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 of SBS and the brand-new EBS but you'll have to wait until the November 12 launch to get your hands on it in the shops."

Getting the messaging out around the benefits of SBS 2008 & EBS 2008 is an important stage in the lead-up to launch & so I'm glad to report that nearly everyone we've spoken to so far has been impressed with what they've seen.

Cheers & more to come,

Robbie

Well TechEd has finished for another year & my summary & thoughts will be coming soon. Before I get into that though I just HAD to share with you the single best thing I've seen since, well, I don't think I've actually seen anything this good:

A RIDE-ON ESKY!

Just imagine rocking up to your party of choice sitting on this baby? Battery powered, goes up to 18kmh & carries a full slab of beer in comfort.

With thanks to the Shel for the modelling. :-)

Robbie

With thanks to Greg Lipschitz, an SBS partner from Victoria, we have TechEdLive.com.

Raw & regular posts on all things from the SMB Servers pre-day through to how to make the best paper plane.

Lots of good feedback, video interviews & importantly, full transcript of the Q&A from today's SMB Server "Ask the Experts" session with our MVPs.

Much more to come from me on the SMB day so what this space.

Robbie

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 there tomorrow making it the largest gathering of SBSers since the launch of 2003.

9. I will be making jokes throughout the presentation. Please be kind & laugh at the appropriate moments. I will try to flag the jokes accordingly.

8. Paul Voges, Head of all things small, mid-market & partner at Microsoft Australia will be giving the initial keynote & only talking for 15mins - the rest of his time will be spent taking questions & so have a think about what you'd like to ask.

7. We will have proper coffee available, not just that filter stuff.

6. If you see one of our SBS MVPs, say hi.

5. This will be Lingan's (our Corporate speaker) first trip to Australia & so let's all make sure he leaves with a positive impression of the Aussie SBS Community. :-)

4. No matter what the SBS Diva might have you believe, I actually don't want kisses from anyone at the event tomorrow.

3. We'll be having Q&A at the end of each section as well as a specific Ask the Experts panel at the end of the day. We will be as interactive as possible & so thinking caps on for the questions you want to ask.

2. In case I have a brain explosion & forget tomorrow, I just wanted to call out The Wayne, Peita Burton Taylor from our events company & especially my colleague Michelle Agudera for all their work in pulling this day together. Thanks guys, this would not have happened without your passion, drive & ability to to get things done.

1. Practice your paper-plane making skills - prizes to be won.

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 to cross the road at night when struck by a car dashing down to the mountains. Driven no doubt by some crazed city-person who knows that given Australia's notoriously short ski-season, he only has a handful of viable winter weekends to make his annual pilgrimage to the slopes & so he speeds the whole way down in order to get in one extra run.

Sad.

However it got me to thinking that did the dozen ex-wombats mean that there are more of them out there & thus the percentage of them meeting their maker under a Mercedes increased proportionally, or were they driven to a reckless road-crossing by some new factor, ie, drought, search for food etc.

So what's this got to do with SBS?

Well, not much really to be honest, however (and this is true), my thoughts on the drive home leapt from the wombat population of southern Australia to the number of partners making their living (in part) on top of SBS 2003. I know, I need to get out more.

Anyway, since the launch of SBS 2003 there are now around 5.5x more IT providers in Australia selling SBS than we saw with SBS 2000. So, the question I asked myself was:

• Did the increasing number of partners selling SBS lead to Australia's success in this space over the last 4 years, or,
• Did our success lead more partners to get into this space?

I suspect it's a bit of both & thus this brings me to the actual point of this post (yes, this is one), which is - in order to grow your business, there are three distinct areas you can focus on:

• Increasing the reach of customers that you sell to
• Increasing the number of times they do business with you
• Increasing the yield from each sale

Seems like common sense & it is, but it's still amazing how many times companies (Microsoft included) only focus on 1 or 2 & not 3 - or some other mix. Not always possible to do all 3, but each approach has appeal in different situations.

So what's this mean for us in the lead-up to the launch of SBS 2008? Well, we'll be trying to get more partners into the SBS world, then helping them sell to more customers, & hopefully selling the Premium SKU. Makes sense for the partner to have a solid business model on top of SBS. Makes sense for the customer to have a solution that fits their needs & makes sense for us.

Question for you to finish the post: what are you doing to drive the frequency, reach & yield of your sales?

Robbie

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 all the award winners including SBSC Partner of the Year - Business Computing Australia
• Coverage of the SMB Server market by ARN (from an interview done in the lead-up to APC)

Basically, I loved it. Loved the interaction with SMB partners from across Australia. Loved the feedback - the good, bad & ugly - provided throughout the 3-days & especially loved causing havoc with our SMB Paper Aeroplane Competition (more on that later).

I've been back in Oz now for over 8 months & whilst there's still much to do, I can honestly say that I've never seen such a focus from our SMB team on trying to better understand & respond to partners' needs. The mix of formal & impromptu feedback sessions at APC are a testament to this with everyone from Paul Voges (boss of all things Small, Midmarket & Partners), Inese Kingsmil (Director of SMB) & even Allison Watson (Microsoft Corporate VP of Partners) taking the time to listen, to question & to understand.

These interactions plant seeds in the very DNA of Microsoft & if I may continue to torture the analogy, will bear fruit over the coming weeks & months.

As a direct result of the feedback we received at APC for example, Microsoft Australia will be sending along 18 people from across SMB, licensing, Partner programs & the OEM team to chat & interact with attendees at next week's TechEd SMB Server day. We are a large organisation & may not always be able to respond or react as quickly as you (or we) would like, but know that your input is sought & really does make a difference.

Okay, enough heartfelt ramblings & onto the now infamous, havoc causing, mess-making & all-round silly SMB Paper Aeroplane Competition. :-)

This was designed from start to finish by the amazing Michelle Agudera in our Server & Tools team as a way to get partners engaged & thinking about SBS & EBS, whilst also providing some light relief from the serious side of APC.

And my, didn't it succeed. We had over 400 entries from attendees keen to win the 30min helicopter flight over the Barrier Reef. As they folded their plans & tested their skills, we treated them to some demos on SBS & EBS, plied them with brochures & thrust the Betas of both into their hands. Many a partner came for the prize, but walked away with some new-found knowledge about SBS & how their customers could benefit from the new solutions.

We'll be running the competition again at TechEd & so if you're coming along, then start practicing today.

Cheers & some happy snaps from APC below,

Robbie

PS - congrats to the winner, Greg from OBS, who threw an amazing 19 metres!

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 Australia coming to the SMB Server Day on September 2nd, even some Kiwis & a full-days worth of how-to, when-to & why-to content custom made for Partner. Demos will be delivered by a Microsoft Senior Program Manager coming all the way from Redmond & our very own Aussie SBS MVPs, Dean & The Wayne.

Oh - and of course you'll get a complimentary full for sale copy of SBS 2008 Standard to help land your first customer (though given it has only just been released to manufacturing, we'll send it out in the next couple of weeks).

So, get your booties on & get registered today.

Cheers & hope to see you there,

Robbie

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 to the nut of the offering. Here are some comments that I'll call out:

• "After playing with it for a couple of weeks, one thing is clear: apart from the new, comprehensive console (see below), the strength of SBS 2008 lies in the advances in the underlying OS and applications."
• "A fresh installation is a surprisingly simple affair, as well as a lot faster than an SBS 2003 installation."
• "Setting up client computers is now easier than ever before. No longer do you need to remember the server name of each client so that you can type in http://servername/connectomputer; now it’s always http://connect."

And his summary:

SBS 2008 - the Next Big Thing?

I have been involved with SBS ever since the very first version, 4.0. It took until SBS 2003 for Microsoft to get it right, and the market share reflects the great success that SBS 2003 has been.
SBS 2008 is more of an evolution than a revolution, but with so many strong points I have no doubt that it will find a home in many small businesses, both existing SBS customers as well as new installations.

Time will tell, but there’s definitely a buzz in the small business community around SBS 2008, especially as many are looking forward to offering the great new features in Windows Server 2008 and Exchange 2007.

Loads more reviews sure to come & I'll post them here as I find them,

Robbie

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 will be announced at the Australian Partner Conference awards ceremony, Thursday August 7th so best of luck to all of our finalists.

Robbie

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 space on the back of EBS 2008, then you should seriously think about coming along to this SMB Servers day.

Reasons:

• Full day of Level 300 technical content presented by our local MVPs & Microsoft Corporate speakers
• Ask the experts panel
• Keynote from the boss of Microsoft Australia's SMB & Partners division
• Complimentary copy of SBS 2008 Std to help cover costs
• Invitation to the official TechEd 2008 Welcome Party
• Win some silly prizes as part of the Golden Propeller competition :-)
• And most importantly:
• Network with some of the best SMB resellers in the country

Cheers & hope to see you there,

Robbie

Just saw this on the Australian Reseller News site & in the interests of balanced coverage, thought I'd share.

Although inaccurate in some regards, it's still a worthwhile read to see how the channel press is perceiving the new release. Note, the original article was written for Network World in the US.

Interestingly, the initial tone is fairly downbeat however by & large it's a positive article - especially from the point of view of the consultant in that they say many of the improvements are designed to help make partners' lives easier - which is what we've said all along.

I'm starting to talk to the local press more & more about SBS & EBS & so you'll hopefully see more coverage coming soon.

Cheers,

Robbie

The much anticipated Windows Home Server PowerPack 1 was released overnight - download it here.

Power Pack 1 (love that name) provides a bunch of new stuff including:

• Support for home computers running Windows Vista x64 editions
• Backup of home server Shared Folders
• Improvements to remote access
• More efficient power consumption and better performance.

And, of course, it delivers a fix for the much reported data corruption bug. Documentation for Power Pack 1 is available here.

Lots of good blogination building for Home Server as well & you can expect to see us doing a lot more to push this product in Australia in the coming months. Quick listing of resources to consider:

• Our resident geek, Nick Hodge's blog
• Official Windows Home Server team blog
• Windows Home Server forum

Lastly - we've just received a bunch of Windows Home Server 180-day trial editions & so if you'd like a bo-peep at one, drop me a line. They're the pre-update code however & so you'll still need to download the PowerPack, but hey, they're free.

Cheers,

Robbie

I'm a big fan of show & tell & never is this more important than when trying to translate technology wow into business needs. How do you explain the benefits of Remote Web Workplace to someone with no concept of accessing their info from out of the office?

Well, wonder no more as the new Demo Showcase 2008, SMB Edition, has just been released. This is a great resource for partners both as a frontline demonstration tool, but also as a useful guide for highlighting which particular benefits to discuss for different types of customers.

UPDATE: Make sure you read the set-up document that downloads along with the demos as you'll need to install the .NET 3.5 Framework to get these working: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=333325fd-ae52-4e35-b531-508d977d32a6&DisplayLang=en

The latest edition has interlinked scenarios covering all of our latest products including:

• Small Business Server 2008
• Essentials Business Server 2008
• Office 2007
• Windows Vista
• SQL 2008
• System Center Essentials 2007
• Dynamics CRM 4.0
• SharePoint Server 2007 and more.

What's more, the fully scripted scenarios are linked into our wider customer campaigns & cover the following:

• Business productivity
• Customer acquisition & retention
• Security and reliability
• Business solutions

Cheers & let me know your thoughts,

Robbie

UPDATE - in an earlier post today I included the very tentative RTM & in-market dates, which I should not have done. These have now been removed & I'll include details as soon as I can. Robbie

In a follow-up to yesterday's post around the metrics that we're tracking for the SBS & EBS launch, I thought it'd make sense to share the actual timeline that we're working towards.

This is cut straight from my launch plan & is not normally something that we'd share & so there are some caveats here:

• The timing
• The 5-city partner roadshow in Oct/Nov is still very much in the planning stages - I'll let everyone know more details once finalised

So as you can see, the next couple of months are going to be fun, busy, frantic, packed with surprises & with 6 MBA assignments to complete during the same time, full of 15-hour days. :-)

Cheers & hope to see you at either the Partner Conference or TechEd or both.

Robbie

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 than lagging indicators

Although we're purposely building out our activities this way, I was still pleasantly surprised to see that of the 13 specific metrics that I'm keeping an eye on up to the November 12 customer launch, only 1 of them is a lagging or "after the fact" measurement - revenue.

Everything else is a leading indicator - which to me means that we're tracking & tweaking all those things that, if successful, should hopefully mean more partners selling solutions & more customers buying kit. This of course means that we can change course mid stream if need be, rather than waiting until the results come in & saying "ah, we should have done that back then."

Given the challenges around accurately measuring our SBS business (I only have visibility to 3% of our actual end-users), it becomes even more important to actually measure what we value, rather than just valuing what we can measure. I'll be honest & say this approach doesn't always work - due to resources, availability of data, politics or what have you - but is something that we continually strive to achieve.

So, what are some of the leading indicators that I'm tracking for the launch & how are we progressing so far?

• Number of SBS / EBS beta downloads - 8/10
• Plans in place with HP, IBM & Dell to ensure stock in channel - 8/10
• Registrations for TechEd SMB Servers day & Aust Partner Conf - 7/10
• Number of unique users receiving info through this blog - 6/10
• Number of engagements with relevant user groups - 5/10
• Extent & quality of PR coverage - 4/10
• Number of partners trained (sales & technical) by launch - 2/10
• Local customer case-studies available by launch - 1/10

I've obviously got some work to do around Partner training (stay tuned), case-studies & telling the "why SBS 2008 & EBS 2008" story via public relations (think ARN/CRN & feature articles in small business publications) - but at least I know that this needs to be done, rather than just waiting until the end of the quarter to find out we're behind.

What are your leading vs lagging indicators?

Robbie