Good podcast from Microsoft.

Find more great podcasts from Microsoft at: http://www.microsoft.com/events/podcasts/

The Big Easy Offer gives you choices on Microsoft products and solutions that fit your needs. For every qualifying product you purchase, Microsoft pays you partner subsidy funds that can be used with a Microsoft Partner of your choice to help with the implementation of your Microsoft solution including software, hardware and services.

About the Offer
The Big Easy Offer gives you choices on Microsoft products and solutions that fit your needs. For every qualifying product you purchase, Microsoft pays you partner subsidy funds that can be used with a Microsoft Partner of your choice to help with the implementation of your Microsoft solution including software, hardware and services.

What is a Subsidy?
A subsidy is a check made payable to the Microsoft partner of your choice. This subsidy can be used to enrich and implement your Microsoft solution. The subsidy allows you to purchase additional products or services from the Microsoft partner of your choice thus lowering your Total Cost of Ownership.

Want More?
You can increase your subsidy by choosing:

• Products from more than one product group.
• Licenses with Software Assurance.
• Advanced or Enterprise Editions.

How do I take advantage of the Big Easy Offer 4.0?

• Make a qualifying purchase between January 3, 2010 and March 31, 2010.
• Redeem your purchase within 30 days of purchase date at http://www.microsoftincentives.com/BigEasy4/redeem.aspx.
• Receive your partner subsidy check from Microsoft.
• Spend your subsidy funds with your Microsoft partner upon receipt. Please note that subsidy funds expire after 90 days of the check issue date.

Great tips from Microsoft at Work. Actually it’s more like a list of links to Microsoft sites to help you get your business idea off the ground. Resources include:

Business sites:

• Small Business Center

• Startup Business Center

• Midsize Business Center

• Enterprise Business Center

• Industry & Public Sector

• Business & Industry

Business software and resources you can use:

• Microsoft Dynamics

• People-Ready Business

• Volume Licensing

• Business Intelligence

• Microsoft Advertising

• Microsoft Retail

• Microsoft Services

Hop on over to the site for the links and all the goodness.

http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/businesscentral.aspx

Great article from Microsoft at Work

Everyone forgets the basics, which is what this article is all about. Getting back to the basics of maintaining your computer.

By following a few simple guidelines, you can maintain your computer and keep it running smoothly. This article discusses how to use the tools available in Windows 7, Vista, and XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) to more efficiently maintain your computer and safeguard your privacy when you're online.

I suggest reading through the whole article for the “hows”, but here are the “whats” summarized:

1. Free Up Disk Space (Cleanup)
2. Speed Up Access To Data (Defragment)
3. Detect and Repair Disk Errors (Check Disk)
4. Protect Your Computer Against Spyware
5. Learn All About ReadyBoost (Vista and Windows 7 only)

Go read the article now. Especially now that the picture-taking season is upon us. You’re going to need your computer to be performing at it’s peak.

Want some help with this? Call Dash Technical Solutions today and we’ll be able to help you out!

5 ways to speed up your PC

I’m a fan of this web application (TwitterFeed). It will allow you to hook up your blog postings to Twitter and Facebook. I use it on this blog (so you should see this post in Twitter within the hour – I’m still working on the link to our Facebook fan page). This is super-useful for people who want to get word out to multiple sources at the same time.

From the article:

You’re cranking out some solid blog posts for your company. And you’ve just convinced the boss to let you set up a Twitter account and a Facebook fan page, too. But the boss is worried it’ll take up too much time, and she asks: “Can you automatically update Twitter and Facebook with our new blog posts?” Yes, you can. Here’s how to do it reliably and for free.

Try it… You just might like it.

Update Twitter & Facebook Fan Pages Automatically via RSS

I’m not going to repeat the whole list here, but I thought it would be beneficial to my customers and peers to have this information, if they don’t already.

This is a great list of small things you can do to to :

1. Effectively market to your target audience (Copywriting)
2. Make your site easier to use (Usability)
3. Make  your site easier to find (Search Engine Optimization)
4. Make your site easier to use for visitors with disabilities (Accessibility)
5. Make your site attractive (Design)
6. Keep your site safe and protect its content (Legal)

It’s a good read. I just bookmarked it (well I also blogged about it, so I know exactly where to find it in the future…)

101 Five-Minute Fixes to Incrementally Improve Your Web Site - Inside CRM

Below is a list of galleries to get inspiration from. I’m a recent convert from the “use HTML and spacer gifs as a way to control layout” way of thinking to the CSS way of thinking.

Have a look. There’s some good stuff here. If you are a dyed-in-the-wool old-school tables kind of person, then it may take a bit to get you to see the beauty of CSS and get your head around how it all works. There is still room for tables but tables WITH CSS, is a thing of beauty.

Take a look at this link as well, which describes some of the advantages and disadvantages of both approaches: http://www.mardiros.net/css-layout.html

Sometimes a big heavy-duty enterprise relational database is not a good fit for the things you want to do for your business. Sometimes, you need to use the tools you have available… like Microsoft Excel and Access.

Of course, Dash Technical Solutions can help you implement a solution that uses any of them (including the enterprise-ready databases like Microsoft SQL Server). But for those who like to give it a try before calling in outside help, there is this handy guide, put out by Microsoft Office Online.

Making the right choice is critical if you want to access and update your information with maximum performance and accuracy. So the article talks about how to pick the program that will work best for your data.

To summarize, take a look at the chart below to compare the capabilities and features of each:

Have a read. And then when you are ready to make the jump, call Dash Technical Solutions to discuss how we can help!

Using Access or Excel to manage your data - Excel - Microsoft Office Online

I really like the stuff that John Jantsch and the stuff he puts out through his Duct Tape Marketing blog.

In this installment, he outlines some good points for creating a business that doesn’t necessarily have a tangible “product”.

These points include:

1. Turn your service into a product
2. Develop a suite of tools and systems
3. Build a brand that’s easy to talk about
4. Push out lots of expert content
5. Lead generate from multiple outposts
6. Perfect your lead conversion close
7. Construct a killer network

Have a read. I’m bookmarking it, as well as blogging about it and following John on Twitter.

7 Steps to Creating a Winning Coaching, Consulting or Service Business | Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

From Microsoft At Work:

When we think of documents, most of us think of such things as letters, memos, and reports. But the capabilities and demands of today's connected world mean that virtually anything we record, electronically or on paper, is a type of document.

OneNote is a wonderful tool for note taking. I’ve used it as a consultant, as a developer, as a woodworker, and on and on. This article shows how you can change your thinking about what “note” taking really means, including:

• Keep your own meeting minutes without learning shorthand (audio notes)
• Organize your notes for follow-up, without any extra time or effort (tagging your notes)
• Access and compile the notes you need in no time (automated lists)

These are just a few things that OneNote can help with. Contact Dash Technical Solutions today and we can get you started down the road to not only good, but EXCELLENT note taking for your business.

Get more from the notes you take every day and everywhere