Eric Ligman, who has been a main social media face of the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group for the past three years, is heading back to his former home in Microsoft's U.S. partner organization and a less public role.
Ligman blogged last week that his role as the lead for the Small and Midmarket Solutions and Partners (SMS&P) Customer and Partner Experience is ending. He is now the Microsoft Sales Excellence Program Manager for U.S. SMS&P. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on January 14, 20132 comments
The rate of growth in the Windows Store tailed off substantially from December to January, compared to the previous month.
The dropoff isn't surprising, given the holiday season in the United States and the fact that it's hard to maintain triple-digit growth rates as the underlying numbers get bigger. Still, at just under 25,000 apps, Microsoft is so far behind the relevant app stores -- Apple and Google -- that it needs the explosive growth to continue if it's going to be a factor in the app world. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on January 10, 20137 comments
Lenovo is making a strong case that it's Microsoft's most committed OEM partner on Windows 8.
Anecdotally, the company's been the heaviest advertiser, in U.S. markets at least, for convertibles that take full advantage of the Windows 8 OS. On the shows I watch and sites I visit, IdeaPad Yoga ad saturation has been very high. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on January 09, 20134 comments
Arlin Sorensen is getting out of the IT services and managed services provider business, for the most part, but he will remain a major force in the channel through his peer-to-peer and consulting projects.
Sorensen last week sold Heartland Technology Solutions, the company he started in 1985 on his family farm in Iowa, to another firm in Iowa -- WesTel Systems, a Remsen-based telecom and computer services company. The deal, for an undisclosed amount, moves 57 HTS employees, almost all of them, into WesTel. The rest, including Sorensen and a handful of key executives, will mostly serve in advisory roles for about a year while focusing on the other companies in the Heartland group. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on January 08, 20130 comments
Solution providers and their small-business customers have a few more weeks to take advantage of Section 179 deduction limits for 2012 taxes.
In an image gallery on Windows 8 PCs for small business, Microsoft noted a late November blog entry from the U.S. Small Business Administration. In that entry, the SBA calls out the 2012 "Section 179" deduction limits. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on December 18, 20120 comments
When Microsoft launched Windows 8 on Oct. 25, former Windows chief Steven Sinofsky discouraged reporters from counting apps.
"Some might rush to start to count apps or look for their favorite apps to arrive in the store," Sinofsky said. In trying to explain why that shouldn't be the focus, Sinofsky, who quit Microsoft a few weeks later, said, "We see today as a grand opening, and a very solid one. On the screen behind me, you can see some of the thousands of new apps that are available today around the world. Developers everywhere are adding hundreds of new apps every day and that rate of addition is increasing as well." More
Posted by Scott Bekker on December 13, 20120 comments
Microsoft on Tuesday launched Cloud Deployment, a program for systems integration (SI) partners that is designed to drive successful Office 365 implementations with large customers.
To qualify for the program, partners must belong to Microsoft's Cloud Accelerate program and have a gold or silver competency in Messaging. To get in Cloud Accelerate, partners must have sold at least three deals totaling at least 150 seats among other requirements. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on December 04, 20121 comments
A relatively minor change in the way Microsoft partners can sign up for the Cloud Essentials program is leading to a boom in the number of participants, according to Microsoft's top channel executive.
Cloud Essentials has always been a relatively easy program for partners to join. A free sign-up and a modest amount of training gives partners access to 25 internal use right seats each for Office 365, Dynamics CRM Online and Windows Intune. Other benefits include presales and technical support, marketing resources and sales incentives. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on December 03, 20120 comments
Last week we posted a gallery of the Windows Phone 8 devices coming to the major U.S. carriers and noted that Sprint was alone among the Big Four without a device.
Well, that hasn't changed, but there is one very minor update. At the time, the latest was that Sprint had said it was working with Microsoft on delivering a Windows Phone 8 device, but had no details to share on launch dates or manufacturers. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on November 15, 20120 comments
Microsoft mega-partner Avanade this week announced plans to buy Microsoft National Systems Integrator Azaleos Corp. in a deal expected to close within a month.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on November 15, 20120 comments
IBM announced to its partners on Thursday that it will provide $4 billion in financing over the next 12 months for credit-qualified clients. The total, intended to spur technology purchases by small and midsize businesses worldwide, represents a quadrupling of the amount of financing IBM had promised a little over a year ago.
In September 2011, IBM had committed to providing $1 billion in financing, an amount Big Blue expected to need about 18 months to dole out. Instead, some 6,800 companies around the world used that financing in just 12 months. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on November 15, 20120 comments
Microsoft will keep prices lower for partners to enroll in the Small Business silver competency indefinitely, Microsoft's top channel executive says.
Since rolling out the Small Business competency earlier this year, Microsoft has kept the enrollment fee of the Small Business silver competency lower than for its other silver competencies in the Microsoft Partner Network. In the United States, most silver competencies cost $1,850. The Small Business silver competency was initially priced at $999 through Dec. 31, 2012. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on November 12, 20120 comments