As part of RCP's 2014 "Marching Orders" feature, we asked channel insiders to give advice to partners getting ready for the new year. Here are some tips for SMB partners from Cindy Bates, Microsoft's vice president of U.S. Small and Medium-Sized Businesses & Distribution.
As we move into 2014, SMB partners have a tremendous opportunity to build excitement and urgency with SMB customers around how technology can modernize and transform their businesses. Here are three things I believe can deliver great impact for SMB partners this year:
Help SMBs move to modern technology. The end of support for Windows XP and Office 2003 is only a few months away. The April 2014 deadline gives SMB partners a great opportunity to drive meaningful conversations with SMB customers about the benefits of modernizing their technology and the risks of not doing so. By helping customers move to modern devices and embracing a services mindset, partners can capitalize on the ubiquity of devices, the accessibility and transformative nature of cloud and the rise of affordable virtualization.
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Posted on December 26, 20130 comments
As part of RCP's 2014 "Marching Orders" feature, Jenni Flinders, vice president of Microsoft's U.S. Partner Group, gave some advice to partners regarding the "Devices" part of Microsoft's new "Devices + Services" strategy:
In the New Year, computing will continue to be everywhere and vastly more integrated. Not only will our devices talk to one another, the range of "devices" will expand greatly to include cars, buildings, roads, cities and homes. Our interactions with technology will be more natural and intuitive. Modern devices that enable productivity on-the-go and connect to all the important information you need is one of the key demands from your customers.
The experience of combining Windows 8.1 and the many amazing devices shipping from our original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) is positioning the U.S. channel for great success. Partners must listen to the needs of their customers and find the right devices and services that will work best for their businesses. I encourage all partners to become familiar with all the devices available to offer a customized experience.
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Posted on December 26, 20130 comments
As part of RCP's 2014 "Marching Orders" feature, we asked channel experts to share their insights on what partners can expect in the new year, and what they should do to get ready for 2014. Here are some tips for Microsoft partners from Phil Sorgen, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Group.
Over the past two years, Microsoft partners have seen the cloud gain significant traction in terms of customer demand. The time is now for partners to join the thousands who have already built a cloud practice to start reaping the benefits.
With recently released data now quantifying profitability opportunities for partners in the cloud, there's no reason to wait. According to IDC, partners who generate more than 50 percent of their revenue from the cloud grow at double the rate, accrue new customers two times faster and generate double the revenue per employee compared to non-cloud-oriented partners.
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Posted on December 23, 20130 comments
Marco Limena, vice president of Hosting Service Providers at Microsoft, recently shared his insights on what partners should do to better position themselves in the new year as part of RCP's annual "Marching Orders" feature.
Earlier this year at our Hosting Summit, I shared research that revealed a shift in customer demand when it comes to cloud infrastructures. According to the 451 Group, in the next two years, 68 percent of customers plan to adopt hybrid cloud models. That's an increase of nearly 20 percent from today. This shift is driven by an increased customer demand for cloud solutions that will help them grow their business or realign their organizations.
In looking at this data, there's no denying we're entering the era of hybrid cloud. Now is the time for service providers to begin building and deploying hybrid clouds that meet customer demands and allow them to move between on-premises solutions, the public cloud and service provider clouds.
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Posted on December 23, 20130 comments
This RCP Guest Blog was written by Peter Bauer, CEO and co-founder of Mimecast.
The characteristics of an effective leader have been covered extensively -- the bottom line usually being that the elements of leadership are notoriously difficult to define or measure.
However, many leaders often share a similar conviction that keeps each of them moving forward. Leadership with conviction empowers leaders to fully invest in an idea, convince others to follow them and entice others to want the product or service.
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Posted on August 06, 20130 comments
As part of Redmond Channel Partner's annual "Marching Orders" feature, we asked several channel luminaries to give their best advice to help Microsoft partners succeed in the coming year. Here are some insights from Tom Chew, national general manager of Slalom Consulting.
Slalom is embracing opportunities in the cloud to drive deeper engagements and long-lasting partnerships with our clients. We've seen great success by first seeking to understand a company's unique business needs, and then developing a tailored solution that delivers ongoing value after implementation.
That's important because the explosion in adoption of cloud technologies from Microsoft -- such as Windows Azure and Office 365 -- means partners have even more tools to create a strong breadth of offerings for their clients. Many of the Microsoft tools work with cloud solutions from companies such as Amazon.com Inc. as well, expanding the opportunities. But gaining long-term business value is often a real challenge. More
Posted on February 06, 20130 comments
As part of Redmond Channel Partner's annual "Marching Orders" feature, we asked several channel luminaries to give their best advice to help Microsoft partners succeed in the coming year. Here are some tips from Howard M. Cohen, channel consultant and RCP columnist.
Integrator. That's what most of us have called ourselves for the last three decades. What do integrators do? They take hardware from various manufacturers and software from various publishers and combine them to create superior customer solutions. A proud heritage.
Over the past few years, some enterprising technologists realized they could create some of the services we used to install at customer sites and produce them more effectively in their own datacenter. Not only that, but by selling these services to a large number of customers they could achieve an economy of scale that would deliver better service at a lower price, and they would still make money doing so. More
Posted on February 06, 20130 comments
As part of Redmond Channel Partner's annual "Marching Orders" feature, we asked several channel luminaries to give their best advice to help Microsoft partners succeed in the coming year. Here are some tips from Cindy Bates, U.S. Small and Medium Sized Businesses & Distribution, Microsoft.
The New Year brings a new era of opportunity for partners working with SMBs. New levels of innovation in the cloud, new form factors and ways of interfacing with PCs, and the accessibility of virtualization solutions are transforming the way SMBs run their businesses, let alone their IT infrastructures. Among the biggest areas of opportunity:
As part of Redmond Channel Partner's annual "Marching Orders" feature, we asked several channel luminaries to give their best advice to help Microsoft partners succeed in the coming year. Here are some tips from Harry Brelsford, President, SMB Nation.
Who ordered this tepid recovery, anyway? Several years ago, when the economy was "resetting," I made forward-looking statements that the downturn was going to align closer to a normal recession, not the "Great Recession" others predicted. Bottom line is that they were closer to right than I was.
While the slowly improving economic data inspires optimism in me and others, a common current refrain is that we've never worked so hard for so little. True -- the past few years have made us all more focused and efficient. But you're not alone if you're getting tired of this recession too! More
Posted on January 30, 20130 comments
As part of Redmond Channel Partner's annual "Marching Orders" feature, we asked several channel luminaries to give their best advice to help Microsoft partners succeed in the coming year. Here are some tips from Tiffani Bova, Vice President, Gartner Research Inc.
Business partners of the future must continually reinvent their businesses. Otherwise, they'll find themselves left behind as the "supplier" of technology versus the trusted partner that guides clients to where they need to be. Helping businesses focus on growth and enabling new and different customer experiences is where businesses are spending their IT dollars.
This is being driven by what Gartner calls the "Nexus of Forces" (see gartner.com/webinars), the explosion in information, social, cloud and mobility, as well as the intersection of these rapidly evolving capabilities. These are disruptive technologies that fundamentally change business processes, business strategies and business models, and they're coming at us faster than ever. This is creating unprecedented uncertainty and opportunity for the IT channel as a whole. More
Posted on January 24, 20130 comments
As part of Redmond Channel Partner's annual "Marching Orders" feature, we asked several channel luminaries to give their best advice to help Microsoft partners succeed in the coming year. Here are some tips from Jenni Flinders, U.S. Partner Strategy and Programs, Microsoft.
In this new exciting era with the product launch wave -- the biggest in our company's history -- it's imperative that our partners educate themselves and their customers on the benefits of these product offerings.
I want our partners to be able to approach sales opportunities with a high degree of comfort, fluency and credibility to take full advantage of revenue potential. As such, Microsoft needs to provide its partners with a roadmap, allowing each of these organizations to forge ahead and blaze a trail of individualized success. More
Posted on January 16, 20130 comments
As part of Redmond Channel Partner's annual "Marching Orders" feature, we asked several channel luminaries to give their best advice to help Microsoft partners succeed in the coming year. Here are some tips from Mike Harvath, CEO, Revenue Rocket Consulting Group & RCP columnist.
It looks like this could be a year of opportunity for Microsoft partners. What with a new, huge revision cycle that includes Windows 8, Office 2013, Exchange 2013, SharePoint 2013, the new Surface tablet and Lync, there's a lot to crow about.
I can't remember a year in which Microsoft has unleashed such a barrage of new and updated technologies. Some might argue that this onslaught is a wee bit too much to thrust upon the market all at once. Time will tell, but for the moment I think this spells opportunity -- as change often does in IT -- for those partners that have positioned themselves to take advantage of this bounty. More
Posted on January 15, 20130 comments