Microsoft SBS Community Group
North West Region based in Manchester
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SBSC NW Members
The following people are members of the SBSC NW Group, actively participating in the sharing of best practice tips to fellow members and feeding back product and service developments to Microsoft and other 3rd party suppliers.
 
Based in New Mills, Derbyshire, is a Web and Technology Consultant with Simply Better IT. He specialises in long term trusted relationships with a limited number of small businesses across the country, in order to help them use technology better alongside improving their business processes for maximum efficiency. Simon appreciates the need to integrate technologies and is able to specify, supply and support all technology - from Internet connectivity, through networks and servers, to desktops and IP phones.
 
Carlos Oliveira
 
Carlos Oliveira is the founder of Shaping Cloud a new IT Consultancy based in Manchester, he has a background in consulting and investment banking where he designed and architected large scale web based solutions. The company aim is to offer small and medium businesses enterprise level solutions without enterprise level cost. They do this by harnessing the power of cloud computing on the new Windows Azure platform.
 
 
 
 
 
Leslie Cupitt
Leslie is a veteran IT person. He started Business Solutions Ltd in 1988 working with small and medium size businesses. Trained in business management, marketing and accounting, he is linking those skills with Information Technology to benefit small business. The company’s core focus is Microsoft technologies integrated with communications and management.  
 
 
 
 
 
Robert Gibbons
Robert Gibbons has been in IT since he left college back in 1989. Having worked in Hitchin (13yrs) and London (3 yrs) he recently moved up north to setup a Service & Solutions Business as a sister company to a specialist distributor of HP & Cisco equipment. The key strengths for Think4 IT Solutions are the Managed Services and Pro-Activeness of Support for small to medium sized business.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Brett Hargreaves
Brett Hargreaves has been working in IT for 20 years - the past ten years have been spent working for large Blue Chips and government bodies. He recently setup Unified IT Ltd providing IT Development & Consultancy. Certified in Sharepoint and SQL, with years of hands-on experience designing and supporting a whole range of Microsoft products inclusing Exchange, AD and .NET solutions he is looking to work with partners and develop his own business.
 
 
 
 
  
Nick Lloyd
Nick has been working in the IT industry for over twelve years and in 2007 established Sirona Solutions Ltd with his business partner Alex Rimmer. Nick and Alex wanted to bring the corporate, professional feel of an IT services company to the small business sector and take the headaches of IT away from business owners. Sirona now help a variety of businesses make the most of their IT environment and constantly strive to bring new technologies to help businesses develop. Nick also runs a blog aimed the SMB sector - http://nickssmbblog.blogspot.com.  
 
  
 
Danny Ovens
Danny has worked for Microsoft for 7 years in a range of partner roles, typically with large alliance partners including HP, Dell, Intel and BT as well as with Microsoft DMR (Direct Marketing Resellers) and Distribution partners. Having moved back to the Northwest after a foray down to Reading he’s now responsible for promoting increased engagement with unmanaged partners in the North. You can contact Danny at danovens@misrosoft.com.
 
 
 
  
 
Chris Parkes

Chris has been working in a technical partner advisory role at Microsoft since September 2003. During this time, his responsibilities have included Microsoft Dynamics CRM, application development for Independent Software Vendors and latterly the Microsoft Office System, including SharePoint and Business Intelligence. A keen advocate of the Demo Showcase for the People Ready Business you can read more about what makes Chris tick here http://blogs.technet.com/chrisp.

 

Prior to his career at Microsoft Chris spent seven years writing and deploying stock control, accounting and human resource software for small and mid size organisations.

 
 
Matt Stanway

Based in New Mills Derbyshire, Matt Stanway is a full-time teacher of mathematics in a busy secondary school. Matt is also developing his professional IT consultancy skills towards becoming a Microsoft Small Business Specialist and website developer. He is presently developing his PC and IT skills by working with home workers and developing his web development skills with his own website advertising his computer services in Derbyshire.