News & Views for Australian SBSCs : Cool Stuff

Media coverage for BCA - SBSC partner of the year

rupcroft — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 00:58:58 GMT

Great to see some media coverage coming through for SBS MVP Stu Applegate & the team at Business Computing Australia, Microsoft's SBSC Partner of the year.

Check it out in the weekend's Courier Mail.

Robbie

Another SBSC award winner: Productiv

rupcroft — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 03:37:03 GMT

There must be something in the water up north as another Qld SBSC partner picked up an award at the recent Australian Partner Conference held in Port Douglas.

Congratulations to Productiv, Partner of the Year for Information Worker Solutions, Portals and Collaboration.

Cheers & well done,

Robbie

SBSC Partner of the Year: Business Computing Australia

rupcroft — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 03:27:15 GMT

Big congratulations to Stuart Applegate & the team from Business Computing Australia after they picked-up the SBSC Partner of the Year award at the recent Australian Partner Conference in Port Douglas.

In the words of Inese Kingsmill, Microsoft Australia Director of SMB:

"We are delighted that BCA, a Microsoft Certified Partner has been awarded Small Business Specialist 2008 at our recent Australian Partner Conference. BCA truly epitomises what this award category recognises - Integrity and reliability of technology solutions and services, Community focus, Partnership with Microsoft and Trusted Advisor status with its small and medium business clients. Stuart Applegate is a very active and highly respected member of the Microsoft Partner Community and this award is a testament to his and BCA's tremendous contribution."

Special mention to the other SBSC finalists as the competition really was intense - Calvert Technologies, Comcity Technology & Evolve IT.

Cheers & well done to all,

Robbie

Aussie SBSC PALs at the WW partner conference

rupcroft — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 00:30:12 GMT

Good to see the Australian Small Business Specialist PALs past & present together & distributing a little bit of Aussie cheer at the Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston. Noice. Dean & Hilton have made personally sure that all 12,000 attendees know that Australia is THE place for all things SBS. And vegemite.

Lots of updates & announcements expected on the SBSC program in tomorrow's Partner keynote with Allison Watson. Stay tuned.

Cheers,

Robbie

Couldn't get to the WW Partner Conf? Try Digital WPC instead

rupcroft — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 23:05:51 GMT

Loads of good content coming out of the Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston, but if you couldn't make it then it might be worthwhile checking out the Digital WPC instead.

All the keynotes, breakouts, discussion forums & selected webcasts will be uploaded to the site at the end of each day. Of particular interest so far to SBSCs are:

Keynote: SMB Revenue Growth Opportunities & Product Roadmap
- Presented by Michael Risse, VP of SMB
Keynote: Why Windows Mobile should be a part of your business
- Presented by Andy Lees, Senior VP of Mobile Communications
Breakout: The SMB Server Platform - which is right for your customer?
- Presented by Dean Paron, SBS Group Program Manager

Cheers & there's still time to sign-up for the Australian Partner Conference in August.

Robbie

SBS 2008 public beta now available - come & get it!

rupcroft — Thu, 29 May 2008 04:43:21 GMT

Hot on the heals of the EBS 2008 beta, the Small Business Server 2008 public beta is now available for you to download. Using RC0 code, this is your first chance to have a play with the software you've been reading about for the last couple of months.

Download the software here (Standard or Premium, includes list of system requirements)
Download the reviewers' guide here
Check out loads of TechNet information here
Sign-up for the first Australian face-to-face partner training sessions here

This is another major milestone in the lead-up to the launch & so I'm really looking forward to as many Aussie partners as possible working on the beta & sharing their feedback & thoughts.

SBSCs will be first on the list: It can be up to 10gb download (depending on the components selected) & so for those without the broadband capacity to spare, I'll have a limited amount of DVDs available in the coming weeks. Send a mail with your address details to rupcroft@microsoft.com if you'd like to go onto the list.

Cheers & let me know how you go,

Robbie

PS - lots of Aussie interest so far in the WEBS beta with local downloads currently ranking 4th highest worldwide behind the US, Germany & the UK.

New Find a Partner website

sbscaustralia — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 02:18:07 GMT

The very cool map-based Find a Partner tool has just been launched. Some of you may have seen it at the Partner Conference - it uses Microsoft's Virtual Earth technology to give customers a fast and effective way to search for a Partner according to location and/or area of specialisation.

The site also includes tips on how customers should select the right Partner and a summary of the benefits for doing so - you can check it out here.

Partner-TV Launched

sbscaustralia — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 00:59:40 GMT

At the Australia Partner Conference, the Partner Team announced the launch of Partner-TV Australia. This video blog, dedicated to Microsoft Partners, will consist of short interviews from Microsoft staff and Partners developing cool services or solutions which you can watch or listen to via a podcast. Visit and encourage other partners to subscribe to the Partner-TV video blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/ozpartnertv.

Hamilton Island, here we come!

sbscaustralia — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 05:31:12 GMT

As most of you will know, this event used to be my baby - but this year I'm very happy to say that instead of being stuck out the back making sure the muffins are the right flavour - I'll be able to focus on meeting Partners and making sure you guys are getting the most you possibly can from the Conference..... I can't wait!!

All jokes aside, it really is the highlight of our Partner calendar and its a great opportunity to meet and network with other Partners as well as key Microsoft staff and I've seen the agenda and it looks great.

I'll be doing a couple of sessions on the small business campaigns and we're going to present some really intersting research we've done on the small business customer - so its definately not to be missed.

If you remember last year, you'll know that we sold out so make sure you register early to ensure you secure your tickets.

When is it? 29-31 August 2007

Where is it? www.hamiltonisland.com.au

Click here for more info and to register

Thought about hiring a Microsoft Intern?

sbscaustralia — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 07:15:35 GMT

Some of you may not know, but at Microsoft we have an intern program, where we hire top-level graduates to work in both marketing and technical roles.

It's both a good and a bad thing - we get to hire the top-level grads and give them some Microsoft experience, but then we have to say goodbye to them after 12 months.

For you guys, we've now launched a simple program to allow our Partners to get visibility of these high-calibre potential employees that come pre-prepared with a whole heap of Microsoft specific experience and contacts :-)

You can see the official letter below - but if you're interested, email me at lornaf@microsoft.com and I'll send you the form you need to fill out.

-----------------------------------------------------------

The Microsoft Intern Program is a 12 month program that trains high calibre undergraduates within Microsoft. Interns are hired on a full-time basis, gaining invaluable exposure to the corporate world on Microsoft functions, allowing the opportunity to work with genuine responsibility on a variety of projects. All interns go through a rigorous selection in their recruitment process, and are selected them on the basis of their skill, values and passion. They provide exceptional talent, commitment and are highly valued within Microsoft.

After these 12 months, there is no guarantee of permanent employment - although interns can apply for open roles. At one time, there are approximately twenty interns on-board (nationally) with roles ranging from marketing, finance, technical and operations.

We believe that our interns can be of great value to our partner community and would like to give you the possibility of employing a Microsoft intern, after their 12 month tenure with Microsoft expires. We would like to offer your company an informal arrangement where partners can provide their details to our HR contact at Microsoft; who will post those details on an internal Microsoft site. Interns will have the opportunity to make initial contact with the partner directly.

The below statement is from a current intern. This will assist you to gain some insight on the experience that an internship at Microsoft provides.

“I started my internship in April 2006 and since then I’ve been involved in all things Vista: from attending training sessions, giving demos to colleagues, partners and customers, proctoring at the hands-on-labs during TechEd, being the LOVE guru in the branch), and building proof of concepts for customer projects. Currently, I am working with a technical account manager to put together a business desktop deployment solution to convince one of our customer and partner to deploy Vista in their environment. Besides being heavily involved in Vista, I am also given the opportunity to work with consultants at client sites, and upgrade my skills through Microsoft certifications.”

Google vs Live Search

sbscaustralia — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 09:18:58 GMT

Another one from the Cool Stuff file :-)

Video: Who Wants to be a Millionaire

Be there at midnight to win a copy of Vista signed by Bill Gates

sbscaustralia — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 05:49:34 GMT

Only 7 sleeps until our biggest software launch in 10 years!!!

If you want to be one of the first to buy a copy of Vista or maybe even buy one of only 5 copies of Windows Vista copies in the world signed by Bill Gates at 11.59pm then come along to ‘Midnight Mayhem’ at Harvey Norman in Alexandria next Monday, 29 January.

Either way, if you're even remotely interested in the new products, then Alexandria will be the place to be on the 29th!

There will be giveaways for the first purchasing customers including webcams and Kodak digital cameras. An entertaining MC will host the evening, pizza will be provided and you will have your chance to end up on TV!

There is also 10 per cent off all hardware in the Alexandria store and 43 other stores across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane will be open from 11pm to 1am with discounts and giveaways on offer.

Where Harvey Norman, 504 Gardeners Road (corner O’Riordan), Alexandria

Date Monday, 29 January 2007

Time 11.00pm doors open

11.55pm Gerry Harvey selects first customer

11.59pm Gerry Harvey and Tracey Fellows sell the first copy signed by Bill Gates

You heard it here first.....

sbscaustralia — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 06:26:21 GMT

Hamilton Island here we come!

It's only fitting that given my old role here at Microsoft that I be the first to break the news on the dates and venue for this year's Partner Conference.

By popular demand we will once again be heading to Hamilton Island.... so make sure put the 29th August - 1st September in your diaries, for what promises to be another fantastic Conference.... even better for me, since someone else will be the one making sure a conference for 800 people runs smoothly while the sun is shining and the beach is beckoning, while I get to meet and talk to Partners!

From the Cool Stuff files...

sbscaustralia — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 02:13:56 GMT

In my travels through the thousands of email groups at Microsoft that keep you informed about everything from where to buy vegemite in Seattle to launches of new products. I stumbled across the "Cool Stuff" alias.... look out for regular updates from the Cool Stuff files and if you ask nicely, I might be able to tell you where to buy vegemite in Seattle.

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