News & Views for Australian SBSCs : Feedback

SBSC feedback - what is Microsoft doing?

rupcroft — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 04:55:11 GMT

As promised when summarising the feedback from the last series of SBSC roundtables (apologies for the delay), we would like to share our response to the questions & concerns that were raised.

You can download the document here that shows the issue, context & Microsoft Australia's thoughts & latest action plan.

This feedback also takes into account sessions such as the SMB pre-day at APC, various meetings & also the SMB Server pre-day from TechEd.

In summary:

We not only hear you, but are listening
The program is & will evolve based on this feedback
We will not be able to do everything, but we (MS Oz & Corp) will continue to strive to make it a better program for both Partners & Microsoft, for the benefit of our mutual customers

As always we would love your feedback & so please contact me or our Partner Marketing Manager - Sarah Theiss with your input.

Cheers,

Robbie

Our S+S Strategy - let me help the SBSC community with your questions

nickmayhew — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 03:58:59 GMT

I've just posted this note on my blog and I know from talking to Robbie that there are already some concerns and questions arising in the SBSC community around the announcements last week on BPOS and S+S at Worldwide Partner Conference. So here is my offer to the community - send me any questions you have and I do everything I can to answer them. I won't be able to tell you exactly when and how we will launch in Australia as we are still working on the plans, but let me help you all understand the strategy here, how it affects you and what you should be doing to seize the opportunities ahead of us and the community as the market shifts in the way we believe it will. Go off to my blog, and send questions through the email link. I will either post back privately to you, if you request it, or build an FAQ on that blog that collects the main questions I was asked.

"With all the announcements last week on the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) as part of our Software+Services strategy (S+S) we know there will be questions arising in the minds of Australian partners large and small, from value-added resellers to system integrators and ISVs.

Whilst we won't necessarily have all the answers I wanted to use my blog as a way to help our partners engage in a dialog on the subject, ask some specific burning questions and for me to roll out an FAQ type response that I build on as we go forwards.

So feel free to send me any questions you have on the announcements last week, the S+S strategy as a whole, the BPOS partner model etc etc I will then either answer directly to you or via this blog in FAQ format. It is an exciting time in the industry but one with which we understand can create uncertainty in many people's minds - we are committed to helping partners embrace the business opportunities going forwards and of course to better server your customers."

Thanks !

Nick Mayhew

Partner Strategy Lead for Australia

Feedback from the SBSC Roundtables held in May

rupcroft — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 08:45:11 GMT

The second series of Australian SBSC Partner Roundtables were held in May 2008 as a follow-up to the events of November 2007.

The 22 attendees across Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney were a mix of new partners & those that had been involved in the earlier events. Sessions were moderated by Athena Thompson (SMB Marketing Manager) & Robbie Upcroft (SMB Servers Product Manager)

The all-up feedback was fairly consistent & this is summarised below. Next steps are as follows:

Athena & Robbie to meet with the Microsoft Australia Partner team to discuss
We will then come back to the community to talk actions & plans for the coming year

Please know that we appreciate & take this feedback very seriously. Given the level of input & passion that all the roundtable partners displayed, I will personally commit to seeing this program updated - one way or the other.

Regards & please let me know if you have any questions,

Robbie

Summary of feedback

SBSC Program Value: “The brand is meaningless if we don’t know what it is and no one knows about it”

SBSC VS Certified: elevate SBSC within certified, eg, “Another feather in our caps” to registered/certified and Gold
Will consider paying to be part of the program, eg, $500 p/year; $1000 p/year if there were tangible benefits. This would need to be rolled into the current Certfied/Gold fee.
Would like to see restricted content for SBSCs (more than what the others see)
Make sure people/customers know about it. IE, “Microsoft has certified me”. All felt there is no awareness about the program (partner capabilities etc) with customers at all. The ideal promotion would mean a “thank god you’re here!” reaction from new customers. CPA-type program was lauded by all of what the program could be.
Should represent a standard not an entry point
All would like to see the program drive business and business knowledge; eg, training on how do successful partners drive their business.

Technical training
BDM/grow business training
Sales and Marketing training

Program re-enrolment

All liked the idea of re-enrolment each year to keep certification current, including:

Submission of customer case studies
Attending training
Potential for annual exam
Dated logo, ie, “Certified for 2008” a la the UK model

Community engagement

All liked the sound of an annual SBSC conference – would pay to attend

Another angle would be the potential for a “mini-MBA”

Agreement that all SBSCs should sign up to the blog and newsletter; particularly wanted previews of new products here.

More information around leads & how they’re farmed out
Feeling that partner finder was buried on the MSCOM.AU site and should be easier to find
Highlight successful SBSC partners & show how these folk go about marketing, hiring staff, managing finances etc

Products

Strong interest in CRM among the SBSCs: all liked idea of getting the MS PM up to one of the next user group meetings.
Specific feedback around CRM Workgroups edition should allow for an additional 5 users on top of the current restriction of 5.
Want clear information on SBS and EBS and what they can really do better.
What about building some sort of tangible offer within the SBSC program, such as NFR product for customers that partners can give away?
More detail needed on when to license & why – ie, OEM vs VL
More support needed to help make the licensing programs effective & efficient
More information needed on hosting opportunities & how to position against on-premise offerings

Marketing & communications

Click & go feedback: Good support for the HP e-catalogue reality more
One partner had done some “mystery shopper” calls to 132058 and asked for a small business partner and got the complete run-around; can we review this process and ensure it is leading back to the SB website and the partners pages?
Better explain the SBSC program on every piece of collateral
Robert Crane: How to Use SBS on Youtube – has over 100K hits.
Business opportunity information: package up key insights from Analysts that might help them secure business, eg, “Gartner says small businesses should be spending 1-2% of turn-over on IT”.

Meet the new Australian SBSC PAL - Hilton Travis

rupcroft — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 05:53:25 GMT

As per our earlier announcement, we've appointed a new Small Business Specialist Partner Area Lead (SBSC PAL) for Australia - Hilton Travis.

Although not officially picking up the mantle from Dean Calvert until July 1st, Hilton has already made his voice heard via the recent SBSC Partner roundtables and numerous Yahoo forum posts talking about the past, present & future of the program.

Hilton can be contacted on Hilton@QuarkIT.com.au (though be mindful - he's a small businessperson as well and so may not always be able to get back to you right away).

We really want to your feedback on the SBSC program - either directly or collated & passed back up through Hilton - and so here's a quick introduction in his own words.

Cheers,

Robbie

Name:

Hilton Travis

Company:

Quark IT (Quark Group Pty Ltd)

Location:

Brisbane, Sunny Queensland

Years in business:

Describe your business in 25 words or less:

Quark IT: Specializing in the SMB market, providing networking and general technology support to allow our clients to better run the business side their business.

Quark Group: Automation, Audio Visual and IT integrator specializing in commercial and high end residential projects helping to integrate technology so it is unobtrusive yet functional.

What are you passionate about in business?:

Being at the leading edge of the current “integration” technology allowing us to be able to make people’s lives easier by the careful selection and implementation of technology in their homes and workplaces. Also, being able to design this so that we can be as environmentally and socially responsible as possible without reducing the functionality and

effectiveness of the solutions to our clients’ requirements.

How long have you been in IT?:

26 long years

How long have you been working with Microsoft products?:

Since the days of MS DOS being supplied on 360 KB floppy diskettes. Around 1984, if my failing memory serves me correctly. I do have a copy of Microsoft OS/2 Version 1.21 on 5.25” disks somewhere.

If Microsoft could do one thing to help your business thrive, what would it be?:

Look back at the good old days when they were good at releasing killer desktop OSes and great Office applications – and start running the business once again like that. If Microsoft could focus on its strengths instead of trying to borg the entire IT world, they could once again release great products that would really help our clients run their businesses better.

What’s the best thing about the SBSC program?:

At this point, aahhh, well... Its potential. (See, I *can* be politically correct!)

What’s the worst thing?:

Nobody knows what it is. None of our clients. No-one outside an SBSC. It is the program you have when you don’t have a program! That is, however, starting to change a little and I want to encourage that change.

What are you looking forward to most over the next 12 months as the new Aussie SBSC PAL?:

Firstly, working out what a PAL actually does, and then doing it!

I’m hoping to be able to encourage Microsoft to promote the SBSC program in Australia to the point where it is recognized by people outside the SBSC members. This will involve input not only from Microsoft, but from the SBSCs ourselves. Yet another paper certification is something we don’t need and we definitely shouldn’t want – having this certification actually mean something in the industry and to our clients is what I’d like to see happen by June 2009.

I’d like to be able to let Microsoft know, in my own silky smooth way, what I see wrong with the way they are going in areas that actually matter. I’d really, really like to be able to help sort out their Licensing when it comes to the SMB marketplace and I’d like to try and understand why we’re so poorly treated when it comes to the pricing of Microsoft software and programs in Australia.

Australian SBSC Roundtables - next steps

rupcroft — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 04:51:58 GMT

We've now completed the May series of SBSC Partner Roundtables.

My colleague Athena Thompson and I would like to say a big thank you to the partners who gave three hours of their time to provide thoughtful, in-depth feedback, and give the wider SBSC community an update as to what happens now.

We'll be collating the feedback from all three events over the coming week & then presenting back to those partners who attended to ensure that we took their comments down correctly.

At that point we'll then share the feedback with you to seek wider input as well as taking it to Microsoft Australia partner management with recommendations & an action plan for next steps. You have my commitment that this will all be completed by June 30th, 2008.

In the meantime, please feel free to either drop me a line on rupcroft@microsoft.com or contact one of the attendees below to get their take on how they went.

Cheers & thanks again,

Robbie & Athena

With thanks to the following partners

Melbourne

Henry Craven, SBS MVP - h.craven@ci-infotech.com.au
Colin Campbell - colin.campbell@vrca.com.au
David Nicholls - David@execaid.com
James Eling - jeling@extremenetworks.com.au
Nick Moran - Nick.Moran@evolveit.com.au
Darren Davis - darren.davis@consortium.com.au
Frances Pratt - f.pratt@enspire.com.au
Jerry Guirguis - jerry.guirguis@bizdata.com.au

Brisbane

Stuart Applegate, SBS MVP - stuart@businesscomputing.com.au
Hilton Travis - SBSC PAL - Hilton@QuarkIT.com.au
Brad Rappell - Brad.Rappell@nphq.com.au
Drew Hills - drew.hills@cognict.com.au
Sepp Schembra - Sepp@papillongroup.com.au
Hans Knop - hans@understandit.com.au
Andrew McInally - Andrew@EHTech.com.au
Franz Huber - Franz@cfriends.com.au

Sydney

Ryan Spillane - ryan@correct.com.au
Angus Mansfield - angus.mansfield@xcentral.com.au
Rob Wilford - rwilford@activsync.com.au
Mark Giles - mgiles@phrixus.com
Robert Crane - robert@saturnalliance.com.au

Still some places left at the Sydney SBSC roundtable

rupcroft — Thu, 22 May 2008 15:03:35 GMT

There are still a few places for the Sydney SBSC roundtable on the morning of Thursday, May 29th - check here for details. The feedback that Athena & I received in Melbourne last week was excellent & I look forward to meeting more partners in Brisbane & Sydney next week.

Although we don't have an official roundtable in Adelaide, I'll be there for the SBS User Group on the night of Monday 26th & so come along if you'd like to have a chat. I'll also be at the Brisbane SBS group on the night of Tuesday 27th.

The SBSC program in Australia is being revamped & its your continuing feedback & input that is going to help us really turn it into something special.

Robbie