Arfa Karim, Young MCP And Role Model, Has Left Us Too Early

Today the Pakistani newspaper The Express Tribune reports that Arfa Kari passed away yesterday, at the age of sixteen. This Pakistani girl became a Microsoft Certified Professional when she was only nine years old, and she kept the title for four years.

After the Microsoft Certification Arfa Karim gained many recognitions, and in various ways she showed the world the great capacity of her brain. Unfortunately that amazing brain of hers was also the cause of her untimely demise, as in December she suffered an epileptic seizure leading to cardiac arrest damaging also her brain. Bill Gates made sure she got the best medical care available, but it was not possible to save her life.

I of course only know what I have read, but it seems that the world has lost a young girl who could have become a very influencial woman and a good exmple for young girls. Arfa Karim was a lovely girl, but she achieved her fame through her intellectual capacity and not for her looks, and we need more of such role models in the world today to balance the unwholesome cult of beauty.

I have understood that Arfa Karim has made an important impact in her home country already, but she could have done so much more if she had lived longer. I feel sad for this tragic loss, not only for Arfa and her family but also for the world society. Rest in peace, Arfa Karim, and thanks for showing us what is possible!

If you want to know more about this remarkable girl there are several instersting links at the bottom of the Arfa Karim Wikipedia page.

New Microsoft Recognition For kalmstrom.com CEO

A month ago I wrote a blog post about the kalmstrom.com CEO Peter Kalmstrom, and I called him a true renaissance man because of his many talents - Outlook, Excel and SharePoint specialist, innovative developer and a good teacher. Now Microsoft has also given him recognition, as Peter has earned the Microsoft Certified Trainer certificate.

Peter allowed to teach for Microsoft Certifications
According to Microsoft definitions “Microsoft Certified Trainers (MCTs) are the premier technical and instructional experts on Microsoft technologies, and are the only individuals authorized to deliver training for Microsoft Certification.” Peter has no less than fifteen such certifications in his expert fields, Outlook, Excel and SharePoint, and as he also has good teaching skills he is really well equipped to instruct others.

Congratulations, Peter!
kalmstrom.com Business Solutions recently earned its second Microsoft Silver Competency, this time for excellent insight in Business Intelligence procedures and products. This achievement is the result of a team work, and all members of the kalmstrom.com team can and shall share the glory. In contrast the new Trainer recognition is Peter’s accomplishment only. The rest of us can only applaud and congratulate him!

kalmstrom.com Earns Microsoft Silver Competency Of Business Intelligence

In August I had the great joy of blogging about the first Microsoft Silver Competency for kalmstrom.com Business Solutions, which was awarded to us in our capacity of Independent Software Vendor. As only few of the Microsoft partners reach this level, the first Silver Competency was an important step that made the kalmstrom.com Office applications stand out on the marketplace.

We have seen a significant raise in the number of serious evaluators this autumn, and I think the Microsoft Silver Partnership is at least part of the reason. Now we have achieved yet another Silver Competency, and even if it does not feel as fantastic as the first one we are happy about it.

BI Expertise
To gain the Business Intelligence Silver Competency we of course had to show Microsoft that we have the required know-how also in this field. Two assessments had to be taken: Sales and Marketing + Microsoft Licensing Online. I managed both!

Another important factor in earning the BI Competency was that all the more advanced Outlook add-ons from kalmstrom.com have an integrated statistics application, OLAP Reporting Tool. One of them had to pass a Microsoft test, and we chose to enter with PF HelpDesk, the issue tracking software that works inside Outlook.

The third requirement was met when helpful Members of kalmstrom.com Community gave us the right to use them as Microsoft references for our products. A warm thank you from the whole kalmstrom.com team!

Updated Silver Partner logo
If you look at the kalmstrom.com homepage (or above), you can see that the kalmstrom.com Microsoft Partner logotype has been updated with the new BI Competency. This shows new visitors that kalmstrom.com Business Solutions holds a high standard and is reliable and experienced at working with Microsoft technologies.

Licensing and marketing benefits
To show their appreciation of the Silver Competency, Microsoft gives us several advantages over other partners, like a number of MSDN Subscriptions. They are valuable to the kalmstrom.com team, as they give us most of what we need to develop applications on the Microsoft platform.

Microsoft also gives us a prioritized marketplace exposure and access to various marketing resources. All this means that the second Silver Competency will help kalmstrom.com Business Solutions grow and develop even better products than before!

Integrate Excel in SharePoint With Excel Web Services

Another demo by the CEO of kalmstrom.com Business Solutions has been published on the Tips section of the kalmstrom.com website. This time Peter shows how to embed an Excel model on a SharePoint site. It is done with the help of Excel Web Services, which is included in the SharePoint 2010 Enterprise license and also in the more advanced Office 365 licenses.

Excel model
As example Peter has chosen a model that shows how much revenues in dollars change when sales increase ‒ or decrease ‒ with certain percentages, and he starts by creating that model in Excel 2010. When the table is finished he also makes a graph of the data, to show the changes in a clearer way.

Save to SharePoint
In the second step Peter saves his model table and graph to the company’s SharePoint site, so that people who don’t use Excel also can see it. Maybe you even want to display it to all employees on the intranet homepage? Peter shows how to do that also. 

SharePoint and Excel expert knowledge
Peter Kalmstrom is a Microsoft Certified specialist on both Excel and SharePoint, and he has promised to take his time to make more demos of this kind in the future. So if you want to learn some more tips and tricks on Excel or SharePoint, keep an eye on this blog and on the kalmstrom.com Tips pages!

MS Business Intelligence Silver Partnership Coming Together For kalmstrom.com

kalmstrom.com Business Solutions has earlier earned a Microsoft Silver Competency as Independent Software Vendor, but we are not the ones to sit and rest on our laurels. Instead we aim for more recognition, and as the testing of our products gave enough credit for the Business Intelligence Competency also, it was the most natural next step.

To get the Business Intelligence Silver Competency we needed a few more customer references and certifications, and now I am proud to announce that we have conquered that obstacle also. Helpful Community Members have given us recommendations with the special information about their use of the kalmstrom.com Office add-ons that Microsoft wants, and I have passed two assessments: Microsoft Sales and Marketing and Microsoft Licensing Online. This means that the kalmstrom.com will soon have two Silver Competencies and an even stronger position on the marketplace.

Peter Kalmstrom, SharePoint Expert, Software Developer and Professor

The kalmstrom.com CEO is a true renaissance man. Peter is not only a skilled software developer with expert, Microsoft certified knowledge of Office and SharePoint, but he is also a good professor. He likes to teach, and therefore he has chosen to conduct a number of advanced courses for IT professionals.

SharePoint development

Last week Peter had a‎ 5-day SharePoint-course for developers on the subject of  Developing Solutions with SharePoint 2010. The course gives an overview of all the different kinds of SharePoint development. Both server-side and client-side data access methods are covered, and the attendees get a chance to try as well Silverlight as Java script and .NET coding against SharePoint.

SharePoint a flexible tool

Lately Peter has held no less than four different whole-week courses, covering SharePoint from the developer, administrator, power user and designer/

webmaster perspectives.

Peter finds SharePoint an extremely wide platform, with an immense potential for building applications, collaborating and managing documents. By teaching Peter can let others share his knowledge about all of these things.

Rewarding task

Peter himself also learns a lot from the attendees on his courses. They come from large Swedish organizations and consulting agencies and possess experiences that Peter is interested in learning from. He brings his new knowledge to the kalmstrom.com team and lets it influence his decisions, and that way Peter's teaching sessions in the end also benefit kalmstrom.com Business Solutions.

kalmstrom.com Business Solutions Has Achieved Microsoft Silver Partnership

Today I can write a much happier blog post than yesterday, because now I have good news to share with you: kalmstrom.com Business Solutions has become a Silver Partner to Microsoft. Only 5 % of all Microsoft Partners reach this level, so it really makes us stand out on the market.

To be Silver Partner we had to show Microsoft:

• That our products are good enough ‒ by passing certain Microsoft tests
  
•  That we have the sufficient knowledge in the team ‒ by passing certain Microsoft exams
  
• That our customers like the products ‒ by giving references to Microsoft

kalmstrom.com Business Solutions has reached Silver level as Independent Software Vendor. Maybe you ask why it is not “Software Developer”? That is due to Microsoft’s definitions: a “software developer” is someone who sells code and all rights to it. We instead maintain the legal rights to our products and sell licenses for use, so “Software Vendor” is the correct term for kalmstrom.com .

I have now placed the Silver Partner logo on our homepage, so all visitors can see that kalmstrom.com Business Solutions is reliable and experienced at working with Microsoft technologies. It is a security for new visitors to know that we hold a high standard, and we hope it will further increase the demand for our products and services. The Silver Partnership also gives the kalmstrom.com team other advantages, like access to more Microsoft resources. This will be useful in our future development work.

We are very grateful to the Community Members who gave us references, and I also want to say a big thank you to the kalmstrom.com team members. You should all feel proud and take credit for our joined achievement!

Another SharePoint Certification For kalmstrom.com

Peter, our kalmstrom.com CEO took the Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Administration certification yesterday, so now Peter has 13 Microsoft certifications.

The test had several parts: Designing a SharePoint 2010 Farm Topology, Planning SharePoint 2010 Deployment, Defining a SharePoint 2010 Operations Strategy and Business Continuity and Planning for Search and Business Solutions. Of course Peter managed them all!

Congratulations, Peter, from the whole team. You are an inspiring leader!