Learning From Microsoft

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, (see not about Steve Ballmer at the end of this post) recently had a presentation to wall street financial analysts. That talk is now available to all of us. While looking at the powerpoint presentation and listening to Steve blab on (no offense Steve) I was awakened from my stupor occasionally by things that hit home for all business. Here's couple:

Innovation: Value All Forms

Every business has to innovate continuously if you want to remain relevant and superior to the competition. How do we interpret this for a small business?

Build and Buy. Those are completely relevant just as they are with no interpretation. Sometimes it makes sense to build it yourself; sometimes you're better off buying it. I've done both. We build internal skills sets. We build our book of business by advertising and meetings, meetings, meeting. But we buy groups of clients from technicians that want to join us. We also buy tools (which in our cases means both software and physical tools) to help us get the job done more efficiently.

Large Scale and Small Scale. To interpret this you need to know something about the applications listed on the slide in those categories. The items listed under Large Scale are the bread and butter of Microsoft: Vista (Windows) and MS Office. He could have thrown Windows Server in there. This is where Microsoft makes its money. The software listed as Small Scale are the packages Microsoft is pretty sure will lead to significant revenue in the future. They are out there and building revenue. In small business we have these too only by different names. Large Scale is the thing we do. It's what we're known for. Small Scale are the things we do that make us well-rounded, set us apart from the competition, give us joy, and add to the revenue stream.

Research. Microsoft spends more money on research that any other company in the world by a large margin, nix that, by a VERY large margin. I wish I had the numbers handy to show you. It's truly astounding. In small business do we spend money on research? Yes we do and maybe we should add it up and assign a dollar value. Research in small business are those things that we do to make sure we know where the market is going and what it's going to want next year. It's how we keep our relevance. It's not about generating revenue today. It's about making sure we keep generating revenue in the future. For me it's going to conferences, reading, learning, being chapter leader of a local IT Pro group, being an active member of several online communities, seminars, chamber of commerce, etc.

Occasionally we have something to learn from the big guys. We're not that different from the Fortune 500. We require innovation too and we need to value all of the forms that innovation takes on and support those because innovation drives every business.

Of Note about Steve Ballmer: He's a native of Detroit. He's the first person in the USA to become a Billionaire from Stock Options. He's loud. He's apparently afraid of nothing. He returns email, personally, even from me. He's known for erecting a guillotine on the Microsoft campus and placing a Novell server under it, chopped it in half, declared something about killing Novell corporation and then sent everyone back to work. He also hyperactive. Here's the video. How much do you love your company?

Web and Intranet: Extreme Make Overs

One of the projects that I've been working on this month is a total tear down and rebuild of our Intranet and our Website. Because I have this fixation with knowing how things work I didn't hire a website design artist and a web developer. I did the work myself. Over the years it's gotten both easier and harder. It's easier to do the mundane stuff and it's harder to keep up with the new flashy fun stuff. Since I'm not much into flash I thought I'd be safe doing the work myself. I think it's turning out pretty well. I'm still working on the website but I'm done with the Intranet. I thought I share it with you. If a company as small as ours finds it useful; every company should find it useful. It can be a real time saver and it's even easy to use for those people that aren't very good computer users. For the user point of view everything is point and click. Just the time saved stopping users from searching around the server for files can be enough to make an Intranet the way to go.

I used the newly released Sharepoint 3.0 for the base because it's free and comes with all Windows servers. This means you already own it so there's nothing to buy. There are a million cool features built-in. Here's a few of the ones I implemented for our use.

Here's the home page:

It's your basic text page organized in 3 columns. The purpose of the Intranet is to organize information that we all need available to do our jobs. It doens't have to be pretty. It does need to be very easy to navigate and understand. On the left we have links to the content. In the middle are announcements. On the right are links to frequently used external websites. At the bottom (not pictured) are upcoming items on the shared company calendar.

In an Intranet some things are pretty standard. We keep our company forms there. Need the fax cover sheet? Click. Need a quote template? Click. Need one of the How To documents that we develop in house? Click. You get the idea. I put anything that is commonly used and doesn't change a whole lot onto the Intranet site. A bonus of keeping it there is that it does version checking. So if the file does change we have a copy of both and we know which is the original and which if the updated version.

Then we have some cool stuff. I configured a few of the ones most useful to us. This is where Sharepoint really shines.

Blog posts. It's a simple list of blogs posts that update automatically. If a new post is made it shows up on the Intranet for 15 days, then it goes away so there's no need to put anyone on clutter detail. There's no need for individual web surfing of blogs. There's no bloated Inbox full of blog posts. It's all right here and self-cleaning.

Client Location Map. Using Map Point I created a map that is linked to our Exchange Public Folder called Clients. When a client is added to that shared contact list it gets mapped and displays on the Intranet. The map on the Intranet isn't just a picture. You can route and print right from it. No need to MapQuest or for mapping software to be installed on each PC or for someone in the office to create and handout maps. Just go to the Intranet point to where you need to go and print the map.

Support Portal Tickets. The tickets coming in from the folks on the beta of our support portal arrive via email and are sent to a distribution group so everyone sees them that needs to. A summary of the ticket and it's status is displayed on the Intranet too. So if I want to see at a glance how many issues are currently outstanding, who they are for and what the current status is they are right there in front of me. If I want to view more detail I can click on one and it jumps me right into the portal.

Recycle Bin: Yes, you heard right. A website with a recycle bin. Not only that but's it's a self cleaning 2 stage recycle bin. Stage 1. User deletes a file. It goes into the web recycle bin. User can restore it back if they need to. After a defined number of days it moves to the Stage 2 recycle bin. Stage 2 is only visible to the administrator. Again data stays in that recycle bin for a defined period of time or forever.

The whole purpose of an Intranet is to reduce the amount of repetitive hunting around for stuff that saps productivity. Sharepoint is nice because it cares for itself, if setup properly. I love the fact that it is self-cleaning according to the schedule I set. I can't wait for the day that happens to my house or car! ("I've configured my car to bathe itself on Tuesdays." I can't wait to write that for real.) I know the screen shots don't show up very well. So if you'd like to see what the site looks like just let me know and I can show it to you. We can do it over the web, so you don't have to leave your office.

I'll write about the website when I get done with that project. I'm trying to make that one prettier and have a few cool features too.

Microsoft Incentives

Sometimes the stars align and Microsoft desides that it needs to improve sales and they trot out a bunch of deals. We're in one of those times right now. Why? Because in 2008 Microsoft is rolling out the new version of many software packages. That means that customers are likely to wait until next year before making any purchases. If sales slump, then stock holders become unhappy and Microsoft doesn't want that! For the rest of us, this means it's bargain time. Here are some of the incentives they are currently offering.

Microsoft Financing: Finance hardware, software, services and training from 2 to 5 years. Special offer right now is the smart pay option. Pay $50, $100, $200, $500 or $1500 a month for the first 12 months your choice. It's a nice way to get that project done without killing cashflow.

Office Subsidy: Up to $150 per license w/software assurance purchased. Amount varies depending on which version you purchase. A check is sent to you to be used to cover the costs of installation.

Small Business Desktop Advantage: If you find yourself in need of purchasing Windows, Office and a server access license for PC's all at once. This program saves you 28% over purchasing each item seperately and provides on-going saving upgrades after year 3. In addition you're going to get the subsidy dollars for Office and the Server software.

Small Business Server Subsidy: $325 check sent to you to assist in paying for installation costs of the new server.

Map Point: Map Point is advanced mapping software. It's 20% off with software assurance.

Windows Server Subsidy: $120 check sent to you to assist in paying for installation.

Dynamics: $1000 flat-fee per database migration from Quickbooks and Quickbooks Pro. Migration provided by Microsoft Consulting.

Some nice offers. Now isn't a bad time to purchase if you need to, because with software assurance you'll be receiving the next version in 2008 when it is released automatically and it's always a good idea to take advantage of sales. These offers are scheduled to expire at the end of the year. I would expect similar offers to fill the gap between January 2008 and the release of the new versions later in the year.

Windows Home Server Released

Windows Home Server was released today. This is a new server and I've been watching its develop and participating in development reviews on it for over a year. Although it's not in any way a business product I've been interested in it because I think it will be of great benefit to those of you with more than 1 computer at home. Now that I'm released from my NDA with Microsoft for this product I can finally tell you about some of the things it can do for you.

1. Backup: The server can backup an image of all of the PC's attached to it. If they are asleep it wakes them up to start the backup. You can also restore the whole PC back to the way it was before the last backup. (read before your son installed that virus laden pirated copy of Age of Empires)
2. File Storage: The server will come with a certain amount of hard drive space, which you will eventually fill. New technology only available in this server allows you to plug in any type of drive and it will automatically extend your available storage space. In addition it keeps two copies of every file so if someone deletes an important photo, you can get it back.
3. Remote Access: If any of the PC's at home are running business edition of Vista, then you will be able to access that PC remotely from anywhere over the Internet.
4. A Website: Need a place to display photos? Post them on your own family website hosted right on your home server.

You purchase this server as an appliance. Which means it will come preinstalled and ready just plug in and go. It won't have a keyboard, mouse of monitor. It's just a blackbox like your DVD player, which you manage via an internal website. I'm not sure who all of the manufactures will be but I have seen the one from Hewlett Packard. You can bet any reputable computer manufacture will product a good Home Server.

Look for them to hit the market in the next couple of months.