UK ISV Blog : Events

Windows Azure - technical briefings for Microsoft partners Jan 2009

kirstys — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 18:02:20 GMT

The Developer & Platform Group at Microsoft are pleased to announce a series of technical briefings, targeted at our Microsoft ISVs and start-up partners, focused on the cloud based Azure Services Platform, first announced at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles in October 2008. This event will cover:

· Windows Azure – The operating system for the Cloud

· .Net and Live Services – Mesh, Service Bus, Access Control and Workflow.

· SQL Data Services and data access

· Next Steps

The briefings will consist of technical discussion, demos and interactive discussion and will focus on how Azure can be used as a platform for development. The sessions will be small, typically less than 25, to keep the flow of conversation going, and are suitable for Technical Decision Makers, Application Architects, Senior Developers and CTOs. There will be time after the event for more detailed one to one discussions on any topics related to this session.

For more information about Azure, please visit http://www.azure.com/

For any questions about the event and its format and content, please email ukdev@microsoft.com

20 January 2009, Reading

Invitation Code: 66DD7F

22 January 2009, London

Invitation Code: 8142F0

Harnessing the potential of SQL Server 2008: An Event for Microsoft ISV partners, 2nd Dec

kirstys — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 13:21:06 GMT

SQL Server 2008 is the latest version of the Microsoft data platform and can offer significant benefits to your business. If you are a Gold, Certified or Registered Microsoft partner we would welcome your attendance at this event.

At this short but content packed event we will detail how to make the move to SQL Server 2008 and why your organisation should consider doing so. In the current climate of economic uncertainty we are focused on driving value for our partners and customers through our products and SQL Server 2008 is no exception. To understand the potential of this new product and how some ISVs have already harnessed this then join us on 2nd December and learn more.

Click here to register or 0870 166 6680 and quote reference number 2967.

To get a taste of SQL Server 2008 prior to the event, please visit:

The "Magic Of Software" technology briefings – slots available.....

kirstys — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 11:58:18 GMT

The Microsoft UK Developer team are offering a new series of technology briefings entitled “The Magic of Software”, to showcase some of the latest and most exciting software coming out of Microsoft, and explore how that software could be used in your own applications.

Book here

Regional Partner Events – North (6 Nov) & Midlands (7 Nov)

kirstys — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 19:50:16 GMT

The Microsoft partner team is on the road to deliver virtualisation and unified communications updates, together with the opportunity around Software plus Services, to our Gold & Certified Partners.

Partners will receive research and market insight first hand, specifically covering market influencers, drivers and key considerations to help develop and broaden value propositions to the market. There will also be networking opportunities for partners as well as a technology direction view.

Dates & locations are:

North of England – November 6 2008, IOD Manchester 09.30 to 14.00

Midlands – November 7 2008, Chateau Impney, Worcestershire 09.30 to 14.00

*These events are for Gold & Certified Microsoft Partners*

The Route to SaaS and Beyond

kirstys — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 12:23:42 GMT

Free half-day seminar: “The Route to SaaS and Beyond” 2^nd October 2008 @ Microsoft London

This advisory session and networking lunch has specifically been built to provide ISV’s with tips and strategic advice on moving to a profitable Software as a Service (SaaS) strategy.

Hear from Rackspace SaaS client Xero, as well as Microsoft, Mural Consulting and Collectsoft on the key steps to move to a SaaS strategy and beyond.

We will also be on hand during the buffet lunch to answer your questions individually and confidentially.

Find answers to questions such as:

· Why make the move to SaaS?

· How is SaaS going to expand my software revenues?

· How to securely deliver multi-tenanted software online?

· How will my licensing and revenue model be impacted?

· Why traditional funding doesn’t work and how to overcome the funding gap

· How to develop a new sales model for software delivered as a service

Click to view the full agenda and to register

Join the conversation “THE NEXT WEB NOW” 18-19 September 2008, Brighton UK

kirstys — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:11:18 GMT

We're now working on building ReMix UK 08and it’s shaping up to be an even bigger and better than last year. A few changes you'll notice; we're now going to be in Brighton - a really chilled out place that has a unique creative buzz about it, and if you're from out of town you'll be able to down tools completely and just lay back and enjoy...

We on the beachfront at The Brighton Centre where we’re building a cool, interactive, ultra funky environment right out of the 70’s. This 48 hour conversation mixes up some of the best content and greatest minds. You will find some very cool stuff and have the freedom to kick start your own conversations in our highly interactive spaces; so make sure you come and join the experience!

EARLY BIRD - SAVE £110 Be one of the first 300 people to book and you can save £110 on your entry price.

Early Bird price £239 (inc. VAT)

Full price £349 (inc. VAT) from the 301st ticket to sell out

Keynotes from Scott Guthrie, a General Manager within Microsoft's Developer Division who runs the development teams that build CLR, ASP.NET, WPF, WPF/e, Windows Forms, IIS 7.0, Commerce Server, .NET Compact Framework, and the Visual Studio Web and Client Development Tools. Also, Bill Buxton, who began his career in music, and has spent more than 30 years observing how people use technology and applying those insights to the human-computer interaction field. His research specialties include technologies, techniques and theories of input to computers; technology-mediated collaboration between people; and ubiquitous computing. Buxton is widely revered for his creative and sensitive explorations of new user-interface techniques spanning audio, speech, two-handed input, keyboards, menus, lenses, pens, augmented reality, multimedia and more.

Full speaker list here and being updated.

Developer subjects include:- Silverlight 2, ASP.NET MVC, IE8, Building Rich Applications, Web 2.0 wireframing, Virtual Earth, Virtualising books

Designer subjects include:- Getting your user experience on a mobile, Conception through to build - an interactive installation, Accessibility in RIA , Advertising and Video, Left and Right brain – dev and design together

Ever dreamt of playing on the hallowed Wembley turf? This is your last minute opportunity to bid for a place on the Microsoft partner team!!! All proceeds to the NSPCC

smorrow — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 12:06:19 GMT

Date: Saturday 8th March 2008
Venue: Wembley National Stadium
Time: 10:30 am – 3:00 pm

The first Microsoft Charity Cup took place at Wembley last November and raised over £59k for the Wooden Spoon charity. This year’s Charity Cup will take place on Saturday 8th March and will be in aid of the NSPCC.

We have 15 places available in the Partner team. To enter all you need to do is e-mail Donna Chubb and place a bid for you or your colleague to be in the team. Since all donations for this event are going to a very good cause – the NSPCC – we would like to start the bids from £500. The highest 15 bids will win a place in the team! Please send your bids to Donna by 12 noon on Monday 18th February.

The Event Day

The event will kick off at 11:30 am on Saturday 8th March and finish at 3:00 pm. If your bid is successful you will be given step by step instructions on what to do on the day and details for your guests.

The event is also open to your staff, friends and family who may wish to go along for the day to support you or a colleague in action on the pitch and just generally enjoy the activities we have lined up at Wembley on the day.

Thank you in advance for your support!!

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Charity,NSPCC

Training announcement for ISV who are developing or planning to develop on the Windows Live Platform.

smorrow — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 14:24:32 GMT

The Partner Readiness have just announced the release of the Windows Live Platform Services course. This 1.5 day deep dive covers the core technical aspects of Windows Live Platform Services including:

Overview of Windows Live
Silverlight Streaming
Windows Live Controls
Windows Live Tools for Visual Studio
Windows Live Data (Authentication/Delegation model)
Live ID
Quick Apps Deep Dive (dev.live.com/quickapps)
Messenger Presence
Spaces APIs

Dates currently scheduled are:

28–29 April (London) https://training.partner.microsoft.com/plc/details.aspx?publisher=12&delivery=242857&site=UK&lang=en-uk

14 -15 May (Altrincham) https://training.partner.microsoft.com/plc/details.aspx?publisher=12&delivery=242858&site=UK&lang=en-uk

9-10 June (London) https://training.partner.microsoft.com/plc/details.aspx?publisher=12&delivery=242859&site=UK&lang=en-uk

Place will be limited so hurry to sign-up!

Technorati Tags: ISV,Microsoft,LIVE,Training

Time to Nominate your Applications for the Awards at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference!

smorrow — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 01:10:02 GMT

Time to submit your entry for the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference Awards program! This is a great way to get some free PR. As a finalist or winner you’ll receive promotions that identify your company as part of an elite class of Microsoft partners. Logos will also be displayed in Microsoft Solution Finder.

The nomination process is open NOW and closes on 4th April 2008.

Finalists for the 2008 awards will be announced on June 9, 2008. Winners will be announced and recognized at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston, July 7-10, 2008. Go to Award Submission Tool

For a full list of the award categories can be found here.

I've included a couple of categories that I think might be a good focus:

ISV/Software Solutions Partner of the Year

The ISV/Software Solutions Partner of the Year Award recognizes partners who excel at developing and delivering packaged software to customers. Your solution must work with one or more of Microsoft’s latest server platforms and middleware products, including SQL Server 2005, Windows Server 2003, BizTalk 2006, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Microsoft Business Solutions (all products and versions), and Exchange Server 2007. The solution must also be built using Microsoft .NET development frameworks and tools, including Visual Studio 2005 or Visual Studio 2008. Your ISV software solution qualifies if it has helped customers make better-informed decisions and facilitate effective collaboration with colleagues, customers, and partners. Companies applying for this award should also have demonstrated effective partnering with Microsoft by using Microsoft Partner Program benefits and engaging with Microsoft to develop, create demand for, and sell their software solutions.

Prerequisite: Partner must be active in the ISV/Software Solutions competency.

ISV/Software Solutions Innovation Partner of the Year

The ISV/Software Solutions Innovation Partner of the Year award recognizes an ISV who has developed an innovative, disruptive approach to solving a new or existing business or consumer need based on the latest Microsoft server or client technologies. Companies applying for this award must have demonstrated leadership in the areas of innovation, market potential, media and analyst buzz, investor value creation, and customer adoption with at least three active business customers or 1,000 consumers.

Prerequisite: Partner must be active in the ISV/Software Solutions competency.

Mobility Solutions Partner of the Year

The Mobility Solutions Partner of the Year award recognizes partners who specialize in developing, deploying, supporting, and marketing software solutions and services based on Microsoft Windows Mobile technologies. Submit your entry for this award if you are working with customers to implement mobile business solutions to accelerate business cycles, increase productivity, reduce operating costs, and extend business infrastructures.

Prerequisite: Partner must be active in the Mobility Solutions competency.

Citizenship Partner of the Year

The Citizenship Partner of the Year award recognizes partners who have made a sustained commitment to society and their communities and can demonstrate the impact of their work. Do you work with a nonprofit in an innovative way to empower underserved communities by providing access to technology or technology skills training? Submit your program to showcase your unique and positive contribution toward making the knowledge economy more accessible.

Prerequisite: none.

Information Worker Solutions, Office Solutions Development Partner of the Year

The Information Worker Solutions, Office Solutions Development Partner of the Year award recognizes partners who have excelled in offering breakthrough Microsoft Office system solutions. Have your technology and marketing offerings based on Office Open XML, Web services, or Visual Studio 2005 Tools for the 2007 Office system helped your customers connect people, applications, and partners while optimizing TCO? Has your innovative thinking helped to solve a technical challenge or helped to address your customers' business needs and empower their people? Submit your solution to show the unique and positive impact that your software has had on your customers' business pain points.

Prerequisite: Partner must be active in the Information Worker Solutions competency, Office Solutions Development specialization.

Information Worker Solutions, Data Visualization Partner of the Year

The Information Worker Solutions, Data Visualization Partner of the Year award recognizes partners who have excelled in offering breakthrough Microsoft Office system solutions that help customers view and explore information visually. Has your innovative thinking helped to solve a technical challenge or helped to address your customers' business needs and empower their people? Submit your data visualization solutions and demonstrate the unique and positive impact you have had on your customers' business pain points.

Prerequisite: Partner must be active in the Information Worker Solutions competency, Data Visualization specialization.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Worldwide Partner Conference,WWPC

Microsoft UK ISV Kick-off 2007 - "Partnering for Success"

smorrow — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 11:52:01 GMT

Thank you to all those partners who attended the ISV kick-off event at TVP and made it such a success. My team work hard to pull together the agenda and we hope we made the day valuable for all of you.

My main theme for the day was to explain a little about how we came to arrive at our business priorities for FY08. I explained a little about the Global Relationship Survey [which many of your will have received by email on the 13th Sept]. In last years survey the main feedback was in the area of:

Complexity of MS Licensing Programmes
Tenure, Skill & Experience of PAMs
PAM : Partner Ratio
Sales Engagement in Enterprise Account
Navigation of MS Partner Programme Benefits & Portal
More Leads Generation/Co-Marketing

Having developed strategies to address each of these areas, I then explained a little about the ISV Partner Advisory Board and it's role in helping refine our thinking and piloting some of the initiatives before we make them available to the wider audience.

In summary, these are some of the changes we've implemented as a direct consequence of your feedback and the input from my board:

Reduced Licensing Programme from 108 to 26
Built a PAM Business Academy with a leading external Business School
Added Resource to Improve PAM : Partner Ratio
Added Further Resource to Support PAMs with an internal telephone resource
Created an Industry Partner role in Enterprise Business to Help with Sales Engagement
Created a more structure approach to linking “Incubation” with our Enterprise team
Redesigned every piece of content on the Portal and deployed a PartnerBot to help find relevant content [add partnerbot@hotmail.com as a contact to your instant messenger]
Built new Marketing and Business Development resource

I then talked a little about some of the things we think we're doing right. I used some research from IDC where ISV organisations partnering with Microsoft outperformed ISV partners with other organisation in 10 out of 11 performance areas.

I then went on to outline the 4 key business strategies we'll be focused on through the remainder of FY08:

Ensure we having high quality Partner business planning discussions with all of our managed partners
- As part of this agree and document tangible “Conditions of Satisfaction” CoS.
Engage more ISV Partners in co-marketing campaigns
Moneterize EVERY ISV Partnership
- Build an Influenced Revenue Models
- Drive ISV Royalty Programme
- Evangelise the ISV Licensing Pilot [Trustmarque]
- Build joint pipeline & Win/Loss Reporting
Launch of Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008

In closing my session, there were a couple of points I wanted to make.

Communicating with the broad ISV community is an ongoing challenge. I will continue to invest more time in this blog as a way of reaching you and updating you on our thinking, strategies and programmes throughout the year. If you have specific feedback for me, please email me directly steve.morrow@microsoft.com
Providing our ISV community with a voice aligns well with one of our key community initiatives this year - Voices for Innovation. If you're interested in knowing more about this - review my earlier Blog posting on this subject of go to:
http://www.voicesforinnovation.org - it's free to join!

All the sessions were videoed and the slides and video will be available on the main partner website following editing at: www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/isvresources

I then introduced each of our speakers of the remainder of the morning session. Rather than write a summary of each of their session I've provided a link to their company information and contact details.

Telemarketing Service

Kathryn Cowan talked us through the ISV telemarkeing service we launched last year and will continue to grow through FY08. She opened with the cartoon I've attached which I'm sure captured many people's thoughts of outsourced telemarketing/telesales campaigns.

We're now in our second year of working with Kathryn and have seems some amazing results.

Steve Reynolds, CEO of TBS Mobility provided his personal experience and learning from working with The Telemarketing Company on a campaign earlier this year.

The Telemarketing company in conjunction with Microsoft have 2 offerings available:

Prospect List Identification and Validation
Cost £2,800 ♦ 80 calling hours ♦ average of 150-250 decision maker contacts ♦ option to extend campaign
Lead Generation Programme
Cost £4,800 to £9,600 [core and core+ offerings] ♦ 160 to 320 calling hours ♦ contact with 1,000 to 2,500 qualified contacts.

Steve Reylonds was able to point to £300K of closed business from his initial campaign plus a healthy pipeline of opportunities that his sales team are continuing to drive. Microsoft can part fund this programme for our managed partners at 25% to 50% of the overall cost.

To find out more about this service, please contact:

Kathryn Cowan
Business Development Manager
The Telemarketing Company
http://www.ttmc.co.uk/default.aspx
kathryn.cowan@ttmc.co.uk
+44 1273 765012

ISV Royalty

Tony Young provided an overview of the ISV Royalty licensing programme which enable ISV to embed Microsoft products such as SQL Server, SharePoint Server and MS CRM with their applications. As well as enabling ISV to provide a total solution, ensuring licensing compliance, the programme also provides ISV with an opportunity to make some additional margin on each deal.

www.microsoft.com/licensing/programs/isv/default.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000000124

Tony Young
v-tonyou@microsoft.com
+44 1189 09 5343

For the first 2 attendees who sign a new ISV Royalty Agreement, with the ISV Competency and have a Partner Sales Plan [PSP] for their unified solution. We'll be offering a fully funded core Telemarketing Campaign with the Telemarketing Company worth £4,800 as described above.

ISV Licensing Pilot with Trustmarque

One of the key initiatives for FY08 is to better understand the value created by each of our ISV partnerships with a longer term goal of understanding the overall contribution made by the ISV community.

Working with Trustmarque, we've developed a service where any of our ISV partners will have free access to the licensing expertise at Trustmarque. As part of the service, where an end customer licenses Microsoft software through Trustmarque, they will report back the influenced revenue to the ISV and Microsoft. This will enable us to recognise the efforts of our ISV partners who are driving Microsoft license sales. Going forward, this information will be invaluable to securing increased investment in our ISV business for all partners.

We're piloting with Trustmarque because their business model is built around selling solely licenses - they have no Services or Hardware business.

Trustmarque can help with all licensing queries around any license types - including Hosting license proposition - SPLA.

For further information, please contact Trustmarque at:

LicensingAdvice@trustmarque.com
+44 1904 333333

Are you Partner Ready? - Caroline Egan, Giant Step Ltd

We concluded the day with a series of 3 facilitated discussions.

Caroline Egan of Giant Step led a session discussing:

Where to start in identifying effective channel development strategies
How to articulate your value proposition
Implementing a successful joint partner propositions with Microsoft
How to uncover project and revenue opportunities

I spoke to a number of people after the session who really appreciated the brief session that Caroline ran. Over the past 12 months, Caroline has assisted a number of highly successful ISVs form much stronger business generative relationships with Microsoft UK. If you'd like to make contact for find out more information:

http://www.giant-step.co.uk/

Caroline Egan
+44 (0)7795 830611
enquiries@giant-step.co.uk

ISV Partner FY08 Annual Kick-off - Sept 13th TVP, Reading

smorrow — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 21:00:38 GMT

In my haste to get out of the office today to enjoy the great British summer...I forgot to make a quick mention of the ISV Partner Kick-off Event we have planned for Thursday September 13th at Thames Valley Park, Reading. Many of you will already have seen this in either the email we sent out or the Partner New Letter.

I think we're got some really interesting initiative to share with you for the year ahead:

We'll be telling you about a number of new business development tools and initiative that we'll be launching and running over the next twelve months.
We have a new approach to the conundrum of how to demonstrate revenue influence without becoming a Microsoft licensing expert!
We'll be sharing our plan for delivering some exciting new technologies along with the programmes we'll be running to support them.

If you'd like to attend - please click on the following link to register:

ISV Kick-off Event - Sept 13th

or call 0870 166 6680 and quote reference 5947

An invitation to join our DPE team for a series of technical briefings covering SQL 2008 "Katmai", Windows Server 2008 "Longhorn", Visual Studio2008 "Orcas", MS CRM 4.0 "Titan", plus general developer roadmap session

smorrow — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 09:17:16 GMT

The Microsoft UK Developer and Platform team are pleased to announce a number of invite only technical briefings and workshops for ISVs that will run until the end of 2007. They cover some of the new emerging products that will be launched over the next 6 months, such as Visual Studio 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008, as well as existing key products and platforms such as Office 2007 and SharePoint. For those unfamiliar with the Microsoft product set, we also have roadmap sessions, so you can see the big picture around releases.Full details of the sessions, along with registration details, are included in the URL.

Please pass this list on to your colleagues within your company as appropriate.Places are limited, if you have trouble registering please contact me directly steve.morrow@microsoft.com

04/09/2007- SQL Server 2008 Overview Day- Reading

This event is an early opportunity to get an overview of the new capabilities of SQL Server 2008. The aim is to provide ISV's with the information they require to decide if they wish to register on the early adoption program.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032347613&Culture=en-GB

13/09/2007- Developing great server side applications with WCF, Workflow, IIS 7.0 and MSMQ 4.0- Reading

This one day technical briefing explores how to take advantage of the new server side technologies in .NET Framework 3.0, .NET Framework 3.5 and Windows Server 2008 to build complex distributed applications. It will also help ISVs understand how to build solutions which target both Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032348686&Culture=en-GB

14/09/2007- Developer Technology Roadmap for ISVs- Reading

Microsoft has a host of new technologies due for release over the next 12 months which are relevant to ISVs and their developers. This event will provide you an overview of these technologies and how they may be relevant to your application development.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032348909&Culture=en-GB

17/09/2007 –Visual Studio 2008 ("Orcas") Customer Briefing- Reading

This is a one day briefing designed to educate developers to a level where they can use self-directly learning to migrate their existing and future development work the .NET 3.5 platform via Visual Studio Visual Studio 2008 ("Orcas").

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032348690&Culture=en-GB

25/09/2007- Building Scalable Business Applications with CRM Titan- Reading

"CRM Titan looks like the first Software+Services application platform that Microsoft has released" - recent quote from a partner. Find out what the buzz is about and discover whether you can take advantage from building your hosted business applications on the new 'Titan' platform

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032348912&Culture=en-GB

04/10/2007- SharePoint & MOSS Technical Briefing- London

This one day technical briefing explores Microsoft SharePoint Services v3 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. It outlines how to build SharePoint solutions and how they can integrate with your applications and systems.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032347602&Culture=en-GB

09/10/2007- SQL Server 2008 Overview Day- Reading

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032347612&Culture=en-GB

09/10/2007- Office Business Applications (OBA) Technical Briefing- Reading

This one day technical briefing explores an emerging category of applications, known as Office Business Applications (OBA). It explores the technologies that underpin them (Microsoft Office 2007, SharePoint, Open XML, Visual Studio 2008, Office Communications Server, and more) and outlines how to built them and how they can integrate with your applications and systems.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032348058&Culture=en-GB

09/10/2007- Visual Studio 2008 ("Orcas") Customer Briefing- Manchester

This is a one day briefing designed to educate developers to a level where they can use self-directed learning to migrate their existing and future development work to the .NET 3.5 platform via Visual Studio 2008 ("Orcas").

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032348594&Culture=en-GB

10/10/2007- Office Business Applications (OBA) Technical Briefing- London

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032347927&Culture=en-GB

11/10/2007- SQL Server 2008 Overview Day- Manchester

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032347607&Culture=en-GB

12/10/2007- Developer Technology Roadmap for ISVs- Manchester

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032349017&Culture=en-GB

17/10/2007- Developing great server side applications with WCF, Workflow, IIS 7.0 and MSMQ 4.0- Manchester

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032348687&Culture=en-GB

24/10/2007- Developer Technology Roadmap for ISVs- Reading

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032348911&Culture=en-GB

22/11/2007- Office Business Applications (OBA) Technical Briefing- London

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032347928&Culture=en-GB

14/11/2007-The Microsoft Software + Services Strategy Demystified for ISVs- Reading

This technical briefing presents how ISVs can participate in the Microsoft strategy to deliver greater customer value through a blended combination of on-premises software and hosted services—an approach we call Software + Services. The session examines the technology delivery models enabled by such an approach and explains the services which we are delivering and how an ISV can take advantage of them in their own solutions.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032348689&Culture=en-GB

23/11/2007- Office Business Applications (OBA) Technical Briefing- Scotland

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032348062&Culture=en-GB

Open XML Training – Are you betting your business on Open XML? Is ISO/BSI recognition of the Open XML standard important to you?

smorrow — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 00:43:16 GMT

With the launch of Office 2007 more and more organisation who leverage the Office product within their application are working closely with the Open XML standard.

I'm not a developer – so I won't try to pretend to understand the technicalities of using Open XML within your application.

What I do know is that a standard that isn't ratified by an Industry body will never truly be a standard. With Open XML we're working hard to get that standard recognised by the British Standards Institute and the ISO standards body. I'd be interested to get your feedback and comments on ratifying standards – let me know if you have strong opinions!

To help our partners make optimal use of Open XML within their applications, we're also looking to run some training between now and the middle of May – dates to be confirmed.

Workshop Descriptions

There are four curriculums that have been developed for Open XML training. Each is designed to address the needs of a specific audience.

Developer Workshop.

This is a 3-day technical deep dive for developers. Basic understanding of XML and related topics is a prerequisite. The primary target audience is .NET developers, but the content is structured so that non-.NET developers can get value out of the training as well. Content covers the details of the Open Packaging Convention, the three main schemas (WordprocessingML, SpreadsheetML, and PresentationML), DrawingML, custom XML support, and XSLT applications for Open XML.

Project Leader Workshop.

This is a 1-day workshop for architects, developer management, and others who need to understand the benefits and architecture of Open XML well enough to make informed business decisions. It includes an overview of Open XML architecture, a review of design decisions that went into Open XML, licensing information, benefits of the format, platform independence, security, migration, conversion and compatibility, and theory and application of custom XML support in the Open XML formats.

CIO Workshop.

This is a 3-hour workshop for senior management, policy makers and others who need to understand the big picture but don't need to understand the details of the formats. The topics covered are essentially the same as the project leader workshop above, but at a higher level with fewer details and more emphasis on benefits.

Archivist Workshop.

This is a half-day workshop for archivists and others responsible for general record-keeping that involves digital document preservation. The content is similar to the CIO workshop, but with an emphasis on issues relevant to long-term document storage: fidelity, compatibility, IP issues, and conversion issues.

Registration

If you'd be interested in attending a training class – please send me an email.
(Please include your contact details, a brief description of your application and let me know whether you're currently using Open XML).