A few people commented on my "on holiday" messenger tag line and said they felt better once things were "fair" and I was back in the office.  Well I am back - and having done the inital cull, I am down to just 474 outstanding mails that need some form of attention.

What did people spend time talking to me about in 2006:

• CRM - what it is, how to sell it, how to get training on it and why should customers care
• Windows SharePoint Services - to date the highest hit link on the blog site.  How to configure, load, install, use, customise and then finally upgrade to v3
• Licensing - This wss a strange one - historically, many small business partners have sold OEM or FPP only, but the discussion about what license when has really heated up with several partners now proving out the model that Open Value (and OV Subscription) are very useful sales tools as they help build a long term relationship with the customer, potentially reduce the up front cost of the solution and ensure your customer is always up to date on licenses meaning that services opportunities increase to implement the new technologies
• Community - has been a hot topic with many groups springing up around the country although membership and attendance has been fluctuating.  There has been much, much more than this though - there has
• The Betas - Vista, Office, Exchange, Small Business Accounting, Office Live and Longhorn - People really showed their technical / geek glands last year with a huge amount of interest in future products.  Now don't take that as any form of insult, since I definately played with a loas of them, but playing with them should be balanced with business opportunity.  If you don't intend on selling it, then don't play with it (unless it is for the geek pleasure of it).  Now these products are here for Volume Licensing customers, and launching on 30th Jan for everyone else (well, in the UK anyway)
• Marketing / doing business - was also discussed in quite some detail with many people finding this the hardest part of being in business - how to let customers know you are there and can do business with them.  Lots of people are just starting on the how do I do market myself or run marketing campaigns.  Glad to see that Captain Campaign will be able to help here
• How to do more with SBS 2003 - 4 years ago I stood up on stage and had people throw things at me for saying that making money by installing SBS and walking away had a very limited shelf life.  Each year, more partners either put up or shut up and now the discussions about how to engage with customers, build a relationship and take them on a journey where SBS is just part of the story is quite constant.

Next I will do what I think will be hot in 2007