Another great post from my good friend Karl Palachuk on thinking about your business plan. Check it out here . This is not a short-cut or a get rich scheme, but merely some very useful advice if you're struggling to get your thoughts & plans down on paper. Good opportunity as we head into the silly...

Very timely event from our Financing team aimed at helping partners understand & prepare for the coming economic downturn. To assist you in determining what it means for your business and your customers, Microsoft Financing, has assembled a panel of experts to discuss; The economic climate, Impacts...

Heads-up from our SMB team about our continuing customer profiling activities. I really feel these activities will result in more business for all & so am keen to hear your feedback / questions. Cheers, Robbie   Recently, we told you about our program to profile our customers so we can tailor...

Lots of notes & noise swirling around today after the Professional Developers Conference announcement of Windows Azure , Microsoft's platform for cloud computing and software + services. As you can imagine the wraps on this were kept tighter than a very tight thing & so I haven't really had a...

You've probably heard by now that Steve Ballmer's going to be in Sydney on November 6/7, however what you may not know is that he's going to be presenting at a live web rally . That's right, along with about a thousand other meetings the Microsoft CEO will be presenting our Software + Services strategy...

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...

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...

Great post from my good friend & must read blogger, Karl Palachuk in Sacramento, about how to continue making money when all clients want to do is save. Here's a snippet: When you hear people say that small businesses are more flexible than big businesses, this is the kind of thing they mean. When...

With its worldwide availability just around the corner, now is the time to start thinking about whether Essential Business Server 2008 is a solution that you want to offer your clients. Does it fit your practice? What technical training will you need? How does the sale differ from SBS? Which customers...

We went to the snow last weekend (top notch, best in years) however on the drive home saw no less than a dozen dead wombats lying mournfully by the side of the road. Now wombats aren't the swiftest of marsupials at the best of times & so I can only imagine that the poor little blighters were trying...

Working on the SBS/EBS launch plan, catching up on some MBA reading & getting ready to watch the Swannies once again snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory, & two things strike me: I really need to get out more on Sundays, and Most of the measurements in our launch plan are leading rather...

Just announced, Microsoft's FY08 revenues exceeded $60 billion for the first time. As per the earnings announcement , this represents an 18% year-on-year increase & a 32% increase in earnings per share. There's been lots of chatter lately around our direction, focus, leadership & overall strategy...

I was in in Brisbane overnight for the Synnex reseller roadshow (lots of interest in SBS 2008) & so was flying back to Sydney this morning. What followed was three very annoying examples of customer non-service, all of which have me vowing never to use that airline, that telco or that parking service...

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...

Very timely Dilbert today :-) (with thanks to Scott Adams ) Given the imminent release of SBS 2008 & EBS 2008, now is the time to really start thinking which of your customers (if any), you'll look to upgrade to the new platform. And why. From a tech point of view, business point of view, user point...

Just a quick heads-up on this on behalf of the SMB customer team: The Microsoft SMB team are today sending a direct mail piece to a sample group of companies in the 5 to 49 PC segment. This mailing is simply a follow up to the piece we sent to the same companies in February this year. Click here for...

If you were responsible for Small Business Server in Australia, what would you do to launch the new version later this year? :-) Don't worry - we have plenty of ideas & will be sharing the readiness, pricing, beta, partner, advertising, communications & all encompassing, end-to-end Uber launch...

Interested in looking at a new business model? Or just want to learn more about hosting? Then get along to the series of Microsoft Hosting Days , kicking off in Adelaide on May 13th. Hosting is the fastest growing SBS license type in Australia & so there's certainly opportunities to uncover. On offer...

Sitting in the Sydney Qantas Club on my way to Adelaide for the next round of the Wave launch events. As I look around it strikes me that at least 1/3, if not 1/2 of the people here are tap-tap-tapping away on their PC (including me), & taking advantage of the free Telstra wireless. Even just 5 years...

Managed services is a bit of a buzzword (words?) at the moment & for seemingly good reason: - Annuity revenue streams - potentially - Standardised customer offerings - potentially - Predictable business growth - potentially The key word of course is "potentially" & that's because building...

Another great post from Seth Godin recently that talks to the notion of persuasion - ie, how do you get your customers over the line? Fairly timely methinks, given the availability of Windows Server 2008 & upcoming release of SBS 2008 & WEBS 2008 . For me, a lot of this comes down to three distinct...

Microsoft Australia made an oversight this week with regards to an SMB customer profiling campaign that we're undertaking. I won't go into the details (Wayne has a good synopsis here and a follow-up here ), suffice it to say that we could have been more attune to the concerns of our partners and let...

Off-topic, but a great business strategy article about the iPhone as the "minimum viable product archetype". "One of the more central concepts in product marketing is the minimum viable product. Especially when entering a new market, the question of what functionality to include in a product...

I was privileged & excited yesterday (even super-excited, which I managed to insert 12 times into 45mins) to present the small business partner breakout session as part of the Wave launch kick-off in Sydney. It was the first time we've been able to have a public conversation in Australia about SBS...

Now that SBS2008 has been announced , there's going to be a lot of effort/discussion over the coming months as to which bits partners need to be focusing on. Like any new or upgraded product, not everything is going to be suitable for everyone, but there is the temptation that you need to be across all...