Announcements from LPI

Level Platforms has made a couple important announcements that are important to note if you are using their platform or considering an MSP solution. The first is the announcement of full virtualization support for their Managed Workplace solution. We all know that virtualization is a pervasive technology that is just getting its feet wet but will soon be as common as the cold. So it is important to have solutions to manage those environments and now you can. Check out the details at http://www.htgmembers.com/2008-11-05%20Virtualization.pdf.

Equally important, the folks at LPI announced at launch last week the ability to have comprehensive remote monitoring, management and reporting for SBS 2008 and EBS 2008 in minutes by downloading and applying the new integrated suite of Policy Modules. This is great news for those who are deploying the fantastic new SBS and EBS products from Microsoft. Again good stuff as you can monitor and manage these new products out of the gate. You can get their details at http://www.htgmembers.com/2008-11-13_SBS_EBS.pdf on this release.

Are you on the MSP bandwagon yet? Great products that continue to get better from LPI and all the tool providers. There is huge opportunity to help end users take cost out of their businesses during these difficult economic times using managed service tools. It is a great way to gain market and increase value for your customers. Get in the game now, while the opportunity is still there.

Less than a week away

Things have been way too quiet around the upcoming launch of SBS2008 and EBS. Time for all of us to let people in our patch know about the upcoming Launch. There hasn't been nearly enough hoopla or air cover. So it is up to us as partners to set off some rockets and fireworks in our own cities and towns. And it is time to do it NOW.

In less than a week, the Dream Server Launch will happen. http://www.thedreamserver.com/ Know what I am talking about? The new kid in the Windows Server Family becomes public on November 12. That is also the day that SBS2008 makes its public debut. Our own Erik Thorsell from HTG3 will be part of that launch with his great work for Robby Gordon Motor Sports. We also had about 10 other HTG partners who had customers in the TAP program doing beta deployment and testing. Two great products that have potential to help you grow your SMB business. Generate leads by inviting your customers and prospects to the Windows Essential Server Solutions special launch webcast (link above) using guidance (https://partner.microsoft.com/40082316) and an invitation email template (https://partner.microsoft.com/40082139). Take a look at the tools provided and take action now to get involved. Don't miss the opportunity. Get involved and take action today.

Can you find a business to pimp

HP has just released details on a new promotion you need to let your customers know about. Check out the details at www.pimpmyinfrastructure.com. This contest has some serious prizes, and a couple of businesses are going to win a bunch of really cool HP gear and they did it right - if your customer wins the reseller gets 5K in stuff too. For once we don't get forgotten if things go our way. The contest is designed to drive awareness and interest in SBS2008 and EBS2008 with one lucky business getting a makeover for each segment. This is a great reason to send out some marketing info that will open the door to discuss these great new products as well as the supporting cast of gear from HP to run them on. Here are the rules in the fine print:

Pimp My Infrastructure is a contest sponsored by HP and Microsoft®.

1. Choose a customer (or customers) whose business is challenged by a lack of infrastructure power.
2. Ask your customers to tell us their story.
3. Remind your customers to put your company's name down as their reseller.
4. We pick the most worthy customers--one small-sized business (1 to 75 PCs) and one mid-sized business (76 to 300 PCs). We'll "Pimp Their Infrastructure" with a prize package of goodies courtesy of our sponsors.
5. If we pick your customer's submission, you'll win some cool prizes.
6. Keep in mind that the deadline for submissions is 11:59 PM ET ON October 20, 2008!
7. Announcement of the winner will be at the Microsoft November 12th Customer SBS/EBS 2008 Virtual Launch.

Take advantage of a cool promotion - get the word out on HP and the new MS products - and potentially win 5K. Just make sure your customers know what your company name is and enter it when they fill out the registration form. With all this remote MSP stuff - they may have forgot who you are! Good luck!

Learning about EBS and SBS - the New Versions

We continue to move closer to the coming release of Windows EBS (Essential Business Server) - the new release targeting the midmarket customer base from 50-300 users. Part of the misconception about EBS has been the fact that Forefront Threat Management Gateway (TMG formerly ISA) is required as part of the solution and it seems many partners are afraid of this being in the product. One of the industry's foremost experts on ISA, Tom Shinder, wrote a great article on this on his blog. You need to take time to read his post on ISAServer.org at this link:
http://blogs.isaserver.org/shinder/2008/09/02/why-the-forefront-tmg-is-a-cornerstone-of-essential-business-server-ebs-network-security/

Also there is new training available at Partner Academy on the pending SBS and EBS products. Check out this link to prepare for these new versions and be ready with some tech readiness: https://training.partner.microsoft.com/plc/search_adv.aspx?ssid=2ff59e1b-42b9-4802-afc1-a02fb3d5eca3.

There are two 8 part courses on each product that cover these topics:
· Planning, Design, & Installation
· Migration
· Management, Health, & Reporting
· Messaging & Remote Access
· Security & Backup
· LOB Support, Extensibility, & Troubleshooting
· Virtualization

Are you Ready?

Live and in living color (Microsoft orange), the new EBS Jumpstart site has been brought to life and is now ready to help begin preparing you for the pending release of Microsoft Windows Essential Business Server 2008. That is a mouthful for sure. Here is the URL: http://www.ebsjumpstartkit.com/index.aspx.

This interactive site has been designed to help partners evaluate where they are in relationship to the needed skill sets required to be successful selling EBS into the mid market. It deals with issues related to technical, sales and marketing and also addresses the real issue - that of ownership. At the end of the day, a decision to add something new to a company's product offering is no small decision. It takes time and energy to learn, train, market and sell anything. So this site is designed to help you count those costs up front, before you jump in and decide you may not be quite ready. It will help you see if there are any areas you need to get up to speed on - areas you may have to make some investments.

There are things about EBS that some won't like. No different than anything else in life. If we surveyed your spouse or kids, they may even know some things about you they don't like. So it isn't a perfect solution. It has some warts and will require a change in thinking for some. But it is worth a close look. It has enough good qualities and opportunities to really be something you should consider seriously and evaluate fairly. I know in my case, if I focus on the things I might have done differently, I can certainly convince myself to push it aside and just determine before even really digging in I don't like it. But that would be a mistake. And just like relationships where I make initial determinations about people only to find out what I thought was true on the surface is not when I dig in a ways - that same experience will likely be true about EBS if you take a little time to learn about it.

My challenge to you is to invest some time - which none of us have - to learn about EBS and give it a fair shake. Business decisions and company leadership depend on those who run the place doing due diligence around opportunities. This is one investment you need to make. You may determine it is not a fit for your company. That result is fine as long as it really results from making a decison based on facts, not on reaction to what "seems to be". When I look at this product and consider how it fits with our HP blade strategy and the needs of our mid market clients, and even some of our smaller clients, EBS has a place in our practice. It isn't exactly how I would have designed it, but then again, had I built it there would likely have been more pressing issues like getting it to work at all......so that is why I am not a software architect or a developer and I leave that to the professionals. My expertise is applying technology to the business pains and needs of SMB clients. EBS fits in my toolbelt to do exactly that.

Take some time and do an evaluation of how this product might fit your client needs. The EBS Jumpstart is an attempt to help with that process. Not all the answers will be "you must go build an EBS practice". It gives you an honest response based on things that need to be in place to succeed. That is what we all want - to succeed in serving our clients and meeting their needs while removing their pain. And of course make a few bucks along the way. EBS can do that for many of us. I hope you don't miss that opportunity for your clients!

Iron Chef Video from WPC

At the WPC event in Houston earlier this month I had the opportunity to do a presentation with Erik Thorsell, Ric Opal and Glen Lowe to help create a little interest and understanding about the new Windows Essential Business Server that will ship this fall. If you aren't up to speed on this product - you need to start getting familiar.

We didn't do a normal presentation at all - it was a takeoff on the Iron Chef TV series and we had some fun. I made a little snafu in the presentation but overall I hope you find it enjoyable. There will be more tools coming very soon for you to evaluate your readiness for EBS, but take some time for a laugh or two and begin thinking about how you will add EBS to your portfolio going forward.

http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=665414301&k=X5EZ3Z64P4ZM5ACEWFY2WW

Send any feedback via this blog. Would love to hear what you think.

Keynote Info from WPC

Great news for SBS partners. Michael Risse announced this morning that 5000 free SBS2008 exam vouchers would be made available. Send a request to askcorp@microsoft.com to request one.

He also announced November 12 as the ship date for SBS/EBS. Sort of a surprise to me and others in the room. Product has been moving along nicely so I am unsure what that date really means at this time. May be when things are going to be available through the channel which is different than availability through some forms of access.

Great start to the week here at WPC. If you aren't here this year, you really should consider it for next year. There is no other event where you can get the pulse and access to MS as you do here. This is definitely a partner focused event. Join us in 2009!

Good stuff coming at WPC

I am speaking for a number of sessions at WPC next week. Want to highlight what I consider to be a real focus for this years event - the huge attention that will be paid to SBS2008 and EBS2008. We are going to get some major air time and attention and finally get our due. That said, I hope you take time to attend a number of sessions around those products and get involved with all the ancillary activities that will be happening.

I will be doing a fun session with Erik Thorsell and Ric Opal ala The Iron Chef. Here is the info on that session on Wed afternoon at 4:30.

Multiply Your Success (and Have Fun): Watch three partners compete and give you prescriptive guidance on practice building in the Windows EBS “Iron Chef” competition. Cast your vote for the winner. Prescriptive Guidance to add EBS to your practice session on Wednesday, July 9th – 4:30pm-5:30pm, Room General Assembly Theater C

There are also a number of other things happening, including some contests. Check this out:
Multiply Your Winning Power: Enter to win Windows Home Server and many other cool prizes
Visit the Information Counter or go to www.multiplyyourwinningpower.com to find out how.

Multiply Your Fun: Join us for the exclusive partner launch party for Windows Essential Server Solutions on Tuesday, July 8th, at 5:30 PM in the Wireless Lounge. This one is going to be especially fun.

There also are Facebook groups for SBS & EBS too - come join the social networking amongst SBS & EBS partners:

EBS - http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=16942574025
SBS - http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=12683314018

This is where you can sign up for all things SBS/EBS for WPC so get logged on and connected.

SMB Summit Day Two

What a great day we had yesterday. The content was brought to us by Microsoft and we really were given a great overview of EBS, the new mid market server offering for us later this year. This product is what we have been waiting for. SBS like with its design and laser focus, it allows us to move up in the customer chain and serve the core mid market customers from 50-300 seats with the same confidence we have been able to serve our SBS customers for many years. Now is the time to get ready. Seeing the content here gives you a big leg up on all the other partners. But it only helps if you take action. It only matters if you execute. There will be a lot of content coming in the next few months to guide you toward building an EBS practice. So be ready to put some focus and attention on it. It is very much worth your time and effort.

Here is a little of the flavor from yesterday. Enjoy and see you at the Summit!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWG-Buuz3cg&feature=user&fmt=18

SMB Summit Day One

We had a great day at the Summit yesterday. Over 350 people in the audience at the start and a strong crowd all day. Microsoft shared about SBS2008, and there were lots of aha's and applauses throughout the day. This event is made possible by our vendor sponsors like Microsoft and HP, who have not only helped provide great products and content, but have provided financial support, equipment, people and a host of other things. Make sure you remember to thank our vendors for what they do. They don't "owe" us anything. They make choices to invest where it makes a difference in their success. So let's show appreciation to 35 or so vendors who are supporting SMB Summit, first by selling their stuff, but secondly by being grateful and telling them.

The meals and service yesterday was stellar. The Omni is a great place to be. Internet is a bit challenging, but what can we expect with 400 plus technology people in the place. Today we move on to EBS and a brand new opportunity for partners to consider. The sun is up and it is a beautiful day in Dallas. Pat Dolan and the TCC team have created a couple Youtube videos on the night before and day one. If you are at the summit - don't download the internet in your room, but here are the links. Tell Pat and his team thanks for making the investment. Stuart did his radio show from the Summit as well, check that out too. This event is about community and we have the best people in the world as part of this family of partners. See you at the meeting!

The evening before Summit

Well it is 10 PM and I am tuckered out. We have put the finishing touches on the SMB Summit program for tomorrow. It is going to be a great event. There will be some warts, some imperfect things that happen. We won't have enough power plugs, enough Internet speed since everyone is used to these high speed pipes at home and the office. But we will have good content and great people gathered together in community. Focus on the people - not the other stuff. This is your chance to connect with folks and LEARN. If you are coming to have a perfect experience, let me appologize in advance. Since I am involved, perfection is not possible as I am far from perfect. But if you are here for the right reason - to share and give to those around you - and listen and learn from the experts - you will leave satisfied and happy. That is the goal - to send you back ready to hit the ground running with SBS and EBS as your target. This is a readiness event for two products that should be like gold for most of us the next few years. So make the investment - spend the time - and learn.

Also recognize that this event is made possible by a lot of great partners. Microsoft and HP are the keynoters, but there are 40 other vendors who are here to make this event possible. Make sure you are in the room on Sunday afternoon and evening listening to our vendors and showing appreciation for their support. Without them, this event won't happen. Without us, they have no one to sell their products to. We need each other. That is what community is about.

Make sure you participate fully and enjoy your time in Texas. I look forward to shaking your hand.