March 2006 - David Overton's Blog

Hi, So the previous blog entry talked about the IDC information for all those at the Harry B event - Lets explain how they can help you change your business if you were not there. Have you ever wanted to know what people are doing to be successful in a particular area of business that you might want to expand into? I know that I always like to be early into a new segment, but not the 1 st . The IDC whitepapers give you this information on the following technologies and areas – have a look and tell me what you think: Delivering Server Solutions with SBS 2003 From 2005 through 2009, more than one million servers are expected to be installed in small businesses worldwide.* This market opportunity is unmatched by any other segment and is a key opportunity for Microsoft partners. Read this article to get specific guidelines, best practices, and tools for building a business around first-server deployments, entry-level installations, enhanced deployments, and migration projects. *Source: IDC Delivering Maintenance and...

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, 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...

So the Harry B event for me was another great time to chat to people and update everyone on the direction Microsoft was headed. The core elements for me were: 1) Microsoft understands that you have a growing and capable business model today 2) We believe that using our new technologies over the next 18 months there is even more opportunities for partners and customers alike 3) We also believe that making use of the technologies already deployed in customers is a great way to expand your business. This includes Windows Sharepoint Services and the 30 templates available for these – I will post more on these on Monday – MS CRM, Office on the desktop and so on 4) You need to understand our roadmap to choose when to jump on and why The technologies covered in the presentations were: SBS 2003 R2 MS CRM V3 Windows Vista Microsoft Office Small Business Edition 2003 Microsoft Small Business Accounting SBS Longhorn – note this is x64 only, but many servers are already running x64 chips, even though they are running 32-bit...

Hello, time for a bit of a rant. I really enjoy trying to please this community and doing the things you ask for. People often spend more time telling me what we should be doing rather than what is good or great about what I/we do already. So, a couple of things have come up recently, and while we are trying to make them happen, the take-up has been low and it makes we wonder if perhaps we should stop. Brave talk, but perhaps we need to ask the question "are you really, really, really sure you want this?" a bit more before we try to please . Here are a few of the requests that when we try to do things I don't see movement on - I would love to hear if they are plain wrong, delivered in the wrong way, missing a crucial element etc: Technical chat - we have a live meeting booked where I will answer a bunch of "why don't you", or "how can I" type questions. Information can be found at http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=4622546 - if you want me to discuss certain technology areas, please sign-up and send the question...

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

Hi there, this is just a quick not to say that MS have published a migration tool for MS CRM - more details and link in the forums - http://www.uksbsguy.com/forums/default.aspx . These tools cover two scenarios - Outlook Business Contact Manager and "everything else" :-) ttfn David

Hi, I will be presenting at an event in Wales on the 4th April to a number of eCommerce advisors. Is there any special message you would want me to give? The Opportunity Wales programme has delivered over 9,000 eCommerce Review meetings with SMEs in Wales. Outline Programme Schedule 9:00 * 9:30 Registration and Refreshments 9:30 -9:35 Welcome and Introduction 9:35 * 10:40 Session 1 (Includes 10-15 minutes for Q&A interaction in presentation) Microsoft Strategic Update How software will be delivered as a service and the impact this will have on computer hardware, software, devices, upgrades, bandwidth requirements, customisation and configuration, eCommerce integration and the consumer and business user. 10:40 -11:00 Break and Refreshments 11:00 * 12:15 Session 2 (Includes 10-15 minutes for Q&A interaction) Windows Live and Office Live What are these services and offerings and how will these offerings help your business clients. Security and privacy issues and solutions. 5-10 clever things you should know...

Wow That was a fast and furious two days. Harry B, world famous SBSser has been over presenting information on the secrets of his success and talking about how to get the 70-282 exam under your belt. I have been interspersing his presentations with technology road maps. It has been fun and the feedback has been clear. Keep the technology information coming, but also keep the business info flowing along with all the SBSC benefits. For those who need to know, SBSC can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/sbsc Ttfn David uk sbs

I LOVE working with charities in the UK, so much so that I am the treasurer for one in the UK – if anyone wants to give funds or assistance to the Farnborough and District Samaritans (you know, the people you call when you are feeling very low or suicidal) let me know. Anyway, we would love to help other charities, so here is how we can work together. Here is the deal – if you: Send me details on the charity, including their charity number Tell me why they want the SBS server (a paragraph, not war and peace) Promise that we can talk to them within 6 months of it being put in to see how it has helped Then I will try to do you a deal – this has been very successful in the past. Mail me at [email protected]

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

http://blogs.technet.com/msppuk/ I could leave it simply like that, but this is a great blog by Alex to help tell you about all the good things going on in the partner land. It also has a link to mine & my colleages blogs, so if you want to find someone who can answer your question on RTC or E12 or What is People Ready Business, this is the place to visit. ttfn David

Hi guys - I managed to fill the fringe meeting room and then some today with this discussion. The workshop seemed to be a success and discussed the several forms of security peope need to worry about, from remembering to test backups to getting a quality partner to work with. The slides are available in PDF format (one of the output formats from 2007 Microsoft Office system) :-) http://uksbsguy.com/files/12/fsb_event/entry190.aspx to download the file. ttfn David