Susanne Dansey’s Blog

Today I attended the Exchange 2007, Vista, and Office 2007 (EVO) launch and I am still searching for the one question I have been asking for nearly a year…

Why do I need to upgrade my small business customers to Vista and Office 2007 when XP and Office 2003* does the job?

Now, before the Microsofties get frustrated and feel the urge to blog a reply, I do read (almost) everything already conveyed in previous communications and via the many, many blog posts that the product teams have been issuing. I read everything you send out but I still ask, do any of the following ADD value to my customers’ small businesses (or even mine):

• The new ’start’ button - someone tell me again why this needed changing? If it was only a minor change that we shouldn’t be worried that lots of R&D money was spent on then why is it one of the first things everyone mentions when presenting?
• The funky looking packaging to house the numerous versions of Vista (there are five if any of you were interested) - great for the shelves but it’s not really going to make me think ‘value for money’.
• The gadget toolbar that shows me the time (I can do that already thanks), RSS feeds (that’s what Outlook 2007 or IE7 or even Firefox** is for), and other applications that most Small Business Specialists would ban because they could potentially encourage time wasting - 2.5hrs a day is spent searching for information (I told you I listen Microsoft!) so why swap one problem for another?
• The over zealous IE7 that blocks CompanyWeb… great…
• BitLocker - great! but oh wait… Enterprise version only
• OneNote 2007 - great! but oh wait… Student and Teacher versions only (I’m seeing a trend here)
• Exchange 2007 is great but the voice messages via email is already available as an add-on
• Can the American Exchange Lady have a domestic accent instead please? You may tut at this but as a telephone specialist we always get asked to change the American voice to English.
• As much as Exchange has a ‘wow’ factor - I think small business clients CAN afford not to talk to their server
• SharePoint sub-folders in Outlook that allow you to store documents off-line is already available in other forms

(I pick on these points for now because some were used in today’s demonstration)

There has been nothing in these presentations or communications so far that have answered my question. What I have seen so far are a collection of functions and features that are either already available through third party products or are things that I am managing without so far, for example:

Did you know that 70% of the ideas and questions submitted on the Microsoft Office ‘wish list’ are already in the existing version (2003)? Then what they did was take what was already there, re-shuffle it so that it is easier to locate, give it a new name and that is a key feature of Office!

Breaking news guys, this doesn’t make a sale.

I’m don’t pay for someone to cut up my dinner into bite size pieces - it would be nice but I can manage thank you very much. Granted, I like the Ribbon Bar and I probably do work quicker but I can’t quantify it and nor will my clients before they part with their money.

If 70% of the list is already in place then a) the partners are selling it poorly, b) they aren’t necessarily key business functions, c) users clearly need some training (opportunity to add value guys!).

When the most important question of ‘why should my customers upgrade?’ was asked, the question was taken ‘offline’. In my view, when the entire room leans forward to hear the answer,  maybe, just maybe, it is important to have the answer so you can clear up something a lot of people are asking.

It was acknowledged that this question gets asked hundreds of times… so where’s the answer?

When I have asked this to those in the right departments, I get every answer available for the ‘pro-sumer’, ‘home user’, or ‘enterprise’ but not a whistle for small business customers.

The aim of People, Ready, Business is to move the focus away from the product and more onto what is meant to matter more: People. Good, well understand that small businesses have a sensitive budget, partners don’t necessarily have the resources to re-word what MS has put together and deliver it to their clients, and I don’t know many of the product team members who have spent enough time in small business to understand exactly what it is we are asking of them.

I want to know how much installing Office 2007 and/or Vista will cost my customer (don’t forget they will have to pay for our time to configure it) and what the ROI is on these products. And don’t forget that they already own expensive software that they are not using to it’s full potential - that’s right partners, time to add value!

In laymen’s terms - if my customers aren’t using what they have now 100%, why would they want to spend more money on something else they won’t get maximum use out of?

There are not enough reasons coming from the MotherShip to convince me otherwise as yet- I have asked lots of Microsofties and they have at least been honest enough to acknowledge that this is something that needs addressing immediately.

Other interesting facts I learnt from the day:

• Vista Business - no multi-user language interface
• Windows Vista Enterprise “reassuringly expensive” - riiiight
• Gartner predicts that Windows Vista will be installed onto 26.2% of businesses by the second year after launch
• Windows XP is forecasted to reach its maximum market share of 78.4% in the home market in 2007
• Partner Opportunities - massive customer footprint, new markets and scenarios, promote premium offerings, deepen customer relationships, lower costs to serve, compete with non-genuine
• You should be asking your customer why they are considering Vista Ultimate over Vista Business… why aren’t we talking about Vista over XP?

Telling me how much you’ve spent on advertisments isn’t going to excite me and it isn’t going to make the customer buy either.

Now I have been working with some of my clients to test both Vista and Office 2007. In fact, we’ve been using it in the office but we’ve found too many things along the way that are going to be problematic in the long run. Things like removing the DOMAIN login at the start has been done mainly for cosmetic reasons and VPN problems we have experienced are just not going to help - moreover, supporting such a drastically new UI is going to be a pig too.

There have been some definite advantages to using Office 2007 which I have experienced myself and if you took it away from me then I would grumble. I would be lost without OneNote but that’s only in the forthcoming S&T edition. Vista has a great desktop search but I can download that for free so help me out guys. I would not buy Excel 2007 just so I can analyse reports in colours and I don’t think I notice how much quicker the formula processing is. PowerPoint is produces great presentations but it won’t change the actual content I produce. Moving images around in Word is a lot easier and the push-pin recent document function is good too. As they said today, there are lots of little reasons as to why a move to Office 2007 is good but not everyone will use them all. Find me a ‘killer app’ and I’m laughing.

This post has been sitting in my drafts for a while now in some shape or form. I wasn’t sure when publish it but I spent some time with some credible partners today at the event and there are too many asking the same questions.

No one is trying to oppose your work Microsoft, hence why your event was fully booked. We are searching for answers to the questions we have because we want to do this properly. All partners are the key to Microsoft sales and yes, whilst it would be great to find lots of new businesses to sell to, Marketing 101 says that selling to your existing client base is the most effective and easiest option.

So if you want to go along to the EVOlution launch then the link is at the top of this now very long post.

If you want some REAL, HONEST, HOME GROWN partner debate (yes it’s allowed!) that will give you real ROI to your time then book out the evening of Tuesday 21st November and come along to our November Kent SBS Group Meeting which focuses on EVO in the small business arena. This is an invitation-only event so you will need to either drop me an email or sign up by commenting below. We have at least four partner groups attending and David Overton, Robbie Upcroft, and Matt McSpirit are gearing up for it already.

I would also like to add that I have a fairly good idea about how to sell Office 2007 and Vista to small business clients but that’s because I’ve been testing the applications for over a year and worked it out myself. My job means I need to know this but many small business partners don’t have the time or the resources to look everything available to them or attend the training laid on for them.

Microsoft, use your resources to get some answers for your small business partners (Registered, SBSC, or otherwise). The small business is a massive opportunity and we’re not hearing the right noises from you guys.

“SHOW ME THE MONEY!”

I look forward to posting a more positive follow up shortly.

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*plus additional third-party solutions

**other alternative products are available

Final quote taken from the film ‘Jerry Maguire’