Friday, November 30, 2007

Where did that week go?

Say what? It is already Friday?

And I thought time slows when you get old....

Seriously - I was impressed with the visit of Trevor Dierdorf from Colorado Springs CO this past week in Seattle. He was attending a US Department of Labor conference as a business delegate from the great state of Colorado. What was impressive is here is an SBSer serving on a business panel (related to Workforce)

Seems like there is a lesson learned for many of us seeking to elevate.

Thanks

Harry

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Build it and they will come?

If I did a two-day deep dive on Response Point and charged $395.....would you come?

Lemmee know

thx

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

New SBS Technet Assessment Kit

Hey gang - straight from Redmond:

The kit is now available for download:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=59ACC518-023E-43C3-B8F3-378C5E387461&displaylang=en

Or you can use this easier URL:
https://partner.microsoft.com/wsskit


New Toolkit: Develop, Deploy Custom Solutions
Learn how to build your business by selling and deploying feature-rich portals and collaborative workspaces using Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Small Business Server 2003 R2. The toolkit includes partner best practices, a comprehensive guide (“cookbook”) to processes from sales through delivery, technical data and documentation, and marketing tools, including demos and scripts.

Monday, November 26, 2007

My new addiction: Wikipedia

Wow - this is a really powerful tool for writing books - I am doing much research with this free cool dictionary that everyone contributes to.

FYI - I felt guilty so I donated $100 USD to this cause :)

Well worth it...

thanks

harrybbbb

Sunday, November 25, 2007

What do you do for fun?

I know - hard to imagine *freetime fun* when you are busy running a small business technology consulting practice :)
That said - what do you do for fun....do you run...bike...hike...

Lemme know!

harrybbbb

Friday, November 23, 2007

FirstCall for 11-29-07 Announced on Response Point

Please sign up and attend :)
FirstCall
Response Point II
Join host and SMB author Beatrice Mulzer (executive editor of SMB Partner Community Magazine) with a panel of guest speakers (Trevor Dierdorff, Ed Carnes, et al) to take the Response Point conversation to the next level! Following an amazing response in our first Response Point Webinar in mid-November - we are back with more content delivered via guest experts. EXTRA TIME has been allocated to answering audience questions. This is part of an on-going SMB Nation series on popular business and technical topics. Seating is limited sign up immediately!

Title: Microsoft Response Point: Part II
Date: Thursday, November 29, 2007
Time: 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM PST
Space is limited. Reserve your Webinar seat HERE!
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/664596372

Lil' Firday Holiday Reading on Responseo Point

Great article in Small Business Computing:
http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/biztools/article.php/3712471

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Response Point Team Creates A LIVE Site to Chat with U

Here is the official site - join up!

###Welcome to the Response Point partner siteIt might not look fancy, but it can be updated quickly, so if there is anything missing that would help you build your Response Point practice, please use the guestbook or send an email to rpoint@microsoft.com to let us know!Microsoft Response Point Partner Site - http://responsepoint.spaces.live.com/ ###

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

RP starting to get noticed.....

See Paul's article at Windows IT Pro

http://www.windowsitpro.com/articles/articleid/97626/Microsoft_Hits_the_Response_Point.html

You must be a registered user at the site to read it.

Thanks

Harrybbbbbb

HandyAndy's Monthly Chat - this WEDNESDAY - Pre-Turkey Day

From Handy Andy:
Hi Gang,

Don’t forget our pre-turkey chat tomorrow at 7:00pm eastern (gmt -5)
Yes while you are dreaming about stuffing yourselves the next day with turkey and all the trimmings, stop by and stuff your brain with useful tidbits about SMB.
I am heading for Maryland tomorrow but should be there in time to join y’all for the chat

www.sbsmigration.com/chat

See you then,
Gobble Gobble

Ps Thanksgiving is a US holiday usually celebrated by stuffing oneself in the bounties of the harvest, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving

Monday, November 19, 2007

RP is not the original MS telephony system!

Hey - I was poking around the MS site and came across this:
Original Microsoft Phone Press Release: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/1996/jan96/phnvcepr.mspx

Microsoft Phone Now Available From Leading Manufacturers
Microsoft Corp. announced that leading manufacturers are now shipping voice modems and complete PC systems that provide innovative computer-telephony applications based on Microsoft Phone.
REDMOND, Wash., Jan. 30, 1996 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that leading manufacturers are now shipping voice modems and complete PC systems that provide innovative computer-telephony applications based on Microsoft® Phone.
Microsoft Phone is a powerful and easy-to-use software-only speakerphone and answering machine made possible by new communications technologies available only in the Microsoft Windows® 95 operating system and by new, voice-enabled modems. Manufacturers offering Microsoft Phone products and systems include Creative Labs Inc., Diamond Multimedia Systems Inc., Micron Electronics Inc. and Miro Computer Products.
"Computers are already essential in fax- and data-modem communications. Now, with Microsoft Phone, Microsoft is extending the PC into the world of voice-based telephone communications," said Brad Chase, general manager of the personal systems division at Microsoft. "The rich communications technologies in Windows 95 combined with the product offerings of our hardware and OEM partners result in a powerful and integrated computer-telephony experience for end users."
Microsoft Phone Turns PC Into Comprehensive Voice Communications Center
Microsoft Phone transforms a voice modem into a comprehensive voice communications center, helping both individuals and small businesses to be more productive.
Users can create centralized message centers that turn PCs into speakerphones; store all e-mail, voice and fax messages in a single inbox; let callers hear announcements, leave messages or receive faxes by pressing their phone keys; and use text-to-speech technology to read electronic-mail messages aloud over the phone. In addition, Microsoft Phone uses speech-recognition technology that enables users to store frequently used numbers in memory and to dial merely by saying a name.
With Microsoft Phone, users can also set up password-protected voice mailboxes at home or on the job. In addition, they can tell the computer to notify them automatically when new messages arrive via pager or telephone. Intuitive Windows Wizards in Microsoft Phone make it easy to set up the answering machine and use new computerized phone features including caller I.D. and call forwarding.
Microsoft Phone Powered by Innovative Windows 95 Communications Technologies
Windows 95 is the first PC operating system to enable new voice-telephony solutions based on the following new technologies and specifications:

Unimodem/V , a new extension to the Universal modem driver, is a TAPI service provider that makes supporting voice modems easier.

TAPI , the industry-leading Windows 95 telephony API, enables Microsoft Phone to work with all TAPI-compatible products available from hardware and software vendors.

MAPI , the Windows 95 messaging API, enables Microsoft Phone to store and retrieve messages and uses the standard Windows 95 MAPI address book.

Microsoft Exchange Inbox , which is standard in Windows 95, enables all incoming messages, whether voice or data, to be located in a single place.

Microsoft Fax features , included in Windows 95, allow users to create a fax-back system and to forward fax messages.

Speech API is a new API for developing speech-recognition applications. Microsoft Phone is the first Windows 95-based application to use the Speech API.
Microsoft Phone is available to end users exclusively through the hardware and systems manufacturers that package it with their voice modems and voice-enabled PCs.
Leading Manufacturers Praise Microsoft Phone, Microsoft for Enabling New Solutions
" Creative Phone Blaster ™products create a unique, cutting-edge hardware platform for audio communications on the PC," said Rich Sorkin, vice president, strategic business division at Creative Labs Inc. " The primary goal of Creative's long-standing design relationship with Microsoft was to improve dramatically the ease of use of the software running on that hardware. By combining Microsoft Phone and Windows 95 with Creative's industry-leading Blaster ™hardware, we expect to accelerate the adoption of telephony in the PC significantly."
"Our new multimedia systems incorporating Microsoft Phone give individuals and small businesses the ability to manage their telephone and messaging needs in a way that's only been available to large corporations until now," said Kenneth Birch, vice president of strategic relations at Micron. "The new communications technologies available together for the first time in Windows 95 were crucial to making this happen."
"The combination of Microsoft Phone with Supra's state-of-the-art telephony hardware gives the small office/home office (SOHO) user access to communication technology once restricted to large corporations," said James H. Cutburth, vice president of marketing of the Supra communications division at Diamond Multimedia. "We've worked closely with Microsoft to ensure Microsoft Phone and Supra telephony products work well together."

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Next Question: Do you listend to Startup Nation on the radio?

OK - here is my next question - do you listen to Startup Nation on the AM radio dial? That's the famous Sloane brothers who spoke at the Small Business Symposium day in Boston at WPC 2005.

You can learn more about this show at www.startupnation.com

Talk to me!

thanks...harrybbbb

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Question: Do you listen to Kim Komando

Hey - interesting nationwide radio show in the USA called Kim Komando on the AM dial....the digital goddess...

Have you listened to this before?

Lemme know!

thanks

Harry

Thursday, November 15, 2007

RP updated

Wow - heaps of fun to get the RP party started....

Today's FirstCall had 160+ people sign up and 130+ attend....that is a very high number!

Our early poll results showed that folks want a technical deep dive into RP

Our next FirstCall will be THURSDAY 11-29-07 in the afternoon (PST)...I am thinkng 4pm-ish.

I will keep you posted.

BTW - our RP newsgroup at http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/responsepoint/ just hit 126 members...join the fun and POST UP!

:)

harrybbbbb

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

New 70-282 book with 70-631 exam content and more SBSC stuff

Hey - I am just about to sign off on the blue lines for the new Small Business Specialist Primer that Beatrice wrote this summer\fall...it is a 760-page whopper! All new 70-282 questions to pass that @#$%$%^ exam and a three chapter section on 70-631 Configuring Windows SharePoint Services (WSS).






Details at our Web site: http://www.smbnation.com/





Thanks!





Harry

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

RP - Are You With Me?!?!?

The answer is yes - Response Point is very much with me and hopefully you.

Check out these early stats:
>100+ people signed up for the Response Point newsgroup at: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/responsepoint/

>160+ people are signed up for my FirstCall on THURSDAY (this week on 11-15-07) at 8AM PST. You can sign up at:
FirstCall: Response Point!Webinar This Thursday MorningMicrosoft Response Point was officially announced this past Monday andis ready to rock. Join this FirstCall with author Harry Brelsford tolearn more about his small business telephone system. Harry will reviewpricing, licensing, features and functionality. More importantly - hewill tell the SMB Nation story - his company canned its old*sophisticated* telephone system and went to Microsoft Response Pointover a month ago. He will also update you on his new book, MicrosoftResponse Point Primer.ThursdayNovember 15, 20078:00am - 8:30am PST (GMT-8)Space is limited.Reserve your Webinar seat now at:https://www.gotomeeting.com/register/663891068

Monday, November 12, 2007

MS Pricing Announced on Response Point (lower), Windows Server 2008

Good morning everyone - MS has updated it pricing for its small business telephone system and announced prcing for its upcoming server launch.

First - check out the new Web site at www.microsoft.com/responsepoint

The Response Point pricing amounts to a price reduction:
· The D-Link VoiceCenter package includes a base unit, a four phone-line analog telephone adapter and five desktop phones for approximately $2,500 $2,999.
· Additional Quanta phones are $159; D-Link will sell additional phones for approximately $139 $149.
· A complete Quanta Syspine package that includes a base unit with built-in analog telephone adapter (ATA) and secure gateway, plus four phones, for approximately $2,500.
· A complete 20-phone system from D-Link or Quanta for less than $5,500.

OK - now the Windows ERver 2008 pricing:


Windows Server 2008 Standard: $999 (with five Client Access Licenses, or CALs)

Windows Server 2008 Enterprise: $3,999 (with 25 CALs)

Windows Server 2008 Datacenter: $2,999 (per processor)

Windows Server 2008 for Itanium-based Systems: $2,999 (per processor)

Windows Web Server 2008: $469

Windows Server 2008 Standard without Hyper-V: $971 (with five CALs)

Windows Server 2008 Enterprise without Hyper-V: $3,971 (with 25 CALs)

Windows Server 2008 Datacenter without Hyper-V: $2,971 (per processor)

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Microsoft Response Point Newsgroup created

Hey - a Microsoft Response Point (RP) newsgroup has been created at http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/responsepoint/

Please join the fun - it time for fun in the telephony space!

Looking forward!

Harry

Saturday, November 10, 2007

It's the Weekend - do you know where your worker bees are?

Seems like we owners work on the weekends while the worker bees rest. Also seems fair to me. Owners enjoy the honey and worker bees make it - so in all fairness - I am working on a later Saturday afternoon and my employees aren't.

Oh well - I think I now go take a hot tub knowing what I know now. :)

harrybbbbb

Friday, November 9, 2007

Right On RP!

Has the Red Sea parted or what? Over two years ago - I started on a telephony journey that included a trip to Vegas to look at a enterprise-level call center telephony solution being squeezed into the SBS space (ouch), free calling, Yahoo, Skype, MSN-based calling, reverting to tradition cordless telephones, paying annual renewal fees for a system that wasn't up to snuff (sorry to go negative) and so on.


That ended yesterday when I installed Microsoft Response Point with seven telephones at our office. Already we are seeing a telephone solution that is right-sized and right-priced! I will comment on this more later but I can't believe it works so well so easily. But do not believe me - call us at 360-779-1140 (main line) and here for yourself!


Question: What is your nickname?


Beatrice meets with Microsoft Response Point PM Richard Sprague in Seattle recently....


Harry


PS - our old telephony server is now being redeploiyed as a testing server....right on RP!

Thursday, November 8, 2007

Return of Big BackOffice: Up or Out

Hey-hey

This is a case of the military's phrase for "up" with the introduction of Windows Essential Business Server (formerly code named Centro). What? In the military and other big companies - there is the phrase up or out when you reach mid-career. There is a natural incentive in any channel partner program to motivate partners to ascend upward. Frankly I have found this to be the way American firms naturally think with India and Asia close behind (growth is good). Countries in continental Europe may or may not embrace this up strategy.

For the purposes of this business speak conversation, assume you are a SBSer or Small Business Specialist and you seek to grow into a slightly larger space. That's called "all goodness" and then some in Redmond. It is a neo-classical return to BackOffice which was prominent from the mid-1990s to November of 2001 in the Microsoft SMB infrastructure portfolio. The idea back then and today is to have a multiple server solution for entities just above the small business space (e.g. start at 50 users up to 300 users). Windows Essential Business Server allows you to leverage your small business customer portfolio to grow into larger customers -or more importantly - grow with your successful small business customers who are flying further and faster than they imagined when they started their companies in the proverbial garage.

So let's get technical.

"Windows Essential Business Server is an integrated server infrastructure solution designed for the unique needs of mid-sized organizations, combining the technologies of Windows Server 2008, Exchange Server 2007, Forefront Security for Exchange, System Center Essentials, the next version of ISA Server and SQL Server 2008 into an “all-in-one” solution. It will include a Standard and Premium Edition. Windows Essential Business Server will provide a single Client Access License for all included products and offers new technologies which simplify license management. Within the administration console, IT professionals can easily ascertain how many licenses they have, who the licenses are assigned to and - when an employee leaves the company - easily re-assign licenses.

The difference between standard and premium edition is this: Premium includes SQL Server 2008. To me - that is the whole enchilada because I believe everything in the business world pivots off data; data is the reason we are here. Data is the reason we exist. Someday humans will be born with USB 2.0 ports!

Enough nonsense and back to GeekSpeak. Essentially Widows Essential Business Server (WEBS - kinda cute isn't it!) uses a partitioning strategy to put security on a server out front, the domain controller\management functions in the middle and the infrastructure back-end in the, while, background. How about a picture to better convey this concept:




In future issues - we will write more on WEBS and I will expand on the management paradigm stolen from SBS :)

BEST PRATICE: Windows Essential Business Server is really a growth strategy for Small Business Specialists. In pop therapy terms, you now have my permission to grow. It does not reflect disloyalty to the beloved SBS product our your SBSer roots.

Sunday, November 4, 2007

I final found out what BOB means

At first - I thought it was my brother in law :)

But the Microsoft OEM\System Builder group called the BOB Team is Builder of Boxes....man - I never knew that before today!!!

Harry

Saturday, November 3, 2007

Workaholic weekend - is it the ism.....

Recovery movement rehortic aside - I find myself workig this Saturday AM on some very important business matters and I think back to how I built this company (starting in the garage, etc.). So my question to you dear reader - are you working this weekend too?

harrybbbb