Deploy/Adopt: Realizing Value : Software Assurance

Updated DDPS Offerings

cmross — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:25:02 GMT

Microsoft provides additional services and benefits to customers with Software Assurance. These benefits include Packaged Service Benefits which enable customers to use their allocated days to engage MCS and/or certified Partners to deliver services related to desktop deployment (DDPS), business value planning (BVPS), SharePoint deployment (SDPS) and Exchange deployment (EDPS).

Desktop Deployment Planning Services the culmination of best practices demonstrated by MCS and Partners in programmatically addressing deployment planning and pilot, has been a tremendous benefit to our customers and the service organizations that support them.

Today, I’m pleased to announce that Desktop Deployment Planning Services is entering a new era of flexibility, and now incorporates many of the additional services asked for. The chart below describes the richer suite of planning services available to customers.

And, the exception process has been streamlined, to a review process committed to our customers, the Partner community and Office deployment.

As a customer, you can contact your preferred Partner or Microsoft account manager to learn more about Software Assurance benefits and DDPS specifically.

Partners can find out more information on the Microsoft Partner portal.

Microsoft Business Value Planning Services

cmross — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 15:40:58 GMT

Recently, I’ve been hearing more from customers looking for Microsoft’s help in quantifying the ROI that deploying the 2007 Microsoft Office System will support. We’ve been fortunate to have both a consulting arm, field sales and Partners that can help customers with this, through offerings such as the Rapid Economic Justification. Last November, we added a benefit to our Software Assurance licensing agreement to make this a paid-for service, the Business Value Planning Service.

What it is

Microsoft Business Value Planning Services (BVPS) is a Software Assurance (SA) benefit through which Microsoft pays Partners to deliver and engagement through which a certified BVPS consultant helps customers develop a plan for improving business process through the use of the Microsoft Office System. Depending upon the specifics of your SA benefit, this may be funded for 3-15 days of engagement. During that time, the consultant follows a proven agenda that includes identifying a business process improvement scenario from the following list:

Automated Forms: Reduce costs and streamline form driven business processes.
Automated Performance Reporting: Improve decision making through near-real time creation and access to performance reports.
Budgeting: Improve accuracy of creation and tracking of departmental budgets.
Collaborative Document Development: Improve a company’s ability to develop and review documents across teams and improve content reuse.
Content Search and Reuse: Improve a company’s ability to organize and find information through online repositories.
Merging Project Plans: Integrate multiple project planning efforts for better resource planning and tracking.
Performance Management: Improve a company’s performance management processes through more efficient and effective planning, forecasting, analysis, and reporting.
Project Portfolio Management: Improve a company’s project prioritization and selection, and the project portfolio’s overall strategic alignment.
Remote Training: Reduce costs and streamline a company’s training processes through virtual / remote training.
Routing Communications: Improve communication and speed issue resolution through new and integrated communications – email, telephone, instant messaging.
Sensitive Records Management: Improve a company’s current process for creating, managing and deleting sensitive records such as legal, financial, medical and HR.

How to get it

If you have Software Assurance, you’re halfway there! The next step is to choose a Partner to help you, from the list of Packaged Service Providers found here. You can also check with your preferred Partner, to see if they are already certified (if not, point them to www.MicrosoftBVPS.com for more information). The consultant assigned will contact you and explain the agenda, find out a little more about your business and discuss the scenarios you would like to know more about.

In summary, I really like this benefit because it gets to the heart of what customers need today in justifying IT spend and valuating ROI. If you have any questions about this benefit, you can contact Microsoft directly from bvpshelp@microsoft.com

Deploy Windows Vista or Wait for Windows 7?

cmross — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 02:36:14 GMT

Hey! Have you heard of Windows 7? LOL. Yeah, even my 13yr old is quizzing me on the date. Which is kinda funny, seeing that he’s the IT guy in the house. Well, Windows 7 is on the minds of our customers and Partners; I’m sure that most (all) of you are running the Beta too on some machine. The interest has been amazing (Circa Windows 95 maybe?) and it’s something we’re really happy and proud about. But the #2 question I hear from customers (after “When is it being released?) is “What should I be doing?” I’ll share with you the same guidance I’ve given to our field sales teams, customer’s I’ve met and our Partners. It’s framed around 3 statements:

Windows 7 is not a panacea for bad IT. Many of the customers I speak with are running Windows XP with a mix of Basic or Standard-optimized capabilities. That’s concerning; not because they aren’t running Windows Vista, but because they haven’t used the time to optimize their infrastructure. Windows 7 could be the next best thing to sliced bread, but if you don’t have the ability to build 2 images max, deploy without touching the desktop, leverage virtualization technologies, etc. it doesn’t really matter does it? I love technology just as much as the next techie, but make sure you have your priorities in the right order: training the staff, improving the server infrastructure and having a solid PC lifecycle plan. Which brings me to my next point, which is…

There are no stop signs on the road to Windows 7. If there is one consistent behavior I’ve seen over the past 2 client OS releases, it’s a hesitance to pull the trigger on deployment before SP1. Why is that? 2 reasons: confidence in the RTM quality and preparedness. Hopefully, we’re earning your trust and the interest in Windows 7 beta has proven to be a worthwhile consideration of early adoption. But if it were to RTM today are you ready to deploy? In most cases, the answer is probably not. And that’s too bad, because with Windows XP going into Extended Support, many of you may be in a reactive mode rather than proactively managing your desktop. So how can an IT shop plan for Windows 7? There are 4 resources you should be considering, as a way to keep your foot on the gas:

Desktop Deployment Planning Services. This is a free services engagement for customer with Software Assurance. It will pay for either a Partner or Microsoft Consulting Services to come on site for anywhere from 3-15 days and help you plan & pilot your deployment of Office 2007, Windows Vista or Windows 7.

Microsoft App Compat Toolkit. Most applications written for Windows Vista will run stock on Windows 7, so do your testing on Windows Vista. By doing so, you’ll be able to set a baseline with Windows Vista and return to it, rather than Windows XP, should an application not be immediately supported at RTM.

Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack. This subscription service has everything a band of IT rock stars could hope for, including:

Asset Inventory Service. Wouldn’t it be great to know exactly how many applications are in your Enterprise? Who is running them? What version? Many customers have work to do in understanding the scope of effort necessary to manage their applications. With AIS, this is something that can be started today, and likely decrease licensing costs and time spent building images, while increasing manageability.
Microsoft Application Virtualization. Pick your flavor: VPC, MED-V, APP-V, VDI. Never has there been so many ways to decrease the challenges of application compatibility, the time and cost of deploying and managing the desktop. Read the full Microsoft virtualization story here.
Advanced Group Policy Management. Managing multiple client OSes is the reality. AGPM gives that added level of flexibility and manageability to the desktop experience.

And finally the Springboard Series, chock-full of Windows client training resources.

It’s not about Windows Vista vs Windows 7. It’s about Desktop Optimization.

Your IT vision is probably less about what version of Windows to deploy, and more about optimizing your IT infrastructure and desktops. The Microsoft platform can help you do that, and I encourage you to expect the support of your account team and technology Partners to make that a reality. So without further ado, here’s what to do:

If you are deploying Windows Vista today, keep deploying Windows Vista. Take advantage of your MDOP subscription to begin exploring virtualization technologies.
If you are running Windows NT/2000 (or older). Deploy Windows Vista now. Seriously. Virtualize OS-dependent applications and get on a supported operating system.

If you are running Windows XP, begin your planning and infrastructure preparation now. When you are ready to being deploying, target Windows 7 but have Windows Vista as a fall-back if ISV support or appcompat issues are a blocker. You will be in the best position, with the agility and lower costs you’ve always hoped for.

So what do you think? I hope this gives everyone guidance they can take and make their own. It’s important that you use the announcement of Windows 7 as the opportunity to solidify your IT vision and make it a reality.