The new Developer marketing boy. : Software + Services

Live Services Jumpstart

chlong — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 14:04:38 GMT

Spotted this on Angus Logan’s blog about deep technical training on our Live services. Get in quick as I reckon this will fill up fast. Although level 300 and beyond tends to be too deep for me, the agenda looks good. Look forward to seeing some of the results from the session. If you have something cool to show, tell us.

Where: Four Points by Sheraton Darling Harbour, 161 Sussex Street, Sydney NSW 2000

When: Dec 8-9 2008, 8:30AM-6:30PM

What? Live Services Jumpstart provides in-depth technical training sessions (level 300-400) on Microsoft’s cutting edge consumer web platform technologies that help developers / partner organizations build rich web applications, sync and share them across devices and more importantly, build audience for the web applications.

Why attend? You should attend Jumpstart to learn all there is to know about the consumer components of Microsoft’s ‘Software + Services’ platform.

Visit http://www.lpjumpstart.com/ for more info

Innovation Days 2008

chlong — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 05:16:00 GMT

The dates for our ISV road show have now been published and we’re coming to a city near you.

What? “Get your feet on the ground, head in the clouds”

The day will concentrate on important announcements released at October’s Professional Developer's Conference, and will focus on our Software plus Services paradigm. This is Microsoft's vision for the next generation of computing that brings together the best of cloud-based services and traditional client computing software to deliver a richer experience to your customers.

When? 8.30am breakfast until 4pm

Canberra: 18 Nov
Sydney: 19 Nov
Brisbane: 21 Nov
Melbourne: 24 Nov
Perth: 27 Nov
Adelaide: 28 Nov

Who? Business/Technical Decision Makers in the morning… to become a little more detailed in the afternoon.
Click here to Register

Innovation Days, November 2008

chlong — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 13:50:33 GMT

We are about to announce our next ISV Innovation Day road show across Australia scheduled for the end of November 2008. The main theme this year is Software plus Services, which I’m sure won’t surprise many of you. We’ll be using content from the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) which is in LA at the end of October and whilst we’re waiting for the slide decks Craig Bailey from Elcom has been window shopping at the agenda tags:

“…Six sessions on Oslo (ie BizTalk) and seven on Parallelism should tell you something about the focus Microsoft is giving them. But 27 on Cloud services is the real give away. The buzz around Cloud, Identity, SQL Data Services and the Live/Mesh platforms is very high.”

Our Delicate Genius and Dave Glover are both attending PDC and will hopefully redeliver all the juicy content from the conference.

I’m really interested in what you want though, so in what is slowly becoming a tradition, please use this poll or leave a comment to help us create the agenda.

If you can’t make it to PDC, then try and attend another one of the Microsoft technical conferences in the diary as it’s going to be the year of big announcements. Just as the PDC is focused on the future of the Platform and technical strategy, there’s the world wide annual Tech-Ed Developers Conference (3-6 June in Orlando) which offers in-depth technical training on our current products. Then there’s the annual MIX Conference (18-20 March 2009 in Las Vegas) which is aimed at developers, designers and business decision makers who build next generation consumer web sites.

Credit to Steve for the graphic and for the great definition of what Software plus Services is…

Going to the Australia Partner Conference?

chlong — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 10:55:26 GMT

It's been a while since I've blogged with lots happening at work and home becoming a Dad. Another fiscal year has come and gone and my first year in Australia has come to an end. I'm pleased to say they haven't asked me to leave yet so I'm around for FY09.

Our next big event for the Partner Team is the Australia Partner Conference in Port Douglas, which as you'd expect, I'm excited about.

I'm running an ISV Pre-day focusing on reading partners for our Software+Services vision. If you are interested in attending, please review the agenda below and email me and I'll register you.

Proposed agenda for Mon 4 Aug Pre-Day: Get ready for Software+Services:

09.00 - Registration & Arrival
What is Software + Services?
What are the Business Opportunities for SQL Server?
“How to workshop” #1: raising funding
Segment presentations
“How to workshop” #2: Setting up Internationally
The ISV Royalty and SPLA Licensing Partner Opportunities
“How to workshop” #3: Overcoming Challenges for Growth
Business Opportunities for APO
17.00 - Close

Hope to see you there.

Enabling People Through Technology

chlong — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 01:16:57 GMT

New research has been released which demonstrates the business benefit of enabling people through technology. Betsy Frost (Microsoft's Information Worker Group general manager) discusses the implications of this research by "The Economist Intelligence Unit", suggesting that people-centric technology represents a key source of competitive advantage. The survey includes feedback from 1,351 senior exec's + managers + employees from across the world

It often amazes me when I meet partners & customers who say that their people are their most important asset. When the conversations turns to empowering their employees with tools to work from home example, I hear all too often, "nah, we don't allow that" or "our technology doesn't allow that" or "that's not a secure option". Clearly these people haven't seen our People Ready Messaging :-). It's interesting to read how different cultures from across the world have different ways of working together and how software helps...

Highlights from the study on how business can be more effective by enabling employees include:

Two-thirds of business executives said their organizations have a high degree of enablement.
53 percent reported having the IT tools they consider necessary to optimise performance
Respondents estimated that just 15 to 30 percent of employees use technology tools beyond e-mail;
Less than 15 percent of the executives surveyed reported using distributed meeting software, ( e-mail, instant messaging, the telephone and collaboration software that allow employees to convene ad-hoc meetings);
Fewer than half of executives believe employees have the information they need to be successful.
Of those respondents whose companies had revenue growth that outpaced their competitors:
52 percent said enablement was “very important” to their business
25 percent considered enablement “not important” to their success
58 percent report using collaborative software regularly

Links:

Competitive Success Depends on Enablement
Economist Intelligent Unit Study (.pdf file, 2.7 mb)
People-Ready Website
Gaping Void

10 Coolest Features in Windows Server 2008

chlong — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 01:59:24 GMT

Good article on the top 10 features in the new Windows Server... almost all of which are directly beneficial to hosters.

http://www.serverwatch.com/trends/article.php/3716276

Technorati Tags: Software + Services, ServerWatch, Windows Server 2008

ISV from Mars, Hosters from Venus: if you liked to book, you might like the movie

chlong — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 00:42:52 GMT

If you read Gianpaolo Carraro's "ISVs are from Mars, Hosters from Venus" whitepaper, Eugenio in his team presents "Nortwind Hosting", a concept demo showing what an Software + Services / SaaS ISV experience could be when interacting with a hoster.

It was well received by the attendees so even if you have not read the whitepaper you might enjoy/learn/be interested in watching the webcast.

Technorati Tags: Gianpaolo Carraro, Software + Services

Architecture Journal Reader

chlong — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 12:04:28 GMT

Anna blogged that the new Architecture Journal Reader has been released at the Strategic Architect Forum (SAF).

Cool as I've been talking about Software + Services & WPF a lot recently and this reader delivers an visually exciting, immersive, and searchable reading experience for the Journal issues... available in 4 languages. It automatically synchronises with new updates, allows readers to mark annotations, compile a reading list of favourite articles, and even offer feedback on articles through MSDN Forums...

it will be available on the Architecture Journal website in the next couple of weeks. Take a look at the Software + Services issue... shout if you want a copy.

ISVs are from Mars, and Hosters are from Venus

chlong — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 02:32:31 GMT

Reading Gianpaolo's blog, I noticed they have published a white paper which covers the the sometime quirky relationships that exist between ISVs wanting to deliver their software as a service and Hosters.

Here is an excerpt from the paper: The Impetus for Specialized SaaS Hosting

The case for specialized Software as a Service (SaaS) hosting can be easily rationalized by examining an incompatible pair of anecdotal fact and reality:

Fact: When we explore the expertise of software vendors today, we find that most of them will not claim operating a hosting environment as a core competency. Actually, many would also cite operational excellence as a key barrier of entry into the SaaS market. This observation should not come as a surprise to the reader.

Reality: However, when we take a look at the prevailing market situation, delivering SaaS applications often depends on hosting solutions that are “home-brewed” by the software vendors themselves. This is to say that in addition to implementing the application logic, many SaaS software vendors themselves will need to design, develop, and integrate the operational modules for their service offerings. As illustrated in Figure 1, the service delivery components, such as billing, metering, and logging, are built by the application vendor and integrated into the application stack.

The key observation from the datum above is that many ISVs are re-implementing operational components by necessity, not because those infrastructure additions provide significant value to differentiating the core features of the applications. Moreover, building these components add to the time and cost of delivering the application. Therefore, for the software vendors, most of such redundant work and expenditure can be eliminated if the software vendors can obtain the same operational functions from third parties that specialize in SaaS hosting.

Link to the white paper here.

Web Central Roadshow

chlong — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:03:30 GMT

Australia’s largest web and application hosting company, WebCentral, who are also the 2007 Microsoft Asia Pacific Hosting Partner of the year, will soon be kicking off their annual Partner Roadshow. As occurred last year, Microsoft will be presenting at the Roadshow – and all Microsoft Partners are welcome to attend.

Our very own Scott Barnes will be presenting... if you see him, ask about RIA. I'll be attending the Sydney event.

What will be covered?

WebCentral’s plans and roadmap for 2008
Microsoft's next generation web offerings, which tie in closely with WebCentral’s plans for 2008
How to be involved in the Software + Services vision

When is it?

Brisbane: 29 October 2007, 2:00pm - 5:00pm
Melbourne: 31 October 2007, 2:00pm - 5:00pm
Sydney: 2 November 2007, 8:00am - 11:00am

Full details and registration are available from www.roadshow.webcentral.com.au or call 1800 66 22 26 (option 2)

Technorati Tags: WebCentral, Microsoft Partners, Microsoft, Hosting

Virtual Earth Partner Briefings

chlong — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 11:12:19 GMT

If you are interested in the latest features and capability of the Virtual Earth platform, you should attend this briefing.

Event: Virtual Earth - Real Revenue for Partners

When/Where:

Brisbane 12th November – Microsoft - Level 9, Waterfront Place 1 Eagle Street
Melbourne 13th November – Microsoft - Level 5, 4 Freshwater Place, Southbank
Sydney 14th November – Microsoft, 1 Epping Rd, North Ryde

Time: 2:00pm – 4:00pm

Registration: email : info@mapds.com.au

Agenda:

What’s in it for partners?
Where and what is the market?
Pricing and Licensing
What other companies have done
New features you can build into your solutions (e.g. multipoint routing, enhanced geocoding, safari support, customer ID via client tokens, new betas etc.)

Resources for the Office Developer

chlong — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 01:29:44 GMT

Thanks to Darren Strange for circulating this list:

BDC

High-Level

Click-through demo on BDC and Excel Services

Lower-Level

Using the Business Data Catalog and Smart Tags with the 2007 Microsoft Office System
Office Interactive Developer Map
Latest MOSS SDK download has an Application Editor which allows you to author ADF files with a UI rather than creating XML on the fly
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms563661.aspx
Visual How-To Center
How Do I…
MSDN Virtual Lab: Office Business Application Reference Application Pack for Manufacturing Plant Floor Analytics
A good book - “Inside Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007” by Patrick Tisseghem

OBA

High-level

OBA Overview .doc and .docx
OBA Case Study: Epicor sought to increase the reach of its applications to more workers and provide access to its applications within the context daily business activities (.docx and .wmv)
OBA Momentum Book – Customer Success Stories (.pdf)

Websites

www.OBACentral.com - A repository of OBA resources with a database profiling partner OBA solutions. Solutions developers can join the Microsoft Partner Program and submit their OBA solutions to OBACentral.com. More information here.
www.microsoft.com/office/oba
http://msdn.microsoft.com/oba
MSDN Office Architecture site

SOA & BPM

Video of Steve Ballmer talking about Software + Services in Office 2007 = OBAs
Click-through demo on CRM and Workflow
Using the Business Data Catalog and Smart Tags with the 2007 Microsoft Office System

Click-through demo on BDC and Excel Services
Recorded Webcast on Building BI Solutions using Excel 2007 and SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services
Building Custom Solutions with Excel Services video and transcript.
Webcast on SharePoint Server and BI

Application Development

OBA Development Overview .docx and .doc
OBA Architecture Overview .docx and .doc
Video talking about the 2007 Office System Platform with demo of an OBA
http://msdn.microsoft.com/oba
MSDN Office Architecture site
Recorded Webcast of what’s new in development for the Office System clients
Recorded Webcast on the Overview of Development Technologies for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
Developing with InfoPath forms using VSTA and VSTO recorded webcast
Recorded webcast which describes how you can build SharePoint workflows using SharePoint Designer
Developing SharePoint Workflows using Visual Studio extensions for Windows Workflow Foundation recorded webcast
Office Interactive Developer Map
2007 Office System Developer Posters
2007 Office System Logical Architecture Diagram

Data Management

Compliance Features for the 2007 Microsoft Office System White Paper
Item-Level Auditing with SharePoint Server 2007 Code Sample and White Paper
Custom User Site Provisioning Code Sample and White Paper
Click-through demo on CRM and Workflow
OBA/VSTO Starter Kit: Integrating 2007 Office System with SAP using VSTO 2005 SE

Technorati Tags: Office Developer, OBA, BPM, BI, Application Development, Data Management, UX

Software + Services Presentation

chlong — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 03:59:00 GMT

I have almost finished my presentation for the Australia Partner Conference. I've just been told that over 100 have registered, so there goes my plan on secretly moving the meeting to the beach. Unless anybody knows of a large pub on the Island?

My gadget says it's 19 days away now... looking forward to meeting you all :)

If you are unable to go, please check back here as I'll be posting the slides to the blog as well as the usual post-Conference download point.

Technorati Tags: Australia Partner Conference, Hamilton Island, Partners, Microsoft

Windows Live has Renewed Focus on Software + Services

chlong — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 15:53:41 GMT

I missed this external Q&A with Chris Jones (Corp VP seen above who heads up the Live Experience Program Management group) up on Microsoft PressPass: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2007/jun07/06-26windowslive.mspx.

The Q&A includes answers to:

Why is now the right time for a solution like Windows Live?
How does the next phase of Windows Live help address today’s customer needs?
What else is Microsoft announcing today? Windows Live Photo Gallery beta and Windows Live Folders beta
You talk a lot about a “software plus services” strategy. What does that mean and how does it apply to what you’re talking about today?
What can we expect further down the road from Windows Live?

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Windows Live, SaaS

Is the SaaS Model a Friend or Foe?

chlong — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 05:12:53 GMT

By Jeff Kaplan: http://www.cio-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id=123007AIPL56&page=1

Interesting article published on CIO Today about the pro's and con's of the SaaS model... with a quote from our CEO, Steve Ballmer:

"Microsoft's CEO, Steve Ballmer, acknowledged the appeal of SaaS when he recently told a gathering of public sector CIOs that 80 percent of their organizations would be using SaaS solutions by the end of the decade."

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, SaaS, CIO Today