My name is Steve Gaitten.  I am the Director of Online Operations at Bamboo Solutions, a leading provider of Web Parts & Solutions for SharePoint.  It’s an honor and a privilege to have a chance to appear on one of my favorite sites about SharePoint, SharePoint Buzz.  Kanwal has done an incredible job of creating a community and a valuable informational resource for SharePoint professionals.  One of the things I love most about SharePoint Buzz is that it’s one of the few sites about SharePoint that actually runs on SharePoint.  That buys a lot of credibility with me.

The subject of this post is a new program offered by Bamboo in support of the SharePoint User Groups.  We’re calling it the User Group Community Project.  With this program, any SharePoint User Group may register and obtain free Bamboo products.  Participating User Groups can continue to earn additional products by providing product reviews or just blog posts on general SharePoint topics.

You might ask, what does “free Bamboo products” include?  There are no restrictions.  Participating SharePoint User Groups can choose any of the more than 60 Web Parts and Solutions available from Bamboo’s online store.  Many SharePoint User Groups are interested in administrative products that can help them manage their SharePoint sites and membership lists.  Products like Password Change Web Part, Password Reset Web Part or the User Management Solution Accelerator are very popular.  Another very commonly requested product is Bamboo’s Calendar Plus Web Part.  This feature rich replacement for the standard “out-of-the-box” SharePoint Calendar is great for maintaining and promoting lists of SharePoint User Group events.

Why is Bamboo Giving Away Free Products to SharePoint User Groups?

I think the marketing angle on this program is pretty obvious, and I don’t want to be disingenuous about that.  If you want to find the most influential and most sophisticated SharePoint users, SharePoint User Groups are a great place to start.  We hope that by making our products available to these organizations, even more SharePoint professionals will seek out Bamboo products on their day job.

That being said, we do genuinely love SharePoint User Groups and simply want to help them succeed and thrive.  We know these groups are chronically under-funded and operate on a shoestring budget.  They often have to scrounge for cash just to provide food and soda at meetings, so obviously they don’t have the purchasing power to acquire advanced Web Parts and packaged Solutions to enhance their SharePoint sites.  This provides Bamboo with an opportunity to step up and meet the need.

How Does it Work?  What Do SharePoint User Groups Have to Do?

We really tried to keep this simple.  Any SharePoint User Group that is interested in taking advantage of the program should sign up here:  User Group Community Project Registration  Once the registration is complete, we will issue the User Group an initial $1,500 credit and it’s time for a shopping spree on the Bamboo online store.  To earn additional credits, SharePoint User Groups can write reviews of the products they’ve tried, or just provide a blog post on any SharePoint topic of interest.  There is no limit to the total number of products that can be acquired by a particular group.  With very little extra effort, any SharePoint User Group can arm their SharePoint portal to the teeth with the most useful, most desired SharePoint add ons available.

We’ve already had a great response to the program in its first week.  About 25 SharePoint User Groups have registered already, and we’re really just getting started.  I’d like to thank everyone who has helped us to spread the word, especially our friends here at SharePoint Buzz.  If anyone has questions, comments or suggestions about the program, I welcome your email at steve.gaitten@bamboosolutions.com   

Thanks!

;) -S