans to expand internationally — to work together online and have quick access to the same software, tools and data resources.
“Instead of having to chase around and ask their colleagues what they’ve got, what tools they might have, what data they might have, we’ll make it all available in the Cloud and potentially build international laboratories based on this Cloud infrastructure,” he said.
According to Taylor, employing Cloud-based infrastructure will offer the CSIRO access to greater speed and storage.
You can read the full article “CSIRO to mesh Azure Cloud with HPC infrastructure” on the ComputerWorld website
From IT Wire comes news that Fujitsu have announced that they will be providing a hosted version of the Azure Cloud here in Australia:
Australia will be one of five countries initially targeted for a hybrid cloud based solution announced overnight by Fujitsu which allows organisations to use Microsoft Windows Azure components, but choose where their data is located. For Australian clients that means they can choose to keep their data in Australia – overcoming the data sovereignty issue that has held many back from a holus bolus race to the cloud.
The reason that this is an issue is that some research and other public sector organisations have a need to use a cloud data service, but want to be able to keep their data within Australia. Although, in my experience of these discussions, it can often be caused by a cloud understanding of what the regulations require - and the cost implications of private vs public cloud often changes decisions!
You can read the full article “Fujitsu-Microsoft cloud floats to Australia” on the IT Wire website
Varsity Outreach, a US-based marketing agency specialising in Facebook marketing for colleges and universities in North America, has just released a survey ‘Facebook in Admissions’ from 150 colleges across the US. The survey, called ‘Facebook and admissions’ contains a good insight into the use and management of social media in student recruitment.
It makes interesting reading because of the insight it gives into the potential complexity of university student recruitment in a competitive marketplace - something that’s going to be more and more topical here as the student cap is lifted. And it’s also relevant to the future of CRM in education, as the student recruitment process becomes more fragmented.
Here’s some of the headlines that I took away from the report - but I’d heavily recommend reading it yourself as there is so much additional information within it:
My reflection on this survey is that it hints that student recruitment processes through social media currently aren’t well integrated into the ‘mainstream’ student recruitment processes in most institutions. And yet I know that it can be done really well, and monitored and measured effectively. I wonder if Australian institutions are ahead of or behind North American ones?
I’m working on setting up a roundtable discussion in Sydney about the use of CRM in education, and I think that this would make a great discussion topic for it. Anybody interested in participating and sharing their experiences?
Download the Varsity Outreach Whitepaper - Facebook and Admissions
One question I do get asked frequently is “How many Live@edu users are there?”, or more generally “How many education customers use the Microsoft Cloud?”. Often the answer I have to give is outdated - at BETT in 2011, we announced that it had now reached a total of 15M students using Live@edu, up from 11M in November 2010.
Over on the ‘Official Microsoft Blog’, we’ve just released an update, and there are now 22 million students using Live@edu worldwide, a doubling since this time last year. And it’s growing at the rate of 27,000 students every day. New institutions signing up for Live@edu recently include a range of universities including University of Colorado at Boulder and Kings College London ; a number of state-wide school systems including Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, and not for profit institutions like the Royal National College for the Blind in the UK.
Read the Official Microsoft Blog post Live@edu Tops 22M Users, Grows 100 Percent Year Over Year
As we move into this next year, we’re continuing to offer Live@edu as a free cloud email, collaboration and communication service for staff and students, as well as bringing in Office 365 for education. It will include everything available in Office 365 for enterprises, and we are offering some qualifying education customers Office 365 in order to take advantage of Exchange Online and Lync Online today. We will add SharePoint Online capabilities in 2012 when Office 365 for education is broadly available. Current Office 365 education users include Georgia State University, Dundee University in Scotland, East Norfolk Sixth College in England, the Inzai City Board of Education and Wakayama City Board of Education in Japan - and earlier in the year I also highlighted Curtin University here in Australia.
As I’ve said before, education is moving quickly to using the Cloud, to save money, build more flexible ICT infrastructures and enable much more effective collaboration. So, although the answer to the question “How many Live@edu users are there?” is 22 million today, it’s already wrong by the time you read this. Because every day education customers are doing more in the Cloud.
Read related Cloud Case Study articles on this blog
Hopefully, if you’re based near either Melbourne or Sydney, you’ve already registered to come along to The Big Picture Experience. There are two separate dates in each city:
The events are being run as an ‘experience’, rather than as a conventional conference, so we’ve thrown away the usual long-dry agenda with the audience sitting down for hours on end. Instead, we’re creating an experience more like a theme park - lots of different zones to explore and learn in:
Keynote
On the partner days, we’re going to kick off the day with a keynote, and then it’s up to you to plan the rest of the day how you want it. The keynote speaker, Steve Vamos (named in the top five most influential members of the Australian technology industry by the Australian Financial Review), will share his perspective on leadership, innovation and how the potential of people and organisations is greater than ever before. Steve is the president of the Society for Knowledge Economics (SKE) and a non-executive director of Telstra. SKE is a Sydney-based think tank which researches corporate leadership, culture and management in knowledge-based globally-connected economies.
Education Partner briefings
For partners working with education customers, I’m going to be running a number of half-hour workshops, where we’ll be providing a briefing on the education licensing programmes available for Authorised Education Resellers, and looking at three key market opportunities, including the opportunities to supply Microsoft Academic subscriptions to private schools. For all partners focusing on education, whether or not you’re the licensing partner, we’ll look at key ways to grow your education business. You do not need to pre-book these workshop sessions, as they will be available on a first-come, first-served basis in the Briefing Room at 11am, and 1, 3 and 4pm.
For partners working with education customers, I’m going to be running a number of half-hour workshops, where we’ll be providing a briefing on the education licensing programmes available for Authorised Education Resellers, and looking at three key market opportunities, including the opportunities to supply Microsoft Academic subscriptions to private schools. For all partners focusing on education, whether or not you’re the licensing partner, we’ll look at key ways to grow your education business.
You do not need to pre-book these workshop sessions, as they will be available on a first-come, first-served basis in the Briefing Room at 11am, and 1, 3 and 4pm.
Register for the partner events
Melbourne Tue 22 Nov, 8am - 5pm Check in and explore the showcase from 8.00am, keynote starts at 9.15am Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre, 2 Clarendon St, South Wharf Bing Maps | Directions | Add to Outlook calendar Register Now and get your DigiPack Sydney Wed 30 Nov, 8am - 5pm Check in and explore the showcase from 8.00am, keynote starts at 9.15am Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre – Hall 5 Bing Maps | Directions | Add to Outlook calendar Register Now and get your DigiPack
Melbourne Tue 22 Nov, 8am - 5pm Check in and explore the showcase from 8.00am, keynote starts at 9.15am Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre, 2 Clarendon St, South Wharf Bing Maps | Directions | Add to Outlook calendar Register Now and get your DigiPack
Sydney Wed 30 Nov, 8am - 5pm Check in and explore the showcase from 8.00am, keynote starts at 9.15am Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre – Hall 5 Bing Maps | Directions | Add to Outlook calendar Register Now and get your DigiPack
The customer days have exactly the same look and feel as our partner day, but instead of a big keynote, there are a number of mini keynotes and case studies throughout the day. There will also be many members of the education team on hand throughout the day, so that you can put faces to names, and get a chance for a deep and meaningful conversation! Oh, and over 100 other Microsoft people will be around each day, so there’s bound to be an expert in whatever subject you’re interested in.
Register for the customer events
Melbourne Wed 23 Nov - 9am - 6pm Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre2 Clarendon St, South Wharf Bing Maps| Directions | Add to Outlook calendar Find out more and register Sydney Thu 1 Dec - 9am - 6pm Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre – Hall 5 Bing Maps | Add to Outlook calendar Find out more and register
Melbourne Wed 23 Nov - 9am - 6pm Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre2 Clarendon St, South Wharf Bing Maps| Directions | Add to Outlook calendar Find out more and register
Sarah Arnold, over on the Australian Partner blog, has just announced that there’s extra help available for partners who are aiming to get the Business Intelligence competency for Microsoft Partners at Silver level. If you’re a partner that’s deeply engaged with education customers, you’ll know how much data education institutions collect, and how much useful insight it would deliver to them if they were able to analyse it easily and comprehensively - whether that’s for learning, assessment, finance or many other uses. Over 2,000 people a month in Australia search for either ‘BI in education’ or ‘learning analysis’, so there’s definitely an untapped potential.
So investing in Business Intelligence in Education makes sense! Here’s Sarah’s offer, which includes five days of training for two of your staff in December, to help you work towards Business Intelligence certification:
Are you working towards your Business Intelligence Competency and can you commit to achieving it by December 31, 2011? We have an offer for you on a first come, first in basis…
This ‘Competency Development Offer’ provides Microsoft partners with resources to support you in achieving your Silver Business Intelligence competency on the basis that it is completed by December 31, 2011. The resources include;
Complimentary access for 2 individuals (for Silver competency) on the Business Intelligence Bootcamp training course valued at $7,500 per person, in Sydney.
Duration: 5-day accelerated boot camp
Location: Macquarie University,
Date: Tuesday December 13 to Saturday December 17, 2011
Training hours: 8am to 8pm each day
Content: Exam Prep Training content (Instructor led courses covering Theory, Hands-on labs, Revision and Exam preparation) targeting: Exam 70-448: TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Business Intelligence Development and Maintenance and Exam 70-433: TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Database Development.
Note: Accommodation can be arranged at Macquarie University if needed but this will be at your own expense.
If you are interested in participating in this offer and can achieve the Silver Business Intelligence Competency by December 31, 2011 please email me sarahar@microsoft.com and I will send you an application form. As spots are limited this is a first come.
Of course, this is open to all Microsoft Partners in Australia that are aiming to get the Silver level competency in Business Intelligence, but I wanted to highlight it to the education partners that read this blog, to give you a chance to jump in quickly!
Email Sarah now to get the application form
If you’re running the ICT systems in your school, and NOT running the curriculum ICT, then you may want to forward this onto the ICT Curriculum Co-ordinator. Although it’s got ‘IT’ in the title, the IT Academy is actually all about curriculum development and helping your students/staff to gain commercially valuable qualifications.
I’ve mentioned the Microsoft IT Academy scheme a few times recently, but not gone into the detail. Basically the scheme offers schools the chance to deliver Microsoft’s IT training and qualifications to your students and staff. The qualifications that you can deliver will help your students (or even parents in your community) raise their skills to prepare for business roles, or potentially for technical employment as web developers or systems administrators.
The chart on the right (click on it to see the BIG version) shows the routes to the qualifications that students can attain. And because the qualifications are instantly recognisable in the commercial sector – like MCSE qualifications – it is an instant help with preparing for employment.
But this isn’t just about student qualifications – it can also be used to provide training and qualifications for the wider community, and this is exactly how some of the current IT Academies use it – which is either helping to generate a revenue stream, or to increase parental engagement.
Once you’ve signed up to be an IT Academy, the scheme includes all of the following resources:
And yet it doesn’t cost a fortune (just over a couple of thousand dollars a year for a typical high school)…
Find out more about IT Academy
ps You may not want to tell the curriculum side, but it’s also a great way to get yourself an inclusive MSDNAA and TechNet Plus subscription if you’re having difficulty getting it paid for otherwise!
Yesterday, I wrote about the IT Academy programme in the context of students achieving industry-recognised qualifications whilst still at school, TAFE or university, and I quoted a few examples of different school and tertiary education systems that were offering it to their students.
What I hadn’t read at the time was that it’s just been announced that the Hawaii Public Library System are now going to offer their users the same opportunities to take the 350 Microsoft Digital Literacy and IT Academy study programmes free. All their users need is a library card, and then they can take the courses in the library or at home. And if they want to, they can then take a certification exam to get Microsoft Office Specialist, Microsoft Technology Associate or Microsoft Certified Professional certifications.
According to Donald Horner, the chairman of the Hawaii State Board of Education:
IT certifications are increasingly recognised as valuable credentials that give young people expanded career opportunities. The Microsoft IT Academy ensures patrons equal access to IT training and certification through all libraries across the state, regardless of location or economic status.
Hawaii’s library system is unique as the only statewide public library system in the US, and I noticed quite a few innovative ideas on their website - like the ability to borrow electronic books for ereaders. They even have a neat ‘snapshot of a day’, which shows that on one day in November 2010, they server 18,204 customers, answered 8,642 questions and loaned 25,304 library materials.
Read more about the Hawaii Public Libraries announcement or find out more about IT Academy