Andy's Techie Blog

It’s come to light recently that some partners are having their SBSC status change without realising

The reason being that the Sales and Marketing Assessment you have to complete when signing up only lasts for two years. On top of this you don’t receive any E-mails or alerts to let you know.

Microsoft are aware of this and looking into it but in the meantime just do the following to check

Logon to the Microsoft partner portal (this link is for the UK)

Click “View Your Membership Account” and then click “Membership Center”

Select “Competency Summary” from the “Requirements & Assets” menu

Scroll down until you find the Small Business Specialist Community section

You’ll notice at the bottom it’s letting me know that I need to complete the assessment so click on the “Training and Assessment” link

This takes you to the assessment page – click start to begin (make sure you allow pop-ups from the site)

The assessment is shouldn’t be too difficult to complete if you’ve already done it once before. Once you pass you should see this

You can then return to the competency summary to check to see if you are compliant once again – this doesn’t appear to update straight away though (it hadn’t when I’d posted this) so check back later

I’ve been meaning to post about the changes at AMITPRO for a little while but I’ve been a bit on the busy side recently. I’ve started the post about three times and never finished it!

So the changes…if you’re a regular attendee to AMITPRO you’ll already know that Steve Wright has decided to stand down as group leader

He’s done a great job over the last twelve months and will still have input into the group via his Partner Area Lead role

As of this month the new leader of the group is Guy Gregory of Peak Support and me!

Both Guy and I had shown an interest in taking on the group lead role and decided a joint effort would bring more to the group and sharing the responsibilities can only be a good thing

Since I’ve been involved with AMITPRO there has always been a great spirit of collaboration so it makes perfect sense from my perspective to take this on with someone else

If Guy and myself can keep up the great work from Steve and Vijay before him AMITPRO will continue to be a great resource for IT Professionals in the Midlands area

Tonight’s meeting was our first as joint leaders. Steve had already organised the speakers so we were able to hit the ground running!

Our first speaker was Zoe Russell of ZHR Marketing

She gave a great presentation about marketing specifically for the small business. It took a while for the group to warm up but once they did there were lots of questions and ideas about different marketing ideas. Hopefully it will have given everyone some new ideas!

Next up was Cécile Cathala and Richard Zinner from StorageCraft Europe

While StorageCraft isn’t a new name over in the States they are only just branching out into the UK.

StorageCraft is a backup imaging product for grabbing snapshots of servers and PC (competing products are Backup Exec System Recovery and Acronis TrueImage) that can also restored to dissimilar hardware or even a virtual environment

They have editions for Desktop PCs, Servers and Small Business Server

There is also a managed service provider licensing model if you would like to provide backup and recovery as a service

One of their unique features is their IT Edition. This is a technician license that allows you to create images of as many servers as you need. You can also run this directly from a CD or USB Drive while the system is running

There are trial versions of the products available so it’s definitely worth a look

Just a quick overview of both speakers. They both did a great job

Afterwards we retired to the bar and continued with our usual mix of chat about business, life the universe and everything!

Next month we’ll be organising speakers of our own…that’s when it gets really serious!

A book review!

Small Business Server 2008 – Installation, Migration, and Configuration by David Overton

While there are some great books for anyone working in the SBS space I’m of the opinion there aren’t enough written in the UK so it was with great anticipation I awaited the release of this book once I’d heard UKSBSGuy, David Overton was penning this title

I’m pleased to say the book doesn’t disappoint

The title fully covers exactly what the book is all about

Installation

Getting SBS 2008 up and running as quickly and smoothly as possible on a new system. Even though this is a pretty straight forward situation it fully described and backed up with pictures

Migration

Making the move from SBS 2003 to SBS 2008. The book follows the official Microsoft steps for migration and builds on top of that with lots of pointers and makes you aware of any “gotchas” along the way

Configuration

Once SBS 2008 is installed the book then goes through all the steps you need to go from installed to operating in a production environment. This is where you’ll learn about areas such as installation of a 3rd party SSL certificate, working with Office Live and configuring backups

The book has three other additional areas (it would have been a really long title!)

Managing User and Computers

While it may sound a pretty trivial area a chapter is dedicated to creating users and groups and adding computers and ensuring they are kept up-to-date

Working with SBS Services as a user

This is a great chapter. When a new server goes in to a business more often than not one of the first questions you’ll get it is

“What does it do?”

As a techie it’s then very easy to reel off a long list of things the system can do. This chapter takes that list and steps through it in a simple and easy to understand fashion covering three main areas

E-mail, Calendar and Contacts – this demonstrates Exchange functionality

Managing Files – covering SharePoint/Companyweb use, search and file recovery (via Shadow Copies)

Remote Access – everything you need to know about Remote Web Workplace, OWA, Mobile phones and connecting via VPN

Introduction to SBS 2008 Management

A full introduction into looking after SBS 2008 once it is running as expected

Areas covered include

Using the admin tools, configuring daily reports, security, backups, storage and event logs

The last part of this chapter looks at common problems and how to resolve them (e.g checking DNS forwarders, tweaking spam settings and investigating poor performance)

Conclusion

The book comes in at 380 pages but there are a LOT of screenshots.

Where needed David has added pictures of every step needed to complete a task which can be a massive help when you are doing something you haven’t seen before.

The language used is clear and concise and when a new piece of technical language is used an explanation is provided

The book is pitched in such a way that a tech savvy business owner who wanted to manage their own server will be able to learn from this book but not so simple that people with previous experience wont feel they like being taught old tricks

The book also breaks out to David’s website when something goes beyond the scope of the book and provides background information and other useful resources (there some very good scripts around file share migration)

From the perspective of my day job the book is worth buying just for the migration section alone. It’s in depth and covers every area without straying from the Microsoft official migration strategy. 

Not long after the launch of the book David came to an AMITPRO event where we ran through a live migration. David had never seen either of the servers provided but following the steps in the book a successful migration was completed with a minimum of fuss (Vijay blogged about it at the time here)

Having spoken to David at the event I know he put a lot of work into it and it certainly shows

The book is available in either print or e-book formats directly from the Packt website (though it is available in lots of other places too)

If you work with SBS 2008 this is definitely worth picking up

Susan Bradley says it’s great too so what other recommendation do you need

Disclaimer: A review copy of the book was kindly provided by Packt Publishing – I’ve donated the money I would have spent on the book to Cancer Research UK

I’ve been asked to spread the word about an upcoming event

On Wednesday 7 October, the Microsoft UK team will be inviting partners to the number one UK channel event, Microsoft Partner Network: 2009 at Wembley Stadium.

This free event will give attendees  insights into current Microsoft strategies and the direction the company is taking the business, first-sight of some of the innovative technologies launching this year, and information about how partners can work better together for greater success.

The event is aimed at Partner executives and sales leads and set to be the event of the year for Microsoft in the UK.  American and UK Microsoft executives will be on hand to learn:

· Insights from Microsoft executives as they share the Microsoft vision and strategies together with business growth opportunities and product innovation

· A range of Partner-to-Partner online and offline networking opportunities, plus strategic and practical guidance on how to collaborate successfully with other Microsoft Partners

· Market insights and guidance on developing customer opportunities

· Useful resources to help you sell, market and deploy Microsoft technology, particularly when you find yourself in competitive technology situations

· A glimpse into future industry trends and innovation, with exciting demonstrations

· An introduction to the UK award winners from the Worldwide Partner Conference 2009

To register your place at this essential event, click: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/InviteOnly.aspx?EventID=DD-1E-C0-39-22-3C-75-22-2A-77-E7-A8-70-48-B2-67&Culture=en-GB and enter invite code: 22BAF4 or call: 0870 166 6670

Check the Microsoft Partner Network 2009 website for more details about the event over the coming weeks. You can also sign up to our RSS service, or follow us on Twitter.

This has been posted on the UK SBSC Blog with a bit more information so check that out too!

I’m blogging on this a couple of weeks after the event because I’ll be honest I wasn’t entirely sure how I felt about this

At WPC a couple of weeks ago it was announced an overhaul to the partner programme is on the way

There is a great explanation of it on the UK SBSC blog here

I’m sure the programme definitely needs a kick in the butt. As Microsoft’s and our own businesses evolve, the way we work together evolves too so a revamp will be good

Specifically for people who are currently SBSC certified there are some big changes too

The Small Business Specialist Community designation will be reassigned to a new competency called Small Business Solutions.  Key enhancements include providing additional entry points to target other types of partner communities such as Web VARs.  With that, the new competency will retain many of the same requirements and benefits that partners are familiar with today – and partners should continue to enrol in the Small Business Specialist Community designation to maintain program status and benefits.

Ok so Microsoft want to be able to get different types of IT businesses involved in small business? That’s cool

However, my initial reaction was one of disappointment though as I’ve always seen SBSC and competencies as two distinctly separate things.

I’ve always felt it was a separate group within the partner programme. In the same way that registered partners and certified partners are separate groups.

It’s something that differentiates us when we go talk to clients. When talking to a client an MCTS certification (for example) and a competency are pretty synonymous for them. The MCTS applies to the individual and the competency applies to the business and helps outline capabilities

So reading the rest of the post from the UK SBSC post the next bit caught my eye

Can I still use my logo?

Continue to use the logos you have today. You’ll be able to use Microsoft Partner Network logos after October 2010, after you have met the requirements. Existing logos will be retired six months after the new logo system is available

Initially I didn’t think this was a big deal. The “blue badge” would get an overhaul too to reflect the new programme but when i read Steve Wright’s (UK PAL extraordinaire) two posts I changed my view on this

This is his first post with his initial reaction – like me a little concerned about losing a key differentiator

MS partner program evolves – is it goodbye to the SBSC community?

In his second post Steve talks about how he discussed his concerns during his first PAL meeting

First PAL meeting

This is the stand out part for me. (I’ve highlighted a specific sentence for emphasis)

The impression I got was that Microsoft are looking to simplify the partner program and have therefore decided to create various new competencies and that includes bringing the SBSC designation into that framework. The concern over the disappearance of the “blue badge” was raised and it seemed to come as a surprise to Birger that it would cause concern for partners. I do get the impression that in some countries the SBSC designation has not taken off in the community sense like it has in the UK. Birger talked about the possibility of incorporating some kind of SBSC logo in to the new Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) and would take that information back to Redmond.

Surprised it would cause concern?

Does the fact we have a pet name for the logo (“blue badge”) not indicate that it’s quite a big deal to us?

Susan Bradley also sums it up really well here

WHAT IS BLUE AND WHITE AND…?

You have got to be kidding.  You guys taking a page out of "shoot ourselves in the foot" AICPA again?  You have a brand.  One that people are proud of, and you are going to throw it away?  Before you rolled this out did you even talk to anyone?  Run it by anyone in the SBSC?  You have a Partner Lead group, did you get their feedback?

It’s a brand and a logo that people have stuck on shirts and cars.  Don’t throw it away without listening to your partner network.

Quite

We’re one of those companies that are proud of our SBSC certification and the logo is a big part of that. I’ve got a blue badge sticker on my laptop, it’s on our van, it’s on the door to our office, it’s on our website, it’s on every single piece of paper we produce, it’s in our email signatures, I even had some stickers printed once upon a time

We’ve also just had some brochures and leaflets printed and the blue badge actually features more than our own logo!

I originally wasn’t going to post about this as I thought Steve and Susan said everything that needed to be said and I wouldn’t be adding anything extra, but I guess I just need to be another voice that says I quite like our little part of the partner programme. I understand that things need to change and we need to change with it but it feels like all the work that has gone into building SBSC as a brand is about to disappear

I’m also wondering what it means in the long term for SBSC as a whole. The new programme will come into effect over the next twelve months which is roughly how long the PAL role runs for.

What does it mean for Steve Wright, Andy Trish and the rest of the worldwide PALs?

Do Microsoft need partner feedback for a competency?

There aren’t PALs for the “Advanced Infrastructure Solutions competency” or the “Licensing Solutions competency” are they?

Did they not speak to the PALs about this?

I don’t think the community will disappear overnight as groups like AMITPRO would continue but the SBSC certification is great focal point for that and it’s something we all rally around

At the end of Steve’s post he said that he’ll be putting concerns over to Emily Lambert at his first regional PAL meeting so it’ll be good to hear more details what the plans are going forward

I’ve been sitting on this one for a few weeks as PC Pro magazine articles don’t appear on the site straight away (which i can understand)

First let me start off my saying I’ve previously been a massive fan of PC Pro magazine. My interest in the magazine has waned in recently years for a few reasons but that’s probably worth a blog post all of it’s own. That said I do still still pick it up from time to time

This months PC Pro kicked off a feature that talks about IT in small businesses. Obviously this caught my eye and I’ll be honest. I was shocked at how badly researched the article seems. I understand this is the first part in series but I don’t think it’s gotten off to the best start

Keeping it really simple the article says that you have a couple of choices

Cloud apps in combination with some open source software (think Google apps & Open Office with maybe Kerio MailServer) or an on-premise Microsoft solution with the Office suite (read the article this is vastly simplified)

So far so good – the Cloud / Open Source argument is a whole other kettle of fish so I’ll just focus on the Microsoft solution

What irked me was that the article talks about the on premise solution meaning Exchange 2003 (in preference to 2007!) with the possibility of adding SharePoint

If this article is about SMBs and you’re going to mention Microsoft solutions why not actually look at the small business solutions Microsoft offer?

If you read this blog on a regular basis you know that for me that means

Small Business Server

Then depending on the size of the business your dealing you can also take into account

Essential Business Server

Windows Server 2008 Foundation

Windows Home Server (It’s not specifically a small business product but fits well for micro-businesses)

The article then goes on to talk about a few things I’d like to highlight

Firstly, it talks about using Exchange in combination with mobile devices and indicates you’ll need to use IMAP, touting the iPhone as an example

For example, many employees will have smartphones capable of picking up email via IMAP. Careful setup allows them to do so in a secure, encrypted way. The iPhone, for example, can pull email from various accounts

What about ActiveSync? The iPhone supports that you know? As do Nokia’s E & N series devices (which are aimed at business) and tons of other devices – and that’s without mentioning Windows Mobile

It then says

If you make the move to ES2007, then it’s possible to use this to manage the phones too – remote lockdown and wipe both become possible

Exchange 2003 has been able to do remote wipe and device security since service pack 2 was released. Obviously Exchange 2007 makes improvements but that doesn’t mean Exchange 2003 doesn’t do it at all!

Staying with Exchange

A key issue with ES2003 is to ensure you’re getting the most from it. For example, many companies limit the user inbox size in an attempt to keep below the 16GB limit of the original ES2003 release. However, this limit has been raised in recent SP versions, and you should be allowing more online storage of company information if possible.

Why mention the 16GB limit? If your going to deploy Exchange 2003 you will be installing service pack 2 as support for service pack 1 expired on 08/01/2008. This means you have no reason not to make use of the 75GB extended limit

As far as can see the article is aimed at the small business owner, and while this statement makes sense

You can never have too much security, but SMBs are often very surprised at how much they can do with what they already have. This is especially true if you’re running Exchange Server 2003 with recent Windows clients. A thorough understanding of Group Policy can totally transform the network computing experience, and bring peace and calm to an otherwise chaotic network. Making sure that My Documents, and its brothers and sisters, all point to network shares means that irreplaceable documents dumped on the desktop will actually be backed up properly.

What has Exchange Server got to do with group policy? Group Policy is an Active Directory feature?

Also SBS 2003 and SBS 2008 have management consoles that make it possible for an interested business owner to look after the server themselves. There is even a simple wizard to configure the My Documents folder to redirect to the server without having to go anywhere near any group policy settings

I’m presuming this means SharePoint

If money is available then you can’t beat Microsoft Office 2007 for bells and whistles, but only if you back it up with Microsoft’s server-side collaboration software. This is a whole different level of investment, and one worth doing if finances allow.

Windows SharePoint Services is still free whether you’re using Small Business Server or “vanilla” Windows Server so what level of investment being referred to? Depending on your level of skill then customising SharePoint could require investment but as a software purchase? If you went with SBS it all gets configured it all for you

Also by completely missing out Small Business Server (and Essential Business Server) you are missing out one killer feature that enterprise has pay extra for

Remote Web Workplace

Complete access to your email, SharePoint site and remote control of your office PC all from a single, easy to use web site. The 2003 version was great and the 2008 version is even better!

In addition to the technology Microsoft can offer a small business they also have group of their partners who specifically work with small business

Small Business Specialists – we’ve even got a funky blue badge (for now!)

We’re also a community so when I say we I’m not just talking about my company. We form partnerships with other Small Business Specialists to make sure we can cover everything our clients need

Our day-to-day operations are geared towards working with small business owners and getting the right technology for their business. We’ll even be their IT department if they want meaning their staff can get on with the jobs they are actually paid to do. We’re also flexible enough to lend a helping hand if they do want to do it themselves

Finally this baffles me

Don’t leave 2003 until all of it has been properly virtualised into either VMware or Hyper-V, or an equivalent of choice. The future world is a virtualised one, and moving to a new OS version running directly on the hardware is the wrong answer to the wrong question.

Yes the future is virtual, even in small businesses (we’ve got an expert for that too!). But using virtualisation as a reason for not moving to the latest OS version makes no sense in my opinion. If you want to stay on the previous generation of OS fine. But do it because it makes sense for your business not because you don’t think the current generation isn’t up to being virtualised (which i don’t agree with either but again that could be a post on it’s own)

Obviously it’s really easy for me to be critical. However, the article does make some other good points

The paragraph on the first page titled “First Steps” is excellent (I’m not going to reproduce it – go read it! – the whole of the first page is actually good reading)

Then it takes a cautious approach to the running of a small business purely on Cloud Apps. It doesn’t say you should avoid it completely but also doesn’t jump on the “everything should run in the cloud” mindset that a lot of the media seems to have nowadays. Hosted solutions are ideally suited for some businesses and not others in my opinion so choose the solution that fits.

There is also a good piece on backups that starts with this

It’s astonishing how many companies get backup wrong. There are three things to consider here. First, there’s backup and restore for recent data. Then there’s disaster recovery to bring back servers from the dead. Finally, there’s the role of archiving for long-term storage.

In summary I’m disappointed that this has come out of PC Pro and I had to read the article a couple of times to get my head around it.

As always I’d love to hear your opinion as I know I don’t always have the answers

I’ve just got back from tonight’s AMITPRO meeting where I was speaking about InfoPath (if your still wondering what InfoPath is I’ll post about this soon!)

All in all I was pleased with how it went down and got some great comments from people there

Since I’m my own worse enemy when it comes to things I do I’m going to critique myself to make sure I learn!

If the ultimate goal was to give everyone an overall view of what InfoPath is, how it works, how much it costs, etc I think i achieved that. Driving back i thought of a couple of things I’d have liked to improve

1) Slides – some slides I skipped over far too quickly. I’d put the slide in there for a reason so why bother not using it?

2) Specific plan – I would have no hope of memorising some sort of script, etc so my plan was to use the slides as prompts and then talk from my own knowledge and experience which I think generally worked ok but i possibly over emphasised some things and glossed over other points altogether as I tried to make sure I covered everything. The other problem with this is that if I had to give the same presentation again it would probably be very different. It also meant I sort of dwindled away instead of having a clear specific ending

3) Speed – it felt to me like I raced through the entire thing though obviously that’s just my perspective as I was concentrating on recalling other things while talking at the same time

4) Demos – My demos weren’t as structured as I’d have liked (this sort of follows on from point 2) which I sometimes ended up wandering down dead ends

We rarely have group members speak at meetings so it was personally big deal for me to get it right. If you were there tonight thanks for your attention. Any feedback you have (good or bad!) is appreciated

I enjoyed the whole experience though I could probably do with a laptop upgrade  

Having a bad case of insomnia so thought I’d get up and do something productive…then i ended up here

The next AMITPRO meeting is this Tuesday (12th April), 17:00 at the Arden hotel (as always!)

There will be two sessions this month

First is Sally Ross, SMB Channel Development Manager for Citrix who will be talking about the recently rebranded Citrix Access Essentials (now XenApp Fundementals). She’ll be accompanied by Kathryn Whyte who is a Citrix and Microsoft Product Sales Specialist from Ingram Micro.

I met both ladies at a recent Citrix event so will be looking forward to seeing them present for the group

The second session is by someone called Andy Parkes

I’ll be doing a short piece on Microsoft Infopath covering what it is, how you can get it with a sprinkling of demos to show how it works

Look forward to seeing you on the 12th!

I mentioned in a recent post that I wouldn’t be attending the SBS launch event at the AMITPRO meeting so I’d be going to the Bristol event instead

That was last Thursday and I’m pleased I made the journey down

It was the first time I’ve attended an SBS user group that isn’t AMITPRO so it good to see how it’s done elsewhere

The event was held at Thornbury Golf Course, which looked very impressive as I was making my way up the huge driveway but I’m not really a golf person so what do I know!

I was greeted by the group leader Andy Watkins and I then bumped into SBS MVP Tim Long who made the trip from Wales. Tim is in the process of getting the South Wales user group running again so if your in that part of the world get in touch with him!

There were three people from Microsoft running the event

Emily Lambert – Channel Community Development Manager – Our “go to” for anything SBSC related

Gareth Hall – Windows Server Product Manager – The guy in charge of SBS and EBS in the UK

Jamie Burgess – Partner Technical Specialist – Tech guy focusing on SBS/EBS. He’s your technical “sounding board”

The team did a really good job and tried to answer all questions as openly and honestly as possible

They went over various topics including new features, licensing, the SBSC programme

I’m not going to go into the content of event as you should go and find out yourself!

Sandwiched in-between all the SBS stuff was a “marketing 101” by Julie Simpson from ResourceIT who specialise in Sales and Marketing for Microsoft partners

This session was put on as Emily had received a lot of feedback from partners who wanted help on this side of things

Julie also provided everyone with Microsoft Abbreviation Dictionary (MAD!) which is exactly what it sounds like and is something she’s been putting together to help wade through the jargon and made it available to everyone that attended

Another reason for taking the launch event “on the road” was to help foster more interest from small business specialists who don’t normally attend user groups. I spoke to a couple of people who weren’t regulars to the Bristol group and talked about some of the benefits I’ve had with AMITPRO and they also seemed positive about the event so hopefully there will some new faces in the near feature

All in all I pleased I made the trip down. Emily is taking feedback on every event so it should get better and better as it continues on it’s tour.

Thanks to everyone who made the event a success!

It’s been a couple of months since I blogged about how I’d not posted all that much recently.

It’s happened again.

After a brief flurry I realised today I haven’t posted anything for two weeks

I’ve no idea where the last two weeks have gone to be honest and I didn’t realise it had been that long

This morning I think I realised that I’ve had a change in my blogging behaviour. In the past if I had an idea for a blog post I’d start writing it straight away or at the very least the next time I was at a computer. Working in this way meant that any ideas I had stayed fresh and I would forget any details

At the moment when I have an idea writing the blog post goes into the “to do” list in my head where I then plan to write when I’ve finished whatever I’m currently doing. As you’ve probably guessed something else always comes up and the blogging has suffered.

Fortunately it’s not a lack of ideas it’s just a behavioural thing so I’ll try and break the bad habit I’ve gotten into over the last few months

Also the fact that I always seem to have something else to do indicates how busy things are for at the moment which is obviously a good thing!

There is no other point to this post other than to write it while I was thinking about it

I should have plenty to write about in the next couple of weeks as we’re getting closer to the SBS 2008 launch!

In case you didn’t know the WESS partner Readiness Tour has already started. Microsoft are bringing the launch to the user groups!

The AMITPRO event is November 12th but unfortunately I won’t be going

We’re having a short holiday while there is still just three of us and I can’t be in two places at the same time! A colleague of mine is still going to be attending so the company will be represented

I don’t really want to miss the tour though so I’m planning on going to the Bristol User Group next Thursday (23rd October – 17:30 start)

The Bristol user group is run by Andy Watkins who is very kindly letting me gatecrash

If your a member of the Bristol user group it’d be great to hear from you before then!