A new partner-billing option for Office 365 may not be available until next July.
Microsoft announced the Office 365 Open License at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in July. The news that Microsoft partners' most common request was being addressed met with a very positive response from the WPC keynote audience. Microsoft executives offered no timeframe for the change in the announcement.
In response to a question about availability from RCP, a Microsoft spokesperson said via e-mail, "Office 365 Open will be available before July 2013."
Office 365 Open is designed to work the same way as the Microsoft Open License. A partner can purchase a key for the service through the Open License and resell the key to a customer. Partners will be able to bundle the Office 365 cloud productivity suite with other services, set their own price and determine their own billing timetable.
Whenever it takes effect, Office 365 Open should settle what has been the single biggest controversy in the Microsoft channel for the last few years. Microsoft previously only allowed strategic partners, such as its syndication partners, to handle billing for Office 365 and its predecessor, the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS).
For the vast majority of partners, monthly billing was handled through a direct billing relationship between Microsoft and the customer. Partners needed to get customers to sign them up as the Partner of Record in order to qualify for advisor fees. While partners won't get advisor fees for customers that they sign up under Office 365 Open, they can continue to use the advisor fee business model for some or all of their customers if they choose. Microsoft also announced changes to the advisor fee model at WPC that took effect immediately -- lowering baseline fees and increasing fees for increasing volume.
Meanwhile, it's possible that Microsoft is aiming for earlier availability on Office 365 Open but leaving itself some wiggle room with the July 2013 date. Partners have told RCP that Microsoft privately has been saying Office 365 Open should be available in the March timeframe.
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Posted by Scott Bekker on August 27, 20120 comments
With only a few weeks to a joint Sept. 5 announcement expected to reveal a new Lumia device or devices for Windows Phone 8, Microsoft and Nokia appear to be putting other pieces in place.
For one thing, Nokia's all-in bet on Windows Phone is succeeding, at least in the limited arena of the existing Windows Phone ecosystem. Nokia has only had Windows Phones for sale since November 2011 (and only since January in the United States), yet it's now dominating the field.
According to Localytics, Nokia has "cemented itself as the world's Windows Phone manufacturer" by accounting for 59 percent of all global Windows Phone devices seen by Localytics' mobile app analytics platform in July. In a Localytics blog post Tuesday, Daniel Ruby wrote, "Between Jan. 1 and July 31, 2012, Nokia went from zero percent to nearly a third of all Windows Phone-powered devices in use in the United States."
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In the first half of the year, Windows Phone handsets seen by apps running Localytics were up 312 percent, the Boston-based firm noted.
Despite the growth, the partnership has a long way to go. Nokia has said it sold 4 million Lumia devices worldwide in the second quarter. That compares to about 29 million Apple iPhones and nearly 100 million Google Android-based devices over the same period.
Yet together, Nokia and Microsoft may be making headway with the U.S. carrier that could give them both the biggest boost in sales. The Bloomberg news service reported Tuesday that Verizon Wireless will sell a Nokia phone running Windows Phone 8 later this year. If the report, which depends on an unnamed source, is correct, it would be Verizon's first Windows Phone since introducing the HTC Trophy in early 2011. Bloomberg also reported that Verizon is not expected to be part of the Sept. 5 announcement.
Microsoft's relationship with Verizon has been rocky over the last few years. The carrier was burned by Microsoft's quick retraction of the Kin from the market, and has been lukewarm in its support for Windows Phone 7. Verizon offered the Trophy months after other carriers had been selling Windows Phones and didn't choose to offer new hardware when Windows Phone 7.5 came out.
Should Microsoft and Nokia land timely support from Verizon on Windows Phone 8 in addition to their solid standing with AT&T, the relationship could help carry the platform into a solid No. 3 position behind Android and Apple.
Posted by Scott Bekker on August 22, 20120 comments
In a few months, Microsoft will make the most significant changes yet to its Microsoft Partner Network competency structure. Microsoft is consolidating six competencies into two, and redirecting two other competencies. Here are the changes, announced during the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, that will take effect in November:
App Dev Consolidation
The MPN is merging three competencies -- ISV, Software Development and Web Development -- into one competency called Application Development. Microsoft plans to grandfather all partners in the existing competencies into the new competency automatically in November. In another move intended for development-focused partners, Microsoft is expanding the number of competencies with integrated application tracks.
SharePoint Shakeup
As one of Microsoft's most strategic and wide-reaching products, SharePoint had a stake in four different Microsoft competencies. The company is trying to simplify the MPN competency structure around SharePoint at the end of this year.
Three of the competencies -- Portals and Collaboration, Content Management, and Search -- will merge into a new competency called Collaboration and Content. In a blog post during WPC, MPN General Manager Julie Bennani said the merger reflects "that customers increasingly want an end-to-end solution for finding, sharing, managing, and collaborating on content, not separate solutions." She also said the consolidation will make it easier and more cost effective for SharePoint partners to engage with Microsoft.
A fourth SharePoint competency is Digital Marketing, which was focused on partners providing SharePoint-based Web sites to customers. Microsoft plans to broaden the focus beyond SharePoint to capture a larger opportunity.
"Customers are looking for partners that can create compelling end-to-end online experiences integrating their marketing campaigns across display and search advertising, on the fly, with demonstrable ROI. Our technology portfolio has evolved to support that broader definition and need so we are revamping this competency to include our Bing advertising tools and assets," Bennani's blog noted.
Digital Marketing competency partners will now also get Bing advertising credits ($2,000 for gold and $1,500 for silver.) Partners in the new Application Development competency will get credits in the same amounts, and Small Business competency partners will get Bing credits worth $1,500 for gold and $1,000 for silver.
Desktop Gets BYOD'd
In a nod to the consumerization of IT trend, Microsoft is also renaming the Desktop competency. It will now be called Devices and Deployment, and Bennani described the aim as to "recognize and reward partners who help customers select, configure, and manage a range of secure, productive devices."
Also in November, Microsoft plans to hike the gold competency membership fee by an amount that hasn't been disclosed yet.
Posted by Scott Bekker on August 13, 20120 comments
Dell, Lenovo and Samsung will be releasing devices for the Windows RT operating system, a Microsoft official confirmed Monday.
Windows RT is the version of Windows 8 designed for system-on-a-chip (SoC) platforms, especially consumer tablets. Higher-end tablets designed to be backward compatible with older Windows applications for business and power user purposes will have x86 processors and run Windows 8. Windows RT and Windows 8 have both been released to manufacturing.
Microsoft had previously committed to releasing a Microsoft Surface tablet running Windows RT on Oct. 26, when Windows 8 and Windows RT hit general availability. ASUS had also previously announced a Windows RT-based system.
"If you are following Windows RT, perhaps you have taken note of the Asus Tablet 600 (Windows RT) announcement or Microsoft's own Surface RT news. Along with Asus, we are excited to share that there will be ARM-based PC designs from Dell, Lenovo, and Samsung running Windows RT," wrote Mike Angiulo, vice president of Microsoft's Windows Ecosystem and Planning team, in a blog post.
Angiulo said more announcements for more form factors on both operating systems would be coming as the launch approached.
"Windows RT is not just for tablet form factors. Some of our Windows RT PCs come with full keyboard and touchpad solutions, whether removable/dockable or a traditional clamshell," he said.
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| Two images of ASUS' Windows RT tablet show the evolution from a prototype to its final design. (Source: Microsoft Corp.) |
Given the limited number of Windows RT form factors that Microsoft is licensing, it was interesting that Angiulo's post didn't make note of two Windows RT devices Toshiba announced at Computex, a clamshell and a tablet. Other notable omissions from the larger group of device makers are Acer and HP.
Acer's CEO and Chairman J.T. Wang has been publicly critical of Microsoft's handling of OEMs prior to the Windows 8/RT launch. HP has gone on record, in the form of an anonymous spokesperson's statement, that it would develop an x86/Windows 8 tablet before a Windows RT/ARM-based device. However, other recent reports suggest HP may be reconsidering.
Angiulo also noted that Microsoft has avoided a forked code situation with Windows RT in spite of the many SoC platforms involved: "We have achieved our goal of one Windows binary for all Windows RT SoC platforms from NVIDIA, Qualcomm, and Texas Instruments, each of which has developed innovative ARM CPUs that form the basis of a complete system."
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Posted by Scott Bekker on August 13, 20120 comments
Distribution giant Tech Data Corp. this week added hosted Microsoft Exchange provider Intermedia to its StreamOne Solutions Store.
The move makes several Intermedia messaging packages for SMBs immediately available to Tech Data's 60,000 reseller channel in the United States.
Stacy Nethercoat, vice president of software product marketing for Tech Data, played up the security and private-label aspects of Intermedia's offering. "Intermedia's private-label model provides a fast, reliable and profitable way to enter the cloud, allowing our resellers to offer their end-user customers an entire suite of cloud services entirely under their own brands at their own price points," Nethercoat said in a statement. "Resellers are also able to own the billing and bundle additional products and professional services."
As a company, Intermedia has pushed the billing angle aggressively in contrast to Microsoft's approach with the Business Productivity Online Suite and subsequent Office 365, which both involved Microsoft billing end customers. Microsoft last month announced plans to allow partners to begin to control end user billing in the next few months.
Tech Data will offer three Intermedia packages. Standard will include an Exchange plan with backup and storage included. Advanced will come with an unlimited Exchange mailbox and also include mobility, backup and collaboration. Elite will tack on Lync and SharePoint.
Intermedia has also had its hosted Exchange products featured in rival distributor Ingram Micro's Seismic program since late 2009.
Meanwhile, Intermedia, with more than 480,000 mailboxes under management, has been logging fast growth of late. In an e-mail interview last month, CEO Michael Gold said, "Intermedia's partners saw a 70 percent increase in mailboxes under management, [and we had] a 30 percent increase in active partners and 50 percent increase in total partner revenue."
Posted by Scott Bekker on August 02, 20120 comments
One of the biggest questions surrounding Windows 8 is how many third-party apps will be ready for launch.
That's still a huge question mark, but one hot app developer that makes software that serves as a usability multiplier is already on the platform.
Splashtop today got a consumer preview version of its Splashtop Remote Desktop for Windows 8 onto the Windows Store.
The San Jose, Calif.-based company already claims more than 7 million users of its software that, among other things, allows mobile devices from Apple iPads and Android tablets to various smartphones to access Windows-based PCs and Macs to remotely run applications. With technology that pushes video at 30 frames per second, Splashtop positions its software as especially well-suited for HD movies and graphic-intensive games.
The Windows 8 version allows Windows or Mac remote access support over Wi-Fi and 3G/4G networks. For now, accessing computers over the Internet through Splashtop will require a static IP address.
I used Splashtop's Win8 Metro Testbed for the iPad earlier this year to test the Windows 8 Consumer Preview over my home network, and it worked very well. Judging from that experience (and assuming Windows RT support), it seems like Splashtop's app could provide a handy workaround for some of the limitations in Windows RT, as well as expanding the applications immediately available to the Windows 8 platform.
Posted by Scott Bekker on August 02, 20120 comments
Canalys, the market research firm that counts iPads and other tablets among PC shipments, released numbers on Tuesday putting Windows' overall market share at a "new low of 73 percent."
In spite of some bright spots for Windows, the firm doesn't see the Microsoft Surface pulling Windows out of a market share dive any time soon and its analysts are encouraging OEMs to demand better pricing from Microsoft on Windows RT. The slide represents a 9-point share loss in the year since Canalys put Wintel's Q2 2011 share at 82 percent.
Microsoft is slated to release an ARM-based Surface running Windows RT with Windows 8's general availability on Oct. 26 and a Surface Pro running Windows 8 Professional three months later.
"The information available to date suggests the prices of both will be too high to capture significant market share, and a direct sales approach will prove inadequate. We expect the Surface pads to have a similar impact on the PC industry as the Zune did in portable music players," Canalys analyst Tim Coulling said in a statement.
Canalys does not expect the launch of Windows 8 to arrest Microsoft's market share decline until Q3 2013 at the earliest.
The firm also says it has advised PC OEMs to postpone launching Windows RT devices until Microsoft reduces the price for the underlying operating system.
Meanwhile, another Canalys analyst suggests those PC OEMs will be licking their chops for what, in his view, will be Microsoft's inevitable failure with the Surface.
"Microsoft has upset some partners by bringing its own hardware to market," says Chris Jones, Canalys vice president and principal analyst. "Marketing, distributing and servicing such hardware profitably is hard. Once the Surface makes a material dent in Microsoft's P&L, it will need to repair relationships with PC vendors, who are already preparing lists of demands."
In addition to reducing OEM prices for Windows RT, Canalys warns that Microsoft will need to subsidize touch-panel production costs by $50 to $100 per unit to "kick-start the market" by helping the OEMs hit mainstream price points.
The bad news in the second quarter for Microsoft is Apple's 60 percent shipment growth to 21 million units (iPads and Apple desktops and laptops), HP's 11 percent drop to 13.5 million units, and Dell's 11 percent drop to 9.6 million units, according to Canalys' figures.
The bright spots Canalys referred to are Lenovo's 27 percent shipment improvement to 13.1 million units and Acer's 4 percent growth to 10.7 million units.
Posted by Scott Bekker on July 31, 20128 comments
KineticD, the Toronto-based cloud and hybrid backup company, has been on a tear lately, getting itself and its products certified under various Microsoft certifications.
The latest Microsoft hurdle cleared by KineticD is certification of its cloud backup portfolio, KineticCloud, for the Windows 8 platform.
The company, which has about 1,000 resellers and 100 managed services providers and private-label partners, announced the certification Tuesday morning. In a statement, CEO Jamie Brenzel described the benefits of certification for those resellers and MSPs, which are predominantly Microsoft partners. "Windows certification assures our customers, and theirs, that the software has been tested and runs efficiently without conflicts in the newest Windows environments," Brenzel said.
The Windows 8 certification follows the certification last month of the KineticFAM open file driver for Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2000. The driver backs up constantly open files like Microsoft Outlook, making background backups possible and providing differentiation against products that rely on Microsoft's VSS.
In an interview for that release, Brenzel said that certification ensures that KineticFAM doesn't conflict with other low-level drivers, such as anti-virus programs. "For us it's really important to demonstrate to our customer base that we've taken the time to not only develop a low-level driver that benefits our end customers to back up applications that are open all the time, but also give them the peace of mind that from a Microsoft Windows perspective that our product has been vetted through the Windows Certification process," Brenzel said.
KineticD earned a completely different kind of Microsoft stamp earlier this month when it achieved a Silver Independent Software Vendor competency in the Microsoft Partner Network. For an ISV, the competency requires getting an application certified for a Microsoft operating system, providing three customer references and paying the silver competency fee.
Posted by Scott Bekker on July 24, 20120 comments
It's not every day you get to put Microsoft on the spot in front of a live audience of a few hundred people. So when Andy Vabulas saw his chance to make a plug for an investment to benefit a lot of MPN competency partners like his own company, he took it.
Vabulas, CEO of IBIS Inc., was invited to appear on a Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference stage with Julie Bennani, the general manager of the Microsoft Partner Network, last week in Toronto.
Vabulas went through his scripted portion, discussing the multiple tens of thousands of dollars that multiple-Microsoft-award-winning IBIS has saved over the years through MPN benefits.
Bennani thanked Vabulas for his directness and constructive criticism over the years. With that opening, Vabulas piped right up. "I have an ask," he said.
"I wish that in the next year, that Microsoft would really take the competencies and drive them out to our customers so they really get to know what it means for us to invest, for us to have a gold competency, for us to have a silver competency, so it really lands out in the marketplace," Vabulas said, adding jokingly, "I have a dream, that that would happen."
Bennani appeared surprised by the timing of Vabulas' request, although not by the content of it. Many partners have asked for the same thing since Microsoft drastically raised the bar for silver and gold competencies in 2010 compared to the old requirements to be a Microsoft Certified or Gold Certified Partner. Bennani's colleagues on Microsoft global channel chief Jon Roskill's leadership team have said in the past they were considering customer-focused advertising campaigns to promote the value of competency partners.
Bennani pointed out that in addition to broad air cover advertising for Microsoft products, the field sellers are doing a much better job than in the past of making connections between customers and partners with competencies. "The alignment is fantastic," Bennani said.
At the same time, Bennani promised to escalate Vabulas' concern. "I will take [it up] with Mr. Roskill," she said.
Posted by Scott Bekker on July 19, 20120 comments
A year ago, Microsoft put Windows XP on a deathwatch. This year, company officials warned there would be no reprieve for the popular but aging operating system.
"XP end of life is not that far off -- a thousand days to be exact," said Tami Reller, corporate vice president and CFO for Windows and Windows Live, during a Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference keynote a year ago.
COO Kevin Turner followed up on the theme at this year's WPC last week: "Now, on April 8th of 2014, we're going to have a huge birthday party. We're going to celebrate the 15th anniversary -- one-five -- of Windows XP. And then we're going to put it to sleep. May it rest in peace."
"We are not going to extend the end-of-life for Windows XP. This is it. No more security updates. You won't be secure if you're running it. We have to move people off the platform. It costs us and them way too much money to continue to support it this far into the ecosystem," Turner said.
He then pivoted to urge partners to upgrade Windows XP users to Windows 7 and Windows 8.
"Get them on 7. That's the fastest way to Windows 8. Get the browser updated. Get the new release of Office updated so that they can take advantage of all of the solutions and technology and investments that we're making across the portfolio," Turner said.
By Oct. 26 of this year when Windows 8 is scheduled to ship, Windows XP will have been succeeded by three newer versions of the Windows client operating system. Windows XP became generally available Oct. 25, 2001 and new sales of the OS wound down from various channels between mid-2008 and early 2009. It was succeeded by the much-criticized Windows Vista in January 2007 and Windows 7 in October 2009.
The Web analytics research firm Net Applications predicted earlier in July that Windows 7 would pass Windows XP in usage share sometime this month. According to Net Applications, Windows XP fell below 50 percent usage share in September 2011 and in June led Windows 7 by only 43.61 percent to 41.59 percent.
Posted by Scott Bekker on July 19, 20121 comments
Most Microsoft partners serving small-business customers know without being told that the Microsoft Technology Centers are not designed for them or their customers.
Peruse the case studies for the 11 MTCs in the United States and they're mostly enterprise engagements, with National Systems Integrators or Global Systems Integrators and MTC staff guiding enterprise customers through complex proof-of-concepts with Microsoft software and high-end gear from Dell, HP, Brocade, EMC, Emulex, Brocade, NetApp, Emerson and APC.
Still, executives on Microsoft's U.S. SMB team think they've found a way for the large community of small-business-focused partners to leverage Microsoft facilities to reach their customers.
Their answer: Leverage the network of Microsoft Stores, currently at 20 locations with a roadmap to 75 locations in the near future.
During a keynote at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference in Toronto last week, Cindy Bates, vice president, U.S. SMB and Distribution at Microsoft, described the facilities available to partners at each store.
"Each store has space for a theater, a customer theater that seats 45, has a 103-inch screen, and this is free for you to use. You can use it for demos, customer meetings and each store has a business development manager, who now is thinking about how to connect with partners in their local area," Bates said. "This is a great way to actually display Microsoft's technology. All the great form factors, the phone, particularly with the launch, all the Windows 8 devices are going to be there in the store."
Bates said that for now the only requirement for a partner to use a Microsoft Store for an event is membership in the Microsoft Partner Network. (She hinted that at some point in the future the new Small Business Competency might become a requirement.)
"This is a resource that we want to make sure that all of you are aware of and taking advantage of," Bates said.
Posted by Scott Bekker on July 19, 20120 comments
Without breaking any news on Windows Phone 8 at its partner confab last week, Microsoft did treat partners to a deeper dive into business features of the upcoming smartphone platform.
Thom Gruhler, Microsoft's new corporate vice president of Windows Phone Marketing, oversaw a guided tour of Windows 8 during a keynote at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Toronto.
Windows Phone 8 will release in more than 50 languages and the marketplace for the phone will be available in at least 180 countries later this year. Device makers already queuing up to release hardware are Nokia, HTC, Samsung and Huawei, while U.S. operators AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon are reportedly planning to carry the devices this year.
Gruhler and his onstage demonstration partner, Augusto Valdez, put the phone OS through the same consumer-focused paces Microsoft executives Terry Myerson and Joe Belfiore showed off in the Windows Phone 8 preview in late June, running through demos of the shared core with Windows 8, near-field communication (NFC), wallet features, maps and the more customizable Start screen.
In the June preview, Microsoft executives had declared that "Windows Phone 8 is business ready" but largely glossed over those details in favor of more exciting end user features. For the partner audience, more attuned to business requirements and in a position to help influence some customers' mass phone purchases and app platform choices, Microsoft devoted much more time to business features.
"With Windows Phone 8 we are continuing to push to make Windows Phone the world's best enterprise-class mobile platform, with new features and functionality that return us to our heritage as an early enterprise leader in the mobile space," Gruhler said at WPC.
He detailed three areas of significant business functionality in Windows Phone 8:
- Stronger out-of-the-box integration with Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft Lync.
- Security features including secure boot and always-on data encryption using Microsoft's BitLocker technology. "This means you can now expand to sell mobile solutions to verticals like financial sector, government, health care and many more," Gruhler said.
- Built-in technologies for enterprise mobile device management, with an emphasis on a simple user interface and integration with existing software management solutions.
The business feature that Gruhler and Valdez spent by far the most time on was Windows Phone 8's app distribution, which will allow customers to publish corporate apps on their own internal servers rather than requiring them to put the apps in a public app marketplace.
"With Windows Phone 8 enterprise organizations can take complete control over their LOB [line-of-business] apps, [which] gives you the opportunity to sell those solutions to customers who don't want their apps published broadly," Gruhler told partners.
In a demo, Valdez called the capability the "Company Hub," which is a kind of internal app that a company could deploy that would allow its Windows Phone 8-using employees to get company apps, company news updates and alerts about corporate password or license expirations, as well as maintain an employee profile. The Company Hub and its apps would be deployed from a management server inside the company and each phone would need a certificate to access the content.
Valdez explained how the Company Hub could provide opportunities for partners. "This concept of a Company Hub is going to be shipped as a template with Windows Phone 8. So, you are going to be able to customize Company Hub for your own customers. You can create those for them and then have those Company Hubs being deployed using the management server in each one of your customers at any time," Valdez said.
So in all at WPC, Microsoft executives described five key partner opportunities emerging from the business improvements in Windows Phone 8.
- Tighter integration with existing Microsoft server-based solutions, using Exchange, SharePoint and Lync.
- Vertical app opportunities in highly regulated industries due to stronger security.
- Mobile device management.
- Sophisticated, private deployment of custom apps for corporate customers through the Company Hub.
- Managed services around the maintenance of Company Hubs on customers' behalf.
Get more news and analysis from WPC 2012 here.
Posted by Scott Bekker on July 18, 20120 comments