Nomination to ISA MVP

Small Business Tech Notes

In an exciting turn of events I have been nominated for recognition as an ISA Server MVP (most valuable professional). ISA Server is Microsoft's enterprise firewall and a component of Small Business Server. Somehow my hard work at making sure your data is safely tucked behind a properly configured ISA Server and my rantings against those within Microsoft and the security community in general that would like to remove ISA Server from Small Business Server has gotten the attention of people in positions that matter. Susan Bradley (AKA - eBitz and the person with the most knowledge on SBS and security in the world) and Tom Shinder (primary writer of books on ISA Server and owner of the main support website) have gotten together and placed my name into the hat. There are only 13 ISA Server MVP's in the world currently, so simply being nominated is a tremendous honor.

Microsoft Office with Small Business Accounting Beta Testers Wanted

The new accounting package from Microsoft that I talked about at the Technology Briefing is almost here. This is the result of Microsoft's purchase of Great Plains software a couple of years back. Great Plains is one of the big three of accounting software but this is the first time that their software is going to be available in a package for small businesses. Better yet it is fully integrated with Microsoft Office. An opportunity to exists for you to help Microsoft to test this software and give them feedback.

If you are a small business owner or manager, or if you work with business information in a small company, you know best what your company needs from a financial management package.

Join a select group to test the pre-release version of Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting—a new full-featured, easy to use financial management program and an updated version of Outlook 2003 with Business Contact Manager. When combined with Microsoft Office 2003, these applications help small businesses make it easier to manage their business.

Get a $300 American Express Gift Card and Free Software
Active testers who submit at least five bugs or suggestions and fill out at least two surveys will receive a $300 American Express gift card as well as a final release copy of the new edition of Microsoft Office for small business management.