Due to recent low turnout and the need to settle a more solid foundation for the future running of the group, there will be no SWSBSG meetings in July or August. We plan to resume regular meetings in September. Hopefully by then we will have got the summer silly season behind us. I have a couple of great guest speakers lined up for the new season and I hope we’ll be able to start back with renewed purpose. Everyone will be contacted individually before September to get feedback on the draft constitution, to solicit your feedback about the group and your wish-list for where you want the group to go. Meanwhile, I’ll keep you all up-to-date with any relevant news using this mailing list.
See you all in September.
I would like to thank those who turned out for the Ignite sales event in Cardiff yesterday. The event was only available to Microsoft Partners, so not everyone on this list was eligible to attend and to those people I apologise for all the irrelevant traffic. We really need to support these local events to help keep us on Microsoft’s radar. Microsoft’s head of small business attended the event and it was nice that we were able to show a reasonable turnout, although I think we need to do much better if we want the support to continue.
Now, with the pleasantries out of the way, forgive me for indulging in a bit of plain speaking.
<soapbox>
I just can’t believe that no-one, not a single person, has an opinion on how Microsoft does its marketing or the services that they provide to us as partners. No-one has a wish-list of things they’d like to see changed. Everyone must be completely happy with the way Microsoft relates to us – small business partners - at whatever level we are at in the partner programme. Everyone is completely satisfied with the shiny plastic “small business specialist” plaque and there’s nothing more you want from your blue badge? Clare Barclay, Microsoft’s head of small business for the UK, made the effort to travel to the event to hear YOUR feedback and no-one had anything whatsoever to say to her. Not a single piece of feedback was given. Why do you think Microsoft has supported the formation of these groups? Of course, they see a business benefit in them but also this is about reaching out to small business partners such as ourselves and trying to understand our needs. Microsoft understands that it has a poor track record in the small business sector and this is their attempt to put that right. Clare and her team are considered ‘thought leaders’ by many at Microsoft and they are really changing the way Microsoft relates to small business. Yesterday, you had the ear of the top person as far as UK small business is concerned, and you wasted that opportunity.
</soapbox>
For what it’s worth, I told Clare that I wanted Microsoft to keep working to raise the profile of the SBS “blue badge” so that potential customers know about the Small Business Specialist community and hopefully that may result in lead generation for our businesses. With only half a dozen SBSC accredited partners in South Wales, there is a good opportunity to be exploited and I asked her not to wait until it was too late.
Now I implore you all: please think about the power that the small business specialist community has and what it can do for you. Look at what has happened in America and Australia and project that situation to Wales. It is not going to be served to you on a plate. You have to engage with the community and with Microsoft. Be opinionated and give voice to your ideas. Give feedback, either through me, SWSBSG, by replying here in the discussion list or direct to Microsoft. Don’t waste an even bigger opportunity. Start now. Tell me what you want from SWSBSG and the small business specialist community.
Organisations represented: Astrix Integrated Systems, BnT Cymru, Computer Consult, Coyote Services, TiGra Networks.
The new meeting venue (Venture Wales training room) proved to be excellent and meetings will continue there for the foreseeable future.
Formalising SWSBSG
Much of the discussion at this meeting was centred on formalising the group and instigating a proper membership system with subscription fees. I will be generating a draft constitution and publishing it to the discussion list shortly. Edited highlights are as follows:
· Membership subscription to be set initially at £60 per organisation, payable annually on a fixed date.
· Certain members will be exempt from payment (this is still to be defined)
· The membership list will be pruned to eliminate non-paying organisations.
· Tony Smith volunteered to be treasurer. Tim & Grace will continue to act as Chairman & Membership secretary
· A draft constitution will be produced that will document all of this and will be published on the discussion list.
Any Other Business
We also had an ad-hoc ‘round table’ discussion about various matters, including different business models, SBS technical problems, remote monitoring software. I (Tim) gave a demo of a hosted Voice-Over-IP system that I am currently evaluating.
A relatively short but very productive meeting.
Next month – speaker is Roland Moore, Delivering Custom Solutions with Microsoft CRM.
The promised small business specific content for the Ignite Sales Tour has been launched.
Please try to support this free, local event.
Upcoming events in Cardiff:
Small Business
28/06/06
Improving Customer Relationships
31/05/06
Collaborative Business
23/05/06
After some confusion about our room booking at the Copthorne hotel, we eventually gained access and the meeting began more-or-less on time. The meeting was chaired by Grace.
1. Brian Tailor of T.H.E group spoke about training grants available to Welsh SMEs. The situation is somewhat unsettled at the moment due to the demise of the Welsh Development Agency and ELWA and many whose funding came from those sources currently face an uncertain future. Under the circumstances, Brian was unable to give much specific advice, except that funding is available.
2. Requalifying for your Small Business Specialist competency. At the end of 2006 Microsoft plans to expire all ‘blue badges’ and make us all requalify. As yet, it has not been decided how to do that and Microsoft is seeking feedback from us – the partners – on how we want to be measured. A number of ideas were suggested, including a ‘mini-exam’ that could be taken online rather than in a formal test center. The general consensus was that customer references is probably the fairest approach. Generally it was felt that care needed to be taken not to disadvantage the start-up business or one-man shop who could foreseeably have only a single main customer in their early days. The suggestion was that the number of references required would be relaxed in the first years of membership, possibly starting with a single reference after one year, ramping up to three references after three years.
3. OnTrack Data Recovery Software. Mostyn Thomas of Astrix Integrated Systems was fortunate to win the data recovery software donated by Ontrack a few meetings ago. Mostyn gave a brief demonstration of the software and described what he thought of it. He also compared and contrasted to another data recovery product that his company uses.
4. Future meetings of SWSBSG. After the confusion over the hotel booking this subject became particularly relevant. It was stated that although Microsoft had not formally withdrawn funding, they were expected to do so imminently. Tony Smith of Computer Consult had investigated a number of venues in the Cardiff , Wenvoe and Penarth areas. The venues were in pubs and leisure centers. Mostyn Thomas of Astrix Integrated Systems said that he could book the training room in the Venture Wales offices in Abercynon at a reduced rate. The training room has full meeting facilities, a kitchen and internet access can be arranged. This seemed ideal so the meeting agreed that we would try the Venture Wales offices. Sincere thanks to both Tony and Mostyn for their respective initiatives.
5. Funding. Henceforth the group will need to pay its way. The Venture Wales meeting room will cost around £40 per meeting. Given the relatively small size of the group, it was felt appropriate to handle this informally for the time being. We’ll have a whip-round at each meeting to cover the costs of the room hire. This is likely to result in a cost of around the £5 per head per meeting.
As part of the venue/funding discussion, a concern was expressed that the group should think about becoming more formally organised and having a more well defined membership system, so that benefits of membership only go to those who actually pay membership fees.
That’s it for now, hope to see you all at the May meeting at the new venue (I’ll post details nearer the time).
Congratulations to Edward Pearson, project manager with CW.Net on passing his 70-282 exam and to his company CW.Net on becoming a Small Business Specialist.
Congratulations to Astrix Integrated Systems on passing 70-282 and achieving Small Business Specialist status. It's still a very elite club in South Wales so come on the rest of you!
Microsoft hosted an event for the leaders of Small Business Specialist Groups around the British Isles and Grace and I attended as representatives of SWSBSG. We took photos of the people involved and they are now online in my photo gallery:
http://community.tigranetworks.co.uk/photos/tim/category1060.aspx
I thought it might be useful to post these photos so that you know who the other group leaders are and also who the Microsoft people are who are driving the SBS Community.
--Tim
The main item on this month's agenda were our guest speakers Charlotte Godsmark and Phil Bridge from Ontrack Data Recovery. They talked to us about recognising when data recovery is needed, what their services are and how they go about recovering the data. They also explained their partner programme and told us how we, the IT Pros, can get a slice of the pie. The presentation was fairly informal and discussion-led and I personally found it quite useful even though I'd already seen a similar presentation at another group,
Each member who attended received a free copy of Ontrack's basic data recovery software and we asked them to provide a special deal for group members. They came up with the idea of a prize draw for their software product EasyRecovery DataRecovery 6.10 - the winner was Mostyn Thomas of Astrix Integrated Systems. Congratulations Mostyn, I hope you'll report back to the group and let us know if the prize was worth winning.
Thanks to Charlotte and Phil for travelling up from Devon to speak with us.
The remainder of the meeting was taken up with announcements of upcoming events and general free-format discussion over coffee.
Upcoming noteworthy events:
- SBSC Community Day with Harry Brelsford, Microsoft Campus Reading, 1st March
- Microsoft Ignite Sales Tour 2006, Cardiff, 7th March
- SMB Nation Amsterdam, April 6th-7th
Free Exam Opportunities
This month there have been several oppotunities to qualify as a Small Business Specialist free of charge, which as SWSBSG group members and members of the Small Business Specialist community, you have benefitted from. Please let me know if you take up any of these offers and when you pass the exam!
Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2 beta opportunity
The Microsoft small business team were able to offere group members a chance to participate in the SBS2003 R2 beta with only 100 places available. At least three group members have elected to apply so I look forward to hearing back from them if they eventually participate in the beta.
It was nice to see a lot of new faces attending this meeting. There were 12 attendees in total, 9 of whom were first-timers.
| Name |
Representing |
| Tony Smith |
Computer Consult |
| Tim Long |
TiGra Networks |
| Jon Richards |
Sproutt Ltd |
| Ryan Osborne |
Sproutt Ltd |
| Philip Pike |
Comcen Computer Supplies |
| Stuart Law |
Formwise Export |
| Huw Evans |
RCT ICT Advisory Service |
| Lee Parton |
Crimson Consultants Ltd |
| Gary Williams |
Crimson Consultants Ltd |
| Robbie Upcroft |
Microsoft |
| Mostyn Thomas |
Astrix Integrated Systems Ltd |
| Jane Elgar |
Independent Access Developer |
|
|
Topic covered were:
- Robbie Upcroft gave a demonstration of Microsoft CRM 3.0, which generated some discussion and a few points for Robbie to take back to Microsoft. Robbie has promised me a copy of the canned demo he used and as soon as I get it I'll place a copy in the group's document library.
- I asked the group to think about how we might get better organised. I don;t want to find myself organising the whole thing every time, and I would like people to come forward to take on one or more of the following roles:
- Chairman (to chait the meetings)
- Secretary (to record minutes and set the agenda)
- Events Coordinator (to organise speakers and presentations)
- Recruitment of new members
- Eventually - we'll need a treasurer.
- Robbie talked about the Small Business Specialist programme. It was interesting that three attendies were actively studying or planning to take the 70-282 exam to earn their Small Business Specialist competency.
Once again, the room hire and sandwiches were sponsored by Microsoft.
Next month we have representatives from Kroll OnTrack to talk to us about data recovery solutions. I'm told there will be freebies and details about their partner programme.
Contributions to this web log are encouraged. If you have an opinion about something already posted, leave a comment. Anyone - even anonymous users - can leave comments about any of these blog posts.
If you want to post something other than a comment to the SWSBSG blog, then I need two things from you:
- Create your own personal login to this site by clicking the Join link top right (if you don't see this link, go to the home page).
- Email me and let me know your login ID so I can adjust the permissions slightly.
Dates of upcoming meetings of SBS South Wales are as follows:
- 8th December
- 12th January
- 9th February
- 9th March
- 13th April
- 11th May
Unless otherwise noted, the meetings will be held on the second Thursday of each month at the Copthorne Hotel, Culverhouse Cross, Cardiff from 7pm to 9pm.
Speakers will be notified as and when they are known.
--Tim
The inuagural meeting of South Wales Small Business User Group will be on Thursday, 10th November, 6pm to 8pm at the Copthorne Hotel, Culverhouse Cross, Cardiff. The hotel is easily accessible by car from the M4 and Cardiff city centre.
The first meeting will be primarily concerned with what we expect to get out of these meetings and how we organise them. I've prepared a tentative agenda (below) which I would ask that you read beforehand and take a moment to consider your expectations so we can have a productive discussion on the night.
Tentative Agenda
|
1755 |
|
Arrive - "sandwich lunch" and tea/coffee available in the lobby area, collect and take to the meeting room as you arrive. |
|
1800 |
Robbie/Tim |
Welcome. Introduction to SBS groups and Microsoft's involvement in them |
|
1815 |
All |
Introductions - around the table: Name, organisation, focus/challenges, expectations of the group. |
|
1830 |
Robbie |
Microsoft's Small Business Specialist designation - UK plans |
|
1900 |
Tim/Grace |
What next? Who What When Where Why? Open forum discussion. |
|
1930 |
All |
Any other business / open discussion |
|
2000 |
|
Date & time of next meeting; Close |
I look forward to meeting you all there.
Thanks to Microsoft UK for agreeing to sponsor this inaugural meeting.
Tim Long
TiGra Networks
Silo Mentality or Win/Win?
In the USA and Australia, groups of individual technology service providers who specialise in the smaller business have come together to form collaborative groups. Recognising that they can actually work with other organisations who would traditionally be considered competitors, these groups are building a thriving community and discovering that this can lead to win/win collaborations amongst their members. As a result, each individual contributor is strengthened by drawing from the skills and experience of peers within the community. Groups have also noticed that vendors have started to pay attention and in some cases product offerings have been influenced to make them more small business friendly. These gatherings of small business specialists are known collectively as "SBS Groups".
Here in the UK, this idea has been slow to take off. It seems that something about the British psyche prevents us from believing that we can work with our 'competitors'. Microsoft has drafted in Robbie Upcroft who has plenty of experience with these small business specialist communities from within Microsoft Australia. With Robbie's help and encouragement, several groups are already underway accross the UK and Ireland with more already planned. The South Wales group will launch within a few days of writing this article.
Currently, the situation in Europe looks something like this:
The Global Village
The SBS groups are beginning to organise nationally and internationally through online groups and conferences. A group has been set up as a forum for all of the group leads so that high-level discussions can be held concerning SBS Groups in general, national and international initiatives and strategies can be worked out and information can be easily disseminated to each individual group. For example, it is now quite easy to see which speakers are currently on the group circuit and what other groups thought of their presentations. A LiveMeeting account is been made available free of charge to SBS Group leaders so that groups members can attend teleconferenced presentations that would otherwise be unavailable to them.
Symbiosis
This spontaneous organisation of individual IT consultants into organised groups initially took vendors by surprise. Microsoft was as surprised as any and initially was unsure how to relate to this new force in the IT industry. They soon realised that SBS Groups make better IT consultants, which benefits customers, consultants and vendors alike. Recognising the advantages of this symbiotic relationship, Microsoft is invested in a programme to encourage similar groups in the UK. Microsoft is currently offering to sponsor at least the inaugural meeting by providing a venue and nibbles and to help find speakers to attend the group meetings and give demos and presentations. While being very keen to encourage the formation of SBS Groups in the UK, Microsoft also recognises that it should not try to control or interfere in the running of the groups so each group is organised completely independently and is free to organise any way it chooses. It is to be hoped that other vendors will be as quick to recognise the potential benefits of the SBS Groups and will also offer support, sponsorship and speakers.
SMB Nation
A yearly conference is organised by Harry Brelsford where small business consultants worldwide come together at the Microsoft campus in Seattle, Washington. The conference is known as SMB Nation (SMB being the American equivalent to the British SME). We have not yet had an opportunity to attend but all the indications are that this is a very worthwhile event to attend.
Resources
There are a lot of resources becoming available as a result of all this activity. Some are of direct benefit to technicians, while others are more useful for business managers or group leaders. The table below lists a few of the more important sites which will act as a springboard to other sites of interest.
| Name / URL |
Description |
Audience |
| SBS2K Yahoo group |
Technical discussions about Microsoft Small Business Server and related products. |
Technical |
| Microsoft Small Business Channel Community |
A web site based on SharePoint and a companion Yahoo group provided by Microsoft USA. This group is primarily of interest to Americans and often carries US-specific material, but there is a vocal UK contingent who remind our friends across the pond that the world doesn't end at New York. |
Business
Technical |
| UK SBS Community |
A Yahoo group set up to provide a forum common to all UK SBS Groups. |
Business
Technical
UK Group Leads |
| SBS Business Partner Initiative |
A PHP BBS system containing forums for regional groups in the UK and some general areas covering items such as Microsoft's Small Business Specialist accreditation. This group is run by Susanne Dansey of Readycrest who also runs the Kent SBS Group. Initially this group acted as a focus for the UK regional groups but more recently groups have started to drift into using their own preferred hosting arrangements. The SBSBPI site still acts as a signpost to all of the UK regional groups so is a good starting point when exploring (though there is talk of establishing a site based on Sharepoint to do this). |
Business
UK Group Leads |
| SWSBUG |
South Wales Small Business User Group has a blog and a mailing list. |
Business
Technical |
| EBitz blog |
Susan Bradley (SBS MVP) has the "mother of all blogs" when it comes to small business. Her EBitz blog is the de facto standard for the small business consultant. The home page links to a plethora of other useful blogs and web sites. |
Business
Technical
Group Leads |
| SBS Group Leads |
This is the international forum for leaders and organisers of SBS Groups worldwide. A SharePoint site run by Wayne Small and Anne Stanton. |
Group Leads |