The Townsend Report from the InfoStrat Division of Serenic Software

As I mentioned in my previous post, Ten Things You Should Know About Microsoft Software Licensing , purchasing software is not as simple as you might expect.  In addition to the programs and concepts I discussed in that blog post, Microsoft offers additional benefits for non-profit organizations. Some non-profits may qualify for the ultimate discount -- product donations from Microsoft. Your organization can become a validated nonprofit to gain access to the Microsoft Product Donation and Volume Discount programs available in your country, including: free software and services, including Office 365, Power BI, and more upgrades to Windows 10* or Enterprise with up to 50 licenses discounts on Microsoft software licenses through any approved Volume Licensing reseller Even if you are not eligible for product donations, your non-profit may be eligible for special non-profit pricing .  To find out whether your organization is eligible, you can start here . Related pos

Microsoft software licensing is a complicated subject, but understanding just a few key concepts can help you get the best value from your Microsoft investment. Here are the top facts to get you started: Microsoft sells through a global network of resellers .  Most medium and large sized companies and government agencies have volume licensing agreements which cover all their Microsoft products. This makes it easy to add new products and get the best discounts available. Your reseller will offer the best discount and can add products to your volume licensing agreement where applicable. Volume licensing is available for small and large customers . Microsoft segments its programs for organizations from 5-250 licenses ( Open Value , Open Value Subscription, Open License and Microsoft Online Services) and 250+ licenses ( Enterprise Agreement , Microsoft Products and Services Agreement, and Select Plus).   Azure is sold based on actual usage .  Microsoft Azure and Azure Government

In order to automate business processes, you need to understand the underlying business rules of your organization.  Analysis of business rules is time consuming, and complex business rules add to the time and expense of software development. Based on my experience in developing business solutions, I would like to offer the following observations to help organizations understand how business rule complexity affects them. If you think your business rule is simple, you are not thinking hard enough .  Many business rules seem simple but turn out to be complex on closer examination.  For instance, you may have a rule that a contact person may be listed only once in your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.  If each contact may be associated with only one account (or company) record, what can you do when a person acts in a different role for different organizations.  For instance, I can be listed as a customer of the phone company as the primary contact for my compan

After twenty-five years in the same building, I'm planning to move my office, and reminded of how much office space has changed since I started InfoStrat. In may ways, office space has suffered the same fate as the men's business clothing industry. When I started my first job, everyone's goal was to graduate from shared space to a private office, preferably a window office.  The ultimate was the corner office, guarded by an assistant. Today all this is changed, and I had to ask myself whether we needed an office at all.  Of course the assistants are long gone as well. Many new companies don't have offices at all, working at home and meeting in public places or temporary as-needed office space.  I have heard that some Google employees wander the earth to work out of offices in exotic areas.  Hey, why not, especially with free food at the office? I recall when our clients and partners such as Microsoft and federal agencies started redesigning office space for &q

I often receive requests for information on Microsoft Grants Manager Plus.  While there are many resources for the solution, they are scattered a bit on several websites, so this blog post is designed to provide links to them all in one place. Microsoft Grants Manager Plus is Microsoft's software solution for grantors to track the entire grant process, from establishing programs to publishing opportunities, accepting online applications, reviewing and scoring applications, grant awards, post-award reporting and closeout. It is built on the Microsoft platform, including Dynamics CRM and SQL Server, so it shares the same security model as these products.  It includes record and field level security as well as an organizational hierarchy in the security model which together provide quite granular security options.  You may use single sign-on in conjunction with Active Directory. Microsoft chose InfoStrat to develop Stimulus360  in 2009 and later Grants Manager Plus based on