WEB EXCLUSIVE: Which components of Microsoft's 350-strong product portfolio are the most important to its partners' businesses? To find the answer, we asked the partners themselves -- over 500 of them -- to pick the 10 they and their customers can't go without.
- By Scott Bekker
- April 26, 2011
WEB EXCLUSIVE: From the early acquisitions of Great Plains and Navision, to the Burgum-Nadella-Tatarinov executive shakeup, to the company's tentative first steps toward an "all-in" cloud approach, we spotlight the top 10 milestones from Microsoft's decade of Dynamics.
- By Scott Bekker
- April 15, 2011
With the launch of the Microsoft Partner Network in November, Microsoft forced 400,000 partners to decide how they'll fit their businesses into the new structure. In our annual survey, readers reported how they're planning to adapt.
- By Scott Bekker
- April 12, 2011
There was a distinct cloud slant at some of the major IT players' recent partner confabs, with Cisco, IBM and VMware each rolling out new programs to help their partners transition customers to the new computing paradigm.
- By Jeffrey Schwartz
- April 07, 2011
Building a strategic and effective sales management system is just like building anything else: It takes time, refinement and follow-through.
- By Ken Thoreson
- April 05, 2011
The Microsoft reseller that can implement a process and system to develop opportunities on its own will always win in the marketplace.
- By Keith Lubner
- April 05, 2011
Many small partners won't qualify for a gold competency under the new MPN. Merging with larger partners is one option, but many partners are reluctant to give up their independence. Now Microsoft is considering franchising as an alternative.
- By Jeffrey Schwartz
- March 31, 2011
Microsoft's Kristi Hofer, who has crisscrossed the country talking up Microsoft's proposed plan to create a franchise model for Dynamics partners, recently sat down with RCP to explain what such a model would mean for the MPN.
- By Jeffrey Schwartz
- March 31, 2011
Hewlett-Packard Co. has launched its CloudSystem Partner Program, which is designed to help partners sell HP's CloudSystem portfolio.
- By Jeffrey Schwartz
- March 31, 2011
In a channel network that's 640,000 strong, it's a tall order to address the multitude of questions, concerns and grievances that partners may have. Thankfully, the leaders of Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Group seemed eager to hear them all.
- By Scott Bekker
- March 30, 2011
As the IT industry matures, mergers and acquisitions dominate the channel landscape.
- By Scott Bekker
- March 11, 2011
Sometimes, crafting a successful business strategy requires less innovation and more of the tried-and-true.
- By Mike Harvath
- March 01, 2011
If Microsoft doesn't get BPOS billing right, the sharks will certainly be circling.
- By Scott Bekker
- March 01, 2011
CA has created a microsite for partners to help them sell the CA Virtual portfolio and get past the "virtual stall" that often occurs when customers get about 30 percent of their servers virtualized.
- By Gladys Rama
- February 25, 2011
Pros and cons, and thoughts on intermixing business and personal on the popular social network.
- By Scott Bekker
- February 01, 2011