Wanted: SharePoint Specialists and BPOS Specialists

Are you currently in a consulting or supporting role for SharePoint, Microsoft Exchange, or OCS?  Do you like to tinker with multiple technologies and develop custom solutions for customers/end users.  Are you tired of working with the same customers, and non-challenging projects? Do you believe that cloud services and cloud computing is fundamental for any size organization?  Vorsite would like to speak with you about advancing your career and joining our team of top Microsoft Online Services consultants.  We are looking for driven candidates of all experience levels.

Some of the activities this role/team covers:

• Solution Architecture (On-premise or in the Cloud? Business Process Integration, Migration Strategy etc…)
• Exchange Online  and SharePoint Online Migrations
• SharePoint Online Implementation (Site Design, SharePoint Administration, customizations, Workflow Development)
• BPOS Evangelism and Presentations

Please send resumes to careers@vorsite.com

The Winning Combo Promo

If you’ve been thinking of ways to reduce IT costs, answer your questions on upgrading, extend your business capabilities or streamline your infrastructure – now is the time to evaluate the BPOS Suite!

Leverage Microsoft’s complete suite of services at a reduced cost and earn $500 towards migration services* applied through Vorsite, a value-added reseller.

See full ad… or Learn More….

Single Sign-on for Mac Users is Out of Beta

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=a3f34420-bb96-47ce-9844-4eab1eb9026d

The beta has concluded Mac customers now have a Sign-In Client for Microsoft Online Services.

Enhanced Support for Mac OS
A new Sign-In Client for the Mac OS provides a single sign-in experience and auto-configuration of Office for Mac applications and the Safari browser for use with Microsoft Online Services.

Other Mac features in this Service Update include:

• Support for Entourage 2008 Exchange Web Services (EWS), including Global Address List (GAL), Calendar Free/Busy Lookup, and Out-of-Office notifications
• Global Address List support for Entourage 2004 and 2008 when using the Sign-In Client for Mac
• SharePoint Online support for Document Connection for Mac to improve the collaboration experience for users
• Improved Firefox and Safari support for My Company Portal

Interested in taking Microsoft Online Services for a test drive?  Take advantage of the 30-day free trial that is available, learn more…

BPOS and “The Sidekick Incident” a Need to Know

Recently, a number of customers read about the issue Sidekick user’s experienced and contacted Vorsite with their concerns. This information is relevant if you are a Microsoft Online Services subscriber of the Business Online Productivity Suite (BPOS) or if you are evaluating the services.

The main concern being, how is “The Sidekick Incident” related to BPOS. The answer being, it is not.  BPOS hosting infrastructure completely separate from Sidekick’s.

Please see the article below, it is an interview with Steve Ballmer and his direct statement to this issue.  Specifically he speaks to the fact that “Sidekick” is NOT run on the same infrastructure as BPOS, and is completely unrelated. 

 From Network world:

 http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/101909-microsoft-balmer-sidekick.html?hpg1=bn

SharePoint Online, part of its Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), has one million users. The majority of those customers use the service to store data online as it does not yet have full-feature parity with the enterprise version of SharePoint Server. In addition, Exchange Online is another data-intensive application within BPOS, a set of service run by Microsoft. Also, Microsoft next year plans to offer Office Web Applications, online versions of the popular productivity applications, which will feature SharePoint as their back-end data storage infrastructure.  BPOS however is not run on the same infrastructure that hosted Sidekick, which was operated by Microsoft’s Danger subsidiary and was not running on Microsoft software or its Azure cloud platform.

If you are interested in learning more about Microsoft Online Services (BPOS), go to www.TryMSOnline.com, or start a 30-day free trial of the services.

Prices slashed for Email and Collaboration Online Services

Microsoft made effective November 3, 2009, some of the Microsoft Online hosted services available at a new low price. The effective changes include Exchange Online Standard at $5 per user/per month, SharePoint Online Standard at $5.25 per user/per month, and Business Productivity Online Suite at $10 per user/per month.

A 30-Day trial of the services is available at no charge, for more information about the trial you can learn more here. 

To learn more about the Busines Online Productivity Suite go to www.TryMSOnline.com

October Release Annoucements for BPOS

Below is an excerpt from the Microsoft Online Services Team Blog

Upgrades and Enhancements    
The following features and capabilities are included in this Service Update:

 Bulk Activation of Users
Commandlets added in this Service Update are:

• Enable-MSOnlineUser
• Get-MSOnlineSubscription
• Set-MSOnlineUserPassword

POP Mail Clients
Supported e-mail clients for Exchange Online are being expanded to include POP-based clients. Previously, Exchange Online supported only Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 and 2007.

Support for 30,000 Users

The Microsoft Online Services Administration Center will support as many as 30,000 users, improving management and administration for larger organizations. Previously, Microsoft Online Services supported up to 10,000 users.

Enhanced Support for Mac OS
The Service Update includes several enhancements that will provide a more efficient communication and collaboration experience for organizations with Mac users.

 For the full October Update go to the Microsoft Online Services Team Blog http://blogs.technet.com/msonline/archive/2009/10/14/service-update-october-2009-release-availability-features-announced.aspx

New In October! Business Online Productivity Suite Webinar Series

Event Title

Business Online Productivity Suite Webinar Series

Event Description

Audience: Business Owners, CEOs, Business and Technical Decision Makers Description: In a recent email from Steve Ballmer he discussed “The New Efficiency: With Less, Do More”, and continued to explain, “In the new normal, one thing is clear: cutting costs is extremely important. But cost cutting by itself is not a long-term winning strategy. To build a sustainable competitive advantage, companies must ultimately do two things- increase productivity and find ways to deliver new value to customers.” How do you realize new efficiency? During this webinar you will learn about the capabilities of the Business Online Productivity Suite. In addition discuss how you can maximize key productivity gains when integrating with existing investments, specifically the Microsoft Office Suite. The Business Online Productivity Suite from Microsoft delivers streamlined communications, simplified management, Business-class security and reliability.

Register Today!

“Send on behalf” and forwarding is available with BPOS

Did you know… 

These two features are server side and can be enabled within Exchange Online.  How? Open a support case with Microsoft and specify the accounts you would like set up for either feature. 

Not subscribed to Microsoft Online Services yet?  Take it for a test drive today!  Learn More at www.trymsonline.com or contact us at trymsonline@vorsite.com .

Upcoming SharePoint Events

Vorsite Microsoft Online Services Webinars:  SharePoint Online 101

Register Here: https://www.livemeeting.com/lrs/ol_2501aot_ccc/Registration.aspx?PageName=7j02sf62280ml14h

Vorsite Presenting at SharePoint Saturday in NewYork

Check out details here: http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/ny/default.aspx

POP POP FIZ FIZZ AND BPOS

Creating a list of resources around POP and Microsoft Online Services

Great Q & A from Microsoft’s Richard Moore – http://www.microsoft.com/ireland/connect/ask/bpos.aspx

More to come soon…. for more information on Microsoft Online Services and BPOS go to www.trymsonline.com