Ask IW UK Blog : IW Competency

New Unified Communications Specialistation

IW UK Partner Team — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 21:06:49 GMT

Later this year, we will have a new Unified Communications Specialisation, as part of the Information Worker Competency.

What is it?

Early Start is for partners who are interested in joining the Unified Communications Specialization within the Information Worker (IW) Competency of the Microsoft Partner Programne. Partners will receive a monthly newsletter specific to UC with the inside scoop on special offers, information on training resources, and more.

Why should partners care about joining the UC Specialisation?

Partner to Partner: It is the best way to connect with other MS partners.
Customer to Partner: It provides tools that allow customers to find your company among the thousands of others out there.
Microsoft to Partner: It will be a key way for MS to objectively identify key UC partners for event participation, training offerings, case studies, etc.

ACTION:

Sign up for the Early Start initiative.
Learn more about the upcoming UC Specialisation and the Microsoft Partner Programme.

Profile your solutions for sales leads - check out OSSD

IW UK Partner Team — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 16:56:31 GMT

I'm sure you've heard about Solution Profiler and Solution Finder as a vehicle to profile your business solutions for customers, partners and Microsoft sales teams. Now there's another directory called OSSD (Office system Solutions Directory) which focuses only on the Microsoft Office system.

Confused? To ensure you are up-to-speed, here's my 3 step guide:

Step One: keep your "Solution Profiler" (generic directory, not necessarily IW specific) profile up-to-date and consider linking to a customer built page. Customers, partners & Microsoft'ies can search for solutions using the “sister” tool, Solution Finder.

Step Two: Profile your solution [again] in the OSSD (“Office System Solution Directory”) which allows you to profile their Office 2007 solutions in greater depth.

Step Three: As an incentive, you may achieve Launch Partner Status, by submitting a completed Office 2007 profile by 1^st March 2007 and complete the additional requirements.

What does "Launch Partner Status" mean?

Use of logo: In becoming a Solution Launch Partner, Partners will receive the logo shown below, which you can attach to your collateral and events.
Extra visibility: Office Online exposure via banner ads; currently receives 80million hits a month worldwide
Receive Solution Drive In A Box: information collected in one location, on a variety of local Partner Marketing activities
Why wait?!

Customers and partners can search for these solutions using http://directory.partners.extranet.microsoft.com/.

EVO Supremo: win an Xbox 360, Alienware laptop, i-mate K-JAM and a Creative Zen

IW UK Partner Team — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 14:44:13 GMT

EVO Supremo is our new game for UK Partners. Test your knowledge on Microsoft Exchange Server 2007; Windows Vista and the 2007 Office system or your speed at searching! Click here for Terms & Conditions.

Good luck.

Play EVO Supremo for UK Partners!

IW UK Partner Team — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 15:58:00 GMT

Welcome back after the festive holidays. To help you get back into the swing of things, I challenge you to try and beat my score in our new game for Partners: EVO Supremo, either with your knowledge of our latest software or your speed at searching.

The game will officially be launched on 8 January 2007 and you'll be able to win some amazing prizes, like an Alienware notebook (with the 2007 Microsoft Office system and Windows Vista naturally), i-mate JasJam, Xbox 360 + games and a Microsoft Zune!

... if you would like to test your knowledge, play the game today by visiting http://www.microsoft.co.uk/evosupremo/.

UK Partner 2007 Office system Courses

IW UK Partner Team — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 21:39:45 GMT

We still have spare capacity on our 2007 Microsoft Office System course deliveries in December and January for UK Partners.

2007 Microsoft Office System Core Training (2 days): For more details and to enrol, click here: www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/readiness/2007OfficeCore
2007 Microsoft Office System ECM and Forms Workshop (1 day): For more details and to enrol, click here: www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/readiness/2007ECM
2007 Microsoft Office System Performance Management Workshop ( 2 days): For more information and to enrol, click here: www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/readiness/2007PerfManagement
2007 Microsoft Office System Portals and Collaboration Workshop (1 day): For more information and to enrol, click here: www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/readiness/2007Portals
2007 Microsoft Office System Unified Communication Workshop (1 day): For more information and to enrol, click here: www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/readiness/2007UnifiedComms
2007 Microsoft Office System Enterprise Search (I day): click here for more information: http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/readiness/2007entsearch

Unified Collaboration Early Start for Partners

IW UK Partner Team — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 21:46:55 GMT

Early Start is for Partners interested in joining the Unified Communications (UC) Specialisation within the Information Worker (IW) Competency of the Microsoft Partner Program. Partners will receive a monthly newsletter specific to UC with the inside scoop on special offers, information on training resources and more. Don’t miss out!

Why should Partners care about joining the UC Specialisation?

Partner to Partner: It is the best way to connect with other Microsoft partners.
Customer to Partner: It provides tools that allow customers to find your company
Microsoft to Partner: It will help Microsoft to identify key UC partners for event participation, training offerings, case studies, etc.

ACTION: sign up today for the Early Start initiative.

Learn more about the upcoming UC Specialization and the Microsoft Partner Program.

Please email me at AskIW@microsoft.com with any questions.

Christian.

Technorati tags: Unified Collaboration, Partners, Information Worker

Registered Partners receive Vista and Office 2007 in January Action Pack!

IW UK Partner Team — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 21:19:00 GMT

The January 2007 Microsoft Action Pack Subscription (MAPS) is a special edition that includes key production information for the 2007 Office system, Windows Vista, and Small Business Server 2003 R2. The kit begins mailing on 10 January 2007.

I want to highlight the GREAT software included, along with special partner offers.

Included software in January 2007 MAPS:

Windows Vista Business
Microsoft® Office Enterprise 2007
Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007
Microsoft Office Outlook® 2007 with Business Contact Manager
Microsoft Office Visio® 2007
Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server 2007
Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007
Microsoft Expression® Web

Small Business Specialist (SBSC) “add-on” kit will be available in the March timeframe (for free). SBSCs will automatically receive this kit.

“I’m ready” contest: MAPS will contain one (1) flyer with either an Office or Vista product question – there are ten different questions in all. Answer the question and win a 256 MG USB drive. So install the software to help answer the questions...

Special Offers:

For Resale Copy of SBS 2003 R2: When partners use the Small Business toolkit (soon to be updated with Office, Vista and Mobile and complete five assessments, they can earn a free, for resale copy of SBS 2003 R2. For more details, go to: https://partner.microsoft.com/smallbusinesstoolkit7.
Vista Ultimate Upgrade offer (Windows Anytime Upgrade): Action Pack subscribers can upgrade to Vista Ultimate for $139 (USD) – per license. Visit www.WindowsAnytimeUpgrade.com/maps to learn more.
2007 Microsoft Office System and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Partner Sales Tool: The launch of the 2007 Microsoft Office system and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 present a significant opportunity for Microsoft partners. This Reseller Toolkit helps partners articulate product benefits and packaging and licensing offers.
Office Ready OPK: At the time this Action Pack was produced, the 2007 Microsoft Office Ready Master Kit (OPK) was not finalized for distribution. This product will be included in the April, 2007 Action Pack. Partners can contact their local Distributor and receive an OPK beginning mid December. And until April 1, 2007, Partners only have to pay shipping & handling costs. After April 1, 2007, the cost to receive the OPK from a Disti will be approximately $250 (USD), plus shipping & handling.

Thanks to Nicola for the information.

Microsoft UK EVO Roadshow - The Partner Opportunity

IW UK Partner Team — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 15:09:00 GMT

Dates for the Microsoft UK EVO Roadshow have now been released. This year Microsoft will launch Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system (EVO0. This is almost $20b in R&D and analysts IDC predict partner services opportunity to be around €47 billion.

25/10: Birmingham
6/11: Reading
8/11: Manchester
9/11: Bristol
10/11: London
16/11: Reading
21/11: Leeds
16/01: Manchester

Registration is free.

Attend to learn about: how to get ready for Microsoft's largest ever technology release; become familar with our solution selling scenarios and demos for the people-ready business; how the ECO technology stack represents a platform for partners to increase hard/software opportunities and how to handle customer objections.

If you are interested, click here to visit the registration page for an agenda and further information.

Demo Showcase for the People Ready Business

IW UK Partner Team — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 18:39:00 GMT

Chris Parkes has been promoting the Demo Showcase for the People Ready Business recently...

If you want to know answers to such questions as:

What is the Demo Showcase for the People Ready Business?
Where did it come from?
When is it released?
What's so good about it?
How does it differ from the Technical Demonstration Toolkit?
Why move from product to solution selling?

Then you may be interested in viewing Chris's short (less than eight minute) interview filmed for the UK Virtual Partner Conference.

UK Virtual Partner Conference

IW UK Partner Team — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 20:44:00 GMT

Emma Richardson has been working on a new concept to provide all UK Partners with the latest information on Microsoft's business plan and opportunities for Partners. A broad range of video presentations will be made available from around the business as well as external speakers. The site will go live from today and will be updated quarterly to ensure you have the latest information to hand. Please visit www.microsoft.com/uk/partnerconference for more information.

Slides from Collaborative Business Intelligence Partner Networking Event

IW UK Partner Team — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 10:39:00 GMT

I promised Partners attending the Collaborative Business Intelligence event on 25 July 2006 that I would post the link to our slides as soon as they were uploaded. They are now available on the Microsoft Partner Portal Events page: http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/events/presentations/

Posted by Christian.

Collaborative Business Intelligence Networking Event

IW UK Partner Team — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 20:10:00 GMT

Join us for this one day briefing on Collaborative Business Intelligence - understand the business opportunity, gain access to resources available to grow your business and network with other Partners.

This day will show our Partners how to develop your business in this solution area. Training can help you to gain the skills. Marketing support can help you to create demand. Resources are there to help you to win business.

One of the focal points of this event is to provide the opportunity for Partners to network with other Partners with the potential for building joint business solutions. Partners can book a number of meetings with other delegates to discuss potential alliances.

To register, please follow these two steps:
1) Register with Microsoft, clicking here or telephone: 0870 166 6680 Ref 2205
2) Register for Structured Networking with Business nCounter, by clicking here.

Posted by Christian.

IW Opportunity Seminar webcasts now available for download

IW UK Partner Team — Tue, 30 May 2006 18:14:00 GMT

For those of you who missed the IW Team's IW Opportunity Seminars that took place during May, you can now download the webcasts via the IW Micro site.

The webcasts are short, to the point, sessions that give an overview of the current and potential opportunities that exist within each of the IW specialist areas and are well worth a view!

Remember, any questions you have about any aspect of IW can be sent to the IW team at askiw@microsoft.com.

Posted by Katy

The Value of Partners in Microsoft’s ECM Ecosystem

IW UK Partner Team — Tue, 16 May 2006 19:15:00 GMT

A colleague sent me a link to a PressPass article today, entitled, "The Value of Partners in Microsoft’s ECM Ecosystem" which has an excellent FAQ on our ECM Partner Ecosystem. I especially like Robert Bernard's (General Manager of the Global ISV group at Microsoft) comments on Partners:

PressPass: What is the role partners play in this ECM offering?

Bernard: Microsoft’s ECM offering provides several capabilities out of the box, which ensures that organizations recognize the value of their ECM solution more quickly. However, the needs of businesses around the world are so diverse that companies have various applications that need to be integrated in a comprehensive ECM strategy. Thus, Microsoft needs partners in its ECM offering who present a diverse range of capabilities and support for its customers.

Partners are an integral part of Microsoft’s vision for ECM, and Microsoft’s ECM offering is designed to provide a lot of extensibility mechanisms for partners to integrate their products and build value-added solutions and services on top of Microsoft’s ECM platform. Additionally, support for industry standards such as Web services and SMTP allows Microsoft’s ECM offering to co-exist in a heterogeneous environments.

Microsoft’s move into the ECM space caused a lot of momentum in the market – and that momentum can be beneficial for partners. This momentum and industry excitement provides a huge opportunity for partners to build solutions and services Microsoft’s platform. Our partners have demonstrated their ability to provide the best possible products and services to the Microsoft customer community. By being based on the Microsoft .NET platform, their products are seamlessly integrated into Microsoft’s products.

Partners enhance and complement the Microsoft ECM platform. For example, I can think of three major areas where they add value:

• Building compliance solutions

• Delivering vertical/horizontal solutions

• Rounding out Microsoft's ECM suite with functional extensions

Microsoft is working very closely with its partners. Their solutions will obviously fit tightly with the Microsoft ECM framework and also address important customer needs

PressPass: Why do partners want to work with Microsoft?

Bernard: I think partners want to work with Microsoft for the same reason Microsoft wants to work with partners. We have a unified focus on the end customer. We share those customers, and it’s in everyone’s interest to provide a seamless integrated experience.

This article also links to a good Q&A on "Making ECM a part of every Information Worker's reality".

Posted by Christian.

Are you ready for the next generation of Microsoft programs, servers and services?

IW UK Partner Team — Tue, 16 May 2006 18:29:00 GMT

This year Microsoft will launch Microsoft Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system. The opportunity for Partners who develop solutions using Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system is expected to be huge. International analysts IDC predict the Partner services opportunity to be around 47 billion euros.

Don't miss the Partner Community Day on 20 June 2006 at The Novotel, Hammersmith, London. It's your number one chance to discover everything about Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system.

Attend the event to learn about:

Our roadmap for Partners and Windows Vista product

Solution selling scenarios and demos for the 2007 Microsoft Office system

How to talk with customers about the innovations that make up the 2007 release -including collaboration, business intelligence, portal, enterprise content management (ECM), forms and enterprise project management (EPM) solutions

How to promote the value of these new functionalities

How to answer tricky questions from customers and identify early business opportunities.

Structured networking:

You can book up to six 15-minute meetings with other complementary Partners who will be attending, and who want to develop business relationships around Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system. Simply:

1. Click here to register for the Partner Community Day. To register by phone, please call 0870 166 6645.
2. Visit www.118software.com/microsoft/channelbuilder and enter a profile of your business.
3. Two weeks before the event, log back in and set up your meetings.

Places for this essential event are limited, so please register early to avoid disappointment. Details of nearby accommodation can be sent to you after registration.

We would recommend you read the New World of Work white paper ways of working and sharing information mean millions around the world who rely on their Windows-based PCs now need even more powerful functionalities and flexibility. The next generation of Windows systems and products supplies the technology that will make your customers' lives easier in the New World of Work. Click here to download it.