Davesbs Blog

MLSS, I passed!

A big thanks go out to Lesley March the (used to work at Microsoft but now works with them) licensing trainer and James Henderson, the Scottish Partner Manager.

Lesley was about the best at explaining Microsoft -isms I have ever encountered, from either the training or marketing perspective! Also, doing the 7 courses in one day is quite hard work for us partners and for Lesley! The MLSS is normally done over 2 days at least I think. Time to think about those 23 Software Assurance benefits

Thanks to James for organising the event and for showing willing by taking the course himself. He admitted later that he didn’t know quite as much as he could when it comes to the SMB side of licensing and the issues us SBSC partners face daily regarding licensing our clients software.

Saw James the next night at the Edinburgh SBS Users Group meeting which was the most lively I have ever seen it. James gave a run down of the changes at Microsoft Scotland (and UK) when they move the Edinburgh office to Waverly Gate (Google-Waverly Gate Microsoft, for details in the press). This new headquarters will include a technology center and new Partner suite. These will be Partner driven and can only make Microsoft Scotland a more responsive and less ‘provincial’ outpost

Looks like I missed a blog entry by David Overton in April:

http://uksbsguy.com/blogs/doverton/archive/2008/04/12/where-will-your-customers-be-looking-for-solutions-will-they-stick-to-on-premise-or-will-they-move-towards-a-s-s-or-saas-solution-not-from-you.aspx

I just posted on a couple of newsgroups re the debate about hosted or ‘in the cloud’ services that seem to be everywhere at the moment.

Microsoft are now offering hosted Exchange and Sharepoint and many partners have been doing so for a while.

Many in the community of Microsoft partners are worried about the impact hosted services will have on their own business. If client companies no longer need a physical servir in their office, where will we get the services revenue from?

Cloud based services will be a fit for some but not a fit for others, there is no size fits all in this game and probably never will be.

Anyway, here is my post. Does anyone have any comments? Hopefully you will as this is something that will need to be debated sooner rather than later and not just split between the Vlad’s Cloud is everything argument and the we will survice small IT shops!:

“Hi all,

With all the talk of hosted this and SAAS that, what do you think the
landscape will be for the ‘typical’ SBSC consultancy firm in the next
few years?

Vlad has made it pretty clear what he thinks, though he would, being
a seller of ‘Cloud’ services

Susan Bradley has pointed to the very real fact that some business
owners just don’t trust the web to deliver the services they need or
that privacy concerns play a part. Some companies like or need
physical server infrastructure. It is tangible and they have some
control over it.

I personally think that the market will fragment. The low
end ‘consultant’ or SPF in Vlad speak, the type who sell action Pack
to their clients will disappear or go back to getting rid of viruses
on little Johnny’s porn riddled home PC.
The companies they used to service may well go for the Cloud hosted
Exchange/Sharepoint or even cheaper, hosted Office/Google Apps etc.

The larger SMB on the other hand may want to cut costs by getting rid
of costly internal IT staff and go Cloud based.

I still see a good market in the middle for the focussed, valued and
personal services of a small consultant who has the best interest of
the clients business in mind.
My personal market target is SBS server, maybe multi-site with 5-20
PC’s. I have been told over and over again that it is precisely
because of the way I help the client business that they consider me a
valued business partner. I pick up work from larger ‘faceless’
IT companies who see the client business as a commodity. The business
owners certainly do not think that they are a commodity!

Don’t get me wrong, I think that the Cloud will become a major player
but I don’t think that it will be a good fit, ever, for some
companies. I happen to be excited about the Cloud as I see other
opportunities and don’t want to be all doom and gloom like some
others in the community i.e. we will all be out of business in 3
years time because Microsoft is offering hosted Exchange/sharepoint

Anyway, thanks for reading.
Thoughts?

Dave Whyte
101 Digital Services”

On Wednesday 28^th May I will be attending a Microsoft Licensing Sales Specialist training day in Edinburgh.

I am actually looking forward to this, mainly as a way to help my clients with the minefield that is MSFT licensing. It may be quite gruelling being a whole day event but it is to incorporate tangible rewards unlike many IT training days where you come away with sales bumph or short notes.

To quote from the invitation email, the day will “take you through all the modules in the MLSS certification programme as well as taking you through each of the exams and hopefully allowing you to gain the Microsoft Licensing Sales Specialist accreditation.”

Places are limited at these events and I don’t know where else they are being held but they look very valuable. Those who do manage to attend will hopefully be able to give some insight back to other MSFT partners through the newsgroups or local User Groups etc.

Have a look on the MSFT partner website for details.

If anyone who isn’t going wants a specific question answered, drop me a line or comment to this and I will do my best to get an answer from MSFT Licensing trainers.

I recently opted to scrub my four year old laptop with Vista Business from the Action Pack and reinstall XP Pro.

Vista had been running very well (without Aero as the graphics chip couldn’t cope) however some dodgy Vista wifi drivers put me off slightly. The old adage about buying hardware that is designed for Vista is true.

I had now done what many people seem to be doing and gone back to XP. Good old solid, working XP!

Unfortunately, I have a deflated feeling now. It all just seems so bland. It’s exactly like the days of early (Early, Vista has been out for over a year!) XP and Win98. People moaned about new ways of having to do things, couldn’t find menus etc. What do these same people say about XP now? They love it and think it was the best OS MSFT ever made!

The major reason people do not like Vista is because a certain bit of software will not work with it. Well why not? Is it MSFT’s fault?

It’s like my favourite technology analogy: cars. When Unleaded petrol came out, some cars could be retro fitted, others just had to stay with 4 star and all new cars were able to take Unleaded.

Just like PC’s today. Some like my old laptop can be retro fitted, some are too old and all new ones should be able to run Vista just fine.

What about software that helps run businesses though. By now, over a year on and especially with SP1, EVERY bit of Windows software should be able to run perfectly well on Vista. Some can be retro fitted with patches others have to have complete overhauls with new versions etc but they ALL should work.

Why then are there still software vendors who don’t or won’t support Vista. Imagine in the Mac market if some software was still stuck at OSX version 10.2! I know what would happen then. It really angers me that some software companies cannot or will not help their own clients with updated modern versions of their own software to keep up with technology and then blame it on Microsoft! L

Hi all,

You may have noticed, if you were interested, that I haven’t blogged for a while.

The reason…basically I haven’t been really passionate about anything much in the last month or so. Don’t know if it is to do with a slowish start to the year, being a one person business working in slight isolation or just one of those things.

Although Windows 2008 and Vista SP1 have arrived, I still didn’t feel the enthusiasm of earlier launches as I blogged about before.

Thinking about this though, the one thing I am very passionate about is helping my clients. Helping them run their businesses better by getting to know how and why they run the business. How technology and especially the right technology can help run their business better. Becoming a trusted partner to their businesses. Basically, everything that myself and many many other single person or small IT businesses can/should provide to their clients. Something I think the big (PC World/BT/Dell etc) service providers cannot, although they claim local presence etc.

The credit crunch may be beginning to hit with some clients looking at leasing instead of buying outright. However, I haven’t detected companies not wanting a focused, personal, local, trusted IT provider to become their outsourced IT department and business partner.

Roll on SBS 2008…now that is something I am enthusiastic about

Hooray, it’s finally here…the news we have all been waiting for…drum roll please………………………………..

Yes it’s that announcement. Microsoft have been fined again!

News headlines everywhere: ‘EU fines Microsoft record $1.4bn’

You didn’t think I was going to blog about, what is it, Windows Server 2008 or something like that?

How can this happen on a day that quite rightly should change the corporate computing world like nothing since Windows NT? That’s my take on it.

Now, it’s not Microsoft’s fault that this news comes out on the very same day that Server 2008 is launched, just like it is not altogether Microsoft’s fault that some parts of Vista don’t work because other companies haven’t written new drivers or updated their software.

IT IS Microsoft’s fault that this launch has been, well not even a sideline but a non-entity. Where is the reasoning, the business case, the techie explanation, the fanfare, the ticker-tape parade, Steve Ballmer saying something remotely eye-catching?

Whilst a Server OS is never going to capture the hearts and minds of average Joe users, it should get techies and business people/press excited.

Fact is however, unless you are extremely geeky or work for Microsoft, this launch has (I will repeat) been a non-entity. Even most techie people have not really bothered to keep up with the news. Anecdotal evidence from my very small straw poll I grant you but none the less there has been no huge groundswell of interest or fanfare.

Microsoft have been criticised for years that their software is insecure, bloated, badly written, over-priced etc etc etc…. yawn.

Well here is (was) a chance to show that they have changed. Server Core, self-healing NTFS, Virtualisation and Powershell to name a few things that really should get businesses as well as techs frothing at the mouth over.

What do we get instead: ‘EU fines Microsoft record $1.4bn’

Why oh why?

We will miss her!

Beautiful, a strong adjective. This is reserved for the most attractive amongst us!

Susanne is one of those.

Let me explain!

Apart from the obvious (unless you are hard of seeing or asexual, Susanne is a very attractive girl ), Susanne ‘attracts’ people with her obvious knowledge and enthusiasm. 

The SMB market can be a tough nut to crack but Susanne has been trying and supporting people who have tried for many years.

Many thanks to Susanne and I hope she has a great time whatever she is doing around the world, thanks for all the support you have given me!

Love ya babe!

Dave

Whilst I service and integrate Apple Mac’s with PC’s, I am coming to the horrible conclusion that the operating system religious argument has come full circle.

Whilst a few years ago, it was almost amusing to compare XP with Tiger, now it is derigeur to make Vista appear like Leopard!

Why?

Each has their own ‘religious zealots’ but not so many independent commentators. Well now I am one!

Surprise surprise, each to their own, some love/hate/like Vista whilst others do the same with OSX Leopard.

When you look at the facts, the reason people in the Windows world are so up in arms is because of change.

Mac people put up with and/or love, change. Well you might think that but, OSX hasn’t ‘really’ changed for years.

If Windows stayed in the same time-line as OSX, we would all be using XP, and whilst nothing wrong with that, at least Microsoft has tried to move forward and got rid of some old baggage. What do they get for their trouble?

A lot of bollocks that’s what.

All I want to know is:

1. what do you think makes Vista so unusable
2. why is XP better
3. why is the 5% market share Apple Mac better
4. why is XP so much of an attractive proposition, and if it is, why do all these people suddenly want a MAC? (even though they don’t)!

Off my soapbox,

Cheers,

Dave

After doing an all nighter and a Server down/restore from first thing this morning plus a 6.45am BNI meeting where I did my 10 minute presentation, usual networking, quotes, quotes, qoutes and more paperwork……..

I do appreciate the thought of an extra pair of hands. Wage bill alone doesn’t bear thinking about even if it was a part time student to do some techie stuff. I would have to treble monthly contracts income overnight to contemplate getting help onboard!

It makes me wonder how others in my shoes get on? It must be a very common problem.

Anyone?…