Response Point Team Blog : SBSCs

March 18th Microsoft Canada Response Point Webinar

RexBackman — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 04:20:00 GMT

Hear from SBS MVP Jeff Loucks, Trent Johnsen of SMB Phone and the Response Point team on the opportunities in selling Response Point to your customers.

We will also have some SPECIAL OFFERS from our Response Point Partners for those who attend the webinar.

To register go HERE.

Costco is selling Syspine

Xuedong David Huang — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 07:37:00 GMT

I'm very pleased to see that our partner Quanta worked out a deal with Costco to sell Syspine Response Point phone system online. This is a major step simplifying the purchase experience for our small business customers.

Will Costco create a conflict for our small business channel specialists? My answer is no. Direct and partner-led channel have always been complimentary strategies at Microsoft for a number of products. Direct allows us to help to drive awareness and demand. Channel allows us to deliver supply and expertise. Costco’s support of Response Point is a testimony of the core value of our IP PBX phone system. Never before is the VOIP Phone PBX system so easy to use and set up. I have met with so many people who set up Response Point in a way similar to connecting a printer to the PC. Most of the problems for these small business customers are networking and broadband related. This is where our small business channel specialists can step in to add a tremendous amount of value to our small business customers!

With Response Point SP1 RTM on the horizon, please visit http://www.microsoft.com/responsepoint/ for latest development.

CI Gear New Syspine Distributor in Canada. Discounted Demo Kits Available for Canadian Partners

RexBackman — Tue, 13 May 2008 02:32:00 GMT

The following came to use from Quanta Computer:

We are pleased to announce that CI Gear is the Canadian Distributor for Quanta Syspine Microsoft Response Point Phone Systems.

They are inviting interested Response Point Business Partners across Canada to experience the benefits of the Syspine Digital Operator System.

CI Gear has informed us that Quanta Syspine has extended its limited time Demo Kit promotion. Canadian Response Point Partners can purchase a Demo Kit at a tremendously discounted price. For under ~$1,000, the Demo Kit has everything you need to get started and see for yourself the advantages of adding Response Point to your product line. This is a great way for Canadian RP Partners to get trained and begin using the system for live demonstrations in-house or at a customer's location.

Order your Demo Kit before they're all gone! Contact CI Gear at sales@CIGear.com or 1-866-924-4292 to place an order.

Response Point SP1 Training is Now FREE w/Promo Code

RexBackman — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 23:23:00 GMT

The Response Point SP1 12 city USA training tour kicks off this week here in the Seattle area. This training can be attended free-of-charge if you register with the promo code: RSPFW01. Taking this SP1 training will prepare Response Point Specialists for the upcoming Response Point assessment cirriculum that is currently under development and planned for a summer '08 deployment. Registration and detailed information on the 12 city event can be found at this LINK.

Microsoft Response Point Training Schedule

4/17/2008 Bellevue
4/21/2008 New York
4/24/2008 Wash DC
4/29/2008 Houston
5/2/2008 San Francisco
5/7/2008 Waltham
5/12/2008 Chicago
5/16/2008 Denver
5/22/2008 Ft Lauderdale
5/28/2008 Minneapolis
6/2/2008 Atlanta
6/5/2008 Nashville

SMBNation Webinar next week

sprague — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 04:34:28 GMT

We were happy to have Harry Breslford, from SMBNation, join us yesterday for a morning of brainstorming and discussions about Response Point and the opportunities it's opening up for the thousands of specialists and consultants that make up his "SMB Tribe". I'm pleased that we'll be participating in his next webinar, to be held on Thursday, January 31 from 8-9:30am PST.

You can join the event by registering at:

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/317941194

Harry's calling this a deep dive, so I'm working on a short presentation for the event that will include some things I bet you don't already know about Response Point.

The webinar is free, but there's a limit on the number of attendees, so be sure to pre-register to ensure you'll get a spot.

Response Point Training Tour Begins!

bobtaniguchi — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 00:45:00 GMT

We just met with Joe Schurman, our RP Training Instructor extraordinaire, and received email from several Small Business Specialist Partners who attended the Denver training session on Monday, sounds like a great beginning for our 16 city tour! Thank you to all Partners who attended, and to Joe!

Just a reminder, we still have space available for San Francisco on 10/10/07, Houston on 10/25/07 as well as seats in our newly added cities of Salt Lake on 12/3/07, Ft. Lauderdale on 12/7/07 and Bloomington MN on 12/13/07. You can find more information at http://www.msreadiness.com/CourseDetail.aspx?id=6508

Those of you attending the Bellevue session tomorrow, keep your eyes open, you may have some surprise visitors from campus!

Getting Response Point to SBSCs

Jeffsmi — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 19:50:10 GMT

Chris Rue wrote a great post today imploring us to get Response Point in the hands of as many SBSCs as possible before it is released, and highlighting the importance of that hands-on experience with the product. I could not agree more!

This is exactly why we reserved a number of spots in our beta program specifically for SBSCs and why we -- with noteworthy support from our hardware partners D-Link and Quanta -- gave away 100 free pre-release phone systems at the Small Business Symposium. Engaging the SBSC channel and getting the product in your hands is a top priority of ours.

But Response Point is not an online service that we can just post on a website and let everyone use. Phones, base units and phone line adapters are physical hardware devices that have to be manufactured, packaged and shipped. There are regulations, customs and certifications particular to communications products involved as well. Our OEMs have been regularly sending batches of hardware, but unfortunately I do not have a phone system drive on my laptop that manufactures, packages and mails a phone system to any partner who wants one.

And while we have said very little about Response Point publicly, we have already been flooded with many times more beta and demo system requests than we can fulfill before launch. I have no idea how word got around so quickly; I've worked on several Microsoft v1's and never seen so many immediate "I want one" reactions like we have encountered with Response Point. Of course as a product manager, I am ecstatic to see the buzz, but I also recognize the growing demand for more product, more information, more partner resources.

So in a nutshell, my response to Chris is: We hear you. We agree with you. But please be patient :-).

Jeff

Response Point at MS Worldwide Partner Conference

Jeffsmi — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 01:01:45 GMT

We will be presenting at the Microsoft Small Business Symposium on Monday, July 9 in Denver. The session is titled "Voice-over-IP: The Next Big Thing for Small Business Specialists?" and is scheduled from 1:15 - 2:15pm and again from 2:20 - 3:20pm. If you are attending, please come see us. Partners who attend the first session will be happy they did, although I cannot explain why just yet...

We also have a wine and dinner reception Monday evening and a demo kiosk at the Worldwide Partner Conference Product Pavilion Tuesday through Thursday. Hope to see you there!

Jeff Smith

Senior Product Manager

Microsoft Response Point

Check out our training webcasts

Jeffsmi — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 00:49:02 GMT

We have a free 5-part webcast series available for Microsoft partners with valuable information on how to install, manage and use Response Point phone systems. While we have admittedly not done the best job publicizing these webcasts, hundreds of partners have watched them already and our presenter evaluation scores of 8.6 (on a scale of 1-9) suggest that people have found them to be quite useful. But you don't need to take my word for it, check them out yourself!

And of course if you are savvy enough to have found this blog already, I know there is a good chance you knew about this training too. So my question to you is, what else can we do for you?

We have classroom training courses queued up this fall, and some new partner materials to release at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in July, but if there is anything that would be particularly useful for you please let us know.

Cheers,

Jeff