IW Interviews - Cyril Belikoff (Microsoft South Africa)

Over the next few weeks im going to be doing a series of interviews with key people in IW. To kick it off, i had a chat to Cyril Belikoff, Business Group Executive for IW at Microsoft South Africa.

General

Name:
Cyril Belikoff

Role:
Business Group Executive: IW

Day to day responsibilities:
Business Strategy, Planning and Marketing

Short BIO and work experience:
Spent most of my time at Microsoft – more than a decade

Microsoft

Why do you think Microsoft is so successful?
Great Solutions and great partners

What product/s coming out of Microsoft excites you the most and why?
This would rule out the 2007 Office System because it is already available, so I would say the Office Communications Server 2007 – the value that this brings is amazing

There was Apple, Netscape and now Google. Who do you think are Microsoft's top competitors and why?
I believe that IBM will be our top competitor for a little while: The breadth of areas where they compete against Microsoft – desktop suites, messaging and collaboration, portals and infrastructure.

If you could make 1 acquisition on Microsoft’s behalf, which company would it be and why?
www.secondlife.com – They have a unique gaming offering and scope for moving outside of gaming.

Office and SharePoint

Ballmer once quoted the Office/Vista/Exchange product launch as “a new era for business computing” What's the big deal?
I will be writing a blog on this soon. Simply, it is about the New World of Work – how business trends have changed which in turn has changed how people need to work. My blog will be a little more detailed so watch out for that.

What are “Information Workers”?
These are people within an organization that are mostly task orientated and rely on the PC to get their jobs done. They are probably the most advanced users of software in organizations.

What does it mean to be “People Ready”? 
A People Ready Business is an organization that realizes that people are their most important asset and empower them with the right technology solutions so that they can o their best work.

What do you think it is that makes SharePoint so attractive to organizations?
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 provides an integrated platform to deliver services across Collaboration, Portals, Enterprise Search, Enterprise Content Management, Business Process and Forms, Business Intelligence. There is no other software and solution provider that offer this breadth of offering with equivalent level of out of the box fit for the customer. Many local and global companies have already deployed or chosen to deploy Office SharePoint Server 2007 in the 3 months since its availability

How do you expect collaboration technologies to evolve?
They will become even more integrated and they will become an integral part of every successful business.

How do you use SharePoint day to day?
All of Microsoft’s Intranet is built on SharePoint – so almost everything including. To share documents, to search for information and to get updates on blogs

What is your favorite feature and why?
Ability to drive an ad-hoc workflow process from with 2007 Office Suite

What does the future hold for SharePoint?
SharePoint will continue to be the core of Microsoft’s Office System. It is essentially the “Windows” of the Office System. Almost every solution or scenario runs within a Office SharePoint 2007 environment. Other Microsoft solution areas will also use it as the platform of choice including Dynamics and BI

SaaS

What is your opinion of online office products like those of Google, and do you think it will influence Microsoft’s Roadmap?
Our approach in this space has been around for some time. At Microsoft, we believe that it is not an either/or scenario. Either Rich Client applications or web applications. Our Microsoft Live strategy combines Live Services with the Rich applications on the desktop and servers. Online office suites certainly have a place in the market and this has been under consideration for some time. However, based on customer feedback there are no current plans. Applicability in South Africa is questionable considering our broadband penetration and cost.

What is your opinion of SaaS, and do you get a feeling public-sector clients are interested in SaaS?
I believe that PS customer are engaged in these discussions. Particularly around offering SaaS to their residents.

Do you think SharePoint will go the SaaS route?
Yes. It already has done. We have a number of partners that offer SharePoint as a Hosted Application. In addition, Office Live is based on SharePoint.

Looking forward a year, two years, three years, how will business software be different?
Users will get much more from their Office Suite and drive their business from within their Office Suite – completely integrated into other Line of Business Systems. Giving people the comfort of a familiar and powerful Interface.

Fun

What blogs do you read?
Mostly internal and some sport blogs – and now those on www.informationworker.co.za

What is your favorite website?
www.rugby365.com

I joined Dimension Data today

Today is my first day at Dimension Data GroupIT as "Application and Integration Architect". Ive been told there is alot to do in the coming year, but it should be really exciting. I just hope i will still have time to blog and do community work...hehe watch this space....

Thanks to 3Fifteen, the company i left, for a great 8 months.

South African IW Community Blogs - OPML

For those who want an OPML file of all the blogs in the community please go here

This file will allow you to view the RSS feeds of the following South African blogs:

• Arno Nel
• Bruce Nicholson
• CRM for the Developer
• Cyril Belikoff
• Glen Ansell
• Keith Monale
• Marc Lenferna's SharePoint Blog
• Mike Mc Donogh
• Nico Oosthuysen
• Nireshen Beerbul
• Peter Reid
• Piers Mathews
• Rory Headon-Weeks
• Stephen Green
• Suliman Noor Mahomed
• Team Microsoft
• Uriel Rootshtain

Microsoft Dynamics Client for Microsoft Office and SharePoint Server

There is alot of commentary out there about Microsofts announcement at Convergence 2007, about the Dynamics client for Office.

• Mary J Foley: Microsoft’s Dynamics Client for Office: No one’s saying the ‘D’ word
• Microsoft Presspass: Microsoft Announces New Package to Extend Microsoft Dynamics ERP Solutions to Microsoft Office Users

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 VHD

Great download for anyone who wants to test out Echange Server 2007 with Live Communications Server.

From Microsoft:

"The Microsoft VHD Test Drive Program provides customers with an enhanced server-based software evaluation experience that’s faster, better supported and more flexible. You can now access the entire catalog of pre-configured Microsoft and partner products and solutions in the VHD format and start evaluating and testing today from www.microsoft.com/vhd.
This download enables you evaluate how Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 together can help create an optimized messaging system for your organization. Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 is designed to reduce the growing cost and complexity of managing a corporate messaging system by providing more control for IT administrators, more value and expanded inbox access for end users, and increased security and compliance for the organization as a whole.
Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 provides built-in protection technologies to help keep the e-mail system up and running and better protected from outside threats while allowing employees to work from wherever they are using a variety of clients including Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Web Access, and mobile devices. Exchange Server 2007 makes it easier for IT to deliver these new capabilities to their organizations by making the messaging environment easier to manage and more cost efficient. Please see www.microsoft.com/exchange/preview for additional information.
Live Communications Server 2005 provides a standards-based platform, allowing developers the ability to presence-enable existing applications and create next-generation solutions with real-time capabilities. Please see www.microsoft.com/lcs for additional information.
This fully functional pre-configured VHD provides you a trial software will automatically expire after 30 days.
This is a preconfigured virtual machine contained within the Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) format. Virtual Server 2005 R2 is required to run this VHD. Please refer to the system requirements section for more details."

Get it here

SharePoint Server 2007 Presentations: Enterprise Search Deep Dives

Thanks to Angus Logan for pointing this out:

From Microsoft:

"This download presents packaged presentations and videos of the following conference sessions:

• Enterprise Search Strategy and Opportunities (SharePointServer2007SearchDeepDiveA.exe)
  This session starts with an overview of Microsoft's enterprise search strategy, reviews the various products that it affects, and outlines what is new in SharePoint Search for the 2007 Microsoft Office system. Lastly, it discusses opportunities for partners building on the platform.
• SharePoint Search Extensibility (SharePointServer2007SearchDeepDiveB.exe)
  This session addresses the core extensibility scenarios in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS) search, such as customizing the user interface, custom search using client applications, and crawling new repositories, including line-of-business data. It also covers the administration object model.
• Protocol Handlers and IFilters (SharePointServer2007SearchDeepDiveC.exe)
  Learn about the overall architecture of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS) search. Protocol Handlers and iFilter interfaces are described in detail with code examples.
• Customizing and Extending Search in Office SharePoint Server 2007 (SharePointServer2007SearchDeepDiveD.exe)
  Learn how to customize Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS) search user interface and build search based applications in this session. Branding, Web parts and extending search using the object model and Web services are discussed.
• Business Data Search (SharePointServer2007SearchDeepDiveE.exe)
  The Business Data Catalog (BDC) enables search to reach into line-of-business repositories and provide integrated search results. Learn about the Business Data Catalog including the design motivations, scenarios, and the apis.
• SharePoint Search Deployment Scenarios(SharePointServer2007SearchDeepDiveF.exe)
  This session reviews both Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Office SharePoint Server 2007 search topologies, and various deployment scenarios such as a collaboration environment, enterprise portals, and internet facing portals."

Go get it here

Information Worker Community - South Africa

Well, last week Microsoft helped launched the Information Worker community to South African Microsoft Partners. Id like to take this opportunity to launch the community to the greater African IT community.

What is the community about?

"The purpose of the community is to provide a local forum where people can share ideas, experiences and best practices around Microsoft’s Information Worker products.

Initially the community is going to be technical in nature and will focus on the IT Pro / Developer audiences but we hope to soon grow this to include more business focused user groups too. Our vision is to develop the site into a place where technical people will turn when they need help or want to see what else can be done, and where business people will interact with peers to understand the difference that technology can make in their own environment through the sharing of problems, solutions, approaches and methodologies.

Please help make this community initiative a success by registering and then using the suggestions list below to provide feedback on what you would like to see and what would add value to you."

There are sections on the site for:

• Dynamics
• Dynamics AX
• Dynamics CRM
• Dynamics GP
• Dynamics Nav
• EPM
• Exchange
• Groove
• LCS
• Office Client
• Sharepoint

We are looking for community members to help take ownership of some of these areas and become thought leaders. Currently we need content and contribution in the Exchange, Groove, LCS and Office client sections.

The community will also help launch South African IW bloggers. Currently we have the following South African bloggers hosted:

• Arno Nel
• Bruce Nicholson
• CRM for the Developer
• Cyril Belikoff
• Glen Ansell
• Keith Monale
• Marc Lenferna's SharePoint Blog
• Mike Mc Donogh
• Nico Oosthuysen
• Nireshen Beerbul
• Peter Reid
• Piers Mathews
• Rory Headon-Weeks
• Stephen Green
• Suliman Noor Mahomed
• Team Microsoft
• Uriel Rootshtain

To view the site, goto : www.informationworker.co.za

I would personally like to say a big thanks to our sponsors Internet Solutions, 3Fifteen and Microsoft.
In addition, i would like to thank Uriel Rootshtain and Thea Burger for all your help and guidance.

Please note, that currently the community is targeted to a South African audience, but in the future we will look to expand to Africa and the Middle East. This does not however exclude an international audience.

A six-part series on getting the most out of SharePoint Designer 2007

Go check them out here

From Microsoft:

Powerful user interface and design tools

Office SharePoint Designer 2007 has a user interface that should look familiar to anyone who has used Microsoft Office products in the past. However, one of the noticeable changes from other Microsoft Office applications is the extensive use of task panes. Task panes allow users easy access to the tools that are most relevant for their current task. Watch this training for an overview of Office SharePoint Designer 2007 and how it provides tools to create no-code applications on the SharePoint platform.

Customize SharePoint sites

Office SharePoint Designer 2007 provides an intuitive what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) environment for creating and customizing SharePoint sites and applications using Master Page and CSS technologies. You can take advantage of the power of ASP.NET as well as industry standard Extensible Hypertext Markup Language (XHTML) code and cascading style sheets (CSS) to build SharePoint sites that meet your needs and that meet industry standards for browser compatibility and accessibility. Watch this training to learn how.

Create and modify layout pages

Office SharePoint Designer 2007 has all the tools to help designers create ASP.NET master page layouts. Using master pages, you can create a single page template and then use that template as the basis for multiple pages in an application, instead of having to build each new page from scratch. With page layouts in Office SharePoint Server 2007, designers create the look and feel for a type of page, without worry about non-designers will break the brand or flow of the site. Get started building master pages right away with this training.

Create and modify rules-based workflow applications

Office SharePoint Designer 2007 allows you to design workflows that add no-code application logic to SharePoint sites and applications. Using the Workflow Designer, you create rules that associate conditions and actions with items in SharePoint lists and libraries. Changes to items in lists or libraries trigger actions in the workflow. Watch this training and see how two common workflows are created using tools in Office SharePoint Designer 2007.

Build composite no-code SharePoint applications

With Office SharePoint Designer 2007 no-code features, solution creators need not be solution developers. Designers can build sophisticated, collaborative, no-code tracking, reporting, and data-management solutions quickly and easily. Watch this training to see how to build a SharePoint composite application that provides a view of a company's products and its product categories. Update the site using simple form technology.

Visual Studio integration

With Office SharePoint Designer 2007, the end-to-end developer can use sophisticated design tools. Seamless integration with Microsoft Visual Studio allows for simple creation of Web parts, site features, and custom site definitions. Watch this training to learn how Office SharePoint Designer 2007 and Visual Studio Visual Studio extensions for WSPPS can be used together to build a site definition from scratch.

Windows Live Writer Backup

"Windows Live Writer Backup, as the name suggests, backs up everything that matters for Windows Live Writer: the blog settings, the drafts, recent blogs and even the plugins!"

Get it here

Duet, MOC Learning, Search Webcasts, Virtual Labs and more

• Microsoft Dynamics team to take on Microsoft-SAP ‘Duet’?

• 300-level MOSS Search Webcasts

• Microsoft Official Curriculum (MOC) content for SharePoint Products and Technologies now available

• Configuring and Integrating Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Commerce Server 2007

• TechNet Virtual Lab: 2007 Microsoft Office System

im making a difference - part 2

ok, for everyone who got stuck, do this:

Download the Windows Live Messenger instant messenger service. There's no charge and it's easy to download and use.

Place the text code corresponding to the cause of your choice into your Display Name.

Keep having i’m conversations so you can keep funding the cause doing the work most important to you.

im making a difference

"i’m is a new initiative from Windows Live™ Messenger.

Every time you start a conversation using i’m, Microsoft shares a portion of the program's advertising revenue with some of the world's most effective organizations dedicated to social causes. We've set no cap on the amount we'll donate to each organization. The sky's the limit.

So any time you have an i’m™ conversation using Windows Live Messenger, you help address the issues you feel most passionate about, including poverty, child protection, disease, and environmental degradation. It's simple. All you have to do is join and start an instant messaging conversation. We'll handle the donation.

There's no charge, so join now and put our money where your mouth is."

I have set my IM up to donate to "stopglobalwarming".

Other Causes of the i'm Initiative

• American Red Cross
• Boys & Girls Clubs of America
• National AIDS Fund
• National MS Society
• ninemillion.org
• Sierra Club
• Susan G. Komen for the Cure
• U.S. Fund for UNICEF

All you need to do is run Windows Live Messenger 8.1, and put a code  in your "name" entry that shows which charity you want to give to.

• *red+u = American Red Cross
• *bgca =Boys & Girls Clubs
• *naf = National AIDS Fund
• *mssoc = National Multiple Sclerosis Society
• *9mil = ninemillion.org
• *sierra = Sierra Club
• *help = StopGlobalWarming.org
• *komen = Susan G. Komen for the Cure
• *unicef = The US fund for UNICEF

Develop Add-Ins For PowerPoint And Visio Using VSTO

I found this great post on MSDNMag on developing addins for Powerpoint and Visio.

Read the full post here