So what are the highlights for today?

As this is my first trip to the WPC I was expecting to receive a between the eyes evangelical message from the executive team at Microsoft. I was therefore pleasantly surprised that the messaging was direct but not cocky, emphasising where Microsoft is strong and what is coming in the short to medium term.

It was also refreshing to understand that the approach that EACS has taken over the years of working with customers at a relationship level, both commercially and technically, is one that is still a new concept to many attendees.

It may not be too much of a surprise for you to learn that the main areas of growth that Microsoft predicts are:

• Software as a Service (SAAS)


• Emerging Markets – Brazil, Indonesia etc


• Virtualisation


• Small Business Growth


• Transition to an insight economy – Business Intelligence, Process Management and Corporate Governance to me and you


• Vendor Financing

Software? Services? Both?

The Software as a Service (SAAS) is an interesting one and is going to be one of the most heavily publicised topics for the next few days.

In essence what this concept is trying to achieve is to allow customers to concentrate on their core activity with day to day operations such as Exchange, CRM, SharePoint etc being hosted and managed in a highly available and resilient way off site by experts.

Whilst there are references that are testament to this approach this tends to be for customers with a lower user population where not having to invest in the skills to manage systems is an appealing thought. As SAAS also gives a predictable cost model, single monthly payment per user, then with the economy in an uncertain state it would seem to make sense.

As with everything it is not all roses in the garden as many of these services are stand alone, so therefore applications like Exchange will require a separate logon as domain integration is not yet part of the package, well it can be but the costs tend to make the arguments for the service in the first place prohibitive.

I’d expect you all to see much more talk of SAAS in the general IT press and the world at large but whether the market is ready to relinquish control and the offerings from providers are mature enough is still uncertain. Whilst there are obvious pockets of success with companies like Salesforce.com, and even Google docs, these are fragmented, and the promise that Microsoft’s burgeoning involvement in software and services brings is in consistency, consolidation and more coherent integration.

Small Business Server Grows and Spreads

The groans from customers that the Small Business Server Portfolio is expanding, and as a consequence more complex, are in many ways understandable. However once you hear the message as to why this strategy has been adopted it makes more sense.

According to Microsoft 60% of all SBS deployments are for file and print services only, so customers are investing in technology that they do not use.

Therefore the forthcoming release of Essential Business Server Standard and Premium in November will act as a catalyst for debate. You will still get all of the stuff you did in SBS Premium but including Forefront Security and Threat Management Gateway the replacement for ISA Server . However the main area of benefit comes with the System Centre Management tool, which will allow you to not only manage the server and services that are inherent in the OS but also all other Wintel servers and PC’s as well.

The improved capability of the Licence Management feature will also advise when you are compliant and when you are not and have the capability for you to remedy with allocation of spare licences accordingly.

You can also manage some applications, many third party vendors already offer plug ins and the Microsoft SDK will be released shortly.

Support

As a company EACS constantly demands improvement of itself to enhance the experience our customers receive when they deal with us. The moment of truth that many customers discover the facts behind the claims of customer service is when the call comes through to the support desk.

We believe that our service desk experience is a good one, but on the odd occasion where even we need assistance in solving more complex calls, we leverage our vendor relationships to get the answers.

The investment we have made in our Gold Partner status gives us good access to third line support at Microsoft, however to improve the response and quality further Microsoft are investing $20 million in their support services team. This will help us to help you resolve complex incidents more quickly.

Market Conditions

Microsoft believes that the Public Sector is worth approx $30 billion worldwide. When times of economic uncertainty are upon us and the commercial world tightens their purse strings then the Public Sector gets even more focus. This is great news for those of you in this sector as service offerings and resources will be coming your way.

That’s about it for today.