Information about SharePoint, Microsoft 365, Azure, Mobility and Productivity from the Computer Information Agency
Even if you don’t need them yourself I bet you know someone who does!
I have just completed the free SharePoint webinar – ‘An Introduction to SharePoint on SBS 2008’ which I have uploaded to YouTube in three parts, which are linked below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YR38TPndDI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5aIuuPE8b4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c482xsaJg_Y
Alternatively, you can download the whole 30 minute presentation in WAV format from my SkyDrive.
I’m now working on a webinar schedule from November 2009. My aim to is do a webinar every 2 to 3 weeks. These webinars will be available in both free and paid versions, with the paid versions running longer and going into much greater depth. However, I will continue to also do as many free webinars as I can. Hopefully, all the webinars will also be available for download as well after the fact making them a good source of information.
So I’m currently developing a schedule of upcoming webinars that I’ll be publishing soon. If you have suggestions of what you’d like to see, drop me a line (director@ciaops.com). If you’d like to stay up to date with webinar schedule as it becomes available simply keep reading this blog or send me an email (director@ciaops.com) and I’ll add you to the mailing list.
As always, I welcome any feedback you may have on what I have created and keep you eyes posted for information on the upcoming webinar schedule.
I see BPOS as being the early days of the way things are now heading. Most encouraging is that it allows me to sell solutions to customers without the constraints of geography anymore. In a few recent presentations I’ve given I’ve told other resellers they should be afraid of something like BPOS because it means that I’m coming to their market and their customers. I say this with the full knowledge that exactly the same is possible in my market space because this is what the new world order of cloud computing brings. It means a completely new business model. It means you face a greater number of competitors but it also provides you with greater opportunities to reach new markets as well. The only question is whether you will exploit the opportunities presented or simply react when the competition arrives on your shores.
As I have said before I believe the killer app for BPOS will be Live Meeting, simply because it is something that is going to provide real benefits for most customers who have never had access to technology like this. They will be able to conduct remote meetings, present sales demonstrations and importantly record them for repeat use. How powerful is that going to be to a business to provide a video presentation of their products and allow people to view it on demand?
Of course the other huge potential I see is for SharePoint, given that so few people are aware of the benefits it can provide. Another great opportunity will be the ability of SharePoint to provide templated solutions, that can be developed and then resold many times over. Combine that with something like OneNote and you have a really great collaboration solution as the Pfizer case study demonstrates.
Perhaps another benefit that BPOS provides resellers is environment standardization. This means that every BPOS implementation of SharePoint say is identical. Everything is always in the same place, the software is always at the same version and so on. How many times is this the case between different client sites? Almost never. Having a completely standard environment not only makes it much easier to support but means that I can develop standards and procedures that allow others to easily implement the administration while I can concentrate on the higher return work.
As I have detailed in a previous blog post I am always encouraged when other resellers ignore or are hostile to SharePoint because it simply means more opportunity for my business. It provides me an opening with their clients that I can now exploit no matter where they are in the world. In the end I see BPOS not only providing greater opportunities but also simplifying the ability to deploy and support solutions for customers. Isn’t that what we’re all really after?
After many requests and a desired to cover the entire SharePoint product spectrum I have decided to now include information about Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) into my Windows SharePoint Operations Guide offering.
At this stage I’m unsure whether I’ll change the name or simply have 2 distinct products but what I will tell you is that from now until January 1 2010 the MOSS information will be in ‘beta’. That simply means I want to get it up to a certain volume before I release it commercially as well a getting feedback from subscribers. I will also tell you that all existing Guide subscribers will automatically receive all this new MOSS information as part of their existing subscription and will continue to do so as long as they continue to subscribe. I have also decided that I will make this offer available to any subscriber until the 31st of December 2009. This means that if you become a subscriber before this date you’ll not only get all the existing Windows SharePoint information but you’ll also get all the MOSS information that I create.
Aside from all this don’t forget that SharePoint 2010 is due soon, with a beta expected in October, and that too will all be included in the Guide (for Windows SharePoint and MOSS) as it becomes available. Best of all you’ll still get all this for $299! Chances are that after 31 December 2009 the MOSS offering will require a separate subscription so if you have ever thought that you may need information about SharePoint in the future now is the time to jump on board.
The new MOSS guide will include many of the same topics of the existing Guide such as installation, database management, search and so on, however it will also incorporate a whole new range of topics specifically geared to MOSS including portals, advanced document management, Excel services and more. For as much information as I have created for Windows SharePoint (over 1,400 pages now) I reckon I can easily double that for MOSS.
For more information about the Guide visit www.wssops.com or send me an email (director@ciaops.com). Don’t forget you have until 1 January 2010 to jump on board to receive all the benefits before the content starts to split.
As a further aside, I’m also contemplating (well almost certain now about) creating a guide dedicated to the SharePoint offering in Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS). If you think that would be worthwhile please let me know as well (director@ciaops.com).
“We don’t use Sharepoint. We hate it.”
Why would I ever say this is the most encouraging result? Simply it means one less reseller who going to bother with SharePoint. In essence this means there is more opportunity and revenue for me. Along the same lines here is another comment I find encouraging:
“I don’t typically promote SharePoint unless my customer specifically asks for it.”
Excellent I say. Taking this attitude allows someone with SharePoint skills the potential to drive a wedge into the business by helping the customer understand the power that SharePoint can provide. Once another reseller has created a wedge within your customer, chances are it isn’t going to be the only thing they can leverage away from you.
The survey also illustrated to me that nearly everyone using or selling SharePoint still really doesn’t understand where the power of the product lies. Sure it is great at handling documents, knowledge, and structuring ad hoc data but in my mind the key aspect of SharePoint for any business comes down to one word – SEARCH.
Everyone knows that to find something on the Internet they use a search engine like Google or Bing. But what do they use to search their internal information? Wouldn’t you say that most businesses place greater value on their internal information than that found on the Internet? You bet they do, so where are the tools to search it?
SharePoint and Search Server Express allow you to index just about every document on your internal network and make it searchable, in many cases without having to change the location of the data. Now, here’s what separates the successful from the pack. Out of the box Windows SharePoint and Search Server Express don’t automatically index Office 2007 documents, Adobe PDF’s and the like. But guess what they can! Also, with the release of Windows Server 2008 R2 will also be able to index scanned documents.
I can’t see how this is really any different from other technologies, they all need tweaking to extract the most benefit. However most resellers simply throw their hands up and cry that it is all too hard, which as I said before is absolutely fantastic for me.
Another massive over sight by most resellers is the opportunity presented by combining OneNote with SharePoint. Firstly, many probably don’t realize that if you capture documents in OneNote they are automatically indexed (even graphic files). If that OneNote file resides on SharePoint (which has been configured correctly) guess what? That information also gets index by SharePoint. So using OneNote you can get just about any information into SharePoint and make it indexable for the business.
Even better, as a recent Microsoft case study on the combination of SharePoint and OneNote highlights:
“Essentially, we’re using Office OneNote 2007 to provide an intuitive, user-friendly interface to the SharePoint Server 2007 document library,” Gardner explains. All content added to or created in OneNote 2007 is stored in SharePoint Server 2007. Users can continue to work in shared OneNote 2007 notebooks even when they’re offline, and the notebooks synchronize automatically when the users connect to the network. “All of the complexities are managed in the background, so the user experience is seamless,” adds Gardner.
Utilizing OneNote as front end for SharePoint removes a huge amount of the complexity for users. It allows them to be productive much faster by using something that is breeze to understand. I can’t figure out why other people can’t see this as the following survey comment illustrates once again:
“MS examples tend to lean toward the enterprise and that just isn’t the same.”
Because here is a Microsoft example, to my mind, of exactly the benefits SharePoint and OneNote provide to a large business that also apply equally as well to a small business.
The most common response to what I’ve said here is going to be ‘this is all well and good but obtaining all the information about customizing SharePoint is just too difficult’. Again I couldn’t agree more and I thank my stars every day that it is because it means only people who see the opportunity are going to take advantage of it and put in the effort to learn. Only people who see the opportunity are going to subscribe to my SharePoint Guide for only $299. Only people who see the opportunity are going to attend my sessions at SMB Nation 2009. The fewer of these people there are the more opportunity for my business.
The final good bit of news I took from the survey was the following comment:
“Robert Crane’s guides rock”
At least I know someone else out there understands it like I do and to them I say thank you and I look forward to providing you with more way to make money with SharePoint.
There are so many worthy charities these days and everyone has their own preferences but for me I can’t go past Kiva.
What I like about Kiva is:
1. You can choose directly an individual you wish to help. You can see their circumstances and why they need the money.
2. The money that you provide is a loan, meaning the individual works to repay this amount over time. As with any loan there is a risk that repayments will not be able to be made but this is extremely small and you get advised of that potential prior to making the loan.
Once the loan has been repaid you can either choose to reloan the money or you can, if you wish, withdraw the amount. Personally, I like to keep reloaning the money because I like the idea of being able to keep helping people all via a single donation.
3. The Kiva web site allows you to easily keep tabs on each loan that you have made and the progress in which it is being repaid. You also get a page that shows you all the loans you have made. Take a look at my loan page as an example.
4. The Kiva site incorporates the concept of ‘social networking’ so you can see all the other people from around the world who have also loaned money to the individual, because any total loan is usually made up of many small donations.
5. Finally, being a entrepreneur myself I enjoy the concept of helping other entrepreneurs get ahead. I know how hard it can be sometime to get started, grow and expand so I feel a closer sense of attachment to people like these who are not simply asking for hand outs, all they are simply asking for is assistance to grow their business to provide themselves, and others, a better life.
I would ask you to have a look at Kiva and see the good that it is facilitating everyday for individuals who are not as lucky as people like me. I think that when you take a look you’ll find that it is a great way to help others help themselves which is really the best help there is.
“People who regularly juggle between more than one form of media simultaneously have lower mental capacity than those who do not multi-task.”
It is amazing to me that most people seem to believe that the only way to cope with growing amounts of information is to multi-task. That only makes the problem worse! It is far more effective to simplify, streamline and focus on one task at a time and do it properly. As the study concludes:
“These results suggest that heavy media multitaskers are distracted by the multiple streams of media they are consuming, or, alternatively, that those who infrequently multitask are more effective at volitionally allocating their attention in the face of distractions.”
So, the more you think you can do actually the more distracted you become and in fact, after a while, it forms a behaviour pattern that reduces your ability to concentrate. So all those web sites you are visiting with flashing animations are really doing you no end of harm and the sooner you kick the habit of so called ‘multi-tasking’ the better.
If you are still undecided on whether you should attend let me give some reasons from my perspective:
– I obtained a whole swag of information from last years event that I was able to immediately implement in my business. It wasn’t only just technical information but also some business information that really changed my perspective in how I run my business.
– It was a fantastic opportunity to meet with a wide variety of resellers and IT providers from all over the globe. Some of the ideas that these people shared with me during our discussions again made me think really long and hard about the way I do business.
– I was able to forge some great relationships during the time. I not only met many new people, I also met people whom I’d only spoken to online. In the end, most business comes down to human relationships and nothing beats the traditional ‘face-to-face’ conversation to build stronger bonds.
– It provided me an opportunity to speak with some vendors who were offering products and services I had never even considered. Many also conducted very informative sessions where you could not only see the product in action but also ask questions and get feedback from other resellers on how they may implement such a solution.
– I was able to step away from the day to day grind of my business and take some ‘time out’ and really think about my direction for at least the next 12 months. How often do we every really do that these days?
There are, of course, plenty of other great reasons to attend not the least of which this year is going to be the sights of fabulous Las Vegas. There is certainly no place like this anywhere else in the world. As a destination flights are cheap, accommodation is less than $100 per night and there is always something to do even after the conference closes for the day.
So what am I looking forward to this year? Well, the agenda is now available and what appeals to me the most at the moment is:
GS401: Virtualization for the SMB world – Dana Epp, Wayne Small
GS201: Alternative Solutions in the SMB Space – Eriq Neale
SM302: Twenius – The BIG BANG “How To” of Effective Twitter for Beginners and Pros!- Dan Hollings
SM401: Social Media Panel – Aaron Booker, Dan Hollings, Harry Brelsford, Jim Locke, others
BS301: Selling IT Services; How not to suck at it! – Stuart Selbst
GS202: SharePoint – You’ve got it now what? – Robert Crane (can’t miss this one can I??)
Podcast Karl Palachuk & Robert Crane Pod Cast booth in the Exhibit Hall – Karl Palachuk, Robert Crane (or this one !!)
GS101: Windows 7 are you ready? – Dana Epp, Oliver Sommer, Susan Bradley
SM403: Local Internet Marketing Strategies – Dan Hollings
BS401: BusinessSpeak Panel – Matt Makowicz, George Sierchio, others
GS402: GeekSpeak Panel – MVPs, Gurus, other technical notables
SM201: How To Use LinkedIn and Facebook for RAPID Business Development –
Harry Brelsford
Speed Dating – Meet the Guru’s “Up Close & Personal” – come and join me on a table
Clearly there is heaps of great content and more being added by the day. However, if you are still tossing up whether to attend don’t forget that the early bird discounts end soon so call 206-201-2943 or 1-888-SMB-NAT1 and ask for “Harry” for community discounts!
I can’t wait to get to Vegas and get focused on my business while having a ‘whale of a time’. If you’re planning to attend let me know (director@ciaops.com or http://www.twitter.com/directorcia) as I’d love to catch up and chat about business, SharePoint or whatever.
Roll on October!
