I have been asked this many times and had promised to put these things down on paper (well e-paper), so now I am.  This is my thoughts on why someone should buy SBS and also how I would sell it if I was selling it.  Obviously there is much more that can be said and tailoring a solution to a customers needs is vital, but if presenting at an event or describing it on the radio, this is what I would say.

Windows Small Business Server 2003 (SBS) is priced lower than other Microsoft servers to enable a small business to get the benefits of servers without any functionality compromise.  We have even enhanced the product to put MORE in there than a standard Windows Server. To enable this price benefit Microsoft has put some limits (see below) on how SBS can be used which basically stops big businesses from using it, however you can cash in your investment in SBS and buy an Enterprise server should you ever need to and use the "cashed" in value to make the Enterprise server easier to afford too.  Having said all that, the functionality limits rarely impact a small or smaller mid-market business and some of them are very technical.

The Limits

1. Only 1 SBS server in your business, but you can add as many other Windows Servers to your SBS network
2. 75 or less licenses - a license can be a user or a device, but they cost the same so in 98% of cases user licenses would be the best
3. Technical restrictions - SBS must be the "root" of the domain (rarely a problem in small businesses) and there can be "no server trusts" (again rarely a problem in small businesses)

If you don't already have a server

• Share your files, printers, internet connection, fax and more without limits, while choosing who can read and modify information and who can't see it at all
• Enable strong security on PCs and Notebooks with a common password for each person on all machines, security updates automatically delivered all machines and all internet access protected by a server firewall
• Professional e-mail addresses for everyone in your organisation and also for teams and contact addresses outside your business, such as [email protected] or [email protected] and incoming e-mail filtered for undesirable attachments or suspect spam, greatly reducing spam
• Personal and shared calendars to enable meetings to be booked with colleagues and for them to accept or decline so you know if people can make meetings and enable you to see your diary with Outlook, on a mobile device or at an internet cafe
• Work remotely - from home, using a laptop wirelessly out and about and even using mobile devices (like a Blackberry, but much cheaper to run and more functional and easy to wipe should it fall into the wrong hands - or be left in the back of a taxi :-) )
• All work files on the server and documents from your notebooks and PCs backed up to safeguard against hardware failure and loss of machines, plus the ability to undo changes to a file and roll-back to a previous version
• Platform for other "server based applications" that need a server to provide central access

If you have an older server and are thinking about upgrading

• Professional e-mail addresses for everyone in your organisation and also for teams and contact addresses outside your business, such as [email protected] or [email protected] and incoming e-mail filtered for undesirable attachments or suspect spam, greatly reducing spam
• Work remotely - from home, using a laptop wirelessly out and about and even using mobile devices (like a Blackberry, but much cheaper to run and more functional and easy to wipe should it fall into the wrong hands - or be left in the back of a taxi :-) )
• All work files on the server and documents from your notebooks and PCs backed up to safeguard against hardware failure and loss of machines, plus the ability to undo changes to a file and roll-back to a previous version
• Personal and shared calendars to enable meetings to be booked with colleagues and for them to accept or decline so you know if people can make meetings and enable you to see your diary with Outlook, on a mobile device or at an internet cafe
• Web based collaboration tool that can manage files, calendars and meetings.  Full history of all changes to a document and even the ability for you to get an e-mail telling you when a document has been changed rather than e-mailing it to everyone or finding out "too late"

There is obviously much that SBS can do for a business, but this is just the starter that I would normally talk about.  If you would add something to this list, please let me know in the comments.

ttfn

David