Reaching Out to Microsoft Partners in Australia

BPOS Worldwide Announcements

nickmayhew — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:09:27 GMT

We’ve just made some important announcements around availability (in new markets) and pricing for BPOS. You can read the detail here on the official press release and more on the official Online Services blog.

Note that given the local alliance with Telstra, Australian partners should wait for specific local information from Telstra on any further developments on the MS Online platform as delivered through T-Suite and not assume the worldwide announcements automatically flow through.

Partners should start with joining the LinkedIn Community that Kathryn Saducas is running.

How partners can make money from Windows 7

nickmayhew — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:12:04 GMT

Now Windows 7 is finally launched to everyone it’s time for partners to think about using this as a compelling event for new discussions with your customers. As you’d expect there is a ton of useful content to help you with positioning.

Start here: https://partner.microsoft.com/40084742?msp_id=Windows7

But the key thing to do immediately is use it internally. Whether you are Action Pack subscribers or Gold/Cert partners you have sufficient rights to give the software a really good run yourself and with your teams.

Then follow the link above and you’ll see some targetted content based on your business model. e.g. services partners go here: https://partner.microsoft.com/40103797

We’ve already done a fair amount of training for partners but also keep an eye on the training and readiness blog for up and coming courses and webcasts.

Meet the new Windows Phone

nickmayhew — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 01:09:16 GMT

We launched Window Mobile v6.5 today – now called Windows Phone. Check out the new site for info on available devices in Australia and all the goodness in this important release for our mobile business – which itself will generate business opportunities for our partners.

www.windowsphone.com.au

And the worldwide press info is here: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/windowsphone/default.aspx

Microsoft Online Store Goes Live in Australia

nickmayhew — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 10:09:55 GMT

http://www.arnnet.com.au/article/321112/microsoft_sells_software_direct_via_internet?fp=16&fpid=1

See : www.microsoftstore.com.au

What do you think about this as a partner ? Send me a mail – I am keen to know your views…

Help your customers with Daylight Savings changes

nickmayhew — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:01:45 GMT

Daylight Savings changes in Western Australia – prepare now!

Daylight Savings time changes can have a significant impact on business performance if not dealt with proactively. Effects can range from the incorrect time display on the clock, to calendaring problems, to changes in business critical services that are time dependent. This year, Western Australians rejected by referendum a proposal to extend their trial of daylight savings. As a result there will be no daylight savings in WA this year or for the foreseeable future. The time change was scheduled for 25 October, but will no longer occur.

We need our partners’ help to ensure your customers are reviewing their preparedness for these changes. See the Australia 2009 Daylight Saving Planning Guide.

Thanks !

Outlook 2003 and Exchange Online – beta announcement

nickmayhew — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:12:47 GMT

“In response to customer feedback, the Microsoft Online Services engineering team is developing the Outlook 2003 Connector. This is an Outlook add-in that will enable customers to use Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 to access all the features of Exchange Online. This includes free/busy information when setting up meetings, and the ability to access your organization’s global address list (GAL) from Outlook when you're offline. The add-in is currently in private beta testing with selected MVPs, Partners, and customers, and we’re ready to broaden the audience.”

More here:

http://blogs.technet.com/msonline/archive/2009/09/24/do-you-want-to-use-outlook-2003-with-exchange-online.aspx

Setting up HTC Snap with Email if not on Telstra MMES plan

nickmayhew — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 08:15:26 GMT

From the local Windows Mobile team blog:

“The HTC Snap has been out for a while now through Telstra. The default configuration is set to take advantage of the new flat rate data plans – know as Microsoft Mobile Enterprise Solution (MMES) http://www.telstraenterprise.com/productsservices/mobility/officemobility/Pages/MicrosoftMobileEnterpriseSolution.aspx

We’ve been hearing that some customers are experiencing “difficulty” in setting up e-mail with the SNAP, so here’s the guide to getting Exchange ActiveSync setup if you’re not on the new Telstra plans (MMES).”

Continued here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/wmoz/archive/2009/09/17/htc-snap-activesync-setup-if-not-on-telstra-mmes-plans.aspx

Bing Visual Search – how to make it work in Australia

nickmayhew — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 02:43:06 GMT

Like the entire blogosphere, I wanted to check out Bing Visual Search for myself this morning. So I clicked on www.bing.com/visual search only to be disappointed with the following:

So I quickly changed the default country to the US ands voila, works fine ! This new Bing feature is just something you have to see ….

1. Click on country – top right hand side

2. Select US

3. From Bing home page just overwrite URL to be www.bing.com/visualsearch

4. And start searching your favourite of the initial categories – make sure you try your mouse scroll wheel…

Congrats to all partner conference award winners

nickmayhew — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 03:02:00 GMT

CRN published the full list here – well done to all winners and finalists !

http://www.crn.com.au/News/154929,didata-four-time-winner-at-microsoft-channel-awards.aspx

Advanced Infrastructure Solutions, Virtualisation Partner of the Year

Winner: Jasco Consulting Pty Ltd
Finalist: Hostworks Limited
Finalist: Emantra Pty Ltd

Advanced Infrastructure Solutions, Windows Desktop Deployment Partner of the Year

Winner: Dimension Data
Finalist: Gen-I Australia Pty Ltd

Business Intelligence Partner of the Year

Winner: Hands-On Management Pty Ltd
Finalist: IntelliMax Solutions Pty Ltd
Finalist: Calumo Labs Pty Ltd

Competitive Partner of the Year

Winner: Ensyst
Finalist: Zap

Data Management Solutions Partner of the Year:

Winner: Wardy IT Solutions Pty Ltd
Finalist: Dimension Data
Finalist: Calumo Labs Pty Ltd

Distributor Solution Partner of the Year:

Express Data Holdings

Enterprise Partner of the Year:

Winner: Dimension Data
Finalist: Data#3 Limited
Finalist: OBS

Environmental and Sustainability Solution Partner of the Year

Dataract

Information Worker Solutions, Portal and Collaboration Partner of the Year:

Winner: Unique World
Finalist: Ensyst Pty Ltd
Finalist: OBS
Finalist: Avanade

Information Worker Solutions, Search Partner of the Year:

Winner: Ensyst Pty Ltd
Finalist: OBS

Information Worker Solutions, Office Deployment Partner of the Year:

Winner: Dimension Data

ISV / Software Solutions Innovation Partner of the Year:

Winner: Zap
Finalist: Mobilise IT Pty Ltd
Finalist: CDC Software

ISV / Software Solutions Partner of the Year:

Winner: Brookstone Technologies Pty Limited
Finalist: MYOB Australia Pty Ltd
Finalist: Task Retail (NSW) Pty Ltd

Learning Partner of the Year:

Winner: New Horizons Learning Centres Pty Ltd
Finalist: Excom Education
Finalist: Dimension Data Learning Solutions

Licensing Solutions, License Delivery Partner of the Year:

Winner: Data#3 Limited
Finalist: Dimension Data
Finalist: Insight Enterprises Australia Pty Ltd

Licensing Solutions, Software Asset Management Partner of the Year:

Winner: Dimension Data
Finalist: Insight Enterprises Australia Pty Ltd
Finalist: Data#3 Limited

Microsoft Dynamics, CRM Partner of the Year:

Winner: Jaythom Pty Ltd
Finalist: Oakton Services Pty Ltd
Finalist: Professional Advantage Pty Ltd

Microsoft Dynamics, ERP Partner of the Year:

Winner: Hands-on Systems
Finalist: Eclipse Computing Australia Pty Ltd
Finalist: Professional Advantage Pty Ltd

Microsoft Dynamics, Industry/Vertical Solution Partner of the Year:

Winner: Eclipse Computing Australia Pty Ltd
Finalist: Sable Systems
Finalist: Scalable Data Systems Pty Ltd

Mobility Industry Solution Partner of the Year:

Winner: Mobilise IT Pty Ltd
Finalist: Retriever Communications Pty Ltd

Mobility Solutions Business Application Partner of the Year:

Winner: LogicalTech
Finalist: Mobilise IT Pty Ltd

Networking Infrastructure Solutions Partner of the Year:

Winner: Solutionware Pty Ltd
Finalist: Calvert Technologies
Finalist: Comcity Technology Pty Ltd

Notes Transition Partner of the Year:

Winner: Emantra Pty Ltd
Finalist: Quest Software Pty Ltd
Finalist: Thomas Duryea Consulting Pl

Public Sector Education Industry Solutions Partner of the Year:

Winner: Ensyst Pty Ltd
Finalist: Calumo Labs Pty Ltd
Finalist: OBS

Public Sector Health Industry Partner of the Year:

Winner: Fred Health Pty Ltd
Finalist: Eclipse Computing Australia Pty Ltd
Finalist: Senetas Corporation

Software+Services Hosting Partner of the Year:

Winner: BlueFire Corporation
Finalist: Emantra Pty Ltd
Finalist: WebCentral, a Melbourne IT Company

Security Solution Partner of the Year:

Winner: Data#3 Limited

Small Business Solution Partner of the Year:

Winner: Comcity Technology Pty Ltd
Finalist: Correct Solutions Pty Ltd
Finalist: Evolve IT Australia

Unified Communications Partner of the Year:

Winner: Jasco Consulting Pty Ltd
Finalist: Gen-I Australia Pty Ltd
Finalist: Empired Ltd

Community Impact Initiative Partner of the Year:

Winner: OBS

TechNet Virtual Conference

nickmayhew — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 07:43:47 GMT

Deeps and the local TechNet team have scheduled the following virtual conference targetted at IT Professionals, both in customer and partner organisations. Looks like some very useful content for pre-sales and technical people in the partner base.

TechNet Virtual Conference Friday 25 September
10.00am-11.00am IT Manager Session: How Microsoft does IT: Save Time, Save Energy
This session is designed to demonstrate to customers how Microsoft IT uses our technologies internally, as well as other general best practices, to Save Time, Save Energy and Save Money for the company. Key themes such as using Unified Communications to improve employee productivity and reduce T&E expenses and our carbon footprint, using virtualization technology built natively into Windows Server 2008 to better utilize hardware and decrease power consumption in data centers, consolidation of data centers and infrastructure through Microsoft’s enabling technologies and Power Management features of Windows will be explored among other topics.

11.30am-12.30pm Desktop/End User Specialist Session: Windows 7 Manageability Solutions
This session will explore Windows 7 manageability features for increased automation, reducing help desk calls, and flexible administrator control. We will discuss how Windows Powershell V2.0 automates desktop administrative activities to improve productivity and how Group Policy and Group Policy Preferences enhancements and Applocker make it easier and more flexible for IT Professionals to manage desktop systems. Then we will discuss improvements to desktop auditing to monitor system changes and improvements in system restore capabilities. Finally, we will discuss Support tools such as built-in Windows Troubleshooting Packs, Problem Steps Recorder capabilities, Windows Recovery Environment, Startup Repair tool, Resource Monitor that provides detailed resource utilization, and Reliability Monitor that includes more robust capabilities to help identify and solve system issues.

1.00pm-2.00pm Line of Business/Applications Specialist Session: SQL Server Consolidation/Virtualisation

Microsoft SQL Server supports multiple options for server consolidation, providing organizations with the flexibility to choose the consolidation approach that best meets their requirements in order to centralize data services management and reduce hardware and maintenance costs. By providing centralized management, auditing, and monitoring capabilities, SQL Server makes it easy for you to manage multiple databases and data services, significantly reducing administrative overheads in large enterprises. SQL Server can provide you with the reassurance of industry-leading performance and scalability, and unprecedented control over server resource utilization to maximize the performance of your consolidated data services. Join this session to find out more about the various options for server consolidation with SQL Server, and best practices to get the most out of your environment.

2.30pm-3.30pm Infrastructure Specialist Session: Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 Group Policy Changes
This session will explore Group Policy enhancements in Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7. We will show you how Administrative template improvements make it easier to configure and Group Policy preference improvements to configure defaults for non-Group Policy-aware Windows components. Then we will discuss Starter GPO improvements and scripting Group Policy Objects using Windows Powershell Group Policy cmdlets.

MS Online goes live on Telstra T-Suite

nickmayhew — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 04:05:59 GMT

Today we made the announcement that BPOS is now available for customers through Telstra’s T-Suite portal. This is of course an important milestone for partners keen to get old involved in the MS Online space.

Lots of discussion and information will be going on at partner conference on the Gold coast. Remember to join the LinkedIn group as a first step if you are interested in getting involved, as well as signing the MOSPA agreement and the Telstra partner agreement (“TOSA”).

http://www.telstra.com.au/abouttelstra/media/announcements_article.cfm?ObjectID=45443

News on Action Pack Pricing for Australia

nickmayhew — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 10:19:34 GMT

As per the Australia Partner blog:

“

Microsoft Action Pack Subscription Price Changes for Australia

On behalf of Microsoft I would like to thank everyone who has given us feedback over the past couple of years around the price of the Microsoft Action Pack for Australian Partners. I am happy to share with you that as of today Microsoft Corporate have reduced the price of the Microsoft Action Pack to

Digital Distribution only - $396 Australian Dollars after tax
Physical Media and Digital Distribution - $660 Australian Dollars after tax

”

http://blogs.msdn.com/auspartners/archive/2009/08/24/microsoft-action-pack-subscription-price-changes-for-australia.aspx

I hope that this is well received news – it’s something that has been raised as an issue for years and we are pleased to have got the change approved to ensure pricing is more compatible with that shown for US partners.

Let me know what you think via this blog in comments or mail.

Interested in MS Online and going to partner conference ?

nickmayhew — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:39:50 GMT

If so then you’ll be interested in these roundtables that Kathryn Saducas is running with Telstra:

“You’re invited to attend Roundtable Sessions at APC

The roundtable sessions with Telstra and Microsoft will provide you the opportunity to connect with Telstra executives and Microsoft to learn more about Microsoft Online Services and engaging with Telstra. The format of the sessions will be held in small groups and are designed to be a two way discussion.

There are a number of different sessions scheduled during APC (see below). Please send an email to Olivia Cortes to confirm which session you would like to attend. Space is limited to 8-10 partners per session so we will do our best to accommodate you. So please RSVP to your preferred session.

Also, if you have any thoughts on topics for discussion, please include these in your email to Olivia so we can craft the best session for you.

Roundtable Title and Time

What it’s all about

Time: Thurs 3^rd September 1:45 – 2:30pm

Title: ISV Development Opportunity

Hosts: Marcus Bartram / Dave Carden (Telstra), Kathryn Saducas / Stefan Jansen (Microsoft)

Discussion Topics:

· Learn about the T-Suite strategy and the opportunity for ISVs.

· Understand the application selection criteria for T-Suite.

Time: Thurs 3^rd September 4:00 – 4:45pm

Title: SMB MS Online Roundtable 1

Hosts: Marcus Bartram / Dave Carden (Telstra), Kathryn Saducas (Microsoft)

Discussion Topics:

· How to engage with Telstra and Microsoft around customer opportunities.

· What the business rules are and other necessary details

· What training / readiness support do you require.

Time: Thur 3^rd September 4:55-5:40pm

Title: Interested in Becoming a Telstra Dealer?

Hosts: Dave Carden / Marcus Bartram (Telstra)

Discussion Topics:

· Understand the various ways to engage with Telstra.

· Augment your current customer offerings and add new revenue streams with Telstra’s broadband and Next IP services.

· Learn about the Telstra ICT Partner Program.

Time: Thur 4^th September 11:00-11:45pm

Title: SMB MS Online Roundtable 2 (repeat)

Hosts: Marcus Bartram / Dave Carden (Telstra), Kathryn Saducas (Microsoft)

Discussion Topics (as above):

· How to make money out of Microsoft Online Services.

· How to engage with Telstra and Microsoft around customer opportunities.

· What training / readiness support do you require.

RSVP Information:

For more information or to RSVP for one of the above sessions email Olivia Cortes Olivia.Cortes@team.telstra.com (Telstra).

If you have any further queries or want to connect with someone at APC around Microsoft Online Services outside of the above sessions, please email Kathryn Saducas ksaducas@microsoft.com.

“

Exchange 2010 RC is available for download

nickmayhew — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 23:35:09 GMT

RC=release candidate=just about done

http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/2010/en/us/try-it.aspx

The key release themes, to help you position to your customers, are as follows:

Flexible and Reliable
Anywhere Access
Protection and Compliance

You can get the product overview here: http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/2010/en/us/overview.aspx

Australian Partner Award Finalists Announced

nickmayhew — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 02:13:03 GMT

Sarah Arnold has just announced the finalists in our local partner awards. Congratulations to everyone recognised and good luck for the final announcements:

http://blogs.msdn.com/auspartners/archive/2009/08/11/australia-partner-awards-finalist-announced.aspx