In a year of
high-level
executive departures
, Microsoft will say goodbye to another senior executive.
Kevin Johnson, 47, will be heading to Juniper Networks as CEO in September.
Johnson, a 16-year veteran and the Platforms & Services Division president,
joins Bill
Gates and Jeff
Raikes in heading for the exits this year. He was also co-president for
a time with Jim Allchin, who left
in early 2007 when Vista shipped. Click here
for Kurt Mackie's in-depth news story about Johnson's departure and Microsoft's
reorganization of the division into the Windows and Online Services Business.
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Posted by Scott Bekker on July 24, 20080 comments
There's plenty of argument about whether security giant Symantec's recent comments
to the investment community mark a reversal of its support for the channel sales
model. What's not at issue is that competitors view the FUD as a chink in Symantec's
armor.
Astaro Corp. today launched a "Symantec Switch" promotion for security
resellers. Astaro, a Burlington, Mass.-based maker of Internet security appliances,
is offering resellers an additional 20 percent discount for changing a Symantec
renewal opportunity into an Astaro purchase.
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Posted by Scott Bekker on July 23, 20083 comments
Collective wisdom in the industry is that the advertising agency Microsoft
hired to turn around negative perceptions on Vista, Crispin Porter + Bogusky,
took on a tough job. Just how tough became clearer in a
survey
released today.
King Research surveyed more than 1,100 IT managers in June about their Vista
adoption plans. It was the second survey King Research has done on the topic
for KACE, a systems management appliance company based in Mountain View, Calif.
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Posted by Scott Bekker on July 23, 20082 comments
We were scratching our heads during Corporate Vice President Brad Brooks'
speech
at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference earlier this month. For all Brooks'
talk about Microsoft drawing a "line in the sand" for critics of Vista
to cross, there were no fruits of the new $300 million ad campaign on display
and no hard data about Vista adoption.
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Posted by Scott Bekker on July 22, 20086 comments
By now you'll have heard that Microsoft is a $60 billion company, on the strength
of 18 percent year-over-year growth. Operating income hit $22.5 billion a year,
meaning Microsoft is approaching $2 billion a month in profit. Not a bad way
to go out for semi-retiring chairman Bill Gates. Go
here
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Posted by Scott Bekker on July 22, 20080 comments
Microsoft's elite group of 50 managed partners in the U.S. National System
Integrator (NSI) program got a new member this month:
Inetium
of Bloomington, Minn.
Inetium is a 90-person Microsoft Gold Certified partner with a second office
in Omaha, Neb., and national reach. The ten-year-old firm offers consulting
practices in business productivity, customer relationship management, custom
application development, Web strategies, infrastructure and real estate technology
solutions. The firm was acquired in 2006 by the Pohlad family, which also owns
the Minnesota Twins and picked up Minneapolis-based unified communications firm
Avtex LLC in March.
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Posted by Scott Bekker on July 17, 20080 comments
The location for next year's Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference is set.
Allison Watson, corporate vice president for the Worldwide Partner Group, said
this morning that the show will be held in New Orleans in July 2009.
It will mark a return to the Big Easy, which was the location of the first
Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in October 2003.
Posted by Scott Bekker on July 10, 20080 comments
Microsoft COO Kevin Turner gave his annual closing speech at the Microsoft
Worldwide Partner Conference this morning. While he provided mostly a roundup
of announcements from throughout the week, he did have a big piece of news.
Turner announced a $600 million increase in the Microsoft investment in its
channel. The latest figure I'd heard was $2 billion. But Turner said Microsoft
invested $2.3 billion in fiscal year 2008 (which ended in June), and will invest
$2.9 billion in FY09. For those of you keeping score, that's a 26 percent bump.
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Posted by Scott Bekker on July 10, 20080 comments
On Tuesday, Microsoft laid out a
partner
compensation model
for Software Plus Services. From the minute it was announced,
the company has been eagerly attempting to
reassure
partners
that not only will S+S not mean a business disaster for them or
direct competition with Microsoft, but in fact will represent an opportunity.
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Posted by Scott Bekker on July 09, 20081 comments
Allison Watson, Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Group corporate vice president,
took a few minutes in her keynote Wednesday morning to note the five-year anniversary
of the Microsoft Partner Program, and said, "It's time to evolve together
to the next step."
For more details on Microsoft's plans to alter the MSPP over the next few years,
see Anne Stuart's cover story from our July issue, "
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Posted by Scott Bekker on July 09, 20080 comments
While it will be more than a month until Microsoft is ready to discuss results
of its fiscal year that ended in June, tidbits are already coming out. One is
that sales of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server topped $1 billion again.
It would've been surprising if SharePoint sales had dropped, since the product
hit the $1-billion-a-year run rate some time ago. But in announcing the figure,
Microsoft Business Division President Stephen Elop revealed another more interesting
number for Microsoft partners: "In the year ahead, we estimate that partners
like you will generate $5.4 billion from selling SharePoint," he said.
Posted by Scott Bekker on July 09, 20080 comments
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online seems like old news with the new
Software
Plus Services offerings
that were rolled out at the Worldwide Partner Conference
this week. But in fact, the S+S CRM product has only been available for three
months.
Stephen Elop, the Microsoft Business Division president, gave an update on
progress during his
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Posted by Scott Bekker on July 09, 20080 comments