Webcasts for September have been announced and I’ve provided a list below as my selection of more interesting ones. Read through the titles first and find out which ones interest you, which ones would be suitable for your network admin, system admin, receptionist, accountant, potential client etc. Point them to the webcast. All webcasts do not appeal to all audiences, so if you know of someone that is looking for a new accounting package for example, let Microsoft try and sell it to them. Never miss an opportunity to make money.

These webcasts specifically address the most popular issues in Vladville: Exchange disaster recovery planning, SBA 2006 and Office integration.

Microsoft Executive Circle Webcast: Messaging and Collaboration Security: Meeting the Challenge
Thursday, September 08, 2005 – 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM Pacific Time
Joe Licari, Director, Product Management, Microsoft Corporation
Business systems are interconnected in order to get maximum value from the information technology (IT) infrastructure and to enable efficient employee collaboration. As a result, messaging and collaboration servers that enable e-mail, document sharing and instant messaging have become mission-critical infrastructure components in business environments around the world. Attend this webcast to understand the threats facing these servers and how you can protect them with Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server and Sybari Antigen. This 100-level session is appropriate for business and IT managers who want to learn what solutions Microsoft offers to help them protect messaging and collaboration servers.
Register for this webcast

Microsoft Executive Circle Webcast: A Conversation with Avanade: Business Justifications for Modernizing Your Collaboration Platform
Wednesday, September 21, 2005 – 8:00 AM – 9:00 AM Pacific Time
Rita Seroski, Director of Infrastructure Solutions, Avenade
How are companies getting the most out of their IBM Lotus Notes investment? Find out by joining us for this webcast. We discuss the real-world experience of a partner that has helped companies migrate from Notes or coexist with a Notes and Microsoft Windows server environment. Learn how a partial or total migration that is virtually transparent to customers and partners is achieved while the value of information currently on Domino Servers is maintained.
Register for this webcast

TechNet Webcast: Exchange Performance Monitoring Analysis and Tuning (Level 300)
Thursday, September 15, 2005 – 8:00 AM – 9:30 AM Pacific Time
Paul Bowden, Program Manager, Exchange Server Development Team, Microsoft Corporation
Are you getting all the performance out of Exchange Server 2003 that you’d like? During this session, which was highly rated when presented at Tech•Ed 2005 in Orlando, Florida (TechEd ID: MSG368), we explore all aspects of performance tuning for Exchange server 2003, covering Windows, Exchange, and system resources. Understand and learn best practices, registry tweaks, and performance monitoring that can help your Exchange environment run more smoothly.
Register for this webcast

TechNet Webcast: Defining and Monitoring Desired Configuration Across a Messaging Service (Level 300)
Wednesday, September 21, 2005 – 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM Pacific Time
Edhi Sarwono, SYSTEMS DESIGN ENGINEER, Microsoft Corporation
Robbie McAlpine, SR PROGRAM MANAGER, Microsoft Corporation
Do you consider it a challenge to monitor a configuration across a messaging service? This webcast presents a new solution: the Desired Configuration Monitoring (DCM) Solution Accelerator, which will be released in September. Learn about the DCM Solution Accelerator, how configuration manifests are generated, how the configuration check is processed and about the resulting reports of non-compliant services. The Solution Accelerator provides tools to alert users of differences or non-compliance between their present configuration and baseline or desired configuration. It also provides environmental configuration data to aid configuration management.
Register for this webcast

TechNet Webcast: Securing Your Exchange Server with Antigen and ISA Server (Level 200)
Wednesday, September 21, 2005 – 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM Pacific Time
Peter Eicher, Senior Product Manager, Microsoft Corporation
Every enterprise needs inter-site communication, but it opens conduits for everything from bandwidth-gobbling spam to malicious attacks that can cripple your organization. This webcast shows how to use Sybari Antigen and Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server to protect Microsoft Exchange Server from viruses, worms, spam and external attacks. Product managers from the ISA Server and Antigen teams discuss best practices for common Exchange deployment types, emphasizing configuration and tuning Antigen and ISA Server. This session is appropriate for information technology professionals who have a surface-level understanding of ISA and Antigen, and are ready to take their knowledge to the next level.
Register for this webcast

TechNet Webcast: Exchange 2003 Disaster Recovery Solutions (Level 300)
Thursday, September 22, 2005 – 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM Pacific Time
Rand Morimoto, Author, President, Convergent Computing
Are you encountering problems with Microsoft Exchange Server failures, database corruption, site failures or LAN/WAN failures? To deal with these and similar problems, join Rand Morimoto as he presents best practices for Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 clustering, dial tone Exchange recovery strategies, non-Microsoft software replication utilities, snapshot Storage Area Network solutions and geo-clusters. Learn how to determine the best recovery solution for your needs. Gain tips, tricks, and best practices for these technical solutions, and see how other technical solutions improve Exchange Clustering for disaster recovery.
Register for this webcast

TechNet Webcast: Message Hygiene with Exchange Server 2003 (Level 300)
Tuesday, September 27, 2005 – 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM Pacific Time
Scott Schnoll, Technical Writer, Exchange User Education Team, Microsoft Corporation
Viruses, worms, spam and other unwanted email have become a destructive reality that many administrators of Microsoft Exchange routinely face. This session, one of the top-rated breakout sessions (MSG342) from Tech•Ed 2005 in Orlando, Florida, provides recommendations and guidance for slowing and stopping the unwanted messages entering your Exchange 2003 environment. Learn how the Exchange Intelligent Message Filter supplements existing anti-spam features in Exchange 2003, as well as how Virus Scanning API 2.5 provides greater protection and administrative flexibility against malicious and harmful messages.
Register for this webcast

TechNet Webcast: Exchange Best Practice Analyzer (Level 300)
Wednesday, September 28, 2005 – 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM Pacific Time
Kevin Remde, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft Corporation
The Microsoft Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer Tool (ExBPA) is an automated health check and troubleshooting tool. ExBPA collects configuration settings and performs network and protocol tests in an Exchange topology. Join this webcast to learn about the new version of the tool that was released in March 2005. We discuss enhancements such as scheduling and baseline support. See how to use ExBPA with Microsoft Operations Manager 2005. At the end of the presentation, we talk about future enhancements to the ExBPA tool.
Register for this webcast

TechNet Webcast: Managing Exchange Service Levels with the SLA Scorecard Solution Accelerator (Level 300)
Wednesday, September 28, 2005 – 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM Pacific Time
Sanjiv Sharma, SYSTEMS DESIGN ENGINEER, Microsoft Corporation
Karri Alexion-Tiernan, PROGRAM MANAGER, Microsoft Corporation
Learn about the solution and architecture of the service-level agreement (SLA) Scorecard Solution Accelerator for a Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 environment. The solution accelerator can set SLAs, administer outages, and analyze performance and trend reports across the messaging services. During this webcast we introduce a solution accelerator that leverages MOM 2005 data to create management-level availability reports and manage outages. We also look at long term trend analysis that compares predefined SLA levels to actual availability.
Register for this webcast

Microsoft Office System Webcast: Top 10 Tips to Save Time in Outlook (Level 100)
Tuesday, September 13, 2005 – 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM Pacific Time
Evan Archilla, Senior Training Specialist, Projectline Services
Improve the way you manage information, communicate with others and organize your work using a single resource. The new and improved features of Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 work together to help you effectively manage and organize your e-mail and share information. Join us for this informative webcast to learn some of our favorite tips and tricks for getting the most out of Outlook 2003.
Register for this webcast

Microsoft Office System Webcast: Scheduling Tips for Increased Productivity and Results with Outlook and Mission Control (Level 100)
Thursday, September 15, 2005 – 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM Pacific Time
Brian Stuhlmuller, Executive Vice President, Mission Control
Do you want to leave work earlier? Learn to use Mission Control’s principles and practices for scheduling with Microsoft Office Outlook. Schedule yourself in a whole new way that enables you to be more focused and productive. In this webcast, discover how your familiar and common habits for scheduling can actually become obstacles to productivity. Learn how to build new scheduling habits that enable you to accomplish what is most important to you and deal effectively with the demands of the current work environment.
Register for this webcast

Microsoft Office System Webcast: Tips for Improving Sales Productivity Results using Outlook with the Mission Control System (Level 100)
Thursday, September 29, 2005 – 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM Pacific Time
Brian Stuhlmuller, Executive Vice President, Mission Control
Are you ready to blow the lid off your quota? Discover the award-winning Mission Control approach to productivity that produces a dramatic increase in sales results. This webcast introduces you to an entirely new way of thinking about, organizing, and managing your sales activities in Microsoft Office System Outlook. Learn to build new work habits that give you more confidence with prospects, become more focused in your sales activities, and most importantly, be more effective at hitting and exceeding your sales targets.
Register for this webcast

Small Business Webcast: Small Business Accounting 2006 and the Tight Integration with Office 2003 (Level 100)
Friday, September 9, 2005 – 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM Pacific Time
Carl Preston, Business Development Manager, Microsoft Corporation
In this webcast, learn how Microsoft Small Business Accounting 2006 makes it easy for you to do financial tasks and care for customers. The integration between Small Business Accounting and Microsoft Office System 2003 is powerful and important. Find out just how beneficial this new office product can be for your small business.
Register for this webcast

Small Business Webcast: Integrating Small Business Accounting 2006 with Microsoft Office Programs (Level 200)
Wednesday, September 21, 2005 – 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM Pacific Time
Krim Stephenson, Product Manager, Microsoft Corporation
Learn how you can significantly increase productivity and produce more accurate and insightful financial data. You can integrate Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting 2006 with Microsoft Office programs such as Microsoft Office Word, Excel and Outlook 2003 with Microsoft Business Contact Manager Update. Such integration extends the value of the accounting features and services. This webcast is focused for accounting firm professionals. We show you how to share financial history, manage and track billable time, forecast and analyze financial scenarios and create professional-looking, customized documents.
Register for this webcast

Small Business Webcast: Integrating Small Business Accounting 2006 with Microsoft Office Programs (Level 100)
Friday, September 30, 2005 – 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM Pacific Time
Bob Lewis
Krim Stephenson, Senior Marketing Manager/Accountant Relations
PRODUCT MANAGER, Microsoft Corporation
Microsoft Corporation
Learn how you can significantly increase productivity and produce more accurate and insightful financial data. You can integrate Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting 2006 with Microsoft Office programs such as Microsoft Office Word, Excel and Outlook 2003 with Microsoft Business Contact Manager Update. Such integration extends the value of the accounting features and services. This webcast is focused for accounting firm professionals. We show you how to share financial history, manage and track billable time, forecast and analyze financial scenarios and create professional-looking, customized documents.
Register for this webcast

Momentum Webcast: Creating Business Value Through Collaboration (Level 100)
Tuesday, September 6, 2005 – 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM Pacific Time
Bill Malone, Technology Specialist, Microsoft Corporation
What is collaboration and how can it help your business? In this webcast, we look at collaboration as a means instead of an end. Collaboration tools, and more specifically a collaboration environment, can lead to dramatic increases in business value. Collaboration facilitates more effective business processes and decreases information technology support requirements and costs. Attend this webcast to learn more about the Microsoft approach to collaboration and the innovations Microsoft brings to the market to help organizations work together more effectively.
Register for this webcast

Momentum Webcast: Creating Business Value Through Collaboration (Level 100)
Monday, September 19, 2005 – 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM Pacific Time
Matt Berg, Solutions Specialist, Microsoft Corporation
What is collaboration and how can it help your business? In this webcast, we look at collaboration as a means instead of an end. Collaboration tools, and more specifically a collaboration environment, can lead to dramatic increases in business value. Using collaboration as a means facilitates more effective business processes and decreases information technology support requirements and costs. Attend this webcast to learn more about the Microsoft approach to collaboration and the innovations Microsoft brings to the market to help organizations work together more effectively.
Register for this webcast

Microsoft Executive Circle Webcast: Messaging and Collaboration Security: Meeting the Challenge (Level 100)
Thursday, September 08, 2005 – 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM Pacific Time
Joe Licari, Director, Product Management, Microsoft Corporation
Business systems are interconnected in order to get maximum value from the information technology (IT) infrastructure and to enable efficient employee collaboration. As a result, messaging and collaboration servers that enable e-mail, document sharing and instant messaging have become mission-critical infrastructure components in business environments around the world. Attend this webcast to understand the threats facing these servers and how you can protect them with Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server and Sybari Antigen. This 100-level session is appropriate for business and IT managers who want to learn what solutions Microsoft offers to help them protect messaging and collaboration servers.
Register for this webcast

TechNet Webcast: Securing Collaboration Beyond E-Mail (Level 200)
Thursday, September 15, 2005 – 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM Pacific Time
Neha Sharma, Senior Product Manager, Microsoft Corporation
Is your implementation of Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services safe? SharePoint benefits your organization because you can share information and documentation, and can reduce messaging overhead. But SharePoint can also allow users to bypass traditional antivirus and content scanning, and could provide an exploitable network security vulnerability. To ensure comprehensive network protection, your organization must adopt a layered defense strategy that encompasses communication policy, user training, and consistent application of security technology. Attend this webcast to understand existing and potential threats to corporate networks, and how to deploy practical protection for Windows SharePoint Services and Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server.
Register for this webcast

Webcasts for September have been announced and I’ve provided a list below as my selection of more interesting ones. Read through the titles first and find out which ones interest you, which ones would be suitable for your network admin, system admin, receptionist, accountant, potential client etc. Point them to the webcast. All webcasts do not appeal to all audiences, so if you know of someone that is looking for a new accounting package for example, let Microsoft try and sell it to them. Never miss an opportunity to make money.

These webcasts specifically address the most popular issues in Vladville: Exchange disaster recovery planning, SBA 2006 and Office integration.

Microsoft Executive Circle Webcast: Messaging and Collaboration Security: Meeting the Challenge
Thursday, September 08, 2005 – 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM Pacific Time
Joe Licari, Director, Product Management, Microsoft Corporation
Business systems are interconnected in order to get maximum value from the information technology (IT) infrastructure and to enable efficient employee collaboration. As a result, messaging and collaboration servers that enable e-mail, document sharing and instant messaging have become mission-critical infrastructure components in business environments around the world. Attend this webcast to understand the threats facing these servers and how you can protect them with Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server and Sybari Antigen. This 100-level session is appropriate for business and IT managers who want to learn what solutions Microsoft offers to help them protect messaging and collaboration servers.
Register for this webcast

Microsoft Executive Circle Webcast: A Conversation with Avanade: Business Justifications for Modernizing Your Collaboration Platform
Wednesday, September 21, 2005 – 8:00 AM – 9:00 AM Pacific Time
Rita Seroski, Director of Infrastructure Solutions, Avenade
How are companies getting the most out of their IBM Lotus Notes investment? Find out by joining us for this webcast. We discuss the real-world experience of a partner that has helped companies migrate from Notes or coexist with a Notes and Microsoft Windows server environment. Learn how a partial or total migration that is virtually transparent to customers and partners is achieved while the value of information currently on Domino Servers is maintained.
Register for this webcast

TechNet Webcast: Exchange Performance Monitoring Analysis and Tuning (Level 300)
Thursday, September 15, 2005 – 8:00 AM – 9:30 AM Pacific Time
Paul Bowden, Program Manager, Exchange Server Development Team, Microsoft Corporation
Are you getting all the performance out of Exchange Server 2003 that you’d like? During this session, which was highly rated when presented at Tech•Ed 2005 in Orlando, Florida (TechEd ID: MSG368), we explore all aspects of performance tuning for Exchange server 2003, covering Windows, Exchange, and system resources. Understand and learn best practices, registry tweaks, and performance monitoring that can help your Exchange environment run more smoothly.
Register for this webcast

TechNet Webcast: Defining and Monitoring Desired Configuration Across a Messaging Service (Level 300)
Wednesday, September 21, 2005 – 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM Pacific Time
Edhi Sarwono, SYSTEMS DESIGN ENGINEER, Microsoft Corporation
Robbie McAlpine, SR PROGRAM MANAGER, Microsoft Corporation
Do you consider it a challenge to monitor a configuration across a messaging service? This webcast presents a new solution: the Desired Configuration Monitoring (DCM) Solution Accelerator, which will be released in September. Learn about the DCM Solution Accelerator, how configuration manifests are generated, how the configuration check is processed and about the resulting reports of non-compliant services. The Solution Accelerator provides tools to alert users of differences or non-compliance between their present configuration and baseline or desired configuration. It also provides environmental configuration data to aid configuration management.
Register for this webcast

TechNet Webcast: Securing Your Exchange Server with Antigen and ISA Server (Level 200)
Wednesday, September 21, 2005 – 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM Pacific Time
Peter Eicher, Senior Product Manager, Microsoft Corporation
Every enterprise needs inter-site communication, but it opens conduits for everything from bandwidth-gobbling spam to malicious attacks that can cripple your organization. This webcast shows how to use Sybari Antigen and Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server to protect Microsoft Exchange Server from viruses, worms, spam and external attacks. Product managers from the ISA Server and Antigen teams discuss best practices for common Exchange deployment types, emphasizing configuration and tuning Antigen and ISA Server. This session is appropriate for information technology professionals who have a surface-level understanding of ISA and Antigen, and are ready to take their knowledge to the next level.
Register for this webcast

TechNet Webcast: Exchange 2003 Disaster Recovery Solutions (Level 300)
Thursday, September 22, 2005 – 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM Pacific Time
Rand Morimoto, Author, President, Convergent Computing
Are you encountering problems with Microsoft Exchange Server failures, database corruption, site failures or LAN/WAN failures? To deal with these and similar problems, join Rand Morimoto as he presents best practices for Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 clustering, dial tone Exchange recovery strategies, non-Microsoft software replication utilities, snapshot Storage Area Network solutions and geo-clusters. Learn how to determine the best recovery solution for your needs. Gain tips, tricks, and best practices for these technical solutions, and see how other technical solutions improve Exchange Clustering for disaster recovery.
Register for this webcast

TechNet Webcast: Message Hygiene with Exchange Server 2003 (Level 300)
Tuesday, September 27, 2005 – 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM Pacific Time
Scott Schnoll, Technical Writer, Exchange User Education Team, Microsoft Corporation
Viruses, worms, spam and other unwanted email have become a destructive reality that many administrators of Microsoft Exchange routinely face. This session, one of the top-rated breakout sessions (MSG342) from Tech•Ed 2005 in Orlando, Florida, provides recommendations and guidance for slowing and stopping the unwanted messages entering your Exchange 2003 environment. Learn how the Exchange Intelligent Message Filter supplements existing anti-spam features in Exchange 2003, as well as how Virus Scanning API 2.5 provides greater protection and administrative flexibility against malicious and harmful messages.
Register for this webcast

TechNet Webcast: Exchange Best Practice Analyzer (Level 300)
Wednesday, September 28, 2005 – 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM Pacific Time
Kevin Remde, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft Corporation
The Microsoft Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer Tool (ExBPA) is an automated health check and troubleshooting tool. ExBPA collects configuration settings and performs network and protocol tests in an Exchange topology. Join this webcast to learn about the new version of the tool that was released in March 2005. We discuss enhancements such as scheduling and baseline support. See how to use ExBPA with Microsoft Operations Manager 2005. At the end of the presentation, we talk about future enhancements to the ExBPA tool.
Register for this webcast

TechNet Webcast: Managing Exchange Service Levels with the SLA Scorecard Solution Accelerator (Level 300)
Wednesday, September 28, 2005 – 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM Pacific Time
Sanjiv Sharma, SYSTEMS DESIGN ENGINEER, Microsoft Corporation
Karri Alexion-Tiernan, PROGRAM MANAGER, Microsoft Corporation
Learn about the solution and architecture of the service-level agreement (SLA) Scorecard Solution Accelerator for a Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 environment. The solution accelerator can set SLAs, administer outages, and analyze performance and trend reports across the messaging services. During this webcast we introduce a solution accelerator that leverages MOM 2005 data to create management-level availability reports and manage outages. We also look at long term trend analysis that compares predefined SLA levels to actual availability.
Register for this webcast

Microsoft Office System Webcast: Top 10 Tips to Save Time in Outlook (Level 100)
Tuesday, September 13, 2005 – 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM Pacific Time
Evan Archilla, Senior Training Specialist, Projectline Services
Improve the way you manage information, communicate with others and organize your work using a single resource. The new and improved features of Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 work together to help you effectively manage and organize your e-mail and share information. Join us for this informative webcast to learn some of our favorite tips and tricks for getting the most out of Outlook 2003.
Register for this webcast

Microsoft Office System Webcast: Scheduling Tips for Increased Productivity and Results with Outlook and Mission Control (Level 100)
Thursday, September 15, 2005 – 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM Pacific Time
Brian Stuhlmuller, Executive Vice President, Mission Control
Do you want to leave work earlier? Learn to use Mission Control’s principles and practices for scheduling with Microsoft Office Outlook. Schedule yourself in a whole new way that enables you to be more focused and productive. In this webcast, discover how your familiar and common habits for scheduling can actually become obstacles to productivity. Learn how to build new scheduling habits that enable you to accomplish what is most important to you and deal effectively with the demands of the current work environment.
Register for this webcast

Microsoft Office System Webcast: Tips for Improving Sales Productivity Results using Outlook with the Mission Control System (Level 100)
Thursday, September 29, 2005 – 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM Pacific Time
Brian Stuhlmuller, Executive Vice President, Mission Control
Are you ready to blow the lid off your quota? Discover the award-winning Mission Control approach to productivity that produces a dramatic increase in sales results. This webcast introduces you to an entirely new way of thinking about, organizing, and managing your sales activities in Microsoft Office System Outlook. Learn to build new work habits that give you more confidence with prospects, become more focused in your sales activities, and most importantly, be more effective at hitting and exceeding your sales targets.
Register for this webcast

Small Business Webcast: Small Business Accounting 2006 and the Tight Integration with Office 2003 (Level 100)
Friday, September 9, 2005 – 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM Pacific Time
Carl Preston, Business Development Manager, Microsoft Corporation
In this webcast, learn how Microsoft Small Business Accounting 2006 makes it easy for you to do financial tasks and care for customers. The integration between Small Business Accounting and Microsoft Office System 2003 is powerful and important. Find out just how beneficial this new office product can be for your small business.
Register for this webcast

Small Business Webcast: Integrating Small Business Accounting 2006 with Microsoft Office Programs (Level 200)
Wednesday, September 21, 2005 – 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM Pacific Time
Krim Stephenson, Product Manager, Microsoft Corporation
Learn how you can significantly increase productivity and produce more accurate and insightful financial data. You can integrate Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting 2006 with Microsoft Office programs such as Microsoft Office Word, Excel and Outlook 2003 with Microsoft Business Contact Manager Update. Such integration extends the value of the accounting features and services. This webcast is focused for accounting firm professionals. We show you how to share financial history, manage and track billable time, forecast and analyze financial scenarios and create professional-looking, customized documents.
Register for this webcast

Small Business Webcast: Integrating Small Business Accounting 2006 with Microsoft Office Programs (Level 100)
Friday, September 30, 2005 – 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM Pacific Time
Bob Lewis
Krim Stephenson, Senior Marketing Manager/Accountant Relations
PRODUCT MANAGER, Microsoft Corporation
Microsoft Corporation
Learn how you can significantly increase productivity and produce more accurate and insightful financial data. You can integrate Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting 2006 with Microsoft Office programs such as Microsoft Office Word, Excel and Outlook 2003 with Microsoft Business Contact Manager Update. Such integration extends the value of the accounting features and services. This webcast is focused for accounting firm professionals. We show you how to share financial history, manage and track billable time, forecast and analyze financial scenarios and create professional-looking, customized documents.
Register for this webcast

Momentum Webcast: Creating Business Value Through Collaboration (Level 100)
Tuesday, September 6, 2005 – 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM Pacific Time
Bill Malone, Technology Specialist, Microsoft Corporation
What is collaboration and how can it help your business? In this webcast, we look at collaboration as a means instead of an end. Collaboration tools, and more specifically a collaboration environment, can lead to dramatic increases in business value. Collaboration facilitates more effective business processes and decreases information technology support requirements and costs. Attend this webcast to learn more about the Microsoft approach to collaboration and the innovations Microsoft brings to the market to help organizations work together more effectively.
Register for this webcast

Momentum Webcast: Creating Business Value Through Collaboration (Level 100)
Monday, September 19, 2005 – 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM Pacific Time
Matt Berg, Solutions Specialist, Microsoft Corporation
What is collaboration and how can it help your business? In this webcast, we look at collaboration as a means instead of an end. Collaboration tools, and more specifically a collaboration environment, can lead to dramatic increases in business value. Using collaboration as a means facilitates more effective business processes and decreases information technology support requirements and costs. Attend this webcast to learn more about the Microsoft approach to collaboration and the innovations Microsoft brings to the market to help organizations work together more effectively.
Register for this webcast

Microsoft Executive Circle Webcast: Messaging and Collaboration Security: Meeting the Challenge (Level 100)
Thursday, September 08, 2005 – 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM Pacific Time
Joe Licari, Director, Product Management, Microsoft Corporation
Business systems are interconnected in order to get maximum value from the information technology (IT) infrastructure and to enable efficient employee collaboration. As a result, messaging and collaboration servers that enable e-mail, document sharing and instant messaging have become mission-critical infrastructure components in business environments around the world. Attend this webcast to understand the threats facing these servers and how you can protect them with Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server and Sybari Antigen. This 100-level session is appropriate for business and IT managers who want to learn what solutions Microsoft offers to help them protect messaging and collaboration servers.
Register for this webcast

TechNet Webcast: Securing Collaboration Beyond E-Mail (Level 200)
Thursday, September 15, 2005 – 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM Pacific Time
Neha Sharma, Senior Product Manager, Microsoft Corporation
Is your implementation of Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services safe? SharePoint benefits your organization because you can share information and documentation, and can reduce messaging overhead. But SharePoint can also allow users to bypass traditional antivirus and content scanning, and could provide an exploitable network security vulnerability. To ensure comprehensive network protection, your organization must adopt a layered defense strategy that encompasses communication policy, user training, and consistent application of security technology. Attend this webcast to understand existing and potential threats to corporate networks, and how to deploy practical protection for Windows SharePoint Services and Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server.
Register for this webcast

Software Assurance sales is the #1 non-technical question that I get from Microsoft Partners. What are the benefits, how do I get it, how do I purchase it and the most common: “Its just a free upgrade program, right?”

No, its not just the free upgrade there is a whole lot more to it:
- Spread your clients licensing payments over 3 years
- Home use rights (so you can install Office on employees home laptop and let them work remotely)
- Cold backups for disaster recovery
- Technet subscription/help (concierge)
- Preinstallation environment that lets you customize XP for rapid deployment

And a lot more. Well, ever since SA was born all people saw was “Free upgrade if they release it in under 3 years”… and when Longhorn failed to materialize there were more than a few angry folks everywhere.

In response, Microsoft planned big changes to the SA program and today they are running a recorded webcast announcing whats new with SA. There are four of them running all day long so find out whats new. I’ll post my observations later.

Register for the Webcast

Update: Thanks for noticing, I do need a vacation. These webcasts are scheduled for September 15th, 2005 (not today as I implied).

From Tonny Soper’s blog:

“As we move into more complex and interdependent applications, it becomes increasingly difficult to track the capabilities of various IT services. Furthermore, it seems that there is no single formula or presentation mechanism to easily roll up the data and demonstrate that IT is in fact meeting the needs of the business and achieving its service level agreement (SLA) targets.

Microsoft IT has become a world-class IT organization, possessing much experience in managing a large enterprise and achieving great success in messaging service delivery. Microsoft IT is diligent in its operations management processes and metrics management. They track key components and derive measurements that truly show how IT services are performing against business needs. They measure service delivery based on IT scorecards and SLAs. These metrics and measures allow them to fine tune services and achieve high availability with the Microsoft® Exchange Server messaging platform. However, since there is no industry standard for measuring services, customers frequently ask, “How does Microsoft do it?” The SLA Scorecard Solution Accelerator for Exchange provides customers with best practices for measuring the service delivery of Exchange.”

The official name of the Beta is Microsoft Solutions for Infrastructure and Management Exchange SLA Scorecard.

Beta 2 of the scorecard is in use by a small group for customers in the Technology Adoption Program under NDA and other formal agreements. The TAP program is closed to new customers for getting official support from Microsoft. However, anyone can download the SLA materials, with BetaPlace registration, which includes signing a EULA. These “open beta” customers only get limited best-effort email support from the product team as time allows, but can still enter bugs and suggestions.

You can download the SLA Scorecard Beta 2 at http://www.beta.microsoft.com with the user name MSIMExchangeSLA (Case sensitive).

The beta includes the following components and features that are compatible with Exchange 2000/2003:

* SLA Reporting Engine – Creates the reports using SQL Reporting Services and renders the reports to the SLA Reporting UI
o SLA Business Logic –
o Exchange 2000/2003 availability metrics for :
o FrontEnd Server Role
o Mailbox Server Role
o Public Folder Server Role
o Gateway and Bridgehead server roles.
o Client Availability (Outlook 2003)

* For Exchange 2000/2003 measures for:
o# of internet messages received
o # of messages filtered by IMF
o # of connections blocked
o # of recipients blocked
o # of senders blocked
o # of Exchange messages delivered
o # of anti-virus attachments removed
o # of anti-virus attachments purged
o % messages filtered by IMF
o Client Performance
* SLA DTS – The DTS package automatically extracts only the information from the MOM DW that is required by the Scorecard which reduces the footprint of the SLA DB thus reducing the time required to calculate and display the reports.

Why?

The scorecard shows more than just service uptime. It roles up availability by Exchange server role for all Exchange servers in the enterprise. It allows you to configure your SLA target metrics and aggregates MOM event and performance data, displaying actual availability vs. SLA target.

In addition, there are about 11 measures that give you a picture of the “workload” the infrastructure is doing. You can use this to help tune performance to more effectively achieve the SLA target. For example, using a version of the scorecard accelerator to monitor outage maintenance, Microsoft IT is able to categorize each particular outage and export the entire outage table to Excel. This helps Service Managers and IT Managers demonstrate that from an end to end perspective an email outage is more than an application outage. By slicing and dicing the outage data in prep for Service Review Meetings they can present where the majority of outages are occurring and focus efforts in those areas as appropriate. This makes a nice tie-in to change/problem management.

More about Exchange SLA Scorecard
Download the SLA Scorecard Beta 2 at http://www.beta.microsoft.com with the user name MSIMExchangeSLA.

No, not the kind of monitoring you are already used to, but monitoring of security lists and sites for known exploits of software you already own. For example, if your security maintenance includes installing patches on the 2nd Tuesday of each month, you’ve now missed at least two critical patches for your infrastructure. The last of which is currently being exploited on Windows 2000 by the in-the-wild Zatob.a worm:

Several AV vendors have begun reporting a new worm which targets the Windows Plug and Play vulnerability addressed by Microsoft Security Bulletin MS05-039. The worm, labeled Zotob.A (F-Secure) and W32.Zotob.A (Symantec), scans for systems listening on TCP port 445 and then attempts to exploit the Windows Plug and Play vulnerability. According to an F-Secure Weblog posting, once the victim is found, the exploit code downloads the main virus file via ftp from the scanning machine, sets up ftp server on the infected machine and starts scanning for more targets. The worm also attempts to connect IRC channel at predefined address. Those of our customers who have not finished applying the latest Microsoft patches are strongly encouraged to do so immediately.

It’s not just the Microsoft bag either. Symantec Veritas BackupExec is also vulnerable, so upgrade that as well. While you’re there, sign up for a newsletter or better yet, RSS feed of security patches and look at it daily. The security situation is grim, I understand. Can you afford to sit on your hands though? Definately not. Get very intimate with your firewall and learn how to proactively lock-out even critical network services in case of a 0-day-exploit. Subscribe to vendors security alerts list.

Now this is one of the things that make us IT Professionals want to laugh and cry at the same time. I personally spent at least a few minutes laughing to the point of shedding a tear and I hope this is just a joke (it’s not btw). From the IE blog:

Hopefully, by now you’ve seen from our posts that there are a lot of new features and work going into IE 7. As part of this update, we’re refreshing our icon and logotype. We considered more radical departures from our current logo, but blue e with the ring is very recognizable and familiar to users, so we elected instead to make more subtle changes.

As you can see, the new e has more modern look, and the edges are a bit darker so the icon stands out better against different backgrounds. We liked the gold ring too since it brings in new energy and helps the icon pop a bit more than the old one.

This icon and text treatment will be used on the versions of IE 7 for Windows XPSP2, Server 2003 SP1, and x64 versions. We’ll have a slightly different look for the Windows Vista version, one that’s more consistent with the icons there. We’re not quite ready with that one yet, but we’ll share it here once we do.

We’re happy with how this turned out; I hope you like the new look too.

As an IT Professional, how refreshing do you find it that the IE7 team is spending resources to touch up their logo? Does the gold ring take away the fact that you’re facing downtime and monthly reboots due to the security exploits in IE? Seriously guys, if you’ve found someone with the time to play with the logo in the midst of all the security issues you need to clear up that departments headcount and move them into R&D.

Its a busy Friday, lots of things to talk about. SBSC is coming to the UK, hackers are already exploiting holes reported in August’s security bulletins released on Tuesday and there is now a solution accelerator for really large deployments. Even if you’ll never deploy XP to 15,000 desktops these documents are very interesting so give them a few minutes.

Hacking
If you have not patched your systems on Tuesday, the Microsoft Internet Explorer holes are already being attacked. This is why it is important to have a good patching system in place or at least turn on Automatic Updates so that your clients and computers can stay up to date without your explicit action. In the world of 0-day security exploits, the fact that it took three days to produce a public exploit is somewhat shocking, but a blessing in disguise. Patch your systems immediately. Believe it or not, people compromise security for fun as our friend Dogbert points out:

Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment Enterprise Edition
Steven Bink is reporting the release of: The Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) follows the best practices of a multinational bank with more than 15,000 employees on five continents using multiple data centers. This solution shows how both Zero Touch and Lite Touch deployments are performed in that organization. Zero Touch contains two components:
* Zero Touch Install (ZTI). The ZTI component makes extensive use of the Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 Operating System Deployment (OSD) Feature Pack to allow customers in large and geographically dispersed organizations to perform new machine setup and machine replacement for users to be migrated to a new machine, without having to touch the target box.
* Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP). The ZTP component allows businesses to move to a managed, self-service provisioning portal that allows delegates to perform common provisioning tasks, such as password resets, e-mail provisioning, and elective application installation. ZTP requires the use of SMS 2003. The Enterprise Edition provides complete guidance for ZTP using Microsoft BizTalk® Server 2004. ZTP provides a base to reliably provision enterprise or hosted commercial services and applications, resulting in reduced administrator intervention during the provisioning phase.

Download it here.

SBSC in the UK
Microsoft Small Business Specialist program that launched in USA at WWPC has been a great success so far and now our UK friends are getting it too. Their program is set to launch on Monday, August 15, 2005 and this site has more information on it: www.sbsbpi.co.uk. This seems to be very similar to US’s Small Business Community Channel so if you’re in the UK and smallbiz its a good time to check these sites out.

More info from Susanne Dansey about SBSBPI web site:
The purpose of the site is to allow proactive Microsoft SBS resellers in the UK to keep in contact when they can’t otherwise meet up and chat. A special section has been dedicated to qualified Small Business Partners to share information and to catch up with the latest developments generated by the pilot reseller team and by Microsoft. The rest of the forum is available as a touch point for everyone.

It has been a little slow over the past few days, not a whole lot of exciting stuff going on. Microsoft won $7 from optinrealbig.com scum. Looks like the new version of GPL will be out soon. Neowin, usually a well respected Microsoft watchdog, managed to turn a grain of salt into a mountain by predicting the end of free Microsoft Antispyware on one line from a OneCare chat. On the more positive note, Tampa Bay SBS UG meeting last night was excellent, Chad Gross delivered a presentation on SharePoint and integrating Infopath into it to create “poor man’s crm”.

As for what you should spend this weeks allowance on?

Schedule the phone on your Windows Mobile device to turn on and off!

Benefits include:
* Save the battery on your device by turning off your phone and Bluetooth at night.
* Save money by preventing your device connecting to the Internet at unwanted times (for example: sending and receiving email).
* Stop unwanted calls in the middle of the night or during meetings.

With its rich, intuitive interface Phone Schedule allows you to select from a number of options, including:
* Turn your phone on and off at a scheduled time for each day of the week.
* Turn your phone off during Pocket Outlook calendar appointments, depending on the type of meeting (Free, Tentative, Busy or Out-of-Office). New in version 2.0!
* Turn your phone off for a specified length of time or until a certain time is reached.
* Include Bluetooth in your schedule.
* Optional audio notifications when phone is turned on and off.
* Automatically PIN unlock your phone when it turns on.
* Program works behind the Windows Mobile password/PIN logon.
* One setting for all days allows for single-click configuration for an entire week.
* Program waits for connected voice calls to be completed before turning the phone off. New in version 2.0!
* Option to automatically blank the screen during an incoming or outgoing phone call. New in version 2.0!
* Easy to use interface.
* Includes built-in HTML help. New in version 2.0!

You can buy it here, $13.

Its that time of the month folks, Microsoft Patchday. Review security alerts below and get to patching. Please test these patches first and if you encounter any issues make sure to attend the Technet webcast tomorrow when you can ask questions and get some help.

On the side note, Juniper routers (and IDS) seem to already protect against the exploits listed below. “Juniper Networks Protects Customers Against New Microsoft Windows Vulnerabilities Disclosed Today.” Way to go Juniper!

Bulletin Summary:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/ms05-Aug.mspx

Critical Bulletins:

Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (896727)
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/ms05-038.mspx

Vulnerability in Plug and Play Could Allow Remote Code Execution and Elevation of Privilege (899588)
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/ms05-039.mspx

Vulnerability in Print Spooler Service Could Allow Remote Code Execution (896423)
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/ms05-043.mspx

Important Bulletins:

Vulnerability in Telephony Service Could Allow Remote Code Execution (893756)
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/ms05-040.mspx

Moderate Bulletins:

Vulnerability in Remote Desktop Protocol Could Allow Denial of Service (899591)
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/ms05-041.mspx

Vulnerabilities in Kerberos Could Allow Denial of Service, Information Disclosure, and Spoofing (899587)
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/ms05-042.mspx

Re-Released Bulletins:

Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Word May Lead to Remote Code Execution (890169)
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/ms05-023.mspx

Vulnerability in Microsoft Agent Could Allow Spoofing (890046)
(890169)
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/ms05-032.mspx

This represents our regularly scheduled monthly bulletin release (second Tuesday of each month). Please note that Microsoft may release bulletins out side of this schedule if we determine the need to do so.

If you have any questions regarding the patch or its implementation after reading the above listed bulletin you should contact Product Support Services in the United States at 1-866-PCSafety (1-866-727-2338). International customers should contact their local subsidiary.

Update:
By the way, the IE patch (896727) cannot be installed because the digital certificate of the path is invalid. Just a heads up for anybody that encounters “file is corrupt” errors while installing that patch.

Today has been a good day for Outlook users. Another incredibly useful tool for those of us that live inside of Outlook.

The Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 Calendar Views Add-in makes it easy for you to view your Outlook Calendar appointments through a filter that is based on Outlook labels and categories. For example, you can create a view that shows you only the appointments on your calendar that are labeled Must Attend, or are categorized as Important.

You add filters by using the Calendar Views toolbar, which opens in your Outlook Calendar after you install the add-in.

Note: This add-in is for Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 only.

Ok, I really dig this tool. I’ve taken a little screenshot of the toolbar which seems very clean yet very functional which leads me to believe that Microsoft must have outsourced the development of this addin. The screenshot also shows the view design screens which, as you can tell, are very powerful.

Whats missing from the screenshot (because I don’t want you to see all my appointments) is the bar underneath the actual calendar (and above Open a Shared Calendar..) where you can access all the views with just a single click. Default view is “No view” but you can apply Active Appointments, Events, Annual Events, recurring appointments, as well as the ones you define on your own. Worth the bandwidth!

You can download it here.