Engaging with Microsoft: Conferences, Forums and Summits

Let me say first of all that Microsoft feeds you better than anyone I know. My favorite part of the annual MS-HUG Tech Forum in Redmond are the meals.

Kind of funny: A co-worker and I were driving around in the Microsoft campus a few years ago and he chuckled when he saw one of these vans:

You know, Microsoft Analysis Services, Microsoft Reporting Services, Microsoft SharePoint Services, and now Microsoft Dining Services…

Anyway, in addition to great food, Microsoft serves up some great content (no pun intended) at their events.

Some of the best used to be their “Ready to Launch” events, where they would go across the country (and around the world) booking big movie theaters and filling them with developers and IT geeks, and giving away software.

Sadly, these events are a thing of the past—perhaps (as suggested by some Microsoft employees I spoke to recently) a victim of economic turmoil.

Also cancelled (or, more accurately, changed from an annual to a bi-annual event) is the 2009 Business Intelligence Conference. I went to last year’s conference and it was really excellent.

Apparently, they announced most of the really cool stuff coming out in SQL Server 2008 R2 next year, so there wasn’t a real need for a conference this year. Much of the content they would have had will be incorporated into the SharePoint Conference and PASS Summit Unite.

My other favorite events:

• MS-HUG Exchange (formerly MS-HUG Tech Forum)
  This is a free event hosted by the Microsoft Health User Group, which merged a couple of years ago with HIMSS. It’s only a couple of days long, but is very focused on how Microsoft technology is being used in healthcare. It usually features “marketecture” from Bill Crounse, MD, Microsoft’s worldwide health senior director, as well as case studies from various healthcare institutions.
• PDC
  Last year’s PDC was phenomenal. They had some pretty incredible technologies to introduce (Azure, Office 14 for Web, Surface, etc.), and the training sessions were very well done. I hadn’t attended a PDC for about 10 years, and I was impressed at how it has evolved.

Engaging with Microsoft: Case Studies

One of the tools that Microsoft uses to get its story out is case studies. As a “Microsoft Shop”, AdvancedMD has been featured in two case studies, both of which were driven and sponsored by Microsoft.

The first was a collaborative effort between a writer contracted by Microsoft and a couple of us (Ken Meyers, former VP of Operations, and myself), and it gives a broad view of our interactions with Microsoft, and how we leverage Microsoft technologies:

• Hosted Solution Offers a Better Option for Medical Practice Management

The second is a case study of Women’s Healthcare Associates, an AdvancedMD customer in Houston, Texas:

• Beyond the Exam Room

The final sentence in the introductory paragraph pretty much says it all: “Just ask Lourdes Rubio, who, as Practice Manager for Women’s Healthcare Associates in Houston, Texas, lost more than U.S.$150,000 in insurance claims due to bad software.”

So, why bother with case studies? They end up on Microsoft’s website, where they can be searched, but it’s doubtful that many prospective AdvancedMD customers would do that.

A couple of weeks ago I went to the local Microsoft Sales office (near the Salt Lake City Airport) to meet with a couple of ISV evangelists, and was surprised to see this one-page summary of our case study on the wall of the lobby (along with a dozen or so others):

To be honest, I’m not sure that we’ve really taken advantage of the case studies that Microsoft has done about us. We should probably have a few boxes of copies that we could deliver to prospects…but, since we do most of our business over the phone and Web demos, printed documents don’t fit into the equation very well.

So, here’s the really sad thing about this blog post: I can’t tell you how to get Microsoft’s attention to get a case study written, because I wasn’t involved except for a brief interview.

Speaking of which…I had to laugh the first time I saw my quotes in the case study. The writer did a GREAT job of making me sound eloquent. I did actually say everything in the case study that was attributed to me, but I’m pretty sure the words weren’t mine. Probably for the best.

In any case, I seem to recall that our PR company contacted Microsoft and set the wheels in motion. If we are successful in becoming a managed account, I would imagine that this kind of thing will become just part of relationship.

From Coding Horror: "The Web Browser Address Bar is the New Command Line"

Jeff Atwood's Coding Horror blog is always a great read, but I particularly enjoyed this post, which contains the best catalog of cool Google tricks I've ever seen.

To wit:

weather San Francisco
CSCO
time London
san francisco 49ers
5*9+(sqrt 10)^3=
Henry+Wadsworth+Longfellow
earthquake
10.5 cm in inches
population FL
Italian food 02138
movies 94705
homes Los Angeles
150 GBP in USD
Seattle map
Patent 5123123
650
american airlines 18
036000250015
JH4NA1157MT001832

Wordled: 7 Months Later

I just Wordled this blog again, to see how well it would reflect shifting topical focus over time.

Here’s the new Wordle:

Compare that to the last time I Wordled the blog, back in August last year. It’s clear pretty quickly that my focus has moved from Agile, BI, and SQL Server to “Engaging with Microsoft”.

Engaging with Microsoft: Become an MCP

It’s been almost 10 years since I became a Microsoft Certified Professional. At that time, four tests were required, including two that related to building Enterprise-grade software, and two for specific development technologies (I chose VB6 and SQL 7). It took a fair amount of effort, but for the most part the exams covered concepts that an experienced developer would know without studying anything (although I did have to study for the SQL exam).

So, what have I gotten out of it? Nothing really material, but I do believe that it can help a job candidate stand out.

As an employer, I would never hire anyone just because they had MCSD, MCSE, MCAD, or MCDBA behind their name…any more than I would hire anyone just because they happened to have a degree from a prestigious school.

But the hiring process is essentially a process of gathering a dozen or more different pieces of information (aptitude test results, references, employment history, education, certification, personality fit, etc.), and certification certainly is a strong indicator of commitment to a career path, and dedication to a goal.

I would highly recommend to anyone who is committed to a career in IT (as a system admin, DBA, developer, or any similar career path) that they get some sort of certification. If you’re established in Microsoft technology, then the MCP program makes a lot of sense. Otherwise, there are other well-respected certifications out there (like A+, Security+, and CCNA) that could provide a similar “feather in your cap”.

For more information:

• Microsoft Certified Professional program website
• “10 Best IT Certifications”

Windows Server 2008 R2: 64-bit Only

Microsoft has announced that Windows Server 2008 R2, the server companion operating system to Windows 7, will run only on 64-bit processors. According to the web page describing improvements to Scalability and Reliability, "With customers being unable to purchase a 32-bit server CPU for over two years, the performance and reliability advantages to moving to this architecture were too beneficial to ignore."

That's pretty cool. We've known for a long time that the most recent version of Exchange, Exchange 2007, would run only on 64-bit servers, and Microsoft announced at PDC 2008 (and on this blog) that SQL Server 2008 R2 (due to be released in the first half of 2010) will be 64-bit only.

Looks like the 32-bit server is dead.

So...will the Standard Edition of SQL Server still be limited to 4GB of RAM? That would be pretty lame, but it's probably true.

Windows 7: To Be Released in Q4

InformationWeek is reporting that Microsoft has announced that Windows 7 will be released some time in the 4th quarter. And, according to some insiders I spoke with recently, it will, in fact, be called "Windows 7".

So...to recap, Windows was numbered for versions 1.0-4.0, then was named by the year of (planned) release with 98 and 2000, went to 2-letter names for ME, CE and XP, expanded to a full word for Vista and Mobile...and now has come full circle to "7"...without the ".0". I can't imagine the marketing brainpower that must have gone into that cycle.

Anyway, here are some other key points from the InformationWeek article:

• "It's unclear whether Microsoft will release the operating system just in time for the holiday season, or earlier in the quarter, perhaps during October."
• "According to a recent report, an executive with computer manufacturer Acer has said the company plans to begin selling laptops running Windows 7 by Oct. 23."
• "Early test versions of Windows 7 have been getting generally positive reviews, and a number of organizations testing Windows 7 have told InformationWeek that the operating system also does not suffer the application and hardware compatibility problems that Windows Vista did at this point."
• Microsoft has said that "the Windows 7 Release Candidate code was closer to what would be shipped than any previous version's Release Candidate."
• Windows Server 2008 R2 will be available at the same time as Windows 7, and the RC is available now.

Engaging with Microsoft: Certified Partner Program

As I mentioned in a previous post, AdvancedMD has been a Microsoft Certified Partner since 2003 and a Gold Certified Partner since 2006. Both programs are available to any company that works with Microsoft, and both are fairly inexpensive (in the $1,500 range, including sales tax).

All you really have to do to be a Certified Partner is write a check, but the benefits are significant. A small company with 25 employees could get a five-fold ROI on Small Business Server and Office alone.

Becoming a Gold Certified Partner takes more work, in the form of “points” that you accrue through “competencies”, customer references, certified products, etc. It isn’t as difficult as it may seem. First of all, Microsoft really wants you to be a Gold Certified Partner, so they’ll cheat for you from time to time in the form of “promotions” that give you competencies for free, or that relax the requirements. There’s still plenty of work to do, but it isn’t out of reach for most companies that really use Microsoft’s products and services.

Here’s an example of a competency that we’ve held for the past few years:

The three little guys with checkmarks behind them represent three AdvancedMD employees that are Microsoft Certified Partners with a qualifying certification (MCSD, MCSE, etc.). (Getting a few of your developers and IT staff certified is almost a must for Gold certification.) The CD represents a “Tested Product”. In our case, AdvancedMD was tested to work well with SQL Server.

For us, getting our application tested against SQL Server every two years (as required to maintain the ISV competency) is the greatest cost to remain Gold certified—probably a week, on average, of a couple of developers’ time.

The benefits in software licenses, though, far outweigh the costs: We get 135 licenses for each of nearly every software package you would need in a business office (including Windows, Office, MapPoint, Project, etc.), and 35 licenses for Visual Studio for Developers (including a license for Team Foundation Server for each location). I haven’t taken the time to get a precise inventory of the software that we use, but I would guess we’re over $250K, with potential for another $100K or more if our staff knew what was available to them. Not bad for $1,500 a year!

We get a lot of other benefits besides software licenses. You can find those on the Partner website, linked below.

Two sites that every Microsoft shop should know very well:

Partner Program Website

This site demonstrates just how serious Microsoft is about working with its partners. I would imagine that they spend more on this site than AdvancedMD’s annual gross revenue.

Of particular interest is the Partner Program Value and Benefits page. It includes the oddly elusive Software Licensing for Certified and Gold Certified Partners page…for some reason it always takes me a long time to find this page when I need it. It lists all of the free (for training, demo, and internal use) software you get as a partner.

MSDN

Aside from comprehensive developer-oriented documentation, this is where you can download all of the software that you are entitled to as a Certified Partner.

The screenshot to the right will give you an idea of the huge variety of downloads available, just under Operating Systems. My nostalgic side desperately wants to download MS-DOS 6.22 and Windows for Workgroups 3.11. (But where is Windows ME? Hmm…)

Windows Live Writer

For anyone who blogs (or tries to), if you haven’t already looked at Windows Live Writer, you should.

I’ve always been annoyed by Blogger’s online posting mechanism. It always seems to be inserting vertical white space where I don’t want it, and it provide an intuitive way to insert images and tables.

Windows Live Writer is pretty cool…and the only way I post these days. And it’s free…

Engaging with Microsoft

AdvancedMD has been a "Microsoft shop" since our inception back in 1999. Over the years, we've had plenty of opportunities to interact with "the Borg" (or M$, or whatever the kids are calling it these days), and our relationship has taken on several different forms.

At one point, we were one of 50 healthcare vertical ISVs being managed by a guy out of Redmond who helped us secure co-marketing dollars, subsidized training, Toshiba tablets, and other spiffs I can't think of right now. By late 2003, though, we were dropped as a managed account because we weren't a Gold Certified Partner yet...and then the program was morphed into something different altogether, so, by the time we were Gold certified in 2006, there was no program to get back into.

Today, I'm talking with some ISV evangelists at Microsoft to try to get some more focused attention again (and whatever else they'll give us). Since I'm in the middle of that process, I thought it would be interesting to chronicle our past and present experiences with Microsoft, and perhaps provide some useful tips for engaging effectively with such a huge organization.

Over the next few weeks I’ll try to cover topics like these:

• Certified Partner Program
• Conferences, summits, MS-HUG Tech Forums…
• Online resources

ICD-10 coming...CMS helping to prepare

There has been a lot of talk over the past few months about the CMS-mandated migration from ICD-9 to ICD-10, along with the separate but related adoption of ANSI 5010 for electronic claims.

Much of that talk has been around trying to get the compliance date of October 1, 2013 moved back a couple of years, but it's looking more and more like that won't happen.

CMS has made some good information available on their website, including (brace yourself) a crosswalk table that translates back and forth between ICD-9-CM and ICD-10-CM and -PCS. It's called the General Equivalence Mappings (or GEMs), and this guide answers 10 questions about what the GEMs are, how they came about, and how to use them.

This isn't for the faint of heart, but I'm sure our Engineering team is going to have a great time building tools into AdvancedMD to help our customers navigate the switch. We'll need to put those tools in place well in advance of the October 2013 deadline and provide training to our users.

CMS will be hosting a telephone conference on May 19th to discuss the implementation of ICD-10 and explain how the GEMs work.