Are you ready for Windows 7?

The industry is preparing itself for one of the most exciting launches  - Windows 7.  The press is already buzzing with the launch of Windows 7 – are you ready?

“The installation process took over an hour, but once up and running Windows 7’s advantages were impressive.  Essentially, this is the operating system Vista should have been – it starts up relatively quickly, drivers already exist to make to make peripherals such as scanners and printers work with it, and it does clever things that XP, the version of Windows most people still use, just doesn’t”  The Daily Telegraph – 8^th January 2009

To ensure our partners have the opportunity to understand more about Windows 7 advantages, benefits and features, we have launched a monthly series of Windows 7 Live Meeting events.  There will be two strands to this  Ask the Expert (technical) and Sales Success for Windows 7 (sales).    The Live Meeting sessions will  focus on different topics during each session and will last 30 minutes and will contain 15 minutes on “how to” information and a question and answer session for you to pose your questions to our two Windows 7 experts – Jamie Burgess & Laurence Painell.  To register your attendance on the Live Meetings then please click on the relevant link below.

Ask the Expert

·         Technical focused 15 min session designed to tackle key technical issues that partners and customers may be experiencing with Windows 7 and these will be based on questions appearing in Windows 7 technical blogs and TechNet.  These sessions are designed to be interactive, consumable and focused

·        Aimed at technical staff and consultants within resellers, system builders and system integrators

·        Hosted by Jamie Burgess – Partner Technology Specialist

Sales Success

·        Sales focused training to target the questions partners are hearing – how do you sell now when customers are waiting for the next version?  How do you articulate the reasons for customers to migrate to Windows 7 and how does that relate to XP and Vista?

·        Aimed at sales staff within resellers, system builders and system integrators

·        Hosted by Laurence Painell – Windows 7 Marketing Manager

‘Business Productivity Online Suite Overview’ live meeting.

Dates and Times of LMs-

Mon 30^th Mar     14.00-14.30              ‘Business Productivity Online Suite Overview’               1032410100

The URL’s for this LM are as follows:

Delegate-

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032410100&Culture=en-GB

Mon 6^th Apr        14.00-14.30              ‘Business Productivity Online Suite Overview’               1032410116

The URL’s for this LM are as follows:

Delegate-

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032410116&Culture=en-GB 

Mon 27^th Apr      14.00-14.30              ‘Business Productivity Online Suite Overview’               1032410120

The URL’s for this LM are as follows:

Delegate-

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032410120&Culture=en-GB

Mon 11^th May    14.00-14.30              ‘Business Productivity Online Suite Overview’               1032410122

The URL’s for this LM are as follows:

Delegate-

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032410122&Culture=en-GB 

Mon 18^th May    14.00-14.30              ‘Business Productivity Online Suite Overview’               1032410124

The URL’s for this LM are as follows:

Delegate-

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032410124&Culture=en-GB

Mon 25^th May    14.00-14.30              ‘Business Productivity Online Suite Overview’               1032410126

The URL’s for this LM are as follows:

Delegate-

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032410126&Culture=en-GB

Mon 1^st June      14.00-14.30              ‘Business Productivity Online Suite Overview’               1032410128

The URL’s for this LM are as follows:

Delegate-

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032410128&Culture=en-GB

How can partners look to make money from BPOS?

There are a number of ways that partners can look to make money from BPOS. Three examples include:

1)      Software referral fee.

2)      Traditional services for data migration, implementation and design.

3)      Developing applications that can connect to BPOS via a web service.

This document is a Microsoft guide that outlines how you can maximise revenues with software plus services.

What type of partner would be interested in BPOS for these three investment areas?

1)      All partners can sign up to receive a referral fee

2)      Microsoft partners that may wish to offer these services include Value Added Resellers, ISV’s and System Integrator’s

3)      Microsoft partners that are well equipped for developing applications include Web Agencies, Value Added Resellers, Custom Development partners and Independent Software Vendors. Traditional System Integrator’s may also be interested in getting involved if they have a skilled development team.

How can partners create ISV/VAR applications that connect to BPOS?

Microsoft is looking for partners to create loosely coupled solutions that integrate with BPOS via a web service.

Examples of loosely coupled solutions can be found here     http://www.microsoft.com/online/partner/solutions-showcase.mspx

There are a variety of different options available for connecting to BPOS. These may include web service connections from hosted SaaS environments or on-premise solutions.

Developers guide can be found here SharePoint Online Developer’s Guide for:

•        Customiation capabilities and limitations

•        Custom templates, master pages, style sheets

•        Using Data Form Web Parts

•        The 20 site admin templates of the fantastic forty that are tested to work with SharePoint Online

•        List of supported and unsupported SharePoint Online web services

•        Integrating Microsoft Silverlight with SharePoint Online

•        No-code Workflows using SharePoint Designer

•        Code examples and scenarios as appropriate

The simple 3 step guide for partners interested in developing applications for BPOS is:

Step 1:

Click Community tab on www.quickstartonlineservices.com/discover

Step 2:

Click on the Partner Solutions Showcase Program (PSSP) logo on the right

Step 3:

Fill out and submit questionnaire with supporting information

Guide to Opportunity: Software-plus-Services

How do partners  make money from a Software-plus-Services strategy?

Here is a 16 page guide which explains in-depth how partners can exploit our Software-plus-Services strategy.

Microsoft executives and partners describe how Software-plus-Services can create major revenue opportunities for partners; and cost savings for customers, especially in the current economic climate.

How can Microsoft Services help Partners?

Microsoft Partner Advantage (MSPA) offers an extensive range of services designed to help Partners more effectively develop, deploy and support solutions using Microsoft technologies. This is achieved through the utilisation of ADC and TAMs.

ADC (Application Development Consultancy), is a relationship-based service addressing development challenges for Partners, through world-class Consultancy, state-of-the-art Labs and development Workshops. This helps Partners accelerate their software development process and shrink budget targets, whilst maximising ROI.

A TAM (Technical Account Manager) provides Partners with proactive services, and manages the escalation of complex issues by ensuring the appropriate resources are applied to meet customer needs, reducing a Partner’s costs by anticipating and eliminating problems before they occur, and keeping the customer’s systems running at peak performance.

If you’re interested, speak to your Partner Account Manager.