Tartan Tech: Microsoft Scotland Insight

Just to make you aware that there are still places available for Partners on next week’s Windows 7 workshop.

This 1 day workshop will walk Partners through the Deployment Tools, Methodology and Scenarios of Deploying Windows 7 into the Enterprise
Agenda:
Module 1: Introduction to Microsoft Deployment
- Lab 1: Introduction to the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010
Module 2: Getting Started with Application Compatibility
- Lab 2: Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.5
Module 3: Lite Touch Installation using Microsoft Deployment
- Lab 3: Lite Touch Installation using Microsoft Deployment
Module 4: Zero Touch Installation Using Microsoft Deployment and System Center Configuration Manager 2007
- Lab 4: Zero Touch Installation Using Microsoft Deployment and System Center Configuration Manager 2007
Module 5: Advanced Deployment Scenarios
- Lab 5: Advanced Deployment Scenarios

Only £100 per delegate   Click Here to Register

Many thanks to the presenters and attendees at the Voice Solutions event this week.

Thanks in particular to John Stewart-Murray for his practical and informative overview of Dialogic Media Gateways role in bringing the worlds of Microsoft Voice and PSTN together.

Presentation links attached below

http://cid-354d70c61e566db5.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Delivering%20Microsoft%20Voice%20Solutions%20Event

Following on from last week’s Partner Azure Roundtable, the Developer Partner Team have arranged for a Azure Training course for Partners in Edinburgh next month.

Delivered through workshop style presentations the workshop will focus on three key services – Windows Azure, SQL Azure and .NET Services. The Windows Azure Platform is an internet-scale cloud services platform hosted in Microsoft data centres, which provides an operating system and a set of developer services that can be used individually or together. Azure’s flexible and interoperable platform can be used to build new applications to run from the cloud or enhance existing applications with cloud-based capabilities.

Audience

This workshop is aimed at software developers with at least 6 months practical experience using Visual Studio and C# that have an interest in developing applications in the Windows Azure Platform.

Workshop Outline

· Module 1: Windows Azure Platform overview

· Module 2: Introduction to Windows Azure

· Module 3: Building services using Windows Azure

· Module 4: Windows Azure storage

· Module 5: Building applications using SQL Azure

· Module 6: Introduction to .NET Services

· Module 7: Building applications using the .NET Service Bus

At the end of the one-day workshop delegates will get access to self-study hands-on labs and also have the opportunity to ask questions to subject matter experts via a Live Meeting session on Friday 26^th February.

Registration - http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032441396&Culture=en-GB

Places for this event, are limited, so if you are planning to attend, please Register ASAP.

As many of you are aware, the legendary Peter Ferry is a member of the UK Partner Technology Advisor Team.  This team are running a series of 1 hour Partner Livemeetings on Sharepoint 2010,  commencing on 23rd February. If you wish to attend please use the following links to register via the Microsoft Partner Network.

Technology Tuesday (UK PTA Plan)

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2010

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 All-Up Positioning

23^rd February 4-5pm (Chris Parkes & Hayley Rixon)

This session will provide a high-level overview of Microsoft SharePoint 2010 covering sales and marketing messaging and the overall value proposition.

Registration URL MPN:

https://training.partner.microsoft.com/learning/app/management/registrationex/LMS_Registration.aspx?UserMode=0&Mode=0&ActivityID=573162

Sites and Portals in Microsoft SharePoint Sever 2010

2^nd March 4-5pm (Jessica Meats)

This session will provide a look at the sites and portal capabilities of Microsoft SharePoint Sever 2010 including team sites, ease of customisation and audience targeting.  The session will also provide insight into the options for intranet and internet facing sites.

Registration URL MPN: https://training.partner.microsoft.com/learning/app/management/registrationex/LMS_Registration.aspx?UserMode=0&Mode=0&ActivityID=573145

Communities and Collaboration in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010

9^th March 4-5pm (Jessica Meats)

This session will provide a look at the collaboration capabilities of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 including the social networking and knowledge transfer features such as tagging, blogs, wikis and discussion forums.

Registration URL MPN:

https://training.partner.microsoft.com/learning/app/management/registrationex/LMS_Registration.aspx?UserMode=0&Mode=0&ActivityID=572973

Content Management in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010

16^th March 4-5pm (Tara Hellier)

This session will provide a look at the content management capabilities of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, including Enterprise Content Types, taxonomies and folksonomies, document sets, document discovery and records management.

Registration URL MPN: https://training.partner.microsoft.com/learning/app/management/registrationex/LMS_Registration.aspx?UserMode=0&Mode=0&ActivityID=573002

Enterprise Search in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010

23^rd March 4-5pm (Tara Hellier)

This session will provide a look at the Enterprise Search capabilities of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 including the updated user experience, search refiners, improved people search and FAST search functionality.

Registration URL MPN: https://training.partner.microsoft.com/learning/app/management/registrationex/LMS_Registration.aspx?UserMode=0&Mode=0&ActivityID=572855

Business Insights in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010

30^th March 4-5pm (Chris Parkes)

This session will provide a look at the business insight capabilities of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 including Excel Services, Visio Graphics Services and PerformancePoint Services.

Registration URL MPN: https://training.partner.microsoft.com/learning/app/management/registrationex/LMS_Registration.aspx?UserMode=0&Mode=0&ActivityID=572960

Composites and Custom Applications in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010

6^th April 4-5pm (Jessica Meats)

This session will provide a look at some of the features of Microsoft SharePoint Sever 2010 as they relate to building custom applications, including the new Business Connectivity Services and workflow capabilities.

Registration URL MPN:

https://training.partner.microsoft.com/learning/app/management/registrationex/LMS_Registration.aspx?UserMode=0&Mode=0&ActivityID=573000

Microsoft SharePoint Online and Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS)

13^th April 4-5pm (Tara Hellier)

This session will provide a look at the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) hosted by Microsoft – specifically SharePoint Online – including the available functionality and the benefits of using software plus services.  This session will also provide a high level roadmap for BPOS.

Registration URL MPN:

https://training.partner.microsoft.com/learning/app/management/registrationex/LMS_Registration.aspx?UserMode=0&Mode=0&ActivityID=572852

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Office Web Applications

20^th April 4pm (Chris Parkes)

This session will provide an overview of the Office Web Applications components of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 including Word, Excel, OneNote and PowerPoint.  It will also cover differences between Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, Office Live Web Applications and the capabilities provided by the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS.)

Registration URL MPN:
https://training.partner.microsoft.com/learning/app/management/registrationex/LMS_Registration.aspx?UserMode=0&Mode=0&ActivityID=573012

Microsoft SharePoint Workspace 2010 and Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2010

27^th April 4-5pm (Tara Hellier & Chris Parkes)

This session will provide a look at two Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 related technologies – Microsoft SharePoint Workspace 2010 and Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2010.  Microsoft SharePoint Workspace 2010 is the offline client for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, enabling people to work on lists and libraries and connect to and edit external data sources whilst working offline.  Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2010 allows advanced users to create no-code solutions for various business scenarios such as building workflows and connecting to external data sources.

Registration URL MPN: https://training.partner.microsoft.com/learning/app/management/registrationex/LMS_Registration.aspx?UserMode=0&Mode=0&ActivityID=572859

Microsoft Voice Specialist partners in Scotland will be keen to attend this free training in January. In fact, any Unified Communications partner will find the 1-day Dialogic Media Gateway training a useful insight into the integration of Microsoft OCS 2007 R2 and Exchange 2010 into the world of conventional PBX technologies.

This is an instructor lead course, aimed at technical personnel, with live demonstrations of Dialogic IP-PSTN Media Gateways enabling interoperability between a PBX and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Unified Messaging and Office Communications Server 2007 R2.

The course is suitable for those wishing to understand the telephony requirements of Microsoft Unified Communications to specify the correct VoIP Gateway and advise on PBX suitability. Full training will be given on how to install and configure the main features of the Dialogic Media Gateways and how to configure Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Unified Messaging and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 to connect to telephony infrastructures.

Due to the limited places available this will be by invitation only – please mailto:pferry@microsoft.com if you wish to reserve a place.

Following on previous Partner licensing workshops, the Scotland Partner team have secured another Licensing Roadshow to visit Edinburgh next month.

With the recent release of new products from Microsoft such as Windows 7 and the ever increasing interest in the world of Virtualisation from customers and the associated licensing implications this event is great way for Partners to get a valuable update on the various licensing programs.

The roadshow is open to all partners and is suitable for all licensing and sales roles. The presentations cover both licensing and technology and are level 300, so relatively in-depth.

The 2009 line-up includes:

· Windows 7

· Virtualisation

· Microsoft Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)

· Unified Communications

· Enrolment for Core Infrastructure

· Agreement Refresh 2009 – PSA09, Corporate and Academic, SPLA

· Software Asset Management

And much more!

The event runs from 10.00 am to 4.00 pm.

· Edinburgh: Wednesday 18 November, Microsoft Waverley Gate

Please click here to book your place. You’ll get the option to select Edinburgh once you’ve clicked on “Register”.

Microsoft Forum with Gordon Frazer, MD UK, Bob McDowell, VP Microsoft Corp & Derrick McCourt, Regional Director Scotland

Venue: Conan Doyle Room, Microsoft Scotland, Edinburgh

Date: 15:00-17:30, 4^th November 2009

The Scotland Partner team are pleased to announce announce that we have Gordon Frazer, Microsoft’s UK Managing Director in Scotland and Bob McDowell, Vice President, Microsoft Corp, from the US joining our Regional Director for Scotland, Derrick McCourt for the first Gold Partner Forum of FY10!

This will be a forum to discuss your key business issues, future business in Scotland and the challenges ahead in the Scottish marketplace.  We have a special guest speaker David Lonsdale from the CBI Scotland to give an update on the Scottish economy.  Given the changes in the UK and Scottish economies since we last met, the focus for this meeting will be for Microsoft to get your feedback on doing business in Scotland / UK during 2009, and your views on the challenges ahead.

15:00   Welcome / Introductions            

            Business Update – FY10 Plans     

            Britain Works Initiative                       

            Break / Networking / Refreshments

16:15   Partner Sharepoint Initiative        

            Scottish Economy Update                      

            Art of the Story, Successful Selling

Q&A Session  

17:30   Drinks Reception / Networking                            

Please email Morag MacFarlane – v-moragm@microsoft.com to confirm your attendance by Friday 30^th October.  Spaces are limited to 2 per Partner.

A confirmation note and a confirmed agenda will be distributed in advance.

Some find telephone conference calls a bit awkward – but in these straightened times few can argue that they are a communications tool ideally suited to recession.

Conf calls tend to be shorter than face to face meetings, and hence more efficient. They are more convenient as we just have to pick up a phone rather than travelling by plane, train, or automobile. For international and distributed business scenarios, they are the main tool for reaching decisions and consensus.

The market for bridged audio conferencing is estimated to be around 60 Billion minutes, and growing quickly. And the highly profitable audio bridge services offered by the likes of BT and Verizon account for an increasing slice of collaboration tools spend.

Microsoft’s Office Communications Server delivers a simple to use telephone conferencing service, reducing access charges, and extending the conference to video and data in a manner straightforward for the average user. For many companies trying to address cost reductions in T&E budgets, the deployment costs of OCS conferencing will pay for itself by travel-related opex reduction in under 12 months.

If you want to understand more please see the following resources:

1. Business case: “The Compelling Case for Conferencing” white paper
2. OCS R2 conferencing capabilities: 17 minute video explaining how this works for the end user http://edge.technet.com/Media/Whatrsquos-New-in-Conferencing-with-Office-Communications-Server-2007-R2/
3. Learning resources for deployment: there is an OCS R2 conferencing webcast series throughout October and November, listed below.  the first, scheduled for 20th october, is linked for your convenience

Part 1 of 6: Microsoft Foundation Support

Part 2 of 6: Configuring the On premise Conferencing Solution

Part 3 of 6: Configuring User Related Settings

Part 4 of 6: Federated Solution Requirements, Implementation, and Maintenance

Part 5 of 6: An Exploration of the Baseline Scenario of the Conferencing Solution

Part 6 of 6: An Exploration of  Multiple Implementation Scenarios

Please join the Microsoft Scotland  Healthcare team to better understand our areas of focus and how by working closer together Microsoft and our Partners can deliver Health specific solutions successfully and profitably, whilst ensuring that our Customer receives value for money offerings that have a positive effect for all concerned.

Proposed Agenda.

09.30 - Arrival and Registration

10.00 - Introduction from Derrick McCourt – Regional Director, Microsoft Scotland

10.20 - NHS Scotland, Focus areas for Microsoft in FY10

10.40 - Microsoft Healthcare Partner Programme and value to Partners

11.10 - Break

11.30 - Microsoft Health Solutions overview

12.00 - Microsoft Services offerings and value to Partners

12.15 - Customer perspective on how best to engage

12.45 - Questions and close

13.00 - Lunch and networking opportunity

Official registration will be available soon, but to reserve your place, please email Peter Askew (peter.askew@microsoft.com) with the full contact details of all proposed attendees

The Scotland Partner team just wanted to highlight a one day Partner workshop being run next week at the Microsoft Edinburgh offices which will be of interest to Partners looking to deliver solutions based upon the Business Productivity Infrastructure Optimisation (BPIO) stack – Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server (MOSS), Business Intelligence, Enterprise Content Management and Unified Communications.

Workshop Summary:

Microsoft offers you a tremendous opportunity to grow your business by offering Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Office solutions to your customers. Partners that specialised in these solutions have experienced strong customer demand, are realising the benefits of significant investments in sales and marketing by Microsoft, and can look forward to strong cross-sell opportunities. Join Hayley Rixon and Tony Cocks Channel Development Managers at Microsoft UK for this informal, workshop-style session, which will take a look at the partner opportunity. You’ll also get to see some of the Microsoft technologies first hand, with detailed technology demonstrations.

To Register -  Click Here to Register

Several partners in the past few weeks have asked me about hands-on training courses for OCS 2007 R2 – well I can confirm that the online training materials, including hands on labs, are now available on the partner portal. Fill yer boots.

This course provides an introduction to Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007 R2, including how you can use OCS 2007 R2 for real-time interactions between users, and how you can unite OCS 2007 R2 with Microsoft Exchange Server as part of Microsoft Unified Communications. From instant messaging and presence to unified conferencing and enterprise voice, the course walks you through a variety of features and enhancements found in OCS 2007 R2 and demonstrates how to use these enhancements to help provide a more comprehensive communication solution.

Labcast duration: This labcast consist of 15 video recordings and 9 labs. Each video is approximately 26 minutes long, and each lab takes approximately 1 hour. You have the option to view all  or some of the recordings, as well as taking all or some of the labs.

Labcast OCS 2007 R2

The Partner Readiness team are running a series of Partner Training courses focussed around Windows 7 over the next few months, with a Scottish date(s) for each course confirmed.

Updating Your Technology Knowledge of Microsoft Windows XP to Windows 7 – Various Dates and Locations

This two-day instructor-led course provides students with the knowledge and skills to work with the new technologies in Windows 7. £100 per delegate.  Click here to Register

Glasgow 14^th Sept, Leeds 21^st Sept, Wokingham 24^th Sept, London 5^th Oct, Coventry 19^th Oct, Edinburgh 5^th Nov, Wokingham 23^rd Nov, London 14^th Dec

Installing and Configuring Windows 7 Client – Various Dates and Locations

This 2 day instructor-led course is intended for IT Professional who are interested in expanding their technical knowledge of Windows 7 Client. In this course Students learn to install, upgrade and migrate to Windows7 client. Students then configure Windows7 client for network connectivity, security, maintenance and mobile computing. £100 per delegate.

This course will provide knowledge to take Exam 70-680 TS: Windows 7 Configuring. Click Here to Register

London 19^th Oct, Edinburgh 28^th Oct, Altrincham 3^rd Nov, Birmingham 4^th Nov, London 9^th Nov, Edinburgh 18^th Nov, London 2^nd Dec

Windows 7 Application Compatibility Briefings for ISVs – Various Dates and Locations

This 1 Day briefing will discuss and demonstrate the remediation techniques for Windows 7 compatibility issues, the common symptoms, how to test and debug them, and best practices for developing Windows 7 applications. FREE

Click Here to Register

Manchester 3^rd Sep, Reading 7^th Sep, Edinburgh 23^rd Sept, London 29^th Sept, Reading 12^th Nov, Stockport 17^th Nov, Birmingham 26^th Nov, Edinburgh 3^rd Dec, Reading 10^th Dec, London 17^th Dec, Bristol 11^th Jan, Reading 25^th Jan, Reading 15^th Feb

One of the hot topics that customers are seeking Partner assistance on is virtualisation.  The Microsoft Partner team recognise that we have a number of Partners who have well established virtualisation capabilities, however there are also a lot of Partners who would like to develop capabilities within in this area and understand what the business opportunites

The Virtualisation & Management Workshop workshop later this month, is targeted at Partners who currently have no virtualisation practice but who are interested in building one.   Attendees should be the Business Decision Makers (those able to make the decisions on where their business is going over the next 12 months) and we have capacity for max 14 people.

The workshop will be held at the Microsoft Edinburgh Office, Waverley Gate, 2-4 Waterloo Place, Edinburgh, EH1 3EG, on Tuesday 29th September 2009. We would like to ask you to be there from 9.45am for a 10am start and it will run until 5pm.

 http://www.bing.com/maps/#JndoZXJlMT1laDErM2VnJmJiPTkuMjMyMjQ4Nzk5NDE4NjklN2UxNi4xNDk5MDIzNDM3NSU3ZS05LjIzMjI0ODc5OTQxODY5JTdlLTE2LjEyNzkyOTY4NzU)

At this workshop we will help you to understand what is needed to develop a practice around Microsoft’s Virtualisation & Management technologies and finally help you to build this business case.

If you wish to attend, please email Paul Craft v-pcraft@microsoft.com  as soon as possible and we will have confirmation details sent out to you nearer the time.

Given the level of interest in the new Microsoft Online Services offerings from Scottish Partners your local Partner team have arranged for a BPOS Partner Training session to be held at the Microsoft offices, Waverley Gate, Edinburgh on the 3^rd of September from 1000 – 1300.   Registration will be available from 0930, and refreshments and lunch will be provided.

The session will be run by Andy Clark, the UK BPOS Sales Lead, with the session covering the following areas:

BPOS Training  Agenda

· Microsoft Online Overview and Vision

· BPOS service overview

· Pricing and licensing

· Selling BPOS

· Partner opportunity

· Dealing with BPOS competitors

· Q & A

Click here to go to the Microsoft Online Services(BPOS) free trial site

Places at this event will be limited so If you would like to attend this session next week, can you confirm your attendance to – james.henderson@microsoft.com ASAP.

Andy is also available to Partner 1:1 sessions on the afternoon of 3rd Sept,  to discuss in more details Partner specifics re: BPOS, and if you wish to have a 1:1 again please contact James Henderson.