News
After the Storm
While still recovering from last year's disaster, Gulf Coast partners
redouble their efforts to help their hometowns.
- By Fred Bayles
- October 01, 2006
One year after Hurricane Katrina, the Gulf Coast still bears the storm's
marks. The same holds true for the region's Microsoft partner community.
Partners' customer lists have shifted and, in some cases, shrunk. Some
partners have left the still-struggling New Orleans area, while others
have found new opportunities. Yet perhaps the most significant change
is the new emphasis on charitable work both by individual companies and
local chapters of the International Association of Microsoft Certified
Partners (IAMCP).
A post-Katrina aid initiative funded by Microsoft and administered by
partners provided a financial jumpstart for customers hurt by the disaster.
Some partners offered free or reduced-cost services to help their customers
return to business. And individual IAMCP chapters, generous in their giving
immediately after the disaster, now make charitable work part of their
regular agendas.
"Katrina opened our eyes a bit to the fact that, as a business organization,
we can do more. It's not just about business and ourselves anymore,"
says Bill Breslin, U.S. president of the IAMCP.
Hurricane Katrina came ashore in the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29, 2005, ultimately
killing more than 1,200 people and causing more than $200 billion in damages.
Among the organizations hard hit by the storm was the Louisiana chapter
of the IAMCP.
Chapter President Jamie Armanini says that, before the hurricane, the
group had 40 members. Today, membership is half that number-a fact in
line with statistics indicating that 40 percent of New Orleans companies
haven't returned to business. "Some of the smaller mom-and-pop shops
in application development didn't survive or moved," she says.
Armanini, vice president of business development for the Baton Rouge-based
Momentum training and consulting firm, witnessed the same effects on her
own company, a Gold Certified Partner. Momentum's New Orleans office,
located across the street from the Louisiana Superdome, employed 20 people
before the storm. Today, there are just six. Meanwhile, the company has
shifted its emphasis from training programs to on-site consulting services
to meet the new needs of customers struggling to rebuild with smaller
staffs.
The Microsoft community provided two types of aid to partners and customers
in storm-ravaged areas. IAMCP chapters in Texas and elsewhere donated
$25,000 to the Louisiana chapter, funding everything from temporary space
rental to emergency food and water supplies.
In addition, a Microsoft program offering $400,000 worth of assistance,
discounts and replacement software helped get businesses rolling again.
As part of that effort, Microsoft partners nominated affected customers
for individual $4,000 grants.
By
the Numbers: MSPP Growth |
The Microsoft Partner Program has grown dramatically
in the past year, according to these figures recently
released by Microsoft:
Partner Level |
July 2005 |
July 2006 |
Change |
Gold Certified |
4,600 |
8,000 |
+74% |
Certified |
28,000 |
22,000 |
-21% |
Registered Member |
266,000 |
350,000 |
+32% |
Total |
298,600 |
380,000 |
+27% |
|
|
|
Individual partners offered assistance as well. One example is AdvancedMD
Software Inc., a Salt Lake City-based Certified Partner that helped customers
such as the Hancock Women's Center in Bay St. Louis, Miss.
After that obstetrical-gynecological clinic lost nearly all its medical
and billing records to flooding, AdvancedMD offered its SQL Server-based
hosting services, deferring set-up costs for six months and waiving subscription
fees for the same period.
"Within a few weeks of the disaster, the clinic got power and set
up shop with our product," says Lane Peterson, AdvancedMD's vice
president of marketing.
Such immediate aid programs have ended as the region struggles to return
to normal.
But an enduring result is partners' continuing fundraising for local
charities.
For instance, the IAMCP's Houston chapter donated $12,000 to relief efforts
in the months following Katrina. Since then, the 75-member group's new
community-service committee has collected toys for local kids and organized
a charity golf tournament to raise money for a shelter for abused and
neglected children.