Free team portal site

The Computer Information Agency is proud to offer a fully supported, free portal site to non-business teams. This will allow your soccer team to quickly and easily see when events are on. Your swimming team can quickly upload documents that everyone can access. Your team portal provides a quick and easy way for everyone to always be up to date.

Why is it free? What’s the catch? I hear you say. Your portal remains free for you to use provided you are not a business and you provide at least one converted referral per month. Otherwise, you will be charged $5 per month to cover basic hosting costs. Alternatively, if you provide a converted commercial referral then you’ll receive 12 months portal use and support for free.

For information about the conditions and how to take advantage of this offer Contact us or download a brochure.

New subscriber benefit

I am happy to announce that all subscribers to my Windows SharePoint Operations Guide will now receive a free supported hosted SharePoint site for testing and demonstration purposes. There are limitations on the account but it is designed to give subscribers the ability to learn about SharePoint v3 with direct email support from myself.

Subscribers may also elect to use their site as a way to demonstrate the benefits of SharePoint to their clients and businesses while all the time receiving direct email support from myself. It will also give subscribers a better feel for the performance and limitations of hosted SharePoint solutions.

I also take the opportunity to clarify that the Windows SharePoint Operations Guide is not merely a book. It is firstly access to a vast body of information about SharePoint that continues to be updated regularly. It is access to a DVD containing downloads, documents, videos, programs and more all focused on SharePoint that again is updated regularly. It also provides email support from myself around issues concerning SharePoint. And now the subscription also includes a supported SharePoint site with more additions coming very soon.

The benefits of subscription continue to grow.

Feedback is in

So I got the ‘official’ feedback from my presentation at SMBNation in October.

From the above results I’m glad to say that the vast majority of attendees were very positive on what was presented which certainly makes me happy I provided something that was relevant, applicable and interesting. You just never know doing something like SMBNation for the first time. On the other hand all these good results may have been due to the fact that I bribed everyone at the start of the session with free beer if they gave me high marks. Hmmm…So I’ll look at this as a glass half full situation and say that either I’m a good speaker or a good marketer.

Some other general comments included:

– Best presentation I attended– Great presentation.
– This was without a doubt the BEST presentation I attended. Bring him back next year!!
– Great presentation.
– GREAT!
– Right on the mark.
– **Excellent SBS speaker–real sales opportunities
– Well done!
– Excellent!!!

– Add a more technical track to show…nuts & bolts for some of the integration points.
– Not technical track material!! Would only recommend speaker to a colleague if in the business track.

I have to agree with these last two points. Firstly, I would have loved to do a more nuts and bolts examination of SharePoint and I did propose that as a topic at SMBNation but it didn’t get a run. In the end the event organizer goes with what they think is the most appealing and ‘nuts & bolts SharePoint’ didn’t appeal. Oh well, maybe next year on that score.

I totally agree with the second comment here about my presentation not being purely “technical” and must admit I was very concerned when my topic was flagged in the technical track upon receiving my program. I was so concerned that I contacted SMBNation directly to see whether I needed to change the content. I suppose we both took a risk running with what I had but in the end it appears the majority of people got value, so I can ask for no more.

In response to the last two comments and the one person who gave the presentation a negative result, I will keep trying to offering pure technical sessions on SharePoint at events as well trying to ensure they are categorized correctly in the future.

Remember, if you want a copy of my presentation from SMBNation you can download it from:

http://supportweb.ciaops.net.au/Shared%20Documents/SMBNation2008-GS1.pdf

To everyone who took the time to complete their feedback I say thank you and I obviously owe you a beer!

Get the SharePoint guide before January 2009

From January 1, 2009 the price of the Windows SharePoint Operations Guide will rise to $ 299 ex for new subscribers. Now that the Guide has grown to over 1,000 pages and continues to grow every month it still represents real value (it will pay for itself in just a few billable hours I believe). The additional funds will allow me to take the Guide to the next level in the coming months. I plan to be adding plenty of new content and special deals for subscribers so get in quick before the price goes up!

You can find out more about the Windows SharePoint Operations Guide at http://www.wssops.com. Australian orders can be made via director@ciaops.com and for international orders please go directly to the product page on SMB Books web site at http://www.smbbooks.com/products/procra01.htm where a special offer on the Guide is available.

Not all businesses are affected by the downturn

From http://business.smh.com.au/business/mafia-untouched-by-crisis-20081112-5msk.html

“The Italian mafia, the country’s organised crime network and biggest enterprise, has not been affected by the global economic crisis, a report by an Italian business association said.”

So how come legitimate businesses are so affected?

“The mafia has a turnover of 130 billion euros ($248.71 billion) – surpassing any other Italian enterprise in 2008 – and a profit approaching 70 billion euros ($133.92 billion),”

Who says crime doesn’t pay?

Novembers update is almost ready

I am just completing the final touches to the November update of the Windows SharePoint Guide (http://www.wssops.com). As always, subscribers will be able to download the updates from the web. This month will include how to install a web part that allows you to to check the security of your SharePoint users as well as site inheritance. For most SharePoint administrators this should prove pretty handy since it does so in a nice graphical manner, something which SharePoint currently doesn’t do natively.

I believe that this is the major benefit of subscribing to my SharePoint Guide. Although you may not have expertise in SharePoint you can come up to speed very quickly using the Guide. Also, because I utilize SharePoint heavily, you are gaining the benefits of my research efforts. When you look at the cost (less than an hour or so’s work) combined with the fact that it is continually updated to incorporate best practices and available tools, it is a good investment. If you don’t believe me then read the testimonials at http://www.wssops.com.

I’ll also let you know that I have also almost finished a document covering everything from my presentation at SMBNation in Seattle recently. I certainly hope that it does justice to what I presented. So if you attended my session on “Utilizing SharePoint to improve your business” I’d commend you to download the document and let me know if does in fact cover everything I spoke about. If you weren’t at SMBNation then I’d still commend you to read it and let me know what you think. I’d love to hear you take. I’ll post back here when the document is ready but it isn’t far away now.

Learn by looking

Want an easy way to highlight why someone needs a tool like SharePoint? Do a quick survey of your target’s office or cubicle and note how many bits of paper are stuck up on the walls, partitions, monitor, etc. Now go and do the same to anyone else in the business. If there are lots and lots of bits of paper (and there will be) like phone lists, accounting charge codes, things to do, etc ask the question – If you have an IT system why do you have all these bits of paper stuck all over the place?

See my point? Why the hell should someone have all that information stuck up around them (and their employees) if they are supposed to have an IT system that is designed to save just such information? Hello? Do you see the problem? Maybe Mr/Ms Customer you SHOULD learn how to use your IT systems to get rid of all this information wall paper. Maybe Mr/Ms Customer we need to take a LOOK at WHY you are doing things rather than HOW you are doing things.

If you want to be a ‘trusted advisor’ for you customers and prospects you better be focused on solving business issues and removing pain points rather than moving product. In tough times customers want to know better ways that they can utilize what they’ve already got. Guess what? If you throw Windows Sharepoint into the mix you have just given them an even more powerful tool for no additional cost (amazing but true). Now is that a ‘trusted advisor’ or what?

You learn so much by looking. You learn even more by listening. Combine these two with thinking and you just can’t lose! Why? Not many IT providers I know actually do any of the three.