Powers Unfiltered

Powersunfiltered readers know that I’m a believer in the effectiveness of marketing events — but only with sufficient planning and preparation.  (For a refresher course in the Powers School of Events, start here.)  As reported here last week, Digipede had a station in the Partner Pavillion at the Windows Server 2008 launch in LA last Wednesday.  I watched Ballmer (good), […]

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Dan Ciruli, Nathan Trueblood and I will be at the Windows Server 2008 Launch in Los Angeles tomorrow. Wear our sticker at this event — you could win an XBox 360! Digipede has a station in the “Partner Pavillion” in the LA Convention Center, at which we will be demonstrating the only grid computing solution […]

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I am in Bellevue, Washington today and tomorrow for a meeting of Microsoft partners in financial services.  The meeting is in one of Microsoft’s many local offices.  (If any of my loyal Microsoft readers want to get together, please contact me and we’ll work something out.) The financial services IT market is going through some interesting […]

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In the spirit of Todd Weatherby’s comments about opening a dialog regarding the Microsoft Partner Program Web Site, here are five technical things Microsoft could do to improve interactions with partners and customers.  I (and other partners) have put forward some more radical ideas for redesign of partner program policies and tools, but let’s start […]

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I got an email from the VSIP program last night, requesting that I fill out a satisfaction survey.  I did so happily — there’s nothing like a quick dose of VSIP to wash away the taste of a bad MSPP experience. (OK, too much jargon — sorry. Let me explain.) The Visual Studio Industry Partners […]

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For the folks following our Adventures in Partnerland, here’s an update. About two weeks ago, I wrote a post here about how the persistent technical difficulties with the Microsoft Partner Program Web site (partners.microsoft.com) had spilled over from every-day inconvenience to genuine negative impact on our relations with our customers. I howled, because I think […]

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All my regular readers know I use the Microsoft partner Web sites fairly often, and that I experience frustrating time-sucking issues almost as often. Believe me, I spare my readership the great majority of my experiences with the unending nightmare that is the Microsoft partner online world, and when I do raise these issues I’m […]

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I will be attending an event called “Advancements in Quantitative Finance,” sponsored by Microsoft and its partners, on Wednesday 12/12 in Midtown. Information on this free event, including how to register, is found here: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032358329 The agenda looks good; the presentations appear to be primarily financial customers and academic experts, not Microsoft or other vendor […]

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I am back home from SC ’07, my fifth Supercomputing conference. I saw some really impressive new technology from market leaders old and new. I heard remarkable claims and forecasts from analysts, pundits, and marketing flacks alike. I learned a lot, and contributed what I could. Yet at this conference, full of the so-called thought […]

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As a vocal detractor of Microsoft’s Channel Builder, I feel I have to report anything positive that happens there, too (note that prior to this week I have never had anything even remotely good to report in my 2.5 year history of using this tragically misguided Microsoft tool). So I promise, buried in this long […]

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