RBA Consulting recently completed the integration of Ratchet Inc., a digital marketing specialist that RBA acquired in August. At the end of the process, both companies altered their identities -- one a little and one a lot.
Ratchet had 42 employees and about $5 million in 2010 revenues when it was acquired. RBA Consulting was a Wayzata, Minn.-based Microsoft National Systems Integrator partner with offices in Minneapolis, Dallas and Denver. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on March 12, 20120 comments
In technology, the idea with an appliance is unpack it, start it and forget it.
Things aren't quite so simple with the new Enterprise Database Consolidation Appliances and SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Data Warehouse Appliances from HP, Dell and others that package up SQL Server database software, the Windows Server operating system, server hardware and storage that can range up to 500 terabytes of data. It's designed with a simple purpose -- to centralize and simplify the data platform across an enterprise. But that's no elementary task. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on March 12, 20121 comments
How much revenue is really at stake in the battle between Google and Microsoft for online business mailboxes and documents?
One analyst firm specializing in messaging tried to quantify the number this month. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on March 12, 20120 comments
Microsoft's guest speaker at the 2012 Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Toronto this July will be mind-body medicine pioneer Deepak Chopra.
Chopra has written 64 books, including 19 New York Times bestsellers, according to his speaker bio. Notable recent titles include War of the Worldviews, Peace is the Way and The Soul of Leadership.
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Posted by Scott Bekker on March 11, 20121 comments
One of the most promising Windows desktop apps for the Apple iPad is in bad trouble -- the Microsoft licensing kind.
Earlier this year, cloud gaming company OnLive Inc. released an iPad app called OnLive Desktop that allowed remote display of a limited-functionality version of Windows 7 running in the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company's datacenter. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on March 08, 20121 comments
The new iPad leaves Microsoft some breathing room.
Granted, the higher-resolution display, the 4G networking, the improved camera, the new dictation capabilities and the other features of the new Apple iPad unveiled today all look compelling. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on March 07, 20121 comments
Microsoft seldom discloses specifics on how many of its partners achieve a given competency. But one partner company that just attained gold status in the Independent Software Vendor competency is providing a precise figure for its category.
"Windward is one of only 787 ISVs in the world to attain Microsoft's Gold Competency. Similar to Red Gate Software, Experian QAS, IBM, Barracuda Networks, and Citrix, Windward is part of the Microsoft Partner Network," Boulder, Colo.-based Windward said in a press release this week.
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Posted by Scott Bekker on February 29, 20120 comments
Even as registration opens this week for the Microsoft 2012 Worldwide Partner Conference in July, Microsoft partner executives are rolling out changes to make Digital WPC a more valuable regular online stop for partners.
"It's a bit of a departure for Digital WPC," Karl Noakes, general manager of Worldwide Partner Strategy and Programs, said of the 2012 iteration of Digital WPC, Microsoft's online portal for its massive annual partner conference. "We're moving the site to be a more permanent site, rather than one that's just around the event. We're building more and more social media features for partners to make connections beyond the event." More
Posted by Scott Bekker on February 27, 20120 comments
In the land of limited smartphone market share, 1 million units is king.
Market researchers at Strategy Analytics on Friday released a report quantifying what became intuitively apparent when Nokia shared its earnings last month: Nokia is now the leading Windows Phone smartphone vendor. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on February 25, 20121 comments
Earlier this month, Eric Ligman keyed in an uncharacteristically menacing blog entry reminding Microsoft partners that they shouldn't be using the retired Microsoft Certified and Microsoft Gold Certified partner logos.
"To answer a question I received from a couple of partners this week and last week, yes, those email/web messages that you received saying they are from me advising you that you need to remove any and all 'Microsoft Gold Certified partner' or 'Microsoft Certified partner' logos that you still have on your websites, in your tweets, in your new press releases, etc. right away really are coming directly from me," wrote Ligman, the director of Partner Experience for Microsoft Corp. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on February 23, 20121 comments
Reports have another Nokia Lumia device heading into the Windows Phone stable.
Citing two unnamed sources "close to the company," the Reuters news service today reported that Nokia will unveil a Nokia Lumia 610 next week at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona.
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Posted by Scott Bekker on February 22, 20120 comments
Perficient, the mega-Microsoft National Systems Integrator based in St. Louis, snapped up PointBridge Solutions, another high-profile NSI, in a $22 million deal this month.
NSIs are generally Microsoft's biggest systems integration partners in the United States (excluding U.S.-based global systems integrators). To be invited into the NSI program, partners need to hit certain revenue bars and investment levels and meet a "law of threes" -- being able to engage in three or more U.S. locations, customer size segments or vertical markets. Perficient's acquisition of Chicago-based PointBridge reduces the number of NSIs to 33 by RCP's count. More
Posted on February 17, 20120 comments