Susanne Dansey's Blog

G’day

Susanne Dansey — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 03:30:54 +0000

Testing… one, two… two, two…

Hello again!

Yes, I tried and failed miserably in resisting the urge to blog again.

So, here I am, having spent a few months settling down over here in Sydney and now I’m plugging back in. I’ve caught up with a few of the usual suspects over here, caught up with the Sydney SBS Group, as well as enjoyed the sunshine on the beaches, skydived, horse ridden in the Blue Mountains, realised that the road signs over here aren’t as good as the UK (hey! but at least after getting lost I know alternative routes to places!), reluctantly accepted that pints are only available for Guinness (if you’re lucky!), and know that you can’t tear Aussie paper money (thanks Robbie!).

I’m all Visa’d (not Vista’d) up so now it’s off to work* for me! Hoorah!

Next blog post: SBS2008 and how to get an end-user as excited as an IT Administrator/Geek/Microsoftie does about it…

p.s. When an Aussie says ‘howareya?’, is it rhetorical?!

*Hangman clue: D_LL

Over and out…

Susanne Dansey — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 16:02:57 +0000

Thanks for reading!

Make IT Work for You brochure

Susanne Dansey — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 17:10:39 +0000

A year or so ago, Microsoft released a 20-minute Guide to selling SBS which I seem to recall was only available in the UK. When it was announced on t’Internet, Microsoft Partners worldwide found it of use because the principals behind selling IT to a business is pretty much the same - in most cases, you sell it as a solution and not as ‘tin’.

As time has gone on, the product and the sales ‘pitch’ has become dated (or well-used) and I’m pleased to say, a revised version of the guide has been released for you to download.

The marketing team here at Westcoast are busy working on a Microsoft Microsite at the moment, so I used the opportunity to get a copy of the brochure uploaded so you can check it out.

Click here to download your copy. Hardcopies are available for Microsoft Partners from the Partner Portal.

Worth a read whether you are an IT professional or a business looking for some help with IT.

Clearing out my desk (part two): Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

Susanne Dansey — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 14:56:45 +0000

If you haven’t done this before, it’s well worth a go to help you find out a little more about yourself. Based on your individual responses, the MBTI instrument produces results to identify which of the sixteen different personality types best describes you. Your personality type represents your preferences in four separate categories, with each category composed of two opposite poles. The four categories describe key areas that combine to form the basis of a person’s personality as follows:

Where you focus your attention - Extraversion (E), or Introversion (I)
The way you take in information - Sensing (S), or INtuition (N)
The way you make decisions - Thinking (T), or Feeling (F)
How you deal with the outer world - Judging (J), or Perceiving (P)

Extraversion: People who prefer extraversion tend to focus their attention on the outer world of people and things.
Introversion: People who prefer introversion tend to focus their attention on the inner world of ideas and impressions.
Sensing: People who prefer sensing tend to take in information through the five senses and focu on the here and now
Intuition: People who prefer intuition tend to take in information from patterns and the big picture, and focus on future possibilities.
Thinking: People who prefer thinking tend to make decisions based primarily on logic, and on objective analysis of cause and effect.
Feeling: People who prefer feeling tend to make decisions based primarily on values and on subjective evaluation of person-centred concerns.
Judging: People who prefer judging tend to like a planned and organised approach to life, and prefer to have things settled.
Perceiving: People who prefer perceiving tend to like a flexible and spontaneous approach to life, and prefer to keep their options open.

Why not guess what you think you are before taking the test?

Click here to give it a go.

I’m an ENFJ… what are you?

Clearing out my desk : How to sell/ Why buy Vista

Susanne Dansey — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 14:27:07 +0000

I am a marketing collateral hoarder. I admit it. But it really comes in handy when I need an idea and I know I can find it in the pile of ‘ideas’ that sit on my desk. Most of the hard copies have been replaced by RSS feeds but there’s still a fair bit laying around that I’ve found as I’ve started to tidy up my desk.

Hopefully, you won’t mind me sharing some of it with you; and if you do, well… look away now.

Let’s start with Vista (as it’s in the title).

Section 1: The statistics.

WARNING: Use with care, frequent use of big numbers can cause mental blindness and can seriously risk your health.

Analyst firm IDC estimates that Microsoft’s Partners in Europe will clock up in excess of 32 billion Euros this year from sales associated with Windows Vista.
For every pound Microsoft earns in the UK on sales of Vista, its Partners will make £7.50.
IDC predicts that Windows Vista will be installed on more that 100 million computers worldwide.
The same guys have said that Windows Vista-related employment will account for more than one million IT jobs across the biggest European national markets. This means that Windows Vista will account for more than 20 per cent of the total number of IT jobs across the continent as a whole.
More than 60 million licenses of Windows Vista have been sold (as of June 2007), with 42 million PCs covered by volume licensing.*
Security is one of the key drivers for people moving to Windows Vista and 50 per cent of IT managers moving to it agree.
Windows Vista revealed total cost of ownership savings are estimated at $605 per laptop per year, with related technologies and best practices implemented. This is a saving of 14% over Windows XP (GCR Custom Research adn Wipro Technologies).
Vista drivers are being certified at a rate of 1,600 every month.

Section 2: The Opportunities.

This is where the real science happens. Statistics are impressive but why should you really be looking at Vista? Why is a customer going to want to upgrade and why are you going to want to support it when XP has been doing the job just fine thank you very much…?

I found some quotes from Partners who have made Vista work for them and their clients. These guys have put in the hard work and focused on solving problems rather than just stick it in and cope with the changes:

“In terms of adoption, most Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 customers are seeking to implement Windows Vista at the same time. What is great to see is that customers are using their Vista deployments to resolve any outstanding technical issues they might face and rather than just an upgrade, they are using it to completely revolutionise their technical infrastructure. We don’t think that Windows Vista is difficult to sell; it’s just that the projects are very different.”

Alun Rogers, Technical Director, Risual (Microsoft Gold Certified Partner)

“Whenever we’re talking about an upgrade or roll-out to a customer, we will always offer familiarisation training with Windows Vista or Office 2007. This training is vital to the success of the implementation and will ensure a more rapid adoption. If customers buy Windows Vista without training, they won’t get all the benefits they are looking for. In educating customers, you can unlock any reservations about Windows Vista, and combat any perception that Windows XP is good enough.”

Adrian Barkey (he’s a very nice man), Director, EJC IT (Microsoft Gold Certified Partner)

“We are a desktop deployment Partner. We are utilising the resources provided via the Microsoft Partner Programme to make the deployment of Windows Vista easier for our customers. We’ve found that numerous organisations have not implemented desktop deployment solutions, and desktop automation is a project in its own right whether you are moving to Windows Vista or not.”

Peter Mercieca, BDM, Silversands (Microsoft Gold Certified Partner)

“There’s a greater focus and messaging around Software-Plus-Services that’s coming from Microsoft, and this is creating a new wave of interest around the interoperability of the UC technologies, Windows Vista, and the 2007 Microsoft Office System.”

Ciaran Cosgrave, Chief Technology Officer, Netstore (Microsoft Gold Certified Partner)

Section 3: Tools

Unified Communications (UC) Training - Gartner predicts 40% of companies will complete the convergence of their entire voice and data networks onto a single network by 2010, and 80% of companies will integrate communications (voice/messaging) into some business applications or processes in the same time. Think about businesses using UC, Vista, Office, and Server, and you get choice. www.uclearningpaths.com

Windows Vista tools and resources - access a range of sales and deployment resources including toolkits and hardware assessments as well as newsgroups and relevant blogs: www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/vista

*but how many were downgraded to Windows XP?

Microsoft Outlook 2007 ‘non-commercial use’ software

Susanne Dansey — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 10:36:14 +0000

After installing a copy of Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 on their machine, a customer found that their version turned out to be something different.

It seems that the machine was originally bought as an Office Ready PC (you can read about the programme here.) had been installed with a FPP (Fully Packaged Product) of Office rather than the MLK. The error occurs because the trail software was not removed before a full copy of Office was installed over the top.

No need to panic though if you see this, here’s how to fix it:

Completely uninstall any copies of Office ( use this KB to ensure everything is removed) on said machine.
Reinstall the FPP copy and that should have you back up and kicking.

Manchester SBS Group is up and kicking

Susanne Dansey — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 09:00:18 +0000

The Manchester SBS Group is up and kicking and due for a new launch on the 27th March.

Click here for more details on how to attend.

Question: Is it/ will it be a SBS user Group or is it like the rest in the UK and a Small Business Specialist/IT Pro Group?

Good luck guys!

As Your Business Grows, So Will Your Data: Are You Prepared?

Susanne Dansey — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 17:34:38 +0000

Dell Small Business 360 are hosting a free online course that will help you understand what’s available to assist you with your small business data back up solutions.

“Market research firm IDC reports that storage capacity is rising 60 percent per year and many small businesses need to upgrade their capacity at a similar rate¹*. Meanwhile, unmanaged or poorly managed data can waste several hours a week of time spent looking for information. The good news is that the right storage devices can help businesses share data and collaborate in an automated way. In addition to avoiding wasted time and improved collaboration, your business can move more quickly and arrive at key decisions more efficiently if you manage, back up and intelligently migrate data on an ongoing basis.

In this free online course, PCMagCast expert instructors will provide you with the information you need to know to move your data and your storage processes to the right kinds of solutions. The course will consist of three 20-minute webcast lessons complemented by downloadable coursework for each lesson. The three lessons are as follows:

Lesson 1 : Do You Know What Type of Storage You Need?

Lesson 2 : You’ve Got What You Need? Time to Move and Secure Your Data

Lesson 3 : Making Backups Sound, Secure and Easy”

Click, here to register.

No harm in those trying to communicate the same messages to log-on and pick up a few ideas on how to articulate it?

*Source: IDC, “Worldwide Storage 2008 Top 10 Predictions: New Paradigms,” Doc # 209796, December 2007.

Windows Mobile Training

Susanne Dansey — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 09:37:51 +0000

Become a Windows Mobile Specialist or a Windows Small Business Retail Mobile Specialist by studying a series of courses developed specifically around the features and benefits of Windows Mobile. Also available are online sales tools, and mobile device news.

Very useful if you want to train a new recruit up on the product both in terms of ‘light’ technical and sales; or even if you want to brush up on your product knowledge.

Click here to access (you will need to use your Windows Live ID to sign in).

Microsoft Office Outlook

Susanne Dansey — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 10:06:16 +0000

I presented yesterday at my penultimate presentation in Farnham which was a lot of fun. Lots of questions were asked, so here’s some answers to some of those asked.

Not sure what version of Microsoft Office you have?

Open up any of your Microsoft Office programs (Outlook, Word, Excel, etc…), click on ‘help’ in the toolbar and select ‘About Microsoft Outlook/Word/Excel etc…)

How to back up emails, files, and folders within Outlook.

Firstly, I apologise for slipping in the word ‘pst’ into my presentation without explaining what it meant. A pst file or ‘.pst’, stands for Personal Storage Table (yawn!) and an explanation of it can be found here.

An Outlook Backup Tutorial can be found here. (no point re-inventing the wheel eh? )

How to back up emails, files, and folders within Entourage.

For further information on Entourage for Mac, click here.

How to back up your data within Entourage, click here.

How to back up your Mac OS X, click here.

How to mail merge in Outlook

Using Outlook 2003 click here, and using Outlook 2007 (because you need to start in Word and pull the information over rather than push from Outlook), click here.

Many of the other questions asked of me can be found in a previous post. Click here to read about it or read through some of my recent posts.

Please note, the links and information on the Internet didn’t all get posted in the last few days, most have been up for years and haven’t been purposely hidden from you. If you need further information about a particular issue regarding your IT, chances are someone else has already had it and discussed it online using something like a forum. Simply type in a question or problem using a search engine and you should find yourself a few solutions.

Even better, why not pick up the phone and call an IT expert close by you so you can get some solutions to your problems as well as get some new ideas on how to run your business better. I recommed you type in your postcode here and call up a local Small Business Specialist. I used to be one before I changed jobs so I know that they’ll be able to help you.

Last stop: Basingstoke

The Kent SBS Group steps up a gear!

Susanne Dansey — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 16:43:11 +0000

I was having a chat with Gareth today who helps run the Kent Group and over the last few months, they’ve really taken some serious steps towards achieving a respected and professional organisation that will help support small businesses in the local region.

The Kent gang didn’t do this overnight, it’s taken a lot of time, resources, and I’m sure a few tears along the way to put together their group so that those who can, do and those who can’t (yet) still have the means to connect and support the overall goals held by the group. As a result ICT Link was born and their collaboration with the local Business Link has meant that next month they will be co-hosting an event to support those who need ICT (Information, Communication, & Technology) help.

I’m so pleased for the group (I’m biased!) and it’s great to see that the commitment shown by potentially competitive businesses have joined forces to help improve life for SMBs who need assistance.

So, if you are based in Kent and are a small or medium business looking to understand how to protect and secure your business, then I recommend that you sign up and attend the event.

Event details:

Wednesday 26th March, 09:00 - 13:00
East Malling Research Centre, East Malling, ME19 BJ
Click here to reserve your space.

Small Business Server UK Survey

Susanne Dansey — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 16:02:35 +0000

In the last few weeks before I leave, I want to make sure that one of the products that underpins the Small Business Community is understood properly by the Channel.

I have had numerous meetings with the server teams at Microsoft to help understand where SBS stands in their market and how we can improve its position within the server family.

Hopefully, you can spare five minutes to complete the survey. I’ve composed it personally so if there is anything else you would like to add, please drop me an email.

I’m not trading business names with anyone but I will be using the answers to show how the Channel can help you better. There has been some feedback used by Microsoft about the price of SBS being too expensive but based on my background and knowing many of you, I’m not so sure that this is the whole truth as to why SBS isn’t selling as well as it should be. In my view, it will help to have better internal MS support but I need some real data to start things rolling. This is where I believe you can help.

Clear here to complete the survey. Please complete the survey only if you are based in the UK and sell Microsoft Windows Small Business Server.

Thanks in advance

Susanne

p.s. you do not have to have a Westcoast account to complete this survey and you don’t have to tell me who you are when you complete it. I just want you for your data!

p.p.s. I will post some of the results (no personal data though) on my blog, so feel free to forward the link to any other partners so we can get a bigger result (thanks!)

Videos on your website

Susanne Dansey — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:04:22 +0000

For many years now, companies have been using short videos to help convey a message to their audience. It may be to announce a company’s ‘new look’ or get a feel for what the company is about.

I like watching these types of videos - I get to understand what I am looking at better and I feel that the company is really trying to gain my interest.

You may have a software application that you’ve developed or you may want to put together some brief training videos which you can give to your clients as part of their value add. Many people that I have spoken to of late, have been very interested in the online training available for Office from Microsoft - it means that they can understand in their own time. There are lots of people who just don’t get things if it’s only available in black and white - some of us are more visual…

I’ve just finished a video that we produced to show how to use our new Online Volume Licensing tool, it took a while but I believe it’s something worth taking time over. There are a few more to go up but already our customers find tools like these a useful way of understanding what we are trying to do as a business. You can have a look at it here.

Windows Server 2008: Understanding the opportunity

Susanne Dansey — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 11:32:40 +0000

There has been shed loads of information out there regarding this Wednesday’s launch of Windows Server 2008. Here are to name but a few:

Wayne Small’s Blog (more information on Wayne can be found here)
Susan Bradley’s Blog (more information on Susan can be found here)
Windows Server Division Weblog
David Overton’s Blog
Matt McSpirit’s Blog (particular focus on virtualisation)

So that’s a few links for you to add to your RSS feeds so you can keep in touch with technical developments. But what about where you can go to train yourself and your staff? Our guys here will be training up on it this week (amidst their MLSS studies) so here are a few links for you to check out and use:

Windows Server 2008 - ‘Learning Snacks’

An ideal place to start if you are short on time. The Learning Snacks site features a number of short, interactive presentations on popular WS2008 topics using various media such as animations and recorded demos.

Click here to visit

Windows Server 2008 Readiness Events

Global Knowledge and Interquad Learning are running a few workshops in March which you may be interested in. Further information and registration can be found here.

Register for the ‘First to Know’ Windows Server 2008 Exam offer - be the first to certify with a 40% discount on the exams. Click here for the discount offer.

Availability of Microsoft Certification exams will closely follow the release of WS2008. There are three Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) certifications in development. To achieve any of these certifications, you must successfully complete one exam and demonstrate knowledge and skills in a key area of the technology: Active Directory, Network Infrastructure, or Applications Infrastructure.

Two job-role certifications, Server Administrator and Enterprise Administrator, will require a combination of MCTS and Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP) exams. In total, five exams will make up the Windows Server 2008 suite of exams. Learn more about Windows Server 2008 certification.

I’ve put together some facts for you which you might want to pass on to your clients over the next few weeks/months as you begin to talk about the new server technology:

Just upgrading client PCs to Microsoft Windows Vista can yield throughput and time-to-completion improvements of up to 2.5x over Windows XP. Complete migration of servers to Windows Server 2008 can yield throughput and time-to-completion improvements of up to 3.5x over Windows XP/Windows Server 2003. (The Tolly Group White Paper 2007)
Windows Server 2008 is ~45 times faster than Windows Server 2003 (source)

If you’re looking to show the customer what the biggest changes to Windows Server 2008 over 2003 are, then you could always start with these:

Server Core: WS2008 provides a minimal environment for running specific server roles to help reduce the maintenance and management requirements as well as the attack surface for those server roles.
Windows Powershell: New SMPS with Server 2008 has been specifically designed for IT administration to be used in place of cmd.exe and Windows Script Host.
Terminal Services: Now supports remote desktop protocol 6.0. Share a single application over a remote desktop connection instead of the entire desktop.
Hyper V: Includes everything needed to support machine virtualisation. Reduces costs, and creates a more dynamic IT infrastructure.
Self healing NTFS

There are six versions available: Standard, Enterprise, Data Centre, Web Server, Storage Server, and Small Business Server 2008 (standard and premium editions).

However, if we’re talking solutions to the client, does all of this really matter to them? Probably not, so if I’m a customer and my IT consultant/reseller was recommending a new server infrastructure to me, why am I going to get excited about WS2008?

Self-healing NTFS file system - In Windows Server 2008, a new system service works in the background that can detect a file system error, and perform a healing process without anyone taking the server down. The only effect that an application would see is that files would be unavailable for a period of time that it was trying to access. The system never has to come down, corrupted files are healed automatically and therefore less pain.

Parallel session creation - Bottlenecks on large Terminal Services systems previously experienced by logging into more than one user at the same time have now been removed. Great news for those businesses who have a few hundred people logging on Monday morning to find they twiddle their thumbs whilst their sessions are initialised.

Clean service shutdown - In WS2008, the 20-second countdown you get when the system shutdown procedure is initialised has been been replaced with a service that will keep applications given the signal all the time they need to shut down (as long as they signal back they’re shutting down.) This makes for cleaner overall shutdowns even if there is a chance the new procedure gives too much power to applications.

Kernal Transaction Manager - No, not a character from the latest war film but a feature that developers can take advantage of to help greatly reduce, if not eliminate, one of the most frequent causes of System Registry and file system corruption: multiple threads seeking access to the same resource.

SMB2 network file system - SMB2 replaces SMB which was adopted as the network file system for Windows. SMB2 allows you to deal with media files which have reached sizes so large at times that a new system is needed. SMB2 on media servers delivered 30-40 times faster file system performance than Windows Server 2003 (that’s a 4000% boost).

Address Space Load Randomisation (ASLR) - No matter how many times you repeat this to your customer, they aren’t going to get it, or if they do, then I’m sure they won’t know what to make of it. However, this feature makes sure that no two subsequent instances of an Operating System load the same system drivers in the same place in memory each time. Okay, so this still probably won’t mean a thing, but when you explain that Malware can only work if it knows where the operating system service live then it starts to make a bit more sense. So if Windows occupies one of the 256 randomly selected locations in memory (offset by +/- 16MB of randomised address space) the odds of malware being able to locate a system service on its own have massively decreased.

Windows Hardware Error Architecture (WHEA) - Now that there is better standardisation across the hardware ‘ecosystem’, it’s easier to write an application that can report device errors and therefore better diagnostic and management of these errors.

Windows Server Virtualisation - Traditionally, customers have lots of servers for lots of different purposes (SOHO businesses excluded) which can cause constraints on space, power, plus the cost of management. By consolidating, buinesses could save up to 85% of CPU time for their under-utilised servers.

PowerShell - Allows IT professionals to gain better control of the automation of the server system. On the whole, I wouldn’t expect the general end-user to get very excited over this but I reckon if you can find a home for PowerShell on their system and show them how you’ve saved time by creating some scripting that gets the job done faster, then there’s your sales pitch for PowerShell.

Server Core - This feature is probably going to be the one that really starts to make a difference for Microsoft, but how does it help you and your clients? Server Core allows you to install a minimal amount of server options to create a low-maintenance server environment with limited functionality.

So, Windows Server 2008, is more efficient and easier to manage, but whilst many of these make it easier for you as the administrator, this obviously means less downtime for the client and therefore more time for you to focus on helping them grow their businesses.

Hat doft to George too for highlighting a recent post on the ”10 Coolest Features of Windows Server 2008“ (although I’m not sure how many customers will use the word ‘cool‘ in the same sentence as WS2008…

Oh, and one more blog to read: Mark Russinovich

Windows Server 2008 Automation and Alerting Technologies (find out what you can do with Vista and WS2008 straight out of the box)

Effectively selling solutions involving WS2008, SQL Server 2008, and Visual Studio 2008 (Australian Partners only)

Who is eligible for a Microsoft Action Pack?

Susanne Dansey — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 10:45:44 +0000

I’ve posted before on the Microsoft Action Pack but a Partner contacted me recently to get clarification on who is allowed to apply and use them.

Firstly, what is a Microsoft Action Pack Subscription (MAPS)?

It is a kit that contains new software releases, as well as updated sales and marketing materials that are designed to help those who are eligible to receive it, stay competitive, meet your sales goals, and grow your business.

Okay, so who is eligible?

The Microsoft Action Pack Subscription is designed for all business whose primary function is to:

Sell, service, support, or
To build solutions on the Microsoft platform to provide solutions based on Microsoft products and technologies to independent, third-party customers.

Examples of qualifying businesses include:

Accounting professionals
Consulting service providers
Independent Software Vendors (ISVs)
Independent Hardware Vendors
Large Account Resellers (LARs)
Original Equipment Manufactuers (OEMs)
Small Business Specialists
Support Providers
System Integrators
System Builders
Training providers
Web designers
Value-added resellers (VARs)
and, value-added providers that sell more than 75% of their products and services to customers outside their own company.

Examples of non-qualifying entities include: nonprofit organisations, academic institutions, students, Government offices and businesses whose primary focus is not IT related.

Specific types of businesses whose primary focus is non-IT related but that have significant influence on technology purchases, may qualify to participate in the MAPs.

So that means nearly everyone can have a MAP and therefore won’t have to pay the full license price anymore?

No. For example, if you are an Accounting practice looking to develop a CRM solution for commercial purposes and it would pull through sales of Microsoft (i.e. they are planning to resell it once they’ve built it and it runs on Small Business Server) then that would class them as an ISV and eligble for the Action Pack. HOWEVER, if they are looking to create their own internal CRM solution then they would not be eligible.

I have a specific situation that I would like to ask about.

Email Microsoft at regmember@msdirectservices.com where the team will be able to help and advise if you find yourself questioning whether you are eligible or if you come across a business that you are unsure as to their qualification.

Please remember that all new Action packs not only need the Partner to agree to the Ts&Cs but also take an assessment. Microsoft can cancel any Action Pack Subscription if they believe a non-Partner has purchased it.

Microsoft Office Accounting will not be available in UK MAPs (unlike US) until the product has been officially released at the end of March/April.

Vista changes in the Action Pack

Order your MAPs (you must be a Microsoft Partner to access this)

Partner TV (Australia) What is the Microsoft Action Pack?

Still undecided about Vista?

Susanne Dansey — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 16:39:07 +0000

Mark Russinovich will be taking a live interactive discussion on adopting Windows Vista into a desktop infrastructure, and will discuss what Windows Vista SP1 means for you.

You can submit questions during the event or in advance to vrtable@microsoft.com where a panel of experienced professionals (including members from the Windows product team) will answer as many as they can.

Microsoft have also released the Springboard Series for Windows Vista which you may want to check out. It contains guidance, resources, and tools to help you understand the opportunity better.

The event takes place on March 5th at 09:00 Pacific time (GMT-8) and you can register for the event by clicking here.

Windows Vista SP1 here now for technical customers.

Vista SP1 install failure (including fix)

Have Vista SP1? Want your search back?

Vista Team Blog

What’s Stopping You? Event | Southampton

Susanne Dansey — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 15:27:58 +0000

A few things came up today which I wanted to post as reference:

Microsoft Office Accounting

I caught up with the product manager Gareth Arnold to find out what’s going on with regards to launching the product through the channel. It looks like boxed copies will be made available at late March/early April. I would expect Action Pack copies to also be available then.

If you are an accountant interested in Microsoft Accounting, it may be worth becoming MPAN (Microsoft Professional Accountants’ Network) accredited. The benefits of joining include a copy of Microsoft Office Small Business Edition as well as Office Accounting (1 license of each), as well as access to support and various training programmes and forums. For more information, please click here.

N.B. Already, 2,000 MPANs have been registered and I’ve already mentioned to Gareth that it would be a great idea to link MPANs with SBSCers. Think about it, I doubt many MPANs are going to be able to sell Office Accounting to a client AND be able to support a networked business infrastructure. I’m hoping that by me publically posting it, other people in the SBSC (and MPAN?) community will help try and pull this concept together? They do say that the accountant is probably the first choice for business advice…

If you are looking to test the product, there is a free version available or else, more information on how to purchase and download a copy from the Microsoft Website can be found by clicking here.

After March, you can purchase Microsoft Office Accounting through retailers or IT resellers such as Microsoft Small Business Specialists and of course accredited MPANs. Worth considering this option if you are looking for IT help and support.

Retailers and resellers can purchase Microsoft Office Accounting through their Microsoft Authorised Distributors at the end of March.

E&OE

Selling Microsoft Windows Small Business Server

Susanne Dansey — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 12:11:24 +0000

With the recent announcements of Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2008, they’ll be plenty of people swayed towards the bright lights of something new and shiney. However, the launch is expected in the second half of 2008, there’s plenty of time to look to what is currently available and understand the opportunity.

As luck would have it, a customer asked me where they should start in terms of understanding SBS and how they could begin to sell it. I thought I would post my email here so that perhaps it will help a few of you looking to get more involved in what I think is a very under-rated server product that is currently over shadowed by its big brother Windows Server 2008.

The key to selling SBS is to talk about solutions and not product. Of course the underlying goal of any business is to make a sale and a variety of Microsoft products combined with the appropriate hardware make this task easier to do. What SBS offers you as a business is a succinct way to approach any small business, identify their problems, and solve most of them with SBS and a range of complimentary products.

It’s easier to divide SBS into four areas in which you can pick and choose your focus when speaking to a client or prospect:

· Team working

· Communication

· Mobile Working

· Security

Breaking it down like so will allow you to show how SBS can enable businesses to do more with the technology and see their spend on IT as an investment as opposed to a ‘necessary evil’.

What Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2 can do for your clients:

Protect your business and prevent data loss: SBS 2003 offers a more secure infrastructure that helps protect your business from unauthorised users and data loss with built-in firewall protection, security-enhanced remote access; tools to manage and monitor Internet access, block spammers and automatically removed dangerous email attachments to prevent virus attacks. In addition automatic data backup and the ability to retrieve accidentally deleted or restore previous versions.

Increase productivity and collaboration: SBS 2003 R2 provides a central location from which to store company data so employees can find and share the right information quickly, as well as communicate and work together on group projects.

Work beyond office boundaries: SBS 2003 R2 will allow you to access your email, internal Web sites, network files and even business applications more securely from any PC with an Internet connection. They also have the ability to access email schedules and contacts from virtually anywhere at any time using a device powered by Windows Mobile software.

Use Microsoft Office 2007 with Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2

SBS presents a great opportunity at further justifying and demonstrating the potential that the 2007 Microsoft Office System offers. Using a small business network, users have the ability to collaborate and centrally store data and files using Microsoft Windows SharePoint services. You can create shared workspaces where employees can collaborate on customer quotes, documents and other files. If we think about this in terms of the team working approach, you can justify an SBS investment because it will save them time, enable them to become more organised and help them stay focused on managing their customer relationships.

If your client has more than 25 employees, a better solution to Business Contact Manager may be Microsoft Dynamics CRM, which offers extensive capabilities and customisation. This will also offer additional sales through services; you may want to look at partnering with a CRM specialist to help you deliver these solutions. In addition, regardless of where their employees are, they will have full access to customer information – along with other networked resources in the office such as shared documents, printers and intranet sites. Thus, from a mobility focus, with a Windows Mobile device or a portable PC connected to the Internet, they can manage customer records and update the sales pipeline, even when they’re out on the road meeting new prospects and existing customers. Feel free to ask me if you would like further information on this.

Limitations with SBS 2003

There are a number of limitations with Windows Small Business Server 2003 (compared to Windows Server 2003, which is the next step up) which means that it may not be right for everybody:

SBS 2003 must be the first server installed on the network and must serve as the main log-on server. Additional servers can be added later.

SBS 2003 only supports up to 75 users or devices. However, you can buy a transition pack to protect your investment and transition to the next Windows Server product.

In my experience, businesses of over 50 users should really begin to look at Windows Server 2003 in any case. The closer the number of users gets to the 75 limit, the more error reporting is incurred. Typically, growing businesses with 50 employees would be looking to grow further and therefore could easily reach 75+ users in a short space of time. In these cases, SBS 2003 would not be a wise suggestion.

Further resources:

SBS Blog

Data Sheet

Benefits of using SBS 2003 R2

Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 home page

Information on Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2008

How to become a Microsoft Small Business Specialist (becoming this will allow you access to SBS-focussed training and a community of partners who can help you develop in this area).

I encourage anyone else who would like to add additional links/resources/experiences to the comments below. Feel free to link through to your blogs if you have a particular post.

A SBS 2008 sales post will be made shortly… just got to wade through the mass of posts that have just landed in my RSS feeds inbox!

Applications compatible with Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003

When one door closes, another always opens.

Susanne Dansey — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 22:14:39 +0000

Usually when I post it’s because I’ve seen something at work or on my travels that motivates me to pass on the information or share an idea or two with you.

Starting a post like this one is a little trickier because it’s got less to do with work and more to do with me. I don’t do it too often but enough of you are asking about what I’m up to…

At the end of March, the blog and I will be packing our t-shirts and shorts to move to warmer climates for a bit. For those who know me well, you’ll know my love of exploring the world so you won’t be surprised to know that the travel itch needs scratching again.

The reason why I post is that I’m going to be leaving the UK for some time; I haven’t decided when I’ll be back but I’m going to check out where the adventure takes me. No doubt, those interested as to what I’m up to will either find out on the grapevine or when I start blogging post-March.

I will be thanking a number of friends and colleagues personally for their friendship and time, but I would like to extend my appreciation and thanks to everyone who has helped me get to this point.

And that’s where I’ll leave this post. It is particularly difficult to articulate how I feel and I’m sure a follow up post in a few weeks/months time will be able to do a better job than I am doing now.

So thank you and best wishes to all who choose to do something that they dare to do differently.

Susanne

p.s. I’ll still be blogging in the meantime, just wanted to get this announcement out of the way.

What’s Stopping You? Event | Oxford

Susanne Dansey — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 16:16:07 +0000

Each presentation I take as part of these events always comes with a few surprises. Many are one-woman-bands who are looking to for inspiration and answers on how and where to start in business. This time, there were a fair few who were comfortable with IT but still, and worryingly, a large number of those attending who don’t back up their IT.

It’s not unusual though…

This is basically how part of my presentation goes:

A few weeks back I had quite a bad week. First, my car gets broken into; then on returning back to a friend’s house we discover it had been burgled, and then I get a flat tyre driving down the M4. *sigh* It was a pretty rubbish week…

… but I had car insurance, they had home insurance, and I had a famous three letter recovery company to help me.

All seem like necessary evils until you need it.

So, how many people use their computers to email and store information and files regarding their business? (everyone puts their hands up)

How many people DON’T back up these computers? (about 75% of the audience put their hands up reluctantly and shift in their seats)

At this point, I’ve pretty much made my point but I labour it a bit longer…

How many days do you think it will take to recover your data and get back up to normal business activities if your computer was stolen or lost the data through corruption? (I’m generous and say three, although statistics are a lot higher). Let’s assume your daily rate is £100 (more £500 for most) and multiply it by three. That’s £300 even before you’ve tried to do some business. At what point do you think you can’t afford to back up your machine?

Then I pull out a USB hard drive which cost me £80 for 320GB memory. We do the maths and they all make plans to go and buy one at the weekend.

Businesses start up all the time, and everytime one does, someone new wants to grasp the fundamentals of IT but doesn’t know where to start. Many come from larger organisations where the IT was sorted on their behalf; and most don’t relate the focus they have on securing their personal posessions and wellbeing to the same way they should for their businesses.

When I was a reseller, I used to make sure my clients understood IT was part of the business plan. I made sure I sat in on business meetings and usually I was able to spot shortcuts for them to help aid their business - most revolved around how to better communicate and manage their customers. They told me their problems and I gave them the solutions. They were small businesses looking to grow; I was part of a small business looking to grow - there was a trust relationship which helped give my clients the confidence to think better about IT. It was just a case of breaking down the jargon and making the answers simple to achieve.

The same goes for any business. It’s pretty hard to sell a product or service if the buyer doesn’t get it.

Hopefully, the audiences I speak to go away feeling better about IT. Many stop to talk to me afterwards; many want to ask me about Vista nowadays - they buy the product because it’s pre-installed and don’t know where to start. Just because there are help guides and small blue round buttons in the top right of the screen, doesn’t mean people are going to help themselves.

People deal with people and they will always choose to ask rather than look for themselves because they wouldn’t know where to start. One of the ladies in the audience asked me something which goes a little bit like this:

When I want to find someone to help me with my IT, I find it particularly difficult to know who I should talk to. You hear from others who they use and sometimes it’s great. But most times, you worry about finding someone and then they move on leaving you none the wiser and if that’s the case, where do you go from there?

Again, I brought IT back into the real world and compared it to when you go for a hair cut. Now, this obviously doesn’t apply to everyone but most ladies have experienced the odd hairdresser looking at their hair with distain and saying ‘who cut this last?’. The reaction from said customer is usually one of embarassment as they mumble their reply. (everyone nodded and agreed)

So then I suggested the Microsoft Small Business Specialists and explained that they were small businesses like them who had gone through similar growing pains but with a specialisation in IT (audience scribbles down details).

To find out more about Microsoft Small Business Specialists, click here. I cannot recommend them more than I already do. They rock. They aren’t spoken about enough but they are incredibly important in supporting an incredibly important market sector that no large organisation has had the time or resources to fully support (it’s a labour of love) so far.

If you want to know whether there is a Small Business Specialist close to you click here and type your postcode into the search to find out.

Don’t leave IT on the backburner. IT is about having the right technology in place to support your business information.

For more information on how and what you need to start to understand it a bit more, click here.

Products to consider: Microsoft OneCare (also available from Small Business Specialists in box format), Microsoft ForeFront (suitable for businesses that have a server-based network).

Next stop; Southampton.

Microsoft Windows Seven (7) M1 Preview…

Susanne Dansey — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 13:50:26 +0000

Catch a load of some recent screenshots of what the new version of Windows will look like.

Long Zheng makes some comments on these latest images of Windows 7 M1.

Windows 7 Video

Wikipedia Article

When I heard about Windows 7 (Codename ‘Vienna’) I heard it was going to have a pretty different interface to what we have seen in Vista; doesn’t look that way? I assume more development within the product will be made so that there is at least a visable reason why people would want Windows 7 over XP let alone Vista!

What’s Stopping You? Event | Business Link Women’s Conference (Part #2)

Susanne Dansey — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 13:07:29 +0000

The spring 2008 sessions of the ‘What’s stopping you?’ event has kicked off again starting in Crawley last week. Again, another great audience who were keen and kept the presentation interactive (yesss!).

Already, I have met plenty of businesses who need help from local Small Business Specialists and so it’s been great to have the chance to do a bit of back scratching with those SBSCers who I’ve been working with of late.

There are five more events over the next few months:

12th February: Ramsgate, Kent

19th February: Oxford, Oxfordshire

21st February: Southampton, Hampshire

5th March: Farnham, Surrey

7th March: Basingstoke, Hampshire

For those who attended the Crawley session, here are some of the links which I recommend you read as a follow up to my presentation and as a result of your questions:

Microsoft Business Contact Manager

Integrating IT into your business plan

Microsoft Office Accounting

Create a simple website using Microsoft Office Live Services

How to backup using Windows XP

How to backup using Windows Vista

Backing up Outlook email messages

How to prevent SPAM on a phpBB forum

What to think about if you are using CDs or DVDs to back up your electronic business data

Implementing a disaster recovery policy to yourself

Susanne Dansey — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 21:54:15 +0000

Today was a really rubbish day. Because of the stupidity of some strangers, something I depend on was damaged and as well as feeling pretty violated I had to spend the day sorting out a problem that took a matter of seconds to cause.

Here’s what I woke up to this morning:

For some sad reason I compared my misfortune to the drum that Small Business Resellers bang when they ask all their clients and prospects…

… Do you have a disaster recovery plan?

Here was mine:

Ensure you used a reputable Insurance Company who would take ownership of the problem (think about who’s looking after your server and business information - do they have the right experience?)
Be able to work remotely from home (requires Internet connection, Messenger, and Outlook - or at least OWA to get you up and kicking)
Have the right people around you to ensure the problem is resolved properly (for example, are all parties involved talking to one another so that you don’t have to think of everything?)
Ensure you can continue working even if the server fails (i.e. do you have a spare PC that you can run your accounts package from at least?)
What are you going to do to ensure that the chances of this happening again are reduced? (I had a few on my list that probably weren’t legal…)

Your disaster recovery plan shouldn’t just be limited to the tin in the office, you should implement a disaster recovery plan that covers every aspect of the business (who knows where the chocolate biscuits are hidden if Mavis is off sick?).

For further reading, I would recommend you check out Karl Palachuk’s blog posts. His most recent one talks about business plans, but I would also suggest you look at how to put together a managed services offering (it’s very comprehensive so hat doft to Karl!).

Finally, after being stuck in the flat keeping one eye on my car and the other on work, my car has been picked up and taken to a secure lock up before the window is replaced. Fortunately, where it has been stored is 500 yards from my local SAAB garage so it’ll be getting it’s service this week… that reminds me, when was the last time you got your computer healthchecked?

I’d check with your IT support to make sure that everything is ticking over nicely.

Deploying Windows Mobile 6 with Windows Small Business Server 2003

Susanne Dansey — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 13:46:06 +0000

Do you want to add Windows Mobile devices to your network? Is your network based either on the Windows Small Business Server 2003 (Windows SBS) server software with Service Pack 1 (SP1) or on Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2? If so, you can use the step-by-step instructions in this downloadable document to deploy devices that are powered by the Windows Mobile 6 software on a Windows SBS network.

You can download the document by clicking here.

Why Mobile 6 on a small business network?

Windows Mobile 6 now integrates the Messaging and Security Feature Pack (MSFP) which was previously an add-on for Windows Mobile 5. This delivers features such as:

Direct Push Technology (receive items such as new emails, calendar and contact changes, and task updates, that are stored on the Exchange server)
Wireless support for contact information (where you can look up your Global Address List, aka GAL, which is stored on the Exchange server)
Remotely enforced security policies (to make sure company property isn’t mis-used)
Local device wipe (so you can reset the device after a specified number of incorrect logon attempts)
Remote device wipe (in case you leave it on the back seat of the taxi…)

Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (part 2)

Susanne Dansey — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 09:30:41 +0000

Part 1: http://www.uksmbgirl.co.uk/blog/archives/238

The articles below are specific to Windows Vista Service Pack 1. You can use this information to evaluate and deploy Windows Vista Service Pack 1.

Windows Vista TechCentre

Promotional offer from Microsoft to support Vista:

‘Upgrade the Desktop’ (UK offer) - 15% off Vista upgrade licences when purchased with Software Assurance (SA), plus 15% off Microsoft Desktop Optimisation Pack (MDOP) subscriptions. Available under Open Value and Select licensing; Open Value only for the Office Enterprise 2007 promo.

Look out next week for a teaser campaign from Microsoft as they start to drive interest with Windows Vista to support it’s release in mid-February.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 in a small business environment

Susanne Dansey — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 22:46:34 +0000

Like Steve, I attended one of Microsoft’s CRM launch events today and found out something interesting:

If you have Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 Small Business Edition and want to upgrade to version 4.0, there is no equivalent edition as such.

There are three editions within the CRM 4.0 family:

Workgroup server - includes and supports a MAXIMUM of five user licenses (approx £1,800 inc. CALs)
Professional edition - no licensing limit on the number of users (approx £1,500*, £3,400 for the external connector*, and just over £1k for external and limited external connectors).
Enterprise edition - no licensing limit on the number of users (approx £3,600*, £3,400 for external connector*, and just over £1k for external and limited external connectors).

*per server instance

Above prices are example volume license prices including two years Software Assurance.

Julian points out:

“If you have more than 5 user licences then your upgrade option is to CRM 4.0 Professional Edition. If you are on Software Assurance then there is nothing additional to pay however when you come to renew Software Assurance then it will be at Professional Edition price i.e, about double what it would have been under CRM 3.0 SBE.

If you have 5 or fewer user licenses then you have a choice to make. You can either upgrade to Professional Edition, which is what I would recommend if you are not likely to increase your users, or upgrade to the Workgroup Edition which is limited to 5 users. If later you want to increase the number of users then you have to pay a Step-Up for the Professional Edition.”

The best way to license CRM is through volume licensing (FPP and SPLA also viable options) with Software Assurance (SA). You can find more information on the benefits of SA for CRM 4.0 clients here.

Interesting to note that licensing keys are pre-pidded (where keys are embedded on DVD).

I can see this being an interesting conversation for some SMB partners to have with their small business clients who are looking to adopt 4.0 over 3.0. Unless you are looking to offer a hosted solution via SPLA (where prices can be as low as £10/person/month) it’s going to be difficult to justify the price of a professional CAL (approx £720 each) for 4.0 when it is cheaper at a price of around £250 for version 3.0 SBE CALs (and that’s after a price drop of approx 50%). Moreover, with SBS being so competitively priced, any reseller looking to promote 4.0 is going to have to think carefully about the business value proposition.

There are of course some fantastic features to CRM 4.0 and clearly some marked improvements to version 3.0 such as bulk import and greater user control over workflow processes and reporting. However, I caught up with Roland at the event who agrees that there will be some challenges in convincing businesses to upgrade. He’s found success in working in partnership with resellers who have the appropriate install base to show customers where and how CRM can help deliver ROI. Looks like it might be something we’re going to have to think about if we want to really get the hang of CRM in the small business space.

Apply now for the CRM Live Early Access II (EA2) Programme.

Finally!: What is a UK Microsoft Small Business Specialist?

Susanne Dansey — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 17:04:35 +0000

A few bloggers (including Andy and myself) posted their thoughts about the level of awareness concerning what a Microsoft Small Business Specialist is. Hats off to Emma Cockburn, Jennifer Brinton and the web team at Microsoft for listening to the feedback from there and from the Small Business Roundtable last November which has led to a raised profile of an SBSC on the Microsoft website.

So, Mr. Customer/ End-user, you can find out why a Microsoft Small Business Specialist is important to you here and you can find your nearest SBSC Partner here.

If you are interested in the SBSC programme, you can find out more about it and how to join here.

You’ll also find pointers to the importance of using a Small Business Specialist here.

Use these links in your email signatures and for any other points of reference that can use a click-through.

Watch out for more SBSC awareness pieces in the end-user communications from Microsoft UK.