I'm filling in for a vacationing Lee Pender today, which is fitting since somebody
needs to shill for some good work he's been doing.
Lee's just wrapped up Redmond Channel Partner magazine's first ever
salary survey. We asked how much you're paid, how much you pay yourself if you
run your own show, how much you charge for consulting and much, much more.
Read the full story
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Posted by Scott Bekker on May 23, 20070 comments
In light of Microsoft's ongoing efforts to herd partners into vertical industries,
we've launched a series of profiles of different industries in
Redmond Channel
Partner
magazine.
The
first one, if you missed it, was on professional services. Our latest issue
features our
second piece in this series, this time on government as a vertical. It's
a great piece by Rich Freeman primarily aimed at beginners -- kind of an examination
of issues to work through if you're thinking about getting into government work.
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Posted by Scott Bekker on May 23, 20070 comments
Every now and again, we're honored to have Ted Dinsmore grace the pages of
Redmond Channel Partner
magazine. Ted, along with Ed O'Connor, is the
author of "
Partnering
with Microsoft
," the only book-length examination I know of that covers
the basic dos and don'ts and ins and outs of partnering with Microsoft.
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Posted by Scott Bekker on May 23, 20070 comments
Registration for the
Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Denver in July
is at 60 percent capacity and is expected to sell out by early June, Microsoft said today in an e-mail to partners. The company predicts it will have about 10,000 people altogether at the conference. Microsoft hasn't yet revealed how many partner registrations it will accept this year, although it will start a waiting list once the event is sold out. Partner attendance at the last WPC, held in Boston last July, was officially listed at 7,000 attendees.
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Posted by Scott Bekker on May 17, 20070 comments
OK, it's not "Longhorn" anymore, now that
Bill Gates has made it official
that the next version of the server OS will be called Windows Server 2008. Whatever it's called, Microsoft is looking for ISV partners to earn early certification for their applications on this edition of Windows Server. They're calling the program the Early Access Program (EAP) for Windows Server Logo Certification, and the enrollment deadline is May 31. Some benefits include Microsoft Partner Points, testing support and joint marketing.
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Posted by Scott Bekker on May 17, 20070 comments
Windows Home Server news
got announced today at Microsoft's Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) in Los Angeles. WHS is the little product that's supposed to give home users centralized data storage and network security and enable remote access. That's all well and good, and similar to Windows Small Business Server. What will make or break WHS is the emergence of the killer app -- in this case, some kind of home-entertainment coolness that makes the neighbors weep with jealousy.
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Posted by Scott Bekker on May 15, 20071 comments
You may recall that Microsoft had been hinting that there might be more editions of Windows Home Server than just the original one. The hint came even while the original version was going out to major OEMs to develop mass-market, horizontally focused, complete hardware/software systems.
Now the notion of more to come has got legs. Bill Gates made it official today with the
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Posted by Scott Bekker on May 15, 20070 comments
Robert Deshaies won't confirm the code-name "Octane," but he does say that big changes are coming to the Microsoft Partner Program. Deshaies, vice president in charge of the Microsoft U.S. Partner Group, gave the keynote speech Wednesday morning at Redmond Channel Partner magazine's TechPartner conference in Orlando, Fla.
Deshaies told attendees that Microsoft will announce changes to the partner program at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, July 10-12 in Denver. While Microsoft has tweaked the partner program over the last few years, the last major overhaul came three years ago. We'll be in Denver for the WPC to keep you posted on all the important details.
Posted by Scott Bekker on March 28, 20070 comments
If you're worried about how Microsoft's software-as-a-service strategy will affect you as a partner, you're not alone. Robert Deshaies, vice president of the Microsoft U.S. Partner Group, says figuring out how to create partner programs around SaaS is one of the topics that keep him up at night.
Talking to partners during his opening keynote at Redmond Channel Partner magazine's TechPartner conference in Orlando on Wednesday, Deshaies said Microsoft will be providing a lot more clarity on its SaaS strategy for partners at the Worldwide Partner Conference in Denver, July 10-12.
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Posted by Scott Bekker on March 28, 20071 comments
In announcing on Wednesday that it will acquire voice services provider Tellme
Networks Inc., Microsoft picked up another puzzle piece that could fill holes
on several puzzle boards -- unified collaboration, speech-recognition solutions,
mobile applications, even software-plus-services, Microsoft's take on software-as-a-service
(SaaS). The question is, which of those puzzles will get this particular piece?
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Posted by Scott Bekker on March 16, 20070 comments
In announcing on Wednesday that it will acquire voice services provider Tellme Networks Inc., Microsoft picked up another puzzle piece that could fill holes on several puzzle boards – unified collaboration, speech-recognition solutions, mobile applications, even Software plus services (Microsoft's take on Software as a Service). The question is, which of those puzzles will get this particular piece?
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Posted by Scott Bekker on March 14, 20070 comments
CompUSA Inc. is putting together a campaign to reach out to small business
customers, and they're looking for help from the Microsoft Small Business Specialist
Community. CompUSA and Microsoft announced the new program, called the CompUSA
TechPro Business Providers program, on Monday. It's part of Microsoft's multi-pronged
effort to connect with the small business market -- but unlike other major Microsoft
partnerships,
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Posted by Scott Bekker on March 14, 20070 comments