Hey, it looks like you’re writing an instant message – do you need help with that? Thought not but you could win an Xbox Bundle if you’re a Microsoft UK partner, give it a go. I’m hoping it isn’t a ‘best letter writing’ contest!

Microsoft have today launched a new customer facing business website in the UK with a direct link to find a partner on PinPoint .  If you are a Microsoft UK Partner and not yet listed, you need to be.  If you’re already on, now might be a good...

Details of the UK availability, plans and pricing for Office 365 for Education are now available on the Office 365 website .

I’ve just been reading the November 2011 edition of the SpiceWorks Voice of IT “State of SMB IT” report – there are some very interesting statistics in here around SMB adoption of Virtualisation and cloud based technologies.  Well worth a read!

If you’re looking for a quick and easy guide to passing Microsoft certification examinations, you could do worse than check out the Partner Exam Academy.  Available currently are guides to Virtualisation, Desktop and Customer Relationship Management...

If you’re in need of some quality technical content for Office 365, you could do worse than look at the TechNet Edge videos now available as part of the Office 365 Jump Start kit.  Designed for IT Pro and partner technical audience, the content covers...

If you are having trouble transitioning to the ribbon interface in Office 2010, have no fear, the interactive guides are here . One of the biggest pieces of feedback when moving to the new ribbon style interface in Office 2010 from previous versions ...

This site is a great reference point that provides insight into how to prepare and pass the assessments and certifications required to attain or renew a Microsoft competency.  Following the changes made to the Microsoft Partner Network in October...

Did you know that as a home user or a small business with up to ten PCs, free antivirus is available from Microsoft to help protect your Windows investment? Microsoft Security Essentials provides real-time protection that guards against viruses, spyware...

If you're a Microsoft partner, from 1 st November 2010, the internal usage licensing rights for Microsoft software were updated to take into account the new competency model for the Microsoft Partner Network. If you need an update on how this affects...

I’m a big fan of Outlook and Word 2010, I particularly like the ease in which you can handle translation services.  For example, the other day I was running the office World Cup sweepstake when a colleague fortunate enough to claim an envelope drew...

Good to see that the Visio 2010 Add-in for System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) 2007 R2 is now available.  The Visio Add-in lets you create diagrams that show objects by geography on a map, by location in a data center or building, by role in...

Technorati Tags: Cloud , Windows Azure , SQL Azure I’m convinced that I use phrases and therefore put them into everyday use more and more when I’m reading, learning and getting into something new.  When it comes to getting started in a meeting right...

I've just published a Microsoft UK Cloud Services roadmap titled "We're All In...What's All In?" - get it here http://bit.ly/dBdIth . This was pulled together from lots of public information available on the web from various blogs/sources, happy to point...

A few folk asked me for my Excel file today during a Live Meeting I delivered... Here's the link: http://cid-d0ea2b861503e006.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/.Public/Contoso%20Bike%20Sales%20Demo.xlsx

There’s a great series of eleven short Silverlight videos from the Microsoft product team with regards to Microsoft Office 2010 available!  The videos detail: Access Excel Office Mobile Office Web Applications OneNote Outlook PowerPoint Publisher...

The Microsoft Office 2010 “limited” technical preview, due in July 2009 has a waitlist which you can sign up to as of today. This is an invitation only program which will provide access to early, pre-release versions of Office 2010.  The full list...

Here’s a neat little online game which can also be a great pointer to some valuable resources.  The idea is to collect “Geek Points” as you deal with day to day problems being handed to you on a plate by your boss and your inbox! Server Quest II...

I spent a day recently upgrading my PC’s to Windows7.  That’s my home Media Center, my work laptop and my “spare” testing machine which lives in my home office.  These machines were all purchased pre Vista launch and Windows7 runs on each and...

If you feel the need to gain an understanding of what is going to be contained in Service Pack 2 for the 2007 Microsoft Office System, the Office Sustained Engineering Team have published a list on their blog.  This covers both Office desktop and...

From Scuderia to Store, Community to News, there’s a whole host of droolable content over on the new Ferrari website, built on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server. Head on over to http://www.ferrari.com and enjoy! I guess I could crack some pun about SharePoint...

SharePoint Designer is now available as a free download from Microsoft. SharePoint Designer can be used to customise SharePoint sites. I recorded a two minute webcast on how to use it to apply the sample themes which you can view here . You can download...

The March 2009 CTP Visual Studio 2008 extensions for SharePoint are now available.  You can download them directly from here . Also included in this release are ten new themes for SharePoint built as VSeWSS projects.  You can download them from...

Here's another screencast I've recorded which shows how to apply the sample custom master pages available on Office Online to Windows SharePoint Services team sites. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server - Customisation This recording is based on the Demo...

Here's another screencast I've recorded which shows some of the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server personalisation capabilities of MySites including profile editing and blog creation. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server - People & Personalisation This...