It's Microsoft Partner Roadshow time again, when all of us little Microsoft people lose a day's productive work to sit in a hotel seminar room and bask in the warm glow of the mothership. Now the last few of these MS has copped a hiding for offering sales/marketing blurbs, and not much more. Now given that all of the attendees are MS partners, you can probably safely assume we're up to speed with that stuff, and wanting something meatier. Ie: something more technical. Thus, in exchange for paying real money to attend this time, we were promised what are called Hands-On Labs. Ie: Here's the software. Load it on your laptop, click the buttons, play. So you can imagine how unimpressed everyone was when the very first session was a 3 hour powerpoint slide deck. Groan. The presenter certainly knew his stuff, but that's not the point.

Speak to your audience, Microsoft! Especially when you've asked them to pay for the priviledge, and promised them something they really want. We are technically minded IT business people. We do not want marketing babble. We are not impressed with the glossy stuff. We're here to learn and improve our knowledge, not get sweaty over MS evangelism.

Geez, ain't the roll of a new operating system fun. Oh, yeah, and let's add the roll of a totally new version of office suite, too. Microsoft WIndows XP is now officially 'retired', and Windows Vista is the one. Buy a new machine, comes with Vista. Doesn't matter that half the software out there won't run on Vista (did I mention that?), but at least Vista's pretty. Microsoft Office 2007 is the other new bundle of joy on the block. So Office 2003 has now also been retired from mainstream distribution and Office 2007 has taken it's place (can anyone say "learning curve" ?).

Now I'm sure that in 6 months time both Vista and Office '07 will be great, but until then, Vista only at home, please. Repeat after me... "Vista does not yet belong at the office".

Wow. So how long has it been since I've posted anything here, hey? Sorry about that. Things are flat out in the garden shed this year, with truly no rest for the wicked. We're in the process of moving into our new office space, which is absolutely fantastic. Finally a bit more room to move. Annie's on her 'National Tour' at the moment, visiting friends around the nation, so things probably aren't moving quite as efficiently around here as they normally do. As soon as she gets back, we're hoping to start recruiting for a new team member. I think we can offer a fantastic working environment, and a great opportunity for the right candidate, so it will be interesting to see what happens. 

That's all for now. Heaps more going on, which means I'd better get back to it!

Now here's something that I've been wanting to try for a while - the famous SBS Swing Migration. SBS is a great product, but thanks to the very nature of it's 'greatness', it can also be a real pain. You see, SBS needs to be the king of the pile as far as your network is concerned. There can be no other SBS machines running, and a list of other (very geeky) criteria must be met. So when you find yourself in the situation that a client of ours is currently in, you can be in a pickle. Basically with this site, the SBS network is running well, but the hardware that SBS is running on isn't up to standard, and has started having problems. So we need to move the SBS installation from that hardware onto a new server that's been bought. Easy? Not really, no. 

Enter Geoff Middleton's Swing Migration. It's basically a documented process for doing exactly what we need. There's no new technology or methods in there anywhere, so it's nothing groundbreaking. The great bit is that his process has been tried and tested so many times now that he's found all of the 'gotcha's, and fine tuned the process into a thing of beauty. Thus I find myself currently working through my first swing migration, well on track to get it finalised comfortably before the XMas holidays (touch wood).  

An interesting side-bar in this weekend's Financial Review.

 33.3% - That's how many small businesses don't get full value from their IT systems. CPA Australia blames underutilisation (35 per cent) and lack of computer skills (24 per cent).

 You know what? From my experience in the trenches, I'd say that number's a lot higher than 33.3%. So who's fault is that? Obviously it depends on the situation, but I strongly believe that IT providers have to accept more than a little of the blame. How many small businesses out there have been burnt by IT providers just pushing their wares to make this month's numbers, with no regard for the clients business. How many small businesses have been scared off by the geek charging $150/hr to spout speeds, feeds, facts and figures at them, make them feel stupid, and then not actually solve their problem?  I am constantly amazed at the cowboys out there in this industry. Some of them are actually reasonable sized organisations, too, with a well known name and all. But does that stop them installing unlicensed software in their client sites? Or make them stop to listen to what the business owner is telling them, before they simply rubber stamp their standard 'solution'? 

As IT solution providers, we are obligated to do just that - provide solutions. We have been called in to help with a situation because the client doesn't have the time, or the knowledge, or the desire to do it themselves. They are placing their trust in us, and the solutions that we recommend. Now ultimately it's not our responsibility to make their business a success; only they can do that. But it is our responsibility to play our part, and to bring to the table the best that our people and our experience has to offer. Now we're certainly not perfect ourselves, and I don't think I can name a single one of our clients that couldn't get more value from their technology, but wow, I'd like to think that as 'trusted advisers' we're aiming for a little higher than 33.3%.

Tip off here from Dugie's blog...

Ever have one of those moments when you go "Damn! Wish I had an enterprise grade datacentre sitting in my carpark right about now!". Well fret no more, friend. Help is at hand. 

No here is a very, very cool add-on to SBS Remote Web Workplace. This little sucker lets your wake up any computer on your network, via the RWW. How cool is that. You know the deal. End of day, go home. Damn. Forgot to do XYZ at the office. No problem! I'll just RWW back in and take care of it. Oh wait. Turned off the computer. Bugger. 

 Problem Solved.