I ran the Sydney Half Marathon last weekend & whilst I finished the 21.1km without dying, it really didn’t do too much for my ego. A) It took nearly 2 hours, even though it’s supposed to be one of the easier courses around B) I was lapped by several people C) My good friend beat me by nearly 10 minutes...

Following on from my earlier post on our proactive campaign to help customers succeed in a tough economy, please find below a video address that Paul Voges recorded earlier today for the attention of all Microsoft Australian partners (Paul is the Director of Small to Midmarket Solutions & Partners...

Great to see more positive reviews coming through for Small Business Server 2008 in the lead-up to the November 12th launch. This latest one comes from the PC World Australia & their closing thoughts? With the release of Small Business Server 2008, Microsoft shows signs of understanding that small...

Hard times. Nervous times. Companies losing confidence & the economy in turmoil. What to do? There's a very strong argument that says organisations should pull back, consolidate, stop spending and just ride out the storm. And that absolutely makes sense in many situations. But not all of them. Although...

Now that EBS 2008 has RTM'd , I'm pleased to announce the local Australian estimated retail prices. The specific SKUs & dealer pricing will be available via distribution from November 1st however I acknowledge that partners need to see at least indicative pricing so that they can start to quote....

After much planning & taking into account the feedback from the SMB Servers pre-day at TechEd, I'm happy to announce the first round of SBS / EBS hands-on labs has been released: Small Business Server 2008 Essential Business Server 2008 Microsoft Australia has subsidised these sessions, dates &...

With thanks as always to Scott Adams . Great Dilbert this week & particularly relevant to me given the number of random calls I get from partners on every topic imaginable - I guess that's bound to happen with the number of events I attend & business cards I hand out. It's all good of course...

In an effort to better understand the needs & challenges of customers, we're kicking off a series of online polls on the Microsoft Australia Small Business site - this week its all around security. Check it out here. Feel free to fill it in yourself or forward to your clients so that we can get a...

As you probably know, daylight saving now commences on the first Sunday in October and ends on the first Sunday in April in New South Wales, Victoria, the ACT, Tasmania & South Australia. This change affects Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office Outlook and other Microsoft, third party and custom applications...

As announced at last week's TechEd SMB Servers pre-day , the Australian ERPs for Small Business Server 2008 are as per below. I'm putting together a full listing of SKUs (including Academic, transition packs etc) & will get this up in the next couple of days. Of course, you should always speak to...

Lots of good conversations with a variety of media outlets at TechEd (CRN, MyBusiness mag, APC.com, Dynamic Small Business mag, itwire.com.au & others) & we're starting to see some coverage. Good article from Ian Yates at CRN here , finishing with: "There's a lot to like with the new version...

This time tomorrow we'll be 2 hours into our SBS/EBS gab-fest as part of the TechEd 2008 SMB Servers pre-day & so if you're coming along, I thought I'd give you a little taster of what to expect. 10. Whilst we didn't make our initial target of 350, I'm happy to announce that we'll have over 250 people...

Given the Australian Partner Conference was a whopping 3 weeks ago I thought it was about time that I provided a quick wrap-up. Some useful links before I go on: The Windows Essential Business Server preso that The Wayne & I did Links to all the other sessions in PDF, XPS & PPT formats List of...

Registration for TechEd 2008 closes at 3pm on Thursday, August 28th & so if you wanna be part of the biggest SBS & EBS Partner event in Australia since the launch of SBS 2003, now is the time to register. Full details & registration available here . We have over 200 attendees from around...

New article just published on apcmagpro.com by Paul Schnackenburg - long-time IT writer, MCSE & Small Business Server user since v4.0. I really enjoyed reading through this article & whilst there will always be some differences of opinion in such a comprehensive product, I really think he got...

And the nominations for 2008 Small Business Specialist of the Year are: Business Computing Australia Calvert Technologies Comcity Technology Evolve IT Australia We had a record number of entries this year with consistently high quality, so even being named as a finalist is a grand achievement. The winner...

Less than 6 weeks to go & we're getting close to 50% capacity at the TechEd 2008 SMB Servers day on September 2nd. Latest agenda here & so secure your spot today. Yes, I'm going the hard sell. And yes, $550 is a lot of money. But if you sell SBS, or are thinking about getting into a larger customer...

Lots of comments & discussion at the moment around Microsoft's recent Software + Services updates & announcements at WPC. Whilst the specific details are still being worked out for Australia, what is clear is these changes are part of the ongoing shift in our business model - a change that we...

I'm very happy to announce that every attendee of our SMB Servers day at TechEd Australia 2008 will receive a free copy of the soon to be released Small Business Server 2008 Standard . Not kidding. Yours to take & use to make your first sale on the new platform. Register here: https://www.infosalons...

Our final post in the series of Aussie SBS MVPs is Wayne Small - from here on in known as The Wayne . Prolific SBS group poster & moderator, Microsoft Press author & owner of the SBSfaq website , Wayne has been involved with SBS since before the dawn of time. Particular thanks from me for his...

Brand-spanking new blog from the local Windows Mobile team - nice. "Welcome along to the WMOz blog, a Microsoft team blog focusing on all things Windows Mobile through an Australian specific lens. So why the WMOz Blog? There are plenty of blogs from the US and Europe dealing with mobility and Windows...

Since moving back to Australia from the UK a little over 6 months ago, I've spent a fair chunk of time meeting with SBSC partners, presenting at SBS user groups & generally getting out & about as much as I can. I firmly believe that for a company to be successful (any company, not just Microsoft...

We're just over 2 months out from the Australian TechEd 2008 SMB Servers pre-day & so the agenda is almost locked. Speakers are almost locked, giveaways are almost locked, sponsors are almost locked & we've almost reached 25% of our attendee target. So, have a look at the agenda below & think...

Good news - the entries deadline for the Australian Partner Awards has been extended to July 2nd. That means you've got just over two more weeks to get your submissions in. Details here: https://partner.microsoft.com/Australia/40043064 Cheers & looking forward to reading some great entries, Robbie

Fourth in our series of Australian Small Business Server MVPs is Henry Craven of Melbourne. A passionate & prolific contributor to a whole host of SBS partner forums, Henry also manages the Melbourne SBS Users Group & provides much needed feedback to Microsoft on how we can continually improve...