Thinking, Learning, Questioning
Some thoughts on SBSC
Microsoft has a fixation for case studies which are compete based i.e. you replaced a Linux solution with Microsoft. They’ll jump all over you for this! Tell them you have stories where you deployed SBS 2003 and it transformed the way a business operated and it’s yawn city for them! The point is this, that SBSC Partners do this day in and day out – keeping small businesses operating and giving them modern IT infrastructure. The change in some of these businesses can be amazing and on the surface may seem nothing, not even worth reporting but boy do they have an impact on the way people work. Microsoft continues to be completely underwhelmed by the work we do and the range of technologies we deploy – we perform minor miracles! The greatest stories are those of ordinary people doing ordinary things or maybe I should say ordinary people being empowered to do extraordinary things. Microsoft needs to come and see what we do and you can’t do that from the comfort of Microsoft HQ.
The SBSC Programme is like the Programme that dare not mention its name, in fact some who work within Small & Medium Business never mention it! If they were to meet a SBSC Partner you feel they would be like a rabbit caught in the headlights and try and make it to the safety of a Gold Certified Partner doing Business Solutions. I guess we can be a bolshy lot and that we don’t necessarily fit into nice neat Microsoft compartmentalised silos. We’re not going to cover many PAMs in glory – bless their little target driven cotton socks! Shock horror, we work with competitive technologies and have multiple vendor relationships and we speak our mind when things at Microsoft suck. We are unpredictable and ungrateful, probably in about equal measure.
One thing each and everyone of us has done has been to take real risks in life. We’ve bet our livelihoods, the growth of our businesses and the success of our customer’s businesses on Microsoft Technology so we deserve the maximum amount of support from Microsoft and for them to step into our shoes sometime.
To each and every SBSC Partner out there, I truly respect what you all do!
- Vlad Mazek – Vladville Blog » Blog Archive » Some Thoughts on SBSC by Vijay
- SBSC & MSP Buzz » Blog Archive » Rock On Vijay!
- SBSC & MSP Buzz » Blog Archive » Rock On Vijay!
- SBSC & MSP Buzz » Blog Archive » Rock On Vijay!
- SBSC & MSP Buzz » Blog Archive » Rock On Vijay!
- SBSC & MSP Buzz » Blog Archive » Rock On Vijay!
- SBSC & MSP Buzz » Blog Archive » Rock On Vijay!
- SBSC & MSP Buzz » Blog Archive » Rock On Vijay!
about 5 years ago
Damn you brits and your eloquence.
“Marvelously written.”
-Vlad
about 5 years ago
Thanks Vlad, of course I have to thank our literary mentor, Ms Dansey SBS MVP. It’s all we can do to keep up with her
about 5 years ago
Love you dude, but you can’t hold a candle to her.
-Vlad
about 5 years ago
I’m right there with you.
about 5 years ago
Funny, when I read the first line, I read it as “completely biased” rather than “compete based”. Interesting that both mean the same thing here. Very well written Vijay. This one gets posted on the company bulletin board for a while.
about 5 years ago
I love it! So truly said. Not everything in the “SMALL” would can be Microsoft. Where do they think big business started!
about 5 years ago
Cheers folks!
I’m truly amazed how innovative SBSC Partners are and quite often working on shoestring budgets with business owners who want their pound of flesh!
…and if you want to have a good time, go out for a few beers with some SBSC Partners preferably at a WPC Party
about 5 years ago
Nice one Vijay
Looks like catching up on all that sleep did some good
Great post and completely hits the nail on the head. As much as Microsoft likes to say how big “small business” is to them it does sometimes feel like we’re a little unimportant to HQ, though i know thats not always the case else we would have SBS!
Your spot on with how it empowers small businesses to dramatically improve their businesses. The install i’m doing this week is for volunteer based charity so they don’t have a product as such to sell
Since all their staff deal with information SBS is going to transform how they work. Email on the go, working remotely, converting some of their old fashioned and clunky database is into sharepoint lists. It goes on and on
Thankfully we have lots of people in the form of Small Business Specialists who do think its a big deal
about 5 years ago
Andy, that’s an excellent example and precisely what I’m talking about! I have a similar story with a charity I support (Business in the Community) and who’s Director recently won the Marks and Spencer Sieff Award for oustanding contribution to the Community. Not really very newsworthy at all, heh!! Oh, and what has enabled their growth, yes you guessed it SBS 2003. To Microsoft this is boring, give them stories about ripping Linux out despite the fact they give Novell Suse Linux vouchers to Enterprise Customers and have an Open Source Solutions Lab! A few months ago they told me they would clarify what the requirements are for writing case studies – I’m still waiting! But according to them we don’t send enough in. But it’s all about attitude. It’s not as if we are something outside of Microsoft, we’re Microsoft Partners, passionate, committed and a “Community”. Microsoft can hardly say that about any other part of their partners. Ask how many of their larger Partners are running Vista and Office 2007 and it’s almost embarrassing. Where was the coolest place to be at WPC – yes, it was the Yellow Lounge! Which Group on WPC Connect had the most discussion – yes it was the SBSC Group! I could go on and on…
If Microsoft aren’t talking about SBSC Partners when they have appropriate opportunities then they are really devaluing their own Programme and their own Corporate Strategy. I could say lots more, but I’ll only end up getting into trouble!
about 5 years ago
Money talks, bull…. walks
At the end of the day it’s all about money and Microsoft is a business and they pay the most attention to people that make the most money. This is the same with every single company.
You mean to tell me that you don’t give any better of a service to your largest account as you do to your smallest? If something exploded at the most profitable client and most unprofitable client at the exact same time – who would get the priority response?
Same with any other company, esp the richest company in the world, one with greedy shareholders that have been pushing the stock price down for years simply because the growth was not there. A single enterprise account was larger than the entire yellow lounge put together – and in terms of headcount I assure you Microsoft spends more money on us (SBSC) than it does on a single large corp account even with the PAM, TS and other enterprise sales and support teams.
It’s just the nature of business. It is not disrespectful of the SBSC in the least bit, it is just chasing a money which at the end of the day is the mission statement of every commercial private entity:
“We are in business of generating profits through ___ by ___.”
Fill in the blanks any way you wish.
-Vlad
about 5 years ago
…of course money/profits is the driver. How many Enterprise Accounts do Microsoft have? Working in SMB, the revenues per company are going to be smaller but the point is how many small businesses are there? I’m sure we’ve all seen the figures for SMEs for number of people employed, percentage of GDP, etc, etc.
It’s not just about money it’s about market share and mindset as well! Who’s going to deliver for Microsoft in SMB? Of course I want it to be SBSC Partners
about 5 years ago
In response to Vlad,
You are correct, in a crisis I run to the money. In times of plenty, I spend more per seat with smaller customers as one in 10 grow up to be bigger customers. It is easy to forget where some of our best account have come from. To have a tall and stable pyramid, I suggest a broad enough base.