RCPU will be in Orlando, America's capital of culture and sophistication, this
week for Microsoft's Convergence conference. So, instead of breaking up our
newsletter coverage the way we've been doing it since January -- industry news
on Tuesday, product news on Wednesday and channel news on Thursday, with a general
rant leading off each day's edition -- we'll be bringing you all Convergence,
all the time on Wednesday and Thursday.
Check back for updates on everything that's going on in the Microsoft Dynamics
universe, along with snarky rants about the vapid atmosphere of central Florida
(although we won't likely complain about the weather). It'll be a fun time for
all!
Posted by Lee Pender on 03/11/20080 comments
The big distributor's results for its fourth fiscal quarter were strong, and
its stock price
jumped
accordingly
this week.
Posted by Lee Pender on 03/06/20080 comments
A new CDW survey gives us the chance to use one of the great hackneyed phrases
in journalism: cautiously optimistic. Anyway, that's pretty much how IT decision
makers feel about 2008, the
survey
indicates
.
Posted by Lee Pender on 03/06/20080 comments
If the European Union's
constant
brow-beating of Microsoft
has had a positive effect, it's that Redmond has
opened itself up to letting its products work at least a little bit better with
those from other vendors.
Now, on the one hand, that's not all good news for Microsoft and its channel.
After all, the "better together" pitch that Microsoft has used for
years is a little bit weaker than it used to be. Prior to Microsoft's new era
of semi-openness, a decent pitch when selling one thing from Microsoft was that
a customer might as well buy everything else from Microsoft, too, because nothing
works with a Microsoft product quite as well another Microsoft product.
More
Posted by Lee Pender on 03/06/20080 comments
You can go ahead and
throw
it
against a wall if you get a blue screen, we suppose.
Posted by Lee Pender on 03/05/20080 comments
So, now, it's Office Live Workspace that's open for
worldwide
public beta
-- with the possibility of winning $100,000 hanging tantalizingly
in the air.
It's just another day and another SaaS-related announcement for Microsoft (remember
this
one from earlier this week), which has rapidly gone from lost on SaaS to
gung-ho on the hosted model -- although we'd still like to see Redmond clean
up the mess that is "Live" branding. With Microsoft now challenging
Google's supposed domination of all things Web, observers are starting to wonder
whether Redmond can really keep up with its Silicon Valley rival. One even posits
that Microsoft is chasing online dollars (in vain) out
of jealousy toward Google.
More
Posted by Lee Pender on 03/05/20081 comments
For folks who follow standards stuff (which we don't, at least not all that
closely),
here's
a story
about standards being the defaults in the next version of IE.
Posted by Lee Pender on 03/05/20080 comments
It seems that from houses to cars to software, buying isn't so popular anymore.
It's renting that's in -- or coming in, if Microsoft's most recent big announcement
is any indication.
Microsoft this week unveiled Microsoft
Online Services for companies of all sizes. Previously, and somewhat incongruously,
MOS (our name, not an official Redmond tag) had been available only to companies
with 5,000 employees or more. Now, it's out there for the audience that seems
most likely to crave it, SMBs.
More
Posted by Lee Pender on 03/04/20081 comments
The "Vista Capable" class-action suit has exposed a
raft
of internal e-mails
that show just how messed up things can get inside a
company like Microsoft. There's even more hilarity
here
.
Posted by Lee Pender on 03/04/20080 comments