Quick hits today because...well, just because. Hey, it's December, and the
news is kind of slow, and we're now officially obsessed with the growing possibility
of a Dallas vs. New England Super Bowl, which would pit your editor's original
hometown (Dallas, or close to it, anyway) against his current (and now somewhat
longtime) area of residence. And, with that jinx in place, Green Bay and Indianapolis
fans, your teams should be guaranteed spots in the big game. Congrats, and you're
welcome.
Anyway, very much in the way that New England's offensive line thwarted the
Pittsburgh pass rush on Sunday, Microsoft is letting customers block
automatic service pack updates in Windows Update. The service pack blocker
will be available for XP, Vista (which doesn't even have a service pack yet)
and Windows Server 2003.
And, just as Cowboy quarterback Tony Romo passed to Jason Witten for Sunday's
game-winning touchdown, Redmond is passing news
of SP1's features to partners and users. (There's no escaping the football
metaphors today. Dolphins fans, we offer our sincere apologies.) SP1 should
appear in public-beta form some time this week.
Have an extra point to send to RCPU about anything you've read in the newsletter
lately? Kick it my way at [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on December 11, 20070 comments
Microsoft Office's
kind-of,
sort-of answer to Google Apps is
in
beta for those who want a taste of exactly what Software Plus Services is
dishing out.
Posted by Lee Pender on December 11, 20070 comments
Last week, we
gave
you control of the Microsoft robot, and you grabbed the command right out
of our hands. What resulted were some of the best e-mails we've ever had.
First up was David, who created a couple of robots of his own:
"The Microsoft robot could be the Swiss army knife of robots. It
could store your music collection, balance your checkbook and do your online
Christmas shopping for you. It would probably be squat and boxy but easy for
everyone to learn and use, but, like children, you have to worry about them
spreading viruses on the playground.
"The Mac OS robot would be sleek and sophisticated, if just a little
arrogant. It would edit your home videos and clean up your digital photos
all while poking fun at the boring, old Microsoft robot. It would be more
expensive than the Microsoft robot and claim to be able to do everything the
Microsoft robot can -- and do it better.
"The Linux robot would be built from any parts available, and therefore
could appear as anything from an insect to a racecar to a Microsoft robot
with a knowing smirk on its face. It would be the most highly configurable
of all of the robots, with huge numbers of components available, many of which
work mostly as advertised if the owner is willing to spend the time to get
them configured properly. It comes with a preinstalled flamethrower triggered
by an RTM sensor."
We'll take the Linux robot, please (for the flamethrower, of course), although
the Mac OS robot sounds like the most fun to hang around.
Frequent contributor Jon was up next, with a few shots at Vista:
"I want my Microsoft robot to write the successor for Windows XP.
If I hadn't taken my workplace violence training, I would also like it to
strangle whoever thought of Vista."
Wait...we have to stop here for a second. Workplace violence training? We're
brimming with questions. Why was it necessary in the first place? And were you
trained, Jon, to avoid violence in the workplace or to be violent in the office?
The second option seems much more useful than the first to us. Anyway, back
to Jon's e-mail:
"As with any Microsoft product, I sure wouldn't want version 1 of
this thing, since it would likely use Windex on the carpet and then try to
vacuum the windows after I ask it to make Windows better. Setting it loose
in the kitchen would undoubtedly result in half-baked food like hamburger
cookies and oatmeal cheesecake that Microsoft thought were good ideas. If
I asked it to do the laundry, I can imagine coming home and finding the robot
wearing my underwear on its head. And not because it thought it would be funny."
Mmm, oatmeal cheesecake. But Jon wasn't finished (fortunately, because this
is good stuff). He actually sent a whole separate e-mail to say this:
"It would always promise to deliver a delicious dinner by 6:00 p.m.
but would usually let its schedule slip until much later. The more interesting
of the promised side dishes would have to be cut to make the new deadline.
Dinner would have an excessive ad campaign to keep my interest while I'm waiting."
Jon, you've got us shaking here (all four cheeks and a chin, as Cliff Claven
once said on "Cheers"). That was fantastic stuff. And we loved David's
entry, too. Thanks, guys, and keep it coming.
Any more commands for the Microsoft robot? Send them to [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on December 07, 20070 comments
The
apparent confusion
at the mother ship over the phrase "Vista capable" came as a relief
to Cori:
"How can I get in on the lawsuit? I have had software issues and
have already replaced my original hard drive that came with the laptop. My
husband, who is a senior program technical engineer for Coinstar, kept on
telling me, 'I don't know what you're doing, but stop moving all your files
around.' Of course, I'm not lame, even have 18 years of software sales experience,
so I am not the culprit of all the software issues going on with the laptop.
"I ran across an article about this less than two months ago, which
outlined the exact problems I was (and still am) experiencing. Who do I contact
to see if I'm eligible to be included in the lawsuit? Your article was such
a RELIEF to show my husband."
As for the lawsuit, Cori, we're not sure that we can help you there, but we're
glad that we were able to provide a bit of relief. Thanks for your e-mail.
Greg chimed in with some interesting numbers on open source after our entry
on how SMBs are sticking
with Microsoft. He says that the desktop market isn't the only place where
Microsoft is hammering its competitor:
"I always read open source articles with great interest. However,
I find that there is some irony in how everyone seems to think that open source
is growing in the server market. The last stats I saw for 2002 and 2006 for
market share showed that Windows server market share had grown from in the
40 percent range to 75 percent by 2006. This was at the expense of Unix and
Linux. I have not seen recent figures, but it certainly made me wonder whether
Linux will survive past the niche that it is in.
"I also saw stats for Apache Web servers, which during the same time
shrank in market share from 75 percent to somewhere around 40 percent. IIS
in the same timeframe grew from 8 percent to 36 percent. All indications are
that IIS will be the leading Web server before the end of next year. This
does not include Windows servers that are running Apache but certainly shows
the decrease in UNIX and Linux market share in the Web environment, which
so happens to be the niche for a lot of Linux servers.
"Anyway, maybe Linux will grow one day. For now, I think Microsoft
still rules the roost. I do think this shift in market share will also force
Microsoft to look for revenue elsewhere. Watch ERP and competition with Google.
Microsoft will focus heavily on these areas moving forward. I would be worried
if I was trading in these environments."
Greg, we're not 100 percent sure where you got your numbers, of course, but
we're inclined to believe you. And, as for ERP, we've been watching Dynamics
for a while here, and we'll continue to keep an eye on it. Thanks for your e-mail.
Posted by Lee Pender on December 07, 20070 comments
It's whether you know the right people in Redmond that can make a huge difference
in your success in dealing with Microsoft. And even if you don't know these
people personally, you should at least know who they are and what they have
going on. (Of course, getting to know them face to face never hurts.) From our
December
issue, here are
23
execs every partner should be familiar with.
Posted by Lee Pender on December 07, 20070 comments
It's Christmas in...uh, December for those who wanted nothing but
Microsoft
patches for the holidays.
Posted by Lee Pender on December 07, 20070 comments
Well,
here he
is again, that smooth-talker wearing an ascot and a smoking jacket and carrying
two champagne flutes. He wants to make up. Really, he does. He wants the channel
to know that it's real this time -- that he won't go behind your back with that
direct-sales model again. He just wants you to listen. He says that he needs
you now more than ever.
Dell has a channel program -- a real one, with logos and levels and everything.
Oh, it's not a surprise or anything; partners have been raking in money for
the direct-sales giant for a while now. But Dell, which has treated the channel
like a jilted girlfriend in the past, wants to get serious about working with
partners now because it has to. So the company is reaching out to partners,
hoping to woo them, promising them that Dell's commitment to them is real.
And it probably is. After all, anybody who follows the technology industry
knows that Dell has struggled financially in recent years and that founder Michael
Dell is back
in the company's driver's seat. Furthermore, it's Dell himself who has his
executives turning on the Texas charm to try to lure partners to work with a
company that was once considered Public Enemy No. 1 in the channel.
Dell's channel program is pretty comprehensive, as Scott
Bekker reports in his story for RCP (which is pretty darn comprehensive,
too.) The question doesn't seem to be so much whether Dell is serious about
recruiting partners, but rather whether partners will trust the company -- which
for so long flaunted its direct-sales model -- enough to work with it. Given
the potential profits involved, they probably will.
But it'll take a while for Dell to build relationships in the channel, and
it'll be interesting to track the new partner program's success. After all,
old wounds don't just heal overnight.
Will you allow Dell to romance you into its partner program? Tell me at [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on December 06, 20070 comments
The results of the reader survey
RCP conducted this past summer (and
thanks to all who took part, by the way) are finally in. And the survey says...
you're
happy! Almost ridiculously happy being Microsoft partners. But there are
a few little thorny issues. If you want to find out what they are,
click
the link. (Come on. You didn't think you were going to get out of
visiting
the Web site, did you?)
Posted by Lee Pender on December 06, 20070 comments
SAP, the big German enterprise resource planning monster, put on a little conference
in Boston this week that offered one of the great dessert tables of our era.
Seriously, it was epic, offering everything from blueberry cobbler to kids'-party-style
cupcakes and fudge. Accustomed to the standard fare of lemon squares and mediocre
tiramisu on offer at most conferences, your editor delighted in a sugary mid-afternoon
romp. For that, we say
danke schön, SAP, and come back to town any time.
Aside from the dessert spectacular, which would've been enough on its own,
the SAP Influencer Summit -- the name suggests that somebody must've known that
RCPU would be there -- offered an opportunity for SAP to tout the latest version
of its hosted customer relationship management offering and brought CEO Henning
Kagermann to town for what was (no kidding) billed as a "fireside chat"
with the press. That there was no actual fire was somewhat disappointing --
and in fact, the meeting took the form more of a moderately controlled Q&A
than that of a "chat."
Still, having covered SAP on and off for years, we've always appreciated the
forthrightness of the company's executives, who are much less likely to use
platitudes, meaningless fluff lines and burned-out marketing phrases than are
their counterparts in Redmond. And while the news surrounding SAP CRM 2007 was
interesting (see Barbara Darrow's excellent wrap-up for RCP here),
RCPU was especially intrigued by a few of Kagermann's comments.
He said, for instance, that he doesn't see the business intelligence market
even being a market in a few years time. (You'll remember that SAP
bought BI titan Business Objects not long ago.) BI will just be part of
what enterprise software does, Kagermann said, as absorption of BI vendors into
bigger companies continues. And while he said that another big BI purchase from
SAP wasn't likely in the next year, he wouldn't shut the door to one completely,
basically giving a "you never know"-type answer.
Kagermann also quelled speculation that Microsoft and SAP were talking about
a merger or acquisition of some sort, flatly
denying rumors that he'd been talking to Microsoft about a sale.
But what intrigued us most about Kagermann's conference room Q&A -- actually,
fireside chat does sound much better -- were his comments on partner recruitment
for SAP's hosted ERP offering, Business ByDesign. The company is recruiting
partners to sell the Software-as-a-Service play, but Kagermann doesn't want
to hear from consultants or channel players looking to modify or sell add-ons
to the system. No, at least for now, SAP is recruiting traditional resellers
-- or partners willing to act as traditional resellers -- for Business ByDesign.
Kagermann pointed partners and customers in search of customizable mid-market
applications to Business All-in-One, SAP's budget, on-premise ERP suite.
"If somebody wants to modify a midsize product, he can buy All-in-One,"
Kagermann said. "We will not allow modification [of ByDesign]. We want
to avoid the cost of ownership getting too high."
So there you go, partners -- resell ByDesign, but whatever you do, don't hope
for consulting revenues from it. SAP wants to keep the SaaS service cheap, and
consulting fees can get kind of expensive. It's a message that seems to be just
the opposite of what Microsoft wants partners to hear. Redmond tells its channel
players to find ways to add onto its budding SaaS offerings (including the hosted
Dynamics CRM application), but SAP's message (to both partners and customers)
is a stern "hands off." (At least for now -- Kagermann did leave the
door open to partners eventually doing some consulting work as the product matures.)
And, in a sense, the message makes sense. SAP wants to keep ByDesign simple
and inexpensive. In modern parlance, ByDesign is what it is -- and what it's
not, or at least not supposed to be, is something that could become very expensive
and unwieldy. Since most partners selling ByDesign are probably involved with
lots of other aspects of selling and supporting SAP, it's not likely to be a
big deal that they won't be able to reap consulting revenues from the on-demand
offering. But it is unusual that in an era when pretty much everybody else is
telling partners to specialize and develop domain expertise, SAP is encouraging
them -- at least with this one product -- to be traditional resellers.
We're guessing -- although we don't know for sure -- that SAP must be offering
a pretty sweet compensation deal to ByDesign resellers...possibly including
some treats from the Influencer Summit's dessert table. That perk alone would
make the whole effort worthwhile.
What experience have you had working with SAP? With ByDesign? What's your take
on hosted applications that partners aren't supposed to touch? What was on the
best dessert table you ever saw at a trade show or conference? Tell me at [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on December 05, 20070 comments
A thousand apologies from RCPU for not bringing you this story last week,
but, in case you missed it, popular former Microsoft Dynamics executive Tami
Reller (who, RCPU once speculated, might have been
a
little too Great Plains for Redmond) has
landed
herself a plum gig as CFO of Microsoft's Platform & Services division.
Posted by Lee Pender on December 05, 20070 comments