Has Microsoft got it wrong with their Surface Strategy?

March 11, 2013 Leave a comment

imageThroughout its history Microsoft has always been the mass-market, high volume, value for money software maker.

Windows was the Ford to the Apple Mac’s Mercedes.

SQL Server was the Chrysler to Oracle’s Jaguar.

With Surface though, we seem have a change of strategy from Microsoft. For the first time that I can see, they are chasing the premium business model of Apple, and seemingly leaving the middle ground for others to fight over.

Perhaps they think their hardware partners can do a good enough job of delivering mid-market Windows tablets.

I doubt it.

What I see is Android devices cleaning up in the low to mid-market (you can get 7” Android tablets for about £80 now) and Apple retaining and growing its premium position… Leaving Microsoft the crumbs of a declining middle-market.

Just like GM and Ford when Nissan and Toyota arrived on the scene.

As an ex-softie I have a lot of warm feelings towards Microsoft, but I think the next 10 years could be the hardest 10 years in their history.

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Say Hello to HonestyBoxx

March 11, 2013 Leave a comment

HonestyBoxx - Earn Money from Your Expertise

With all the other launch activities last week – I didn’t get round to making the announcement here – so let’s put that right…

As a small business providing services to clients, you’ll no doubt have found people contacting you asking for ten or fifteen minutes of your time to give them your expert advice… for free.

At the same time there are a whole host of other people who are put off seeking the advice of professionals by the expectation of high fees and long contracts, often turning to internet forums for guidance instead.

What’s missing is a simple way for people to get expert advice from trusted professionals at a fair price.

Meet HonestyBoxx

HonestyBoxx helps start-ups, small businesses and individuals access affordable expertise from lawyers, accountants, consultants and other services professionals, and helps professionals from across the globe find new clients.

When a small business adds HonestyBoxx to their blog or website they’re telling visitors that they are happy to answer their questions in exchange for a fair fee. By providing an easy way to collect questions and payment from website visitors, HonestyBoxx instantly provides a new source of revenue and a stream of warm leads for larger pieces of work.

HonestyBoxx WidgetWith HonestyBoxx the buyer asks their question and says how much they’d be happy to pay – just like the honesty box payment system you sometimes see at small stores. In exchange, professionals get to demonstrate their expertise and build trust so that when the buyer needs a larger piece of work, they’ll be the first people they think of.

HonestyBoxx CEO Linda Cheung said: “By helping buyers connect with professionals around the globe we’re changing the game for the little guy. Now small businesses, start-ups and individuals anywhere can get the expert advice they need to solve their problems and make informed decisions.

“And, by helping small businesses reach a new market for their expertise we’re providing them with a stream of warm leads and clients at a time when new business is at a premium.”

Duncan Johnson runs digital agency Yodelay. “I think the HonestyBoxx concept is pure genius.

“Small businesses can get instant access to expertise at a price they can afford and the experts are able to make their downtime profitable.

“The simple process of paying for quality information also helps small businesses to value the time of a consultant whilst not breaking their bank account.”

Linda added “The services sector has remained largely unchanged by ecommerce and the internet, but with the current economic climate we believe the time is right for change.

“Services firms have always won new business by demonstrating their expertise. These days the initial hook is provided by websites and blog posts. HonestyBoxx provides the next step so that experts can earn directly from their websites.”

More Information

Who is HonestyBoxx for?

HonestyBoxx is for anyone who provides expert advice or services to others. People like:

  • Lawyers
  • Accountants
  • Financial Advisors
  • Marketing Agencies
  • SEO Experts
  • Social Media Consultants
  • Professional Coaches
  • Advertising Experts
  • Architects
  • Business Consultants
  • Interior Designers
  • Doctors
  • Dentists
  • Pharmacists
  • IT Consultants
  • Vets
  • Photographers
  • Wedding Planners
  • Beauticians
  • Careers Advisors

And many, many more.

How does HonestyBoxx Work?

We give you a small snippet of code that you can paste into your blog or website. If your website runs on WordPress we have a WordPress plugin too. The HonestyBoxx widget then appears on your website allowing visitors to ask questions and make payments.

More info: http://honestyboxx.com/how-honestyboxx-works/

What does HonestyBoxx Look Like?

We provide two different styles of widget: inline and fly-out. View a live demo of either of the two available widget styles: http://honestyboxx.com/widget/

How much does HonestyBoxx cost?

HonestyBoxx is free to join and set-up. For each answer accepted, we take a small fee of between 12% and 30% of the question value.

Who’s Behind HonestyBoxx?

HonestyBoxx was developed by the team behind the award-winning social CRM, CubeSocial.

Still Got Questions?

Try the FAQ.

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Office 2010 – 32-bit or 64-bit?

April 26, 2010 Leave a comment

Office 2010 is the first version of Microsoft Office to be available in 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

If you are running a 64-bit version of Windows, you should install 64-bit Office, right?

WRONG!

Official advice from Microsoft is to use the 32-bit version unless you specifically need to make use of some of the capabilities only available in the x64 version such as Excel 2010’s support for larger data sets.

The problem is that Office 2010 x64 introduces breaking changes that mean 32-bit add-ins may not work in 64-bit Office. For a complete discussion see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee691831(office.14).aspx

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Office 2010 System Requirements

January 23, 2010 Leave a comment

Minimum CPU and  RAM requirements are unchanged from Office 2007, but the footprint of most Office applications have gotten larger. Most standalone application disk-space requirements have gone up by 0.5 GB and the suites have increased by 1.0 or 1.5 GB.

So, in short, if your PC can run Office 2007, it will be able to run Office 2010. If you just acquired a brand new PC, it also will be able to run the forthcoming suite. But if you’re using Office 2003, there are no guarantees you’ll automatically be able to run Office 2010 on the same hardware.

The 32-bit version of Office 2010 will run on the following 32-bit operating systems: XP with Service Pack (SP)3, Vista SP1, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2003 R2 (with MS XML). The 64-bit version will run on on 64-bit versions of all of these same operating systems, with the exception of Windows Server 2003 R2.

via Mary Jo Foley

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Cloud Computing to Top IT Spending in 2010

January 3, 2010 Leave a comment

Gartner has published it’s annual prediction of the Top 10 strategic IT investment areas. They are:

  1. Cloud computing
  2. Advanced analytics
  3. Client computing
  4. IT for green
  5. Reshaping the data center
  6. Social computing
  7. Security
  8. Flash memory
  9. Virtualization
  10. Mobile applications

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Introducing my new company…

December 21, 2009 1 Comment

As some of you may know, having recently escaped corporate shackles I have been working on a plan for Career 2.0, and so…

Please welcome Connectegrity!

image

I am really excited about being able to talk about this at last.

At Connectegrity we will be working to deliver innovative IT solutions to the legal, accounting and professional service industry. Having worked with some of the most talented people in our industries, we plan to focus on innovative professional service firms that are seeking to improve the efficiency of fee-earners and reduce the time spent on non-revenue generating activities.  We believe that on-going commoditisation and consumerisation of technology now brings solutions that were once the preserve of FTSE-100 companies within reach of mid-size firms.

We are currently putting the final touches to our team. The web site is a work in progress, and I expect it to evolve rapidly over the coming weeks as we better define our products and offerings. Despite that, I’d love to hear any feedback you have so far…

 

If you would like to join me and the Connectegrity team on our startup journey, you can follow our progress on the Connectegrity blog, or subscribe to the RSS. We’ll be talking about SharePoint and technology in general, but specifically as it applies to professional services.

Meanwhile I’ll still be blogging here on SharePoint, social computing, Enterprise 2.0 and anything else that grabs my attention. Or you can follow me on twitter.

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4 Great Reasons to use Social Media

December 15, 2009 Leave a comment

  1. If your customers, competitors or partners are using social media, why wouldn’t you?
  2. No matter how big you are, you cannot hire all the smartest people. It doesn’t mean they are inaccessible.
  3. Your customers and clients are co-shaping your reputation. Do you know what they are saying?
  4. You can spot trends by monitoring …but only monitor what would cause you to act.

All too often, businesses block access to tools that they deem irrelevant to employees work and a drain on productivity. But why block employee access to tools that your customers are using? It’s a false assumption. You may as well ban email because for sure people will be sending irrelevant emails during the day. Instead, provide the tools but have clear policies regarding their use and the consequences of their misuse.

With thanks to Sharon Richardson and her two great posts from the Dell Social Media Huddle: Trends Part 1 and Community Matters.

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Official SharePoint 2010 and Office 2010 Blogs

October 23, 2009 5 Comments

image Following on from my summary the other day of official SharePoint 2010 resources, here’s a list of 20+ official Microsoft Office and SharePoint product team blogs that you can count on to have the most up-to-date product information as we head towards launch.

 

SharePoint Server 2010 Blogs

 

Office 2010 Client App Blogs

 

Have I missed anything? Leave a comment below to let me know.

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Why the Microsoft-Yahoo Search Deal Should be Good for Yahoo and Good for Consumers

July 30, 2009 Leave a comment

image Lots of stuff on the web today heralding the death of Yahoo.  Not least this one from Jason Calacanis, that sits atop Techmeme as I write.  Nothing could be further from the truth though…provided Yahoo play it right.

Jason argues that Yahoo is dead because they lost the battle for Search eyeballs…a category they helped define.  He argues that Apple and Nintendo beat Microsoft through “aggression and innovation”.

Maybe. But you need to decide which battles to fight.

Before Apple won big with the iPod, they lost against the PC, lost against Windows and lost against Office.  They lost to the extent that they even needed to be bailed out by Microsoft.

Before Nintendo won big with Wii, they lost out massively to PlayStation with the GameCube, and many commentators were predicting a slow, drawn-out death for them.

What happened? Apple and Nintendo both found new niches that played to their strengths, where they could dominate; Apple with the portable music player, and Nintendo with casual video games.

So, what next for Yahoo? Time for them to double-down, look at their strengths and portfolio, innovate and then go out and define their market. There is absolutely no reason they cannot  do what Apple and Nintendo have done so successfully.

Yahoo have an awesome array of consumer applications, from Yahoo Mail and Groups, through News, Flickr and Messenger.  And then their is delicious.com. What the heck happened to that? In fact when you look at Yahoo’s array of consumer-focussed social software, it easily trumps Microsoft, it’s better than Google and faces biggest competition from Facebook.

Yahoo now have a guaranteed revenue source from Microsoft, are freed from the need to chase Google in Search, and can now focus all their energies in excelling in their category of choice.

Time for the new Yahoo to step forward…

 

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Chrome OS and Windows 7…some thoughts

July 8, 2009 Leave a comment

Wow.  Great piece from Mary-Jo Foley today, bringing some old fashioned common sense to the news today of Google’s planned Chrome OS.  Many of the points, I was going to make – but Mary-Jo, you have saved me the job, and done it far more eloquently than I ever could.

A few extra thoughts from me:

  1. Microsoft is laser-focussed on its competitors. It does its best work when it has good, solid competition.  Mary-Jo writes that Chrome OS is good for consumers, PC makers and Microsoft too.  And I agree.  Look how the Office suite has evolved in leaps and bounds since early this decade, when Open Office reared it’s head.  It’s been too long since Windows had some real competition.
  2. Microsoft will defend Windows to the hilt. Not many people outside MS, for instance, realise that the reason it pumped billions of dollars into making XBox a success was not because it wanted to be in the games business, but because it wanted to defend Windows market share.  Don’t get it?  If you recall, 7-8 years back, there were lots of rumours about Sony using its (then) dominance in the home entertainment market to turn Playstation into something more sophisticated that might threaten home PC sales.
  3. There has been talk of a Google OS since 2006 at least. Know that Microsoft will have a plan ready to swing into action for this.  I’m looking forward to finding out what that is. It might include the ideas from the Gazelle project, or something else.  But whatever happens, we will be the winners, benefitting from more innovation, more choice and lower prices.

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