Readers will recall the popular Microsoft Small Business Specialist Community (SBSC) partner program last decade. Beatrice Mulzer and I did a couple books on the topic, in particular focused on passing  the MCP certification exams. One of the players in that motion was Microsoft executive Francois Daumard (who worked with the SBSC program 2007-2011 and still admires the SBSC partner loyalty). This piece is about where is Francois now?!?!?

By: Gloria Kopp

 If you're often finding that projects are being delivered late, rushed to be completed or just not up to the standard you're expecting, you and your team could benefit greatly from the creation of a clear, organized workflow. Your workflow defines the patterns and processes by which you bring a project from conception to completion, and helps ensure that you don't experience these setbacks that exist when there's no organization behind the production process. Follow these steps to start putting together a workflow that is tailored to your team and the projects you're working on, and watch the levels of quality and speed in your work soar.

 It’s the mean season at Microsoft with targeted SMB-related treams caught in the reorg wave and then the “how does it play out” conversations at the annual partner conference underway in Washington DC (now called Inspire; formerly Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC)). Here’s my take on it: shelter in place until the next quarter starting October 1, 2017. 

Ready to level up your working knowledge of business? Here’s what to read now — and next.

Business 101, with Nilofer Merchant

First, read these 2 foundational books…

1. The Change Masters
Rosabeth Moss Kanter
Free Press, 1985

Five years ago this month, Microsoft announced the end of the popular Microsoft Small Business Server (SBS) product family. A minor announcement made over the slow July 4th holiday weekend in 2012 was rapidly picked up by the community and everyone had an opinion. SBSers were given an 18-month runway to retire/migrate or otherwise mitigate the drop dead date of SBS (December 31, 2013). 

Heads Up!

If you are a Microsoft partner at the "Network" level then it's highly likely, especially in the U.S., that you must renew your Microsoft Action Pack subscription by the end of today, June 30th for your Office 365 and Azure instances to continue working, etc. It's also possible you will need to also renew your overall Microsoft Partner Network membership as well - that will likely vary on a case-by-case basis. I'm aware of Danny in Toronto, ON Canada who can't renew until tomorrow, July 1st.