Eric Ligman

Microsoft SMS&P Blog

Eric writes this blog for the Microsoft SMS&P Partner Community. Eric Ligman is Director, Worldwide Partner Experience at Microsoft Corporation.

EricLigmanMSFT@facebook.com

Director, Worldwide Partner Experience, Microsoft Corp.

Today is a very exciting day as the “Xbox – A New Generation Revealed” press event has arrived! Not only has the day arrived, but you have the opportunity to join us live for this exciting day from wherever you are, and here’s how:

First, the event starts at 10:00 am Pacific Time, which is 1:00 pm Eastern time.

 
1. You can join us online through the Xbox.com site HERE
   
2. You can join on your Xbox via Xbox Live
   
3. If you are located in the U.S. or in Canada, you can also watch the broadcast on Spike TV
   
4. Join in on the conversation and excitement online by using and following the #XboxReveal hashtag on Twitter
 

As noted on the Xbox Wire page, during today’s event “we’ll share our vision for Xbox, and give you a real taste of the future. “

So be sure to tune in and join us today for the excitement!

Did you find this information helpful? If so, you may want to make sure you are utilizing all of the areas I share information online, such as:

       
• My Twitter account
               
• Read more.

Tomorrow night is the 2013 SMB 150 Awards Banquet being held here on the Microsoft campus, and I am honored to be joining the other nominees who were selected to be an SMB 150 Award winner again this year. As I have mentioned in past years when I was given the honor of being chosen for this award, “One of the things I truly like about the SMB 150 Awards is that the nominees and the final 150 are selected by the SMB channel community itself through a voting process. It is the SMB channel that selects their top 150 influencers.”

I really do appreciate all of you in the community who nominated me for this, and for casting your votes for me as well. In addition, I would like to extend my congratulations to all of the other 2013 SMB 150 Award winners, and thank you all for your contributions to the SMB segment. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow evening at the Awards Banquet, and it looks like we are going to have fantastic weather here for the event.

Did you find this information helpful? If so, you may want to make sure you are utilizing all of the areas I share information online, such as:

       
• My Twitter account
               
• My Linkedin account
              ...

Today I am happy to welcome Microsoft Virtual Academy to the Microsoft Partner Info Mobile App! At approximately noon PST today, the Microsoft Virtual Academy stream was added into the Microsoft Partner Info Mobile App (through dynamic updating powered by Windows Azure) and can now be found inside the People section of the app:

So what is Microsoft Virtual Academy? In their own words, “Microsoft Virtual Academy provides free online training & live training events for IT Pros & Developers on Windows Server, Windows 8, HTML5, Visual Studio & more.” They have several online properties, including:

 
• Twitter
 
• Blog
 
• Facebook

Now, for those of you with the Microsoft Partner Info Mobile App installed on your Windows Phone, you’ll have access to the latest shared from Microsoft Virtual Academy at your fingertips, whenever you want! Be sure to check out the Microsoft Virtual Academy stream in the Microsoft... Read more.

A couple of days ago, I put up a post here to let you know that we’re down to the final days to get your WPC 2013 Award nomination in, and to encourage you to get going on your WPC 2013 Partner of the Year Award nominations so that you get your chance at winning one of these prizes. Well, there is another incredibly important deadline upon us, and this one can save you $200 off the price of your WPC 2013 All-access pass: the Early Bird Discount. That’s right, you have less than two days left to take advantage of the Early Bird Discount and save $200 off your registration fee.

When you take advantage of this offer, you can register for an all access pass for US$1,795 and save US$200 off the regular price of US$1,995.

So enough of the reading about the Early Bird Discount here, instead, go HERE and get your WPC 2013 registration in now so you too can save the $200 on your WPC 2013 registration fee.

Did you find this information helpful? If so, you may want to make sure you are utilizing all of the... Read more.

Each year at Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC), Microsoft recognizes partners who have delivered exemplary solutions built on Microsoft technologies through the Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards. This year is no exception, and once again, winners of these prestigious awards will receive a collection of fantastic prizes, including: acknowledgement in press releases, a marketing kit (which includes award logos, local press templates, and Web banners) with which to promote their accomplishments, signs and other acknowledgement throughout WPC, on-stage recognition, congratulations from key Microsoft executives, entrance to an awards luncheon, and more.

To win one of these awards, you must get your nominations in though and your time to get those nominations in is about up. In fact, the deadline is just days away (April 5, 2013 at 11:59 P.M. Pacific Time)! We have several resources available for you to help you on your endeavor to submit your nomination and here they are:

 
• Step-by-step tutorial on uploading your entry
 
• Award Nomination Tool
 
• 2013 Partner of the Year Award guidelines (PDF)
 
• FAQ (PDF) <...

Last summer, I put up the Record revenues and satisfaction with Microsoft partners! Satisfaction survey is just around the corner and we’re ready for another great year together post here on my blog talking about the incredible results we received from you, our Microsoft partners and customers around the world, in response to our semi-annual Global Relationship Study (GRS) Survey that we send in the Fall and Spring timeframes. In that post, I shared several tips for you on how to ensure your contact info was up to date and in order to ensure you had the best chances of being included in our GRS Survey so that you too could share your specific input and feedback with us on how satisfied you are with your Microsoft relationship at this time. Then in October, I shared with you the The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth post, where I provided some insights into the survey itself, topics covered, the importance of open and honest feedback (give us the good, the bad, and the ugly), and the importance of detailed input and feedback you can provide to us through this survey. One example I shared was:

“When it comes to the open ended questions where you can provide full commentary feedback, please use... Read more.

Several years ago, we introduced a The Big Easy Offer, a program that provides Microsoft partner subsidy dollars to companies that purchase qualifying Microsoft products through various Volume Licensing programs, such as the Open Business, Open Value, and Open Value Subscription programs. Since that time, The Big Easy has become, and still remains, one of the most popular offers we have year over year! Why? It’s simple really…

 
1. One of the great things about the Big Easy Offer is that the more you buy, the larger your partner subsidy check and as you buy from more product pools, your subsidy continues to increase.
   
2. With the Big Easy Offer, the partner subsidy check is made out to the Microsoft partner of your choice and delivered directly to you. You then simply give the check to your selected Microsoft partner and use the funds to pay for things like implementation services for your newly acquired Microsoft solutions, or custom development work to augment your Microsoft solutions, or to purchase additional Microsoft software or associated services from the eligible Microsoft partner of your choice.
   
3. Flexibility of choice: We know that you may acquire your software licenses from one Microsoft partner and use the implementation services of another Microsoft partner to install, configure, and customize the solution inside your business. With the Big Easy Offer, you get to choose which qualifying Microsoft partner the subsidy check is made out to, and it does not need to be the partner you acquired your licenses...
Read more.