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8月18日 Windows LiveWriterDownloaded Live Writer earlier today and I'm using it to do this entry at the moment. I's pretty much a WYSIWYG blog editor, complements Live Spaces pretty well, and generally seems like it's capable of getting the job done. Is it great? Doesn't seem to be. Does it suck? Doesn't seem to. In general, it seems functional so far - hopefully giving me the ability to draft my thoughts and edit them, maybe even while offline, for later publishing. Some of the stuff you can do (or at least, we'll see if we can do: Insert a link: In this case, to the greatest product for business ever :) We can insert a picture: Or we can insert a map: In this case, a 'bird's eye view' of my old house in my hometown on Long Island.
We can also spellcheck, block quotes, set up trackbacks, and a few other things. None of which are mind-blowing, but all of which appear to be functional and useful, if somewhat pedestrian. At the very least I'll use it for a few days and see how it goes! 8月11日 And Now - Microsoft CRMSo we decided we really needed a Customer Relationship database at work, and decided to take Microsoft CRM fir a test run. This was the whole reason for getting SBS SP1 installed, so we could drop CRM in place.
As it happened, I was listening to a webinar that was extolling the virtues of CRM as we were installing - basically about how it is perfect for mid-market companies because it is easy to use and easy to install.
Which had me laughing of course, because it was really a pain in the arse to get it installed. Now we were installing SBE, or Small Business Edition, which specifically requires that it be installed on an SBS server.
So one might think it would understand what unique settings might need to be changed for this to go smoothly. Not so, friends!
Basically we wound up installing, failing, uninstalling, reinstalling, making a change, getting further but failing again, making another change, repairing, abending, uninstalling, hacking a bunch of stuff in both SQL and IIS permissions, and then reinstalling.
Finally it worked. And I have to admit, it looks pretty cool so far (I mean, as far as CRM apps go, I guess) but getting there was quite a battle.
Which I suppose explains why CRM is so lucrative for Microsoft Partners - it takes amazing determination and iron will to get it in place. Now all we need to do is configure it and import our customer data. Which on the surface looks easy enough - so I'm expecting all sorts of challenges! I'll let y'all know how it goes. 8月8日 Patching SBSJust a random observation - there is no way in HELL it should be so complicated to get SBS SP1 onto a Small Business Server. It's not so complex to a techie, just time consuming, but there is no way a small business owner could handle this themselves.
Microsoft keeps talking about unifying the patching process, and making it simple for people to stay up to date.
Can you imagine the typical small business owner who wants to do the right thing (per Microsoft) and stay up to date? They go to get the SP1 release and the following steps are required:
Download the following: Windows 2003 SP1, Windows SharePoint Services SP1, Exchange 2003 SP1, Windows XP SP2 Client Update for SBS, and then SBS SP1.
Install in the same order, as follows:
Windows 2003 SP1
Reboot
WSS SP1
Exchange 2003 SP1
Reboot
Windows XP SP2 Client Update
And...that's where we sit at the moment, as the install runs.
That's nearly a full GIG of downloads and a few hours of installation. One might ask the question: "What if I already installed some of these patches?" The answer? There is no published answer, but I'll be glad to share: you skip them. If you run the WSS install, it will expand all the files and then comes back to tell you the update is already installed. I'm not sure what the Exchange SP1 install tells you, because I already have SP2 installed and there's no way I am trying to back it down.
Will the other installs succeed with a later patch in place? not sure, and if not, not sure what we'll do. Oh, and why are we doing this? To test out CRM 3.0. We offer some mobility solutions around it, and figured we should eat our own dogfood, so I'm working on getting that running. Should be fun if we can ever get there.
Oh, quick update: The Windows XP SP2 Client Update is done, no reboot required (wouldn't really expect one) and now onto SBS SP1. It's running even as I type.
Stay tuned, I'll let you know how it goes! |
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