The Sikh Geek

During this year’s WPC in Houston there was much discussion about how the PALs should communicate publicly. To cut a long story short the PALs have created a Sharepoint site http://www.sbscpal.com which has been very kindly provided by Jose Morales (one of the European PALs based in Slovenia). It’s a WSS 3.0 site which Jose and his team at B4 Contact have built a CMS around called Sharepoint CMS. This allows the public facing site to be branded and have some great templates added. The content is easily managed via an intuitive web based interface. It has been created by the PALs and paid for by the PALs but with the full support of Microsoft. It is independent of Microsoft so they do not control the content, we do as a Community!

The site is split into the PAL regions of the World and on the frontpage you can click on the respective country flag to go into that public area. The UK region can be found here and is maintained by myself.

The reason for writing this post is to start to encourage people to contribute to this site via me if you are a UK SBSC Partner. The content is open to what you think would be valuable but here are some of my thoughts :-

• Blog roll links to SBSC UK Partners (if you have an active blog let me know!)
• Contact details of Current SBSC Groups
• Upcoming Events
• Partner Interviews (let me know if I could interview you about business/technical stuff?)
• Business/Technical Articles (would you be willing to write an article for the site?)
• Customer Case Studies (do you have an existing Microsoft Published Case study which could be highlighted or one of your own stories?)
• Links to other existing resources

Now, I know you UK SBSC Partners can be a shy retiring bunch sometimes so I’m not expecting a sudden stampede to contribute so I’ll be reaching out to certain people in the coming weeks to seek contributions by calling in favours, begging and bribery:-) We have commitments from Microsoft to provide contributions so this is a serious thing we are doing. We want to make this site unique and not just be duplicating content. This can be a great Showcase/PR vehicle for you as a UK Partner because it will be seen at the highest levels of Microsoft not just in the UK but also at Microsoft Corporate level. I’m pretty sure Andrea Russell in Redmond will make certain that people within Microsoft see what we are doing as a Community.

So, contact me at vijay@sikhgeek.com or Mob: 07773 123 562

Harry Brelsford of SMB Nation (as if I have to explain who he is!) has organised a one day conference at the Microsoft Offices in Victoria, London on 5th December 2008.

The content will be provided by Harry and Jeff Middleton of SBS Migration, pretty much the de facto Guru on migrating SBS Servers.

Check out the full agenda here and sign-up.

Good to see Richard Tubb has taken on the role as post event secretary, so count me in to the celebrations afterwards - good man!

Poor old Nancy Williams has been trying to get me on these valuable webinars for the past months since we got back from WPC. For one reason or another my schedule is just booked out these days like crazy and I’m going to miss this as well as I’ll be in London with the family for a few days on their half term break.

The next webinar is on 21st October at 4.00 - 5.00pm BST. The details are below :

If you don’t know about the MSP Services Network then check out their website. It’s the brainchild of Amy Luby and she’s bringing the idea over to the UK and other places in Europe. Amy is firmly rooted in the SBS Community so understands the challenges we all face. Also, with Nancy on board, who has worked at SMB Nation and SBS Migration then you’ve got a very formidable team. Also, as much of what I do is based on relationships, Nancy is one of nicest people around.

MSPSN Masters EU: Selling Value

Join us for a Webinar on October 21

Steve Luby takes us on a deep dive into the MSP Sales Process.  So you have a Lead, now what?  How do you:
• Manage communications
• Communicate your value effectively
• Move your Lead through the pipeline
• Deliver Your Proposal
• Close the deal
Steve will walk you through the Sales Cycle, pointing out pitfalls, tip and tricks along the way.  You won’t want to miss this one!

Title:

MSPSN Masters EU: Selling Value

Date:

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Time:

4:00 PM - 5:00 PM BST

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista

Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.3.9 (Panther®) or newer

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/467488298

Yesterday evening was the first in a series of SBS/EBS launch events by Microsoft. It was run through the London SBS Group which is run by Ian Watkins of Oxbridge Technology. I made my way down to London as I’m going to miss our own Midlands SBS Launch Event on 12th November as I’ll be off to India on that day. It was a good event and very well attended and great to catch up with some familiar faces as well as some new ones as well.

James Senior and James Burgess presented an overview of SBS/EBS and highlighted some of the Partner opportunities and did some demo as well. There were some questions asked by the attendees which were (the blue bits are my own thoughts):-

Can you have the same server name after a migration?

The migration process is a domain join method where you have the servers on the same domain at the same time, so you cannot have the same name. Although Ian Watkins did say something about DNS aliases, whether the migration adds something to DNS to resolve the new server name to the old server name?

What’s the value/difference to an end user for WSS 3.0?

Microsoft made some great changes from WSS 2.0 to WSS 3.0 around the architecture of Sharepoint. It is now built on ASP.NET 2.0 and .NET 3.0 framework, which from a customisation and application development viewpoint is hugely significant. Whilst this is not all directly apparent to an end user (depending on how they are using Sharepoint) the overall experience is much better and easier to manage.

What’s the price of SBS 2008?

Unfortunately, I’ve still not seen any UK Pricing!!

Within the attendees only a few had actually played with SBS 2008 in anger and the impression I got was that people were waiting to get their hands on the RTM version through MAPS (which is due out in the next month). The RTM version is available on MSDN and Technet if you have access to that.

Emily did a great overview of Community stuff and what she had put in place and was intending to do and also setting the expectations of what Partners could reasonably expect. Check out her blog if you haven’t already which is being updated on a regular basis!

There was a presentation by Julie Simpson of ResourceIT which was an interesting discussion on Marketing/Sales for SBSC Partners. She has put together some special packages for SBSC Partners for business development which looked very interesting to me. Also her business works solely with Microsoft Partners of all types.

If you haven’t yet registered for an SBS Launch Event then check out Emily’s post on this.

A huge congratulations to Susan Bradley who has been awarded SBSer of the Year Award at SMB Nation 2008, which is currently on in Seattle. This is thoroughly deserved and as one commenter puts it on her blog, she is SBSer of the Era!

She is the ultimate professional and I hugely respect her for all that she does for the SBS/SMB/Security Community. This is all the more remarkable because that is not her day job to provide IT Support/Consultancy to other businesses, yet she has a more profound understanding of SBS/SMB/Security than most people who do it day in and day out for a living.

The other reason I respect her is that she has the guts to stand up for all SBSers, whoever they are and at whatever point they are in their business.

Thanks Susan.

On Wed 12th November at 5.30pm AMITPRO will be hosting one of the Microsoft SBS/EBS 2008 Launch Events at the Arden Hotel. Other events will be going on around the UK at various SBS Groups on various dates in Oct/Nov. This is a great endorsement and engagement by Microsoft with SBSC Partners who have been attending SBS Groups regularly. It’s brave of Microsoft to not go with a single big launch event and I’m sure this approach is going to pay off.

Thanks to Emily Lambert, SBSC Programme Lead and Gareth Hall, Windows Server Product Manager for making the right choice in my view.

Emily will be announcing the details very soon in the SBSC Newsletter, so keep an eye out for that. I just wanted to give a heads up for our Group Event, even though I’m going to miss it myself as I’m flying out to India on that day, doh! If you haven’t got one near you then come along to ours, there will be some serious networking being done at the bar afterwards over some liquid refreshment

Also keep an eye out on the other Midlands Group blogs for further info :

Steve Wright - Group Leader

Richard Tubb

Andy Parkes

I saw this post from Robbie about the SMB Preday at TechEd Australia and also a great site by Greg Lipschitz called TechEdLive.com with up to the minute info - nice!

Only Robbie could introduce a "Paper Plane" competition into the day but as we know SBSC Partners are always up for a bit of fun!

I finally got around to taking off some the video I took on the Camcorder at the Microsoft SMB Forum 2008 in Houston. It includes part of the Keynote by Michael Risse, the Microsoft VP for SMB, Peter Hilary (son of Sir Edmund Hilary - that was a great talk!) and of course Richard Tubb enjoying some beer!!

Damn a cool Party I’m going to miss but never mind try and enjoy yourselves without me, I know it will be hard I hope everyone has a good time and I’m going to want photos and all the gossip at the very least!

——————————————————————————————

PRESS RELEASE

SMB Nation 2008 Fall Conference to Hold Launch Party: Small Business Server 2008 and Essential Business Server 2008.

MarketPlace Expo SOLD OUT!

Seattle, WA – August 22, 2008 - Boasting a completely sold out tradeshow hall and host hotel, SMB Nation 2008 will hold a Small Business Server 2008 (SBS) and Essential Business Server (EBS) LAUNCH PARTY on the Saturday night of its October 4-6, 2008 annual conference in Seattle. A 58’ Hatteras yacht will be christened the M.V. SBS 2008 on the pier at the party.

“With the SBS 2008 release-to-manufacturing (RTM) yesterday, we are thrilled to be timed perfectly for the SBS 2008 and EBS 2008 products debut and look forward to toasting its great success,” said Harry Brelsford, founder and CEO of the 20,000 member SMB Nation. “Our conference is uniquely positioned to motivate and educate the small and medium business (SMB) technology consultant, channel partner and computer guy and gal!”

SMB Nation 2008 appears to be outperforming similar technology events with the complete sellout of the MarketPlace Expo tradeshow hall and with attendance figures ahead of last year. “We believe the 600+ attendees will be treated to a unique educational experience and BE THERE for the start for the next generation of SBS and the first release of EBS!” Brelsford added. Over three busy days and nights, attendees will select from three (3) academic tracks including BusinessSpeak, GeekSpeak and “How To” that provide bona fide content without “being sold to.” SMB Nation 2008 has even added a “Speakers Behaving Badly” hotline where attendees can report any speaker from the 40+ content sessions that make commercial statements to insure the most pure attendee experience possible. “We want to avoid the wolf in sheep clothing phenomena,” emphasized Brelsford.

Sponsors and attendees will meet in the spacious Bell Harbor Conference Center. “At a time when similar technology shows are behind plan, we are ahead of plan” said Brelsford. “We believe this underscores the strength of the SMB segment and the optimism our sponsors have about the SBS 2008 and EBS 2008 opportunity.” Intel and Trend Micro are the platinum sponsors leading the event followed by HP and Microsoft. Gold sponsors include Autotask, CMIT  Solutions, Aastra, SonicWall and Labtech. Silver sponsors include D&H, The Planet, Connectwise, Citrix, N-able, Reflexion, Tigerpaw Software, Nero, 19Marketplace, Symantec, StorageCraft, Acronis, Calyptix, MaxSP, Doyenz, EMC Retrospect, Quanta\Syspine, Zenith Infotech, Linked In, Backup Assist,  CRU DataPort and WatchGuard. Bronze sponsors include Netgear, Untangle, CTL Computers, Level Platforms (LPI), MSP Partners, Linksys by Cisco, Comcast, Diskeeper, Expetec, New Global Telecom (NGT), Pronto Marketing, eFolder, CoreConnex, Highly Reliable Systems, SMB Books & Results Software, Technology Marketing Toolkit, Napera Networks, Independent Computer Consultants Association (ICCA) and Integrated mar.com. 

Attendees can expect a high-quality conference with content that has been rigorously scrutinized by esteemed industry conference chairs (Dana Epp, Mikael Nystrom, Curt Hicks and Joe Moore). That has resulted in outstanding speaker selections such as Jeff Middleton, Susan Bradley, Ramon Ray and Amy Babinchak and popular topics such as How to Sell Your SBS\SMB Consulting Practice and Security in SBS 2008.

“So the last question is this. Where will you be October 4-6, 2008?” concluded Brelsford. Attendees can learn more and register at www.smbnation.com.

About SMB Nation

Founded ten years ago by Small Business Server author Harry Brelsford, Bainbridge Island, Washington-based SMB Nation supports small and medium business technology consultants to improve their business and technical skills with publications (books, SMB PC magazine) and events (SMB Nation conferences and workshops). SMB Nation boasts worldwide tribal membership in 30+ countries exceeding 20,000 consultants, resellers, VARs\VAPs and channel partners. Harry Brelsford is a Microsoft Small Business Specialist (SBSC) and holds an MBA from the University of Denver in addition to MCSE, MCT, MCP, CNE, CLSE and CNP certifications.

Contact:

Harry Brelsford

CEO, SMB Nation

206-915-3072

harryb@smbnation.com

Harry Brelsford | CEO | SMB Nation, Inc. | www.smbnation.com

Please attend our SMB Nation 2008 fall conference, October 4-6, 2008

Read Harry’s SMB Dude Blog here

Download your copy of SMB PC magazine here

Yesterday evening I went up to the SBS Manchester Group meeting to talk about some of the discussions that were had at WPC as part of the PALs Meeting. It was a very interesting discussion around a number of topics. For me it was interesting to hear what value people see in the SBSC Programme. It got me thinking and I realised that there are two separate things at play here which are :-

1. SBSC Certification/Programme Benefits
2. Community Membership and Peer-to-Peer Networking

I guess you can have the second without having the first and the question is which is the more valuable?

I have no doubt that business growth and personal development comes from the second and for people to see real value in SBSC then the two have to be more closely tied in together. By this I mean if you obtain SBSC then you should be getting into an exclusive for SBSC only Peer-to-Peer Networking Group.

There was a discussion around the SBS/EBS Launch Plans by Gareth Hall, the Microsoft Windows Server Product Manager, and what this might look like. I’m not going to give you the details because you need to get to your local SBS Group and listen to Gareth yourselves on one of his visits to the Groups. Suffice to say I really like his thinking and we certainly need to think out of the box and ultimately it must mean more SBSC Partners go out and talk to more Customers and to sell more (for Microsoft that means more licenses and for us as Partners it means getting more service revenue).

Emily Lambert, the Microsoft SBSC Programme Lead, was there to talk about some of things happening around SBSC and how she is taking feedback onboard and then eventually planning to try and start to address some of the issues.

There is a great bunch of people there at Manchester SBS Group and great that the North West is one the areas that Microsoft is implementing a Regional Approach. There is a new North West Microsoft Small Business website which I think is a fantastic idea and if you can get some Case Studies from local Partner then it will be a great resource.