Microsoft is dusting off the "Big Easy" partner subsidy program for another round of service.
A new version of Big Easy, called "Big Easy Offer 7," will start next Monday and run through Dec. 31 of this year.
"The Big Easy Offer 7 allows U.S. small and midsize business customers who make a qualifying purchase to earn a partner subsidy," Diane Golshan, a senior marketing manager at Microsoft, wrote Monday on the Microsoft U.S. Partner Team blog.
"Similar to previous Big Easy Offers, you can benefit from subsequent purchases of software solutions, hardware and/or services when customers cash in their subsidy checks. Partners tell us that the Big Easy Offer is a great conversation-starter with customers, and helps them close business," Golshan said.
New elements in this round of the Big Easy are the inclusion of Microsoft Online Services, a triple payout on Open Annuity licensing and higher subsidies for virtualization, server management and identity and security solutions.
More detail is available here.
Posted by Scott Bekker on September 12, 20110 comments
At Salesforce.com's Dreamforce conference, CEO Marc Benioff interviewed Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt. According to Michael J. Miller's summary of the conversation on his PC Magazine blog, Schmidt had a lot of interesting things to say.
Schmidt's take on the difference between Apple and Microsoft is one of the most insightful comments on the subject I've seen. From Miller's summary:
[Schmidt] said Microsoft was built around control, and was organized around the industry structure, not around the consumer. That's something he said he didn't understand until he got to Google. He talked about how Microsoft platforms expose that complexity, but Apple hid it. As a computer scientist, he said he loved that complexity, but consumers don't want to see it.
It's a neat way of explaining the difference between the two companies, and Schmidt puts his finger on something we've regularly, but less elegantly, described at RCP. It's the reason Microsoft is such a great company to partner with, and the reason its consumer products often struggle. Think of all the weird rhetorical knots Microsoft executives must tie themselves into when describing what a "consumer" can do with a feature, while Apple just shows what "you" can do. (I do think Microsoft is getting better at designing products with users at the center, but I've noticed the messaging awkwardness as recently as during presentations on Windows Phone "Mango.")
The rest of the Schmidt-Benioff conversation covers a lot of ground and is well worth a read. You can find the whole thing here.
Posted by Scott Bekker on September 03, 20111 comments
RBA Consulting, a Microsoft National Systems Integrator, signed a definitive agreement this month to acquire fellow Minneapolis-area firm Ratchet Inc. in a deal expected to close this week.
The move would give RBA a foothold in digital marketing, which is the specialty of Ratchet, a firm with 42 employees, $5 million in 2010 revenues and a Midwest-heavy client base that includes Chicago-based Navistar and Fortune 500 companies in Minnesota.
"We have been monitoring the direction of our industry and determining the best path to define new growth opportunities for our company which include expansion into the digital marketing and mobile technology service areas," said Mike Reinhart, RBA president and COO, in a statement. "In order to keep up with the rapid pace of the market, we needed to align with a firm that already has deep expertise, a strong reputation and solid client relationships. Ratchet brings these attributes and aligns well with RBA's culture."
The plan is to make Ratchet a wholly owned subsidiary of RBA. Ratchet President Martin Davis will become general manager of digital marketing and report to Reinhart. Ratchet employees will continue to report to Davis, who worked at RBA's predecessor, Born Information Services, before founding Ratchet in 2004.
The combined company would have 225 employees and expected full-year 2011 revenues of $35 million. A long-term company branding strategy is under review.
RBA is one of 34 Microsoft NSIs, an elite category of U.S.-based systems integrators that merit dedicated national resources from Microsoft's U.S. subsidiary. Founded in 2006, RBA has practices in Minneapolis, Denver and Dallas.
RBA's Web site lists 10 Microsoft competencies, including gold competencies in portals and collaboration, content management, application lifecycle management, data platform, server platform and application integration, and silver competencies in business intelligence, unified communications, Web development and software development.
The Ratchet acquisition gives RBA deep experience with mobile and social applications while enhancing its Web applications business.
Posted by Scott Bekker on August 30, 20110 comments
A few high-profile Microsoft Dynamics partners are marketing their status as holders of an exclusive badge that identifies them as experts in specific industry verticals.
The latest to highlight the badge is I.B.I.S., a multiple Microsoft award-winning ERP and CRM partner based in Norcross, Ga. CEO Andy Vabulas wrote a blog post last week about I.B.I.S. achieving AMR Research Partner Industry recognition as a Certified Microsoft Dynamics VAR for the discrete manufacturing industry.
"While there have been other Microsoft certification programs for VARs, this one is different because it is administered by a well-respected independent resource and the emphasis is on a VAR's ability to meet the customer needs in a specific industry; not just knowing how the software works but able to add real value for the customer," Vabulas wrote.
Microsoft worked with AMR Research, an analyst firm focused on business processes and technology and which is now wholly owned by Gartner, to set up the certifications in the process of overhauling the Microsoft Partner Program into the Microsoft Partner Network. While the MPN includes efforts to illustrate the Microsoft product-expertise depth of partners through the stringent requirements for silver and gold competencies, Microsoft's Dynamics executives also wanted to find a way to point customers to partners with vertical expertise, as well. The program went into effect in March 2010.
According to an AMR page about its Partner Industry Certification System process, the VAR must pay a $1,000 certification fee for each industry certification being pursued. VARs take a self-assessment survey and submit contact information for up to 10 customers in each industry. At least five customers must return satisfaction surveys and the average score has to be 70 out of 100 for the VAR to pass. The certification lasts for two years.
Among partners highlighting AMR industry certifications in announcements and in achievement logos on their company Web sites, several have multiple badges:
In addition to I.B.I.S., companies highlighting discrete manufacturing badges include Streamline Systems, First Tech Direct LLC, eBECS and Ad Ultima NV. Companies showcasing process manufacturing badges include Edgewater Fullscope and Merit Solutions. Professional services badgeholders so far include ConsultCRM and Emerging Solutions. Customer Effective is highlighting a financial services certification and Retail Software Associates is displaying its retail certification from AMR.
Streamline Systems was one of the first partners to achieve the discrete manufacturing badge in May 2010. Streamline Systems Senior Partner Larry Cohn said in a statement at the time, "Microsoft is attempting to differentiate their partners within their large network. Today, 70 percent of their partners are Gold Certified. This does not differentiate one partner from another. Microsoft has established this new certification to differentiate partners in certain industries. We are excited about that differentiation as it enables us to highlight our industry expertise."
Although other changes to the MPN have since substantially cut the percentage of gold Dynamics partners, the AMR badges remain even more of a differentiator.
Posted by Scott Bekker on August 30, 20110 comments
China briefly grabbed the top spot from the United States as the top PC market in the second quarter of this year, according to analysts at IDC.
While the United States will most likely retain the full-year lead as the top market for PCs in 2011, IDC anticipates that China will take over the top spot for the full year in 2012.
By the numbers, China's unit shipments accounted for 22 percent of the market in Q2, compared with 21 percent for the United States. IDC's current forecast calls for the U.S. to have full year shipments of 73.6 million units to China's 72.4 million.
Next year, barring major economic disruptions, IDC expects China to take first place with a bullet at 85.2 million units to 76.6 million in the U.S.
"China's lead in the PC market is a huge shift that reflects the rising fortunes of emerging markets as well as the relative stagnation of more mature regions," said IDC analyst Loren Loverde in a statement this week. "While the immediate economic circumstances in the U.S. and other markets had a significant impact on the timing of China's move to the lead, they have not changed the trend, but accelerated it."
Posted by Scott Bekker on August 27, 20110 comments
Here's a topic that combines two of my favorite topics: technology and the NFL.
Turns out the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have come up with a slick solution to the old problem of printing up all those thick NFL playbooks -- and making sure players don't leave them in opposing locker rooms or hotel rooms where Bill Belichick might find them. OK, that was a cheap shot, but the Bucs are putting their playbooks on iPads.
According to an article in the St. Petersburg Times, the team bought every player an iPad 2, which includes all the plays and video files. Plus, if the iPad gets lost, it can be remotely wiped.
"It's crazy how much technology has changed the game," second-year safety Cody Grimm told the paper. "Back in the day, I think probably the whole team had to sit down with a projector and a reel, and watch the film together. They'd have the whole offense in the same meeting room. Now we all have our own iPad. Stuff that we used to come in here to see, we can sit on our couch at home and have access to it 24-7. It's awesome."
Meanwhile, this has got to hurt for RIM. Even when the app itself is a playbook, the choice is an iPad over a BlackBerry PlayBook.
Check out the story here.
Posted by Scott Bekker on August 26, 20110 comments
A new Microsoft Store is coming to the Washington, D.C. area as part of a drastic planned expansion in the company's number of retail locations over the next few years.
"Breaking news from the capital! A new power player is making headlines in the D.C. area. The Microsoft Store is coming soon to Tysons Corner Center," Microsoft announced in a post Thursday on the Microsoft Store Facebook page.
Microsoft's official Microsoft Store locations page lists the Tysons Corner, Va. location among 14 current or planned locations. Five are in California and two are in Washington state. States with one location include Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota and Texas in addition to Virginia. Of those, locations that are listed as coming soon, aside from the Tysons Corner location, are one in University Village in Seattle and one in Westfield Valley Fair in Santa Clara, Calif.
The Tysons Corner store appears to be the first one planned for the northeast megapolis from Washington, D.C.'s southern suburbs to Boston's northern suburbs.
At the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in July, Chief Operating Officer and former Walmart executive Kevin Turner said the company would rapidly increase the number of retail locations.
"We're going to open up to 75 more stores over the next two to three years, and continue to bring our stores outside the U.S. as well," Turner said.
Posted by Scott Bekker on August 26, 20110 comments
We ran a feature in Redmond Channel Partner magazine this month about where partners can find caches of Microsoft software and cloud licenses within the Microsoft Partner Network (see "Partners: 6 Ways To Get Free Microsoft Product Licenses").
All these caches of licenses, known as Internal Use Rights (or IURs), are free in the sense that the costs of the relevant programs are quickly covered by the use of one or two licenses when hundreds of licenses are available to each partner organization.
We focused mostly on benefits for smaller partners. For space considerations, we had to cut a section from the print version about how larger partners can game the system -- with Microsoft's blessing. Online, there are no space constraints, so here's the deal.
Microsoft structured its IUR handouts with the idea that a large Microsoft partner practice would have about 100 employees needing licenses, and geared the IURs for gold competency partners to get 100 client IURs. But, of course, there are massive partners with more than 100 employees in their Microsoft practices.
Understandably, Microsoft doesn't want to shoot itself in the foot by providing alliance partner companies, each with thousands of employees, with free licenses that would be an important source of revenue for Redmond.
In an interesting Q&A with partners earlier this year, Julie Bennani, the general manager of the Microsoft Partner Network, explained Microsoft's thinking and how Microsoft intends for large partners to get around the 100-IUR limitation.
"This isn't a licensing program for the entire organization. There are large companies that are a combination of partners of ours, but they are also customers. We are trying to enable the Microsoft practice in your organization," Bennani explained.
"One of the things that we do recommend for those larger organizations is that the way that you qualify and structure yourself within the Network is open to how you want to do it. We actually recommend for multinational companies that they qualify their organization at least at a country level. But it's open to you if you want to qualify each individual office," Bennani said.
"Let's say within the U.S. you have a number of offices. If you want to qualify regionally within the U.S., that's fantastic, and [there's a cap of 500 licenses that] applies to the qualifying organization, to be clear. But that also means you need to meet the requirements in each of those locations, including the fee. That's the principle, and I want to re-emphasize that it's about the practice of Microsoft, which may or may not represent your entire organization," she said.
Whether partners are outfitting a staff of 10 with Action Pack licenses or a staff of 500 with IURs, however, the problem is usually not that partners are taking too much. Bennani argued that the bigger problem from Microsoft's standpoint is that partners are taking too few of their available IURs.
Related:
Posted by Scott Bekker on August 24, 20112 comments
Microsoft is providing another carrot to encourage partners to pursue a gold competency in the Microsoft Partner Network -- solution incentives for Windows 7 sales.
"Partners with a Gold Desktop competency are now eligible to earn Windows 7 solution incentive fees up to 10 percent of a customer deal involving Windows 7 Enterprise or Windows 7 Enterprise with MDOP," wrote Karl Noakes, general manager of Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Strategy & Programs, in a blog entry Tuesday.
The solution incentive applies to deals larger than $10,000 and the payout percentages are higher for deals that include Windows 7 Enterprise with Software Assurance and the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack, as opposed to Windows 7 Enterprise with SA or MDOP on their own.
A Gold Desktop competency partner must use the Partner Sales Exchange (PSX) and the Channel Incentives Platform (CHIP), which launched in June, to participate in the Windows 7 solution incentive.
Noakes also wrote that Microsoft is adding an exam requirement for the Gold Desktop competency starting Oct. 31. The exam covers deployment of Windows 7 and Office 2010. It will also be required for Silver Desktop competency partners on May 31, 2012.
Posted by Scott Bekker on August 24, 20110 comments
The Windows Phone "Mango" drumbeat is getting faster and louder. The latest developments:
- Microsoft on Tuesday began accepting and certifying Windows Phone "Mango" apps through the App Hub, according to a blog post by Windows Phone executive Todd Brix.
"This means that new and existing titles optimized for Mango features like fast app switching, background audio, multiple and double sided Live Tiles, better Search integration and more will begin publishing in a matter of days," Brix wrote.
- Also Tuesday, Microsoft announced that a release candidate (RC) of the latest software development kit (SDK) for Windows Phone "Mango" was available. Kurt Mackie has the details here, where he notes that the new RC version of the kit will support the previous build 7712 of Mango, and that it uses an emulator that supports the release-to-manufacturing (RTM) build of Mango (7720). The RC SDK also has a "Go Live" license allowing developers to submit their applications directly to the App Hub.
- While the Windows Phone app marketplace lags way behind market leaders Apple and Google in terms of the number of apps, Microsoft's progress has been quite rapid. Brix provided a new milestone in his blog: "The nearly 30,000 Windows Phone app and game titles available today will also run on Mango." That's up from a 22,000-app count Microsoft was touting just a month ago at its Worldwide Partner Conference.
- Brix hedged his developer milestone announcements Tuesday with this caveat:
"Now that's not to say that Mango will arrive on existing devices in the coming days (sorry, not quite yet). It does, however, mean that people running early builds of Mango will see these new apps and games."
The key word there appears to be "existing." According to the site Winrumors, Microsoft's first Windows Phone Mango device went on sale in Japan today. The device in question is the Japan-only Fujitsu IS12T, a waterproof device that comes in several colors, including pink.
- Meanwhile, more rumors surround a joint HTC-Microsoft announcement scheduled for Sept. 1. The event will reportedly mark the launch of several Mango phones by HTC.
Posted by Scott Bekker on August 24, 20110 comments
By demonstrating Windows 8 with a tablet-first interface earlier this summer, Microsoft implicitly argued that the PC ecosystem should include tablets.
One analyst firm is measuring the market exactly that way, and concluding that the market share of the "Wintel" paradigm is dropping.
Canalys released the research late last month in a news release under the headline, "Wintel share of global PC industry falls to under 82%." The Wall Street Journal cited the research in an article this week about the increasing challenges to Windows in a post-PC world. The Journal reported that Canalys' 82 percent figure for Windows and Intel chips represented the platform's worst showing in more than 20 years.
Looking at data for the second quarter, Canalys put global PC shipments at 97 million, with notebooks at 49 million, desktops at 28 million, netbooks at 7 million and "pads" (the company's term for tablets or slates) at 14 million. Overall growth compared to Q2 2010 was nearly 18 percent. Pads grew a phenomenal 316 percent, notebooks grew 10 percent and desktops grew almost 9 percent. Netbook sales sank 25 percent.
The firm's method of counting PC shipments puts Apple as the No. 2 PC maker, sitting just behind HP's 15 million units with 13 million units in the quarter.
To Canalys, the implosion of the netbook market and struggles elsewhere in the traditional PC market are directly attributable to pads.
"Some notebook and netbook vendors are blaming the economy for their setbacks in the consumer segment, but our research shows that this has been a relatively minor factor," Canalys analyst Tim Coulling said in a statement. "Established PC vendors have to come to terms with the fundamental industry shift ushered in by the pad's popularity."
Coulling also argued that Microsoft and Intel are "rapidly losing their ability to control standards and are no longer the main source of innovation within the PC market."
All is not lost for Microsoft, in Canalys' analysis. The company pointed to the popularity of Windows 7, especially among businesses, and noted that regulators are increasingly turning their attention to Apple, Google and Facebook, "leaving Microsoft and Intel freer to expand than in the past."
Posted by Scott Bekker on August 18, 20110 comments
Google's $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. seems aimed at competing with the Apple iPhone, but the move may give Microsoft an important opening for its struggling Windows Phone smartphone platform.
Google and Motorola Mobility announced the deal Monday morning. It's been approved by both companies' boards of directors.
What Motorola brings is the ability for Google to work closely on both the Android mobility software and the Motorola device hardware to potentially create the kind of tight device integration Apple offers with its iPhones (and the possibility of taking that close working relationship to tablets later.) In a blog posting, Google CEO Larry Page said the move would "supercharge the Android ecosystem."
Until this deal, Google and Microsoft both were taking "open platform" approaches -- in the sense of providing the software that hardware OEMs built devices on. The open source element of Android added another dimension to Google's "open" approach. But strictly using the software platform definition, the open approach is the one Microsoft rode to massive success on PCs and servers. Despite that history, Redmond has had a hard time getting manufacturers' attention when Google's Android platform owned the largest piece of the smartphone market.
Suddenly, Google is muddying its own waters when it comes to that open platform. It's hard not to suspect that once Motorola is in-house, some device manufacturers will be more equal than others.
Google executives were quick to offer assurances to the network of 39 manufacturers and 231 carriers in 123 countries that partners wouldn't be cut out. "Our vision for Android is unchanged and Google remains firmly committed to Android as an open platform and a vibrant open source community. We will continue to work with all of our valued Android partners to develop and distribute innovative Android-powered devices," said Andy Rubin, senior vice president of Mobile at Google, in an official statement accompanying the deal announcement.
Page expanded on the theme in his blog: "Motorola will remain a licensee of Android and Android will remain open. We will run Motorola as a separate business. Many hardware partners have contributed to Android's success and we look forward to continuing to work with all of them to deliver outstanding user experiences."
Does Google mean it, or is an iPhone-like device the end game?
Microsoft doesn't know, but the company's obvious play is to reinforce the legitimate doubts Google's many other device manufacturers will have. There's nothing wrong with emphasizing Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt about your competitor when your competitor is responsible for creating the FUD.
Here Microsoft stands with a new mobile OS, "Mango," and a huge opportunity to get hardware partners enthusiastic about putting marketing weight behind Windows Phone "Mango" devices.
(That's minus one potential partner: Motorola, whose recent talk of considering the Windows platform looks in hindsight like a negotiating tactic that may have helped the Android-exclusive manufacturer get a 63 percent premium on its stock price in the Google offer.)
The markets may be reading the situation otherwise. As Business Insider reported this morning, RIM and Nokia were up pre-market "as the focus turns to Microsoft: Is it now forced to buy them?" Microsoft has reportedly considered buying Nokia before. Rather than emphasizing its newfound attractiveness to other device manufacturers, Microsoft may simply follow Google's lead and buy a partner.
One other interpretation of the deal is that Google was motivated to make some headway in its patent battle against Microsoft and Apple, which is costing handset manufacturers dearly.
Page made a note of the patent issue in his blog post, "Our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google's patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies."
Even in the unlikely event that Google's primary aim was to shore up its patent defenses and the company plans to keep Motorola at arms' length, Google's smartphone manufacturing partners won't know for sure. And that's a break for Microsoft.
Related:
Posted by Scott Bekker on August 15, 20112 comments