News & Views for Australian SBSCs : Events

Quick reminder - Wayne & Robbie in Melbourne tonight

rupcroft — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 01:23:32 GMT

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 hard questions (of Wayne, not of me...).

Details:

5pm - 9pm
Microsoft offices
Level 5, 4 Freshwater Place
Southbank
Free & no registration needed, just turn up
Food & drink provided

Great opportunity to sign-up for the Melbourne SMB IT Pro groups if you haven't already.

Cheers & hope to see you there,

Robbie

Hear from the experts about how to weather the storm

rupcroft — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 11:13:03 GMT

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 of experts to discuss;

The economic climate,
Impacts on the IT market, and
How to leverage Microsoft,

Panelists will include Robert Gottleibsen, Jean Marc Annonier from IDC & Microsoft Australia MD, Tracey Fellows.

Event Details and Registration

Date: Tuesday 25^th November

Time: 7.30am Registration

8.00am Session Commences

9.45am Concludes

Location: Hilton Hotel, 488 George Street, Sydney

To Register you attendance please visit: Microsoft Financing Economy Event Registration Website

Unfortunately I'll be in Brisbane however really think there's value in stopping to assess the current situation & then discuss your approach.

Cheers & hope you can make it,

Robbie

Robert Gottliebsen
Robert Gottliebsen has spent more than 30 years writing and commentating about business and investment in Australia. He has served as a regular columnist for the Australian Financial Review and founded BRW in 1981. Gottliebsen has also been host of the Business Daily TV show on Sky News as well as playing a role as National Business Commentator for The Australian. Today, he specialises in communicating business ideas and comments through The Australian, a nightly TV show, the Internet and regular radio broadcasts.

Jean Marc Annonier – Research Manager, IDC

Jean-Marc Annonier is an expert at combining rigorous micro and macroeconomic study methodologies with his in-depth knowledge of the Australian ICT market. His specialty at IDC is the segmentation of all ICT markets per business size, vertical industry and region. Jean Marc is author of the recently released IDC paper “The Economic Recession in Australia - What does it mean for the ICT Industry?".

Tracey Fellows - Managing Director, Microsoft
Tracey Fellows is responsible for meeting the needs of Microsoft’s customers, which include governments, businesses and consumers, as well as the 14,000 partners and independent software vendors who produce leading edge technology solutions for Australian businesses based on Microsoft’s platform.

SBS user group tour with Wayne Small

rupcroft — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 09:15:25 GMT

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 groups do can be found here: www.sbsgroups.com.au I'm really happy to be working so closely with the SBS partner community in Australia as it means that we're reaching the people who are most passionate about the product, and through them, the small business customers.

As Wayne says on his blog, we'll also be joined in most cities by HP, Citrix & Kaseya, thus showcasing just a few of the hardware, software & services vendors who are support the launch of SBS 2008 & EBS 2008.

Food & refreshments will be provided & all meetings will start at 5pm & run through to around 8.30 - 9pm, depending on how many questions Wayne has to answer about SBS & EBS. :-)

Cheers & we hope to see you there,

Robbie

City	Date	Location
Sydney	Tuesday, Nov 11th	Microsoft offices, North Ryde
Perth	Monday, Nov 17th	Microsoft offices - in the QV1 conference facility Level 2, 250 St Georges Terrace, Perth
Melbourne	Wednesday, Nov 19th	Microsoft offices Level 5, 4 Freshwater Place, Southbank
Adelaide	Monday, Nov 24th	Ingram Micro offices 208 Greenhill Rd, Eastwood
Brisbane	Tuesday, Nov 25th	Microsoft offices Level 9, Waterfront Place, 1 Eagle Street, Brisbane

Live webcast to celebrate the launch of the new Windows Essential Server solutions range

rupcroft — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 12:25:15 GMT

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 your opportunity to experience the new Windows Small Business Server 2008 and Windows Essential Business Server 2008 – integrated server solutions designed and priced for small and midsize businesses. Take a look inside the solutions that will redefine the way your SMB customers deploy and migrate, manage, connect and secure their networks.

Before you start selling, get trained up on what is possible with this technology by joining Microsoft’s live one hour webcast on the 12th November with a Q & A chat with our panel of experts. You’ll hear from our Australian SMB Server Team on the new solutions that will redefine the SMB server landscape.

Cheers & hope to see you there,

Robbie

PS - it will be recorded & available for download if you can't make it.

Windows Small Business Server 2008

Could your small business customers benefit from an all-in-one server solution? If they’re running fewer than 75 PCs, then addressing their needs could be easier than you think. Microsoft Small Business Server 2008 runs multiple technologies, which are integrated and configured specifically for small business needs. Here’s what you’re customers can expect:

Access to e-mail contacts, calendar and files from anywhere
Increased reliability of hardware and software
Internal Web sites for rich collaboration
Lower costs through easier installation and management
Better protection with automatic backups and file restoration

Windows Essential Business Server 2008

Imagine the difference an integrated multi-server solution could make to your customers business. If your customers are lacking this essential technology, then their bottom line could be suffering, and that affects yours. Windows Essential Business Server 2008 is part of the Windows Essential Server Solutions family, and is specifically for mid-sized businesses. Here’s how it can work for your customers:

Secure remote access to e-mail, files, and applications
Streamlined administration console for all included technologies
Preconfigured platform to Microsoft Best Practices
Simple, wizard-based setup of key workloads
Centralised, easy-to-use license management tools

With this essential business software, you’ll be able to offer your customers technology solutions that meet the top priorities of decision makers within small and mid-sized businesses. So what are you waiting for? Build new and ongoing revenue streams and advise your customers on the solution that’s right for their business.

Don’t miss it – register to watch the webcast here

Don’t stop with the webcast. Expand your knowledge even further and get further training here for Small Business Server 2008 and here for Essential Business Server 2008

Register now for Microsoft Innovation Days

rupcroft — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 03:20:15 GMT

With thanks to Christian Long from our ISV team:

This is your opportunity to 'get your feet on the ground, head in the clouds' and connect with top IT architects, developers and partners for a day of technical sessions and compelling discussions about the future of the Microsoft platform.

The day will concentrate on important announcements released at October’s Professional Developer's Conference, and will focus on our Software plus Services platform. 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.

Cheers & enjoy,

Robbie

PS - a copy of SBS 2008 Premium to be given away in every city!

And congrats from me to the SBSC finalists

nickmayhew — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 14:03:01 GMT

Well done to you all and here's to an exciting conference next week ! Good luck at the award ceremony.

Nick Mayhew

Hilton's wrap-up of the WW Partner Conference

rupcroft — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 01:48:38 GMT

http://hiltont.blogspot.com/2008/07/wpc-08-summary.html

Good summary & whilst I perhaps had a slightly different take on some of the sessions, I agree that one of the most useful part of any conference such as this is in the networking. The chance to chat & exchange ideas & challenge your peers from around the world is priceless as it gives you an opportunity to think outside the box.

In Australia in the next 6 weeks, you get the chance to do this twice:

Australian Partner Conference

We're expecting 650+ partners plus over 100 Microsoft staff
3 days of sessions & discussions & merry-making in Port Douglas
Still one or two places left (Gold & Certified partners only unfortunately)

TechEd SMB Servers pre-day

Looking at 350+ partners for the pre-day
Over 2,800 in total for TechEd, of which around 50% are partners
200+ sessions covering just about every piece of our technology

Cheers & hope to see you at one or both of these events,

Robbie

WPC: 2008 SMALL & MIDSIZE BUSINESS PARTNER FORUM AND SMB TRACK

nickmayhew — Wed, 07 May 2008 02:23:45 GMT

WPC: 2008 SMALL & MIDSIZE BUSINESS PARTNER FORUM AND SMB TRACK

Register for the third annual Microsoft Small and Midsize Business Partner Forum (formerly known as the Small Business Symposium). This year, for the first time ever, the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference will include an end-to-end experience for partners focused on the small- and midsize-business market segment. We’ll feature a one-day interactive event on July 7, as well as a new small- and midsize-business track throughout the entire Worldwide Partner Conference, taking place July 7-10 in Houston.

SBSC partners can take advantage of special discount WPC pricing of USD$1395 (full conference fee is USD$1795) – details, special registration code and link to the registration tool can be found online. Partners using the special registration code will be automatically registered for the SMB Partner Forum on July 7^th.

The Small and Midsize Business Partner Forum, held on the first day of the conference, is a networking and learning event for Microsoft Small Business Specialists and other SMB-focused technology providers who want to strengthen their small-business practices. During the interactive one-day Small and Midsize Business Partner Forum—and through the first-ever small- and midsize-partner track held throughout the Worldwide Partner Conference--you’ll have the chance to gain insight on how to balance customer needs with your own growth objectives.

When you attend the Worldwide Partner Conference and the Small and Midsize Business Partner Forum, you can:

Learn strategies from industry experts to help you effectively focus your time, increase your business value, and grow your business.
Hear from Microsoft executives about the company’s direction in the small- and midsize-business marketplace.
Interact with your peers and learn successful best practices that you can implement in your business.
Prepare for the upcoming launch of Windows Small Business Server 2008.
Build core skills and strategies that align with the small- and midsize-business segment.

Nick Mayhew

And the finalists are.......

sbscaustralia — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 11:25:51 GMT

The finalists in the Australian Partner Conference Awards have been announced and the finalists for the Small Business Specialist Partner of the Year are......

Evolve IT Australia Pty Ltd
Helping an industry leaders commercial success through implementation and management of a Microsoft Small Business Server solution including mobility, information management, team collaboration and user support.

Phrixus Technologies
Phrixus Tehnologies specialises in advancing dynamic small business clients by using Microsoft Small Business Server as the core foundation.

Extreme Networks
Hosted Terminal Services Solution for Medical Education Company

Correct Solutions
Customised Solutions; A case study... Achieving reliable Ship-to-Shore Communications over the internet - Provision and support of a Microsoft Small Business Server solution to a Ship Management Company.

Only 9 sleeps until Australian Partner Conference!

sbscaustralia — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 09:11:21 GMT

I don't know about you, but I'm definitely looking forward to the Australian Partner Conference next week. We've got some fantastic content and the opportunity to network with other Partners and Microsoft staff is invaluable.

For those of you that are attending, I thought I'd call out my picks for great content and opportunities for our SBSC Partners.

Don't forget to register for APC Connect, which will enable you to join the APC community.

Thursday

3.45 - 4.45pm - Mobility session - Grace Kerrison, Windows Mobile Director

This session is a good opportunity to hear about the exciting opportunities with Mobile 6.0. Grace will also talk about ways to get involved in upcoming SBS+Mobility campaigns in FY08 - so if you're interested in working with Microsoft in this area, this is definitely the session to attend.

5.00 - 6.00pm - State Networking events

These networking sessions are a great opportunity to meet with Microsoft staff from the various state offices. While they will be focused around the enterprise level customers - it's still a good option if you want to start building relationships at the state level.

Friday

10.50 - 11.50am - Knowing the Small Business Customer session

This session will be delivered by The Leading Edge, Microsoft's Research company in Australia. The session will go into recent research Microsoft commissioned about the "Small Business Customer" and will discuss opportunities to capture this market.

12.05 - 1.05pm - Small Business is Big Business session

This session will introduce the FY08 Breadth campaigns and will discuss the ways to get engaged with Microsoft as well as the product Roadmap for the upcoming Server Wave.

I'll look forward to seeing you all there!

Last few days to enter an Award submission

sbscaustralia — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 02:18:36 GMT

With the deadline extended you have until this Friday to submit an award for the Australian Partner Conference.

It's a great opportunity to have your solution recognized by Microsoft and by your peers and there is an award for Small Business Specialists only.

The Small Business Specialist Award honours those partners who are using Microsoft technology to deploy innovative small business solutions. This award is only for partners actively enrolled in the Microsoft Small Business Specialist Community. Small Business Specialists serve all customer types and sizes. However, the purpose of this award is demonstrating innovation for deploying a small business Microsoft-based solution (fewer than 50 employees or fewer than 25 PCs). Key Microsoft products in the small business solutions stack include Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2, Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft Office Accounting 2007, Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft Small Business Financials. Submissions should focus on how the partner provides ways for a small business to better connect with customers, partners and employees, to manage business processes productively and to reply on dependable, flexible and secure software.

Submit today

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

Are you registered for the 2nd annual Small Business Symposium in Denver? It's free for SBSCers.

sbscaustralia — Mon, 14 May 2007 05:56:06 GMT

Last year for the inaugural Microsoft Small Business Symposium in Boston, we had over 450 partners, press, and Microsoft staff attend, and the feedback we received was great! If you were not able to attend last year’s Symposium, you can view recordings of some of the sessions online in this Blog post.

Now it’s time to register for the second annual Microsoft Small Business Symposium. The Symposium is a great opportunity to network with your peers and some folks from Microsoft at this full-day event as you:

Hear directly from Michael Risse, Vice President of Small and Medium Business, about Microsoft’s vision and roadmap in the small business marketplace.
Learn from well-known industry leaders how to manage your time, increase business value, and reduce financial barriers to continued growth.
Attend Business Growth breakout sessions presented by your partner peers and take away successful best practices that you can put to work for your business.
Find out about upcoming Microsoft technology and how to use current Microsoft solutions to boost business success for you and your customers.
Maybe even attend a session on using MS licensing to grow your services dollars

Conveniently held just one day before the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, you will be able to spend a full day on Small Business related information and then join us for the rest of Worldwide Partner Conference. By the way, did I mention that the Microsoft Small Business Symposium is FREE for all Microsoft Small Business Specialists?! From what I hear, the hotels are booking up fast, so be sure to register soon and I look forward to seeing you there.

Coming Up...... Loadfests

sbscaustralia — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 09:16:13 GMT

I caught up with Luisa Pagliarini who works in the Partner Team, looking after Partner Readiness and Internal Communications.

She asked me to blog about a project she's currently working on called Loadfests - so I thought it would be a great opportunity to quiz her about what exactly Loadfests are and what else she's got in the works for Partners.

So, Luisa, great to have you here, I know you do a lot of work on the upcoming Loadfests, they sound interesting, what exactly are they? A Loadfest Event creates the environment where partners can come in and load their PC’s with Vista and Office (using their own Volume License keys) in the company of our Microsoft Partner Technology Specialists (PTS).

What type of Partners would be interested in Loading and Festing? Loadfest is exclusive for Action Pack subscribers, Gold and Certified Partners. Anyone ITDM who hasn’t deployed Vista or Office 2007 on their PC should attend Loadfest as it will allow them to ask any technical questions to our PTS’s.

What else do you do at Microsoft? I work on all ISV communications, internal partner communications, and I have also just taken on board Microsoft Learning communications, and readiness communications.

What gets you out of bed in the morning? Steven my boyfriend giving me a wake-up phone :-)

How do you filter the Microsoft jargon to talk real speak to partners? It is very hard because we use so many acronyms internally – but it is like I have a little acronym conscience that rings in my ear, so if I accidentally talk an MS (oops I mean Microsoft) jargon, then the little conscience automatically corrects and out comes ‘real language’.

If you were a superhero, who would you be? Well she isn't really a super hero – but Hermione from Harry Potter.

What do you like most about working in the partner organization within Microsoft? There is a great culture and vibe here within the partner team. Everyone works hard and works together to achieving goals. It is so nice to come to work and know that no matter how much work is on we can all manage to smile and have a laugh.

Exclusive Partner offer - APAC Sharepoint Conference

sbscaustralia — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 06:38:37 GMT

After much negotiation I have been allowed to open up registration to the upcoming APAC Sharepoint Conference on the 15 - 16 May in Sydney.

This is the first time this event has been held in Australia and is a great opportunity to learn more about Sharepoint as well as network with customers. It was invitation only for customers and has already sold out - we have only a small number of spaces held for Partners, so make sure you get in quick if you're interested in attending.

After two highly successful conferences in Seattle and Berlin, seats for the Microsoft® APAC SharePoint® Conference in Sydney are sure to sell out. Registration for this third and final event will open to a wider audience on 16 April 2007. However as a priority partner, you and your team are invited to pre-register to ensure you secure a spot at this highly-anticipated event.

BRAND NEW DEEP DIVE CONTENT from US and APAC SharePoint experts
Pass this invitation on to IT professionals, developers and architects in your team. By registering, they can hear first-hand SharePoint product experts, such as Derek Burney (General Manager; SharePoint Platform), Mike Fitzmaurice and Joel Oleson (both Senior Technical Product Managers), about the new innovations, features and functionality in the latest release of SharePoint products and technologies. And for the first time in Australia, information on Microsoft Office Performance Point Server 2007 will be presented.

When:	May 15 - 16 , 2007.
Where:	Hilton Hotel, Sydney.
Cost:	$AUD549.00 +GST
Notes:	Register using code: Partner

Who will benefit the most: Over 2 days, your team can access hands-on training and deep dive technical "how to" breakout sessions covering subjects such as architecture, security, integration, deployment, migration, management and scalability. Sessions are aimed to help atendees best develop, customise, integrate and build powerful enterprise-ready solutions with SharePoint products and technologies.

How much: Just $AUD549 +GST per attendee, which includes access to all sessions, including keynotes, attendee materials, breakfast and lunch, a welcome reception, conference dinner attendee party, and chances to win prizes.

To find out more about the conference, including the full agenda, plus to register or read more about SharePoint technologies, visit the APAC SharePoint Conference 2007 Web site.