Righty ho so many of you will know that we arent often happy with ourselves in Microsoft and are fairly remorseless at trying to improve what we do. Well check out this very cool addition to the suport we give our partners a Partner bot!

Now bear with me 'cos I was healthily sceptical but check out how good it is. Below an example of a simple request for 'What is HPC?' - immediately it gives me the relevant page to go to to get more info around hpc - cool!

Want to get this help from wherever you are in the world at any time - then add Partner Bot to your IM list - partnerbot@hotmail.com 

This is very early in development but it does help hence the post today - if you see some of the things we are missing then just ping me a mail and I will ask Madeleine to add them to the information stores!

Enjoy!

Okay, so if I was given a penny for every time I was asked:

1. How do I prove my value to Microsoft?
2. What should I do to get more visibility inside of Microsoft?
3. What should I do to get more face time from MSFT?

...then I would be a very rich man indeed...sadly this is not true and I impart these small words of wisdom freely (see how nice I am :-))

So here it is the top secrets to working with Microsoft (there are books on the matter just in case these few bullets whet your appetite):

1. To demonstrate your value sell your platform into specific verticals
2. The revenue they see as a result will demonstrate your value as a partner
3. The stories you create will demonstrate your business value and give you the PR legs to take your platform further

Many partners look for credibility from Microsoft. The way to demonstrate this is to deliver the following:

1. Predictability - 'revenue on the platform'
2. Proof Points - 'stories of how your product helps ours'
3. Pipeline - 'how we can take the initial stories further'

I have shared these with different alliance managers in the past working now in companies from Orange to O2 and many other types of partners. There are no complex rules and calling higher up usually doesn't work. It's nice and simple - help us to succeed and we will help you.

Enjoy!

Just a quickie to say that the dates for the Enterprise Search courses have been announced as follows:

23/02/2007 09:15 44CO003 - 2007 Microsoft Office System Enterprise Search Workshop

09/03/2007 09:15 44CO003 - 2007 Microsoft Office System Enterprise Search Workshop

23/03/2007 09:15 44CO003 - 2007 Microsoft Office System Enterprise Search Workshop

26/04/2007 09:15 44CO003 - 2007 Microsoft Office System Enterprise Search Workshop

The link to register is the following:

http://www.microsoft.co.uk/events/eventdetail.aspx?eventid=8586

The name above is a little bit misleading as this is Enterprise Search training including the following:

Course Outline

Module 1: Overview of the Business Needs and Challenges

§ Identify the market and business drivers for search technology

§ Identify search challenges

§ Explore a customer business problem

Module 2: Foundation Technical Concepts for Search on Desktop Computers

§ Explain the basic concepts of Search and other component technologies

§ Review the flow of information (with current technology) as it pertains to each of these technologies

· Lab: Installing WDS

Course Outline (continued)

· Examining WDS GPO options

· Indexing the Desktop

· Lab: Installing Windows Live Search Center

Module 3: Bringing Microsoft’s Search Together on the Server

§ Explain the basic concepts of Search on the server and other component technologies

§ Explore what is needed to add Search to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS)

§ Review the flow of information (with current technology) as it pertains to each of these technologies

§ Lab: Configuring Search in SharePoint

· SharePoint Admin Console

· Enabling New Search Features

· Crawling Internal and External Web Sites

§ Lab: Configuring BDC

§ Lab: Configuring KN (People Finder)

Module 4: Searching Microsoft Dynamics CRM

§ Features and functionality of Microsoft CRM

· Lab: Configuring Search to add Microsoft CRM

· Lab: Creating In-context Searches

· Lab: Search the Enterprise

Module 5: Integrating Search into the Enterprise

§ Looking at business problems

§ Who is a good candidate customer?

§ Additional income

Module 6: Next Steps for Partners in Quick Start Search Specialization

§ Overview of the Quick Start Search program

§ Next steps

Book now to avoid disappointment...!

Weekend fun: So we have been playing around with MSN Soapbox for a while now but finally MSN Soapbox is now public, check it out here:

http://soapbox.msn.com/

Just checked out a few of the videos up there - a few of my favorites include the French missile system which is sure to raise a smile! This very cool advert is the firm favourite:

Video: Amazingly Cool Ad

Enjoy!

So some of you that partner with Microsoft will be aware that we have a tool called Channel Builder. Well this is a great example of that in action. Seric an IBM partner from Paisley in Scotland are looking for HPC ISVs to help broaden their route to market....screenshot below of how Microsoft can help you to broaden your connections..just a small token :-)

If you know of anyone who would fit Stuarts criteria then please dont hesitate to get in touch!

Enjoy!

Righty ho, so not being the most technical person in the world I have been trying out a few different blog writers/posting apps to varying success. My favorite was Live Writer until I realised that it does sometimes cut off URLs hence the apology to you all for some frustrating posts where you cannot follow my links!

This should all be over now as the boys and girls in Redmond have let me try out some funky new version of LiveWriter which totally and utterly hums! Thanks to Joe Cheng and the gang in Redmond for helping me look less stupid (tough I know).

Normal service is now resumed ;-)

So you can probably all feel the momentum building behind Microsoft Compute Cluster Server in the HPC space now -

On-Demand Supercomputing: Wolfram gridMathematica and Microsoft CCS  www.wolfram.com/r/gridwebcast

Another webcast from another ISV - great to see the momentum building! make sure you register today to find out more...

So strangely enough I havent visited this site recently and quite a bit has changed, the following caught my eye:

1. HP launch their clustered offering on CCS: http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/software/microsoft/ccs/index.html
2. SGi announce their work with Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/jan07/01-11SGIPR.mspx
3. BioTeam delivering informatics solutions on CCS: http://www.hpcwire.com/hpc/1181298.html

And last, but by no means least our very own 'The Register' talking about our big clusters:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/14/microsoft_hpc_2006/

Nice to be out there and talked about :-)

Just off to Scotland to meet with a bunch of Oil and Gas partners and our colleagues in the far North.....on the wonderful GNER train and just before cracking on with a whole load of work I fancied some tunes and so logged onto Capital Radio....what should meet me but the opportunity to win a whole load of prizes from Microsoft:

Fancy winning some yourself(Safari in Kenya, 2 NIKON Cameras and a personal photographer) then go here: http://www.capitalradiogroup.com/listenlive/ 

Good luck! 

Some of you may have seen this article in IT Week from an interview with Michael (he's bored of me calling him Dr.)

Nice to see us hitting the press and supporting our partners whilst we do it - you will see that one of our great HPC partners, OCF, got a nice mention in here:

Julian Fielden, managing director of HPC reseller OCF, agreed.

“For the past five or six years HPC has been implemented on a Linux-based system, and the main issue with Linux is that it can be daunting to people that are unfamiliar with it,” he said. “We see the Microsoft cluster product as being incremental to the market, as opposed to being a substitution, because it gives people that already have a knowledge of the Windows system a chance to see the benefits that HPC can offer.”

Excerpt from the article:

“For the past five or six years HPC has been implemented on a Linux-based system, and the main issue with Linux is that it can be daunting to people that are unfamiliar with it,” he said. “We see the Microsoft cluster product as being incremental to the market, as opposed to being a substitution, because it gives people that already have a knowledge of the Windows system a chance to see the benefits that HPC can offer.”

Read for yourself at:

http://www.itweek.co.uk/crn/news/2173669/microsoft...

So BT currently have a competition underway for a MashUp around webservices and the following is a submission by Paul Clarke:

http://www.randomdayout.co.uk/

The general premise is that you let the website take you to new places in your area and suggest and entire day for you when you are at a loss for things to do - kind of funky though and it did provide for some new things I hadnt tried in my area!

The services Paul has linked into include:

Microsoft Virtual Earth API
Mapping and Yellow Pages search functionality

Geonames Geocoding Service API
Reverse geocoding for postcodes

Eventful API
Obtaining info on local Events

Geograph API
Georeferenced photos

Flickr API
Georeferenced photos

Transport Direct
Public/private transport travel directions

UpMyStreet
Displaying info on different areas by postcode

AccuWeather
Weather forecast map

GeoURL
Displaying nearby websites

Google Maps
Displaying driving directions

Multimap
Weather forecast

Nice work Paul - like it - Enjoy!

Right so okay I have had some stick for the name of this one but I am proud to announce the HPC UK Sales Incentive called High Performance Club for partners in the UK who sell MS HPC solutions by the end of June. If you do and keep us updated on your pipeline we will give you a chance to fly to Denver with the HPC team in June for 3 amazing days of fun and be there ready for teh Worldwide Partner Conference. The initial flyer went out to the UK HPC community this morning:

For more information on the incentive then please get in touch with myself or for the Worldwide Partner Conference please click here: http://www.microsoft.com/partner/events/wwpartnerconference/

Enjoy and get selling for your chance to win!

One of my colleagues Nick over in Oz sent this post over to me which made me smile:

http://blogs.msdn.com/nickmayhew/archive/2007/02/21/google-versus-live-search.aspx

Nick fed us this vital bit of context as apparently the chap playing the tv presenter is actually the CEO of Channel 9, check it out:

In Australia everyone gets it more easily than others will for there is a sub context:

· The presenter is a guy called Eddie McGuire, and the show is on a channel called Channel 9 (one of the big 4)

· He also happens to be the CEO of Channel 9

· MSN in Australia is actually a joint venture between Channel 9 and Microsoft

Nice...expecting the Google response any minute :-)

So there are a few of us putting a lot of thought into how partners are going to make money in 6 to 36 months from now...essentially the team I sit in take on the new technologies and have Microsoft commercialise those today through partners. But importantly, we also have an eye to the future so that we and our partners always know what is coming but most importantly shape our business to accommodate the way our partners will wish to work with us in the future...hence the catchy title. If you want to read more about this and the teams work then check out the post from Steve here: 

Microsoft UK: Partnering For The Future

Enjoy!

So just pulling out of Kings Cross and the usual hunt for tickets was underway, then for some reason it wasnt necessary - why I hear you ask:

"Ah is that a Zune mate...I was looking at one of those....and is that Vista on that tablet...looks nice - can I have a play"

"Sure take a seat...."

Great to see the raw enthusiasm for bringing in the Zune generation! No idea where that ticket is...for some reason it doesnt matter now :-)

And who said customer service isnt alive and well on Britains trains!

The Microsoft Government Leaders Forum Europe 2007 took place in Edinburgh earlier this week, the speech from both Gordon Brown and Bill Gates was televised and you can watch a recording here on their site: Microsoft Government Leaders Forum Europe 2007

Slightly lenghty but worth the time!

Enjoy!

So sat here in a European summit for the Microsoft HPC and Dell are doing a great presentation for around their HPC offerings. One of the discussions is around the time to quote and the fact that CCS wil be removing complexity from the market.

Question to Dell: How long do you take to get a quote out: 3 minutes from phone call to order going to the factory..Are you interested then you can contact the European Dell team on dsg@dell.com

Nice..that'll help change markets :)

The partner portal for registered, certified or Gold Partners and has recently been updated with some great information for HPC partners: https://partner.microsoft.com/UK/40028278

So what information can you get access to here:

1. Trial Software
2. CCS indepth:
3. Technical Whitepapers:
• Migrating Parallel Apps to CCS
• Parallel debugging
• Using Microsoft Message Passing Interface

And loads more - if you havent or cannot get access then it takes just 15 minutes to sign up as a registered partner and get access to the information here all free of charge!

Enjoy!

Some of you may have already signed up to the Technet newsletters and seen the following webcasts coming up:

TechNet Webcast: Running Production Windows Compute Cluster Server Systems (Level 200)

Thursday, March 22, 2007 - 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM Pacific Time

Doug Lindsey, Program Manager, Microsoft Corporation

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032330092&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Expand Your Simulation Capacity with Fluent Software and Windows Compute Cluster Server (Level 200)

Thursday, March 29, 2007 - 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM Pacific Time

Barbara Hutchings, Director of Strategic Partnerships, Fluent Inc.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032327302&Culture=en-US

Thanks to my colleague James in the Scottish office for highlighting these to me - if you dont want to miss further webcasts then sign up to the TechNet newsletter here: https://www.microsoft.com/uk/technet/newsletter.aspx

Personally I will be looking forward to my friend Joy over at Wolfram from running a similar seminar series - Joy - when are you doing them? :-)

Enjoy!

Oh yes I think so, but have a look at the following post from Andrew Shorten who is writing a new blog for web agencies. Great first few posts and the following on Windows Live and Virtual Earth:

http://ukwebagencies.wordpress.com/windows-live-downloads-resources/

Nice to see these kind of 5 minute guides! To see the above in action check out:

http://dev.live.com/mashups/partystart/

Enjoy!

Great to see the momentum building yet again with another OEM joining the Windows Compute Cluster fold - this time Colfax - see the story below:

http://www.byteandswitch.com/document.asp?doc_id=1...

Enjoy!

James Akrigg and I were helping out a partner with a specific opportunity today and James sent them over the following links - pretty useful resources if you are involved in the planning, deployment and ultimately delivering of MOSS 07:

Oh yes weekend reading for you:

Design and Architecture:

http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/1cffb278-6497-46fc-abd0-3dd652064c891033.mspx?mfr=true

Performance / Capacity with link to Availability:

http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/031b0634-bf99-4c23-8ebf-9d58b6a8e6ce1033.mspx?mfr=true

Usage Reporting:

http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/5233cf43-6a8f-40cb-9014-0724600e7e381033.mspx?mfr=true

Planning / Deployment Centre:

http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/b28ba53d-a3e8-440f-9fcb-f592d858894a1033.mspx?mfr=true

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/events/moss2007/dsk-101.mspx

Enjoy!

So for those of you that didnt see this article in the press in the Guardian recently which includes me :-) (thanks to Steve for forwarding) here it is in the flesh:

When will I be able to have my own supercomputer?

http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,2012715,00.html

(Something wrong with links from the guardian site - try searching for SuperComputer on their site search and the article pops up)

So which partner fancies getting them involved with CCS and seeing why they can have their own SuperComputer...!

Enjoy!