• Offtopic: CNET Awards Finalist for Technology Partnership of the Year Award 2006 - Microsoft and SurfControl

    Posted over 8 years ago
    by Mike P_1}

    I think we can be proud that in an industry of over 100 vendors, resellers and OEMs Microsoft has been voted in the top 5 businesses in that industry alongside Surfcontrol for IT partnerships. SurfControl and Microsoft were at the CNET Awards on Tuesday night and took a runner up (or in media speak 'Finalist') for the CNET Awards technology Partnership of the Year Award 2006:

    http://blogs.technet.com/photos/mike_p/images/459927/original.aspx

    So my question to you is: which one of you wishes to step up in 2007 and take the Search and Collaboration Award for Innovative Customer Solutions?? Well if you want to, then you know where to come - get in touch with me now at mikepal@microsoft.com and join the wave around Search at Microsoft!!

  • Microsoft Virtual Partner Conference - discover more about our plans and direction!

    Posted over 8 years ago
    by Mike P_1}

    For the first year ever Microsoft is delivering a huge amount of our Partner conference on the web. This years UK Partner conference is taking place this week, but for those not able to make it you can simply go here for the latest news and information about our strategy and upcoming plans with partners:

    http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/partnerconference/

    Launching this Tuesday 26th September you will be able to hear more about the following:

  • Hear David James (Henley Management College) and Nigel Montgomery (AMR Research) talking about the UK market trends, the opportunity areas and how you can align your business to take full advantage.
  • Listen to our plans for the coming year... in the areas you're interested in. We have video sessions with key speakers discussing our plans in each business area and what the opportunity is for you.
  • Hear our plans for Vista and Office straight from the product managers themselves - along with demos of the new software to get you clued up.
  • Get the latest information on the Partner Programme and find out how you can make the most of being a Microsoft Partner.
  • And much more...

    • Enjoy!

  • Microsoft Search Solution Event with Redmond Guest Speakers!

    Posted over 8 years ago
    by Mike P_1}

    So I mentioned last week about the Business Search conference coming up on Friday 13th October, at this you will get to here the following:

    • Microsoft Enterprise Search Solution
    • Desktop Search Solution
    • Enterprise Search Platform
    • Partner Session

    The presenters are all from Redmond so you will be getting the news from the horses mouth so to speak - great content at a great event in Reading. To register all you have to do is click on the following link:

     

    http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032310025&Culture=en-GB

     

    I look forward to seeing you there!

  • Design change for Blog: making RSS feeders have happier eating..!

    Posted over 8 years ago
    by Mike P_1}

    Hi All - just changed the style on all the posts to remove the annoying black highlight on all the posts - hopefully this will make reading this blog via RSS a little easier - let me know if this works for you!

    Cheers!

  • Microsoft Search gaining credibility and seen as a compelling differentiator for Microsoft Partners... - read the report here!

    Posted over 8 years ago
    by Mike P_1}

    Sure some of you have seen this article in InfoToday about the Search offering in SPS 2007 - some great industry acknowledgements in here, some of the quotes are below but the link takes you to the full article! My favorite quote is the following:

    "If Microsoft makes this function part of SPS, it will pose a serious threat to companies offering  SharePoint specific search enhancements and be a strong competitive challenge to Google and it's Appliance and Onebox API"

    Microsoft—Faceted Search Coming Soon?
    by Paula J. Hane

    http://www.infotoday.com/newsbreaks/nb060918-1.shtml

    According to Arnold, given the economies of scale that Microsoft has, its lower cost systems with embedded search may be priced as much as 90 percent less than text mining systems sold by competitors like Autonomy plc and FAST Search & Transfer. This will put further price pressure on enterprise search sector leaders trying to get top dollar for their enterprise platforms.

    Great news for the upcoming MOSS 2007 product - fancy jumping on board? then mail me at mikepal@microsoft.com to book your place at the Search Roadshow that James Akrigg and I are running in November! If you are a new partner to Microsoft then mail me and we may have something else up our sleeves for you!