Microsoft 365 Business resources & community

Obviously the Microsoft 365 Business product gets quite a lot of attention on this blog, since it covers such a vast range of customer scenarios in the SMB space (defined as under 300 seats per the licensing framework).

But in the interest of building out the community network a bit, and giving folks a variety of reference points, I want to turn you on to some resources produced by Microsoft themselves in this space. The investment here is significant and it really tells me that this product is being taken very seriously at Microsoft.

And, I would add that more than any other time with past products, I feel that Microsoft is very keen on engaging with and supporting the SMB community as they adopt this SKU. So we have been very effective at saying “We need X” and sure enough, X gets delivered. This has happened time and again over the last year or so–I really like that they are listening to us and iterating quickly to meet our needs.

Small and Medium business blog – This is a Tech Community blog where updates are regularly posted. You can see that we have updates from January and February posted by Neha Bhaskar, and several other posts by other members of the team at Microsoft–expect that we’ll be seeing similar updates for March soon. And oh look at that, voice for business coming to the U.S. in April!! Good timing, with many workers moving to Work From Home (WFH) with the current COVID-19 situation.

YourNewCSO.com – Some of you may have seen these videos, and the corresponding website dedicated to “telling the story” of Microsoft 365 Business in a fun, consumable way. I know, maybe it’s a bit cheesy for some in the audience, but I’m a nerd, I love it, and it is digestible stuff for non-technical customers. (Note: videos also have CC available in Dutch, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Swedish)

In addition to this website, Microsoft has created a few other helpful pieces that you can take from this marketing campaign and “make them your own.” For example, there is a Playbook providing marketing templates, samples and more that partners can use to build Go To Market campaigns of their own using the CSO content.

As well, the YourNewCSO.com content is available in eBook form as well: in English, Dutch,  French, German,  Italian, Spanish,  Swedish.

Also see these short links:
– aka.ms/smbtc for the Tech Community / conversations
– aka.ms/designwithus to join Design Community
– aka.ms/m365bizdemo admin demo video & script

Outside of Microsoft, right now I really like Robert Crane’s blog and CIAOPS community, which is a whole crew of folks who are pretty heavily into the Microsoft 365 Business stuff as well. His Patron program is well worth the money, in my opinion.

Soon, I will post these links and others that we gather up into its own page (not just a blog post), for ease of access from this site. Last note, if you have a blog that you’d like to add to a “blog roll” in this links list for the SMB (doesn’t have to be focused on this M365B product only) then please do get in touch with me using my contact page (or if you have my email address already)–would be happy to review your content and expand the network a bit further.

Sorry it’s been a bit quiet here otherwise, things got kinda crazy in the US in the last few weeks here, didn’t they (and many other parts of the world as well)… And we’re not through it yet… but we’ll get there. More to come.