Microsoft this week launched the U.S. beta of
Microsoft
Pinpoint, a new online business marketplace for connecting customers with
partners. Previously codenamed "Hitch," the site is the next iteration
of the Solution Finder.
According to Todd Weatherby, a general manager in the Worldwide Partner Group,
the company's goals with Pinpoint are to make it easier for customers to find
reputable partners. New capabilities include giving customers the opportunity
to leave ratings and reviews of partner solutions -- kind of an informal and
public way of reinforcing the company's ongoing push for customer satisfaction
data on partners.
"We're going to watch and see how that goes," Weatherby said.
For the moment, partners will enter their solutions in the existing Solution
Profiler, which will populate both the current Solution Finder and Pinpoint.
Eventually, Weatherby said, everything will shift to Pinpoint, which will be
accessible to customers from www.microsoft.com
and at pinpoint.microsoft.com.
Microsoft reached out to help more than 1,000 partners tune their entries to
make sure Pinpoint had a solid launch. But with 274,000 partners in Microsoft
directories, optimizing for Pinpoint will be a self-service process for the
overwhelming majority of companies.
Pinpoint will roll out internationally in calendar year 2009.
Posted by Scott Bekker on July 09, 20080 comments
The third version of the Microsoft Demo Showcase is officially available this
month following a February preview. The Demo Showcase is a demonstration tool
that Microsoft partners can use in customer engagements to show off usage scenarios
with Microsoft software. The newest version adds nine scenarios for a total
of 25 scenarios involving 29 products. It's available as either a download from
the Microsoft Partner Portal or in DVD form.
According to a December 2007 study, the Demo Showcase is in use by 42 percent
of Gold Certified partners, 34 percent of Certified partners and 32 percent
of Registered members.
Posted by Scott Bekker on July 09, 20080 comments
Windows Small Business Server 2008 and Windows Essential Business Server 2008
will officially launch on Nov. 12, Microsoft announced Monday.
The products are based on Windows Server 2008. SBS is the usual revamp of the
OS, tweaked and packaged with other products and specialized wizards for small
businesses. EBS, formerly known by the code name "Centro," is an entirely new
package aimed at mid-market customers.
Steven VanRoekel, senior director of the Windows Server Solutions group at
Microsoft, said the Nov. 12 launch will be virtual. With products that are so
heavily dependent on channel excitement and support, the Microsoft Worldwide
Partner Conference in Houston this week in many ways is the most important component
of the process.
To introduce partners to SBS and WEBS, Microsoft will include demonstrations
of the new products in about half a dozen WPC keynotes and try to get about
2,000 of the 7,000 partners in attendance trained on the new products, VanRoekel
says. By the launch, Microsoft hopes to have 25,000 partners trained on the
new products.
Also this week, Microsoft expects to put out an SDK, a Release Candidate 1
for both SBS and WEBS, and a new online tool for partners called the Solutions
Pathway.
VanRoekel provided RCP with a roadmap for the release schedule. "[Nov.
12 is] not our release to manufacturing date. We'll actually be RTMing about
two months before that. What [Nov. 12] really signifies to us is when these
products are broadly available. System builders will have it right away [after
the RTM]. The OEMs take about two months to get it on servers."
Posted by Scott Bekker on July 07, 20080 comments
Microsoft has a lot of information to convey to partners at the Worldwide Partner
Conference. In a June preview of the show, we scoured the session descriptions
to tease out a dozen themes, including Software + Services, BI, SMB, virtualization
and others (read the article
here).
One theme we didn't mention is that Microsoft is going to push its partners
hard this week to get out there and sell Windows Vista. It's not surprising,
but if you have any doubt that's going to be a theme, consider that the only
Microsoft literature in the bag that attendees are getting when they check in
at the show focuses on Vista. One is a whitepaper called, "The Business Value of Windows Vista:
Five reasons to deploy now." The other is the letter from Bill Veghte, senior
vice president of the Online Services & Windows Business Group, to Windows
customers titled "An Update on the Windows Roadmap." The message of the letter
is that Windows XP is still available in several ways, but Windows Vista is
really the best choice and Windows 7 isn't coming until 2010.
Posted by Scott Bekker on July 07, 20083 comments
It's July, and here in the States that means barbecues, fireworks, parades
and...
adjustments in the
Microsoft channel org chart. This time, Robert Deshaies and Cindy Bates will
both be vice presidents, responsible for managing different aspects of the U.S.
partner organization.
As of July 1, Deshaies is vice president of U.S. Partner Business Development
& Sales. According to a new bio sheet, he is "responsible for growing the
capacity, performance and satisfaction of Microsoft's nationally managed partners,"
which include National System Integrators, ISVs, distributors, Value-Added Distributors,
Large Account Resellers and Certified Partner Learning Solutions vendors. It's
primarily a lateral move from his former role as vice president of the U.S.
Partner Group, a post he picked up from Margo Day in the executive shuffle of
two years ago. It also appears to play to his strengths as a manager and recruiter
of strategic partners in the Microsoft revenue mix.
For Bates, it's a step up from her former title as general manager of Microsoft's
U.S. Small Business Group, which she has built over the last four years. Bates
is now vice president of Partner Strategy, Marketing & Programs. Her role
is defined as "enabling and supporting Microsoft's expanding partner ecosystems
with an emphasis on driving partner profitability and satisfaction."
To explain the move, a Microsoft spokesperson wrote in an e-mail, "With our
deep partner model, it's important for us to engage with newer partner types
(e.g., Web agencies and nontraditional partners) to work with customers and
deliver new innovative solutions. This has caused our U.S. partner organization
to triple in size over the past two years from 140K to 500K partners."
We hope to have more details here later this week about what Deshaies and Bates
will have in store for Microsoft channel partners. We'd also like to hear more
about what kind of companies Microsoft is talking about with those 500,000 U.S.
partners.
Posted by Scott Bekker on July 07, 20080 comments
Some of the best opportunities for Microsoft solution provider partners emerge during the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference. A good way to figure out who might be launching interesting programs and products is to check out the list of major sponsors at WPC. There are a boatload of companies trying to make a splash in the Microsoft channel this year. Fujitsu and HP both laid out the big bucks for platinum sponsorships. The Gold sponsor list consists of Administaff, CA, Citrix, ExactShip, Intel, Kaseya, LG-Nortel, Micro Focus, OSIsoft, sitecore and Zenith Infotech Ltd. There are about 50 silver and bronze sponsors as well, including a little outfit you might have heard of by the name of Redmond Channel Partner magazine. Throughout the week we'll let you know what we can find out about the best opportunities that sponsoring vendors are trying to draw attention to.
Posted by Scott Bekker on July 07, 20080 comments
I went to the convention center in Houston on Sunday afternoon to register
for the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference and to get my attendee bag. It's
fine -- a black and orange affair with a laptop compartment and a surprisingly
nice silver water bottle.
But having attended nearly 10 years worth of Microsoft conferences, including
eight TechEds, a WinHEC show, a Windows 2000 deployment conference and now three
WPCs, I have to say, partners get the worst bags of the Microsoft constituencies.
The TechEd bags especially always made for great gifts. Microsoft, what gives?
Personally, I think Microsoft hit its bag-design stride in the 2000-2001 timeframe.
Of course, that was back when the whole industry was spending like crazy on
schwag. (The kids were much more excited to see me come home from shows in those
days.)
Meanwhile, I had a black leather bag from Unisys with a very subtle logo that
I used to carry. But I've gotten tired of hauling around vendor-branded bags
at shows so I picked up my own this last year. I met a Microsoft technical presenter
at a public-sector LAR conference earlier this year with a rugged bag from a
paramilitary outfitter called Blackhawk, and I ordered my own the next day.
Have a favorite show bag of your own? What's carrying your computer?
Posted by Scott Bekker on July 07, 20080 comments
For several months leading up to the show, Microsoft kept the speaker lineup fairly vague -- WPC regulars Steve Ballmer, Allison Watson and Kevin Turner were the only speakers committed. Now a full speaker slate is available for the keynotes each morning, and it reveals some interesting things about the messages Microsoft wants to convey to its partners. First, the schedule:
Tuesday, July 8:
- Allison Watson, corporate vice president, Worldwide Partner Group
- Stephen Elop, president, Microsoft Business Division
- Brad Brooks, corporate vice president, Windows Consumer Product Marketing
- Andy Lees, senior vice president, Mobile Communications Business
Wednesday, July 9:
- Allison Watson
- Simon Witts, corporate vice president, Enterprise and Partner Group
- Bob Kelly, corporate vice president, Infrastructure Server Marketing
- Steven Ballmer, CEO
Thursday, July 10:
- Allison Watson
- Kevin Turner, COO
This lineup includes some real gems for the channel. Elop, the new head of the Microsoft Business Division replacing Jeff Raikes, is a very high-level product executive for a partner conference. His role encompasses both Dynamics and Office, and his speech will give partners a chance to take the measure of the new guy.
It will be good to have Witts back, presumably with his usual outline of enterprise partner initiatives for the fiscal year. Brooks will bring the Windows product group perspective, while Kelly will bring the all-important-to-infrastructure-partners server product message. Lees' presence indicates that Microsoft wants partners pushing hard on mobility this year.
There are two holes big enough to drive a truck through in the lineup, though. A major theme of the show, given the session descriptions, is "Software + Services." No Ray Ozzie or anyone whose job is associated with those Microsoft online services efforts will be there to talk partners through the big picture.
The other missing piece, and this may be related, is the usual keynote from Microsoft Services. Last year it was Maria Martinez, and the year before it was Rick Devenuti. Each walked partners through the Microsoft consulting and services strategy, clearly laying out what Microsoft does and how and why that shouldn't interfere with partners' businesses. Maybe the whole issue of Software + Services will be taken up as a major theme in the Watson and/or Ballmer keynotes. I hope so. We need a big picture view, and soon.
Posted by Scott Bekker on July 01, 20080 comments
Join
RCP Senior Editor Lee Pender and me for a
Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference preview video, available on demand (registration is required). Clocking in at just over 15 minutes, we talk about some of the major issues that Microsoft must clarify with its partners at this conference and analyze the major themes running through the conference sessions. If I do say so myself, this video is a great way to get ready for the conference if you're going, and a worthwhile way to get up to speed on some of the important channel news to expect from the show if you're not going to be there.
Posted by Scott Bekker on July 01, 20080 comments
Welcome to the
Redmond Channel Partner's portal page for the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2008!
Bookmark this site and keep coming back for all the news that's fit to post from the biggest Microsoft channel event of the year. RCP editors will be on site in Houston, attending keynotes and sessions, taking Microsoft executive briefings and interviewing attendees and vendors, and we'll be posting up-to-the-minute news and developments here leading up to the show and throughout the July 7-10 event.
Posted by Scott Bekker on July 01, 20080 comments
How many partners will be rubbing elbows in Houston next week? If you're going, you'll be running up against about the same number as the year before in Denver and the year before that in Boston. Microsoft seems to have found a comfortable level for attendance at the conference of about 7,000 partners.
The first Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in October 2003 in New Orleans had about 5,500. Attendance was similar for the second conference in Toronto in July 2004. Minneapolis in July 2005 hit 6,500 and Microsoft had 7,000 attendees from 88 countries in Boston in 2006. Denver in 2007 hit 7,300 partner attendees from 130 countries.
This year, a Microsoft spokesman tells me, Microsoft's closing off registration with more than 7,000 partner attendees again. That's not counting all the Microsoft employees, vendor representatives and press in attendance. Happy networking.
Posted by Scott Bekker on July 01, 20081 comments
A little over a year after publicly pledging a major channel push, the standard
bearer for direct sales, Dell, is continuing to invest in its partner program
and increasing its number of partners and its channel-related revenues.
Chairman and CEO Michael Dell first said publicly that his company was committing
to the channel in May 2007. The company followed that with the formal
launch of its new PartnerDirect program in North America in December.
In the first few months of this year, the company expanded PartnerDirect to
its Asia Pacific/Japan region.
"Since we launched the program in the United States in the fourth quarter,
we've added over 3,500 new global partners," said Michael Dell during an
earnings call Thursday night. "And our channel business is now on a $12
billion run rate."
There was little mention of the channel revenues in Dell's investor releases,
which focused on topics of more interest to shareholders -- the overall
plan to restore the company to strong profitability and market share leadership.
For its first quarter, Dell improved revenues 9 percent over the year-ago quarter
and had a 12 percent increase in earnings.
For context on Michael Dell's new numbers, the 3,500 new channel partners join
about 30,000 Dell channel partners worldwide. In late 2007, Dell also said that
channel revenues already accounted for about $9 billion of Dell's approximately
$60 billion in annual revenue. If the new run rate of $12 billion is maintained,
Dell is on track for at least 33 percent growth in channel revenues.
The second half of May was a busy time for Dell PartnerDirect. The company
hosted a newly formed Partner Advisory Council at its Round Rock, Texas headquarters.
Dell executive participation included Michael Dell himself, who told the group,
"This is not an experiment. What we want to do over the next three to
nine months is better understand the capabilities of our partners."
Dell also launched a Dell
Channel blog on May 22.
Among the entries is a Q&A with Greg Davis, vice president and general
manager of Dell's Americas Channel Group, who said partner deal registrations
total $200 million so far. Davis also promised to expand PartnerDirect to Mexico
in a few months.
So what do you think? Is Dell doing the right things here by the channel? And
does what they're doing match up to all the attention the program is getting?
Let me know at [email protected].
Posted by Scott Bekker on June 02, 20080 comments