SMB Nation and the woman behind it.

Beatrice Mulzer

Vice President, SMB Nation beatricem@smbnation.com

It is not enough to be a #1 rated trainer and an MCSE. For Beatrice Mulzer its all about making the SBSC community stand up and be counted, but also be accountable. From the classroom to the editing room this is one absolutely no nonsense IT professional, that exemplifies the type of "techie" that makes for an ideal model for young women everywhere. In one week, at SMB Nation, she will grace us with her presence and impart some invaluable insight into her own challenges in a still very male dominated arena.



BIOGRAPHY:


Beatrice is a SMB Technology Consultant, Technology Trainer and speaker.

As a trainer she currently develops and delivers Hands-on-Lab training on Microsoft products globally, conducts live training web casts and develops technical training courses on DVD.

Beatrice has been a contributing editor at Reseller Advocate Magazine and has also written for Certification Magazine and Microsoft Certified Professional Magazine.

Beatrice holds the MCSE and MCT titles and co-authored two technical books on Small Business Server and recently published her anticipated business book “Making it Big in Small Business 2006: Top 15 SMB Consultants share strategies and lessons learned”

2007
Microsoft/HP workshop tour 30 cities EMEA covering Windows Mobility (sales & technical installation), Vista, 2007 Office system, Technology Assessment Toolkit and 70-282 exam cram.
(Mobility course developed with Mark Grady, Microsoft UK). Executive Editor SMB Partner Community Magazine. Co-author Microsoft Small Business Specialist Primer: Your Certification Path to Success! ISBN 0-977-949-6-0 (release date fall 2007).

2006
Author Making IT Big in Small Business 2006, ISBN 0-9770949-2-8. Microsoft/HP workshop tour 30 cities EMEA covering Windows Small Business Server 2003, remote access, security, certificates and 70-282 exam cram. SMBNation/Qlogic SAN tour. SMB Nation fall conference 70-282 exam cram. Web casts on 70-282. Web cast on ISA server 2000. Executive Editor SMB Partner Community Magazine.

2005
Co-author of the Microsoft Small Business Specialist Primer & 70-282 Exam Preparation Guide ISBN 0-974858-03. Contributing Editor for Reseller Advocate Magazine. Designed and developed learning video for Keystone Learning System on Windows Small Business Server 2003 installation and configuration. Developed and delivered hands-on training (Asentus/Microsoft HOL) for Small Business Server and Windows Business Desktop Deployment.

2004
Co-author Advanced Windows Small Business Server 2003 Best Practices ISBN 0-974858-07-2. Developed and delivered hands-on training (Asentus/Microsoft HOL) for Windows Small Business Server 2003. Developed and delivered training for Windows Branch Office Server.

2003
Delivered hands-on training (Asentus/Microsoft HOL) for Windows Small Business Server 2003.

2000-2002
Delivered 2000 MCSE MOC at Brevard Community College.

2000-2005
Owner of Intellisys USA, a consulting business serving the three A’s (attorneys, architects & accountants), providing strategic technology solutions.

Star Profile of the Week - Andrea Russell- Microsoft

ANDREA RUSSELL

WW Small Business Partner Audience Manager, Microsoft Corporation

Andrea Russell is the WW Global Leader of the Microsoft Small Business Specialist Community. Her current professional responsibilities include building a highly engaged small business partner community and helping them serve the millions of small business customers around the world. In her 7-years at Microsoft she is proud to have been associated with a balance of the customer, partner and product experience which she believes has contributed to her professional diversification and understanding of leadership. Prior to Microsoft, Andrea’s relevant experience ranged from starting her own marketing research company, a brief “cup of coffee” with a DOT.com, and an international role with GE Capital IT Solutions where she is certified as a Sig Sigma Green Belt.

Andrea’s personal interests include her family, travel, exploring the Northwest and a passion for her hometown (Minneapolis) sports teams. She is humbled to be involved with WILT and believes leadership to be embodied in a quote from the late great co-author of The Leader’s Voice, Boyd Clarke who said “Leadership is a love affair with an idea, and an act of faith in people.”

Introducing the Chair of WIL&T Wendy Callaghan

Today Wendy finally could breathe long enough to send me her profile and photo. Here's hoping she can join us at SMB Nation in just 11 days!

Wendy Callaghan is the Director of Product Management-IT for Nexient Learning Inc. She has held key senior leadership roles in the learning services industry for over 10 years. Recently, Wendy was an elected member to the Microsoft Worldwide Advisory Council for Learning Solutions; helping to shape Microsoft's customer and partner readiness strategy. She has been instrumental in helping to launch innovative learning solutions to help customers leverage their technology and improve employee performance. Wendy is also the co-founder and current Board Member, for multiple technology user groups, to foster communities for specialized technology professionals. Her ultimate passion is to help individuals reach their full potential, in both their personal and professional lives.

QUOTE from Wendy:

“Women in Leadership & Technology is a new community that is being launched to embrace a world filled with amazing women. We want to be a forum for inspiration; sharing our life experiences and learning from one another. Our initiative will be shaped by our collective global voice. We will unify to share, inspire and collaborate. I am both excited and honored to be helping to move this vision forward and truly look forward to the many rewards we will all cherish.”

Speaking of amazing I think one would agree Wendy is one herself. I had the great pleasure of working with her for WPC in Denver and we also work together on the Canadian executive of IAMCP, as international board and chair and in this initiative. Her passion is evident and she will make a great contribution to WIL&T.

"You're child is not well. Please come get him/her right now".

So who grabs the car keys and runs? Mom or dad? If your in the middle of a major presentation what do you do? What is your boss like? What if you are your own boss? The dilemma is all the same, just in varying degrees. The debate is far more critical now in an age where women business owners and execs are increasing in numbers not seen in 20 years. But it also has to be taken into account when you're the boss and your business may be just you and no one around to pick up the pieces while you're sitting in a clinic or the hospital for several hours to several days.

One of the reasons that women are having trouble in positions of escalating leadership is that men still see, and we ourselves, just expect that females are the "primary" caregivers and therefore should a more serious illness arise then giving "Jane" a really important client project requiring potential trips outside the city or further, is probably not going to happen.

From experience (and mine are 15, 17 and 19) even though my husband and I are often in the same meeting or seminar or presentation when the cell starts vibrating to the point of embarrassment (and it isn't my husband's that's sounding off) its obvious that the rest of the world also sees us as the first point of contact, and off I go. But frankly that's because my position allows me that flexibility and we have employees. But this is still not a good thing. I sometimes wonder what the guys I work with think.

Right or wrong, where and how do we adjust not only school records, but attitudes, so that we can comfortably expect that we can be equally responsible with our mates or ex-mates for sick children and in some cases elder parents. It just isn't reasonable to burden one spouse over the other when our positions are of equal or greater business significance.

That becomes much more strained when the mother is the parental custodian and she owns her own business or sits on the board of a major corporation. This is where innovation and technology (a kudo for our industry) just might save the day. Here's a few ways you can accomplish this in the case of a short or long term absence from the office:

• Are you using Mobile 6 with Exchange? A "cannot live without" for me. I am never out of touch with my email. I am as current as my laptop hooked up at the office and with mobile Word and Excel I can still handle certain documents while sitting in the emergency room.
• Does your company use collaboration software? Having access to everything via a secure portal like WSS of better yet MOSS Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server ensures you can not only access work on and update but also immediately have that work land in the hands of those that need it without doing anything more than checking it back in when you're done.
• Need to start up a workspace for a quick and secure discussion on a client file with document sharing? Hello Groove. Part of the Office 2007 family this little gem also has the additional benefit of document synchronization with MOSS.
• Need to hold a small meeting? How about using Live Meeting or Windows Meeting Space (part of Vista). In both cases you can have live interaction with participants and what I love about WMS in particular is the whiteboard. You make changes and then WMS pushes out a new copy to all participants.

There is a lot more to these tools but we'll let you do your own review. As a Microsoft partner this is gold at your feet and you need to take a look at it as a way to keep continuity, your sanity and your job or your clients.

Embracing these tools and using them to show your peers, bosses, clients and employees that you can remain as effective as ever while attending to personal issues will go a long way to alleviating some of the "primary care guilt syndrome".

However there is still the debate over just how much is fair. It is a personal matter, but as long as attitudes exist as to your ability to be a leader, then talking with everyone involved in your situation becomes a critical hurdle to jump, but as you have seen with the tools mentioned earlier you can be mobile and still on the ball.

What can we do to help our female peers. First be aware of those who work around you that this issue is one that we can all help others deal with. Being flexible is helpful but moreover letting our male peers know that they can make a big difference by changing their attitudes and that stepping up to the plate for their mate is a major step in the right direction. Chat up your coworkers and tell them what tools you use to manage this issue. Make sure HR has this on their To Do list to review.

As always, bringing it out in the open in your office, is a great way to get the discussion and solutions, rolling.

Cricket and Women In IT

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070910/lf_nm/microsoft_cricket_dc

You really have to read this article to the very end to catch the wonderful story that's in this post. In harnessing diversity at Microsoft, it is clear that there are, thanks to their devotion to this way of thinking, more women in IT at Microsoft and to the delight of the largest minority at Microsoft, more women from Indian backgrounds. And these same women are jmping on a sport, cricket, which has always been very much a male dominated sport (as soccer was at one time in North America). What a pleasant surprise that was for my reading pleasure today.

Kudos to Microsoft.

Enjoy.

Female Gamers on the increase

Not only are we the market segment that marketers are increasingly paying attention to (like they have a choice?) in the auto, home renovation we are now on the radar of the big gaming companies like Nintendo. Getting the female audience into video games, especially the console version, has been the holy grail for tech publishers, but there seems to be signs that they are final hitting the right genre to lure the numbers that make developing more games much more profitable.

Recent numbers from the Electronic Software Association (How many women board members do they have? Hmm I wonder.) state that 38 per cent of game players are women or girls . Harris Interactive found that tween girls spend up to 10 hours a week as opposed to 16 for their male counterparts. Well I guess that's a good thing especially in light of a prior post highlighting the lack of sleep among tech induced "zombie" teens.

The interesting stat is that not only are more females coming online but older ones as well. The issue??? Female players tend to be casual, interested in easy-to-pick-up social games but not willing to fork over $30 to $50 for more "tough guy games". The lure is in getting girls to obsess over games the way they obsess over boy bands or shows like Hana Montanna.

So where does that leave you and I. Well as IT leaders and specialists there is a golden opportunity to either approach these companies as "experts" (being female) or developing games based on our knowledge of our likes and dislikes in online playing. If you're going to tap a market then you want to do so with people who can talk the talk and walk the walk with the market they are trying to attract. So ladies there's another drum beating out there and since you have the knowledge, then here's another place where you could become "queen" of the hive. If you're looking for a challenging environment gaming certainly, as a product/market segment has many different areas from market research to story development, project management and sales/marketing. Here's where our youth can certainly get hooked on being part of the IT industry while having some fun to boot.

It's certainly something we should keep our eyes on in the coming few years.

Star Profile of the Week - Karen Lay Brew- Microsoft

Karen, who founded the Women in IT movement at Microsoft, graced us with her presence, when we came to her at the very last moment to replace the moderator for WPC in Denver ,that had become ill at the last moment. Karen not only stepped up to the job, with no preparation time, she added her own experience in making a memorable event for us all. I met Karen literally an hour before the session and as with people like Margo Day there was a wonderful friendliness about her. That in part is one of the traits of a true leader, someone who never makes you fell any less important than themselves, even if they're positioned much higher up the ladder than you are. In essence what benefit is it to make people feel any less important than you. If one is to make a team then the team must respect the leader, but a true leader is one that brings forth the best in each member and lets them shine. I suspect this is much of what has put Margo and Karen where they are today.

Karen was brilliant in her role as moderator. She had scripted questions to follow, but she found a way to enhance the topics she had to pull answers from us for and delivered her own perspectives adding to a varied set of opinions. In the end Karen made an even more important contribution by keeping the lines of communication open with IAMCP and our attendees. She has also agreed to grace us with her presence, this time as a panelist at SMB Nation October 1, 2007. I certainly look forward to her valuable input and I hope if you are not in attendance you will catch the video later which we will post when it's made available.

To learn a little more about this week's star WIL&T Profile of the Week read on below:

Karen Lay-Brew, VP Sales, Marketing, Services Group (SMSG) Solutions Delivery (SD) is responsible for driving business value and improvement of business processes, systems and tools that support Microsoft worldwide sales and marketing, operations, licensing & pricing programs, and services business. Karen joined Microsoft in January 2006 after working at large multi-national corporations in different parts of the world. This included 20 years of leadership experience in IT, Shared Business Services, Operational Excellence, Six Sigma and Change Management. Karen is very active in diversity initiatives at Microsoft, having set up the Women in IT organization, and serving as the Executive sponsor of the Microsoft Asia Professional Society.