Here is your chance to be among the first to receive Visual Studio 2010 Professional upon it’s release, as well as an offer to help you save some money and get something extra.  Right now there is a promotion running for those interested in pre-ordering the Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional Upgrade that offers a few really nice benefits:

• Save you up to $250 off the Estimated Retail Price
• Receive a 12-month MSDN Essentials subscription
• Be among the first to get it  (Downloadable on April 12th)

You can see full details of this promotion online on the Microsoft website.

In addition, you can also download the Visual Studio 2010 Professional RC today if you want to get a look at what all is included in the latest version of Visual Studio.

Thank you and have a wonderful day,

For those of you in the UK, Microsoft is launching the first of three Bing television ads that will be hitting the airways today, Wednesday, March 10th across ITV, Channel 4, Five and their portfolio of TV services as well as Sky Media and IDS digital channels including Bravo, Dave, GOLD, Living TV and Good Food. 

Want a peek at the first one?  Here you go:

Thank you and have a wonderful day,

Eric Ligman – Follow me on TWITTER and RSS
Global Partner Experience Lead
Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights

As a follow-up to my earlier, “Microsoft Open License Basics – You only need 2 computers to qualify for Volume Licensing” post where I showed you that you only need five (5) licenses, not five (5) computers, to qualify for Microsoft’s Open License and Open Value Volume Licensing programs, in this post I will clear up another misconception out there about that five (5) license minimum.  As my previous post stated, yes, you do need to make a purchase of five (5) Licenses, Licenses + Software Assurance, or Software Assurance at one time to start a new Open License or Open Value license agreement; however, did you know that for your subsequent orders, there is no minimum number you need to purchase?  That’s right!  You can buy one at a time if you want.

Let me show you how this works visually below, but first, let’s refer back to a few data points from my,

Here is a misunderstanding I come across from time to time.  I will be talking with a Partner or see a conversation between a couple of Partners and someone will say something like, “My client does not qualify for Volume Licensing because they don’t have 5 computers,” or “My client is not big enough for Volume Licensing.”  At Microsoft, our Volume Licensing programs, such as Open License and Open Value, are designed to be available to clients that have as few as two (2) computers.  How?  Let me show you:

Both the Open License and Open Value licensing programs require a minimum order of five (5); however, it is not 5 computers, it is 5 Licenses (for Open License) or 5 Licenses+Software Assurance or Software Assurance alone (for Open Value).  In fact, here is an example of how a two computer company could easily qualify for Open License (and there are several today already utilizing these programs for their companies):

Today, Microsoft announced the decision to streamline our server product portfolio and that we will discontinue future development of Essential Business Server, effective June 30^th, 2010.  A few points about this announcement:

• Microsoft remains fully committed to small and medium-sized businesses and the Partners who serve them
• This decision not to ship future versions of EBS will not impact any other Windows Server products and solutions, including the next version of Windows Small Business Server (SBS)
• This decision not to ship future versions of EBS does not come lightly
• The technology capabilities many midsize businesses are turning to (such as virtualization, management, and cloud computing) are already available through other offerings, including: Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft System Center and the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS)
• We are going to provide a limited offer (June 30, 2010 through December 31, 2010) for all EBS 2008 customers where they can get the individual component software from the EBS 2008 suite for free (local taxes, shipping and handling charges may apply)

Here’s a quick note for all of you Partners in the U.S. Central Region Heartland Area.  Based on overwhelming partner feedback, The Heartland Area team has evolved the Heartland Partner Briefing Series into a new format that offers you a shortened event, packed full of valuable content, giving you the information you need and time back in the day to focus on your business!  In this spring round of events will be dedicated exclusively to Cloud Computing and the “Power of Choice”.  You’ll hear about how you can take the power of the cloud to your customers and integrate the Microsoft Online Services Offering for your customers as their needs evolve.

Here is a quick view of the agenda for these Partner briefings:

• 8:15-9:00 AM - Registration and Networking: Continental Breakfast provided and the speakers will be available in advance for networking.
• 9:00-9:15 AM - Welcome and Executive Address: Local Microsoft executive will welcome the attendees, kick off the morning session, and provide insight to how the Power of Choice will be a compelling vision for partners and customers.

The time has come to start submitting your nominations for this year’s WPC 2010 Award winners, and yes, this means you!  As in past years, the WPC 2010 Awards winners will be chosen from those nominations submitted to us and the nomination process  open now until April 2, 2010.  Now just because you can submit until April 2^nd, don’t go put it off and say, “I’ll get to it next week,” because we all know what will happen…  Something comes up next week, then the week after, etc. etc. until it’s April 3^rd and the panic email comes in saying, “Can I still submit a nomination?” and the unfortunate answer will be, “Sorry, nomination submissions ended yesterday.”  So get working on your nomination submissions now to make sure you get yours in and you secure your chance to be chosen as a winner this year.

This year we have expanded the WPC 2010 Awards to include showcase even more partner solutions and we have introduced a new,

Today, Microsoft announced the Windows Phone 7 Series!  If you were watching the Steve Ballmer Windows Phone 7 Series announcement from MWC today, you got to see and hear some of the very exciting things about the new Windows Phone 7 Series, coming by the holiday season 2010.  The new interface, bringing together so many of the items and collections of information and entertainment that you use today, into your phone at your fingertips is fantastic!

Windows Phone 7 Series brings your information together through various “hubs” right through the main interface to make it simple and easy to use.  For instance:

• People - This hub delivers an engaging social experience by bringing together relevant content based on the person, including his or her live feeds from social networks and photos.
• Pictures - This hub makes it easy to share pictures and video to a social network in one step.

If you have followed my blog for any amount of time, you know that getting feedback from you and understanding your experiences with the Microsoft Volume Licensing Service Center site on an ongoing basis has been something I have been very focused on.  Now, here is another opportunity for you.  Are you interested in participating in a usability study for Microsoft’s Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC) website in order to be able to provide direct feedback and input to us on your experience?  Here is your chance.

The Microsoft Customer & Partner Experience (CPE) team would like to interview customers and resellers/Partners in the process of using the Microsoft Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC) to learn more about your experience. As you may know, VLSC is an online tool for managing Microsoft Volume Licensing program agreements, downloading licensed products, and accessing volume license keys.

We are looking for people from around the world, both from businesses that are Microsoft customers as well as those that are Microsoft Partners, to participate in these sessions.

I am posting up a quick notice today to let you know about something I will be posting on Monday that may be of interest to you because I know that not all of you have subscribed to my Blog, so you don’t all get the automatic feed of posts, and that all of you do not come here on a daily basis, so you may not be here on Monday.  This way if you are here today, you’ll be aware of this opportunity coming on Monday so you can come back and take advantage of it if it is of interest to you.

The Microsoft Customer & Partner Experience (CPE) team would like to interview customers and partners in the process of using the Microsoft Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC) to learn more about your experience.  We are looking for a mix of customers and Partners from a variety of geographic locations to speak with in these interviews.