The power of “What can be”

Posted on May 22, 2013 by sjkp

(Stephen Parker, Head of Cloud Strategy, NewLease)

The NewLease roadshows across APAC came to an end a few weeks ago.  The current industry hype is around “hybrid cloud”.  However in keeping with the NewLease focus on supporting our service provider partners with their business growth we based the roadshow on the theme of “building a hybrid business”.

This is far more reflective of the real world.  Even if a 3 year plan envisages significant change we still have to bring the customers and staff with us.

The crucial element is the timing and commitment to this “evolution” within the business.  At one extreme we have revolution.  For some this may be required.  At the other end we have a protectionist attitude for the status quo.

Change is of course at the heart of this process and no matter how much we want it to be easy, it is not.  There are so many theories (and their related books) that it can feel impossible to know where to start. I do not have a magic bullet however the following quote seems to me to be a great starting point.

"There are three basic aspects of thinking: 1. What is; 2. What may be; and 3. What can be.’ We are almost totally obsessed with ‘what is’. We underestimate the extremely valuable contribution that ‘what may be’ has made to progress. We do very little about ‘what can be’ even though our future depends entirely on this aspect." - Edward de Bono

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Training is the new Account Management

Posted on May 8, 2013 by sjkp

(Stephen Parker, Head of Cloud Strategy, NewLease)

Spend less time selling and make training a strategic part of your account management activities.

The normal account management model is to:

  • Have a highly skilled (and expensive) person make personal visits to specific individuals at key accounts
  • Use a slightly less experienced person to provide telephone based coverage for your breadth accounts
  • Support the end of the long tail through events, webinars etc
  • Offer all of this for FREE

I suggest that in a world of subscription services where you need to aim for outrageously happy customers – because they are the ones that keep paying each and every month – this is no longer good enough and you need to do more.

In the world of perpetual licensing it is the buyers responsibility to get value from the software they have purchased. However with subscription services, if the “time to value” to too long or the sales process has “over promised” then the customer can simply stop paying.

By providing training as part of your account management process:

  • You ensure the users know how to fully utilise the tools
  • Users are therefore happier and businesses get the promised value (key account management outcome)
  • Knowledgeable users make less support calls hence saving costs.
  • The users are likely to see how the tools could solve other business issues e.g. training on Sharepoint could highlight various workflow related opportunities
  • Users typically share more “opportunities” during a training session vs a formal account management meeting
  • This creates sales opportunities (key account management outcome)
  • Creates a visible value differentiator from you to the customer
  • Whilst appearing to be free, it can actually be built into overall MSP costs

Why not do this:

You are already prepared to allocate expensive sales resources to your customers for FREE so why not:

  • Up-skill your account managers so they can do training during their visits
  • Replace some account management visits with training
  • Build training into you managed service offerings
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License Mobility for Microsoft Dynamics ERP

Posted on November 30, 2012 by sjkp

(Stephen Parker, Head of Cloud Strategy, NewLease)

You may already be aware that Microsoft have been offering License Mobility for a number of their server products e.g. SQLserver, Exchange since July 2011:

At the highest level:

With License Mobility through Software Assurance, you can deploy certain server application licenses purchased under your Volume Licensing agreement in an Authorized Mobility Partner’s datacenter.

What has not been so clear in the Microsoft messaging is that their Dynamics ERP products are also included.

The following wording is from the “License Mobility through Software Assurance on Windows Azure” web page (http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/pricing/license-mobility/).  However it is just as applicable for Service Provider hosting platforms:

Dynamics ERP products, while they are not available through Microsoft Volume Licensing and are not licensed online, have mobility rules that allow for similar use as License Mobility through Software Assurance when deploying in shared environments.

 

References for License Mobility for Dynamics products:

Requirements:

  • Must have active BREP
  • The SPLA partner must sign a LM Addendum
  • Windows Server must be licensed via SPLA

As always if want to know more then reach out to NewLease

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Will there be less sales staff in the Cloud?

Posted on November 30, 2012 by sjkp

(Stephen Parker, head of Cloud Strategy, NewLease)

There is a lot of discussion about how the sales process and role of the sales force will change as we embrace the Cloud and the associated business transformation.

One of the questions I get asked when working with our partners is:

If customers are self qualifying and then doing more online buying, will i have less sales people?

My answer:

YES – if you measure and define this as number of people who have traditional job descriptions as “sales staff”

NO – if we recognise that there will be a wider pool of people who are involved with assisting the customer to buy

For example there will be less dedicated external sales staff who go to visit the customer.  However there will be more occasions where the first customer contact will be within the customer services, support, training functions etc.  Therefore there will be a wider group of people who will be fulfilling a “sales” role.

So we will have less traditional sales staff, however we will need to invest in more sales training.

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Microsoft SQLServer 2012 moves to Core license model

Posted on November 22, 2012 by sjkp

(Stephen Parker, head of Cloud Strategy, NewLease)

Microsoft SQLServer 2012 has been well received as a significant upgrade from the 2008 R2 release.  One area that may have missed peoples attention is the shift from Processor to Core licensing.  Ultimately Microsoft have realised that the flat fee Processor licensing model that worked well (for them and partners) when processors typically only had 2-4 cores falls down (for Microsoft) when processors have 8, 16 or more cores.

To that end Microsoft have shifted licensing for SQLServer 2012 to a core based model.  The following slides (from Microsoft) provide an overview and a few examples.  You may also find the following couple of links useful:

IF YOU ARE AN EXISTING NEWLEASE PARTNER AND NEED FURTHER INFORMATION THEN PLEASE CONTACT YOUR ACCOUNT MANAGER OR NEWLEASE PARTNER SERVICES ON 1300-885812

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Big Data and the Cloud

Posted on October 24, 2012 by sjkp

(Stephen Parker, Head of Cloud Strategy, NewLease)

After “Cloud”, “Big Data” is one of the buzz words at the moment.  I was recently asked how they were connected and for some examples.  Following is a summary of my reply:

One of the biggest challenges for all businesses will be that Big Data will require staff who can make Big Judgements.

Some of the obvious examples of Cloud and Big Data are with organisations that have large existing data sets. The connection is that all of these benefit from the cloud attributes of low cost storage, on-demand/elastic compute and consumption based billing:

  • Large retail businesses such as Supermarkets have huge loyalty card and buying data.  By mapping this to other datasets such as demographics, weather patterns etc they can enhance stock management and deliver highly targeted advertising. E.g. Target’s Big Data spend analytics can predict early stage pregnancy and send related marketing (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2102859/How-Target-knows-shoppers-pregnant–figured-teen-father-did.html)
  • Pharmaceuticals can run more potential drugs through early stage simulation and modeling hence increasing the possibility of finding the next “big” one
  • Governments in general.  Cross functional and departmental analysis has the potential to reduce government wastage and enhance services to the tax payer (you and me!!).  However this is a highly sensitive subject with all sorts of privacy implications.
  • Health services.  Again ability to centralize health data with external data sets such as demographics has the ability to predict viral outbreaks and implement timely prevention.

An interesting future example of real public cloud and big data will be the Square Kilometre Array (http://www.skatelescope.org/).  This will be deployed in WA (along with South Africa).  Just as the need for simplified and open access to information at CERN drove Tim Berners-Lee to lay the foundations for the Internet, so the SKA has the potential to drive a similar transformation with the Cloud.

  • It is predicted that the SKA when fully live in 2024 will generate 1TB/sec of data
  • This is a “public” project supported by multiple nation states who will all want research access to the data.
  • The volumes and compute are ideally suited to the cloud model (http://www.skatelescope.org/uploaded/8762_134_Memo_Newman.pdf)

Big data is often seen as a preserve of big organizations.  Cloud consumption based pricing for compute will democratize access to Big Data for Small & Medium Businesses.

  • Large data sets will be made available by various organisations, both public and private sector.
  • SME’s will have some arrangement to access the data.  This maybe free or on a commercial basis.
  • They will then use elastic compute resources with consumption based pricing to analyse these data sets
  • Service providers will provide the aggregation points, the analysis tools and billing
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Cloud – It’s all about trust

Posted on October 24, 2012 by sjkp

(Stephen Parker, HEad of Cloud Strategy, NewLease)

Cloud is hot and yet as something that is still relatively new, people understandably have concerns.  What about security, does it matter if my data is off-shore, how do I get my data back etc etc.

These (and the many others) are all perfectly reasonable questions that the suppliers of cloud services need to be able to answer.  However the ultimate success (or not ) of the Cloud will be dependant upon how much we as consumers of the services are prepared to trust the supplier.

When we send a package to New York with UPS/FedEx we do not ask to inspect the maintenance logs for the aeroplane our precious package will be on.  We do not ask to see the qualifications of the pilots. We do not ask for detailed proof of the route our package will take to New York and the efficiency of the logistics process.  We trust that UPS/FedEx are capable of delivering this service as promised.

The challenge at the moment is that there are still too many examples of where trust has been broken:

1. Security breaches such as Sony in 2011 (and even when not Cloud related) – http://www.informationweek.com/security/attacks/6-worst-data-breaches-of-2011/232301079 

2. Rapid addition of capability is a Cloud trademark, but what about rapid removal of capability without reasonable notice?  A recent example is that Google gave 3 days notice of a change in support for Microsoft Office file formats (after “feedback” this is now extended to early 2013) – http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-19741880

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Office 2013 Client Apps available under Subscription

Posted on October 23, 2012 by sjkp

(Stephen Parker, Head of Cloud Strategy, NewLease)

Microsoft are expanding the Office 365 brand with the 2013 wave of products. This will include various versions of the server products but interestingly you will also be able to purchase the Office 2013 client apps separately but still as a subscription, called Office 365 Pro Plus

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg702619(v=office.15).aspx

Not yet official but the rumoured line-up looks like it will be:

  • Office 365 Home Premium
  • Office 365 Small Business
  • Office 365 Small Business Premium
  • Office 365 ProPlus
  • Office 365 Midsize Business
  • Office 365 Enterprise
  • Office 365 University
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Congratulations to Julie Cooper the 2012 ARN Winner for Sales Excellence

Posted on September 19, 2012 by boughty

We were thrilled to be nominated and subsequently Highly Commended by ARN as a Solutions Distributor of the Year, but NewLease’s success is built on the hard work and dedication of our team.

So I’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate Julie Cooper for winning the ARN Personal Innovation Sales Excellence Award last night.  Suffice it to say, Julie rocks and we couldn’t me more excited for her.

If you see her, please feel free to shout out a good and well deserved hoorah.

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