Posted by Grant Foraker on April 01, 2005 at 15:51:51:
In Reply to: Re: You Speak for Signature Systems posted by Neil Badger on March 31, 2005 at 11:43:51:
Badger:
MS has a great product called Small Business Server 2003. $1500 (5 users) for the premium version which adds SQL and the ISA firewall software to Exchange 2003/Outlook 2003. Additional users are $100 per user in 5 packs. Up to 75 concurrent users. Everything is wizard driven. This is the fourth version since the NT4 server version. Really clean and easy to set up. Dell and Gateway sell small servers with SBS 2003 bundled at a discount. You don't even have to stop to change CD's during the set up.
You don't have to be an MSCE or have any certificate. MS does have a Partner program that I joined as a "Registered Partner. Again, no certification required at the bottom level. If you have certified people on staff then you can move up to a higher level.
MS also has the "Action Pack" program. Huge bundle of all current MS software with 10 licenses. You can run your whole office with the latest. About $300 to enroll and about $200 per year. Quarterly updates of software and sales material.
Just replaced a Win 2000/Linux combo with one SBS2003. The SBS 2003 does everything the old boxes did and lots more.
I this is a good way to get and lock in small customers. When you're their network support too, they're less likely to drift off. I can remote support the server (for which I charge extra) after hours and on weekends. I can show you some of this at Vegas.