Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Excellence Program

Microsoft has created a program to officially recognize the top partners in Canada. The program is called the Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Excellence Program, and was announced in the Globe & Mail on May 1, 2007.

Shine Magazine Interview with Broadview Networks

Shine Magazine's Up Front section features direct interviews and profiles of marketers that are setting the benchmark. Shine Magazine sat down with the owners of Broadview for an interview about demand generation for Vendor events.

Broadview Networks & EqualLogic

EqualLogic Solutions deliver the benefits of consolidated networked storage in a self-managing, iSCSI storage area network that is affordable and easy to use, regardless of scale. Broadview Networks is an authorized Equallogic partner.

Exclaimer for Microsoft Exchange

Exclaimer Mail Utilities provides a single interface to allow an Exchange Server administrator to create and manage signatures and disclaimers, and manage spam and virus protection for your Exchange Server environment. Broadview Networks is an Exclaimer authorized reseller.

Broadview Media- Content Management System Add-ons

Broadview Media offers a complete Content Management System (CMS). Two of our modules (Security Portal & Content Management Editor) have just gotten better! Find out more about the upgraded features.  

Microsoft has created a program to officially recognize the top partners in Canada. The program is called the Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Excellence Program. 40 Microsoft Gold Certified Partners across Canada have been selected to participate based on having 4 or more competencies. Broadview Networks is please to be recognized as a top Microsoft partner in this program. Broadview Networks has 7 competencies including:

• Advanced Infrastructure Solutions
• Data Management Solutions
• Information Worker Productivity Solutions
• Licensing Solutions
• Microsoft Business Solutions
• Mobility Solutions
• Networking Infrastructure Solutions

On May 1, 2007 Microsoft ran a full page ad in the Globe and Mail newspaper to recognize the top partners. If you missed the newspaper you can see the copy below. Partners have been listed in order of the number of competencies obtained. Broadview Networks is featured 2nd with 7 competencies, and the most competencies achieved for a Manitoba company. Earlier this year Broadview Networks was ranked #1 in Manitoba and Top 10 in Canada by Microsoft in the partner rankings. See the announcement:

By Selina J Eckersall, Account Manager

Finding a company that really “gets it” when it comes to event marketing and CRM is sometimes a difficult task. And finding a company that both “gets it” and “does it” is an even taller order! Often times, B2B marketers know what they “should” be doing, but they simply subscribe to a vision of where they want to be, without actually taking the steps necessary to get there.

Broadview Networks is an organization that has been taking those steps for five years, and as the #1 ranking Microsoft Partner in Manitoba and 10th in Canada out of 9400 partners, it’s obvious that those efforts have paid off.

*Shine interviewed the three owners of Broadview Networks: Michael Orloff, Tyson Choptain and David Reimer regarding their CRM strategy and proven success with demand generation.

*Shine:
What are Some of the Reasons why Broadview has been so Successful in Generating Demand for Events?

BN:
Our CRM system is why we are successful with generating demand. Having CRM in place & having the extensive history of information and records available is key for us. Each and every customer interaction is captured and stored in our database for us to call upon at any time. Our centralized CRM system contains all current and future prospects and includes a 5 year history of records.

*Shine: Who are the Right Prospects to Engage for Broadview Events?

BN:
We usually look to target business decision makers or an IT Manager. Our events are primarily Product focused, so we look to engage anyone who has expressed an interest in the product at any time, and any company who we feel is a good fit. We pull this information from our CRM system.

*Shine: Can You Tell Us About How You Build a Targeted List?

BN:
Primarily by mining our internal CRM database. We analyze response and interest captured from a prior mail piece or sales call. Building any kind of productive list, boils down to leveraging a long history of recorded activity. We’ve found that as our company has grown, we’ve changed our focus. We’ve always placed a high importance on acquiring a large amount of data. Capturing data internally has always been a priority for us, and now we have a substantial amount of records to leverage.

*Shine: Describe How CRM has Become a Competitive Advantage for Broadview?

BN: Essentially we have been able to take a cold call and turn it into a warm call because we have a substantial amount of data to leverage within our CRM database. When a name comes up, we can recall any relevant information and history which will greatly assist us with that call. We build on one call after another, which ultimately builds strong relationships that stem from a customer history. People get to know each other very well.

*Shine: What is Your Definition of "Lead Generation" and How Does Broadview Define a Lead?

BN:
Lead Generation to us equals 1st time contact. As long as a company has an IT infrastructure, they’re a target of ours. We always look for new companies to our geographical area, we’ll check out the business papers, classifieds, and industry magazines. We generate lists and couple that with our CRM tool to make those leads very effective.

*Shine: What is Broadview’s Approach to Turning Leads into Sales Post-Event?

BN: You never want to let a single conversation or interaction with a prospect or a new lead, go to waste. If you can build a relationship from a contact, that’s what you want to do. Building on the previous conversation and capturing the conversations is key.

*Shine: What is the Key to Achieving a High Level of Customer Satisfaction?

BN:
CRM – Customer relationship management. Managing all angles. Sales, to service, to service delivery. Looking at the customer lifecycle. CRM allows us to manage the life cycle, leverage that customer base and turn them into opportunities again the 2nd time around. Dedicated service calls with Microsoft, phone calls, and sales visits. All of that information goes back into CRM. You can track a customer from the time we have talked to them, all the way through the lifecycle.

To find out more about Broadview Networks, visit their website here.

If you have feedback on this article, we would love to hear from you.

EqualLogic Solutions deliver the benefits of consolidated networked storage in a self-managing, iSCSI storage area network that is affordable and easy to use, regardless of scale. By eliminating complex tasks and enabling fast and flexible storage provisioning, EqualLogic solutions dramatically reduce the costs of storage acquisition and ongoing operations.

Patented page-based volume management enables automatic movement of data while it is in use. This technology provides the foundation for online expansion, automatic configuration and load balancing, performance optimization, and advanced software functionalities – all with continuous access to data. That means no downtime for increasing capacity, moving data between storage tiers, or load balancing storage, and most management tasks are handled by the array, not the administrator. As a result, EqualLogic makes enterprise-class shared-block storage practical for all servers and applications.

Training and Certification

Training is a core requirement within the EqualLogic Partner Program. EqualLogic has comprehensive sales and technical training programs to achieve certification for selling and implementing the award-winning products and services.

Simplifying Networked Storage

Based on a vision of "simplifying networked storage," EqualLogic's peer storage architecture combines advanced software features with fully-redundant, hot-swappable hardware integrated in a modular chassis design. This architecture delivers an affordable, enterprise-class storage system that is easy to manage and always available.

Whether you are seeking to consolidate storage, migrate from SAN or NAS, streamline data protection, or expand capacity, the PS Series of proven, self-managing storage arrays will meet the demanding requirements of your business-critical environment.

Broadview Networks is an authorized partner of Equallogic. Call us today to arrange a demonstration or join us for our next EqualLogic lunch & learn seminar.

Mail Utilities for Microsoft Exchange Server

The addictive nature and the importance of email in business today is evident in every developed nation and business vertical. From widget manufacturers, home based businesses, and multi national conglomerates and government units, email is arguably the king of business communication, ranking up near the telephone as a mission critical tool! Everyone has at least one email address, and many people have several addresses.

For businesses of all sizes, the leading business email server system is Microsoft Exchange Server. And while Exchange Server provides business value in reliability, features, scalability, and tight integration with Windows Server environments, there are many features that aren’t designed to be end user or administrator friendly – or are not available without significant customization.

Companies that want to leverage their email server investment to aid in marketing or branding the company image, while minimizing risk of legal exposure will find tools such as those found in the Exclaimer Mail Utilities suite extremely valuable.

About Exclaimer

Exclaimer Mail Utilities provides a single interface to allow an Exchange Server administrator to create and manage signatures and disclaimers, and manage spam and virus protection for your Exchange Server environment.

Disclaimers and Signatures

Creating a standardized signature for every employee, on each of their devices, including Outlook Web Access and handheld devices like SmartPhones, can be a troublesome exercise. Errors are common, and many signatures across devices and staff can erode the message you want to have your company present in email messaging. Considerable effort goes into configuring each system to ensure that the correct message is included in replies and forwarded messages, as well as new messages. And it is complicated to get different rules for external and internal recipients (impossible if both are included on the same message).

Exclaimer Mail Utilities extracts end-user information from a Windows Active Directory environment to populate email signatures based on templates specified. Create templates (or pick from one of the 30 included samples) with linked fields to Active Directory entries, and witness how content is inserted into signatures dynamically with rules to determine the signature used for messages based on sender, recipient, subject, and other fields. Every common mail format is supported (HTML, plain text, RTF), with formatting and HTML editing support available for HTML and RTF messages.

In addition to signatures, the product can also append disclaimer information into inbound and/or outbound email messages – rules can be applied to enable disclaimers on external mail only if desired, or different disclaimers on each message.

Auto Responders

Microsoft Exchange Server includes a simple out of office auto-responder function. But what if you wanted to auto respond with the original message as an attachment, include other addresses besides the original sender in the response, and include a separate file as an attachment? Exclaimer Mail Utilities can do this for you, and more! Intelligent detection ensures that loops are detected and stopped immediately, and full HTML mail format is supported in the auto responder.

How to get Exclaimer Mail Utilities

The Exclaimer Mail Utilities product is licensed on a per user basis unless you run Small Business Server. Small Business Server users can purchase a per-server license which covers all users in the SBS network.

Broadview Networks is an authorized Exclaimer reseller! Contact a Broadview Networks Account Manager or Product Specialist for more information about this product and see what branding your email can do for your business!

Broadview Media offers a complete Content Management System (CMS). Two of our modules have just gotten better! Security Portal Version 3: Our latest version of the security portal is a complete overhaul of functions allowing easy navigation, and enhanced security. Upgraded features include:

• Managing Security Groups and permissions are more organized
• See users assigned to a security group at a glance
• Enhanced Audit includes recording unsuccessful logins with detailed reasons
• Quick Executive Summary reports to view a breakdown of security access. Reports include:
• Users with Remote Access to Secure Admin Portal
• Users with High Level Admin Access
• Users with Sensitive Data Access
• Security Groups with Remote Access to Secure Admin Portal
• Security Groups with High Level Admin Access
• Security Groups with Sensitive Data Access
• Unsuccessful Login Attempts in the Last 7 Days
• Enhanced options for securing your portal includes forcing strong passwords, allowing password hints, recording failed logins, etc.

Content Management Version 3: Our new version of the WYSIWYG editor has many new features:

• Training Area – This is a content editor which will allow testing and saving without posting live to the website. A dedicated training window is available for each user.
• Preview Window – This will allow previewing how the content will appear on the website without posting live.
• Paste from Microsoft Word – This will properly strip out the embedded formatting when pasting from Word. This will avoid the unusual formatting characters which do not translate well to the web.
• Stylesheet Support – Branded font type, size and colours.

The new editor has many new enhancements including:

• Images – Allows for resizing, and image alignment.
• Tables – Allows for cell spacing and cell padding.
• Hyperlinks – Allows for ALT tags, and Window control.
• Colour Palette – Choose from a larger selection of colours for font and background shading.