Now that it has been said in public I can finally say SCE 2007 in SBS 2008 is GONE and yes I am Pissed about it. I like many, feel as though we have been lied to.
I have known this for a little while but due to NDA have had to keep choking down the bile, but now I wonder if the SCE Team can step up with SBS Sized Pricing so that we can do what we wanted to do and build a managed services offering that manages a Microsoft product with Microsoft tools.
My Ideas about what might help can be found here.
I will examine why I think the statement below is pure spin when I can look closer at Cougar (read when I calm down) and when I can be sure I am not breaking any NDA.
SCE is gone...
The information before today's release indicated that Microsoft would include
System Centre Essentials (SCE) in the SBS Cougar product, but that's now not the
case. Here's a quote from an internal Microsoft team member as to why it's not
included...
Q: Why did you decide not to include System Center Essentials in SBS
2008?
A: We are optimizing SBS for its core customers, small businesses with up
to 50 desktops. The management tools included in SBS 2008 are optimized to meet
this segment's needs. We continue to do a lot of research and collect a great
deal of small business customer and partner input throughout their product
development decisions. Our goal is to integrate the right technologies at the
right price, in a timely manner. System Center Essentials is a great product and
it works with SBS. Should customers desire System Center Essentials
functionality, it will be supported to run on the SBS network. Or, in some cases
partners may use it to manage multiple instances of SBS across multiple
clients.
I own a small company that does Infrastructure Consulting, we sell time and expertise to various customers. When we are in long term engagements we do not quote product for any reason, this would be a huge conflict of interest, particularly when we often define the requirement and evaluate responses.
We are trying to grow our Corporate / Small Government deployment and support business, which is a much slower area of growth for us because it is really quite hard not to pull back from developing this business when we get contracts that are easy to service and are the same as we always do.
So in short we get focused on doing just services and find that when we have an opportunity to focus on our SME push we can't quote product and have to go back to a certain Distributor as they seem to carry most of the things we need, now they are extraordinarily hard to deal with given that they need a minimum buy of $1000 a month which doesn't sound like much unless you have all 11 Consultants out working on the types of contracts that mean we only sell advice. If you don't buy in the $1000 a Month Average you get suspended from trading.
Now the reason for these suspensions is that it is expensive to keep us on the books, it is my understanding that there were 3000 Companies in the same state that we are.
Now we get an Email from a Government Department that has an opportunity where we can Tender to Supply, Build and Manage a Network for 3 Years, I call my local rep to discuss some things and discover we have been suspended AGAIN. I ask about getting reinstated and get referred to Sydney where a Finance guy tells me we need to fill in reseller applications again and our chances of being accepted would be slim.
So lets put this in perspective I need to quote a job and if this Distributor helped me, on the 3rd of March if I win they will get an order for about $125000 in kit, I tell them that and they say don't care we don't want you. Which I'm happy to say I am not happy about but glad that it forced me too look else where.
If we win this job here is where bits of the money may go:
- Express Data;
- Express Online;
- Altech;
- Dicker Data;
- LAN Systems;
- itX and
- Synnex
Why because these companies let me buy stuff in frequently, in cash and don't bleat that we are not big enough for them.
All it would have taken for the rude Distributor to keep us would have been for them to not be lamer's, and we could have possibly spent 10 times their minimum yearly spend.
Why do I think they are being Lamer's?
I really do want 3000 customers who want to logon to an e-commerce site AND pay me CASH before I even look at shipping things to them I don't even care if they buy stuff once every two years, because it costs me nothing, nil, nada and here is why... If I have customers who buy stuff all the time and therefore my systems already are there to take orders and ship things then the 3000 micro customers don't cost me anything, I just get them to order online and take the cash.
I want to be able to send them email with specials and keep them in the loop, so they will buy things from me and not strengthen my competitors. If I do this one day they will get bigger and stronger, now I hope we win this bid and grow so we can leverage this for bigger bids and then buy $Millions in kit until we have Distributor's asking for share in our spend and we will never forget the ones that are NOT Lamer's
Am I missing the way a Distributor works or do some folk use lame excuses to not deal with "Small Guys"?
Firstly thanks Susan for the link and if folk want to know lots about SCE 2007 there is lots out there and when I finish letting my business run my life I'll do some more on http://SMEManaged.com too. Plus some other pretty cool tools I have been finding of late. I'm talking about here and not over on SMEManaged well because I am about to give my opinion and NOT a how and why we do things with what tools.
Susan said "Price tag is a concern for me though." and in the top ten list she gave it a 10 yep that was last ...
10. System Center Essentials - http://smemanaged.com/blogs/smemanaged/archive/2007/12/31/installing-system-center-essentials-in-sbs-2003-r2-standard-edition.aspx In full disclosure I don't mind SCE on Standard, but on Premium with SQL 2005 and SRS there's a dent in my forehead from trying to get that on a SBS premium box. David Mackie has a blog (several posts in fact) on SCE on SBS. Price tag is a concern for me though.
I have done some looking for a more cost effective way to acquire SCE 2007 but I didn't find a way that I am happy with. I had asked some folk in MS about a way to SBS Sized SCE 2007 Pricing and was pointed to Intel as an OEM Partner with a solution OK that is a solution for some may be but here are my problems:
- I don't sell servers that have an Intel OEM Board in them, even though I am a System Builder, (I have built some server with TYAN boards);
- I don't sell servers by other OEMs that use Intel OEM Servers (examples unless I'm wrong would be Acer);
- When I sell HP Severs I can't buy Essentials 2007 in the Single Server Version or Small Network Edition nor can I buy the full product OEM;
- I can't find any OEM Licensing from any of the main Distributors in AU;
- The System Center Essentials Team asked for feedback on what would make SCE 2007 a compelling sale I didn't respond because all the feed back I had was negative and I'm not going to do that anymore;
So to make it more cost effective in the Small end of the SMB market what would I do? I'm going to take a journey of common sense in my book that rarely is in line with Microsoft Product Groups but here we go any way.
How would I price SCE 2007 if the Intel Deal were offered wider via OEM to the rest of us:
Windows 2003 R2 with 5 CAL'S Costs RRP $1552.00
Windows 2003 R2 with 5 CAL'S Costs OEM $834.00
Windows 2003 STD OEM is a 46% Discount from the FPP, SBS OEM is a 42% Discount from FPP by the way
This is back of the Cigarette Packet maths and I've not smoked in a good 9 Years
So my next big leap and I don't even know if this would bump SCE 2007 up Susan's list but here is my thinking:
SCE 2007 Standard in Australia costs $3042.00 RRP and we get 10 Servers and 50 Clients;
I think OEM would therefore be $1277.64 by my reckoning;
What about Small Network Edition OEM?? well I think it could go like this:
1 Server ML is the price of 5 Clients so I would value Standard Edition as being 100 Units so a Unit is worth $12.78 OEM
Which makes Small Network Edition worth $511.00 OEM not too bad, $1216.80 FPP BTW
While I'm dreaming can I ask for more??
OK Sell me SCE 2007 on SBS for $127.80 OEM and $304.20 FPP that is based on 1 Server and 5 Clients the same way SBS is priced.
*** NEW IDEA *** How about we give this a try?? In Australia I am able to buy an ML110 from HP with OEM SBS 2003 R2 STD & Trend Micro CSM for SMB 3.6 as a complete OEM Bundle. Is this something to try between now and 6 months after SBS Next (Cougar) ships to gauge interest and rejuvenate interest in management of SBS while we wait for the feature set of Cougar to be fully baked??
I have not priced the Single Server Edition because I can't think of any reason to buy it but it is "FREE" with and Intel Server Mother Board.
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