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Say I'm the Senior ISV Technology Advisor

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Hi there, you may remember me from such roles such as Academic Programs Advisor in Microsoft Malaysia. I used to have a blog on theSpoke, https://thespoke.net/blogs/hoongfai, but I became such a passive blogger that eventually it became just another item that is returned with Windows Live Search when you search for my name, "Lai Hoong Fai", or "Hoong Fai Lai", or any other permutations of my name.

Currently I'm the Senior ISV Technology Advisor, still in Microsoft Malaysia. I work with a special group of Microsoft partners called ISVs (Independent Software Vendors). Who are these folks? The biggest ISV partner of Microsoft has got to be SAP. Their solution uses Microsoft's products and technologies, such as Microsoft SQL Server, and recently there was a collaboration between SAP and Microsoft that resulted in a new product called Duet. All in all, Microsoft ISV partners are those who develop their solutions that leverages one or more Microsoft products and technologies. I work with these unique set of partners to advise and guide them on adopting Microsoft technologies and products in their software solutions.

I have friends who ask me what I do, in layman's term. I often had difficulty explaining the name of my role until I found the term "technical marketing". That's the most "layman" I think I could get in explaining my role title. That seems to get me off the hook. People just stop asking me. Some may challenge me as to whether that is an oxymoron. How could one couple technical and marketing in the same phrase. I could!

More to come in my later blog posts. I will also blog about a couple of exciting events we organized in the island state of Penang earlier in Nov 2007 just for ISVs. They were organized in collaboration with Software Consortium of Penang (SCoPe). The events were SCoPe - Microsoft ISV Innovation Day, ISV CEO Networking evening, Office Business Application workshop. Not forgeting an excellent proof-of-concept demonstration at the RosettaNet Global Summit. All about that in a later post.....