Susanne Dansey’s Blog

Did you know Dell promotes themselves in the US Small Business Community? There have been some recent changes close to home in the UK so it will be interesting to see how our Community responds in the New Year.

Now whatever you feel about Dell, I like the fact that they are contributing in their own way including a series of basic technology courses under their SB360 section. Click here to subscribe (US). However, how different is what they are saying to any other small business community portal?

Dell Small Business 360 is similar to what Microsoft’s Small Business Centre is. With the deluge of information out there, end-users/customers will feel overwhelmed sometimes with the amount of information (or ‘noise’ depending on whether you’re looking for it) out there. The role of a Small Business Specialist is to understand the client and offer them the information based on their businesses.

I bumped into Bruce yesterday whilst having a coffee who told me that one Partner asked if Microsoft could release Microsoft Nothing 2008 so that they didn’t have to feel flooded with all the product releases coming out now and next year. Sitting with the team this afternoon, we were talking about the voluntary need to want to understand everything in order to feel like we are competing on every level. Again, find me a cloning machine and the task wouldn’t be so difficult.

But the key is for specialisation, I’ve realised that we can leave the vendors to flood the market with information so that when it comes to our customers coming to us for advice, we can cherry pick and offer that which is tailored. It’s part of a value add proposition that we can all offer. The trick is to not have to employ one person with the soul purpose to absorb every service pack release, every market development, every ‘he said, she said’. The trick is to specialise.

So much of the feedback from the forum showed that managed services and SBS are the areas of choice (I already knew this!) but we also saw interesting focus on other areas such as SharePoint and Mobility.

After chatting with the Mobile team (some of you up in Scotland will have already met them), we realised that there is a massive opportunity to connect those who are keen to develop their mobility competency. So if you feel you are one of those, drop me an email or a comment below and I will get you connected. We’re looking to get a number of SBSC Partners on board with this as there are lots of projects in the pipeline.

p.s. Microsoft Nothing 2008 will not be launched next year. However, for the best and imaginative comment submitted as to what Microsoft Nothing 2008 should be and do will receive a copy of Halo 3. UK & Ireland submissions considered only (sorry V). I’m judging it so make it funny.