Launch Central for U.S. Partners : Windows Server 2008

Is Launch Central Everything You Thought It Would Be?

dianeja — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 01:44:00 GMT

At a recent team offsite, I was thrilled to see the words "Launch Central" in a slide presented to us by a partner of the resources he considered to be critical for his company's success. A colleague and I came up with the Launch Central idea almost three years ago in preparation for the launch extravaganza of Vista, Office, and Exchange. We wanted to create a memorable phrase that we could use on the partner portal and in our newsletters; I added the blog a few months ago as yet another touchpoint. Today, it's become second nature for people to ask how to add information about their launch so that partners are aware of the resources.

Lately, though, I feel like we aren't quite toeing the line in utilizing Launch Central as well as we can. Sure, we have information about Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) and Windows Essential Server Solutions, both families of products launching later this year. We have retained the information about our Unified Communications Launch and our recent "Heroes Happen Here" launch of Windows Server 2008, SLQ Server 2008, and Visual Studio 2008. We have content in our Monday morning partner newsletters and in this blog. But it still feels like we may not be meeting your needs for staying informed, aware, and active when it comes to our product launches.

I'd like to ask your advice. If Launch Central were yours to maintain, and you just wanted to keep the information flowing through the partner portal via the home page (https://partner.microsoft.com/us), Launch Central page, newsletters, and blog, what would your game plan be? What's missing that you'd like to see? Are there other vehicles or efforts you'd leverage? You are welcome to post your comments on this blog, or you can send me e-mail through the blog. If you want to be truly anonymous, you can use our Rate This Page functionality on the Launch Central page (https://partner.microsoft.com/US/salesmarketingsection/smcampaigns/launchcentral) and tell us your thoughts there.

I'm looking forward to hearing from you!

Diane Golshan, Sr. Marketing Manager, US Partner Group

November 12 Launch Date! Serving SMB Customers with Essential Server Solutions

dianeja — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 21:13:00 GMT

At the Worldwide Partner Conference in early July, we announced a launch date of November 12, 2008 for Windows Essential Server Solutions, a new family of integrated server software based on the Windows Server 2008 platform that will help you bring enterprise-class server technology to your small- and midsize-business customers. Essential Server Solutions comprises Windows Small Business Server 2008 and Windows Essential Business Server 2008.

If you're interested in exploring the whole Essential Server platform, we recommend starting with the on-demand webcast, "The Small and Midsize Business Server Platform: Which Is Right for Your Customer?", available on the Partner Learning Center at https://training.partner.microsoft.com/plc/details.aspx?systemid=1821427. If you're ready to just get to gettin', you can go right to the "Windows Essential Server Solutions" page on the PLC, a collection of the 8-course Web seminar series for each server. You can still catch a few of these one-hour Webcasts "live" in September, and several are already available on demand for you to view at your leisure.

Looking for resources beyond training about this release? Our portal page on Windows Essntial Server Solutions is chock-full of things you can leverage, like an RSS feed, virtual newsroom, FAQ, and demo showcase. Cool.

The Server & Tools Launch events are going strong – Jump in and exhibit at one of the remaining cities or hold your own launch event!

kevinpr — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 01:58:00 GMT

The US Server & Tools 60 city launch tour kicked in the beginning of March and is half way done and continues to drive great momentum for Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 and SQL 2008. Customer feedback has been absolutely great at these events and the partners who have been exhibitors are having a great experience. The feedback that we are getting from partners includes;

· “Great event – we loved seeing our customers in person rather than email! Microsoft knows how to throw a great event!”

· “Good show; high quality leads. We expect the leads generated to pay for our participation.”

· Thrilled to have captured over 1k leads by 10am!

· GREAT event! TONS of people and we’re really impressed with the quality and numbers. Thank you!

For additional information regarding US Launch Event sponsorship packages you can go to https://launch2008.eventpoint.com/public/partnerinfo.aspx to view sponsorship details and remaining cities.

If you are wanting to hold your own launch event, we have also developed the “Launch in a Box” to enable partners to host their own launch events and build the sales funnel by providing customers insight on the Server & Tools products. The “Launch-in-a-Box” provides everything partners need from demand generation materials to drive registration, the event presentation and a event kit with the latest software. You can access the "Launch in a Box" via www.microsoftpartnerevents.com.

Both of these approaches are a great way to ensure that you are building your pipeline and capitalizing on the Server & Tools Launch opportunity.

Kevin Price

Senior Marketing Manager - US Partner Group

...and more Solution Accelerators at your fingertips!

dianeja — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 00:51:00 GMT

Looking for ways to reduce your overall cost of development as you work with your customers to find solutions for serious-sounding concerns like infrastructure management, virtualization, communications and collaboration, security, and regulatory compliance? Check out our Solutions Accelerator portal page, which is chock-full of resources--free, tested guides and toolkits that can help you help your customers assess readiness, secure, deploy, and operate Microsoft products like Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, and SharePoint. These "how-to" guides contain best practices for working with key Microsoft products.

New to the page is the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2008 (download it at https://partner.microsoft.com/US/salesmarketingsection/40059263). This is the new version of the very popular Business Desktop Deployment 2007 toolkit, and in it you'll find updates to support Windows Vista SP1, 2007 Office, and Windows Server 2008.

Want to stay hip and cool and on top of all things related to the Solutions Accelerators? Check out the blog about them at http://solutionaccelerators.spaces.live.com/!

Cheers,

Diane Golshan - Sr. Marketing Manager, US Partner Group

Windows Server 2008 Business Accelerator

dianeja — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 19:43:00 GMT

The "Server Business Accelerator" is a series of on-demand training (for sales people) and webcasts (for technical people) that can help you learn about the new features of Windows Server 2008. On-demand courses include "Windows Server 2008 Product and Sales Overview" and "Windows Server 2008 Transactional Selling", while webcasts include "Windows Server 2008 Virtualization Overview using Hyper-V" and "Windows Server 2008 Reignites the Web Server Opportunity", plus two other webcasts. Completion of these trainings and webcasts before the end of June 2008 offers you the opportunity to receive up to $75 to use in the OEM Salescenter (http://www.oemsalescenter.com), which offers a variety of sales and marketing materials and tools, from display systems to promotional items. Visit the Accelerator site for the terms and conditions of the offer.

Cheers!

Diane Golshan, Sr. Marketing Manager, US Partner Group