News & Views for Australian SBSCs

Well, with the announcement at CES 2009 that Windows 7 is available now for TechNet and MSDN subscribers (and those of us on the Windows 7 Beta program) and will soon be available for all other people via download from the Microsoft website (well, the...

Great post from Bruce Rasmussen of Carpe Diem & the Microsoft solutions sales course fame around how to sell in difficult economic times. Check it out here: http://carpe-diem.typepad.com/ms_partners/2008/10/selling-in-diff.html Or as many partners...

To celebrate the launch of the new Microsoft Partner Solution Marketplace, we’re giving your business the chance to shine by helping you create a professionally written company solution profile that you can upload to the Solution Profiler Tool,...

Lots of discussion at the moment around the recently announced "Solutions Pathway" & so I thought I'd steal Eric Ligman's post to summarise - see below. Basically, Solutions Pathway is our new upgrade process for all things SBS & EBS...

Just a quick reminder that The Wayne & I will be in Melbourne tonight for a combined SBS user group session & demonstration on WESS. Joining us will be HP, Citrix & Kaseya & so come along to get the latest information & ask all those...

Guest post from the Aussie SBSC PAL - Hilton Travis. See post 1 here and 2 here . Enjoy.   Well, it is now official – WESS has been launched with both SBS 2008 and WEBS 2008 having their official launch day, complete with 9 hours of US-based...

Very timely event from our Financing team aimed at helping partners understand & prepare for the coming economic downturn. To assist you in determining what it means for your business and your customers, Microsoft Financing, has assembled a panel...

Heads-up from our SMB team about our continuing customer profiling activities. I really feel these activities will result in more business for all & so am keen to hear your feedback / questions. Cheers, Robbie   Recently, we told you about our...

Quick heads-up on our latest customer offer: get 15% off selected Microsoft Office & Windows Server products - offer ending December 31st, 2008. Following on from our " Economy " campaign, this is a great way to help customers save money...

As part of our continuing channel readiness efforts please see below details of our upcoming SBS user group tour (unfortunately the Sydney meeting has been & gone - next one on Tuesday, Dec 9th). Entry is free & details on the good work that these...

With the worldwide launch now behind us , I'm pleased to announce the availability of the official trial versions for both SBS 2008 & EBS 2008. These 60-day trials can be extended three times if your customer requires a longer evaluation period. It...

I'm very pleased to announce that Microsoft overnight has officially launched the long awaited Small Business Server 2008 & Essential Business Server 2008 . These have been on the drawing board for over 3 years now & so I for one can't wait to...

Join our webcast and see our new SMB Server products that can take your business forward. The Wayne & I will do some live demos & answer as many of your questions as we can. Wednesday November 12th 11am - 12pm Register for the webcast Here is...

Lots of notes & noise swirling around today after the Professional Developers Conference announcement of Windows Azure , Microsoft's platform for cloud computing and software + services. As you can imagine the wraps on this were kept tighter than...

Good announcement from Prime Minister Rudd on Friday about the Government's plans for helping small businesses cope with the credit crisis. A snippet from the Sydney Morning Herald's MySmallBusiness blog: Addressing a business summit in Brisbane today...

Good read from one of my feeds about the importance of looking at your existing customer base as a source of future revenue. A snippet: Seeing your customers as members of a kind of quasi-R&D team can save you a good deal of time and money and has...

What is the purpose of this alert? Microsoft is scheduled to release a security bulletin (out-of-band) to address a vulnerability in all currently supported versions of Windows. The software update will be available for download from the Microsoft Update...

Just received word that the exclusive SBSC Toolkit shipping with the October Action Pack will include 15 additional CALs for SBS & EBS. Nice. The kits will be at the Microsoft post office from October 24th & so should be with you a few weeks after...

Can you spot the difference? * Solid article from today's Sydney Morning Herald that highlights our growing efforts around stamping out software piracy. Snippet: Microsoft this month commenced legal action in the Federal Magistrates Court against three...

Following on from my earlier post on our proactive campaign to help customers succeed in a tough economy, please find below a video address that Paul Voges recorded earlier today for the attention of all Microsoft Australian partners (Paul is the Director...

Good read from the American Express OPEN business forum around the importance of building your strategic network. Snippet: You can easily and logically develop joint marketing initiatives with one or more partners and share the costs of promotion while...

Hard times. Nervous times. Companies losing confidence & the economy in turmoil. What to do? There's a very strong argument that says organisations should pull back, consolidate, stop spending and just ride out the storm. And that absolutely makes...

With thanks to Christian Long from our ISV team: Register now for the Microsoft Innovation Days roadshow in November. This is your opportunity to 'get your feet on the ground, head in the clouds' and connect with top IT architects, developers and partners...

Great article from one of my feeds that's more relevant today than ever. With basically the whole world in financial panic mode & small businesses looking to cut corners wherever possible, there's a temptation as suppliers to lower prices in order...

Not sure how many partners in Australia use this complimentary online technical support service but it could be worth a look. Not the be all to end all of technical support, but another tool in your armoury. Open to MAPS subscribers only, questions will...