“Our small and mid-market business (SMB) leadership group, and specifically Birger Steen, has played an instrumental role in bridging the gap between the SMBs and technology through their leadership in the past year.  Microsoft remains committed to investing in small and mid-market businesses and our partners who serve them.   The list of products and offerings that we launched last year specifically for the SMBs is a great testament to the priority and focus we have with this customer segment.  I am even more excited with the opportunities that cloud computing can bring to SMBs now and in the near future.  We appreciate all that Birger has done and wish him well.” 

Steen spent eight years at Microsoft.  He moved to Redmond after leading Microsoft’s sales and marketing operations in Norway and Russia. A search for Steen’s replacement has begun. 

We are sorry that the Microsoft Partner community lost an advocate in this leader.  On the other hand, we are glad for Paralllels; they’re gaining his expertise and leadership.  Congratulations on your new role as President.  We are glad to see his career advancing and hope to see him  at future industry events. 

Bill Huckabee is the Secretary of the West Sound Technology Association (WSTA) was part of a three member panel/presentation on things to consider when deploying a content management solution (CMS) at the ITEC 2009 Conference in Seattle. Bill brings to the table his professional experience with Envisioneering, Inc., a engineering assessment and advanced technology solution company doing work with the U.S. armed forces to the membership of the WSTA.  Huckabee spoke with Bryce Read from Varvid.com

Charles Keating, VP of the West Sound Technology Association (WSTA) was a featured speaker at the ITEC 2009 Conference in Seattle. Here he shares a little background of this unique group that focuses on IT professionals doing business on the west side of Puget Sound in Washington State with Varvid.com. WSTA was formed “to increase public awareness of the availability and quality of local technology professionals, and to serve technology professionals both at a general level of interest and in specialized technology fields” on the West Side of Puget Sound, including the Olympic Peninsula.

Keating said even though the peninsula is separated by Seattle by relatively short ferry rides, the logistical challenges posed by transportation makes their members and members’ clients look to a more convenient, local organization to engage with rather than trying to ‘commute’ by ferry to the big city. Keating’s ‘day job’ is President of Keating Consulting Service (KCS), an IT consulting firm he founded in Illinois in 1983 and moved to Bremerton WA several years ago. Charles holds several Microsoft MCP certifications and KCS has clients in all industries/sectors, Business, Government, Educational and ranging in size from Fortune100 to SMB.

Pat Dolan of Varvid.com speaks with Ed Laprade of Adnet Technologies Inc. of Windsor Connecticut, a CPLS authorized Microsoft Training Center at the ConnectWise Partner Summit in Orlando.

Adnet utilizes Quosal, a quote/proposal generation application that integrates with ConnectWise, and Laprade really appreciates the seemlessness and productivity this affords Adnet.

Dan Shundoff of Intellicom and an HTG member speaks with Aaron Booker of Varvid.com. Dan has been an HTG member for 4 years and is President of Intellicom, a Microsoft Gold Partner and provider of outsourced technology solutions in Central Nebraska. HTG commissioned the University of Nebraska at Kearny (UNK) business management group to perform several studies of members’ regular communications, deep relationships, trust and accountability metrics in an effort to improve the value, relevance and accuracy of HTG education and management programs. Dan reports these studies are showing significant improvement by just being able to measure baseline and progress toward everything from business growth to customer satisfaction.

Varvid’s Aaron Booker speaks with Jessica Smith, the head of the Northwest territory of the Local Engagement team at Microsoft which engages local chambers of commerce and business owners to come together and talk to small businesses about how to become successful. She helps Microsoft Partners get more engaged in the local community. She discusses advantages of joining the local engagement team as a Microsoft Partner.

Varvid’s Aaron Booker interviews Moira Whidby from the Windows Home Server unit at Microsoft. Windows Home Server is the backup solution of choice for partners with small businesses of less than 10 people. With remote access partners can access computers and retrieve files for clients. Partners can learn more about the business use of Windows Home Server on its homepage. Once there at the bottom of the screen, there is a button that says small office/home office.

David spoke to us about some of the products that he is responsible for training partners on at Microsoft. They include SBS & EBS, but also the tools around them like the Best Practice Analyzer for SBS and the Preparation Tools for EBS. These tools are phenomenally useful in our practice as we evaluate a new client environment. David is also responsible for the newly updated Business and Technical Assessment.

Update – Here’s the link for the campaign: http://www.mojaveexperiment.com

Microsoft met with a bunch of XP lovers/Vista haters in San Francisco last week and captured video of them playing with this new "Mojave" operating system.  "Oh, WOW!" one of them said…  But "Mojave" isn’t Windows 7 or SP2 of Vista – it’s Vista right now.  Apple has done such a great job with their "I’m a Mac" campaign, and planted so much FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt), that users really believe that Vista is terrible.  I’m excited that Microsoft is finally going to fight back, and not with lame campaigns like the one aimed at a special phone number for business upgraders.  Vista is a great incremental upgrade from XP.  The way that search is integrated (and includes application names, not just files and email) is fantastic.  Security is improved, though I wish that UAC was password driven like it is on OS X.  It’s solid and stable, and yes it requires modern hardware – shocker!  With modern hardware and a modern amount of RAM it’s smoking fast and I really like it.  I find that typical users who upgrade to a new machine don’t even notice the change except for the addition of Search in the Windows Menu.  So, go Microsoft!  Bring on a response to Apple and to the critics.  This concept of showing real Vista haters impressed with Vista is brilliant, and don’t stop there.  Be AGGRESSIVE!

Second interesting thing that is happening right now is Apple is having serious problems with MobileMe.  MobileMe is "Exchange for the rest of us" – according to Apple.  Well…  I love Apple hardware/software (typing this on a 24" iMac running Vista Ultimate) but Apple isn’t perfect.  And Microsoft has just a few more years doing Exchange and especially Synching mobile devices than Apple.  In a business environment where mobility and seamless integration is business critical, Windows Mobile just works.  Mobile Me is new and appears to have significant problems.  I think it’s good for Apple to stumble once in awhile, and if I was the WM team at MS, I’d leap on this opportunity and do some WM/iPhone commercials oriented around the Power of Exchange… (and I’d partner with the Exchange Team for those commercials)  It’s bad enough that Walt Mossberg, who champions all Apple products over at the Wall Street Journal, uncharacteristically says that "Apple’s MobileMe is far too flawed to be reliable".  Here he is on video talking about MobileMe.

http://ptech.allthingsd.com/20080723/apples-mobileme-is-far-too-flawed-to-be-reliable/

Note – Walt is getting personal handholding from Apple, and still can’t make it work.  In the real world, believe me, users are floundering around and are frustrated and aren’t getting that level of support.

*Full disclosure – I’ve been an Apple user (ex FanBoy) since 1986.  I worked at and then managed an Apple Specialist retail storefront from 1996 to 2000.  I am currently an Apple Consultant Network member and a Microsoft Small Business Specialist and Certified Partner.  (I hold certs on both platforms)  My business has 10 Macs (iMacs, MacMini, MacBook Pro).  I run both operating systems every day and consider each OS to be great blades in the swiss army knife of technology.