March 2006 - David Overton's Blog

Hello, I have started added video links into the site - have a look under http://uksbsguy.com/files , but until I do so, you might also want to have a look at the following items on the Microsoft Partner blog site ( http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/blog ) http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/blog/demo01-gettingemailanywhere.wvx http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/blog/demo03-realtimecommunications.wvx http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/blog/demo04-datavisualisation.wvx http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/blog/demo05-portals.wvx http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/blog/demo06-electronicforms.wvx http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/blog/demo08a-businesssolutions.wvx http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/blog/demo08b-businesssolutions.wvx http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/blog/demo08c-businesssolutions.wvx http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/blog/demo11-crm.wvx http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/blog/demo13-enterpriseprojectmanagement.wvx ttfn David

While many people poo-poo the site, have a look at the get safe online site – it does do the job that people are asking for. John and Peter raised some interesting points. Some customers just do not believe that security is a threat they have to pay attention to, or that it requires real management to fix. This is something we can start to work towards. We do have materials on bCentral.co.uk around security which is key for business and obviously the www.microsoft.com/security newsletters to our partners. I was also asked “how long should I wait before I apply a patch”. This is always a difficult question in the real world, but you basically have to weigh between – what is the impact if I don’t apply the patch and what is the worst case if I do. On the “If I do not” front, then the system could be compromised, data lost or the server turned into a bot. If it is really nasty, it could also gather information from the employees potentially impacting both the business and it’s staff personally. On the flip site,...

Hello guys, I have invited the UK Partner Group leaders to blog if they desire on this site. For those who do, you can see all the leader blogs by going to http://uksbsguy.com/blogs/default.aspx?GroupID=4 or all the MS folks by going to http://uksbsguy.com/blogs/default.aspx?GroupID=14 , or all blogs together by going to http://uksbsguy.com/blogs . Susanne Dansey, the Kent leader has already made her 1st post, which can be found at http://uksbsguy.com/blogs/susanne_dansey/default.aspx , while Time Long who runs the South Wales group has blogs at http://community.tigranetworks.co.uk/blogs/default.aspx Obviously these can all be found on RSS feeds too: Everyone's - http://uksbsguy.com/blogs/MainFeed.aspx SBS Leads - http://uksbsguy.com/blogs/MainFeed.aspx?GroupID=4 MS People - http://uksbsguy.com/blogs/MainFeed.aspx?GroupID=14 Susanne's - http://uksbsguy.com/blogs/susanne_dansey/rss.aspx Mine (OK, so the RSS link is long, so you can use the re-direct one too) http://uksbsguy.com/blogs/david_overtons_blog_more_technical...

I have just posted a forum entry to http://uksbsguy.com/forums/183/ShowThread.aspx#183 as several members of the FSB have asked me about working together with SBSC members to present to their groups. The FSB has over 192,000 members, so a large opportunity and they are all small businesses. Interest is rising in the use of technology to solve business problems with key topics today being SBS, professional mail, remote working, sharing data, customer / contact management and general upgrade questions. I can put people in touch with the regional officers for the FSB if desired. They think they can provide a bas or 70+ people to joint events!! ttfn David

Hi, many of you may have seen me present Vista and Office at recent events and I thought it was only fair that I updated you on the changes that have been annoucned over the past few days. Two press releases have been made, both confirming the ship and launch plans for the products, which now falls before and after January. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/mar06/03-24OfficeTimingPR.mspx covers the Office plan and annoucnes that the product with RTM in October and a release to Software Assurance customers will happen pre-Christmas and an aligned launch with Vista will happend in January. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/mar06/03-21WindowsVistaDeliveryPR.mspx states pretty much the same, with Software Assurance customers getting access pre-Christmas and the launch (obviously as it is joint), in January. This is being described in the press releases as a business and consumer launch, but since many small business customers do not have Software Assurance, they will be in the January group...

Talking about SBS is never the easist thing to do, people ask about security, what can it do for them and people are also sometimes put off by the Enterprise focus on much of the SBS information out there. This is no longer true, if you go to http://isainsbs.blogspot.com/ , which is a fabulious blog by Amy you will see ISA information that is relivant for SBS 2003 & ISA 2004. I have also put some basic ideas on what ISA can do for you in the forum - http://uksbsguy.com/forums/thread/145.aspx as always, feedback is welcome ttfn David

Sometimes it is possible to do some really, really stupid things. I thought I would share it with you all as 1) you may have noticed a little less availability to the site and 2) this is just to prove that I am human too What did I do, well, I was playing with ISA 2004 on the SBS system that this site runs on and changing the rules. It was late at night and my timetable has been busy to say the least recently, so I decided to fiddle with http headers in SBS. The problem was that I changed the headers to be blocked, rather than the headers to use, so the site was passing all content for uksbsguy.com through, but blocking any headers from that site .. major badness ANyway, this is fixed, when looking at it in the cold light of day, and you should see the site be 100% available again. Oh, now where did I put my halo..... ttfn David

I have posted details in the forums, but there are a great set of tools to help you learn, use and sell MS CRM V3.0. This information was provided by Dan Best at the Bristol Partner Group ... good on ya Dan . About the only bad thing is that I was not aware of it until Dan told me. Anyway, go to the forum posting for more information, but the basic link is http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=a8edfc7b-01d8-4500-845b-01370d4eed21&DisplayLang=en and the forum to discuss these can be found at http://uksbsguy.com/forums/thread/140.aspx ttfn David

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours with the Bristol Partner Group (a Partner Group is a User Group, expect all it's members are partners). It was a great time listening to peoples needs and offering information from Microsoft. I have posted a note to the forum http://uksbsguy.com/forums/thread/102.aspx with all the details. It has also raised some great questions along the way that have been posted to the SBS and training areas. I have created a training forum found at http://uksbsguy.com/forums/21/ShowForum.aspx where you can choose to get e-mails when anything changes and I will post training information as I find it for you. ttfn David P.S. Why freezing in Bristol... well the reception was very warming, but once i left I found myself spending 90 minutes on a freezing cold platform waiting for a train heading Reading way.

OK, so I did not realise we had actually written this up, but at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=62797 is the document you need to help you do this. One quick point to make, with Windows Mobile 5.0 you can no longer turn off Certificate Checking, so you will need to buy a certificate that matches one of the roots on the phone - and this list can be changed by each carrier, so do your homework!! Windows Mobile V5 also has the always-up-to-date functionality that people often ask for, so this is just another reason to sell these solutions. Just to add a bit more spice, I also run ALK's Co-Pilot GPS routing tool on my phone - something the "other" devices are not really good at :-) ttfn David

Hi, so one of the often asked questions is "How do I take my business to market without spending a huge amount". While I don't have all the answers, this question is often asked and I have seen answers on both www.bCentral.co.uk - THE UK destination for Small Businesses, but I also saw this article on the US MS site - http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/resources/marketing/customer_service_acquisition/10_low_cost_ways_to_market_your_business.mspx?xid=c0007 - it has the top ten tips that we recommendations and by simply going through the guide and asking your customer "Would you consider doing this", you can start to get the grey matter going. In fact though, don't ask the question above, ask this one - it becomes easier to clear the fog around the benefit of technology "What would be the impact on your business if you did X?" - and try to get that impact down to a financial statement - this is your budget :-) Of note, the Marketing pages on bCentral are not all about product and can be found at http://www.bcentral...

Hi, this is not necessarily a small business only tool, but it is a computing device that has me excited at a personal level. It is a small PC, about the size of a book. It looks cool, runs Windows and Vista in the future and uses input devices such as your finger. For more information you can go to: http://www.origamiproject.com http://www.microsoft.com/umpc http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2006/mar06/03-09Mobile.mspx http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=169962 http://www.intel.com/design/mobile/platform/umpc.htm ttfn - as soon as these actually ship I will be buying one with my own money - a big commitment frome me & my wife I can tell you. Oh, did I mention the price point - $599 - $999.. sweeeet ttfn David

Hi folks, while I can build this site by my self, I want at least the desire for what if should hold to be by the people for the people. To this end, I have posted a question in the SBSC forum asking for feedback and asking for people to vote in a poll. To get direction to the poll, please go to http://uksbsguy.com/forums/47/ShowThread.aspx and vote (and post) suggestions. The current plan is to try to deliver: Pointers to technology information Pointers to small business information Pointers to user groups A forum for discussion Answers to questions Information about interesting things that are happening that I feel might be of use tit-bits of information that I find interesting, but might be a little off-topic thanks David