If you read the Microsoft Ireland Partner Newsletter you'll already know that I'll be moving out of my current Partner role from the start of July 2014. 

With that in mind (and for what I expect will be my final Blog on this site), I wanted to sign off by sharing my own favourite Windows 8.1 feature - I could be wrong but I think its largely gone under the radar. 

Hope you find it of interest and thanks to all of you who have made the past couple of years working in the Irish Partner Community such a privilege!

Building your own Festival Playlist automatically with "Musical Shares"

This weekend sees one of the world's premier music festivals taking place in the form of Glastonbury.  If you're one of the many Partners who I've had the privilege to work with over the past couple of years or you've heard me speak at any event, you'll know that I'm deeply passionate about music.  Genre?  Not fussy...  I'll listen to pretty much anything and I love nothing more than finding something new that I didn't know existed.  So, it's pretty much a given that I also love music festivals.  And while I'd love to be attending Glastonbury, The Electric Picnic, Longitude, Belsonic and any numbers of other great events scheduled this summer, that just isn't going to happen.

So, instead?

By using the simple "Share" charm, I get to share the contents of any public webpage with my Music App in Windows 8/8.1. 

If that webpage contains a list of Songs or Artists (e.g. a festival line-up as an example!), the Music App scans the page, picks out the Artists names, builds a playlist and allows me to start streaming my own custom festival playlists to whatever device I decide to use the Music app on (remember, Xbox Music is now available not only on Windows, Windows Phone and Xbox but also via web browser and Apple/Android Apps) - all without any manual work on my part...  Personally, I love it - see the screenshot steps below, give it a try and see what you think!

Step 1 - Open the webpage with the artists/songs you're interested in (in this example the 2014 Glastonbury lineup)

Step 2 - Swipe or use your mouse to bring up the Charms menu.  Use the "Share" Charm to share the page with "Music"

Step 3 - The Music App will scan the page to look for music related information.

Step 4 - Click on "Create Playlist"

Step 5 - Depending on how many artists/songs are on the page this could take a while to build. Be patient! :-)

Step 6 - Start streaming your very own festival playlist on any of your devices!

Enjoy and best wishes!

Neil.

Congratulations to our XBox One and Dell Venue Pro 8 Winners

If you've been following our Blog, LinkedIn or our Twitter posts, you'll know by now that we've been running a number of competitions to win some quality devices over the past while!

We'd already announced the winners of the competitions here through LinkedIn , so congratulations again to Iain McClure from Novosco and Elaine English from Brandon Consulting who both won a Toshiba WT310 each, as well as to Koen Wagenveld from Brandon Consulting, Richard Bell from Allsop consulting and Colin Meade from Treadstone Systems who each won a Dell Venue 8 Pro Device.

With the start of the week the close date for the original competition posted here though, we now get to announce the winners of the draw for the 2 XBox Ones as well as the last remaining Dell Venue Pro 8 devices. 

Congratulations then to Malcolm Houston from Meas Training & Consultancy and to Blaithin Surgeoner from Endeavour Information Systems, both of whom win an XBox One and to John Roche from ICT Services, Vanessa Redmond from Brandon Consulting, Stephen Crumley from Hostsure and Emer Kenny from Sysco, all 4 of whom win a Dell Venue Pro 8 device.

Hopefully that's a nice way to start the weekend!!!

Congratulations to all the winners again.

On behalf of the entire Microsoft Ireland Partner Team - we're genuinely delighted to see 4 local Partners recognised globally in this year's WPC Awards!

You can see the full list of Worldwide winners and finalists at aka.ms/wpc14winners , but specifically we wanted to call out the following:

• Codec-dss - Ireland Country Partner of the Year Winners
• Graham Quinn (Auxilion) - Worldwide Pre-Sales Technical Specialist Award Winner
• HCS Business Solutions - Worldwide Small Business Partner Finalist
• SAM360 - Worldwide SAM Partner Finalist

Great to see the well deserved recognition on a global platform and we look forward to celebrating and recognising these successes in D.C. this July.

Don't forget, we'll also be announcing our local Irish Award winners at WPC so we'll see more awards before the summer is out.

And if you're interested in knowing more about how you can get your name up there next year - feel free to reach out to us to discuss what's involved and what WPC can mean for local Partners.

Well done again to all!!!

More Chances to Win!

Hopefully you're already aware of the prize draw we're running at http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_partner_network_ireland/archive/2014/04/11/enter-to-win-an-xbox-one-or-a-dell-venue-8-pro.aspx

From today, however, we're giving even more chances to win prizes from the local team!

Now, when you take a Sales or Pre-Sales Specialist competency assessment on Lync 2013 or an Azure Technical Accreditation, you have the chance to enter a separate draw for a Toshiba WT310 Device or a Dell Venue 8 Pro.

Take both courses and you’ll automatically gain an additional entry to win an XBox One with a 12-month XBox Live Subscription.

Here’s how to enter

Step 1

To be in with a chance of winning, all you need to do is to successfully complete the following courses:

• a free Communication Sales (Lync 2013) Sales Specialist Assessment or a Communication Pre-Sales (Lync 2013)Technical Specialist Assessment between now and the 23rd May 2014.
• a free Azure Technical Accreditation between now and 30th May 2014.

Step 2

Once you’ve completed the Accreditation, take a screenshot and email Shoshanna Hayden @ v-shhayd@microsoft.com.  

So far, 10 Partners have completed the full Assessments to be eligible for the XBox One competition, so get started today to be in with a real chance to win.

This prize draw is open to all registered Microsoft Partner organisations on the island of Ireland. Winners will be announced through Partner Newsletter and through LinkedIn. Full T&Cs are available below.

Good Luck!

Terms and Conditions

1. ELIGIBILITY: The Promoter is Microsoft Ireland (Operations) Limited, of Building 3, Carmanhall Road, Sandyford Industrial Estate, Dublin 18 (the “Promoter”). This promotion is open to anyone working for a organisation registered as a Microsoft Partner on the island of Ireland. Employees of the Promoter or its affiliates, subsidiaries, advertising or promotion agencies are not eligible, nor are members of these employees' families.

2. TO ENTER: To enter this promotion, participants must enter by completing either (i) A Lync 2013 Sales Specialist or Pre-Sales Technical Accreditation as described at section 2.1, or (ii) An Azure Technical Accreditation as described at section 2.2. No purchase is necessary. Entry as a result of the Sales Specialist Accreditation, Pre-Sales Technical Specialist or Technical Accreditation Option constitutes full and unconditional acceptance of these Terms and Conditions.

2.1 To enter using the Sales Specialist/Pre-Sales Specialist Accreditation Option, participants must take, complete and pass either the Communications Sales Specialist Accreditation Assessment available at https://mspartnerlp.mspartner.microsoft.com/LearningPath/LearningPath/DLPaths?trackId=173&rowId=374&trackPathId=5458 or the Communications Pre-Sales Technical Accreditation Assessment at https://mspartnerlp.mspartner.microsoft.com/LearningPath/LearningPath/DLPaths?trackId=122&rowId=705&trackPathId=6541 .  Once completed, a screenshot must be sent to v-shhayd@microsoft.com.  On receipt of this e-mail, participants will automatically receive one entry for the competition for each Accreditation Assessment passed.  Completion will also automatically ensure entry into the competition at http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_partner_network_ireland/archive/2014/04/11/enter-to-win-an-xbox-one-or-a-dell-venue-8-pro.aspx.

2.2 To enter using the Azure Technical Accreditation Option, participants must take, complete and pass the Technical Assessment for using Azure for DataCenter Solutions available at https://mspartnerlp.mspartner.microsoft.com/LearningPath/LearningPath/DLPaths?trackId=313&rowId=702&trackPathId=8062 .  Once completed, a screenshot must be sent to v-shhayd@microsoft.com.  On receipt of this e-mail, participants will automatically receive one entry for the competition.  Completion will also automatically ensure entry into the competition at http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_partner_network_ireland/archive/2014/04/11/enter-to-win-an-xbox-one-or-a-dell-venue-8-pro.aspx.

3. TIMING: The Lync Sales/Pre-Sales promotion will run from 19th May 2014 to 23rd May 2014.  The Azure technical promotion will run from 19th May 2014 to 30th May 2014.

4. PRIZE: At the end of each Promotion period, 1 qualifying entrant will be awarded Toshiba WT310 Device.  An additional 1 qualifying entrant per Promotion will be awarded a Dell Venue 8 Pro Device (the “Prizes”).

5. SELECTION OF WINNER: At the end of each Promotion period, the Promoter will review all entries received in accordance with these Terms and Conditions and will award a Prize by randomly choosing a winner from the pool of entries received in accordance with these Terms and Conditions. If a potential winner cannot be contacted, through no fault of the Promoter, within five (5) days after the first attempt, an alternative winner will be selected. Winners will be announced on a monthly basis through the Microsoft Ireland Partner Newsletter, the Microsoft Ireland LinkedIn Group and through the twitter handle @MSPartnersIRL.

6. PRIZE: A maximum of four Prizes will be awarded in connection with this promotion. Participants who have been awarded a Prize are not eligible to win additional Prizes. The Prize may not be exchanged for any other item nor redeemed for cash value. The Promoter reserves the right to substitute a prize of equal or greater value. The Prize will be sent to the address of the winner, as provided to the Promoter. The Prize may be considered a taxable benefit and winners will be directly responsible for accounting for any tax liability arising on their prize. The Promoter reserves the right to determine which of the Prizes shall be awarded to the winner.

7. EXCLUSIONS: The Prize alone will be awarded to each winning participant and does not include any of the following which will be the responsibility of the winner:

(i) any connection or set-up costs associated with the Prize; (ii) any account subscription or data costs incurred in connection with the use of the Prize; or (iii) any associated costs incurred to a service provider.

8. USE OF DATA: By participating in the promotion, you agree that any personal data provided may be processed by the Promoter for administration of the promotion. The Promoter will not make any further use of any personal data submitted as part of the promotion without the express permission of the relevant participant(s). Details of participants who are awarded a Prize will be available by writing to: Microsoft Ireland (Sales, Marketing and Services Group) Building 3, Carmanhall Road, Sandyford Industrial Estate, Dublin 18. Participants agree that, if awarded a Prize, the Promoter may use their names for reasonable promotional purposes in connection with the promotion.

9. OTHER: No correspondence will be entered into regarding either this promotion or these Terms and Conditions. In the unlikely event of a dispute, the Promoter’s decision shall be final. The Promoter reserves the right to amend, modify, cancel or withdraw this promotion at any time without notice and to disqualify anyone in breach of these Terms and Conditions.

10. These Terms and Conditions shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Ireland and any dispute arising in connection with these Terms and Conditions and/or this promotion shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Irish courts.

Register today for Belfast and Dublin Windows Azure Events with MicroWarehouse and Microsoft

Microsoft’s public cloud, Windows Azure, provides a hugely scalable hosting platform that allows you to deploy infrastructure and services within minutes. With Windows Azure you can avail of self-service, easy remote connectivity, broad network access, and elasticity for on-demand computing. You can deploy services, virtual machines, web sites, databases, storage, all within a few minutes. Combined with Windows Server Hyper-V and System Center you can build hybrid solutions that combine partner-operated clouds, customer-owned on-premise infrastructure and Windows Azure. In this session we will explain what Windows Azure is, how it will be of value to you and your customers, how you might already be implementing a part of the Cloud OS, and what new business opportunities there are for you.

You can register for the Belfast event (30th April) at http://www.eventbrite.ie/e/discover-microsoft-azure-and-the-hybrid-cloud-with-microwarehouse-tickets-11139475471

Registration for the Dublin event (1st May) at http://www.eventbrite.ie/e/discover-microsoft-azure-and-the-hybrid-cloud-with-microwarehouse-dublin-tickets-11139625921

                      

Fancy winning an XBox One with a 12-month XBox Live Subscription or a Dell Venue 8 Pro Device?

We have two XBox Ones and two Dell Venue 8 Pro Devices to give away between now and 1st June (4 lucky winners in total!)

To be in with a chance of winning, all you need to do is to successfully complete a free Sales Specialist Assessment or a Pre-Sales Technical Specialist Assessment between now and 1st June.

While we hope the prizes on offer are reason enough to have a go at these Assessments, it's also worth noting that:

• Microsoft partners with 2+ accredited Sales Specialists earn ~3.5x more revenue per deal

• Presales Technical Specialists can generate 74% greater deal sizes with 20% higher velocity

You can find both the list of Sales Specialist Accreditations and the list Pre-Sales Technical Specialist Accreditations at https://mspartnerlp.mspartner.microsoft.com/LearningPath with topics from Datacenter to SMB.  Alongside the assessments you'll also find a wide range of free training and resources, so make sure you check them out!

Full Ts&Cs of this competition are provided below but be aware that you'll receive 1 entry per assessment successfully completed and there's no limit to the number of assessments you can sit.  As a result, you'll increase your chances of winning the more assessments you successfully complete!  This prize draw is open to all registered Microsoft Partner organisations on the island of Ireland.

Good luck!!!

Terms and Conditions

1. ELIGIBILITY: The Promoter is Microsoft Ireland (Operations) Limited, of Building 3, Carmanhall Road, Sandyford Industrial Estate, Dublin 18 (the “Promoter”). This promotion is open to anyone working for a organisation registered as a Microsoft Partner on the island of Ireland. Employees of the Promoter or its affiliates, subsidiaries, advertising or promotion agencies are not eligible, nor are members of these employees' families.

2. TO ENTER: To enter this promotion, participants must enter by completing either (i) A Sales Specialist Accreditation as described at section 2.1, or (ii) A Pre-Sales Technical Specialist Accreditation as described at section 2.2. No purchase is necessary. Entry as a result of the Sales Specialist Accreditation or Pre-Sales Technical Specialist Accreditation Option constitutes full and unconditional acceptance of these Terms and Conditions.

2.1 To enter using the Sales Specialist Accreditation Option, participants must take, complete and pass any Microsoft Partner Sales Specialist Accreditation Assessment available at https://mspartnerlp.mspartner.microsoft.com/LearningPath.  Participants will automatically receive one entry for every unique Sales Specialist Accreditation Assessment passed.  Participants can complete an unlimited number of Sales Specialist Accreditations.

2.2 To enter using the Pre-Sales Technical Accreditation Option, participants must take, complete and pass any Microsoft Partner Pre-Sales Technical Specialist Accreditation Assessment available at https://mspartnerlp.mspartner.microsoft.com/LearningPath.  Participants will automatically receive one entry for every unique Pre-Sales Technical Specialist Accreditation Assessment passed.  Participants can complete an unlimited number of Pre-Sales Technical Specialist Accreditations.

3. TIMING: This promotion will run from 1 April 2014 to 1 June 2014.

4. PRIZE: At the end of the Promotion period, two qualifying entrants will be awarded an Xbox One and 12-month Xbox Live subscription.  An additional two qualifying entrants will be awarded a Dell Venue 8 Pro Device (the “Prizes”).

5. SELECTION OF WINNER: At the end of the Promotion period, the Promoter will review all entries received in accordance with these Terms and Conditions and will award a Prize by randomly choosing a winner from the pool of entries received in accordance with these Terms and Conditions. If a potential winner cannot be contacted, through no fault of the Promoter, within five (5) days after the first attempt, an alternative winner will be selected. Winners will be announced on a monthly basis through the Microsoft Ireland Partner Newsletter and through the twitter handle @MSPartnersIRL.

6. PRIZE: A maximum of four Prizes will be awarded in connection with this promotion. Participants who have been awarded a Prize are not eligible to win additional Prizes. The Prize may not be exchanged for any other item nor redeemed for cash value. The Promoter reserves the right to substitute a prize of equal or greater value. The Prize will be sent to the address of the winner, as provided to the Promoter. The Prize may be considered a taxable benefit and winners will be directly responsible for accounting for any tax liability arising on their prize. The Promoter reserves the right to determine which of the Prizes shall be awarded to the winner.

7. EXCLUSIONS: The Prize alone will be awarded to each winning participant and does not include any of the following which will be the responsibility of the winner:

(i) any connection or set-up costs associated with the Prize; (ii) any account subscription or data costs incurred in connection with the use of the Prize; or (iii) any associated costs incurred to a service provider.

8. USE OF DATA: By participating in the promotion, you agree that any personal data provided may be processed by the Promoter for administration of the promotion. The Promoter will not make any further use of any personal data submitted as part of the promotion without the express permission of the relevant participant(s). Details of participants who are awarded a Prize will be available by writing to: Microsoft Ireland (Sales, Marketing and Services Group) Building 3, Carmanhall Road, Sandyford Industrial Estate, Dublin 18. Participants agree that, if awarded a Prize, the Promoter may use their names for reasonable promotional purposes in connection with the promotion.

9. OTHER: No correspondence will be entered into regarding either this promotion or these Terms and Conditions. In the unlikely event of a dispute, the Promoter’s decision shall be final. The Promoter reserves the right to amend, modify, cancel or withdraw this promotion at any time without notice and to disqualify anyone in breach of these Terms and Conditions.

10. These Terms and Conditions shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Ireland and any dispute arising in connection with these Terms and Conditions and/or this promotion shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Irish courts.

All details available in our previous Blog post at http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_partner_network_ireland/archive/2014/03/21/could-you-be-one-of-our-microsoft-ireland-partners-of-the-year-nominations-close-in-3-weeks.aspx

Good luck to all that enter!

Do you think you should be one of our Microsoft Ireland Partners of the Year?  Or do you think you could even be one of Microsoft's Global Partners of the Year?? 

If so, this week is your final chance to nominate your organisation for both with just one entry!

To try and simplify the process this year (and to ensure transparency of that process), details on the Awards and the process for being considered for an Award this year are below:

• All Microsoft Ireland Partner Awards will be announced and presented during our Annual Awards Dinner Ceremony at Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington D.C. (13th-17th July).
  

• To be eligible for an Award, you must submit a nomination via the Partner of the Year Awards Tool
  

• Nominations must be submitted in the tool no later than April 11th, 2014.  As we are using a Global nomination tool this year, we have no flexibility to grant extensions to this deadline so please ensure you complete your submission in advance of this date.
  

• There are a number of Award categories available to nominate your organisation for.  Submitting a nomination will not only have your entry reviewed for Global award eligibility but will also automatically enter you into the corresponding local Microsoft Ireland Partner Award category (if there is a local Award as below).
  

• The Award Categories that do have a corresponding local Microsoft Ireland Partner Award are below (and also available to download at http://1drv.ms/1etroyo ) :
  

Country Partner of the Year

• ?Microsoft Ireland Country Partner of the Year

Cloud Awards

• ?Cloud Excellence
• ?Cloud Partner of the Year – Enterprise Customers (CA and EPG)
• ?Cloud Partner of the Year – Small and Medium Business (SMB) 

Sales Excellence Awards

• ?Presales Technical Specialist
• ?Sales Specialist

Competency Awards

• Business Intelligence
• Collaboration and Content
• Communications
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
• DataCenter (Please submit nominations in either the Management & Virtualisation or the Server Platform categories to be eligible for this Award)
• Devices and Deployment
• Hosting
• Learning
• Licensing
• Small Business
• Software Asset Management (SAM)
  

• Please submit your nominations in each category you feel is relevant to you.  You can nominate your organisation in as few or as many categories as you like.

• Bear in mind, while many people have doubted that as an Irish Partner you could win a global award, some of the previous Global winners have been from organisations with less than 10 people. You can nominate your organisation in as few or as many categories as you like.

To help with your nominations, please be aware of the below resources to assist you with building a winning submission:

• The 2014 Official Rules

• FAQs

• Guidance from the Judges

• “Writing a Winning Partner of the Year Award Entry”

• WPC 2014 Awards webpage

Finally, if you have any comments, questions or feedback on the Awards, please let us know!

Thanks,

Neil.

Register Today For Your Preferred Location at https://aka.ms/MSPartnersirl

Get Ready for Partner Program Changes

New Year.  New Partner Program.  There are big changes coming to the Microsoft Partner Program this February.  Your Microsoft Partner team will visit Belfast on the 25th February, Dublin on the 26th February and Cork on the 27th February to deliver an update on what those changes are, what they mean in practice to you and your business. 

Keynote from motivational speaker Paul McNeive

Paul McNeive has an amazing inspirational story to prove that everything is possible. At the event, Paul will pass on the lessons in positivity, and goal setting which lead to increased sales.  

Get Interactive with Breakout Sessions

Make sure you attend one of our events at a location that suits you and choose how you best spend your time. We will be running interactive breakout sessions to include:
 

• Building a Cloud Managed Service Offering
• Microsoft Dynamics – the Partner Business Opportunity
• Microsoft Partners and the Education Sector (Dublin and Cork only)
• Pre-Sales Showcase – Drive sales with hands-on customer demos

Your opportunity to Get Help!

You can also use the event if you need support from Microsoft and struggling to get it? Or, have you unresolved issues that you can’t get answers to?  Find out how to get best engagement with Microsoft locally?  This is your opportunity to set up 1:1, face to face sessions on the day to get the help you need. Simply email neilheth@microsoft.com  with the Subject Line ‘Get Help!’

On the registration page, please select which event location you would like to attend.

Get the chance to win a brand new Windows Device!

With a prize draw at each location for a brand new Windows 8 Device, register now to secure your place and a chance to win!

Ever find yourself reading the Newsletter and wish you could just ask SOMEONE what was relevant to you?

Ever find out about a promo/offer/training just as it's about to end and wish you'd know sooner?

Ever wonder what we ACTUALLY think as a local team or what insights we can share on what's going on?

To try and ensure we give you straight-up info without the 100 page documents :-), as well as trying to make sure you're armed with information in advance, we've set up a series of monthly Partner connection calls where we'll share all of the above in live interactive Q&A sessions.

First one's happening tomorrow afternoon - register now at https://aka.ms/irlconnect