Last week, while I was out at Trilogy Payment, with my Brother, we were discussing the virtues of his iPhone versus my Windows Smart Phone, and Bryant made a tremendously witty and pointed comment. One's a toy, and the other's a tool.
And for me that really encapsulates the discussion, especially when put into the larger discussion around Unified Communications…
We have clients with each of the different devices, Palm, Windows, CrackBerry, iPhone, fill in the blank…we make it a point to work with our clients, come as you are…but Abbie's Mogul and my Q are both Windows Mobile, and come with all the basics of any Windows Mobile Device: Email, Calendar, and Contacts sync'd with Exchange Server. But we extend that functionality with Office Communicator 2007 Mobile and Live Messenger, directly on the phone. I know if you are driving then you should not text message, but that rule applies across the board. What really makes the difference, between a tool and a Toy, is does it fit into your business. The CrackBerry bond can't be broken easily, but after people see the over the air sync, the integration into the business with Mobile Communicator and CRM Mobile, it gets tougher to stick to it…
So when you look at your phone, is it a tool or a toy? Does it extend your enterprise, or do you have to work around it to get to the information you need, when you need it?
http://www.vladville.com/2008/03/ouch-the-death-of-sbsc.html
As a Microsoft Partner who is an SBSC…
As a VAR who eats the dogfood and drinks the kul-ade…
Please know and understand Vlad's Pronouncement…The fact is we do need to do better for our community, we do need to do more for each other, and we do need to work together. Very recently, against my better thoughts, it became real to me, that Microsoft, makes far more money on the top 1% of all the customers (enterprise) than the rest of all their business…so when it gets right down to it…the rest of us, are just for fun…and if they make some money or not, well kool, whatever, if you don't like us, go somewhere else.
So, I cannot fault them for this position, but I will call out 1 thing Vlad said in the post above…use your tPAM, love your tPAM, feed your tPAM. Our tPAM is fantastic. He works very hard for us, and has helped us develop a better business. He gets sh!t done for us, and expects the same for us. His ask of us is to keep him informed of our deals and our opportunities. And I gotta say, the value proposition of having a tPAM has been phenomenal. We worked hard to gain an advocate in Microsoft. And he is great for us!!!
And in case you have not worked in big business, guess what…EVERYONE HAS TO JUSTIFY THEIR EXITENCE EVERY MINUTE OF THE DAY, EVERY DAY OF THE WEEK, EVERY WEEK OF THE YEAR!!! So if my tPAM, who has worked tremendously hard for us, and brought us tremendous value, needs my help, I am going to give it him.
And working with other vendors, I will say that for all their faults, Microsoft does a great job of working with us and for us, and SBSCs. So If Vlad's prediction is right, there is time for us as SBSCs, collectively, to save the SBSC. And this is important for my business, and for the business of my partners, locally and regionally. So take some time to USE your resources at Microsoft. Make it a KPI in your organization, a simple count, how many interactions per day, per week, or per month that EACH AND EVERY MEMBER OF YOUR ORGANIZATION has with Microsoft. The more they know how much you use the resources and the more you contribute to their reportable bottom line, the more likely they will be to keep the resources and heaven forbid, maybe expand the resources available to SBSC. The bottom line is if it is not valuable to you to be an SBSC, ie you are not using the resources available to you, get out of the way for the rest of us, or for another Small Business Consultant to step up.
http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/gearup/Pages/default.aspx
I have been quiet lately for 2 main reasons…
- Been busy with Client work and family stuff
- I have been catching up on other peoples blogging and podcasting…
Today, however, I will break the silence to voice about the SharePoint Gear UP Site. It is directed at corporate types who are deploying MOSS 2007. Most of our clients are not yet there, but will be one day. For now, though, I have spent a couple of minutes going through it, and other than a minor issue with links still pointing to internal Microsoft Locations, not to the public address, it is full of some great stuff. Almost entirely focused on adoption, but it is certainly worth the time to review and add to your arsenal when talking about SharePoint!!!
Check it out, I will offer up some thoughts on the next podcast… http://podcaster.l2tc.net
-later, Bill