Embed YouTube in PowerPoint 2007

I now know how to embed YouTube clips into Powerpoint 2007 slides. It is amazingly easy and just as useful

Thanks to a tweet from @jamestutt which pointed me to this link I can now harness the power of YouTube in my presentations-just today I delivered one where this was a perfect fit.

How to embed YouTube into PowerPoint 2007:

Steve Clayton blogged about a brilliant video from CommonCraft that explains Software + Services very succinctly in less than 4 minutes, and I needed to create an internal S+S training presentation-so I used that. Initially I just had a link to the video on YouTube so the presentation was interrupted while it went off to the YouTube site, but now it’s all contained within the .pptx; giving me a much smoother, more professional looking session

Common Craft S+S Video:

I think this holds the record for the most links in one post!

Predictions for Microsoft in 2009

Mary Jo Foley has come up with her list of what she thinks Microsoft will, and won’t, do in 2009 and it looks like a pretty good list.

However the one I disagree with most is number 10:

“10. Become so completely consumed by Apple envy that it over-invests on the consumer side of the house. In 2009, Microsoft’s failure to tend to its enterprise knitting will begin hurting its business software/services sales.”

Although it’s clear that MS are looking to grow in many consumer based areas, I really don’t think they’ll let the corporate Enterprise market slip and/or lose focus. This area is where MS earn the most money and the most respect so they MUST keep tending to it and with all the releases we are already looking at for 2009 including OCS 2007 R2, Office 14, Sharepoint 14, VStudio 2010, SQL 2010, Biztalk 2009 and many more, I’d say that the Enterprise market is being pretty well looked after already.

On top of this is Microsoft’s Software+Services push, which is a HUGE focus for them as evidenced by the WPC 2008 and later events I attended at Reading campus. The US launch was November ‘08 and has already taken off very well and the UK launch is due around May time. MS are getting partners ready to take S+S to the marketplace in a confident, well balanced way and I truly believe this will be a huge part of 2009 for anyone involved with MS on a corporate level; whether as a customer, partner or competitor. I’m going to say that Microsoft’s S+S will be a contributing factor to helping the UK get out of the credit slump faster than expected…how’s that for a prediction?!

I also think the Zune will start to make an appearance in Europe. I’ve already heard that France is slated to be the next country to get the Zune and I can’t imagine that the UK can be far behind if that is true.

I would put a top 10 list together but so many would be the same as Mary Jo’s it hardly seems worth it!

Can Ray Ozzie Save the House that Bill Built?

Can Ray Ozzie Save the House that Bill Built? That’s the question that Wired are asking in their new issue, which can be found here.

I think he can and, perhaps more importantly, I think Microsoft was very close to actually needing to be saved. I’ve been a fan of the Redmond giant for a good few years, always defending them against (mostly) unfounded criticism but in the run up to, and the fall out from, Vista- I started to wonder if we were witnessing the beginning…not of the end but perhaps of the stunting of growth and the start of stagnation. I was less interested in what Microsoft was doing, less annoyed when people furthered the lies and mis-conceptions, less pro-active in promoting them and their products which wasn’t good, as I’m the MS Evangelist internally for my company!

Then I went to the Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston (July 2008) and things were different. The keynotes were energetic, more web 2.0ish (without seeming contrived), more exciting. The speakers and the content made me believe in Microsoft again, made me believe that Microsoft could help my business, that Microsoft were still innovative, that Microsoft were looking ahead, that Microsoft could still excite me-personally & professionally, that good things were going to come.

Software+Services was a key theme of this year’s WPC and was the icing on the “get Rich excited” cake…the fact that Microsoft had embraced this “disruption” early on and clearly put a lot of time, money & effort into their plans and making sure they could execute them, really inspired me. I took the online assessment and signed us up straight after the keynote and couldn’t wait to get started!

I didn’t realise then that Ray Ozzie was behind S+S, but now-I really do credit him with re-igniting my belief in Microsoft as a company, as an industry leader, as an innovator.

He might not be as Iconic, but he’s going to be very nearly as important as Bill…if you look up you can see it in the clouds…

Thanks to Steve Clayton for pointing me to the article, you can see his thoughts on it here.

Microsoft Software Plus Services

Microsoft Software Plus Services will be available to UK partners sometime during spring 2009, said the company’s Software plus Services reselling exec Maggie Chan Jones.

This is exciting for me as a UK Microsoft Gold Partner and I hope for you as a potential customer. Over at this year’s Partner Conference (WPC), there was a LOT of talk about Software plus Services, and it was a hot topic again today in London.

Software plus Services (S+S) is Microsoft’s version of SAAS (Software As A Service). The main difference is SAAS indicates that it replaces traditional “on the desktop” software while S+S complements it. The most well known examlpe of SAAS is salesforce.com, a complete CRM (Customer Relations Management) system that sits in the “Cloud”, so is all accessed via a web interface and not installed on the clients internal PC’s and servers.

This goes against Microsoft’s typical business model and so many people have announced the “end of Microsoft”, which seems a bit over the top to me! I’m sure it’s true that Microsoft wouldn’t have come up with SAAS on their own and in fact, in Houston this year, Microsoft called it “a disruption”..but one that they will meet and embrace.

The Software Plus Services line up includes:

Microsoft Exchange Online

Microsoft Exchange Hosted Services

Microsoft Office Sharepoint Online

Microsoft Office Live Meeting

Microsoft Office Communications Online

Most of these are available as Beta versions in the U.S at the moment.

Bechtle UK are a leading Microsoft Gold Partner and our MS business is built upon “on-premise” software that is installed into the customer’s environment; so S+S is very different to what we’re used to. I think it’s safe to say that some people were unsure about S+S/SAAS a while back but now, we’re all excited about the opportunity and ready to go!

S+S will make it easier for customers whose software budgets can’t stretch to the purchase of a company wide setup ofSharepoint or OCS for example. With the advent of S+S, they’ll be able to utilise the software and experience it’s countless benefits to efficiency and productivity at a price that will be more affordable and easier to manage for them.