News & Views for Australian SBSCs : General

SBS & EBS trials now available for download

rupcroft — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 06:22:51 GMT

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 can then be upgraded to a fully licensed version.

Note - the DVD version for Australia will be orderable soon - stay tuned for details.

Cheers,

Robbie

Official WW launch of SBS & EBS 2008

rupcroft — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 03:26:12 GMT

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 put all the planning & waiting behind us & now focus on getting the solutions into market.

Watch Steve Ballmer & a host of executives talk about what these solutions will mean for SMB customers & partners at www.thedreamserver.com.

Register for the free virtual tradeshow & watch videos of various partners & 3rd-party vendors talk about how SBS & EBS will help them grow their business.

Start testing & trialing the software shipping in this month's Action Pack.

I'm also posting ready to go presentations, brochures, whitepapers & other relevant documents to the sky-drive & so check it out to download the collateral you need.

Lots more to come & so stay tuned & happy launching,

Robbie

Crackdown on software piracy

rupcroft — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 14:05:06 GMT

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 eBay sellers who pedalled pirated versions of Windows XP and Office 2003.

We often get asked about our efforts/activities in this space as many SBSCers come up against dodgy dealers & rightly want to know what we're doing about it. So whilst we'll probably never get rid of piracy 100%, we are trying.

More information on our education & enforcement efforts here: http://www.microsoft.com/australia/genuine/Piracy.mspx

Cheers & lemme know if you have any questions,

Robbie

* The genuine Windows Vista is on the left

Guest post #2 from Hilton - Aussie SBSC PAL

rupcroft — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 03:57:59 GMT

See guest post #1 here.

Thanks,

Robbie

As the Australian SBS User Groups are changing focus, direction and names into the SMB IT Professionals groups, we need to ensure that we're not only changing our names, but living up to them. Microsoft has really expanded our market upwards by introducing EBS. The Enterprise players will generally look at this, see Wizards and dismiss it as a toy. We're in the ideal position to not only know this simply isn't right, but to be able take advantage of this new product and move into this mid-market space if we so choose. Some of our existing SBS clients will be ideal for EBS, some new clients will be ideal for EBS, some will be ideal for SBS and some will not fit either product - either too big (and then onto Windows Server 2008) - or too small (under 10 seats, so maybe Windows Home Server in a workgroup).

MAPS users are going to be receiving both SBS 2008 and EBS 2008 as a part of the Quarterly Update Kit that starts shipping on 24 October,2008 and in addition to this, SBS 2008 is already available on both MSDN and TechNet and EBS 2008 will be available there shortly. Having these products ship in MAPS (for Registered Member SBSCs) is an excellent way for smaller SBSCs to have a look at EBS and see if it is something they are interested in. If not, well, that's fine - at least as a member of one of the SMB IT Pro groups you will know who else in your region you may be able to work with if EBS seems a good fit for a client. That's what these groups are all about - sharing, learning and supporting the SMB IT Pro community. As SBSCs, we're a big part of that community.

As members of this larger SMB IT Pro community, the Australian groups are looking at being able to present a unified face to both vendors and our SMB clients - this means that if we play our cards right, we'll have more influence with vendors who understand the SMB marketplace which will bring benefits to both us as IT professionals and to our clients. To do this, we all have to ensure that we not only let the vendors know if and where they can better target their resources for our market segment, but we also need to ensure that when a vendor is doing something right, we let them know about it!

So, to kick things off here - and after all, this SBSC PAL thing isn't here *just* so I can pick on Microsoft, it is so that I can channel SBSC feedback to Microsoft and Microsoft feedback back to the SBSCs - what things are Microsoft doing right in the SBSC program and with the SMB marketplace in general? Please send comments directly to me at Hilton.Travis@SBSCPAL.com and while you're at it, please join up to the ANZ-SBSC Yahoo! Group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ANZ-SBSC/) for SBSC-related discussions, questions and assistance.

http://blog.hiltontravis.com/

Regards,

Hilton Travis

Phone: +61 (0)7 3105 9101

Phone: +61 (0)419 792 394

Manager, Quark IT http://www.quarkit.com.au

Quark Group http://www.quarkgroup.com.au

Microsoft SBSC PAL (Australia) http://www.sbscpal.com/

What would you like to see on the Microsoft partner portal?

rupcroft — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 05:30:05 GMT

We're in serious feedback gathering mode at moment & my colleague Vaughn Gourlie in the partner website team is looking for your input.

It'd be great if you can spare a few minutes to let us know the top 5 things you go to the Partner Portal to do, i.e. look for information on competencies, look for training, look for marketing materials etc.

This kind of guidance is extremely useful & know that your thoughts are considered & acted upon as we best we can. The last redesign of the homepage was based on feedback from partners who said it was too difficult to quickly find the information they were looking for.

So, what would you like to see?

Please email Portalhelp to send your feedback.

Thanks,

Robbie

Partner to Partner networking nights

rupcroft — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 07:37:18 GMT

Great pick-up from Nick Mayhew's blog around the upcoming Partner-to-Partner networking nights. Open to Gold, Certified & SBSC partners.

This round will focus on Local Government & whilst there's no specific focus on SMB per se, it could still be a useful night out for you if you're interested in meeting the local Microsoft folk & chatting to other partners in this space.

Space limited & so register here today.

Robbie

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

July's SBSC newsletter

rupcroft — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 06:26:12 GMT

New Australian SBSC newsletter out today.

Please let me know if you haven't received yours. We're working on a way to allow more than one recipient per company - stay tuned.

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

Register now for the SMB Server Day at TechEd to get your free copy of Small Business Server 2008

rupcroft — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 01:08:02 GMT

We announced over on the SBS blog last night the long-awaited sign-up incentive for the SMB Servers TechEd 2008 pre-day - a free copy of Small Business Server 2008 Std for all attendees.

Whilst I firmly believe that there's enough goodness in the content & chance to network with your peers from around Australia to make it worth your while, we've opted to provide this giveaway for three reasons:

Help cover your costs of registration, flights, accommodation etc
Gets you started with your first sale on the new platform
Gives me a chance to play Santa Claus in September

We'll be taking this offer out to the wider partner community later this week & so I wanted to give the SBSC & SBS User Group folks a heads-up first. So please have a look at the agenda & sign-up today.

Cheers & see you there,

Robbie

PS - given the tight timelines between expected SBS RTM & the SMB Servers day on Sept 2nd, we may not have the actual stock to give out on the day. In this case, we will send it out to all attendees as soon as it arrives.

More keynotes from WPC

rupcroft — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 08:34:31 GMT

Good collection of the main WW Partner Conference Presentations from Nick Mayhew, Australia's Group Manager of all things Partner.

The Australian Partner Conference is just over 3 weeks away & there are still one or two places left if you act fast.

Cheers,

Robbie

New Resources and Direction
Steve B's Keynote Transcript (or watch it here)
Vista and the Partner Opportunity - Brad Brooks' keynote transcript
Kevin Turner's (COO of the company) keynote transcript
Increased software benefits for Gold/Cert partners in the area of security
SSA (Security Software Advisor) Jumpstart Promotion - 50% extra bonus for new SSAs
Release Dates and Details for EBS and SBS
The new solution finder (US only right now but coming to us soon - useful for you to see what it will look like) - Microsoft Pinpoint

Keynote from the WPC SMB Partner forum

rupcroft — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 08:26:19 GMT

Microsoft's VP of SMB, Michael Risse, gave the keynote in yesterday's SMB Partner Forum at the WW Partner Conference in Houston - check here for details.

Whilst the deck is obviously designed to be presented live (ie there's space for a demo), I've kept most of the comments pages in so that you can get a good sense of what he & Andrea Russell (WW SBSC Program Lead) were talking about.

Highlights & key announcements:

The launch of SBS & EBS will be on November 12th
An update on the Software + Services strategy as it pertains to small business

More information on the just announced Microsoft Online partner model here

A major overhaul of the Solution Finder tool, called Microsoft Pinpoint
SBSCs now eligible for the Forefront SSA program (Security Software Advisor)
Free SBS 2008 exam vouchers

Limited to the first 5,000 applicants
Email "SBS Exam Voucher" to askcorp@microsoft.com

Cheers & let me know if you have any questions,

Robbie

Guest blog from Julia Askin: the Budget & small business

rupcroft — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 09:25:03 GMT

First up in an ad-hoc series of guest authors on the Australian SBSC Blog is the newest member of our Breadth Partner team - Julia Askin.

You may have already spoken with Julia as the main organising force behind the recent SBSC Roundtables & I'm personally looking forward to hearing her fresh ideas & input on how we can really make the SBSC program thrive.

Cheers & over to you Julia,

Robbie

Federal Budget 2008: 1

Small Businesses: 0

Sydney Renters: -1

I have been an Intern in the Microsoft Partner Marketing Team, mostly helping out with the ISV and SBSC Partner communities, since February this year. I am continuously learning about how both these types of Partners interact in the business and IT markets and of course with Microsoft.

In my university days I always paid a lot of attention to the Budget because its subject matter would no doubt be conveniently tied into a business assignment or essay. I originally thought that this year, a graduate with for once no immediate need to over-analyse the winners and losers of the budget, I would give myself a well-deserved break and not watch the 2008 Budget announcement. But surprisingly this year, as a graduate paying too much rent in Sydney, I did in fact watch the budget to find out exactly how old I would be until I could afford to buy a house (105 years old, if the interest rates keep rising and I keep buying shoes).

I am not a small business expert, but I am an interested small business supporter and hope that understanding the community better will help me provide more valuable and informed input into how Microsoft manages the Small Business Specialist Partner community. In this post I wanted the opportunity to share my relatively uninfluenced thoughts about how the budget will affect small businesses, and what actions should be taken post-budget.

Before I go any further, it is safe to assume that you may have already passed your judgment on how the 2008 Federal Budget affected your business, and you probably can guess my stance on how I think Australian small businesses fared. But do stay tuned a little longer, as further in my post I do suggest a few (hopefully helpful) hints on how to manage post Budget.

Although I feel like I will be renting for life, I felt I did better out of Wayne Swan's announcement than the small businesses of Australia. Steven Ciobo, Shadow Minister for Small Business said that Wayne Swan had taken "an axe" to small business funding, wiping almost $1 billion in funding for important programs to assist small to medium operators particularly in the areas of entrepreneurship and innovation, areas he, and I, think the government should be encouraging. "He’s robbed the engine room of the economy" was his dramatic statement. A bit of a doom and gloom attitude I thought, was he overreacting a little?

I learnt that the heat in this 'engine room' will be cooled by the series of cuts to business assistance programs, including the scraping of the $700 million Commercial Ready program that helps SMEs innovate and commercialise new technology, and there are cuts to the Building Entrepreneurship in Small Business Program, the National Nanotechnology Strategy and the Global Opportunities Program. This is a surprising deletion, as apparently the Australian industry has always struggled with the commercialisation of technological innovations, and the Commercial Ready program played an essential role in the government’s efforts to lift business performance in this area.

This budget also slashed access to a special entrepreneurs’ tax offset and changed the depreciation laws on computer software (which will cost business $1.4 billion over the next four years). Seems like the Government suddenly has a lot of confidence in the ability of small businesses to stand alone without assistance. Kind of like being kicked out of the family home to fend for yourself while you’re still in nappies.

Gregory Will from PricewaterhouseCoopers added to the criticism and said that the budget didn’t offer any support for small business growth into export markets, and that there was no incentive for small business to be more competitive in Australia or overseas.

The government has shown unprecedented confidence and trust in small businesses to implement best practices alone, without direct support, which is flattering I suppose, but out of all major business groups, I would've thought that small business needed particular nurturing - they aren’t called "small" businesses for nothing. It takes an enormous amount of effort and perhaps bravery to start up your own business and it is usually difficult to obtain finance. You would expect that small businesses would receive a lot of support and incentives. How else can small businesses take risks and remain competitive?

Tax was obviously discussed in depth. Reading about tax usually helps me sleep, but this budget's personal income tax cuts should be good for small business. A simpler tax system with the reduction of red tape was announced and the Government will introduce an income test for the entrepreneurs' tax offset (ETO) which will focus the benefit of the ETO towards genuine small businesses.

In summary, I would have to agree with general opinion – that small businesses did get dealt a fairly lousy hand this year, and that if they want to develop and grow, they will have to do so on based on their own initiatives and not those handed down by the government. In the apparent absence of direct help, there are many avenues of support you can explore on your own will. For assistance in export development, contact Austrade or visit the Austrade website for lots of great information and free advice about how to break into the overseas market. AusIndustry is also a handy group to get involved with, as they provide a range of products designed to assist small businesses to become innovative and internationally competitive. Most State Governments also have a small business resources website. The NSW Department of State and Regional Development website also has information about starting a small business, exporting overseas, utilising technology and contains links to up-to-date government resources.

Furthermore there are Business Enterprise Centres (BECs) in many shires/regions throughout the country. BECs are independent organisations that focus on creating local small business opportunities and growth, offering practical assistance in business planning, advice on marketing, budgeting and cash flow. You can find your local BEC here. Small businesses should also network with others in the industry who may be able to offer practical words of wisdom. Keep an eye out for the next Microsoft SBSC Roundtables (probably around November) or join one of the SBS user groups and share ideas with your peers.

And if you own your own house, then don't complain too loudly. I'm yet to decide what the worse budgetary situation is, renting in Sydney or being a small business. Either way, I'd better shelve my 'opening my own shoe shop' idea until the next budget.

Julia

WW SBSC Partner of the Year announced

rupcroft — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 07:33:45 GMT

The Worldwide Microsoft Partner Awards were announced overnight & will be handed out at the Partner Conference in Houston in early July. I was on the judging panel for these awards & it was fantastic to see all the work that SBSC partners are doing around the world.

Big congratulations to Quadrasystems.net of India who have been recognised as the SBSC Partner of the Year for 2008. See below for a brief description of their business & recent success. Other finalists were ITnorth.ca of Canada & Kinetics Group Limited of New Zealand.

Quick reminder that entries for the Australian Partner Awards close on June 16th, so get your submissions in now.

Cheers,

Robbie

"Quadrasystems.net provides its customers with software solutions that incorporate best-of-breed IT products and best-practice IT solutions honed over years of experience with hundreds of small-business customers. For its customer, Biovel Life Sciences (a healthcare provider to developing countries), Quadra deployed Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2 Premium along with upgraded desktops running Windows Vista Business and Microsoft Office Standard 2007—supplemented by its consultancy, implementation, training, and proactive and reactive post-sales support services. Quadra also uses the Microsoft Business and Technology Assessment Toolkit to initiate customer interactions and the Microsoft Demo Showcase to help address business pain points. As a result of a successful implementation, Biovel was able to achieve increased employee productivity, in a more secure environment, while reducing its IT costs."

Have you looked at the Microsoft Australia small business website recently?

rupcroft — Thu, 22 May 2008 14:51:06 GMT

The Microsoft Australia small business website has quietly been undergoing some changes lately, all designed to help customers find the answers they need - even if they don't know the questions to ask.

And with more than 50,000 unique users on average coming to the site every month, it hopefully means more business heading your way.

If you don't already, it's probably not a bad idea to sign-up for the newsletters & visit once a month - if for no other reason than to stay on top of the messages that we're taking out to market.

We have the SBSC logo splashed all over the front page & include a whole host of content around security, licensing, latest offers, online demos & even templates for your business. Ie, managing a loan with Excel. These could be just as handy for your business & so why not check it out today.

As always - we're interested in hearing your feedback on this website as a resource that can help your business - either directly or that of your customers. What's good, what's bad & what's ugly?

Cheers,

Robbie