A Partner forwarded me an email earlier showing a website offering Microsoft Office "AE" Edition: (Click image for larger size) The "AE" stands for Academic Edition, and unlike what they state in the image (circled in red), there are special...

Sometimes you just have to sit back and ask yourself, "Now how does that happen?" Often times, those are times when you have to laugh to yourself about how the basics just sometimes get overlooked. This morning was one of those times and I caught myself...

Do you have customers with multiple Open Business Agreements coming up for Software Assurance renewal? Want to make their lives easier by having only one agreement instead of multiple and get them the benefits of the Open Value program instead of the...

If you are looking for a Microsoft licensing distributor and your company is a Microsoft Small Business Specialist, D&H has an offer that you may want to consider. They are offering a D&H credit of up to $200 on your first Microsoft Licensing...

Now I know I have been told that sometimes I don't quite follow the beaten path... You know what they say, "Old habits die hard." Being a former system builder myself, I can say that habit remains the case. Quite often when someone sees my desk here at...

In case you did not notice this on the Microsoft Incentives website , the minimum number of Windows Server Licenses + Software Assurance required to qualify for the Partner subsidy dollars was lowered from three (3) to one (1) recently. This means that...

There have been a few questions floating around about "Cougar," the next version of Windows Small Business Server, and what it will include and be based on. I thought I would post some of the information that is publicly available to help address some...

With the release of Microsoft Office 2007, some of the Editions of Office were enhanced or updated to include additional items or technologies, such as Office Professional Plus (offered through Volume Licensing), which includes Microsoft Office InfoPath...

For those of you who are local system builders, you may recall the original "Buy Local" campaign we kicked off back in 2005 . Well, the System Builder Team just launched the latest "Buy Local" campaign to help local system builders who build their PCs...

With the upcoming launch of Windows Server 2008, I thought I would remind you about the resources available to you through MS Readiness that you can utilize, including these examples: Windows Server 2008 Partner Preparation Windows Server 2008...

I have seen several comments and received several questions around Office 2007 and Windows Vista and whether you need Windows Vista in order to install and run Microsoft Office 2007. The answer is, No, you do not need to be running Windows Vista in order...

So I'm currently back in Chicago yesterday and today as part of a two day seminar presenting to a group of around 50 Partners from all across the United States on, yes you guessed it, licensing. But here's the catch that prompted me to post this. The...

For those of you not aware of it, the free "second shot" offer allows you to get a free, second shot at any IT professional, developer, or Microsoft Dynamics certification exam if you happen to not pass it the first time. From time to time we offer these...

For those of you that have not seen these yet, the Microsoft Office Blogs are available with some helpful insights and information that could come in handy for you or your clients. There are Blogs for many of the components, such as: Word, Excel, PowerPoint...

In the past 24 - 48 hours I have received multiple messages asking me where the copy of my presentation is from the " Building an Open License Business " presentation I gave on Monday morning at SMB Nation. Back on the 3rd I had posted that the SMB Nation...

Some business owners look at IT and technology as a part-time thing that their brother-in-law, the neighbor's kid, or the son of the friend of the butcher who lives down the street who's taken a computer course can look at once in awhile for them. Is...

In my, " SMB Nation 2007 is just around the corner. Are you registered yet? " post at the end of August, I mentioned a session taking place at SMB Nation that was being presented by Darren Harbaugh and Arlin Sorensen entitled, “How to work with Microsoft...

From some of you unable to attend SMB Nation this year, I have received questions about the announcements and programs discussed in the SMB Nation keynote address that Arnie and I gave. Well, you now have a chance to view a replay of the entire keynote...

Some of you may recall my post earlier this year: No, Windows XP Home is not a qualifying Desktop Operating System for the Windows Vista Business Upgrade or Upgrade + SA through Volume Licensing .  In that post I called out that we had added a clause...

Here is a series by the TS/2 Team that you may be interested in attending in a city near you. If you’re interested in taking greater advantage of the training and services available to Microsoft Partners, we invite you to attend our newest offering...

Microsoft has just released the Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 Best Practice Analyzer for download. The Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 Best Practices Analyzer examines a server that is running Windows Small Business Server...

Are any of you or your clients who moved to Microsoft Office 2007 still learning where the commands you used to use most frequently in Office 2003 are in the new Office 2007 interface? If so, we have new interactive command reference guides available...

Since the Windows Vista Enterprise Edition was announced as an exclusive benefit to customers with Software Assurance on their Windows desktop operating system licenses, there have been several conversations about the additional benefits included in the...

Here’s a great new resource for SBS Partners: Based on partner inputs, the SBS 2003 R2 Test Drive is a Web-based tool designed to help partners demonstrate key SBS components to SMB prospects and customers. With the Test Drive, you can guide prospects...

In several of the online groups and offline emails I have been seeing the question about, “When do I need a new OEM Windows license when upgrading hardware components in a PC?” once again, so I thought I would post the information here for all. Here...