Signs of the Times: IBM PartnerWorld Withdraws the Registered Reseller Program

We went through the grief of getting registered with IBM as we had a proposal that required Tier 1 with IBM fitting the bill better than Dell.

With the recent rumblings that IBM is looking to sell their System X (Intel x86 line) product group possibly to Lenovo the above announcement makes some sense.

Though, given how difficult the whole partner process was to get signed up and registered in the first place maybe enrolment was really low to begin with.

In the end, our Tier 1 hardware needs can be more than met by Dell so long as it is backed up by the 24x7x365 by 4 hour on-site response warranty with no “Phone Support” clause. :P

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

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Yes, Cisco Now Has SMB Focused Products!

How many of us have had to compete with other providers quoting with Cisco products in the SMB space?

Probably not a lot.

That will change as Cisco had their engineers team up with Linksys engineers to collaborate on an entirely new GUI driving line of products priced to sell into the SMB market.

• Become a Cisco Partner

In a conversation with a prospective client where we were talking about a Small Business Server 2008 solution, they had some information on a few different firewall products.

When we mentioned that Cisco had some new SMB focused and priced products they really perked up.

Now, what business owner or manager has not heard of Cisco and their products?

Once through the initial Cisco Partner registration process, click into the Profile Manager then the Addition Access link:

Click on the Cisco Channel Partner or Authorized Reseller link to begin the process of registering the company in the Cisco Partner program itself.

• Note that it will helpful to have the company DUNS number ahead of time:
• 

The process itself is a bit cumbersome, but once through it, we will have our Cisco Partner ID that will unlock access to Cisco products at the distribution level (Canadian Distribution Shown):

The Distributor Locator will give results for specific geographic locations.

Our interest in Cisco started when a Cisco representative at the SMB Nation Fall Conference sat at our table to lunch with us. Kim M. Dunlay did an awesome job of talking to us about Cisco’s new SMB line of products.

Every one of us at that table, and there were 8-10, pretty much bypassed the Cisco booth because of our assumptions about Cisco’s products and price points being out of reach for the typical SMB.

After our discussions, and Kim referring one of the Cisco engineers to chat with me about some specifics for the new SMB product lines, it became pretty clear that we needed to examine their new SMB products very closely.

The principle reason why?

The Cisco name sells itself. It will take very little convincing on our part to provide a Cisco SMB focused firewall appliance that has the necessary features our clients need at a competitive cost.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Memory Distributor Mobel Gone – Considerations For the Future

We have done business off and on with Mobel Electronics based out of Quebec for as long as I have been in this industry.

We found out that they are no longer in business:

Note the last update of the site was this Spring. The site is still there but the phone numbers are disconnected.

There are any number of reasons why the companies we have seen go belly up over the last year or so.

The economy may definitely play a part in their demise, but there are other factors for those of us that provide I.T. related products and services to keep in mind.

One factor is the oncoming Cloud push and all of the logistics of saddling client’s data up there.

Getting to know the various Cloud vendors and their offerings and how those offerings can augment the solutions we provide our clients is critical to the longevity of our I.T. business.

For big enterprise, cutting wholesale the various internal I.T. departments to outsourcing business needs like e-mail, SharePoint, and other related services is an almost no-brainer.

At this point, and perhaps this is premature, we see that the SMB I.T. solutions will probably incorporate a blend of Cloud and in-house solutions for the near future due to specific Line of Business application needs.

Another factor in all of this is the ability to get beyond sitting there waiting for the phone to ring. For consumers of I.T. technologies, which most SMB companies are, the information for getting their company connected, accessible via the Internet, and some sort of mobile phone access will be acquired via search results.

Getting our name out there and in those search results can be done in any number of ways, but keeping a commitment to those methods and working hard at it is key to their success . . . much like the efforts we need to put into keeping our business growing.

This blog, for example, only started yielding business requests after being around almost 2 years!

No effort = no success.

A final factor to consider is partnerships. What companies are we going to partner up with to provide our clients with the best possible solutions for their business needs?

These partners may include hardware and software manufacturers, distribution channels for the hardware and software products we purchase, frontline tier 1 product manufacturers, and Cloud vendors.

The companies we team with will directly reflect the skill set we provide to our clients. If we limit our partnerships to only a few vendors that make it fairly easy to get to know their products and services, then we may end up in a lot of trouble.

Learning any new product offering is critical to our success going forward. The deeper the Cloud reaches into the traditional SMB company the more our knowledge and skill set will be the key to growing our I.T. services company.

And one more thought: The deeper the Cloud reaches into the traditional SMB company, the harder Managed Services providers will be hit.

Monthly revenues will need to come from another source.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*All Mac on SBS posts will not be written on a Mac until we replace our now missing iMac! (previous blog post)

Windows Live Writer

MPECS Inc. Category Win in Intel's Your Desktop Innovation Contest

Intel held a challenge for Intel Partners: Desktop Innovation Showdown.

We received notice near the beginning of the month that both of our submissions had reached the semi-final round. Neat.

Our submissions were in the Extreme Gaming Desktop category and the Business Desktop based on Intel vPro Technology category.

We just received an e-mail indicating that one of our submissions has won. Though, at the moment we are not too sure which category yet as the details have not been released yet.

The suspicion here is we won in the Business Desktop category!

For our entries entering the semi-final round we won an Intel DG45ID Desktop Board and an Intel Q9550 Core 2 Quad processor.

For actually winning one of the categories, we won a 32GB iPOD Touch. Neat! We will also get honourable mention in RAM Magazine and Tech Insight magazine!

Have a boo at the videos and let us know what you think! They were put together on our iMac in the shop and there was a bit of a struggle trying to get any transitions to happen ... but they still turned out alright.

We had fun putting them together and they will give you a good view of our existing Extreme System we have had for a while now and our standard Corporate Platform based on Intel vPro Technologies.

Intel's vPro is a designation for the "Q" series Desktop Boards that support Active Management Technology. This is an Out of Band management capability that only the "Q" series boards have. We love it. It makes our lives a lot easier when it comes to remotely managing our client's systems and now laptops too!

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

Microsoft Action Pack Renewal Steps

We know we are having a bad day when ...

Renewing the Microsoft Action Pack Subscription (MAPS), the process is quite simple:

1. Sign into the Partner Membership Centre.
2. Click on View Your Membership Account button.
• 
  
3. Click the Membership Center button in the drop down list.
4. Click the Orders & Benefits link.
• 
  
5. Click Additional Enrollment Summary in the drop down list.
6. Click the Re-Enrollment "tab".
• 
  
7. Click the "Click here to renew" link.

The above "Click here to renew" link will appear if your MAPS renewal date falls before June 19, 2008. If the anniversary date is after June 19, 2008, then there will be an assessment requirement prior to being allowed to renew.

Once the assessment course and exam has been passed the organization will be required to complete an assessment every two (2) years.

I do believe that the assessment is definitely a step in the right direction.

... when we still manage to miss something in the steps and need to reach out for a bit of help! ;)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

Microsoft Action Pack Training & Assessment Deadline Extended

It seems that there are some system glitches with the new technical assessment feature for Action Pack (MAPS) subscriptions and renewals.

MAPS Test Deadline Extended

The original start date for the need to take the test was the beginning of this month.

The tests will now start on June 19, 2008.

In a way this is too bad. We believe that there is definitely a need to have some sort of testing regime in place to weed out those who would take advantage of MAPS for purposes it was not intended for.

For us, the Action Pack was a big bonus when we were starting out on the road to building an I.T. company. It gave us access to a good portion of the software we would otherwise need to license for our internal use at pennies on the dollar.

MAPS is a good idea. Take advantage of it. Use it as it was intended ... for internal and training purposes in an I.T. company that provides Microsoft products and services based on those products.

Then work towards certifying your company as a Microsoft Small Business Specialist! It has paid huge dividends for our company.

Oh, and take Vlad's advice: Ouch, the death of SBSC to contribute to the Small Business Specialist Community and take advantage of the Microsoft SBSC contacts or we may just loose the whole Small Business Specialist program!

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

Trend Micro Partner Program

We have taken the next steps in our severing our business relationship with Symantec: We have registered with Trend Micro's Partner Program.

We started this process earlier this week by phoning the Trend toll free number to inquire about some part numbers and the person we spoke with pointed us in the direction of the Partner Program.

We eventually received a call from Casey, who in turn answered all of our questions and provided a good bit of background information on the Partner Program and what it has to offer us. She then emailed us with further information and links to relevant Partner resources.

So far, the conversations with our initial contact in the company and subsequently Casey in Distribution Channel Support have been refreshing. It is good to talk to someone who knows their company's products and is quite competent at their job. This is a huge step over the Symantec front line on the other end of their Corporate/Enterprise phone numbers.

One of the benefits of the Partner Program we will take advantage of immediately is the ability to obtain NFR versions of their products. This will provide us the means to work with the products we intend to install and support at our client sites.

Some relevant Trend Micro links:

• Trend Micro Web Site
• Trend Micro Channel Solution Partners
• Trend Micro Partner Registration Form (Fill this in to partner with TM)
• Trend Micro Partner Success Training

We should receive our NFR keys pretty soon. Once we do, we will download the software and begin our adventure into Trend's security products.

We will keep you posted.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.