Yes, we're doing another one, this time on everything from working with Microsoft
to SaaS strategies to competitive threats. Want to know what your colleagues
are thinking? They're curious about what you think, too. Be a part of it all
here.
Posted by Lee Pender on 07/31/2007 at 1:21 PM0 comments
Microsoft revealed last week the lighter side of its Jekyll-and-Hyde approach
to open source software, unveiling a
glowing
new Web site designed to attract the open source community (as if open source
types don't see the mousetrap underneath that hunk of cheese).
Microsoft has also submitted its shared-source software licenses for
approval from the Open Source Initiative as open source licenses. Oh, it
all sounds so cozy and wonderful, but some commentators are wondering whether
Redmond's make-nice strategy is part
of a greater, more sinister scheme.
Posted by Lee Pender on 07/31/2007 at 1:21 PM0 comments
For those of you wondering just what Microsoft's software as a service -- or
even Software Plus Services -- strategy might involve, Ray Ozzie
spelled
things out in fairly good detail last week.
This is one of those times when we'd like for you to take a look at what Ozzie
said (yes, that means clicking
the link) and tell us how you, as a partner, think you can fit into this
strategy. We're reading over this carefully ourselves, but we're going to hold
off on any commentary until we hear from you. So step up and let us know how
SaaS-y you plan to get with Redmond in the months and years to come.
Where's the partner opportunity in Microsoft's layers of SaaS? Let me know
at [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on 07/31/2007 at 1:21 PM0 comments
So Microsoft will, after all, launch a beta program for its new Web analytics
tool,
code-named
"Gatineau."
Now, we're sure that there must be a mistake in here somewhere. Surely Microsoft
wouldn't use some town in Quebec as a code name. Oh, no. We suspect that Redmond
meant to call its forthcoming heavy hitter "Gastineau," after Mark
Gastineau of 1980s "New York Sack Exchange" fame. Some temp or
public relations person must have dropped the "s" at some point. And
-- you guessed it -- we fully expect the next version to be called "Klecko."
When does football season start again?
Posted by Lee Pender on 07/26/2007 at 1:21 PM0 comments
Remember the good ol' days of November 2006? When Microsoft blasted Vista out
the door to eager enterprise customers, and partners awaited the windfall that
the new operating system was sure to bring? Well, just like Chicago Cubs fans
wondering when their loyalty will pay off with a World Series title after nearly
a century of frustration, partners are waiting for Vista to start making the
cash registers ring. It isn't happening yet.
In fairness, partners probably have a better shot at profiting from Vista than
the Cubs have had of winning a World Series over the last century or so. Just
this week, more news came out about how Vista is making strides, eating up market
share from competitors and making
slow but steady progress on its beloved in-house rival, XP.
Still, talk -- and statistics -- are cheap, and upgrading to Vista isn't. And
as Rich Freeman notes in a feature story in the August
issue of RCP, companies don't
yet seem ready to pony up the cash to move to the new OS. That means that
partners aren't really profiting from Vista the way that some had thought that
they might.
Nevertheless, there doesn't seem to be much panic in the channel about Vista.
Partners, after all, understand how these things work -- companies are reticent
to move to anything new from Microsoft (or any vendor, really) right off the
bat. Some customers will wait for SP1, others for planned infrastructure upgrades.
The hope in the channel has to be now that customers won't wait for the post-Vista
version of Windows (supposedly due
in 2010) before upgrading. But three years is a long time, and we wouldn't
lay money on Microsoft actually getting the next version of Windows out the
door by 2010.
Even if there's no panic in the channel, though, there is disappointment --
with the hassle of XP downgrade rights and the simple notion that something
as massive (and massively hyped) as Vista should have dropped a few extra coins
into partners' coffers by now. Then there's the seemingly prevailing feeling
that Vista just isn't that good...a topic we've hit on more than a few times
in this space by now.
Microsoft partners have fared considerably better than Cubs fans over the years,
and they probably will in this case, too. But, for now, both groups are in limbo
with a shaky product that might or might not really pan out, especially in the
short-term. For a partner channel accustomed to something more of a New York
Yankees-level of success, Vista -- not unlike the Yankees themselves this year
-- has to be a disappointment so far.
We've received tons of comments about Vista over the last few months. We'll
run some more tomorrow. Keep them coming to [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on 07/26/2007 at 1:21 PM2 comments
Last summer, it
burst
onto the scene like a villain from a summer blockbuster movie, making enemies
wherever it went and generally wreaking havoc in the channel and in corporate
IT departments.
But now, Windows Genuine Advantage has gone
from zero to hero, helping bust (according to Microsoft) the Chinese piracy
ring that Microsoft and the FBI just nabbed.
Posted by Lee Pender on 07/26/2007 at 1:21 PM0 comments
So, who came out the big winner in the first of Microsoft's Linux patent deals?
If we're to believe a recent study, it was
le
Chapeau Rouge, monsieur!
Posted by Lee Pender on 07/26/2007 at 1:21 PM0 comments
We've said many times here at RCPU that Microsoft, in general, is very good
to its partners, and we still believe that it is true. The only problem, as
most partners probably know by now, is that sometimes the Microsoft Partner
Program can offer -- as the old saying goes -- too much of a good thing. And
sometimes that good thing -- maybe the one good thing a partner really needs
-- is a bit hard to find.
Roll in the Microsoft Partner Program "benefits wheel." Oh, it's
officially called the Partner Benefits Framework in classic stodgy Microsoft
fashion, but the round shape of the diagram used to clarify how partners can
access the benefits they need just lends itself to the "wheel" moniker.
Besides, we can envision thousands of clever little "wheel" quips
spinning out of this. Well, hundreds, anyway. Or maybe tens.
Anyway, in the magazine's
August issue, Redmond Channel Partner Executive Editor Anne Stuart
takes the
benefits wheel for a test drive, looking at how the partner program and
its new general manager, Julie Bennani (who, rumor has it, actually reads this
newsletter) are trying to clarify which benefits are available to partners and
how partners can access them.
Anne also talks to Robert Deshaies, vice president of Microsoft's U.S. Partner
Group, about a slew of new benefits Redmond plans to offer partners in Microsoft's
current fiscal year, which began at the beginning of this month.
As wheels go, the benefits wheel ranks pretty high on our list -- well above
"Wheel of Fortune" and probably somewhere between "Wheel in the
Sky" by Journey and a big wheel of cheese. In fact, you could say that
we never tire of looking at it. And if you're a partner, you should really get
around to checking out this wheel and what it can do for you.
Which are the most important benefits for you in the Microsoft Partner Program?
Tell met at [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on 07/25/2007 at 1:21 PM0 comments
There's nothing we love here at RCPU more than speculation, and the latest
round involves talk that Google is about to
hit
the same antitrust wall that Microsoft ran into in the '90s. Meanwhile,
Microsoft
and Yahoo (oh, and
Ask.com)
are on an Internet privacy kick.
Posted by Lee Pender on 07/25/2007 at 1:21 PM0 comments