Kicking and Screaming I am Bloggin

The date for our next meeting is December 2, 2008
Regular Time 6:00pm
Last meeting was November 4, 2008

ATTENTION WE ARE MOVING OUR MEETINGS TO NEW HORIZONS IN DECEMBER

Yes that is right starting with the Dec 2, 2008 meeting, we will be gathering at our new home located at
7019 Albert Pick Road Suite B Greensboro, NC 27409

You will need to arrange for your own food, there is a pizza & sandwich place across the parking lot, here is their MENU, I spoke to him and he said they would be happy to deliver to us at 6:00pm which is when the close. So if you are interested call in your order, the number is on the pdf.

Coming up for this meeting we have a real treat, Ben Yarbrough who was a lawyer in his last life before starting Calyptix will be speaking to us about E-Discovery. Here is a little explanation in his own words;
With “E-discovery” costs routinely reaching  $300 per gigabyte ($1800 after all the lawyers and consulting fees!), E-discovery may be a lurking pitfall for data retention and the small businesses. Join us in a presentation and discussion on how the technology choices that you recommend, implement or overlook may save or even devastate your client.  This discussion will initiate a dialog on E-Discovery and common community technology practices to develop guidance - How to synchronizing “best IT practices” with “best legal practices.”   Ben Yarbrough, a practicing attorney and now CEO of Calyptix Security will facilitate the community discussion with an introduction of the discovery rules, issues and special considerations.

And just so you know, we will be starting the year off right in January listening to Bruce Marshall (who heads up the Local Engagement Team for Microsoft) explain how his team is ready to partner with us and help drive business to your door. You do want some new business don’t you?

Keep an eye on our website at www.tSBSg.org for updates

Just got this note from Jason Harrison, thought I would share it here, Thankx Jason

 This past Monday Microsoft released Office Accounting 2009 Express and Professional editions.  In a surprise move, they have made it a free upgrade to everyone who has any version of Office Accounting.  That includes the original release under the Small Business Accounting 2006 name all the way through the 2008 releases.

For more information and to download the code, go to www.ideawins.com.  Click on the “Current Customers” link to the left for official details.

Office Accounting 2007 and 2008 were included in previous Action Pack Subscriptions.  So was Small Business Accounting 2006.  All you have to do to upgrade to 2009 is download it and install using the code provided for 2007 / 2008.  The same is true if you are using Small Business Accounting 2006; however, there are a few more steps involved in the upgrade process.  See the how to upgrade links on the site for details (they are located on the “Current Customers” page about mid-way down on the right).

I am continuing my work with the OA team on the professional consulting level.  If there are features and functionality you would like to see added to OA, feel free to pass them along to me.  I have a direct line to the team that is responsible for feature and functionality additions to the product.  There are still lots of development things going on with OA and there will be an SP1 on the horizon.  They are also discussing a very feature rich SP2.

If you ever have any Office Accounting related questions or issues feel free to tap me as a resource.  Business process automation / business management is a specialty area.  We are like a mini Microsoft Business Solutions consulting partner.

If your firm has not made the transition to working with and supporting business process automation and small business accounting solutions yet, now is the time.  Adding these types of solutions to your portfolio will expand you contact surface with every client and ultimately provides the best route to becoming a real “trusted business advisor” in the area where technology and business intersect.  I can tell you that after almost 19 years (ad of Jan 1^st 2009) of having this business model it is very lucrative and will place you shoulder to shoulder with the CPA, attorney, and business consultant in your client’s eyes.   Taking that step can turn your services from commodity to irreplaceable strategic business asset.

In addition to the above, broadening you skills into these areas can help prepare your firm for the eventual shift to the SaaS model.  While I personally feel that broad SaaS adoption is really about 5 to 10 years off (depending on where you live due to infrastructure requirements – i.e. very fast, super reliable, broadband), it will still arrive and have a significant impact on all of our businesses.  With the infrastructure requirements going down for many small businesses (no more server in most cases and much simpler overall network environments) expanding skills in helping clients utilize small business technology solutions for business management will be a critical part of everyone’s future in this business.  These skills will be “transferable” into the brave new SaaS world when it fully arrives.

Office Accounting offers a great platform.  When combined with other solutions such as Business Contact Manager for Outlook, Small Business Server, Response Point, and other 3^rd party solutions, there is nothing else like it in the small business accounting solution space.  Its integration capabilities provide incredible value added money making opportunities.  We know!  We reap the benefits every week!  From building custom reporting solutions with Excel and / or Access to integrating Office Accounting with a number of robust third party solutions like Small Business Manufacturing, OA provides and incredible platform.  You can further integrate it with SharePoint, business intelligence KPI dashboard solutions and more.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  Wishing you and yours a wonderful holiday break!

All the best,

Jason Harrison

Harrison Technology Consulting

jharrison@harrisontechconsulting.com

www.harrisontechconsulting.com

When I first got this note, I thought cool MS is adding another goodie to SA, but after careful analysis it is enough to get me to stop selling SA completely. Sorry MS it is about survival, I have a business to run.

Take a look at the announcement below (yes i changed the name), watch for the text I changed to red.
The way I read that is, once again MS will walk-in to my client with their favorite son under their arm to cut you out of the loop. Part of an ongoing process to dump partners (as pointed out on clearly on  Vlad’s Blog). You might want to contact your tpam and find out what it takes to become a BVPS, there must be some secret hand shake or something.

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Thought I would share an e-mail with y’all that went out to the SBS Chat DL this evening.

Hi Gang,

It has become quite clear to me that the SBS monthly chat has fallen from grace with the majority of you.

The last few months the attendance has been less than a dozen folks per chat, with last month’s crowning glory of just me & Jeff; and we can chat on IM anytime.

I do not want to fill your mailboxes with spam about a Chat you are not planning on attending anyways, so I will not be holding it any longer.

I spoke to Jeff today and he is willing to continue to offer a monthly chat (he is such an optimist) in the same form or something similar. If you have suggestions or feedback, please send your thoughts to SBSchat@SBSmigration.com. If he should decide to give it a try, he will  be building a new mailing list so if you want to be involved, make sure to ping him and let him know. Just do me one last favor, don’t signup and then never bother to attend, it is very disheartening to the organizer to put in all that effort for naught.

It has been a lot of fun over the past many years, but times change and folks it seems, are getting their content differently nowadays.

I am sure we will be running into each other at industry & UG events around the world. If you are trying to keep up with HA, keep an eye on my UG site www.TriadSBSgroup.org, my blog http://blog.sbs-rocks.com , my website www.sbs-rocks.com and finally the SBS forum I have moderated for years  http://mcpmag.com/forums/forum_topics.asp?fid=67 . As always I am available to help out with your tough SBS issues.

While I have your attention, don’t forget next Wednesday is the official launch of SBS2008 and EBS2008, if you have not registered for the virtual event yet, here is the link http://events.techtarget.com/EssentialServerSolutions/

TTFN,

HA

Ps, Please Remember, SBS Rocks!

Andy Goodman, SBS-MVP, SBSC, MSA, Andy”at”SBS-Rocks.com
~New Blog at http://blog.sbs-rocks.com
~Founding Father SMBTN Triad NC Group http://www.smbtn-nc-triad.org/
~Co-Author Advanced Windows Small Business Server 2003 Best Practices
~DownHome Computers <http://www.SBS-Rocks.com/>
~”If you can’t find the key to success, pick the lock.”
~~~~~Author Unknown

From:

Click image to go to the original article

Daylight Savings Time for 2008 will end this weekend on Sunday, November 2^nd.  This is a reminder to those who have not applied their DST patches to the SBS 2003 network to do so as soon as possible.  Common issues that are fixed by these patches include:

1.      Calendar items and appointments in Outlook are off by an hour

2.      Timestamps in OWA are off by an hour

3.      Time skews between patched and un-patched machines

4.      Date and Time fields are off by an hour in Sharepoint

5.      SQL Server notifications are delayed

For the full list of updates that are applicable to the SBS 2003 environment please visit:

http://blogs.technet.com/sbs/archive/2007/02/13/extended-daylight-saving-time-sbs-2003-and-you.aspx

There are several methods to check for these updates, including:

1.      Use the official Microsoft Daylight Savings Time Help Center at http://support.microsoft.com/gp/cp_dst

2.      Run the SBS 2003 Best Practices Analyzer from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=3874527A-DE19-49BB-800F-352F3B6F2922&displaylang=en

3.      To check the OS only (client or server) run the “w32tm /tz” command.

If you have any further questions on DST and the DST changes please see: http://support.microsoft.com/gp/cp_dst

How to check the timezone setting using “w32tm /tz”:

The output will look like this for the Central timezone on a patched machine:
Time zone: Current:TIME_ZONE_ID_DAYLIGHT Bias: 360min (UTC=LocalTime+Bias)
[Standard Name:"Central Standard Time" Bias:0min Date:(M:11 D:1 DoW:0)]
[Daylight Name:"Central Daylight Time" Bias:-60min Date:(M:3 D:2 DoW:0)]

What you want to look for is M:11, this translates to “Month 11: November” for
start of Standard Time. (M:3 which is “Month 3: March” for start of Daylight
Standard Time.)

An unpatched machine will show the following:
Time zone: Current:TIME_ZONE_ID_STANDARD Bias: 360min (UTC=LocalTime+Bias)
[Standard Name:"Central Standard Time" Bias:0min Date:(M:10 D:5 DoW:0)]
[Daylight Name:"Central Daylight Time" Bias:-60min Date:(M:4 D:1 DoW:0)]

A patched machine that does not have “Automatically adjust clock for daylight saving
changes” set will show:
Time zone: Current:TIME_ZONE_ID_DAYLIGHT Bias: 360min (UTC=LocalTime+Bias)
[Standard Name:"Central Standard Time" Bias:0min Date:(M:11 D:1 DoW:0)]
[Daylight Name:"Central Standard Time" Bias:0min Date:(M:11 D:1 DoW:0)]