Microsoft announced the public beta release of Office 2010, SharePoint Server 2010, Visio 2010, Project 2010 and Office Mobile 2010.

• Visio 2010 – Advanced diagramming made simple
• Exchange 2010 – Achieve new levels of reliability and performance
• Office 2010 – Bring ideas to life with the next generation of productivity tools across the PC, phone and browser
• SharePoint 2010 – The business collaboration platform for the enterprise and the web
• Project 2010 – The flexible work management solution for individuals, teams and the enterprise

You can download the beta’s of all the above products and get more information at:  www.microsoft.com/2010

--D

Bytes People Solutions will be offering specific productivity workshops during December 2009.

Seats are limited – please book a.s.a.p.: (all costs ex VAT)

1) Microsoft Excel 2007 Bootcamp (cost R 2 150)

Course duration: 3 Days.  Date: 14, 15 & 17 December 2009

Description:

Statistics has proved that less than 10% of people using MS Office can create professional reports using tools including Pivot Tables and Pivot Diagrams.  Most people also struggle to create dashboard reports due the amount of links between sheets and workbooks. This workshop will ensure that people will have the ability to create professional reports using the following tools:

• Filtering, Conditional Formatting, Pivot Diagrams, Pivot tables, Camera tool, Working with Subtotals, Advance Formulas

2) Unveiling the Secrets of Excel 07 (cost R 1 250)

Course duration : 2 days

Course date 10-11 December

3) Advanced Business writing using MS Word Advanced (cost R 1 250)

Course duration: 2 days.  Date: 14-15 December

Description:

It is important in business to be able to write successful proposals and reports.  This will have an impact on how well your work will be received by others.   This workshop is designed to equip you with the necessary skills to be able to present organised, clear and concise reports and proposals as well as with the necessary MS Word skills to put this into practice.

4) Email etiquette – using MS Outlook (cost R 785)

Course duration: 1 Day.  Date: 15/12/2009

Description:

Upon completion of this course you will know how to:

• Describe the various aspects of e-mail programs, decide when to write e-mail and when to avoid writing e-mail and improve e-mail writing skills.
• Follow company policies regarding e-mail, follow copyright laws, avoid viruses and discuss e-mail liability.
• Use the various features of e-mail programs and secure your e-mail by using encryption, digital signatures and passwords.
• Use headers effectively in an e-mail message and structure the body of an e-mail message.
• Write e-mail with recipients in mind and manage your e-mail volume.
• Use proper netiquette styles and use emoticons and electronic abbreviations.
• Communicate online, use language and punctuation and develop efficient writing habits.

5) SharePoint for End Users (cost R 785)

Course duration : 1 Day

Course date: 10/12/2009

6) Visual Basic for Excel 2007 (cost R 4 750)

Course duration: 5 Days

Course date: 30/11/2009

Description:

Master the fundamentals for using VBA to create custom software solutions and automating tasks in Excel 2007—no developer experience required! You'll learn how to automate spreadsheets, write your own functions and procedures, and customize menus and toolbars. You’ll discover Excel Objects, including workbooks, range objects, graphics, and PivotTables®. Plus, you’ll learn how to chart data from databases and other information sources.

7) Intro to HTML and Web Development (cost R 1 995)

Course duration: 4 Days

Course date: 7-10 December 2009

If you would like to register for any of these courses, please contact:

Pieter Nel
Business Unit Executive : IT Learning Solutions
Bytes Technology Group : People Solutions

Tel : (+27) (11) 205 7000
Email : pieter.nel@bytes.co.za
Web  : www,bytespeoplesolutions,co.za

--D

Yesterday, November 9, 2009, at Tech▪Ed Europe in Berlin, we announced the worldwide general availability of Exchange 2010.

You can catch Stephen Elop’s keynote at www.thenewefficiency.com.

Please read my previous blog, here, about the local South African launch activities.  Space is very limited!

ROI: Based on the interviews with the nine existing customers, Forrester constructed a TEI framework for a composite organization and the associated ROI analysis illustrating the financial impact areas. As seen in Table 1, the ROI for our composite company, computed from hard benefits, is 48% with a breakeven point (payback period) of less than six months after deployment.  Get the whitepaper here.

--D

I arrived in Las Vegas over the past weekend for the SharePoint Conference.  The Vegas experience starts at the airport and after doing a bit of exploration this city can best be described as fabulous!

The conference itself, being hosted at Mandalay Bay is on a somewhat over-whelming scale.  With over 160 sponsors and more than 7400 delegates, it is roughly double the size of the SharePoint conference in Seattle in 2008!  It is great to see the level of enthusiasm for this product.

I am very impressed by the organisation of this event and the way in which the organisers deal with the masses amounts of people.  The attention to detail is staggering.  For instance, sponsor ads are published in a thick  book, along with detailed information on SharePoint Server 2010 being given to each delegate at registration. There is even a TV channel dedicated to the conference which you can view in your hotel room with information such as agenda, sponsor information and rolling video case studies.

It is now late afternoon on the first day of the conference and definitely the highlight so far has been the keynote delivered by our CEO, Steve Ballmer, this morning.  Many aspects of the much anticipated SharePoint Server 2010 has been demonstrated during his keynote.  Rather than being a big revolution like SharePoint 2007 was over SharePoint 2003, SharePoint 2010 is a fantastic evolution and refinement in all the capability areas of SharePoint 2007. 

Some of the highlights in the product I have enjoyed so far:

• Great new UI - The look and feel of SharePoint and the addition of the contextual ribbon within SharePoint, SharePoint Workspace and SharePoint Designer.
• Customisation capabilities – Visual Studio 2010 integration, design of web parts, as well as customisation without code for intra or internet scenarios.
• Improved administration, deployment, upgrade and powershell scripting.

The best way to describe SharePoint 2010 is as per its tag line: The business collaboration platform for the enterprise and the web. 

This conference is a great heads up for SharePoint 2010 and new scenarios and benefits, but the actual product will only be finished and released somewhere in the first 6 months of 2010.  However Steve also announced that the public beta of SharePoint 2010 will be available in November.

If you are keen to find out more about SharePoint 2010 – click here.

Get ready, and register, for the Joint Business Launch of Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Exchange Server 2010 and Windows Phone! 

These products will be launched in Johannesburg (17 Nov), Durban (19 Nov) and Cape Town (24 Nov).

Besides showcasing great innovation, expect international speaker(s), customer testimonials and awesome giveaways. 

To register:

· Johannesburg Registration

· Cape Town Registration

· Durban Registration

To add it to your Outlook calendar:

· Johannesburg Calendar

· Cape Town Calendar

· Durban Calendar

Hope to see you there!

--D

We are happy to announce that Exchange 2010 is Code Complete!  This Release to Manufacturing (RTM) milestone means we are on our way to general availability and the launch at Tech·Ed Europe in early November as well as our local South African launch events. 

I’ll let you know more on the local launch events early next week.

What’s new in Exchange 2010?

At a very high level - a few things I picked (for more go here):

• Bigger mailboxes at much lower cost
• Built in compliance and archiving
• Enhanced high availability, deployment and administration scenarios
• Better productivity through:
• Conversation view
• Voice mail and voice mail preview
• Mail tips

Note:  Exchange 2010 RTM is not yet Generally Available.  We will only be making further announcements on this in the coming weeks.  Meanwhile you can still try the Release Candidate here.

--D

When you purchase products from us with Software Assurance you receive the Packaged Services benefit.  The value of Packaged Services from Microsoft often get overlooked.  It is a benefit that many customers already own and merely needs to be activated and delivered on by Microsoft partners.

The main value of Packaged Services are consulting services that help customers deploy great technology.

1. What are Packaged Services Benefits (PSBs)?
Packaged Services Benefits (PSBs) are structured engagements delivered by qualified consultants providing planning and deployment guidance and analysis to EA Customers. There are multiple PSB types; DDPS, SDPS, BVPS, & EDPS.

2. Who can Deliver PSBs?
Partners who have registered to deliver packaged services and met the approval criteria (certification for individuals or specialization for organizations). See each site for details: DDPS, SDPS, BVPS, & EDPS.

3. How do partners Register and get Approved to Deliver PSBs?
Register your company online.  More explanations are done at this site.

4. Where do Customers go to take Advantage of Packaged Services Benefits?
Visit SA Customer Packaged Services landing page to learn more and to see if you qualify. Also see the steps you need to take to activate the SA Benefits.

Review the Packaged Services Providers Directory where customers find approved partners.

All vouchers must be fully consumed (assigned/created by customer, reserved by partner, redeemed by partner) within the 180 day life cycle.

--D

Exchange 2007 Service Pack 2 was announced recently.

If you plan to migrate to or co-exist with Exchange 2010, then make sure you look at deploying Exchange 2007 SP2.  Besides allowing for an easy migration to Exchange 2010 there are also product enhancements.  Find more information here.

Download available here.

--D

Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Release Candidate (RC) is available for download from today.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 helps you achieve new levels of reliability and performance by delivering features that simplify your administration, protect your communications, and delight your users by meeting their demands for greater business mobility.

Please review the Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 system requirements before you proceed. Actual requirements and product functionality may vary based on your system configuration.

Please remember that this software is for evaluation purpose only.

Download now

--D

Kudos to an article posted by Ashlee Vance of the New York Times on SharePoint (click here).

Quoted from the blog: “Companies like Ferrari, Starbucks and Viacom have used SharePoint to create their public-facing Web sites and for various other tasks. All told, more than 17,000 customers use SharePoint.”

Although this is a US based article we’re seeing great momentum with SharePoint in South Africa.  For a list of some local customers, have a look here.  Although we don’t have Ferrari, great work has been done with public facing sites like www.mtn.co.za, www.tsogosun.co.za and www.montecasino.co.za.

Need more info?  www.microsoft.com/sharepoint

--Danie

Hi all,

Earlier this week we have made some announcements about the next version of Microsoft Office.

Microsoft Office 2010 - due to be launched early next year - gives you powerful new tools to express your ideas and work well, wherever your life takes you, whether you’re at work, home, or school, on a computer, Web browser, or Smartphone.

Work with multiple people from different locations at the same time, using new co-authoring capabilities. By offering more ways to access your files from virtually anywhere, Office 2010 puts you in control. Inspire others with your ideas using enhanced tools, customizable templates and photo editing capabilities.

Tell your story with video; instantly brainstorm and share; inform and inspire using photos and graphics; connect, share, and collaborate in real time; access and edit your files from virtually anywhere on your PC, or Smartphone – all this is possible with the new Office 2010.

Check here for more details:  http://www.microsoft.com/office/2010/

All the best

--D

Federation is an important goal for the Office Communications Server team and we are excited to announce several changes to public IM federation between Office Communications Server and public IM networks, effective July 1, 2009:

· The Live Communications Sever Public IM Connectivity (LCS PIC) license will be renamed Office Communications Server Public IM Connectivity (OCS PIC) license.

· Customers with Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Standard CAL or Office Communications Server 2007/Live Communications Server 2005 SP1 Standard CAL with Software Assurance will no longer require an additional license to federate with Windows Live.  (A license will still be required for federation with AOL & Yahoo!.)

· With Windows Live federation, customers are able to add Windows Live contacts to their Office Communicator contact list, view presence and send and receive instant messages.

We will continue to work with our partners to enable more options that allow you to communicate seamlessly with customers, partners, friends and family on different networks. For more information on public IM connectivity with Office Communications Server, please go to http://www.microsoft.com/communicationsserver/en/us/public-im-connectivity.aspx

--D

So while we aren't ready to start demoing and sharing all of the features of Office 2010 quite yet I know that there are many of you that would like to stay in touch with how we are doing with the next version of Microsoft Office.

If you’d like to be on the waiting list to potentially preview Office 2010 client, go to www.office2010themovie.com.  Be sure to check back there often as more information will be posted as it becomes available.

Our team in Redmond is running a blog at: http://blogs.technet.com/office2010/ which is the right place to go to for any updates as it happens.

I’ll keep my blog updated with any activities in South Africa concerning product availability and leading up to launch.  Remember that it is still early days and the release of Office 2010 will only be somewhere in the first half of 2010.

--D

For those of you that have been to Tech Ed before will know that this is the IT professional event of the year that is not to be missed!

Since last year we’ve moved the event to the ICC at Durban and it will be there again this year.  Here is some more about the event:

TechEd Africa 2009 will be the official launch platform for Windows 7, Exchange 2010 and Windows Server 2008 R2 - don't miss out on these cutting edge launch sessions. International and local expert speakers will share over 200 sessions covering 18 tracks.

Be part of the experience. So much to discover. Hundreds of ways to learn.

Dates: 2-5 August 2009
Venue: Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre, Durban

Get more information at www.teched.co.za .

Register now for the early bird special!

See you in Durban!

--Danie

It’s official!  The next version of Microsoft Exchange, Office, SharePoint, Project and Visio will carry the 2010 brand.  This new wave of innovation starts with Exchange Server 2010 for which we have just announced that the beta is available for download at http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/2010.

It is a big download, so if like most of us you are bandwidth deprived, please contact me and I’ll do my best to make a DVD available to you (South Africa only).

Exchange Server 2010 will become available in the second half of 2009. Microsoft Office 2010 and related products will enter technical preview in the third quarter of 2009 and become available in the first half of 2010.

These are some of the high level features and benefits to look forward to:

• Lower costs with more flexible deployment and management options.
• Protect information and meet compliance requirements with the new e-mail archive.
• Improve user productivity with the ultimate inbox experience.
• MailTips. - This tell users even before they send an email whether the recipient mailbox is full, out of office, an external recipient or a large distribution list.
• Voice Mail Preview.  - This will speech to text your voice message so that you can read voice mails on your PC, phone or browser.
• Ignore Conversation.  - Have you ever wished that you could disappear of an email thread?  Ignoring the whole conversation takes it out of your view for existing and new emails on that thread.
• Conversation View.  - See all your emails on a conversation irrespective of which folder they are in.
• Call Answering Rules.
• Consistent Experience.

I certainly cannot wait for this to become mainstream and this is also your opportunity to experience the next step in messaging innovation.

--D