September 2007 - Posts
http://www.cbronline.com/article_news.asp?guid=75F35672-83DA-4CCC-A1ED-F017379E4D34
I saw this article this morning. It is interesting that these appliances are becoming more main stream. Google has the search appliances, Firewalls have, for years been delivered as appliances, and NAS devices have forever been 'appliances' can you say SNAP? What makes this so interesting is twofold. One Microsoft is jumping further into the market, yes I know they have been selling Storage Server as an appliance through Dell and other OEM channels for a couple of years now, and they just launched the Home Server as an appliance. The second is that the function of 'appliances' is becoming more and more complex. While they were originally just a single function box…I need Storage, I'll get a NAS, or I need a firewall with Stateful Packet Inspection and ip filters, I'll get an Insert-brand-name-here, this latest round of 'boxes' are more complex providing a greater simplification of IT Assets, in terms of deployment and management.
So where is all this going? The 'BI Boxes' are targeted at the Enterprise, for customers who are deploying multi-million dollar data warehouses, but it won't be long until they scale that down, and what greater fit than an SBS box. The target customer is looking for simplicity, cost-effectiveness, and above all they want to be do-it-yourselfers. After all that's how they got to being where they are, by doing it themselves. I should restate it. I see a 'new' level of SBS-Micro, designed for 2-25 users, that provides Email, File and Print Services, integrated Authentication, Security, firewall, Portal/Intranet, etc.
And before you say oh this could never work…Let's think for a moment. Most servers deployed fall into 1 of 2 categories. The first is single application deployment. There company needs to run their accounting application, and it has to have an isolated environment…Can you say Appliance??? The other is in a multi-application environment, can you say SBS? And today, when we 'build an SBS' box, what are you doing? Building from the ground up? Are you doing a ton of customization? Are you doing it at the console or remotely from a network attached client? When I build out a new SBS box, it typically goes like this, install at the work bench before it goes onsite. While offsite, I run through most of the config wizards for the server. Then once onsite, I am ready to do a couple of the wizards and attach clients, at this point all remotely. I tend to deploy headless SBS, because +99% of the admin is done remotely, the other <1% is pushing the freakin' button, after a failed update and reboot sequence.
So I see a lot of opportunity in the future for SBS appliances. I can see it now, one box is the 'phone system', another box is the firewall/router/WAP/gigabit Switch, another is the NAS/iSCSI SAN, and another is the SBS Box. A well thought out, designed and tested system like that could come in VERY cost-effectively and provide a tremendous value to any small business. Can the OEM channel deliver this? I doubt it. Can the retail channel deliver this? Not directly. No, the VAR and ISV, is still the solutions provider, just the tools will be changing. Yes, commoditization will continue, but the VAR and ISV is still relevant, if not mandatory in this new model.
So today, Abbie, and I were demonstrating how easy it is to 'Blog' and below is what we came up with...I guess we could have done better, but, oh well. It really is simple to setup a blog, here at Spaces, blogger, yahoo 360, wherever. Another great 'feature' is that with Word 2007, you can blog from Word, and publish your content to whichever blog or blogs you want. You gain the features of Word, while not having to download a special application to manage or worry about.
Now to add 'feature to this, so I 'blogged' about Abbies' Blog on spaces, then loaded up Word '07 and opened my blog post from Spaces and am going to cross post to Greener Pastures and my Internal AWPC MOSS Blog.
Quote
This is a test post
This is something
http://www.vladville.com/2007/09/office-2003-sp3-my-how-the-times-have-changed.html
So while all the companies are jockeying to provide alternatives, a theme continues to resonate…provide an alternative, be the other player. What Microsoft offers, whether through bullying or other means, is a 'stack' of products that span the entire enterprise. They provide the defacto desktop os and productivity suites. They provide a good set of server applications on a good OS. They provide a good set of enterprise applications. Are these solutions perfect? No. Are they developed purely from the ground up, or acquired? WHO CARES? But they provide the tools that people need and use. Sure they did not invent the Electronic Spreadsheet, or Word Processor, but they have the one people use.
When google or Apple or Adobe or yahoo of fill-in-the-up-and-comer-or-has-been-here acquires or develops a solution, it has to at least consider Microsoft. In some parts of the world people don't drink soda-pop, they drink Cokes…the waitress at Fridays says what kind of coke do you want??? I want a Sprite or Dr. Pepper, or actually a Coke!!! When you pull any shmo off the street, and ask them about a computer, they'll tell you it has Windows. I am off topic…
My point is that While there are TONS of solutions, both software and hardware out there, created and developed by very good and talented individuals and companies, the fact is, they are developing to be the scraps, the runner-up, the Pepsi to Coke, the Bennigan's to Friday's, the Pizza Inn to Pizza Hut. So while there are very good solutions out there, only Hubris can bring down Microsoft at this point. They have survived Anti-Trust cases that in the past split up Ma Bell. They may steam roll their way over anything in their way, but they are the leader, and until business and consumers in the Marketplace turn away from the Evil empire, they will remain #1. And until the industry gets its act together and can provide top to bottom, end to end solutions, or at least generate an image of itself as being able to compete, we'll be stuck with humorous ads from Apple and IBM, and geeks locked away in basements coding for hobby and dreams, but nothing more. The Open Source community is massive and full of people that CAN do wonderful things, and some that are doing good things, but they are all islands of opportunity, not solutions for the world of business.
Until IBM, Google, Sun, Oracle, the Open-Source Community, and fill-in-the-up-and-comer-or-has-been-here, gets their collective *** IN GEAR, fall in line and develop solutions that enhance or fill in the gaps around Microsoft Products, because that's where the market is. I am glad Google and IBM and Yahoo has the $ to fight the fight, keep it up, but don't call me asking me to hawk your wares until it is solid and compelling enough to knock off the Alpha Dog.
Fact is Novell makes a very good Small Business Server, designed to compete head to head to with Microsoft Windows Small Business Server. Feature for feature it matches up pretty well. Who wins out more often than not in the Marketplace? Microsoft!
Oh and before I forget, why is Google working on a competitor to Office, there already is one. Why not pour that money and effort into OpenOffice? And build a true competitor. Wasn't there one in the near past…what was the name of it??? Oh yea Corel Office something…How many people still using that? Or do you have a coaster cd for your Coke?
I was just reading an Editor's Note over on AccountingWeb where Gail Perry ponders aloud:
do you ever find yourself wondering if the programmers will stop making new versions someday and announce, "We've finally gotten it right! The best version of [fill in the blank with your favorite software program] has been written – there's nothing we can do to make it better, so from now on, you'll never have to upgrade again!"
Then, as it turns out, Vlad is asking a similar question: How Hard Does Vista Suck?
While I feel the pain of upgrades, believe me, they are never the consultants dream, they are a necessary evil. There are a couple of factors in play. Things change; things that are out of your control, out of their control. Laws change, people change, and it is understandable that we want it better now than it was, and will want it better in the future than it is now. So if things are changing, circumstances are different in a year, then we have to adapt, software production, is no different. Further there is hardware change. So hardware is faster now, in general, than it was say 3 years ago, and it slower than it will be in 3 years. Generally speaking that is a true enough statement. We will need our applications to keep up with that! Then there is the factor of need. We all need things today, but think about yourself…is there anything you have now that you never even imagined maybe 10, 15, 20 years ago? Or perhaps a better question, something you thought about 10, 15, 20 years ago, that you said to yourself, if I had something that could do that…WOW I'ld have it made!!! Perhaps a suburban assault vehicle that you could effectively scale a 60 degree incline is it. Perhaps a bed that could be fine tuned to your specific preference is it. The point is that while change can be difficult, it is part of life. Software tools like excel are part of any accountants life, get used to it, and stop worrying about things you cannot control. As for the OS, don't expect nirvana on a PC. Your Computer is a tool to get a job done. No more, no less. If it could drive you somewhere it would be a car. If it could convert CO2 to Oxygen, it would be a tree, or some other plant material…
Oh and before I forget, as long as Software is produced by people who are producing said software for a living, in some cases a better living that any nation of people could expect to make…OT…, there will always be an incentive to provide a lot, but not all, or else what would they start the next version out with? If you don't like it, don't use it…see how far you get. Some people have gotten off the upgrade train, some don't buy into it, some steal it, but software, is a required part of the business. It's all around you, on your phones, in your calculators, in your DVD Players and HD TVs, and especially on your PCs and networks. It's at the Dentist's Office, and the Childcare facility, in your car, and over the road. It's there when you walk into wal-mart, it's there when you pump your gas, it's even there when the cop rights you a speeding ticket!!! If there's hardware, somewhere there is software and people driving that, and when people are involved, well, then it's about making a buck, and preferably a ton of 'em, for as long as they can, rinse and repeat.
http://www.microsoftio.com/
Out of our space? I don't think so… Many of us SBSCs came from enterprise, some maybe not so much. Having spent some time on this, reading, learning, and practicing it, I think any SBSC worth their weight needs to know this stuff inside and out. Are we going to be developing Infrastructure Optimization Plans for fortune 500 companies? Probably not. However, we should be up to speed on this stuff. Small Businesses tend to be more agile, more flexible than the larger companies. This is an opportunity to use that flexibility and agility to stay competitive with larger organizations. Our clients need the efficiencies and advantages that the Microsoft IO Framework provides.
I saw a report that said that organizations that transition from basic to standard can gain about $600 per desktop, just in provisioning. Now I won't go into how they come up with the numbers or even explaining basic or standardized or rational or dynamic states. What I will say is that Microsoft has done a great job of developing a framework for us as partners to talk to our clients about gaining return on investment and winning on total cost of ownership.
Real quick, if you have Small Business Server and a standardized Client Platform, you are well on your way to making your clients more efficient. And if they are on Managed Services for support, then way to go!!! This is not about getting high scores on some inane chart; rather it is a reflection on the business leadership's ability to leverage the technology for greater productivity.
That site is FULL of great information and can help partners talk to clients in a more insightful manner.
There's a saying that there are chiefs and then there are Indians, and any organization needs the right mix of both. Sometimes a chief will be an Indian and sometimes an Indian will be a chief. Now I don't want to beleaguer the Native American stereotypes too much, so here goes… It's pretty simple really, any group, company, or organization needs leaders and those leaders need to have followers. In most organizations the leaders burn out or just simply lose control, and someone else steps up and takes the lead, and the former leader, while still holding a role falls into a bit of a follower role.
Communities are the same. These are ALL Voluntary organizations. People participate; people come and go as they can. Unfortunately sometimes those people don't ever step up, so therefore they are trolls. Sure they show up to meetings, they bellyache about stuff in forums, but they never actually step up and take a lead or really contribute. For some that is o.k., for others not-so-much.
I was recently at a Microsoft Across America event in San Antonio. We put up a table and talked to a variety of people, techies, business people, Microsoft People, etc. We had planned to give away a copy of Office 07 Professional NFR as a door prize, but during a rush of people at the table someone just grabbed it and walked off. All I can say is shame on you! I later found out who had done it. The guy was a techie, someone who should already have access to it through his participation in the Microsoft Partner Program. What a Troll!?!?!? Sure I probably should have taken better steps to safe guard the product, but seriously, that is borderline thievery. Is this someone you want setting up your LOB or your network? I digress…
Some people are followers, whether they know it or not, they simply just don't know how to lead. Some people don't know how to give-back; they only know how to take. Some people only 'participate' to make money, and that's a real shame. The SBS community is losing one of its better leaders because he has become disillusioned with the leaders, but probably more acurately with the participants, who have not stepped up and changed the leadership. He does not impress me as being someone who will stop participating and leading, because he A) makes money from it, but B) more importantly is addicted to it because he simply cares too much about his partners. Is this the start of something new? Is this a shot across the bow of those other leaders in the community? Time will tell. What this community of IT providers that base their business primarily on servicing Microsoft Small Business Server and customers in the 1-5 server and 10-250 client space, really needs is fresh leadership. Community builders and participants who regularly give back, though PARTICIPATION, not ranting; through CONTRIBUTING, not sponging.
So look back at your experiences, be they in business, or in technology, and look at what you have to offer. We are in this together, and if you have EVER gotten advise on the side, gotten a free tax tip, or a free tip on Throttling session concurrency with SBS / Exchange 2003, then you should be contributing. All information is valuable, and while it could be sold at $245/incident, but should it be. Or… could that knowledge be traded in a loosely, in a non quid-pro-quo manner through the sharing of knowledge and leveraging of the communities collective body of work and experience. Before we go mortgaging the farm on this idea, think about the Intellectual Property you have. For many of us in this field all we have is IP, gained through years of experiences and trials and tribulations. Some sell goods like hardware and software to augment their IP practice, but at the core they are selling their experience. So if you sell your IP, have you ever gotten advice or a solution from a friend, cohort, or even GOOGLE??? If so you are socially obligated to give back. So step up and post a blog, write an article, or answer a post in a forum, constructively!!!
Microsoft Continues to Expand Hurricane Relief Efforts with Help for Small Businesses
So is this a good deal or what? Joe seems to think not so much…
I guess this is all in the eye of the beholder. Certainly Microsoft's gift, in this case, does come with some strings attached. But let's look at some realities. You are rebuilding a business, you need IT infrastructure, Desktops, Servers, platforms, Office Applications, business intelligence. So what do you do? Hopefully call an IT Partner who can help you negotiate the complexities of the IT Marketplace. If your partner is worth their salt, they ought to know about this program. No I am not talking about the good deal or not…I am talking about the Microsoft Open Value Licensing program. This is a good deal for Small Businesses with or without the deal. Open Value affords business incremental buy-in, software assurance against upgrades, spead payments, and the ability to finance the whole deal over a term of 3 to 5 years for a regular budgeted cost. It also affords businesses the ability to include partner services in the costs. What's more with Incentives from MicrosoftIncentives.com a business can get a partner subsidy check for part of the costs of implementation.
When I talk to customers and prospects about Pain points, a consistent theme, is cost: to acquire, to maintain, to upgrade, to fix. Seems to me Open Value addresses that. Seems to me Managed Services addresses that. Seems to me Microsoft Financing address that. MicrosoftIncentives.com offers up some good deals, and then top that with this deal for businesses looking to return to this hard hit region is a good deal.
So really Joe, is simply looking to bash Microsoft over the head. Is Microsoft getting something out of this, Yes, but let's not kid ourselves, Microsoft was gonna get something out of the rebuilding effort anyway weren't they. Afterall, how many of those businesses were gonna need an IT infrastructure? Pretty much all of them. How many of them were going to pay the piper one way or another? Pretty much all of them. So Joe, I know you're a 'pundit' or commentator or whatever, but really, whose getting traffic off your article…well when I click your commentary, I see…Verizon, Microsoft, Dell, Ziff Davis, Fujitsu, SecretSatellite, Superpages, HP, Verisign, and a whole lot of other people. All of whom pay your salary, either directly, Ziff-Davis, or indirectly through advertising $$$ that pay your company, who pays you.
Certainly Microsoft will make money, but this offer will also help hundreds of Microsoft Partners, Small businesses themselves, as they work with the businesses and people who are the fabric of this torn region heal. So is this a good deal or not. I say it is a GREAT deal. It is designed to help the region rebuild effectively. What's more they are truly helping their Partners, like a Partner should, by driving business through the door, figuratively. Microsoft does not sell the Open Value through any direct channel; rather it relies on its Partners to do this, partners who more often than not are, themselves, Small Businesses. Has Ziff-Davis offered up a dime to drive business through the doors of these Small Businesses, these 'affected'? I appreciate that you may sense some stench of hypocrisy, but perhaps you could look a little closer. This is a gift to help the community rebuild not just survive the aftermath.
http://watters-cpa.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!4B8DE48332E4C7D1!184.trak
So what do we add to the Microsoft Bottom line? What is our value to Microsoft, or for that matter the other Vendors we work with? Some might measure it in tangibles, like units sold or others might measure it in 'at-a-boys' from the boss-man. Whatever your measure, this is one way Microsoft is gonna start doing it. They are looking to measure how much business we influence, by tracking leads for implementations. Now why exactly would an SBSC want to maybe share leads with Microsoft, who may in turn give that lead to a competitor? After all, we live with our clients, for the most part. Our success is based wholly on the success of our clients. That's one way to look at it. I tend to take a longer view of the issue. I am comfortable with my relationship with my clients. If I weren't I'd go back to enterprise.
A brief look back…So several years ago, Microsoft introduced an initiative that they used to measure and reward Partners who influenced License sales. I believe it still exists to some degree. Problem was huge chucks of rewards were left on the Table, partners just did not know the $$$ was there for the taking. Partners continued to be disgruntled about the licensing nuances and what not. Shortly thereafter Microsoft started to realize that there is a MASSIVE market place that they are not equipped to manage. So they came up with the SBSC. This is the Small Business Specialist Community. You see Microsoft is VERY GOOD at working the Medium and Large enterprise space. They can sell in there. They have a good, well rounded story to tell any CIO or CTO, and they do it quite well. The backbone of their success is built on the enterprise, not on the home users. It isn't Windows 98 or Me that's made them the Behemoths they are. It isn't all the great home electronics they manufacture either. And it certainly wasn't on the back of browsers or media players. No Microsoft is built on the enterprise. They developed strategies to get into enterprise and milk that space, and they will continue to do so. They are great at it. They have huge campaigns directed at that space. They develop or buy solutions that enhance their products in that space and then sell, sell, sell. Problem is they are not well equipped to tackle the smaller, but conversely larger SMB market.
SMB is huge!!! Bigger than enterprise, problem is it's very different. It's full of personalities and quirks. The worst part is you have to sell millions of times over and over again down here, and never to the same person twice. Down here, the big fish can't move quite so well. So the SBSC is all about getting the people, who are already there, already selling successfully in that space to do it for them. Next step is to start tracking what they are bringing in. They want to start measuring the contribution that the SBSC is worth. We've said it for a long time, there's good money to made, working with and in the SMB space. Microsoft knows this and wants to get a handle on exactly how much. I see it this way, my client is my client, they use Microsoft and Dell and HP, and AT&T. They are my client because I recommend and service the right solutions at the right time. Selling Microsoft Solutions in this space makes me some good money; they want to know how much, ok with me.
So log on if you can to Heather's Live Meeting, in case you missed it, its right here: https://www112.livemeeting.com/cc/microsoft/join?id=B9M7ZD&role=attend&pw=cf%7EFbWWC4
Friday September 14th at 10:00-11:00
It'll be informative and may give the casual observer a little more insight into how the Partner eco-system works over there. Oh and you may get plugged in also!!!
We have been fortunate enough to work with OwnWebNow and use ExchangeDefender for several months now. Vlad can be raw and cutting, but he is a leader in the SBSC community. ExchangeDefender provides a fantastic level of SpamProtection for servers and networks, that simply is the best at stopping CRAP. We have worked with partners on Postini, and worked with BrightMail, and IMF, none of these work like ED. It simply stops the Crap and at a great price. Abbie and I are inviting users to a month trial of protection with ED.
One of the greatest side-effects of high spam is reduced performance on the network. When we introduced this to our network, we immediately saw that the server freed up about 30% performance. Our Exchange server was consistently running at about 40% processor and afterwards we occasionally hit 10%. Now that may not seem like a big deal, but in terms of real world effects, mail loads faster on the client, files form the files shares load faster and general performance of network objects like SQL dbs and network printers are 'perkier'
This is a product we believe in and for the price is well worth the money. So, let's talk about that for just a minute…what is your time worth? For one client we determined that each employee was worth roughly $13.50/hr. Then we determined that approximately ¾ of an hour per day was lost to simply dealing with spam. That does not factor in if an employee did not recognize spam or phishing and followed a link, it only factors in walking through the inbox and determining what to do with all that non business and personal email. So roughly the company was losing $10.13 per day to Spam. Again this does not figure in all the intangibles, like what they could have produced during that lost ¾ of an hour or risk of having that stuff inside the network, etc. so let's do some simple calculations, based on a 30 day month the company was losing $2431 per month managing spam for their 8 employees. Again this does not factor in any of the intangibles, but only the act of looking at spam and deleting. Extrapolating that out they we losing $29174.40 per year. Quite obviously this is money that is lost in the day to day. But it exemplifies the problem quite effectively. So the real cost is somewhere between $0 and probably $100,000,000.00 if they were to have to engage their insurance for losses related to informational leakage. Now compare that to the simple and incremental costs of ExchangeDefender, a low, simple outlay each month, based on the number of mailboxes. It filters junk out before it hit's your server, before it hits your network.
An A client is having some trouble getting insight into their business. We have worked with them to build a solid foundation for their information: XP-Pro, Office 2007 Pro+, SBS premium, Separate Terminal Server. The companyweb was a key ingredient in the system. They have loved it and used it extensively. They had a previous investment in a line of business application that provides inventory, sales and customer management. All in all it's a very good solution. It even has a connector for Quickbooks. While discussing some of their issues, we decided to start implementing some proof of concepts for them to gain insight into their business.
Full disclosure, their LOB app has a dashboard feature and a ton of other great features for looking into processes and performance of the business. The problem is that they have not gotten any great deal of training or exposure to these features. To date, it has been basically a salesforce automation and inventory tracking system, and it has done quite well as such. So we recently added WSS 3.0 to the system and have started to develop a transition from the old companyweb to the new WSS site. Initially we set up a base site and introduced a Wiki for the staff to use.
Next we created a live.com search page and webpart for the home page. Pretty simple and a great way to keep content delivery branded and apply business rules and policies to the delivery. We extended this to a google search as well so that users can search either engine and hopefully find what they are looking for. Again using RSS viewer web parts to brand and deliver the results to the company users is a great way to enforce identity/brand for the company.
After implementing that we have continued onto the task of extracting views of the LOB data and delivering them via the portal. Given that the LOB is SQL server based and the developer created several great view of data, so that rather than directly querying the Tables we are running against views. This is better for performance and a great way to leverage the existing development by not having to rewrite those views. So the first thing we did was create some basic pages with invoices and customers on them. Once we created them, we further created a page that lists the AR Aging, simply a regurgitation of the AR aging view provided by the LOB. SQL does the heavy lifting so we don't have to. Then we hyperlinked customers on the AR Aging to the customers page providing a data view filter so that the customer in question is on the view. Additionally we added a hyperlink on the AR aging invoices to the Invoice that is due. Next step is likely to be doing some summary information, or to create some customer overview page that could show pertinent info such as addresses phone numbers, email addresses, contacts, summary of latest activities, orders, balances etc…
Additionally they have an IP enabled phone system that may allow for us to do some great things soon. This is a company that is on the brink of doing some really great things, and have a great investment and belief in the power of technology, specifically software to take their business to the next level. Showcasing the power and agility of SharePoint with dashboards and integration is another example of how an open mind and a mix of the right skills and products can unlock the secrets within even the smallest of organizations.