On Monday, we included a couple of the "Marching Orders 2010" essays from the January issue of Redmond Channel Partner magazine. Continuing as promised, here's the entry from Julie Bennani, a general manager of the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group, with advice for partners to transition into the new Microsoft Partner Network:
"Microsoft is in the midst of the biggest technology launch wave in the company's history -- and with every new innovation comes additional opportunity for you, our partners. We know that you're facing tremendous economic and business challenges, but we see you rising to those challenges, and we're working hard to help you seize the opportunities that come with our offerings.
"In July 2009, at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC), we announced that the Microsoft Partner Program was evolving into the MPN. The transition is based first and foremost on your feedback and feedback from our mutual customers. You told us that you need deep technology and business expertise, marketplace differentiation, customer opportunity and partner-to-partner networking. We took this feedback and directly reflected it in the MPN.
"We're simplifying the competency structure to align with how customers buy and how you connect with them. We've revamped our membership options to allow our most dedicated partners to better differentiate themselves and sustain competitive advantage, while enabling other compelling connection points for the rest of our ecosystem.
"Another important aspect of the MPN is its greater emphasis on relationships. Partners can more easily engage with other partners, customers and Microsoft to create meaningful connections through communities like the Microsoft Partner Network Community, Digital WPC and the MPN's presence on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn. Partners who engage in partner-to-partner networking find it helps build their business, improves profitability and better enables them to compete. Digital marketing and social media training are also available for you via the Partner Marketing Center.
"With a focus on customer needs, the MPN prioritizes connecting customers with the right partners. More than 2.3 million customer visits occur on average each month on our online marketplaces, such as Microsoft Pinpoint, which -- beyond the connection and lead opportunity -- also provide partners with online selling support, business analytics and lead-qualification information to help attract and engage customers. The results of these connections are evident in a recent IDC study, which found that Microsoft partners earn $8.70 for every $1 of Microsoft revenue.
"The MPN will continue to evolve with our ongoing conversations with our partners. Recent evidence of our response to feedback and customer centricity is the launch on Nov. 20 of the simplified Core IO competencies and improved online experience enhancements.
"Partner Call to Action: Now is an opportune time to become familiar with the new MPN requirements, including participation in Customer Satisfaction measurement for all Gold Certified Partners. Also, adopt, deploy and extend our latest technology and use our resources to expand your network and make it easier for customers to find you. Keep the feedback coming to let us know how we can help you continue to innovate in the market to benefit our mutual customers and capture new business opportunities for your organization."
Posted by Scott Bekker on January 06, 20100 comments
Partners will be the tip of the spear of a Microsoft effort to get SMB customers upgraded to Windows 7 and Office 2010.
Redmond announced a 50 percent discount on Windows 7 Professional and Office 2007 Professional for the first year of a subscription to the "open value subscription" volume licensing program. The deal lasts through the end of June, and customers who are on OVS at that point can move up to Office 2010, which is supposed to ship in June or sooner, for free.
Word of the promotion came on the blog of Eric Ligman, global partner experience lead for the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group. For more details, see Kurt Mackie's article here.
Posted by Scott Bekker on January 06, 20100 comments
Microsoft released pricing details for Office 2010 this week, as the desktop productivity suite grinds closer to its expected June release. The headline numbers for the four editions:
- Office Home and Student will cost $149.
- Office Home and Business will be $279.
- Office Professional will cost $499.
- Office Professional Academic will be $99.
Interestingly, Microsoft also will offer a stripped-down Starter Edition preloaded on new PCs. Users can then upgrade to full product editions by buying product key cards from various retail outlets. Get the details here.
Posted by Scott Bekker on January 06, 20101 comments
As RCPU editor Lee Pender mentioned in his last newsletter of 2009, he's off rooting for his beloved TCU Horned Frogs in the Fiesta Bowl tonight. That leaves me to ring in the new year for the newsletter.
There's probably no better way to do that than to share nuggets from one of our latest magazine features, "Marching Orders 2010." In our annual "Marching Orders" series, we ask a handful of channel luminaries to share their best advice for the coming year.
The outlook for 2010 is unsettled, but there's a good chance that after a year in which macroeconomic forces bounced us all around, execution will begin to matter again. A lot of our commentators focused on ways solution providers can execute in 2010 to make good things happen.
I'll dole out a few "Marching Orders" in each newsletter this week, but feel free to skip ahead. You can find the full feature with all nine entries online here.
Posted by Scott Bekker on January 04, 20100 comments
Business-growth consultant and friend of the magazine Mike Harvath came through with a contribution for our readers in this year's RCP "Marching Orders 2010" feature. Mike, who is president and CEO of the Revenue Rocket Consulting Group, wrote:
"Think of two things this year: mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and business focus.
"We saw a healthy volume of M&A activity in the sector of the market in which we specialize: IT services companies in the $5 million to $50 million range. These executives took advantage of the long-held dictum that they can gain a competitive advantage with a countercyclical strategy for M&A.
"We see M&A continuing to be a smart growth strategy in 2010, but we also see new pressures coming to the market in the declining dollar. Domestic buyers could find themselves being priced out of the market by foreign buyers looking to increase their share of the U.S. market. If you're looking at M&A in 2010, you'd be well-advised to acquire smartly and strategically. This means buying companies that strengthen your tightly defined offering in the market. On the other hand, if you're looking to sell, you may find some attractive suitors out there.
"The IT services companies that prospered in 2009 did so because of their strict allegiance to focus and execution. They were uniquely positioned at the intersection of a technical and vertical specialization. This allowed them to attract skittish, tight-fisted buyers who were looking for the assurance of delivery that comes from companies that can speak from a position of authority, with strong expertise and demonstrable proof-of-performance. While the global IT services market looks to begin growing again, the rate appears tepid enough to keep customers playing the risk card closer to their vests. Focus is the name of the game for 2010.
"For those companies that stayed focused and acquired strategically in 2009, good for you. For those that didn't, couldn't or wouldn't, there's still time to catch up to your newly fortified competitive brethren. Don't despair, but also don't hesitate."
Posted by Scott Bekker on January 04, 20100 comments
Every year, we've counted on Allison Watson, corporate vice president of the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group, to provide our readers with some solid advice in an entry for our "Marching Orders" piece. She came through again this time with some guidance on Microsoft's 2010 launch wave:
"The last 12 months have been quite a ride. But in spite of the economy, Microsoft partners are seeing great results due to the tremendous opportunity to take share in every market. Customers are demanding low-cost, high-value solutions that drive innovation and help them save money. In this environment, salesmanship remains a key differentiator, and the power of the MPN helps enable powerful partner selling motions. And, most importantly, it remains true that visionary organizations excel in challenging times -- and to show our commitment to you in this regard, Microsoft is bringing out the greatest innovation lineup in the company's history this year.
"So what is your call to action? Get out there and start using this groundbreaking technology. Microsoft's most successful partners embrace our innovative new technologies in their own businesses and as a result become enthusiastic evangelists. That expertise is critical because Microsoft partners play such an important role in helping customers identify, purchase and deploy the right technology solutions.
"Microsoft Office 2010 and Microsoft SharePoint 2010, in combination with the recently launched Exchange Server 2010 and Windows 7, provide a robust platform and tools to enable partners to build innovative solutions for customers. Partners should deploy these products internally, as well as visit the Web sites to learn more about how embracing them can help you create profitable business opportunities.
"Now is also the time to transform to Software plus Services. We're seeing exciting momentum around the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), with more than 7,000 Microsoft partners helping businesses take advantage of the platform, and more than 100 partners joining the community each week. Partners are taking advantage of our special BPOS partner licensing and pricing benefits, including up to 250 internal-use seats. There are opportunities for partners of every type on the recently launched Windows Azure platform, whether you're an ISV building new Software as a Service offerings, a systems integrator migrating existing applications, or a VAR packaging cloud-based offerings to sell to customers. Partners should download the Windows Azure Partner Resource Guide to learn more.
"The MPN is an important resource enabling partners to transform their businesses around all these new opportunities. The network can help you to expand your sales and marketing skills, deepen your business and technical expertise, and build meaningful connections with Microsoft and other partners -- and with new customers as well.
"Your formula for success is to provide in your offering a value proposition combining elements that save customers money and drive customer innovation, all balanced with the right mix of on-premises and in-the-cloud solutions."
Posted by Scott Bekker on January 04, 20100 comments
Google is in the driver's seat right now when it comes to cloud computing. It seems that much of what the industry does in the cloud -- I'm especially talking about Microsoft here -- is in response to some move by Google.
I don't think Microsoft would say so, but there's a widespread industry view that Microsoft's recent price cuts to its Business Productivity Online Suite, Hosted Exchange and other hosted applications were directly due to Redmond's losing the Los Angeles contract for an e-mail platform to Google.
Given that situation, I highly recommend a Q&A on our Web site with Matthew Glotzbach, product management director for Google Enterprise.
Glotzbach remains cagey about the scale of Google's datacenters, but otherwise, our own Kurt Mackie draws him out on how Google's various components fit together into solutions, on overall strategy and on some interesting details about the Los Angeles competition.
Posted by Scott Bekker on November 12, 20090 comments
Solution providers representing HP will have a broader set of networking equipment in their portfolios, with HP's bid this week to acquire 3Com. Both boards are on board, so to speak.
HP views the deal as a way to strengthen its converged datacenter solutions, and 3Com's products fill holes between HP servers and storage and its HP ProCurve products at the network's edge. The move would seem to give HP more ammunition in the battle for share with Cisco, which recently moved into servers. Jeff Schwartz has the full story, including partner reaction, here.
Posted by Scott Bekker on November 12, 20090 comments
Earlier this week, Microsoft and Seagate subsidiary i365 Inc. announced collaboration on a heterogeneous data protection appliance to ship in the first half of next year. The first fruits will be an appliance that includes cloud backup and software from both companies -- Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2010 for backing up Windows environments and Seagate technology for everything else. There seem to be some channel implications here, especially on the managed service provider side, but we're still sorting them out. Any thoughts? Let me know at [email protected].
Posted by Scott Bekker on November 12, 20090 comments
In honor of Veterans Day tomorrow, I'll quote one of my favorite Joe Toye lines from my favorite HBO series, "Band of Brothers": "Where's the best chow? In Berlin."
You could rephrase the quote this week to "Where's the best e-mail server launch? In Berlin." Doesn't have the same punch, somehow, but a big deal for the Microsoft channel all the same.
Microsoft launched the newest version of its $1-billion-plus-per-year e-mail server along with Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server at Tech-Ed Europe in Berlin Monday. Our own Kurt Mackie monitored all the webcasts and posted a lengthy story with a lot of the details about the Software plus Services and unified communications underpinnings of the server here.
The public release meant that Exchange 2010 and the new Forefront Protection product are available as trial downloads.
The Exchange Server 2010 launch comes in the middle of a wave of releases across the Microsoft stack, from Windows 7 a few weeks ago to SQL Server 2008 R2 next year.
Microsoft's been busy priming the channel for all these launches. Microsoft Business Division President Stephen Elop said yesterday that more than 45,000 partners are trained on Windows Server 2008 R2 and Exchange 2010. Several vendor partners announced services and solutions around Exchange 2010 in Berlin, including Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Avanade, Dell Inc., EMC Corp., Kaspersky Lab, Symantec Corp. and Unisys Corp.
In support of the product launch, Microsoft released two documents filled with cost-benefit data that could be useful to partners. The studies, done by Forrester Research and based on customer product trials, are "The Total Economic Impact of Microsoft Exchange 2010" and "The Total Economic Impact of Windows Server 2008 R2." Check out Kurt's story for a lot of handy links to resources.
Posted by Scott Bekker on November 10, 20091 comments
I've been scratching my head lately as I've compared the government's statistics for third quarter GDP growth against the corporate earnings of the IT titans. The U.S. GDP is supposed to be up 3.5 percent for Q3, while Microsoft, Tech Data and Ingram Micro all reported double-digit declines in revenues over roughly the same period.
But finally, some positive news out of the tech sector. IDC says worldwide PC microprocessor shipments in Q3 "rose substantially and to all-time record levels for a single quarter." The bounce in shipments is 23 percent quarter over quarter. Revenues for the same period are up 14 percent.
The story is more subtle than a 1:1 relationship with the U.S. economy. The chip growth doesn't actually line up with the U.S. economy, which IDC notes is still hamstrung by housing foreclosures and rising job losses. Many of these chips are being manufactured in China for sale in netbooks there, and IDC warns that the Chinese market is opaque -- inventory can hide in lots of places. But let's keep our fingers crossed that this could be the start of something good.
Posted by Scott Bekker on November 10, 20090 comments
The Microsoft Response Point SMB phone system has been in a holding pattern since Microsoft basically put it in maintenance mode in June, but a few companies have been moving forward with Response Point-based products. The latest is Quanta Computer, which released the RP310 Softphone for Microsoft Response Point Phone Systems today. Quanta is looking for resellers here.
Posted by Scott Bekker on November 10, 20090 comments