http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117737738757279866.html?mod=mm_main_promo_left

Microsoft Embeds Sleeper in Business Software

By ROBERT A. GUTH
April 24, 2007; Page B1

When the Miami-Dade County Public Schools set out to build a way for its teachers, students and parents to collaborate online, it was surprised to discover it already had Microsoft Corp. software that could help do the job.

Included with software the school district had previously bought was something called SharePoint Services, which Miami-Dade used as the first step in creating a system for planning school programs and classes, posting notices, and handling other tasks that require its teachers and students to collaborate.

"We kind of unintentionally fell into it," says Deborah Karcher, executive officer at Miami-Dade's information-technology group. The school system considered an alternative from International Business Machines Corp., but with the Microsoft software already in place, "it just seemed like a very low risk."

COLLABORATION SOFTWARE

The Situation: Over the past few years, Microsoft has quietly established itself in the emerging market for collaboration software with a product called SharePoint.

Why It Matters: Collaboration software -- which allows workers to share and work together -- is a new strategic foothold for technology makers trying to gain a broader hold on corporate customers.

What's Next: Expect a fierce fight among technology giants -- Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, Adobe and others -- as each tries to become the central player in collaboration.

What Miami-Dade wanted to do is part of a broad trend in how corporations and institutions are beginning to use their computers. Historically, using most PC programs has been a solitary thing -- workers used ad hoc methods to work together, say by emailing a spreadsheet among different team members, one by one. Now a host of new "collaboration" software is letting them use corporate networks to more easily work on the same documents at the same time and accomplish any number of tasks that groups or teams do together. Workers using collaboration software, for instance, could have a particular document like a spreadsheet on their respective screens simultaneously, with all having access to the material while talking to one another over a videoconference.

To do that, companies need to install a mix of software running behind the scenes that ties together PCs, databases, email systems and other programs businesses use. Many businesses, to their surprise, are finding that Microsoft anticipated that demand and has already sold them SharePoint before they even knew they needed it.

SharePoint is now Microsoft's contender in an emerging battle over collaboration software with companies from a cross section of the technology industry including Oracle Corp., Adobe Systems Inc., IBM, EMC Corp., Cisco Systems Inc., Google Inc. and lesser-known players such as Zimbra Inc., Alfresco Software Inc., the Plone Foundation and Socialtext Inc. Each company has its own approach to collaborative software market, but "all want to be central to it," says Peter O'Kelly, an analyst at researcher Burton Group.

For Microsoft, SharePoint is a critical engine to increase sales of a broad array of its other software. In 2003 the company made a basic form of SharePoint available as a free download with Windows Server, a version of Windows for the large corporate computers of customers like Miami-Dade schools. The hope was that the customers would seek -- and pay for -- a newer version of the program with more collaboration features and would then go on to buy other Microsoft software.

To date, largely unheralded, Microsoft has sold 85 million licenses to the enhanced version of SharePoint across 17,000 companies. No marketing campaigns are in the works. "When we get SharePoint in there, it sells itself," says Jeff Teper, vice president of Microsoft's SharePoint Server group.

The free version of SharePoint is a separate download because including extra software with versions of Windows is a touchy subject with regulators. Bundling got Microsoft into trouble when it used Windows to boost its Web browser and crush rival browser maker Netscape, which prompted the company's landmark antitrust battle with the U.S. government. In the case of SharePoint, Windows Server customers have to make the decision to buy SharePoint Server, which is the full-blown collaboration software. The government has routinely monitored Microsoft's compliance with the antitrust settlement, while Microsoft has internal controls to keep its products within bounds of the settlement.

Hawaiian Airlines wants to add collaboration features to its Web site to allow, say, frequent-flier customers to share travel tips and stories, says David Osborne, chief information officer at the airline. Already standardized on Microsoft products, the airline decided to license the enhanced SharePoint software, which it has been using since last month. "It wasn't particularly difficult," Mr. Osborne says. "The thing was already part of your infrastructure."

Salespeople at American Bible Society use SharePoint from the field when they sell Bibles, take donations or sell financial instruments. If a salesperson sells a retirement package, he or she can use SharePoint to securely enter customer information that then can be accessed by American Bible Society workers who process the order. Outside partners such as financial institutions can also securely access the data, says Nick Garbidakis, chief information officer at American Bible Society.

In the past, salespeople might use a fax and/or email to submit the information, methods that were insecure and slow, says Mr. Garbidakis. "It would take days or weeks to exchange the data," he says. The society upgraded to the enhanced version of SharePoint and is now rolling it out more broadly in the organization, he said.

Microsoft's rivals, too, are profiting from collaboration software of their own. IBM's Notes software is the pioneer product in the collaboration market and despite years of losing market share, is now resurgent as IBM rolls out related products, including new software for sharing content called Quickr, that help it compete better with SharePoint, says Mr. O'Kelly, the Burton Group analyst.

Oracle, meanwhile, has built collaboration products around its core database products, most recently rolling out WebCenter Suite, a SharePoint competitor.

The collaboration battle could have long-term strategic benefits for the companies. Once a given software maker's collaboration programs are in place, a company using them will start filling them with valuable company data, from documents to videos.

After all that company data is in the system, it's hard to move to a competing system, say some industry executives, who compare the emerging collaboration battle to an earlier era when Oracle became the market leader in databases after a mass of companies committed their information to Oracle databases. Once companies were on an Oracle database it became easier for the software maker to sell upgrades and other software -- and harder for competitors to woo away the customer.

"Owning the data is owning the customer in perpetuity," says Matt Asay, vice president at Alfresco, which makes software for managing content.

"Our vision, much like Office, was to build an integrated set of compatibility that is relative low cost and easy to use," says Microsoft's Mr. Teper.

The catch: To squeeze all of the functionality out of SharePoint, Microsoft customers need to buy extra software from the company if they don't already have it. For instance, features in the latest version of SharePoint will work only with Microsoft's Office 2007, the newest version of the business software suite. That could be a beneficial connection for Office, as Microsoft struggles to convince some business to upgrade to Office 2007 when their current Office setup works fine.

SharePoint is also starting to lift weaker Microsoft products. Alan Kahn, chief executive of InterDyn AKA, a company that resells Microsoft products, says that SharePoint is helping to spur sales of Microsoft Dynamics software, which has been a perennial laggard. That strategy extends to the range of already-strong Microsoft products that work with SharePoint, from its SQL Server database to corporate search technologies.

Within two months of rolling out the basic version of SharePoint last summer, Miami-Dade was surprised to find over 50,000 students accessed the system, prompting the school system to upgrade to the enhanced version of SharePoint. Those licenses, combined with security software and other Microsoft software and services cost it an additional $2.2 million, says Ms. Karcher, the executive officer.

Uses of SharePoint contemplated by Miami-Dade teachers include sharing research materials, posting and discussing assignments, and creating a homework "drop-off" box for students to submit their assignments.

Yesterday, Miami-Dade opened the system to 30,000 school administrators. By the end of this summer, Ms. Karcher says, SharePoint will be available to one million students and their families, teachers and employees in the school district.

Write to Robert A. Guth at rob.guth@wsj.com

 How to cash in on Microsoft's investment promoting Windows Vista, 2007 Microsoft Office system, and Exchange Server 2007 (to small business customers)

Event Date:
4/27/2007

Presenter:
Mac McIntosh

Event Time:
9:00 AM Pacific, USA & Canada (DST) = GMT - 08:00

Duration:
60 minutes

Course Level:
100

Description:
Looking for ways to cash in on the small-business sales opportunities created by the release of Windows Vista, 2007 Microsoft Office system and Exchange Server 2007, but don’t know where to start?
In addition to spending millions promoting Windows Vista, Office 2007 and Exchange Server 2007, Microsoft has invested additional millions creating the marketing and sales resources you need to get your share—and more—of the revenue from sales opportunities with small businesses.
Join Mac McIntosh—considered to be one of the IT industry’s leading marketing and sales consultants—for an information-packed one-hour Webcast in which he will show you how Microsoft can help you get your share and more of these opportunities for profitable new business.
By attending, you’ll learn

• about valuable resources you can use to quickly determine the industries, companies and business executives that represent your best short-term sales revenue opportunities
• how to put your new business development on the fast track with Microsoft’s Ready-to-Go marketing campaigns and the extensive sales resources that Microsoft can provide to help you turn prospective small-business customers into profitable, referenceable clients; and more.

Improve Your Profitability

The Microsoft Partner Program provides a road map to help your company reach its profitability objectives. Leverage comprehensive growth and profitability plans designed by industry analysts to help you maximize profit margins, enhance revenue streams, and optimize capacity utilization. Use our tools to measure your success. Develop strategies and generate leads. Access the business-building resources available to you now.

http://members.microsoft.com/partner/roadtosuccess/default.aspx

You are probably familiar with Remote Web Workplace, and have used or heard about Terminal Services, but if you want to learn more about hosting applications or offering your users the ability to work remotely, you’ll definitely want to check out these TS2 hosted webcasts.  Along with a TS2 Presenter, you will hear directly from Augie Gonzalez who is the Senior Manager for Product Marketing at Citrix!

Citrix Access Essentials can enhance Terminal Services experience in many ways that your customers will find beneficial.

If you are a Microsoft Partner interested in learning how to position and sell Citrix Access Essentials with a Microsoft Solution, you’ll definitely want to check out the events entitled: Web-enable  Line of Business Applications Automatically with Small Business Server and Citrix Access Essentials

After you’ve learned all the benefits and features of Citrix Access Essentials, I’m sure you’ll want to know all of the technical details of putting together a Citrix Access Essentials and Small Business Server solution.  You’ll learn all you want to know in the events entitled: Citrix Access Essentials and Small Business Server – Behind the Scenes

When you attend, you will be entered in a raffle for a copy of a full copy Office 2007 Professional!

Follow this link and register now!

http://www.ts2seminars.com/main.aspx?cat=events&p=webSeminars

Windows Vista Hardware Assessment helps partners quickly assess their customers' computers across a network, generating detailed readiness reports of each computer's hardware and device compatibility. Important features also include agentless inventory along with Windows Vista experience rating. Download this new deployment tool and begin planning your migration projects today.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/solutionaccelerators/hardwareassessment/wv/default.mspx

Make the Move!

Act now and get up to $10,000 in Partner Subsidy Dollars when you purchase between three and twenty-five Windows Server 2003 R2 Open Licenses with Software Assurance now until June, 29th, 2007!

• Offer Details
  Customers who purchase Open licenses with Software Assurance for Windows Server® 2003 R2 will receive a partner subsidy now through June 29, 2007. For more information on this offer, see the Terms and Conditions. 
• Subsidy dollars can be used to purchase services, hardware, or software from the partner of your choice 
• For more information on this product, go to:
  http://www.microsoft.com/windo
  wsserver2003/default.mspx

Your Strategy - Grow Your Business
Your business is growing, and Windows Server® 2003 R2 provides a winning platform for small and medium businesses. Now until June 29, 2007, Microsoft is offering partner subsidy dollars worth up to $10,000 to customers purchasing between three and twenty-five Windows Server® 2003 R2 Open licenses that include Software Assurance. That adds up to great growth investment!

Your Winning Move - Keep Players Productive
Business is good, and your people are active and productive. Keep them at the top of their game by giving them a security-enhanced infrastructure for enhanced communication and collaboration virtually anytime and anywhere. Whether you’re extending an
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Get Benefits Across the Board
See how Windows Server® 2003 R2 is enabling breakthrough success for a variety of small and medium businesses, and how you can plan your own winning strategy.

Make Your Move Today
Take advantage of this offer by contacting your Microsoft partner now. They’ll assist you with your Windows Server® 2003 R2 purchase and help you get set up with the offer.

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By Stephen Shankland
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Published: April 8, 2007, 6:00 AM PDT

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Microsoft is showing some early signs of success with a version of Windows geared for a technical computing market that Linux dominates today.

Windows Compute Cluster Server (CCS) runs on a group of interconnected computers that collectively tackle calculation chores. These high-performance computing clusters have swept the list of the top 500 supercomputers--but they typically run Linux, not Windows.

But when Microsoft released Windows CCS less than a year ago, the company tried to find a new niche in the market rather than go up against Linux directly. The software giant is trying to win over customers with small clusters, often integrated with the work customers are doing on their Windows PCs.

"We think that's fertile ground that nobody else has hoed yet."

--John Enck
Gartner analyst

"We think that's fertile ground that nobody else has hoed yet," said Gartner analyst John Enck. "We were pretty skeptical when they came to market with this, but they're doing much better than we anticipated."

Microsoft has had some successes moving from a market in which it's strong into an adjacent market where it's not. For example, Microsoft moved from operating system software to desktop software, and from Windows on PCs to Windows on servers.

Lateral move
That's exactly what happened in the case of the South Florida Water Management District, which is using Windows CCS to power a modest-size five-server cluster that computes water flow to as part of a multibillion-dollar habitat restoration project in the Everglades National Park. The group also has a much larger Linux cluster, but the group also had Windows-based modeling tools that they moved easily to the cluster, said Akin Owosina, program manager for the district's Interagency Modeling Center.

Another reason the Windows cluster is appropriate is because outside stakeholders--everyone from the federal Fish and Wildlife Department to environmental activists--want to check model results and in some cases run those models themselves to verify the results, Owosina said.

"We want to be used by as many stakeholders and customers as we can. For many of them, the environment is Windows," Owosina said.

And for Saifur Rahman, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, using Linux would have required new expertise. His organization is running Windows CCS on a 16-server cluster for research in transportation and in cancer-related molecular modeling.

"We wanted to remain within the Windows environment so that we could use our existing applications and did not have to retrain our graduate students who have been working in this environment for several years with data from end users," Rahman said.

In particular, his students use the Matlab mathematical calculation and data-processing software on Windows. Matlab on the desktop can tap into Matlab on the cluster for heavy lifting.

Microsoft gives itself high marks for its results so far. "We acknowledge we have more work to do here, but we've made good progress in the first year," said Shawn Hansen, Microsoft's director of HPC (high-performance computing) marketing. "We've been very pleased with the results and the uptake."

But when it comes to the Linux-dominated cluster market, though, familiarity with Microsoft can be a burden as well as an asset.

For example, SGI, a high-performance computing specialist with ties to Linux, got a frosty reception on a compute cluster mailing list when it announced support for Windows CCS earlier this year.

"I don't hate Microsoft," said Robert Brown, a professor and compute cluster expert in Duke University's physics department, in a posting to the mailing list. "If anything, I fear it...Microsoft is for all practical purposes completely unregulated, it faces no serious competition, it routinely engages in business practices that make it very difficult for serious competition to ever arise, and it extends all over the world, not just in the United States."

When it comes to HPC, Windows is not the incumbent. "The HPC community has been Unix- and Linux-based for decades," said Gartner analyst Carl Claunch. "The university environments in which most have trained are heavily Linux-centric. The domination of Linux in HPC and in clusters is quite strong."

Among technical advantages of Linux clusters is better maturity, better software choices, broader abilities and a proven ability to run at large scale, Claunch said.

New features
Windows CCS isn't Microsoft's last crack at the market, though. It just released Service Pack 1, which is based on Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2. That new version makes it possible to bring up a cluster in one fell swoop rather than installing software on each machine individually.

More significant changes will come with CCS version 2, Hansen said, which will be based on the "Longhorn Server" successor to Windows Server 2003. Longhorn Server is due to ship this year, but Hansen declined to say when the CCS revamp will emerge.

Version 2 will feature "simplified development, deployment, operation and integration," Hansen said. Specific improvements will help networking--in particular TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) software and support for larger networks, he said.

For development, Microsoft touts its Visual Studio programming tools. Version 2 will feature better support for software that executes in parallel on a number of machines, he said. Building that parallelism into software is a decades-old challenge in the computer industry.

Microsoft also has struck partnerships with IBM, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and SGI to make it easier for customers to purchase clusters with software already set up. SGI likes having Windows CCS as an option for customers working on animation, for example. "There are a lot of shops that run a lot of Windows applications," and they can use a Windows cluster to speed up work, said Louise Ledeen, a manager for digital content management marketing at SGI.

And even in a market with cultural barriers, pragmatism can win the day. That was the case for Matt Wortman, director of computational biology and information technology at the University of Cincinnati's Genome Research Institute. His group already has Linux clusters, but picked Windows CCS for a 14-node cluster that runs simulation software to analyze drugs' molecular behavior. It integrated easily with researchers' computers, 95 percent of which run Windows, he said.

"I don't care if it's Microsoft or Scyld, (Linux cluster software from Penguin Computing)," Wortman said. "I want to make it easier for the average biologist to find new drugs."

Dear Microsoft Partners,

I’d like to let you know about a very exciting opportunity for your partners. We are delivering a training session in your area specifically for our partners that have existing practices around our Microsoft System Center products, or are interested in building one.

This is very valuable, comprehensive training that is absolutely the best way for your partner to quickly come up to speed on our exciting new System Center products, including Operations Manager, System Management Server, Data Production Manager and more.  Below is the invite, please do forward to your contacts within your partner organization immediately so they can sign up!

Microsoft System Center Presents

System Management Boot Camp

16 US city, 2 Day tour in May 2007

“Increase Revenue through System Center Boot Camp training ”                          

              Registration site:

http://www.msreadiness.com/IL_MultiRegister.asp?multiregid=5015308

The new wave of System Center product releases creates exciting new opportunities to increase profitability for partners. This 2 day “Jump Start” training will help you get trained quickly to get up to speed on new System Center products. The boot camp will be available in 16 US cities to accommodate your location and schedule.

At the completion of this 2 day training, you will leave with knowledge, tools, and hands on experience to deploy and configure System Center products such as Operations Manager 2007 confidently and predictably.

Event Details.

The content covered in the boot camp is technical and has been designed to provide you with knowledge required to deliver successful proof of concepts (POCs) to your customers.

Day 1: Architecting , Deploying and Configuring Operations Manager 2007 Monitoring Scenarios

After this training you will:

· Learn how to plan, architect, install and configure Operations Manager 2007

· Learn how Operations Manager 2007 can be configured to monitor Active Directory

· Learn how Operations Manager 2007 can be configured to monitor Exchange Server 2007

Day 2: How to deliver technical demos of Operations Manager 2007  and overview of SMS 2003 R2 SP3 features for Windows Vista and Office 2007 deployments

After this training you will:

· How to monitor Microsoft applications including SQL Server 2005

· Monitoring Line of Business Applications

· Monitoring Windows Vista clients

· Learn how to leverage Infrastructure Optimization, effective sales techniques and best practices to identify and grow systems management opportunities

This training initiative will mostly concentrate on the new Operations Manager 2007 product and in addition also provide overview of System Management Server 2003 SP3 for Microsoft Windows Vista and Office 2007 deployments

and other System Center future products.

Register now to save your seat!

As there are a limited amount of seats per city, click the address below to register

http://www.msreadiness.com/IL_MultiRegister.asp?multiregid=5015308

If you have any questions please direct them to:

scbootca@microsoft.com

We look forward to seeing you there! 

Event Details.

Who should attend: 

Technical consultants that will deliver Microsoft-based management solutions.

Cost:

Day 1 & 2: $175

Schedule:

Day 1:

9:00a.m. – 5:00p.m.

Session 1: Operations Manager 2007 Architecture and Planning

Session 2:  Monitoring Active Directory

Session 3: Monitoring Exchange

Day 2:

9:00a.m. – 5:00p.m.

Session 1:  Monitoring SQL  and Line of Business Applications

Session 2: Monitoring Vista Clients

Session 3:

System Management Server SP3 feature overview for Microsoft Windows Vista and Office 2007 deployments

Session 4: System Center Future products overview (Virtual Machine Manager, Data Protection Manager, System Center Essentials, Service Desk)

Close and Q&A

Get Ready to Register for 2007

Mark your calendar to attend the second annual Microsoft Small Business Symposium in Denver, Colorado, on July 9, 2007, the day preceding the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference. Registration for this event begins April 18, 2007, in conjunction with Worldwide Partner Conference registration. Return to this page for updates, including detailed registration information and the event agenda. Or visit the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference page.

Small Business Symposium 2006 a Success!

More than 450 partners, press, and Microsoft staff attended the first ever Microsoft Small Business Symposium on July 10, 2006, in Boston, Massachusetts.

The symposium had a dynamic agenda, and started with keynotes from small business industry experts, including:

• The Sloan Brothers, successful entrepreneurs and founders of StartupNation

• Steven Strauss, author of The Big Idea: How Business Innovators Bring Great Ideas to Market

Ernan Roman, co-author of Opt-In Marketing: Increase Sales Exponentially with Consensual Marketing

The afternoon included breakout sessions that focused on:

• Helping build business skills through insight and best practices from other partners on consulting, sales, management, and marketing techniques.

• Helping to identify upcoming business opportunities with Microsoft technologies, including managed services and mobility solutions.

• The upcoming Windows Vista and 2007 Microsoft Office system releases.

https://partner.microsoft.com/40028827