I think it's long been a bone of contention for Microsoft Partners of all sizes that the majority of events aimed at Partners and general focus for Microsoft UK has been on London and it's surrounding areas, not surprising with Microsoft's UK Headquarters based in Thames Valley Park. To their credit, MS are aware of this discontent in the provinces, and have committed to do something about focusing on the regions more.

I recently had an opportunity to sit down with Dom Gill, Microsoft's Regional Liaison for the West Midlands, and learn some more about Microsoft's plans for the West Midlands region as well as discussing the challenges faced by MS Partners of all sizes in this region.

It was a good conversation, and I actually learnt a lot about how Netlink IT might leverage it's Microsoft Certified Partner status to help us grow as a business. I've suspected we've not made the most of engaging with Microsoft since we achieved Certified Partner status, and Dom helped point me in the direction of some resources which confirmed we could be doing more to our benefit.

The discussion then turned to some of Microsoft's plans for the West Midlands, which included creating a West Midlands Partner Community - and you can find a landing page for this on the Microsoft Partner Portal. There's also a lot of welcome promotion for our local User Group, AMITPRO, and Microsoft is keen to encourage Partners who are overlooking the value of collaborating with fellow Partners to join in at local User Group meetings. As members of that group we've all been doing our bit to bring guests along, and with the next meeting on January 14th at the Arden Hotel in Solihull with Mr. Virtualisation himself, Dave Sobel, speaking - now's a good time to visit if you've not been before! Drop me a note for more details, or contact the Group Leader Steve Wright.

There will also be regular Regional Partner Clinics, where you can sit down with Microsoft and discuss how you can make your relationship with them work better, and a West Midlands Partner RSS feed.

After we'd discussed Netlink IT's recent foray into PR, Dom also mentioned that Microsoft are really keen to identify customer Case Studies that can be turned into PR opportunities. Contact Dom directly with anything you think may be able to generate PR for you in this way.

Finally, we chatted about Regional Events, and how my constant moaning feedback to Emily Lambert, UK SBSC Manager, about some Marketing Training for Midlands SBSC Partners had been taken on-board with Emily helping organise a "Marketing 101" session to take place at a recent user group meeting to excellent feedback from those involved. I mentioned that my recent blog posts around Marketing and other Business 101 subjects had received a lot of feedback from fellow partners, so Dom is interested in hearing if there is interest from regional Partners in holding more of these type of events. Leave a comment or drop me an e-mail if you'd like to see more of these non-Technical but Business focused type events and I'll feed this back to see if Dom and his team can't get more sessions organised.

Since we spoke, Dom has also announced three other events for West Midlands Partners - here's the full list:-

"Continuing our Regional Activity that commenced this year, I am pleased to share with you the following 3 workshops we have organised for January and February 2009.  To register or for more information, please go to https://partner.microsoft.com/UK/40088421 and then the EVENTS tab quoting the relevant event reference below:

Microsoft Virtualisation & Management Technology Overview

Date: 28^th January 2009

Venue: QA Expertise, 10th Floor, Centre City, 5-7 Hill Street, Birmingham B5 4UA.  (Directions: http://www.xpertise.co.uk/training-locations/birmingham-west-midlands)

Timings:  09:30 for 10:00 start to 14:30 (lunch included)

Synopsis:             Customers are becoming more and more aware of Microsoft’s presence in the Virtualisation space, particularly with Hyper-V, so this is a great opportunity to discuss the technologies with Microsoft Partner Technology Specialists, and see the opportunity for yourselves.

Event ref:           Virtualisation 28/1/09

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Collaboration

Date: 4^th February 2009

Venue: Technology Centre, Wolverhampton Science Park, Wolverhampton, West Midlands WV10 9TG (Directions: http://www.wolverhamptonsp.co.uk/FrameIndex.htm)

Timings:  09:00 for 09:30 start to 12:30 (lunch included)

Synopsis:             In helping Partners understand the value of the Microsoft SharePoint platform and the building block components, both on premise and in the upcoming cloud services, this session is aimed at leaving the Partner better placed to make informed business decisions to help shape their customers future platform of choice.

Event ref: SharePoint 4/2/09

Sales & Licensing 101

Date: 10^th February 2009

Venue: Business Link West Midlands, Advantage House, 19 Ridgeway, Quinton Business Park, Quinton, Birmingham B32 1AL

Timings:  09:00 for 09:30 start to 16:30 (lunch included)

Synopsis:             This session will equip sales people with the knowledge and skills that will enable them to talk to new and existing customers about the business benefits of Microsoft technologies, and associated areas such as licensing.  It is aimed at sales people who are new to a partner organisation and want a good overview of the key Microsoft technologies, and an introduction to Microsoft licensing.

Event ref:            Sales 10/2/09"

So going into 2009 there's every reason to be positive about Microsoft's relationship with it's regional Partner base, from SBSC Partners up-to Gold Certified Partners.

As with all things, it's easy to sit on the fence and moan about what Microsoft can be doing better - but unless you get involved, engage with your fellow Partners and Microsoft and actually feed back suggestions to them, nothing will change! I see Dom's work as having the potential to really drive Microsoft's commitment to the West Midlands forwards - so get involved and show them that there is life North of Watford Gap! :-)

I'm feeling a bit grumpy because the Winter lurgy I've picked up has prevented me from hitting a friends party on a Friday night, so this link made me laugh out loud (in a twisted way).

Ever had somebody intelligent ask you a really dumb question that you knew could be answered with a quick web search?

Do you suspect they're just being bloody lazy?

You may be tempted to respond "Just Google it" but why not send them a link generated by this site instead to allow you to really drive your point home?

Of course if you're on a really short tether at the time of the question then you could also direct them to this site...

Ok - so it's more the pub visit afterwards than the event itself, but here's some snaps...

I've just arrived in London for SMB Nation Europe tomorrow - if you're going (and I know around 100 people are!) then I'll see you down there - and if you're a reader of this blog and we've never met, do introduce yourself!

Just to confirm that if you're attending and want to hit the pub afterwards, then there's a bunch of folk from the SMB Community who'll be doing just that - including Harrybbb - so you're more than welcome to join us to talk geek over a few pints post-event!

Also, a late addition to the days events! :-)

"JUST ADDED!

Essential Business Server Deployment and Migration (HP Lunch speech)

Robert will provide an overview of the new Essential Business Server product, discuss planning and hardware selection and then discuss in detail the unique EBS installation process. Migration and deployment will then be covered, along with some insights from his experience in the field with real world deployments.

Speaker: Robert Adie, MCSE,  MCTS : LCS, OCS, EBS, Hyper-V, CCNA is IT Director for leading Scottish IT and telecommunications solution provider Digital IP. With 10 years experience working with Small Business Server and involvement in EBS for over two years, Robert brings a breadth and depth of knowledge on both the technical and business challenges surrounding SME IT. Having implemented the first production EBS deployment outside the US and two others since, Robert will share his hints and tips for a successful deployment and discuss some of the pitfalls."

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to be a part of a group meeting with the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, Lord Mandelson at the ICC in Birmingham.

The meeting would consist of a number of other fellow business owners from the West Midlands, plus representatives of various Business organisations from across the region. Answering questions were Peter Mandelson, plus Mick Laverty - Chief Executive of Advantage West Midlands, and Ian Austin - Regional Minister for the West Midlands. I'd estimate there were about 100 people in attendance in total and I was lucky enough to be sat front and centre to watch politics in action!

The hour long meeting began with the announcement of the Transitional Loan Fund for the West Midlands - a £4million fund to help established and viable Small Businesses within the region who are experiencing short term cash-flow issues with the goal of preventing them from going under. Mandelson advised that this fund had been made available in part due to the confidence gained by the way the Longbridge Rover crisis was handled within the region. He re-iterated that the West Midlands remained an important base for both the manufacturing and service provision industries.

Talk naturally turned to the "Credit Crunch" and Mandelson stated that the Global Financial Market had not faced a situation like this since the 1930's. The goal for the Government would be to keep cash-flow for SMB's running and as such, they had taken steps to ensure that suppliers to the Government would be paid within 10 days - reduced from 30 days. When queried on this statement later in the day, he did clarify that this applied to suppliers to central Government only - local Government suppliers were not covered. Our experiences as a supplier to to Local Government suggest payment terms in excess of 90 days, and many others I heard from in this meeting suggested this was the norm to.

Mandelson went on to suggest that the Government realised that they needed to apply pressure to big businesses to apply the same payment terms to their suppliers. Ain't that the truth!

Finally, there was the announcement that the Government would be stepping up pressure on banks to provide credit to SME's as they have before.

The remainder of the hour was then spent with the Minister answering questions from the audience. Here are a selection of those questions:-

Q: Bruce Undi - the Infrastructure in the West Midlands is awful. Congestion and lack of facilities causes economic restrictions. Additionally the recent change in ratings of Industrial properties is causing issues.

A: Regarding the Industrial Properties rating scheme, he had heard these complaints before and had flagged them with the Chancellor who is investigating. Regarding Infrastructure issues - Government is committed to helping enterprise move these large projects along - at the moment they are taking far too long.

Q: Andy Mangle - Does the Government have any plans to help businesses where Debtors go bad?

A: The Government is looking at flexibility of payments for both VAT and Taxes.

Q: Peter Steer, IOD - Provided examples of members of the IOD having to wait 90 days+ for payments from Government.

A: Asked that the examples be given to his aide so they could be investigated.

Q: Mike Hill - provided an example of an SMB he knows having their Interest rate increased and their Overdraft limit reduced - and only given 48 hours to comply. The bank in question was RBS.

A: What's important for RBS, re-assuring words apart, is that what is happening at Head Office level is being reflected at Branch level. He had seen examples of Branch offices taking instruction from Head Office too literally. Would like to see banks providing hotlines directly to Head Offices so that any issues can be escalated for resolution. Advised any businesses experiencing problems with Branches to seek advice from Head Offices.

Q: Parminder Singh, a retailer - Retailers are hampered by legislation, business crime and pressure from large retailers. Profits are going down and costs are rising. Believes retail is a stepping stone for the working classes to own a business.

A: Government are working hard to improve consumer confidence which will in turn help local retailers.

Q: Rob Hill - Credit Insurance is becoming a huge issue for exporters. Credit Insurance is being withdrawn or becoming overpriced, meaning SMB's are having to take the risk of exporting on themselves - with the obvious consequences if things go wrong.

A: Had been provided with a number of examples of this problem and is investigating.

Q: Peter Matthews, Black Country Chamber of Commerce - Government needs to improve support for export businesses.

A: Government realises importance of foreign markets and is committed to supporting growth in these areas.

Q: Barry Williams - suggested the Government should initiate a program of short term help for businesses so that they don't have to lay off staff. A similar scheme was run in the 1980's to great success.

A: Agrees this is a good idea, even if the original idea in the 1980's came from the Conservative party, a good idea is a good idea. :-)

Q: There are too few training initiatives to encourage youngsters to take up Manufacturing roles within the West Midlands.

A: Absolutely agreed. Manufacturing needs to show youngsters that such job within it's industry are exciting. It needs to demonstrate that such businesses are a place to sparkle and excite youngsters imagination at a school level.

Q: Louise Hewitt - Concern over the Agency Workers Directive. Temporary Staff are now getting Permanent Staff benefits after as little as 12 weeks in a role.

A: Suggested that opening a dialogue with Regional Trade Union leaders was the way to register opinions on such matters effectively.

Q: Bob Osbourne - Salaries keep going up, workers benefits are increasing all the time. Government should consider the impact on business owners and the cost to SMB's before implementing such reforms.

A: Admitted that Government cannot know that cumulative impact of all legislation it passes.

Q: Alison White, Business Link - Energy Suppliers are incredibly laid back and unprofessional when dealing with SMB's. Gave an example of one energy supplier charging an SMB an incredible amount for a new Electricity Supply, then taking six months to complete the installation.

A: Mandelson had not heard this before. Many many voices in the audience backed up the claim that Energy providers are taking liberties with SMB's.

***

One amusing segment came when a representative of the bank Lloyds TSB spoke up from the audience. He was roundly boo'ed and heckled by everyone in attendance. :-) He did go on to suggest though, that the governments "Small Firm Loan Guarantee Scheme" is of little use - with an APR of 15% it simply wasn't competitive and banks aren't interested in the scheme. Mandelson countered that the banks need to tread carefully - how they deal with customers in the next six months will determine relationships with clients over the next five years.

There was also a question about the appalling state of the housing market and how it made for truly terrifying times for suppliers relying on home sales. Mandelson responded that he felt it would be the first Quarter of 2010 before the housing market improved significantly, and it would be incredibly difficult to encourage companies to invest in building new homes when there simply isn't a demand at the moment.

A few people commented that there was a definite feeling of this being a "frightening time" for SMB's - order books are empty, and many people were asking the Chancellor to be kinder to SMB's in the interim.

After an hour of questions, Lord Mandelson was hurried off to his next appointment but before he he went he suggested that anybody who had questions that he hadn't addressed today was more than happy to drop them to Steve Kennett of the Government Office of the West Midlands - e-mail address steve.kennett@gowm.gsi.gov.uk

Overall - a very interesting meeting which I was glad to be invited to. Despite chatter about "sleaze" and jokes about Mandelson's various publicly documented misdemeanours in the mingling with fellow business owners before and afterwards, Lord Mandelson came off very well in person and seemed very aware and turned on to the issues facing SMB's.

It was very interesting to get involved in such an event and seeing Government debate up close and personal!