David Overton's Blog

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• Small Business Server 2008 downgrade rights questions and answers

  Last night I was at the Merseyside Partner group in Liverpool and once question that got asked again (and was in TPV and London too) was around downgrade rights from SBS 2008 to SBS 2003, so I dug for about 30 seconds and found these items on the Licensing FAQ site Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2008 : Q: What are downgrade rights? How do I exercise them? A: Downgrade rights, in general, means that you can use an earlier version of the software acquired. For Windows Small Business Server, this means... Posted Jun 26 2008, 07:57 AM by David Overton with | with no comments Filed under: SBS 2003, SBSC, Microsoft, SBS 2003 R2, Small business, Licensing, SBS 2008

• How to sell Hosted CRM (CRM Online) in the UK and still retain your customers and a good profit – by working with Increase CRM

  [updated with contact details at 16:38] I have a partners or two that are looking to implement CRM internally and through the conversations about how they could do this came to know of the guys at Increase CRM. The good folks at Increase CRM seem to understand how SBSC partners think because the offerings they have for referral and resellers seem to be quite good to me. if you want the brochure on the subject, let me know, but here is the important piece for partners: What is the Referral Program? Partners in... Posted Apr 24 2008, 04:39 PM by David Overton with | with no comments Filed under: CRM, Community, Hosted, Software as a Service, Microsoft, Small business, Partner, Licensing, Software plus Service, If you only read one post today

• Where will your customers be looking for solutions – will they stick to on premise, or will they move towards a S+S or SaaS solution not from you?

  I know the table above is really, really simple, but I wanted to start the ball rolling – I have been thinking about this for ages!! Let me explain the diagram. The horizontal axis signifies how much of a solution is hosted. An example of this might be Office Live or Hotmail, where almost all of the solution is hosted. We then have the “on premise” or on-site IT going vertically. For most people, this is solutions like SBS 2003. A typical S+S solution might be MS CRM Online which has online components, but also... Posted Apr 12 2008, 04:02 PM by David Overton with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: SBS 2003, Business, Virtualisation, Community, Live, Software as a Service, SBSC, Microsoft, Office Live, SBS 2003 R2, mobile, Small business, Internet and Web, Partner, Licensing, Software plus Service, If you only read one post today

• ISVs can learn about Microsoft’s strategy and products and how they fit into selling solutions – come to the events in TVP and Manchester on the 10th and 24th April

  One of the biggest criticisms of Microsoft by our ISV partners is that they don’t know where we are going… well this even should help solve that – see you there perhaps: Introduction 09.30 - 10.00 Registration & coffee 10.00 – 10.15 Welcome & Introduction Deliver Innovative Solutions 10.15 – 10.45 Microsoft strategy direction 10.45 – 11.30 Microsoft technology roadmap 11.30 – 11.50 Coffee break Increase your opportunities 11.50 – 12.15 Marketing & sales initiatives Close more sales 12.15 – 12.30... Posted Apr 04 2008, 08:01 AM by David Overton with | with no comments Filed under: Business, Community, Event, Microsoft, Licensing, ISV, Strategy

• Action Pack Subscribers get Full Windows Vista DVDs - not upgrades and they also get a copy of Ultimate too, plus a stack of materials to sell the product

  Full, not Upgrade Vista product Well anyone who says we don't listen is just talking rubbish!! What am I talking about - I'm talking about the Action Pack and Windows. We moved to non OEM media and boy did it cause a stink, but that has changed again. According to Important changes for Action Pack Subscribers regarding Windows Vista while you are still required to have a legal license for a machine (FPP or OEM) you can now apply full copies (i.e. do a bare metal install) without having to do a double... Posted Mar 08 2008, 08:43 PM by David Overton with | with 14 comment(s) Filed under: Windows Vista and XP, Support and Tools, Community, SBSC, Microsoft, Windows Client, Vista, Windows Vista, Action Pack, Training, Partner, Licensing, If you only read one post today

• Microsoft Online Services - beta in US, international .. not for a while yet, but you get to see where Microsoft is going!

  What is it? I know Vlad is not going to like this, but even he will admit that this has been on the cards for a while. Software plus services is coming to town in a bigger and bigger way. At the moment there is a limited beta in the US and (just like Google), it has the beta tag on it . So what have we seen today, well we have seen Microsoft stand up and be counted in it's commitment to the software-plus-services strategy. We have seen existing "on premise" solutions of Exchange and SharePoint... Posted Mar 03 2008, 09:01 PM by David Overton with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Business, Community, Exchange, Hosted, Software as a Service, beta, Event, Microsoft, Office Live, Internet and Web, Partner, Licensing, Software plus Service, SharePoint, OWA, Outlook Web Access, If you only read one post today

• Open License Media can now be purchased and downloaded online

  Open Licence media now available online Open Licence customers in the UK can now buy media online directly from Microsoft, which will potentially reduce the amount of time and money you currently spend on fulfilling Open Licence media orders. Download the Open Media Re-engineering Guide for Partners and a customer-facing presentation . eOpen allows you to: Create and retain personalized views of Open License purchase history information Review your license agreement and product use rights Update your license... Posted Feb 03 2008, 09:44 AM by David Overton with | with no comments Filed under: Partner, Licensing

• Where Customers may obtain License Keys for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

  I've been asked this a few times, so attached is the response I got from the nice Product peeps here in the UK. Since the easiest way to share was a picture - here it is :-) It covers the following license types: Trial MSDN/Technet MSPP MAPS VL BRL SPLA ISV Royalty Again, see http://www.uksmbgirl.co.uk/blog/archives/320 for more information on MS CRM and http://uksbsguy.com/blogs/doverton/archive/2008/01/17/microsoft-dynamics-crm-4-0-ready-for-download.aspx for download information. ttfn David Technorati... Posted Jan 18 2008, 12:32 AM by David Overton with | with no comments Filed under: CRM, SBSC, Partner, Licensing, ISV

• New Small Business Oriented blog - Microsoft Police (entry on licensing) and Vista bloody Vista (who's fault is it when things don't work on Vista)

  Susanne Dansey pointed this out to me - Dave is doing some excellent blogging! I like both these entries from January. One discussed the rights and wrongs of what to do with a customer who will not license legally. My personal opinion here is that if they won't pay a software company, how long until they will avoid paying the services company for a quality job. Dave's second post is dealing with someone who has been told that Vista is poor and blames anything that does not work under Vista on Microsoft... Posted Jan 17 2008, 10:09 AM by David Overton with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: Windows Vista and XP, System Builder Information, Community, Vista, Windows Vista, Small business, Licensing

• Quick licensing question and answer - the 5 licenses (CALs) that ship with SBS 2003 in the box, are they per user or per device?

  I have seen this question asked several time so thought I would share this one on the blog: http://www.microsoft.com/WindowsServer2003/sbs/techinfo/overview/licensingfaq.mspx Q. How do I know which mode I have selected? A. For the first 5 CALs that come with the server, you should complete the CAL license document. There is a field for writing in whether you would like to choose per user or per device CALs. For CAL add-on packs there are separate SKUs for per user and per device. ttfn David Technorati Tags:... Posted Jan 11 2008, 10:24 AM by David Overton with | with no comments Filed under: SBS 2003, SBS 2003 R2, Licensing

• Dissent in the Open Source world between GPL 2 & GPL 3 - Linus Torvalds will be sticking with GPL 2

  I personally don't mind which license type someone chooses to deliver their product with, but I think it should never be used as a shotgun against the developers, contributors or organisations that have been using / developing the software to force them into agreements that were unrecognised prior to that use. GPL 3 was hijacked (in my very personal opinion) by a small group to change the meaning of "free" and change the ethos of the GPL. Today I read that I am not the only person who feels that... Posted Jan 09 2008, 12:52 AM by David Overton with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Licensing, Linux, Open Source

• Lots of Partner training (new url) - Licensing 101, Sales 101, Office PerformancePoint, Office Business Applications (OBA), Enterprise Search, SharePoint Services and Server 2007, Office Communications Server 2007, Infrastructure Optimisation (IO) ...

  [updated with a working URL] Partner Licensing 101 – The next one is being held on the 4 th December 2007 This session will equip sales people with a top level knowledge that will enable them to talk to new and existing customers about Microsoft licensing. Target Audience: This session is aimed primarily at sales people from all Partner types, although it is appropriate for all Partner roles whether in Sales, Purchasing or Technical. The course is ideal for new starters looking for a good introduction to Microsoft... Posted Nov 23 2007, 06:25 AM by David Overton with | with no comments Filed under: Office System, Business, Windows SharePoint Services, Developer, Office 2007, Training, Licensing, SharePoint, Office Communication Server, Office Communicator

• Want Office 2007 with a 50% discount? You have until Christmas to upgrade and get a 50% discount with Open Value Subscription

  Again, browsing the small business blog and I thought this was very interesting: Why wait? Upgrade now to 2007 Office and save 50% Until 31 December 2007 you can get a 50% discount off the 2007 Microsoft Office system when you upgrade through the Microsoft Open Value subscription programme. Why do it this way? Because you get a huge discount, you can manage your payments over three years to help your cash flow, you’ll receive a single agreement for all your software licences, and get the benefit of Microsoft... Posted Nov 13 2007, 04:54 PM by David Overton with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Office System, Business, Office 2007, Partner, Licensing

• Microsoft gets official open-source blessing from OSI for two of its licenses

  Many times Microsoft has been barracked for its "anti-open source" stance, which quite frankly has never existed. However, since we have always made software available under various licenses, it was decided that it was time to get these officially recognise by the people behind the dreaded GPL (that is my humour btw). Not everyone is happy about it as can be read at http://robertogaloppini.net/2007/10/18/open-source-at-microsoft-microsofts-licenses-get-approved-by-osi/ . Microsoft's desire to protect... Posted Oct 23 2007, 01:34 AM by David Overton with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Community, Microsoft, Licensing, Linux, Open Source

• How to save money when offering licensing to small businesses in the UK at the moment

  [updated to remove some inaccuracies about Susanne's microspeak - sorry Susanne] There are always special offers of some form or another from most companies and Microsoft is no exception (well, except in August when we are still in post financial year clean up :-)). Anyway, the UK SMB Girl aka Susanne Dansey at Westcoast has listed a couple of these.: N-3 Open Value Subscription Offer Promotion ends: 31 December 2007 Programme: OV Subscription Up-to-Date Discount (UTD) is a 50 per cent discount in OV Subscription... Posted Oct 12 2007, 06:09 AM by David Overton with | with no comments Filed under: Community, Office 2007, SBS 2003 R2, Licensing