Date: Thursday Jan 19, 2012

Time: 10:00-11:00 am Pacific Time

Speakers:

• Ron Robbins, Product Manager at Quest Software (pictured far right)
• Tom Poole, CEO at SMB Nation (pictured right)
  

When does it make sense to migrate from your on-premises or cloud solution to Office 365? Hear Ron Robbins, Product Manager at Quest Software discuss the benefits you will experience with Microsoft’s Office 365 and why you should consider migrating to the new cloud solution. Also, Ron will discuss what migration tools Quest offers to help you make the move to Office 365 securely and with ease.

Why attend this webcast?
•    Learn what components make up Office 365.
•    Discover the benefits of Office 365.
•    Understand the key differences between Office 365 components and their on-premises versions.
•    Learn what to expect and how to prepare for the move to Office 365.

Register Here!

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By Regina Ciardiello, Editor, SMB Nation

Coming down from a busy week of announcements with the hiring of Dave Sobel as its new director of Partner Community, LPI Level Platforms announced today the launch of its 17-city international road show event.

Commencing on Feb. 6 in Orange County, CA, LPI’s third annual road show will focus on education and collaboration for MSPs. The agenda will feature the vendor’s top MSPs who will be on hand to share winning strategies and best practices, educational panels featuring the latest industry intelligence and research from Forbes and CompTIA. Also included will be the launch of Managed Workplace 2012, such as details of the new Mobile Device Management, fully integrated NOC and Help Desk services, Managed Print Services and much more.

Attendees will also have the opportunity to connect with sponsoring vendor partners including Autotask, Intel, OKI Data and Symantec and several more to learn about their latest managed services initiatives with Managed Workplace.

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D&H Distributing said today that it has earned top scores in 10 out of the 14 categories in the 2011 ASCII Group Distribution Survey, beating out other distributors in its class. The company outright won in eight of these categories and tied in two additional ones.

This is the third time that ASCII has conducted this survey with D&H topping more categories each year than any other full-line distributor.

The ASCII Sourcing Survey comprises responses from 100 random members. Participants were asked about their sourcing preferences and to rate various aspects of their supplier experiences.  Members were asked what percentage of their total purchases was made through distribution and/or various other sources. Responses showed that 73% of their total purchases were made through distributors as opposed to via other means.  No other source in the survey scored more than 16%, making distribution far and away the most primary method by which ASCII members claimed to acquire product.

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OS33, the feature-rich IT-as-a-Service Delivery Platform, today announced integration with Google Apps for Business. The highly anticipated integration enables businesses to easily deliver, manage and consume Google Apps services as part of a unified IT solution that includes Microsoft Windows and SaaS applications, from any device and browser via OS33’s flagship Webtop (web-based desktop).

With Google Apps integration, companies using the OS33 unified IT platform are able to easily use Google Apps’ email, calendar and collaboration tools as part of their cloud computing solution.  This gives service providers an easy way to meet the demand for the increasingly popular Google Apps.  Businesses leveraging this integration now have a powerful new suite of applications in their toolkit and can deploy and manage new Google Apps accounts alongside other IT assets automatically, through OS33’s management interface. 

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Today at the IBM Lotusphere conference in Orlando, FL, leading unified communications provider, Polycom, announced that they will be natively integrating their RealPresence video solutions into the most recent versions of IBM’s Sametime and Connections. This news comes on the heels of last week’s announcement to extend Polycom’s alliance with Digium, a leader in open-source telephony software. Polycom’s integration into IBM’s Sametime and Connections will expand the company’s presence in the social business market.

Sue Hayden, executive vice president Strategic Alliances at Polycom explained why they are focusing more on this specific niche:

“Every day, more people gravitate to social networks as their primary way to share and stay connected. Polycom is committed to developing integrated solutions with leading companies like IBM to power a social video experience that helps our customers realize and maximize the inherent business value of social. By natively integrating the Polycom RealPresence Platform with IBM’s social business applications, users can make video calls from within Sametime or Connections – whether at the office, at home, or on the road. With our integration with IBM, Polycom is delivering innovative, easy-to-use solutions that help our customers dramatically change how they do business, driving productivity, efficiency, and ROI.”

 Polycom’s Realpresence in IBM’s Sametime or IBM Connections will allow users to make conference calls from following platforms:

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By Regina Ciardiello, Editor, SMB Nation

Image: Michal Marcol / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Here we go again! As I do each week, I am really enjoying bringing our readers a quick round-up of the blog coverage I didn’t manage to get to during the busy week prior.

This past week was chock full o’ news. In fact, I polished off 5 blogs…just this past Friday! How is that for a day that is typically slow right before the start of a holiday weekend.

In addition to big news starting up again, the trade show circuit is also heating up. That said, if you have a few minutes of free time this week, check out what’s in store for our next live event, MVP Nation, to be held March 2-3, 2012, in Redmond, WA. With a focus on the new Windows 8 technology, the two-day event will allow attendees to create their Windows 8 road map. For more information, and to register, go to: http://mvp.smbnation.com/.

Once again, here are a few snippets of information that we didn’t get a chance to bring you last week. Let us also know if there was something we might have missed, which is not mentioned in this entry…because as you know…we love news!

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Today, IBM, one of the global leaders in hardware/software development and IT consulting, released news of its latest software designed to help businesses analyze, monitor and collaborate in the world of social business. IBM Connections and IBM SmartCloud Services were among the top new services unveiled by the technology giant. These services provide advanced real-time analytics to companies looking to expand their social sectors. Businesses will be better able to predict market or customer needs or react to displeasure in the social sphere.

Alistair Rennie, General Manager for Social Business at IBM, explains the reasoning behind these latest software releases: “There is boundless opportunity for social business to transform how we connect people and processes, and increase the speed and flexibility of business. A successful social business can break down barriers to collaboration and put social networking in the context of everyday work, from the device or delivery vehicle of your choice, to improve productivity and speed decision-making.”

This trend towards social media integration into existing business has been recognized by research firms such as Forrester Research and Gartner Inc. Forrester Research predicts a 61% growth rate in the amount spent on social business software by 2016. In hard numbers, companies are expected to spend $6.4 billion US in 2016, compared to $600 million US in 2010. The new software options from IBM, such as IBM Connections and IBM SmartCloud will help keep companies organized with the influx of new information.

The latest beta for IBM Connections will allow

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SMB Nation was recently able to speak with an old colleague, former US SBSC Manager (to 2008) Paige Boesen. She informed us that she has been offered a position as Partner Strategy & Programs Lead for the EMEA Time Zone.  In her new role, Paige will be goaled with coaching subsidiaries’ partner teams in building an eco-system that has skilled and capable partners and are motivated to sell in the cloud. In the recent past, Paige has been the Global Role Lead for the Partner Skills Development Manager, during which time she was able to work with businesses to increase their presence and simplify their partner training budget. She has also worked with the EMEA leadership in the past to create the Partner Skills Development Optimization, a program designed to help streamline the operational functions of the PSDM role and, through a partnership with GSS, to create a “One Microsoft” training experience for the SMB Channel.

With this exciting new undertaking comes an exciting new location. Paige and her family will be relocating to Copenhagen, Denmark.  Paige is excited about her new appointment and home, saying “I am particularly pleased to assume the role of EMEA Time Zone Lead on behalf of the WPG business, as it provides the opportunity to work more closely with the outstanding field leadership across SMS&P within EMEA. In addition, this position uniquely combines my professional passions for international business and evolution of Microsoft’s partner channel model, at a highly transformational time in the company’s history. I look forward to getting started in the new role and my family’s move to Copenhagen underway. My family (husband Steve and daughter Grace (age 5) eagerly awaits the unique experiences we will have living abroad.”

 We at SMB Nation wish Paige Boesen the best of luck in her new venture!  She is a bright lady with an incredibly bright future, and we look forward to hearing from her in the future!

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News from the White House today as President Barack Obama elevates the Small Business Administration to Cabinet-Level Status, with Karen Mills presiding as the cabinet-level officer.  This news comes on the heels of President Obama’s proposal to merge six government agencies into one. The six agencies in question are all trade-oriented and include the Commerce Department, the U.S. Trade Representative, the Overseas Private Investment Corp., the Export-Import Bank, the Trade and Development agency, and last (but certainly not least) The Small Business Administration. 

This is an exciting day for the SMB Community, as this elevation will allow our unique voices to be heard at the highest levels of government. The elevation in rank has been a long time coming for the SBA, with supporters pushing for cabinet rank since before President Obama took office. Proponents cite the integral role that small businesses play for job creation and growth in the U.S. as the reason for the high appointment in the cabinet.  Before today’s elevation, the SBA has not had an administrator on the White House Cabinet since the Clinton Administration.

For more information about the Small Business Administration, please see the site here.

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By Regina Ciardiello, Editor, SMB Nation

During the last week of September, at SMB Nation’s Fall Conference, former Autotask executives Bob Godgart and Jay McBain first announced the concept of their new start-up, ChannelEyes. The social media platform, which was founded by Autotask founder and industry visionary Bob Godgart, was launched as the first free and secure social network to aggregate channel program information. Launched in Pilot yesterday, ChannelEyes is set to transform communication between suppliers and channel partners, integrators, dealers and agents.

Godgart, who with his former Autotask colleague McBain (who currently serves as Advisor to ChannelEyes) built ChannelEyes with the intent to focus on how channel partners communicate. Per a press release distributed on Sept. 30, Godgart said his vision for ChannelEyes was to create a “ridiculously simple and secure way to engage all channel partners.”

Earlier this week, we had the chance to catch up with Godgart and McBain, who offered an update on how the platform is progressing, as well as what to expect from the Pilot.
McBain said that the difference between ChannelEyes and other social media platforms that claim to have the best interests of the channel is that ChannelEyes automatically removes all of the noise and clutter. “ChannelEyes is a platform that allows channel partners to filter through all of the information they specifically want to know about in one single portal,” he said. “It’s not a place where users will be posting what they had for breakfast that morning.”

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