Information about SharePoint, Microsoft 365, Azure, Mobility and Productivity from the Computer Information Agency
The birthday discount on my Office 365 and SharePoint Guide only lasts until the end of May (that’s less than 7 days now). After that it will return to its normal price.
So if you have been considering purchasing the Guide remember to read this post to get the details and discount codes:
https://blog.ciaops.com/2013/05/office-365-and-sharepoint-guide-turns.html
I am lucky that in my office of one I can totally control my work environment, yet am constantly attempting to strive for improved productivity. I really want to end each work day with the satisfaction that ‘I got something done’.
The occasional times that I do work at someone else’s office I am stunned by how little work actually gets done. Everyone seems so ‘busy’ but nothing really gets accomplished. If you are curious about this then I recommend the following TED talk by Jason Fried.
For those who are not frequent readers of my blog you may not appreciate that Jason is also the author of what I consider to be one of the ‘must read’ books on business – Rework. You can find my review and more about Jason and his concepts of ‘work’ here:
https://blog.ciaops.com/2010/07/rework.html
If you struggle getting ‘real work’ done every day, simply feel overwhelmed and fail to find fulfilment at the end of each work day then I commend to you the above video, book and additional information about Jason.
Have been reading from some interesting research on infrastructure outsourcing (IO) (Managed Service Providers, MSPs, if you like) from Gartner. They are predicting a market consolidation of up to 20% but here some other interesting snippets:
“Gianluca Tramacere, research vice president at Gartner, said traditional IO providers are at serious risk of extinction.”
“In the past decade many outsourcers have procrastinated, failing to make the changes needed to transform challenges into opportunities. Many will disappear- some slowly, some rapidly.”
“Traditional infrastructure outsourcers can no longer survive in their current state. The market won’t allow it and customers are demanding much more.”
The report also has the following to say about small providers:
Small Managed service providers
The most immediate implication is for small outsourcing and managed services providers. The value-add they provide is eroded significantly when compared with cloud services. As larger organizations providing cloud-based solutions attract more small business customers, small IT shops will lose customers, margin and traditional service opportunities.
This is also an opportunity for those service providers that are agile enough to transform themselves into cloud partners. What I mean by this is that there are opportunities to help small businesses take advantage of cloud services and save money either through migration services or cloud service reselling. The sales pitch is easy but the margins are low. In order to have a viable business model, volume is key. This means that the small managed service provider will need to grow their customer base significantly to maintain sustainability.
So what does this mean for the IT pro at a small outsourcing shop? I would expect that there will be far less hands on technical work and much more menial administration across many more customers. There will also be an increase in network architecture and management requirements as connectivity to the cloud will increase in important compared to local connectivity.
This again simply reinforces what I have been writing about for a long while here. Just one example:
https://blog.ciaops.com/2012/04/valley-of-discontent.html
The Internet will force change on every business but only some will survive.
Received some nice feedback from Jason Shim of IExpress who has just successfully passed the 74-324 Administering Office 365 for SMB:
I’ve spent only 1/2 day to review notes on CIAOPS’ Sharepoint and Office 365 guide in order to prepare for the exam. Assistance in getting Microsoft Competency alone has paid off my annual subscription for Sharepoint and Office 365 guide. Thanks Rob.
Congratulations Jason and thanks for the feedback. Information about the CIAOPS SharePoint and Office 365 Guide can be found at www.wssops.com.
Over two years ago I wrote a post about a program that I had seen called OverDose that highlighted how things economically things were only going to get worse thanks to government stimulus packages.
I have now found the complete program on YouTube so you can watch for yourself and see what you think now two years down the track.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ECi6WJpbzE
If you are interested in understand why we are still in an economic ‘slow-down’ (to put it mildly) I would commend you to watch it.
Microsoft Australia have just announced a free exam offer for the 74-324: Administering Office 365 for Small Business on their blog:
Here’s the body:
Great opportunity! The first 2,000 partners who take Exam 74-324: Administering Office 365 for Small Businesses will be able to take it for free at an Authorized Prometric Testing Centre (terms & conditions apply). This meets one of the key requirements for the Small Business competency in the Microsoft Partner Network. Please act now, as the offer expires 6/30/13! ! Register for this exam using promo code MPNO365. (Note: code includes an upper-case “O” and not a zero.) Look for complete terms and conditions on the Training Spotlight blog, January 15th.
I saw a comment from a blog reader on the soon to be decommissioned supportweb blog website that they didn’t like the registration options to comment on the new blog site (at blogger).
In light of that I have now enabled anonymous commenting on http://blog.ciaops.com because I want to encourage people’s feedback but let me explain why it will initially be a bit of try it and see.
One of the major reasons for migrating my blog away from suppoprtweb was simply the amount of blog spam that it receives daily. You can see a small sampling below.
Checking and removing all that spam is a pain and a waste of time frankly. Thus, when I moved to Blogger I was afraid that the same issue would appear if I allowed anonymous comments, however it seems that Blogger has better spam protection so maybe having anonymous comments won’t generate too much spam after all.
So for the time being I have now allowed anonymous comments to encourage everyone to post feedback on my postings. However, I reserve the right, in the face of too much spam to turn it off again. I will however let you know if that occurs. Let’s hope not, so please feel free to comment away now.
I am pleased to announce that the CIAOPS SharePoint and Office 365 Guide is now available on a month by month payment plan of $ 30 p.m. (excluding any applicable taxes). To receive the Guide in this manner you will need to complete an application, agree to a minimum initial 12 month subscription as well as provide your credit card details (as all billing on this plan is done via credit card).
Please note that the pay by the month plan is for a minimum initial period of at least 12 months and does not receive any anniversary or referral discounts.
You can still elect to purchase the Guide on an annual basis of $299 and receive all the benefits if you want.
Don’t forget that the Guide is not a static product, content is being added every month. Amongst other things, this month will bring a set of over 70 practice exam questions for the 74-324 Administering Office 365 for SMB exam. For more information about the Guide visit www.wssops.com.
CIAOPS 