As you have probably heard already, the Microsoft Action Pack Subscription is becoming available in two separate offerings, allowing for the rich set of benefits that each offers be more tailored to the Partner types subscribing to each.  Well, for...

Over the past few months, we have been informing you about a series of planned updates we have been deploying to the Microsoft Volume Licensing Services Center (VLSC) to address the majority of the access issues people were having.  During this same...

Since I am putting this post up as a follow on to my “ Be sure the customer’s name is on the agreement ” post yesterday, I kept debating if I should title it as is or title it, “Oh *#$&%^&*!  I did that, now what?!”  Since there are...

How many of you have ever come across a “Page not found” or some other page error at one time or another on a website?  How about on the Microsoft websites?  What do they look like?  Don’t you just love the ones that are filled with all...

Last month I put up a post letting you know that the time had come to submit your nominations for WPC 2010 awards today .   In that post I also included links to the submission page, descriptions of the various awards, contest rules, submission tips...

To set the stage for this post, let’s start with the absolute basics of licensing.  In order to legally install and use a piece of commercial software onto a computer, what do you need to have?  Anyone?  That’s right, a license to run the...

Here is a topic that has come up and is one that there seems to be a misconception about.  Why?  Well, I think there are a few reasons for the misunderstanding, but I am hoping to try and alleviate the ones I am seeing here in this post. ...

The time has come and registration for Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference 2010 in Washington D.C. is now open!  For those of you familiar with WPC, you know that this is the annual event where thousands of Microsoft Partners from all around...

A couple of questions I get asked often are: Where do you post information online at? If I follow you on “X", will I see all of the information you post? To address these questions and to make it easier to identify these locations, I am putting this...

For those of you that have been following my Blog, ( http://www.MSPartnerBlog.com ), you have seen my prior posts about the two training series that the Microsoft UK Team have been putting on called the Business School and the Technical School. ...

In my earlier, “ Microsoft Open License Basics – You only need 2 computers to qualify for Volume Licensing ” post as part of this series, I showed you how you could qualify for Microsoft’s Open License programs with just two computers (not the 5 that...

Here’s a cool announcement coming out of the SBS 2008 and TechNet Teams.  Have you been wanting to get some hands-on experience with Windows Small Business Server 2008 but didn’t have the hardware to install the hands-on-labs yourself?  I’m...

This week you have probably seen a lot of the Windows Phone 7 Series excitement coming out of MIX10 and you may have heard it earlier from several other places as well; however, the excitement is there and continues to grow broader and louder each day...

If you’ve been following me on Twitter ( @EricLigman ) recently, you’ve seen my tweets about the upcoming live Microsoft Partner Network Q&A sessions with Julie Bennani taking place today from 9-10 am PST and again from 5-6 pm PST via Twitter ( @mspartner...

Here’s an exciting announcement for all of you developers, developers, developers out there!  Channel 9 is offering a free Silverlight 4 Training Kit . The training kit includes a whitepaper explaining all of the new Silverlight 4 features, several...

Yesterday marked the kickoff of MIX10 and anyone on Twitter or any other online source couldn’t help but see a flurry of information coming out of MIX10.  I thought I would put up some of the interesting tidbits and items I saw from the day for those...

Single licenses of collective products, often referred to as “Suites” of products, offer considerable savings and easier license management and these savings can be so good, that they truly earn the name of “Sweet",” I mean “Suite.” Sometimes though,...

Here at Microsoft, we are always working on ways to bring information to our Partners around the world to help them know about things coming, tools and items available, trends and insights, and much more.  One of the tools we have available is the...

Here is your chance to be among the first to receive Visual Studio 2010 Professional upon it’s release, as well as an offer to help you save some money and get something extra.  Right now there is a promotion running for those interested in pre-ordering...

For those of you in the UK, Microsoft is launching the first of three Bing television ads that will be hitting the airways today, Wednesday, March 10th across ITV, Channel 4, Five and their portfolio of TV services as well as Sky Media and IDS digital...

As a follow-up to my earlier, “ Microsoft Open License Basics – You only need 2 computers to qualify for Volume Licensing ” post where I showed you that you only need five (5) licenses, not five (5) computers, to qualify for Microsoft’s Open License and...

Here is a misunderstanding I come across from time to time. I will be talking with a Partner or see a conversation between a couple of Partners and someone will say something like, “My client does not qualify for Volume Licensing because they don’t have...

Today, Microsoft announced the decision to streamline our server product portfolio and that we will discontinue future development of Essential Business Server, effective June 30 th , 2010. A few points about this announcement: Microsoft remains...

Here’s a quick note for all of you Partners in the U.S. Central Region Heartland Area.  Based on overwhelming partner feedback, The Heartland Area team has evolved the Heartland Partner Briefing Series into a new format that offers you a shortened...