Call it a case of tomorrow's new today!
I am posting up my Outlook Web Access (OWA) introduction in the SBS 2003 realm today (Friday) because tomorrow (Saturday) I will be jammed with my niece's wedding here in San Francisco. What is interesting about this wedding is that it is an openly gay wedding which is now legal in the State of California and I am thrilled and excitred to see how this all plays out! I will post up a blog on my first experience at this type of wedding.
Back to the business at hand. I am the author of the Window Small Business Server 2003 Best Practices book (purple book) and I live on Bainbridge Island, WA. I am posting up a few pages of this SBS 2003 bok each and every day until SBS 2008 ships on November 12th (worldwide, multiple languages). Today - as I mentioned - we meet OWA.
cheers...harrybbbb
Harry Brelsford, CEO at smb nation, www.smbnation.com
Microsoft Small Business Specialist - SBSC
did u know we have a gr8t fall conference in sEattle in early October?!?! :)
###
Outlook Web Access
Meanwhile, back at the BBQ where the steaks are sizzling, another compelling SBS 2003 feature that “sizzles” in front of business decision makers (BDMs) is the massively improved Outlook Web Access (OWA). My infamous SBS customer, Bob in real estate, did back flips when I showed him the new OWA in SBS 2003. Why? For these reasons.
• Look and feel. The new OWA just looks more like “real” Outlook. That has been a major sticking point with Bob and other BDMs. It wasn’t so much like reading an e-mail message in past OWA releases
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was that bothersome. Rather, things like calendar entries and contact records were downright rude!
• Feature creature. OWA, when compared to past OWA versions (apples to apples) and not compared to “real” Outlook (apples to oranges), is much richer. An example of improved features is the stronger integration with Outlook and its rules and options (such as Privacy and Junk E-mail Prevention options now accessible via OWA).
• Sir Speedy. This OWA version boogies. Older OWA releases were slow and seconds of delay felt like hours to Type-A businessmen like Bob. It was so bad in the past that I set up Outlook Express with IMAP as per Chapter 6 to workaround the OWA slowness.
• Security improvements. I felt honor-bound to show my customers, such as Bob the BDM, some improvements to security. As an SBSer in the early 21st century, I’m trying to use every opportunity to talk up security (and no, this isn’t make-work or a self-employment act, but advice offered in a sincere way). See the security section below for details, but I’ll share one now: OWA natively runs under HTTPS when you configure the default configuration of SBS.
BEST PRACTICE: So are there any limitations with the new OWA? Yes, there are a few. A bright student in Mumbai/Bombay India SBS 2003 hands-on lab correctly taught me (the instructor) that OWA doesn’t display multiple mailboxes at the same time while real Outlook can. This is bothersome if you’re a BDM that uses multiple e-mail aliases to look larger than life in the business community and you travel extensively and need to use OWA from Internet cafés or your laptop in a hotel room. With OWA and multiple mailboxes, you’d need to log on multiple times (as the different e-mail account) and view each mailbox separately (e.g., jobs@springersltd.com).
Another student at the San Francisco, California, SBS 2003 hands-
on lab (October 2003) correctly pointed out that, when viewing a
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contact record in a public folder in the new OWA, the New Message to Contact toolbar button is disabled. Translation: You can’t send an e-mail to a contact in a public folder with a single click using OWA. Rather, you have to manually copy and paste the SMTP e-mail address into a new message. He seemed really bothered by this (must have been having a bad SBS day).
Beatrice Mulzer from Cocoa Florida informs me that the search folder feature isn’t available in OWA.
I personally noticed that, when entering a contact record in OWA in the SBS 2003 time frame, that the Address, City, State, Zip fields (ACSZ) are divided in the UI for OWA (you have separate fields for ACSZ). But, in real Outlook 2003, ACSZ is entered into a single field and then parsed in the background.
Showing posts with label Brelsford. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brelsford. Show all posts
Friday, August 15, 2008
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
More from Chapter 1 of the SBS 2003 book
Here is another batch of pages from chapter one:
You’ll learn much more about this e-mail messaging solution in Chapter 6.
START HERE BLOGGER
Table 1-1: SBS Components at a Glance
Component
Description
Server or Client Component
Windows
Microsoft’s 32-bit network operating system.
Server
Server 2003
An operating system controls the basicfunctions of a computer, including security,storage, printing, user management, remotecommunications, and so on. Supports ActiveDirectory, Terminal Services in remoteadministration mode (discussed below),Group Policy for homogeneous WindowsServer 2003 networks, disk quotas, advancedsecurity such as encrypted file system (EFS).Windows Server 2003 is necessarilydiscussed across many chapters in this book.Your greatest interaction with WindowsServer 2003 will be during the initial setupand configuration of the SBS network.
Microsoft
E-mail messaging application used for
Server
Exchange
communication and collaboration. Supports
Server 2003
Outlook Web Access (OWA) Discussed inChapter 6.
Windows SharepointServices
An intranet portal and basic documentmanagement program discussed in Chapter 7.
Server
Microsoft SQL Server 2000
Powerful database application offered inpremium edition of SBS 2003. Discussed inChapter 14.
Server
Microsoft Internet Security andAcceleration (ISA)Server2000
Firewall gateway application with thecapability to store or cache frequentlyaccessed Web pages and part of the premiumedition of SBS 2003. Discussed in Chapter13. Note the SBS 2003 standard edition security approach of Network AddressTranslation (NAT) and the Basic Firewall,provided by Routing and Remote AccessService (RRAS), is discussed in Chapter 5.
Server
Microsoft Internet Information Server 6.0
Internet server application that provides coreSBS support for Web-related management.Discussed in Chapter 10.
Server
Shared Fax Service
A powerful faxing application discussed inChapter 9.
Server
Microsoft Front Page2003
An application that creates Web pages andcan be used for desktop publishing. A single-license version can be installed on the server machine. FrontPage 2003 is discussed inChapter 11.
Server
Additional Goodies
VALUEADD and SUPPORT folders contain useful tools and sample software.
Server
SBS ManagementConsole
GUI-based management console, calledServer Management, using powerful yetfriendly administrative wizards. ServerManagement provides a central location toaccomplish tasks. The Server Managementconsole is discussed all across the book and specifically in Chapter 4. Note the ServerManagement console houses the infamousSBS To Do List.
Server
Microsoft ManagementConsole 2.0 (MMC)
Provides the framework for creatingmanagement consoles to perform taskmanagement. The SBS consoles are based onthe MMC. Discussed in Chapter 4.
Server
Server-based Wizards
Include the Add User and Computer Wizard,E-mail and Internet Connection Wizard, device and peripheral management. Alsoinclude numerous Windows 2000 Wizards. Wizards are discussed across the book.
Server
Health Monitor
Provides real-time network monitoring ofcritical performance variables. Has the abilityto generate alerts. Discussed in Chapter 12.
Server
Server Status Reports
A tool that can be configured to send reports onsystem operations and third-party applicationsvia e-mail or fax. Discussed in Chapter 12.
Server
Server Status View
Provides a view of critical event, performancecounters, and services. Discussed in Chapter 12.
Server
Microsoft Connector for POP3 Mailboxes
Created with great pride by the SBSdevelopment team to allow small businesses touse existing POP3 e-mail services withExchange Server 2003. POP3 accounts aremapped to internal e-mail accounts. Discussedin Chapter 6.
Server
Windows Terminal Services
Terminal Services is a multi-session solution in Windows Server 2003 that facilitates remote management of the SBS server by thetechnology consultant. Similar to remotecontrol applications such as PCAnywhere orVNC. Discussed in Chapter 4 and 11.
Server
Online Guide
Robust online help for SBS administrators.
Server
Internet Explorer 6.x(IE)
Internet browser for navigating both the Internetand intranets. Installed on both the SBS server machine and SBS client’s machine. Discussed across the book (for example, client computerson the SBS network are now added via IE) andin Chapter 10.
Client/Server
Default PageInternet
Connects IE to the CompanyWeb as the default.Discussed in Chapters 7 and 10.
Client/Server
Microsoft Outlook 2003
Client-based e-mail, client scheduling, andcontact management application. Discussed inChapter 6.
Client
SBS Fax Sharing Client
Faxing functionality and capabilities. Discussedin Chapter 9.
Client
SBS Firewall Client
Client-side ISA Server functions (WinSockredirector). Discussed in Chapter 13 as part ofthe premium SBS discussion.
Client
SBS Zen Crowd
Meanwhile, continuing with my broad definition of SBS, there is another group of SBSers who view SBS as a state of mind. While SBS is a full member of the Windows Server 2003 computing family, these folks view SBS as special, unique, and their life calling. As you might say in Texas, these folks “GET IT” when it comes to SBS. For them, unique SBS tools, such as the Server Management console, are what life is all about.
The Big B Crowd: Small BUSINESS Server
Another view on defining SBS is looking at it from a business perspective: that is, how does SBS support the mission of the business to be efficient and successful? The SBS wheel in Figure 1-1 addresses this point of view.
Figure 1-1
The SBS wheel allows you to view SBS using a business analytical framework for gaining perspective on core SBS applications.
The left side of the wheel predominately speaks toward server-side components, such as Windows Server 2003, Exchange Server 2003, and the like. The lower portion of the wheel speaks to the management function via the SBS Server Management Console. The right side of the wheel speaks to the client-side applications, such as Microsoft Outlook 2003.
The “business”of SBS continues in a moment in the Finder, Minder, Grinder section on core business operations.
Converters
Finally, as part of the goal to define and segment the SBS customer population, consider the following. There are the conversion candidates for SBS:
• Linux Losers
• Peer-to-peer upgraders
• Windows NT and other Microsoft Servers
• Novell NetWare converters
• The soon-to-be newly networked: VIRGINS!
Linux Losers
So shareware’s not your bag, at least when it comes to running a bona fide business operation. And the Linux user experience is just a tad too much on the bit twiddler side, eh? No hard feelings. Welcome back to SBS. And by the way, ever since the Microsoft FUSION conference in Anaheim, California, in July 2001 and forward, the Microsoft SBS team has gone to great lengths to compare (and compete) SBS to Linux. Turns out, according to a Microsoft study, the argument that Linux is free is misleading. When considering the total cost of operations in a computer network (labor, hardware, training, and operating system), the operating system is only 3 % of the total costs.
Peer-To-Peer Upgraders
As you may or may not know, peer-to-peer networks are workstations that have been cabled together into a quick-and-dirty network. This is a significant SBS customer group, because two factors are driving the upgrade decision: pain and
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gain. Peer-to-peer networks traditionally suffer from poor performance (that’s the pain part) and many small businesses can easily see the gain a true client/ server network such as SBS can deliver (that’s, of course, the gain part).
Windows NT and Other Microsoft Servers
Considered the low hanging fruit in the small business space, those firms running Windows NT-based networks are more than overdue to upgrade to SBS. A big part of Microsoft message and efforts with SBS 2003 centers on moving folks on NT-based systems up to SBS 2003. The performance gains alone justify the conversion.
Soon-To-Be Newly Networked: VIRGINS!
These are the last frontiers in networking left today. Networking consultants, acting as explorers, seek out this type of SBS customer with a vengeance. Why? Because we can put our stamp on their successful network, and it’s likely this type of client hasn’t yet had a negative networking experience (or negative experience with their network consultant). Great SBS customers if you can find them.
Novell NetWare Converters
This is perhaps historically one of the touchiest and most-difficult SBS customer groups to work with for several reasons. I know, I know, you’re saying that NetWare is dead. Not so quick, my Missouri cousin! Why is it so many small businesses are running good old NetWare 3 even to this day? Granted, NetWare isn’t the dominant force it once was, but it’s a huge source of billable hours for me: converting NetWare to SBS. NetWare sites are prime to go to SBS 2003 in order to enjoy broad industry support for LOB applications.
Finder, Minder, Grinder
With respect to how SBS supports core business operations, let me take a moment to speak about the three major functions of nearly any small business: finder, minder, and grinder.
BEST PRACTICE: I have a book called SMB Consulting Best Practices (ISBN: 1-887542-11-6) that is totally dedicated to viewing the SMB space and SBS specifically from the finder, minder, grinder perspectives. So I’ll only touch on the business stuff here and encourage you to follow-up with my other text, which is more of a “pocket MBA” for SBSers!
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Finder
A finder is a rainmaker: the person who markets and “gets” or develops business for the firm. In many firms, it is the owner, CEO, or president; in others, it is a salesperson. Whoever has this important responsibility can directly benefit from SBS in many ways.
There is electronic-based commerce. Electronic-based commerce includes everything from basic e-mail communications to elaborate Web pages that provide direct updates to your accounting system or electronic data interchange (EDI) with Microsoft BizTalk.
BEST PRACTICE: Late breaking news! BizTalk will actually run on SBS 2003! In fact, teams at Microsoft are looking at making BizTalk part of SBS 2003 in some fashion.
At a minimum, a salesman in the early 21st century can benefit from using Internet e-mail, a feature supported by SBS with the Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and Outlook 2003. A finder can benefit from Outlook in other ways as well. Outlook provides contact management and scheduling capabilities in addition to serving as an e-mail client. Outlook is discussed in Chapter 6. You will learn basic Outlook functionality, such as e-mail and using Company contacts, under Public Folders in SBS 2003. You will even learn how to run Outlook over the Internet, via Outlook Web Access (OWA). This allows you to check your SBS-based e-mail from a late-model Web browser from any Internet-connected PC in the world! Saying you’re disconnected while vacationing in the Australian Outback is no longer an excuse with Outlook-based technologies.
So I end the finder section with a real world example. I know a CEO of the landscaping company in Issaquah, Washington, who uses SBS to increase his company’s sales. His idea is to fax “spring cleaning” notices to past landscaping clients. SBS does this very well with its fax server support. Broadcast faxing is a breeze, and as an added bonus, this CEO found that he could fax directly to the names listed in the company-wide Outlook contact list. I’ll talk more about faxing in Chapter 9.
What’s really been said in this finder section is that SBS can offer you a competitive advantage over your competition.
Minder
There’s one law of business that I’ve never seen broken: For every finder, there is at least one minder. Minders serve as office managers, administrators, COOs, and all-around nags. Bless ‘em, because we need ‘em. SBS was designed with minders in mind (please don’t mind the pun!). Typically, when I’ve deployed SBS from a minder’s perspective, it has been to implement a piece of industry-specific line of business (LOB) software. You will see in Figure 1-1 that I listed LOB applications. One such LOB application is BenchTop, a very powerful service management software application implemented on the SBS system at a client site I consult to. BenchTop, which uses premium SBS’s SQL Server application for its engine, is very much a minder tool. This application brings control to the workflow and allows the manager (aka the “minder”) to compile performance metrics specific to his industry. The minder at this site unknowingly benefits from SBS because SQL Server is included as part of the premium SBS bundle. All the minder knows is that BenchTop makes his job easier and he is more productive.
Also falling into the minder category with SBS is the whole business planning cycle plus cultural and organizational reengineering. Here’s what I mean. When SBS is introduced into an organization like a small business, it often upsets the apple cart in a good way. Managers start thinking “We’re gonna do things differently around here and we need a fresh business plan.” And the collaboration of Outlook and Windows Sharepoint Services will improve communication and improve organization outcomes, etc. It’s a management revolution inside each box of SBS! To some extent I make this point again in the grinder section that follows next.
Grinder
Grinders are the worker bees. These are the people who are typically task-oriented and look at the SBS infrastructure as a support system that makes them more productive. Grinders benefit from SBS in two distinct ways.
First, LOB applications such as BenchTop that run on top of premium SBS’s SQL Server allow the repair staff to enter important job and task information. This helps track the flow of goods in the system and effectively lowers cost by allowing better control. Another business application that uses SQL Server is
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Great Plains from Microsoft, a robust accounting application. I’ve had tremendous success installing this on SBS machines, and I can attest that the worker bees—typically accounting clerks, bookkeepers (and yes, beekeepers)— have been able to complete their work in an efficient and reliable manner. Most important, in both cases with BenchTop and Great Plains, the grinders trust that SBS allows them to better do their work. Such has not always been the case with worker bees, known for coining such pithy phrases as “The #@%$!&* computer network is not working again!” in the early days of computer networking (and during the first two releases of SBS in the late 1990s—OUCH!).
Second, basic communication applications, such as Outlook e-mail, contacts, and scheduling, have allowed grinders to improve the quality of their work, which translated into greater productivity for the firm. Many times SBS is introduced into business environments that have no prior network or e-mail service, often fundamentally changing how people do their work and, in its own way, reengineering workflow. The improvement in e-mail communications is but one example. Throughout this book many more business workflow improvements are presented hither and yon.
SBS Philosophy 101
It is difficult to overlook the sheer numbers of small businesses that could benefit from an SBS-type networking solution. Such was the idea behind SBS. Microsoft recently found SMB religion and has made SBS a cornerstone of its push into this relatively virgin small business space. The numbers speak for themselves when it comes to measuring the number of small businesses. Although you can easily say that there are only 1,000 companies in the Fortune 1000 list, conversely you might be surprised to know that there are over 22 million small businesses in the United States, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. Can’t you just see the marketing wheels at Microsoft turning and the marketing staff dreaming of an SBS installation at every small business? You betcha.
In this section, I’ll present SBS philosophy from three views: that of the small business, the SBS consultant, and Microsoft.
The Small Business
Understanding that small businesses are fundamentally different from larger enterprises, the SBS product literally sells itself when positioned by SBS consultants as a tool to help small business run better, with less effort, and, ultimately, more easily. You could say that SBS is nothing more than a return to the original LAN paradigm that both Apple Computer and Novell rode in the 1980s. This LAN paradigm, with a few modifications to accommodate SBS, is anchored by these key tenets:
• Sharing: The major justification for implementing SBS in the small business is the ability to share information. Sharing information, such as cost accounting data at the construction company, allows staff to work together with less redundancy (multiple entries are eliminated). Owners get better information about their operations. Staff works together as a team.
• Security: Like the enterprise, small businesses demand that reasonable levels of security be provided to protect sensitive information from competition and from loss or casualty. SBS provides regular Windows Server 2003-based security (and there’s a lot of security features there, let me tell ya) in the standard SBS edition, plus the security afforded by Microsoft ISA Server in the premium SBS edition.
• Cost Effectiveness: Relatively speaking, SBS is cheap. The standard version of SBS, a very popular option, can be purchased on the street starting for under $600 USD. In fact, there are some major hardware manufacturers that have seen fit to send you out the door with the standard SBS edition and a capable server for $1,000 USD! Man is that a change from the not-too-distant days past of $5,000 server machines for the small business. So tack on a few $500 USD capable workstations and another $1,000 USD for necessities (virus protection suite, hubs, wireless cards, etc.) and you’re up and running on a pauper’s payroll, not that of the prince! Note you might find you will need a mid-range server when you look closely at your needs. Such a server runs $1,500 USD standalone as of this writing.
BEST PRACTICE: When amortized, for accounting purposes, over the typical five-year holding period seen in many small businesses (versus the more aggressive three-year holding period typically seen at the enterprise-level), SBS is really cost-effective. After the basic installation, allowance for training (say, a one-time $500 USD per user outlay) and technology consulting fees, an SBS network easily costs less than $500 USD per user per year. THIS IS $1.38 USD PER USER PER DAY, FRIEND! (Yes, I’m shouting for emphasis.) That’s less than my subscriptions to the USA Today and Wall Street Journal newspapers! That’s less than my first cappuccino!
If you’ve ever worked at the enterprise level, you’d be viewed as kooky if you told someone you had lowered your annual IT costs per user to less than $500 (more likely at the enterprise-level it would be over $5,000 USD per user per year).
• Efficiency: After an initial period of negative productivity (measured in hours) while everyone is learning the new SBS network and its powers, company-wide productivity for the firm quickly soars to a level exceeding pre-SBS days. One example of this is the use of broadcast e-mails and faxes instead of making lots of telephone calls.
• Better Work, New Work: This includes fewer mistakes because of better communications, such as e-mail with staff, vendors, and customers; better scheduling with Outlook’s calendar, etc.; and new work, such as winning new contracts because your work is of higher quality (proposals with accurate financial information derived from staff, and so on). In fact, as an SBS site starts using more and more SBS features, I’ve seen these small businesses dramatically increase their business. Back at the ranch, oops, I mean the previously mentioned landscaping company client, you will recall that SBS's faxing capabilities are used to fax “Spring planting announcements” to its clients resulting in increased sales. Small businesses, enlightened by the powers of SBS, have also been known to enter into new business areas, knowing they have the network infrastructure to back up promises. Need more
convincing? A small construction company I worked with, confident that SBS-based e-mail and remote communications solutions wouldn’t fail them, took on work in other cities.
• Bottom Line: How does SBS sum up? Properly implemented, SBS can help small businesses enjoy higher-quality work and get more work finished with the fewer resources:
Land — Office space is used more efficiently, as older office machines, file cabinets, and the like are eliminated. Hell, with the Remote Web Workplace feature I’ll explain in Chapter 8, the whole darn office space can nearly be eliminated and everyone sent to Starbucks coffee shops to use Wi-Fi to do their business!
Labor — Existing staff works more efficiently, allowing owners to squeeze out more productivity. But fear not that SBS will result in staff
downsizing. I’ve worked with a variety of SBS sites and have never seen a layoff or firing related to SBS. In fact, the opposite tends to occur. Small businesses get excited very quickly with SBS when they understand it and see it working. In short order, additional (and unplanned) work requests roll in. For example, several of my small business clients who barely knew what the Internet was prior to the SBS installation call back and ask for Web home page development assistance. I typically refer an intern from the local college to these clients, allowing them to save on Web page development costs and giving a starving college kid the chance to earn some money. And guess what! More often than not the college intern becomes a full-time employee, actually increasing headcount at the client site as a result of the SBS implementation.
Capital — Not to understate the initial capital investment in getting an SBS network up and running, but, after that outlay is made, the general consensus is that SBS delivers a positive return on investment (ROI) by increasing the firm’s productivity and mitigating additional large capital outlays for the foreseeable future. One example of this is the reduced wear and tear on photocopiers. A client of mine who has
aggressively exploited SBS features now stores documents electronically and faxes directly to vendors. By doing so, this customer found it could forego the purchase of a new, expensive photocopier.
SBS Consultant
To paraphrase from my SMB Consulting Best Practices book, SBS is a “consulting practice in a box.” It’s a structured setup with an assured positive outcome; it’s a To Do List and a Server Management console that is used at each site; and it’s about making every customer implementation exactly the same to contribute to consulting success. SBS is a consultant’s dream, and I’ll leave it there as my other tome uses over 600 pages to express these sentiments.
Microsoft
So what does Microsoft think? Well, Microsoft extends this SBS paradigm specifically by adding these design goals:
• Ease of Use/Simplicity: The idea was to make everything easy, easy, easy. And when compared to the old command-line interface of NetWare
3.x (which a surprisingly high number of small businesses are still running, having foregone the opportunity to upgrade to NetWare 4.x, 5.x), you could say that SBS is easier to manage and use. For example, Dawn, who works at an athletic club I’ve assisted, took many years (appropriately so) to master NetWare. When Dawn was confronted with the decision to upgrade to the newly released NetWare 5.0, I loaned her a training machine that had SBS installed. One week later, Dawn was confident and had even confirmed that her narrow market vertical applications would run on SBS. Not surprisingly, Dawn and her firm became another SBS success story.
But easy is in the eye of the beholder. Whereas Dawn was coming from a more complex networking environment, allowing her to enjoy the ease of SBS when compared to NetWare, SBS has sometimes fallen short for small businesses that have never been networked. These firms, accustomed to working manually with file cabinets, fax machines, and basic word processing, are often disappointed with SBS initially when
they (a) can’t believe installing a network is so difficult and (b) don’t understand why servers don’t work perfectly all the time (for example, blue-screen crashes or applications stop responding). So take Microsoft’s SBS ease of use argument with a grain of salt.
However, if it is usability that you are measuring, clearly SBS wins when compared to other NOSs such as NetWare and Linux. With its superior graphical user interface (GUI), SBS encourages even those on-site power users unaccustomed to managing a network server to feel comfortable using the Start button, menus, mouse, and so on. Score one for SBS for high usability. Of course, I’m assuming the SBS consultant has asked for and approved the power user’s help.
• Making Decisions for the Customer: In the context of having an automated setup and implementation process (“just add water”), SBS (in Microsoft’s view) reduces the research, engineering, and guesswork that goes into making the networking decision. Microsoft correctly asserts that users do not have to decide whether the SBS machine should be a domain controller (it should, because it controls the operations of the network) and whether to install Active Directory. Active Directory is the directory services database used to store user and computer account information.
• Designed for Success: This point speaks to the SBS consoles I’ve previously discussed. The idea is that SBS administrators should enjoy a “simple, stupid” networking management experience and not really have to perfectly plan what they intend to do. Adding a user is a click away in the Server Management console. Simple.
BEST PRACTICE: Here again, I must interject a few clarifying comments regarding the pro-Microsoft comments. For new users and NetWare administrators coming over to SBS (such as Dawn), I’ve found the SBS cool tools—such as the management console and wizards—are great and really aid the SBS learning process. So on that count, Microsoft is correct with its ease of use, automatic
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decision making, and successful design assertions. But for old-school Windows Server gurus with headstrong ways of doing things, the SBS consoles are sometimes more of an enemy. These Windows Server gurus begrudgingly use the SBS Server Management console (interestingly, the native tools are exposed in the Server Management console, removing the need to drop down and use the Administrative Tools folder). I’ll say it now and most assuredly say it again: Do everything from the SBS Server Management console (and its wizards).
Microsoft has another view of SBS with its Go To Market (GTM) methodology (visit www.microsoft.com/partner and select Windows Server under the Server family product on the left). GTM is a four-step methodology:
Learn About It. Microsoft views its partners’ success with SBS as a function of how much knowledge they have about the product. Microsoft offers SBS hands-on labs (online
and in-person), Microsoft Official Curriculum (MOC)
courses specific to SBS and other training tools. Sell It! There is no shortage of resources when it comes to supporting your SBS sales efforts. Logos, canned PowerPoint presentations, and the like are all accessible from the Microsoft Partner site referenced above.
Build On It! Here the idea is to add value by bundling SBS with additional services and products. For example, you might implement the Microsoft Great Plains solution on top of SBS as your package. You might also sell and deploy a LOB application such as those discussed earlier in the chapter.
Deploy It! Ah, the good stuff—installing and configuring SBS. This is considered the most fun part of the entire SBS equation by many.
You’ll learn much more about this e-mail messaging solution in Chapter 6.
START HERE BLOGGER
Table 1-1: SBS Components at a Glance
Component
Description
Server or Client Component
Windows
Microsoft’s 32-bit network operating system.
Server
Server 2003
An operating system controls the basicfunctions of a computer, including security,storage, printing, user management, remotecommunications, and so on. Supports ActiveDirectory, Terminal Services in remoteadministration mode (discussed below),Group Policy for homogeneous WindowsServer 2003 networks, disk quotas, advancedsecurity such as encrypted file system (EFS).Windows Server 2003 is necessarilydiscussed across many chapters in this book.Your greatest interaction with WindowsServer 2003 will be during the initial setupand configuration of the SBS network.
Microsoft
E-mail messaging application used for
Server
Exchange
communication and collaboration. Supports
Server 2003
Outlook Web Access (OWA) Discussed inChapter 6.
Windows SharepointServices
An intranet portal and basic documentmanagement program discussed in Chapter 7.
Server
Microsoft SQL Server 2000
Powerful database application offered inpremium edition of SBS 2003. Discussed inChapter 14.
Server
Microsoft Internet Security andAcceleration (ISA)Server2000
Firewall gateway application with thecapability to store or cache frequentlyaccessed Web pages and part of the premiumedition of SBS 2003. Discussed in Chapter13. Note the SBS 2003 standard edition security approach of Network AddressTranslation (NAT) and the Basic Firewall,provided by Routing and Remote AccessService (RRAS), is discussed in Chapter 5.
Server
Microsoft Internet Information Server 6.0
Internet server application that provides coreSBS support for Web-related management.Discussed in Chapter 10.
Server
Shared Fax Service
A powerful faxing application discussed inChapter 9.
Server
Microsoft Front Page2003
An application that creates Web pages andcan be used for desktop publishing. A single-license version can be installed on the server machine. FrontPage 2003 is discussed inChapter 11.
Server
Additional Goodies
VALUEADD and SUPPORT folders contain useful tools and sample software.
Server
SBS ManagementConsole
GUI-based management console, calledServer Management, using powerful yetfriendly administrative wizards. ServerManagement provides a central location toaccomplish tasks. The Server Managementconsole is discussed all across the book and specifically in Chapter 4. Note the ServerManagement console houses the infamousSBS To Do List.
Server
Microsoft ManagementConsole 2.0 (MMC)
Provides the framework for creatingmanagement consoles to perform taskmanagement. The SBS consoles are based onthe MMC. Discussed in Chapter 4.
Server
Server-based Wizards
Include the Add User and Computer Wizard,E-mail and Internet Connection Wizard, device and peripheral management. Alsoinclude numerous Windows 2000 Wizards. Wizards are discussed across the book.
Server
Health Monitor
Provides real-time network monitoring ofcritical performance variables. Has the abilityto generate alerts. Discussed in Chapter 12.
Server
Server Status Reports
A tool that can be configured to send reports onsystem operations and third-party applicationsvia e-mail or fax. Discussed in Chapter 12.
Server
Server Status View
Provides a view of critical event, performancecounters, and services. Discussed in Chapter 12.
Server
Microsoft Connector for POP3 Mailboxes
Created with great pride by the SBSdevelopment team to allow small businesses touse existing POP3 e-mail services withExchange Server 2003. POP3 accounts aremapped to internal e-mail accounts. Discussedin Chapter 6.
Server
Windows Terminal Services
Terminal Services is a multi-session solution in Windows Server 2003 that facilitates remote management of the SBS server by thetechnology consultant. Similar to remotecontrol applications such as PCAnywhere orVNC. Discussed in Chapter 4 and 11.
Server
Online Guide
Robust online help for SBS administrators.
Server
Internet Explorer 6.x(IE)
Internet browser for navigating both the Internetand intranets. Installed on both the SBS server machine and SBS client’s machine. Discussed across the book (for example, client computerson the SBS network are now added via IE) andin Chapter 10.
Client/Server
Default PageInternet
Connects IE to the CompanyWeb as the default.Discussed in Chapters 7 and 10.
Client/Server
Microsoft Outlook 2003
Client-based e-mail, client scheduling, andcontact management application. Discussed inChapter 6.
Client
SBS Fax Sharing Client
Faxing functionality and capabilities. Discussedin Chapter 9.
Client
SBS Firewall Client
Client-side ISA Server functions (WinSockredirector). Discussed in Chapter 13 as part ofthe premium SBS discussion.
Client
SBS Zen Crowd
Meanwhile, continuing with my broad definition of SBS, there is another group of SBSers who view SBS as a state of mind. While SBS is a full member of the Windows Server 2003 computing family, these folks view SBS as special, unique, and their life calling. As you might say in Texas, these folks “GET IT” when it comes to SBS. For them, unique SBS tools, such as the Server Management console, are what life is all about.
The Big B Crowd: Small BUSINESS Server
Another view on defining SBS is looking at it from a business perspective: that is, how does SBS support the mission of the business to be efficient and successful? The SBS wheel in Figure 1-1 addresses this point of view.
Figure 1-1
The SBS wheel allows you to view SBS using a business analytical framework for gaining perspective on core SBS applications.
The left side of the wheel predominately speaks toward server-side components, such as Windows Server 2003, Exchange Server 2003, and the like. The lower portion of the wheel speaks to the management function via the SBS Server Management Console. The right side of the wheel speaks to the client-side applications, such as Microsoft Outlook 2003.
The “business”of SBS continues in a moment in the Finder, Minder, Grinder section on core business operations.
Converters
Finally, as part of the goal to define and segment the SBS customer population, consider the following. There are the conversion candidates for SBS:
• Linux Losers
• Peer-to-peer upgraders
• Windows NT and other Microsoft Servers
• Novell NetWare converters
• The soon-to-be newly networked: VIRGINS!
Linux Losers
So shareware’s not your bag, at least when it comes to running a bona fide business operation. And the Linux user experience is just a tad too much on the bit twiddler side, eh? No hard feelings. Welcome back to SBS. And by the way, ever since the Microsoft FUSION conference in Anaheim, California, in July 2001 and forward, the Microsoft SBS team has gone to great lengths to compare (and compete) SBS to Linux. Turns out, according to a Microsoft study, the argument that Linux is free is misleading. When considering the total cost of operations in a computer network (labor, hardware, training, and operating system), the operating system is only 3 % of the total costs.
Peer-To-Peer Upgraders
As you may or may not know, peer-to-peer networks are workstations that have been cabled together into a quick-and-dirty network. This is a significant SBS customer group, because two factors are driving the upgrade decision: pain and
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gain. Peer-to-peer networks traditionally suffer from poor performance (that’s the pain part) and many small businesses can easily see the gain a true client/ server network such as SBS can deliver (that’s, of course, the gain part).
Windows NT and Other Microsoft Servers
Considered the low hanging fruit in the small business space, those firms running Windows NT-based networks are more than overdue to upgrade to SBS. A big part of Microsoft message and efforts with SBS 2003 centers on moving folks on NT-based systems up to SBS 2003. The performance gains alone justify the conversion.
Soon-To-Be Newly Networked: VIRGINS!
These are the last frontiers in networking left today. Networking consultants, acting as explorers, seek out this type of SBS customer with a vengeance. Why? Because we can put our stamp on their successful network, and it’s likely this type of client hasn’t yet had a negative networking experience (or negative experience with their network consultant). Great SBS customers if you can find them.
Novell NetWare Converters
This is perhaps historically one of the touchiest and most-difficult SBS customer groups to work with for several reasons. I know, I know, you’re saying that NetWare is dead. Not so quick, my Missouri cousin! Why is it so many small businesses are running good old NetWare 3 even to this day? Granted, NetWare isn’t the dominant force it once was, but it’s a huge source of billable hours for me: converting NetWare to SBS. NetWare sites are prime to go to SBS 2003 in order to enjoy broad industry support for LOB applications.
Finder, Minder, Grinder
With respect to how SBS supports core business operations, let me take a moment to speak about the three major functions of nearly any small business: finder, minder, and grinder.
BEST PRACTICE: I have a book called SMB Consulting Best Practices (ISBN: 1-887542-11-6) that is totally dedicated to viewing the SMB space and SBS specifically from the finder, minder, grinder perspectives. So I’ll only touch on the business stuff here and encourage you to follow-up with my other text, which is more of a “pocket MBA” for SBSers!
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
Finder
A finder is a rainmaker: the person who markets and “gets” or develops business for the firm. In many firms, it is the owner, CEO, or president; in others, it is a salesperson. Whoever has this important responsibility can directly benefit from SBS in many ways.
There is electronic-based commerce. Electronic-based commerce includes everything from basic e-mail communications to elaborate Web pages that provide direct updates to your accounting system or electronic data interchange (EDI) with Microsoft BizTalk.
BEST PRACTICE: Late breaking news! BizTalk will actually run on SBS 2003! In fact, teams at Microsoft are looking at making BizTalk part of SBS 2003 in some fashion.
At a minimum, a salesman in the early 21st century can benefit from using Internet e-mail, a feature supported by SBS with the Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and Outlook 2003. A finder can benefit from Outlook in other ways as well. Outlook provides contact management and scheduling capabilities in addition to serving as an e-mail client. Outlook is discussed in Chapter 6. You will learn basic Outlook functionality, such as e-mail and using Company contacts, under Public Folders in SBS 2003. You will even learn how to run Outlook over the Internet, via Outlook Web Access (OWA). This allows you to check your SBS-based e-mail from a late-model Web browser from any Internet-connected PC in the world! Saying you’re disconnected while vacationing in the Australian Outback is no longer an excuse with Outlook-based technologies.
So I end the finder section with a real world example. I know a CEO of the landscaping company in Issaquah, Washington, who uses SBS to increase his company’s sales. His idea is to fax “spring cleaning” notices to past landscaping clients. SBS does this very well with its fax server support. Broadcast faxing is a breeze, and as an added bonus, this CEO found that he could fax directly to the names listed in the company-wide Outlook contact list. I’ll talk more about faxing in Chapter 9.
What’s really been said in this finder section is that SBS can offer you a competitive advantage over your competition.
Minder
There’s one law of business that I’ve never seen broken: For every finder, there is at least one minder. Minders serve as office managers, administrators, COOs, and all-around nags. Bless ‘em, because we need ‘em. SBS was designed with minders in mind (please don’t mind the pun!). Typically, when I’ve deployed SBS from a minder’s perspective, it has been to implement a piece of industry-specific line of business (LOB) software. You will see in Figure 1-1 that I listed LOB applications. One such LOB application is BenchTop, a very powerful service management software application implemented on the SBS system at a client site I consult to. BenchTop, which uses premium SBS’s SQL Server application for its engine, is very much a minder tool. This application brings control to the workflow and allows the manager (aka the “minder”) to compile performance metrics specific to his industry. The minder at this site unknowingly benefits from SBS because SQL Server is included as part of the premium SBS bundle. All the minder knows is that BenchTop makes his job easier and he is more productive.
Also falling into the minder category with SBS is the whole business planning cycle plus cultural and organizational reengineering. Here’s what I mean. When SBS is introduced into an organization like a small business, it often upsets the apple cart in a good way. Managers start thinking “We’re gonna do things differently around here and we need a fresh business plan.” And the collaboration of Outlook and Windows Sharepoint Services will improve communication and improve organization outcomes, etc. It’s a management revolution inside each box of SBS! To some extent I make this point again in the grinder section that follows next.
Grinder
Grinders are the worker bees. These are the people who are typically task-oriented and look at the SBS infrastructure as a support system that makes them more productive. Grinders benefit from SBS in two distinct ways.
First, LOB applications such as BenchTop that run on top of premium SBS’s SQL Server allow the repair staff to enter important job and task information. This helps track the flow of goods in the system and effectively lowers cost by allowing better control. Another business application that uses SQL Server is
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
Great Plains from Microsoft, a robust accounting application. I’ve had tremendous success installing this on SBS machines, and I can attest that the worker bees—typically accounting clerks, bookkeepers (and yes, beekeepers)— have been able to complete their work in an efficient and reliable manner. Most important, in both cases with BenchTop and Great Plains, the grinders trust that SBS allows them to better do their work. Such has not always been the case with worker bees, known for coining such pithy phrases as “The #@%$!&* computer network is not working again!” in the early days of computer networking (and during the first two releases of SBS in the late 1990s—OUCH!).
Second, basic communication applications, such as Outlook e-mail, contacts, and scheduling, have allowed grinders to improve the quality of their work, which translated into greater productivity for the firm. Many times SBS is introduced into business environments that have no prior network or e-mail service, often fundamentally changing how people do their work and, in its own way, reengineering workflow. The improvement in e-mail communications is but one example. Throughout this book many more business workflow improvements are presented hither and yon.
SBS Philosophy 101
It is difficult to overlook the sheer numbers of small businesses that could benefit from an SBS-type networking solution. Such was the idea behind SBS. Microsoft recently found SMB religion and has made SBS a cornerstone of its push into this relatively virgin small business space. The numbers speak for themselves when it comes to measuring the number of small businesses. Although you can easily say that there are only 1,000 companies in the Fortune 1000 list, conversely you might be surprised to know that there are over 22 million small businesses in the United States, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. Can’t you just see the marketing wheels at Microsoft turning and the marketing staff dreaming of an SBS installation at every small business? You betcha.
In this section, I’ll present SBS philosophy from three views: that of the small business, the SBS consultant, and Microsoft.
The Small Business
Understanding that small businesses are fundamentally different from larger enterprises, the SBS product literally sells itself when positioned by SBS consultants as a tool to help small business run better, with less effort, and, ultimately, more easily. You could say that SBS is nothing more than a return to the original LAN paradigm that both Apple Computer and Novell rode in the 1980s. This LAN paradigm, with a few modifications to accommodate SBS, is anchored by these key tenets:
• Sharing: The major justification for implementing SBS in the small business is the ability to share information. Sharing information, such as cost accounting data at the construction company, allows staff to work together with less redundancy (multiple entries are eliminated). Owners get better information about their operations. Staff works together as a team.
• Security: Like the enterprise, small businesses demand that reasonable levels of security be provided to protect sensitive information from competition and from loss or casualty. SBS provides regular Windows Server 2003-based security (and there’s a lot of security features there, let me tell ya) in the standard SBS edition, plus the security afforded by Microsoft ISA Server in the premium SBS edition.
• Cost Effectiveness: Relatively speaking, SBS is cheap. The standard version of SBS, a very popular option, can be purchased on the street starting for under $600 USD. In fact, there are some major hardware manufacturers that have seen fit to send you out the door with the standard SBS edition and a capable server for $1,000 USD! Man is that a change from the not-too-distant days past of $5,000 server machines for the small business. So tack on a few $500 USD capable workstations and another $1,000 USD for necessities (virus protection suite, hubs, wireless cards, etc.) and you’re up and running on a pauper’s payroll, not that of the prince! Note you might find you will need a mid-range server when you look closely at your needs. Such a server runs $1,500 USD standalone as of this writing.
BEST PRACTICE: When amortized, for accounting purposes, over the typical five-year holding period seen in many small businesses (versus the more aggressive three-year holding period typically seen at the enterprise-level), SBS is really cost-effective. After the basic installation, allowance for training (say, a one-time $500 USD per user outlay) and technology consulting fees, an SBS network easily costs less than $500 USD per user per year. THIS IS $1.38 USD PER USER PER DAY, FRIEND! (Yes, I’m shouting for emphasis.) That’s less than my subscriptions to the USA Today and Wall Street Journal newspapers! That’s less than my first cappuccino!
If you’ve ever worked at the enterprise level, you’d be viewed as kooky if you told someone you had lowered your annual IT costs per user to less than $500 (more likely at the enterprise-level it would be over $5,000 USD per user per year).
• Efficiency: After an initial period of negative productivity (measured in hours) while everyone is learning the new SBS network and its powers, company-wide productivity for the firm quickly soars to a level exceeding pre-SBS days. One example of this is the use of broadcast e-mails and faxes instead of making lots of telephone calls.
• Better Work, New Work: This includes fewer mistakes because of better communications, such as e-mail with staff, vendors, and customers; better scheduling with Outlook’s calendar, etc.; and new work, such as winning new contracts because your work is of higher quality (proposals with accurate financial information derived from staff, and so on). In fact, as an SBS site starts using more and more SBS features, I’ve seen these small businesses dramatically increase their business. Back at the ranch, oops, I mean the previously mentioned landscaping company client, you will recall that SBS's faxing capabilities are used to fax “Spring planting announcements” to its clients resulting in increased sales. Small businesses, enlightened by the powers of SBS, have also been known to enter into new business areas, knowing they have the network infrastructure to back up promises. Need more
convincing? A small construction company I worked with, confident that SBS-based e-mail and remote communications solutions wouldn’t fail them, took on work in other cities.
• Bottom Line: How does SBS sum up? Properly implemented, SBS can help small businesses enjoy higher-quality work and get more work finished with the fewer resources:
Land — Office space is used more efficiently, as older office machines, file cabinets, and the like are eliminated. Hell, with the Remote Web Workplace feature I’ll explain in Chapter 8, the whole darn office space can nearly be eliminated and everyone sent to Starbucks coffee shops to use Wi-Fi to do their business!
Labor — Existing staff works more efficiently, allowing owners to squeeze out more productivity. But fear not that SBS will result in staff
downsizing. I’ve worked with a variety of SBS sites and have never seen a layoff or firing related to SBS. In fact, the opposite tends to occur. Small businesses get excited very quickly with SBS when they understand it and see it working. In short order, additional (and unplanned) work requests roll in. For example, several of my small business clients who barely knew what the Internet was prior to the SBS installation call back and ask for Web home page development assistance. I typically refer an intern from the local college to these clients, allowing them to save on Web page development costs and giving a starving college kid the chance to earn some money. And guess what! More often than not the college intern becomes a full-time employee, actually increasing headcount at the client site as a result of the SBS implementation.
Capital — Not to understate the initial capital investment in getting an SBS network up and running, but, after that outlay is made, the general consensus is that SBS delivers a positive return on investment (ROI) by increasing the firm’s productivity and mitigating additional large capital outlays for the foreseeable future. One example of this is the reduced wear and tear on photocopiers. A client of mine who has
aggressively exploited SBS features now stores documents electronically and faxes directly to vendors. By doing so, this customer found it could forego the purchase of a new, expensive photocopier.
SBS Consultant
To paraphrase from my SMB Consulting Best Practices book, SBS is a “consulting practice in a box.” It’s a structured setup with an assured positive outcome; it’s a To Do List and a Server Management console that is used at each site; and it’s about making every customer implementation exactly the same to contribute to consulting success. SBS is a consultant’s dream, and I’ll leave it there as my other tome uses over 600 pages to express these sentiments.
Microsoft
So what does Microsoft think? Well, Microsoft extends this SBS paradigm specifically by adding these design goals:
• Ease of Use/Simplicity: The idea was to make everything easy, easy, easy. And when compared to the old command-line interface of NetWare
3.x (which a surprisingly high number of small businesses are still running, having foregone the opportunity to upgrade to NetWare 4.x, 5.x), you could say that SBS is easier to manage and use. For example, Dawn, who works at an athletic club I’ve assisted, took many years (appropriately so) to master NetWare. When Dawn was confronted with the decision to upgrade to the newly released NetWare 5.0, I loaned her a training machine that had SBS installed. One week later, Dawn was confident and had even confirmed that her narrow market vertical applications would run on SBS. Not surprisingly, Dawn and her firm became another SBS success story.
But easy is in the eye of the beholder. Whereas Dawn was coming from a more complex networking environment, allowing her to enjoy the ease of SBS when compared to NetWare, SBS has sometimes fallen short for small businesses that have never been networked. These firms, accustomed to working manually with file cabinets, fax machines, and basic word processing, are often disappointed with SBS initially when
they (a) can’t believe installing a network is so difficult and (b) don’t understand why servers don’t work perfectly all the time (for example, blue-screen crashes or applications stop responding). So take Microsoft’s SBS ease of use argument with a grain of salt.
However, if it is usability that you are measuring, clearly SBS wins when compared to other NOSs such as NetWare and Linux. With its superior graphical user interface (GUI), SBS encourages even those on-site power users unaccustomed to managing a network server to feel comfortable using the Start button, menus, mouse, and so on. Score one for SBS for high usability. Of course, I’m assuming the SBS consultant has asked for and approved the power user’s help.
• Making Decisions for the Customer: In the context of having an automated setup and implementation process (“just add water”), SBS (in Microsoft’s view) reduces the research, engineering, and guesswork that goes into making the networking decision. Microsoft correctly asserts that users do not have to decide whether the SBS machine should be a domain controller (it should, because it controls the operations of the network) and whether to install Active Directory. Active Directory is the directory services database used to store user and computer account information.
• Designed for Success: This point speaks to the SBS consoles I’ve previously discussed. The idea is that SBS administrators should enjoy a “simple, stupid” networking management experience and not really have to perfectly plan what they intend to do. Adding a user is a click away in the Server Management console. Simple.
BEST PRACTICE: Here again, I must interject a few clarifying comments regarding the pro-Microsoft comments. For new users and NetWare administrators coming over to SBS (such as Dawn), I’ve found the SBS cool tools—such as the management console and wizards—are great and really aid the SBS learning process. So on that count, Microsoft is correct with its ease of use, automatic
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
decision making, and successful design assertions. But for old-school Windows Server gurus with headstrong ways of doing things, the SBS consoles are sometimes more of an enemy. These Windows Server gurus begrudgingly use the SBS Server Management console (interestingly, the native tools are exposed in the Server Management console, removing the need to drop down and use the Administrative Tools folder). I’ll say it now and most assuredly say it again: Do everything from the SBS Server Management console (and its wizards).
Microsoft has another view of SBS with its Go To Market (GTM) methodology (visit www.microsoft.com/partner and select Windows Server under the Server family product on the left). GTM is a four-step methodology:
Learn About It. Microsoft views its partners’ success with SBS as a function of how much knowledge they have about the product. Microsoft offers SBS hands-on labs (online
and in-person), Microsoft Official Curriculum (MOC)
courses specific to SBS and other training tools. Sell It! There is no shortage of resources when it comes to supporting your SBS sales efforts. Logos, canned PowerPoint presentations, and the like are all accessible from the Microsoft Partner site referenced above.
Build On It! Here the idea is to add value by bundling SBS with additional services and products. For example, you might implement the Microsoft Great Plains solution on top of SBS as your package. You might also sell and deploy a LOB application such as those discussed earlier in the chapter.
Deploy It! Ah, the good stuff—installing and configuring SBS. This is considered the most fun part of the entire SBS equation by many.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
SBS 2008 to drop client-side backup
Mark Crall reports that:
Microsoft on Friday announced it won't be including client PC backup functionality when it releases Small Business Server 2008 to manufacturing in the second half of the year, but will consider adding the feature to future versions.Chris Almida, a program manager with the Windows Small Business Server team, made the announcement at SBS Migration's IT Pro 2008 Conference in New Orleans, where many of Microsoft's Small Business Specialist partners are gathered this weekend.
Microsoft on Friday announced it won't be including client PC backup functionality when it releases Small Business Server 2008 to manufacturing in the second half of the year, but will consider adding the feature to future versions.Chris Almida, a program manager with the Windows Small Business Server team, made the announcement at SBS Migration's IT Pro 2008 Conference in New Orleans, where many of Microsoft's Small Business Specialist partners are gathered this weekend.
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
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
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
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)
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
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
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.
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
harrybbbb
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
SMB Nation 2008 events announced for Spring
- Hey - I thought you might like a SAVE THE DATE e-mail. :)
I will post more details shortly but kindly note:
SMB Nation East March 15-16, 2008 in the NYC area (details to follow)
SMB Nation Toronto early May 2008
SMB Nation Europe mid May 2008
Thanks
Harry
Friday, October 26, 2007
Friday is sales day - TGIF
For what its worth - I try to do my administrative voodoo on Monday and Tuesday, then visit Microsoft Redmond on Wednesday and finally do sales on both Thursday and Friday. I really enjoy selling on Fridays because Im in a good mood and so are my customers.
This approach is called chunking and is something they teach you a B-school! :)
Have a great weekend....harrybbbbb
PS - We SBSer know the term Small Business Specialist Community be SBSC. But did you know that AT&T has a 50,000 member small business group you can join called the Small Business Survival Committee (SBSC) ?
:)
This approach is called chunking and is something they teach you a B-school! :)
Have a great weekend....harrybbbbb
PS - We SBSer know the term Small Business Specialist Community be SBSC. But did you know that AT&T has a 50,000 member small business group you can join called the Small Business Survival Committee (SBSC) ?
:)
Monday, October 15, 2007
SBSer Ski Alert - Get Ready
Hey - don't sit around this winter if you're in the northern climates - get out doors! The forecast is for a great ski season (http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6600ap_wst_ski_season.html) and reorts are already open in Colorado!
And did you know - SBS MVP Oliver from Germany was the winner of the three-night, four day Crested Butte Ski Vacation at the just completed SMB Nation 2007 event. I'm shoiwn here with Oliver. He is from Germany - which has a long history of ski racing!
Have a great day!
harrybbbbb
Sunday, October 14, 2007
An old print dude goes online
Maybe its the yoga....the lipitor or the exercise....but it's true - the old "print author" now has a blog. And just how did that come about? basically its eat my dog food time (a tip of the hat to my springer spaniels). I want to make time and space to participate in the community daily - what ever that means. You can anticipate the following:
Microsoft Windows Small Business Server (SBS) stuff
BusinessSpeak surrounding technology (how were having terrific results with CRM)
New project and books (did you know my Response Point book will be here soon plus I plan to write a couple more books over the winter)
Small Business Specialist Community (SBSC) updates - I'll call 'em as I see 'em
Thanks everyone - looking forward!
Harrybbbbbb
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