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The Small Business Competency Is Back
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neBIGWe asked channel luminaries for their
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RCPmag.com JANUARY 2012 Redmond Channel Partner 3
Inside J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 2 ✱ V O L U M E 7 ✱ N U M B E R 1
I N E V E R Y I S S U E 4 RCPmag.com 6 Channel Watch >
DEPARTMENTS
8 Channel ReportFORECASTS: Is It Already Too Latefor a Windows Tablet? .................................................. 8MSFT: ‘We Are in the Windows Era’ .............................. 9EXECUTIVES: Microsoft Technical Fellow Heads to Parallels ....................................................... 10TRANSITIONS: Citrix Gets New Americas Channel Chief ............................................................. 10MOVERS: Tribridge on a Tearin the Dynamics Channel ............................................ 14UC: Microsoft Lync Hits First Birthday ......................... 14
COLUMNSCHANGING THE CHANNEL: Howard CohenIs There Still a Channel? ............................................ 30ON GROWTH: Mike HarvathThe Cloud Gets Even Cloudier in the Channel ............. 31CHANNELING THE CLOUD: Jeff rey SchwartzNow You Can Build an App Marketplace in the Cloud................................................................ 32
PARTNER’S GUIDE TO ADDING BACKUP AND RECOVERY REVENUES TO WINDOWS DEALSCloud is all the rage, but neither on-premises Windows clients and servers nor the requirements for backup and recovery are going anywhere soon. Partners who add to their deal sizes with backup and recovery expertise should continue to fi nd revenues for a long time to come. By Scott Bekker
FEATURES
14 Big Ideas for 2012Asked for their best piece of advice for the year ahead, 19 channel luminaries off er their tips on ways to make 2012 a banner year.
22 The Hardware Behind Windows 8 Developer PreviewInside the Microsoft Windows 8 development labs, the company had a few dozen PCs and other peripheral devices used to test its fi rst preview of its new OS and Metro interface. We took a look at a few of them.
26 Cloud Options While waiting for Microsoft to put ERP cloud off erings online, some Dynamics partners have started padding their portfolios with Software as a Service-based ERP solutions from other vendors.
SPECIAL PULLOUT SECTION
14
Marching Orders
Redmond Channel Partner JANUARY 2012 RCPmag.com4
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RCPMAG.COM + JANUARY 2012 + VOLUME 7 + NUMBER 1
@RCPmag.com EXCLUSIVELY ONLINE BLOGS
RCPUStay tuned to channelnews with the RedmondChannel Partner Updatee-mail newsletter, writtenby Lee Pender.
OnLine
ON CARRIER IQ AND THE UNWRITTEN RULE OF PRIVACYFirst of all, even if Sprint does have records of your text messages and is recording every keystroke you execute, do you really think executives in Kansas City are sitting around in some Bourne-movie-style room full of tracking screens, watching your every move and reading your every message?
If so, get over yourself. Big shots at AT&T, Sprint, Apple, Google or wherever don’t have the time or the inclination to do that. ... They are not trying to rat you out for being at the bar when you say you’re working late. RCPmag.com/PenderA0112
ON HOW ADOBE IS FAILING ITS USER BASEI believe that the death of Flash on mobile devices and its probable march to extinction is a sign of something more, though—a sign that Adobe, in trying to be the leader in rich Internet content or whatever it’s called, lost its focus on the products that made it a successful company. Financially, things aren’t exactly great at Adobe, as evidenced by the company’s plan to “restructure” and lay off 750 employees (the announcement of which was accompanied by a requisite plunge in Adobe’s stock price). RCPmag.com/PenderB0112
RCP MAGAZINE ON LINKEDINBe sure to join the Microsoft Partner Group for Redmond Channel Partner magazine. Join a current discussion or start your own and have your questions answered by fellow readers and RCP editors. linkd.in/mDe63s
MARKETING MATTERSBe sure to check out Barb Levisay’s marketing blog for advice and tips on how best to market your business in the Microsoft channel.
Her recent post about using the new and improved Microsoft Ready-to-Go marketing resource for content ideas highlights the following sections of the site: ✱ Telesales Guides✱ FAQs✱ Competitive Guides ✱ White Papers and ReportsRCPmag.com/Levisay0112
FREE CLOUD REPORT NEWSLETTERKeep up-to-date with the latest and greatest in cloud computing with our free eNewsletter. RCPmag.com/Newlsetter
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Redmond Channel Partner (ISSN 1556-2727) is published monthly by 1105 Media, Inc., 9201 Oakdale Avenue, Ste. 101, Chatsworth, CA 91311. Periodicals postage paid at Chatsworth, CA 91311-9998, and at additional mailing offices. Complimentary subscriptions are sent to qualifying subscribers. Annual subscription rates payable in U.S. funds for non-qualified subscribers are: U.S. $39.95, International $64.95. Annual digital subscription rates payable in U.S. funds for non-qualified subscribers are: U.S. $39.95, International $39.95. Subscription inquiries, back issue requests, and address changes: Mail to: Redmond Channel Partner, P.O. Box 2166, Skokie, IL 60076-2872, email [email protected] or call 866-293-3194 for U.S. & Canada; 847- 763-9560 for International, fax 847-763-9564. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Redmond Channel Partner, P.O. Box 2166, Skokie, IL 60076-9282. Canada Publications Mail Agreement No: 40612608. Return Undeliverable Canadian Addresses to Circulation Dept. or IMS/NJ. Attn: Returns, 310 Paterson Plank Road, Carlstadt, NJ 07072. Copyright Statement: © Copyright 2012 by 1105 Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. Reproductions in whole or part prohibited except by written permission. Mail requests to “Permissions Editor,” c/o Redmond Channel Partner, 16261 Laguna Canyon Road, Ste. 130, Irvine, CA 92618. Legal Disclaimer: The information in this magazine has not undergone any formal testing by 1105 Media, Inc. and is distributed without any warranty expressed or implied. Implementation or use of any information contained herein is the reader’s sole responsibility. While the information has been reviewed for accuracy, there is no guarantee that the same or similar results may be achieved in all environments. Technical inaccuracies may result from printing errors and/or new developments in the industry. Corporate Address: 1105 Media, 9201 Oakdale Ave. Ste 101, Chatsworth, CA 91311 www.1105media.com. Media Kits: Direct your Media Kit requests to Dan LaBianca, Associate Publisher, 972-687-6702 (phone), 972-687-6799 (fax), [email protected]. Reprints: For single article reprints (in minimum quantities of 250-500), e-prints, plaques and posters contact: PARS International Phone: 212-221-9595. E-mail: [email protected]. www.magreprints.com/QuickQuote.asp. List Rental: This publication’s subscriber list, as well as other lists from 1105 Media, Inc., is available for rental. For more information, please contact our list manager, Merit Direct. Phone: 914-368-1000; E-mail: [email protected]; Web: meritdirect.com/1105.
SOURCE: FORRESTER RESEARCH INC.
BY THE NUMBERS
The Mobile MarketWindows tablet
Apple iPad
Google Android-based tablets
Q1 2011 Q3 2011
46% 25%
16% 28%
9% 18%
According to a report released in November 2011 by Forrester Research Inc., consumer interest in Microsoft Windows-based tablets has significantly declined since Q1 2011, while interest in Apple and Google OS-based tablets increased. See full story on p. 8.
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Redmond Channel Partner JANUARY 2012 RCPmag.com6
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“One of the big pieces of news that’s been a large discussion on a number of these forums for awhile is we’re planning on launching a Small Business Competency in the spring,” said Julie Bennani, general manager of the Microsoft Partner Network, during an online partner forum last month.
“We will keep the Small Business Specialist Community (SBSC) in market, but based on your feedback and your requests that we elevate that space to the equivalent level of the other competencies, we are planning on doing that this spring,” Bennani said.
The Small Business Competency had a place in the lineup of nearly 30 competencies just ahead of the MPN rollout in 2010. But Microsoft executives had second thoughts when it was time to make the new MPN competencies live and decided to leave the extra-competency structure of the SBSC alone for a while.
The decision was always conditional. As Bennani told Redmond Channel Partner magazine last year, “What we decided to do—as opposed to being too dramatic in that area—both for the partners and for customers, was to just raise the requirements in that community and see how partners respond and [see] what it does for the customer.”
Part of Microsoft’s expectation at the time was that many small business-focused partners would migrate to the then-new Midmarket Solutions Provider Competency, which might fulfi ll their need for a general-purpose competency in the MPN.
Instead, midmarket-focused partners have been choosing to get more specialized competencies and approach customers as Business Intelligence Competency partners or Portals and
MPN’s On-Again, Off -Again Small Business Competency
Collaboration Competency partners, Microsoft worldwide channel chief Jon Roskill told RCP in the December 2011 cover story, “MPN @ 1 Year.”
Meanwhile, Bennani hinted during last month’s call that even partners interested in the midmarket competency have had some trouble with the complexity of the requirements.
“What we found was as partners were working through what we laid out from a qualifi cation perspective there that we’d made it pretty darn hard. We have a pretty healthy population of partners that have attained the competency there, but what we’re trying to do is simplify the require-ments to make sure that we haven’t overcommitted on complexity there.”
Those simplifi cations to the Midmarket Solutions Provider Competency have been in eff ect since November. The Small Business Competency will probably arrive in May, based on Microsoft’s pattern of releasing MPN changes.
We were fans of the idea of a Small Business Competency from the beginning. But we want to hear from you. Will it help your business to have the small business specialty elevated to the status of a competency? Let us know at [email protected]. •
icrosoft’s alternately hot and cold attitude toward a dedicated competency for small business partners in the Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) is hot again.M
BY SCOTT BEKKER
ChannelWatch
On a smarter planet, IBM Business Partners are capitalizing on more opportunities than ever before. For Sirius Computer Solutions, Inc., in San Antonio, Texas, that means being able to approach potential clients with solutions for entire business problems rather than just selling individual products. With the help of IBM, Sirius provides cloud solutions that transform a midsize company’s fixed costs into variable costs, enabling flexible and more productive IT.
IBM Business Partners can take advantage of advanced training and certifications that are designed to uniquely position them ahead of industry peers. Sirius CTO, Phil Sauvageau, adds: “The support we get from IBM is second to none.” See how Phil Sauvageau and other Business Partners are turning new opportunity into profitability — watch the IBM Business Partner video series at ibm.com/partnerworld/engines
Midsize businesses are the engines of a Smarter Planet.
Building the engines of a Smarter Planet:
“IBM makes a constant effort to help the channel be more profitable.”
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Redmond Channel Partner JANUARY 2012 RCPmag.com8
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January 2012
TRENDS ISSUES
ANALYSISChannel{ Forecasts }
REPORTMoreover, when asked
by Forrester which brands they were considering, a sample of 1,800 respondents showed that 61 percent were interested in an iPad while only 10 percent wanted a Windows 8-based tablet, presuming it was available.
A Microsoft spokes-woman said the company isn’t commenting on the Forrester report.
Fueling the decline in interest in Windows 8-based tablets—Microsoft’s answer to the iPad and other popular tablets—is the possibility that Microsoft’s new OS won’t be available for perhaps up to a year or more. Some specula-tive reports are anticipating that Windows 8 devices based on the low-power ARM architecture may not enter
the competitive stakes until mid-2013. Versions of Windows 8 are also under development for the Intel and AMD x86 architectures. Microsoft hasn’t stated a target delivery date for Windows 8.
“They [Microsoft] have missed the peak demand period in the minds of consumer buyers for a product that they simply haven’t released yet,” said Forrester analyst J.P. Gownder in an interview. The report described Microsoft as a “fi fth mover” rather than a “fast follower” in the tablet market behind such devices as the iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab (based on Android), Research In Motion PlayBook and the now-defunct webOS-based TouchPad from Hewlett-Packard Co.
Does that mean Windows 8 is DOA when it arrives? Not necessarily,
Is It Already Too Late for a Windows Tablet?Forrester Research report fi nds waning consumer interest in a Windows-based tablet. By Jeffrey Schwartz
Consumer interest in Windows-based tablets has declined over the past six months, according to a report released at the end of November 2011 by Forrester Research Inc.
The report, based on a survey fi elded in September 2011 of 2,300 consumers who claim they’re not opposed to buying a tablet,
shows a precipitous decline among those interested in tablets based on Windows.
The Forrester fi ndings confl ict with a report released the previous month by Boston Consulting Group (BCG), which found 42 percent of existing tablet users wanted a Windows-based tablet while 53 percent of non-tablet users wanted one with Windows. However, the BCG survey was fi elded earlier last year, in late spring.
Back in the fi rst quarter of 2011, when Forrester asked what OS users wanted on their tablet, 46 percent of those surveyed said they were interested in a Windows tablet. However, that fi gure dropped to only 25 percent in the third quarter. By comparison, those interested in Apple iPads rose from 16 percent to 28 percent. Interest also rose in Google Android-based tablets, from 9 percent to 18 percent.
RCPmag.com JANUARY 2012 Redmond Channel Partner 1
PARTNER’S GUIDE TO
Adding Backup and Recovery Revenues to Windows Deals
W hen it comes to adding value for customers in Windows environments, backup and recovery is a longtime favorite of solution providers, systems integrators and other
Microsoft partners.Alongside security, backup and recovery is one of those core
requirements for upgraded environments that many customers need the expertise of channel partners to set up properly (or to even consider implementing).
While backup and recovery has been a mainstay for many partners, the cloud raises questions about how long this
opportunity will last, especially among small and even midsize businesses.
Once public cloud becomes ubiquitous, will backup and recovery, and especially on-premises backup and recovery software, still be a good business?
The short answer—yes. The long answer is that there are a lot of reasons why the backup and recovery software opportunity will not only continue to exist in the future, but could even grow.
What follows are five reasons that channel expertise surrounding backup and recovery software should not only remain important as cloud becomes more common, but could actually represent a growth opportunity.
SPECIAL PULLOUT SECTION
Cloud is all the rage, but neither on-premises Windows clients and servers nor the requirements for backup and recovery are going anywhere soon. Partners who add to their deal sizes with backup and recovery expertise should continue to fi nd revenues for a long time to come. By Scott Bekker
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Redmond Channel Partner JANUARY 2012 RCPmag.com2
1. CLOUD IS GROWING BUT LION’S SHARE OF REVENUES ARE TRADITIONALWhen it comes to predictions for 2012 and beyond, the focus is understandably on cloud. When market forecast-ers look at growth trends, they see a lot of the growth in the IT market coming from cloud and related technologies.
Forecasters at IDC use the term “3rd Platform” to describe the IT industry’s next dominant platform, which they say will include mobile computing, cloud services, social networking and related technologies.
“Today, spending on these technologies is growing at about 18 percent per year and is expected to account for at least 80 percent of IT spending growth between now and 2020,” IDC noted in a December prediction of trends for the year ahead.
All told, IDC predicts worldwide IT spending will increase 6.9 percent year over year to $1.8 trillion in 2012, with up to 20 percent of that spending coming on the 3rd Platform.
Partners looking to seize on major growth opportunities will clearly lean toward cloud, mobility and so on. But there’s an important element in all those numbers—the amount of spending that will be ongoing on all the things that customers have traditionally bought. For 2012, 80 percent of the overall
spending will be on the old-fashioned stuff , which includes PCs, servers, storage, networking gear and so on.
A lot of those traditional infrastructure elements will need to be backed up with on-premises software solutions. Cloud-based backup and recovery solutions are one option, but there’s a lot of room in that large pie for on-premises backup and recovery solutions.
2. ON-PREMISES SERVERS AREN’T GOING ANYWHEREWith more than 600,000 partners and an installed base of 1.25 billion PCs, as well as hundreds of millions of servers, Microsoft has listening posts all over the market.
During a recent call with Microsoft partners, Microsoft Corporate Vice President for the Worldwide Partner Group Jon Roskill was, of course, extremely bullish on the cloud opportunity for Microsoft partners. But when he was asked for Microsoft’s view of the future of on-premises software, Roskill was unequivocal.
“On-premises software is going to be with us for a long, long time,” he said.
“If you look back to the late ’70s and early ’80s, everyone was declaring the mainframe was dead. Yet you look around, and we’re in a world where there are more mainframes now than there certainly were 20 years ago. I think on-premises software is going to continue to exist in sort of a similar way,” Roskill said.
“The place where it’s clearly going to live for a long time is where people or companies have parts to their business—their business software—that they view as so core to the company that they have no intention of running it anywhere other than their own secure datacenter,” Roskill said.
Like IDC, researchers at Gartner Inc. looked into their collective crystal ball and published a list of top predictions in December.
While Gartner was broadly in agreement with IDC that cloud and mobility would continue their explosive growth, a few of the Stamford, Conn.-based fi rm’s predictions reinforced some of Roskill’s points.
The most relevant Gartner prediction was: “By 2016, 40 percent of enterprises will make proof of independent security testing a precondition for using any type of cloud service.”
Read another way, security will be a major brake on the widespread adoption of cloud for company data. And in-house data implementations for security reasons are prime candidates for on-premises backup and recovery solutions because the same security concerns that motivate the customer to keep the fi rst copy of the data out of the cloud will inform the decision on whether or not to store the backup in the cloud.
3. DESKTOP BACKUPNo matter how big the cloud gets, and no matter how fast tablets and smartphones spread, the PC remains the predominant way that business users interact with company systems and data.
On-premises software is going to be with us for a long, long time.”Jon Roskill, Corporate Vice President, Worldwide Partner Group, Microsoft
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As Roskill put it in the on-premises question, “You want to have software running where the computing is. There’s going to continue to be computing on people’s desktops.”
Those desktops will need to be backed up, with agent-based or agentless solutions, and partner expertise will continue to be key in helping customers select the backup solution that makes the most sense for them.
4. BIG DATAOne of the latest industry buzzword is “big data.” It seems most likely to be an enterprise phenomenon initially, but it could have implications for backup and recovery perfor-mance at all levels in the near future.
Gartner defines “big data” this way: “Current trends in smart devices and growing Internet connectivity are creating signifi cant increases in the volume of data available, [and] the complexity, variety and velocity with which it’s delivered combine to amplify the problem substantially.”
The explosion of data sources and changing expectations around how that data can be used should be a key driver for backup and recovery solutions over the next few years.
5. HYBRID ENVIRONMENTSThe need for backup and recovery expertise at the software level, at the cloud level and in the way those technologies interact, will increase as almost every company develops its own unique witch’s brew of on-premises, private-cloud and public-cloud systems, all of which will need to be backed up and available for recovery.
In another Garter prediction, the research firm said, “At year-end 2016, more than 50 percent of Global 1000 companies will have stored customer-sensitive data in the public cloud.”
So, while security and privacy concerns are critical, Gartner argues that fi nancial pressures will compel organizations to reduce operational costs and streamline effi ciencies over the next few years.
Some business-critical data will be kept in-house and on-premises due to security and other considerations, but pressures will increase for more and more data, especially data from new systems, to be stored in potentially less expensive ways.
“Responding to this imperative, it’s estimated that more than
20 percent of organizations have already begun to selectively store their customer-sensitive data in a hybrid architecture that’s a combined deployment of their on-premises solution with a private and/or public cloud provider in 2011,” Gartner noted.
Roskill expanded on the point, “The scenario that we see really happening is the hybrid cloud, where people are going to have systems that are connecting with computers and applications that are running on-premises, ones that could be running at a hoster and ones that could be running in a public-cloud service, connecting across those in a federated manner. One of the great opportunities for partners is the integration opportunity that’s going to be out there.”
The more complex the hybrid environment, the more room for partners to show their value by helping customers untangle their backup and recovery options.
A REFRESHED OPPORTUNITYAs cloud computing emerged, backup and recovery was one of the best ways for Microsoft partners to try their hand at cloud services. Yet, the opposite is true as well. Even as cloud-based backup is critical for solution providers to understand, there are good reasons to stay closely engaged with the on-premises side of the business, as well.
After all, backup and recovery practices are about much more than recommending or reselling a product and leaving the customer to fi gure out the particulars.
The best engagements bring the solution providers’ expertise in the discipline of backup, the testing of recoveries and the advice on which solutions to use for which parts of the customer’s overall backup and recovery plan.
Rather than backing away from software-based backup and recovery, it may be time for partners to double down on their expertise to be able to provide the types of complete solutions that customers will increasingly need over the next decade as their environments get more complex. •
Scott Bekker is editor in chief of RCP.
No matter how big the cloud gets, and no matter how fast tablets and smartphones spread, the PC remains the predominant way that business users interact with company systems and data.
RCPmag.com JANUARY 2012 Redmond Channel Partner 9
For the most part, Microsoft’s share-holder meeting in mid-November was the usual, speedy, buttoned-down aff air; one shareholder even argued that the event should be 30 minutes longer.
During the meeting, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer briefl y outlined the company’s progress and fi elded questions from shareholders. In response to a ques-tion about whether the company faced a post-PC market, Ballmer gave a reply that had many thinking that Windows 8 would be replacing the Windows Phone mobile OS.
“We are in the Windows era,” Ballmer said toward the end of the hour-long event.
“We were, we are and we always will be. That’s kind of what we get paid to do.
“We’ve got broad Windows initiatives driving Windows down to the phone with Windows 8. You’ll see incredible new form factors powered by Windows from tablets, small, large, pens, smaller, bigger, room-size displays. We are in an era in which the range of smart devices is continuing to expand. That’s a fantastic thing for Microsoft. That is a real
opportunity. That is an opportunity that we will pursue by leveraging and sharing and driving Windows in new ways,” Ballmer said.
Ballmer seemed to mean that Windows has a broad reach, whether it’s with smartphones (using Windows Phone mobile OS) or tablets and PCs (using Windows 8). Still, the comment could be construed diff erently. While Windows 8 has always been targeted at tablets and PCs, it hasn’t been proposed by Microsoft as a mobile OS replacement.
Although the meeting was fairly rote, there were a few edgy moments. One shareholder noted that Microsoft has more than $50 billion in cash reserves. Chairman Bill Gates replied that the important thing was not specifi c dividend payments but that the company has a profi t stream. He added that the company needs its cash reserves to take on big risks during uncertain economic times. •
Kurt Mackie is the online news editor for the 1105 Enterprise Computing Group.
Visit RCPmag.com for daily news updates
Gownder said. “A lot of it depends on the decisions that they make from here on out,” he said. “I think Windows 8 still has a reasonable shot to be successful, but we have to see how they determine things like pricing. If Microsoft comes out and prices it the same as the iPad and it doesn’t do anything that the iPad can already do, that’s going to be problematic.”
Adding to that challenge, he noted, are the Amazon Kindle Fire tablet, released in November, and the Barnes & Noble Nook tablet, also released in November. The two products are priced at $199 and $249, respectively. While not as robust as other tablets, these bare-bones devices have Web browsers and allow access to a broad array of content.
In a year from now, improvements in these devices and iPads, along with downward pricing pressure, mean Microsoft will be challenged to fi nd a way to bring entry-level devices into the market starting at less than $300, Gownder predicted. “I think the bar is high for them to fi gure out how to do this,” he said.
With the so-called consumerization of IT, many users are simply bringing their devices of choice to their offi ces and using them instead of PCs for many tasks such as Web browsing, taking notes and viewing documents. With tools such as Citrix Receiver available for devices such as the iPad, many users have access to enterprise apps, as well, the report noted. As a result, consumer appeal has more implications on what enterprises adopt than ever before.
Microsoft’s key challenge will be to make Windows 8 an attractive platform for productivity and gaming—something Apple has already succeeded in doing with the iPad, which now has 40 million users, Gownder said. •
Jeff rey Schwartz is executive editor of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.
‘We Are in the Windows Era’Ballmer pitches investors on the ongoing case for betting strategically on Windows during the Microsoft shareholders meeting. By Kurt Mackie
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Redmond Channel Partner JANUARY 2012 RCPmag.com10
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CR Join the RCP Discussion Group on LinkedIn
One of Microsoft’s 22 Technical Fellows left the company in December for Parallels, the cloud services enablement and desktop virtualization company run by another former ’Softie.
Parallels announced the hiring of Michael Toutonghi as chief technical offi cer on Dec. 1. The same day, the company announced the hiring of former Itron Inc. executive David Arkley as chief fi nancial offi cer and former Symantec Corp. executive Jesper Frederiksen as general manager of Europe and North Africa.
Parallels is a key technical collaborator with Microsoft, most recently in providing the back-end software that helps many of the large Offi ce 365 syndication partners automate provisioning and billing of the Microsoft cloud service.
As CTO, Toutonghi will bring intimate familiarity with Microsoft, both from a technical and business standpoint. At Microsoft, Toutonghi worked most recently as the lead for the Advertising Platform Architecture Team. He joined Microsoft in 1992 to lead the Windows 95 kernel architecture team and later co-founded and managed the .NET platform eff ort, according to his offi cial Microsoft bio.
He left Microsoft in 2003 to start Vizrea, later renamed WebFives. Microsoft bought WebFives in 2007 and brought Toutonghi back on as a Technical Fellow.
In an interview, Parallels CEO Birger Steen said of Toutonghi, “The way we’re
thinking about our role in the cloud service provider market, Mike has the chops to both think conceptually and build the right architecture.”
“Mike has been covering a wide area of engineering and architecture in his vari-ous roles. He’s a very smart guy and he’s an entrepreneur. He knows how to work in a big company context and think big and think about platforms,” said Steen, who also came to Parallels from Microsoft. •
Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.
Citrix Gets New Americas Channel ChiefMike Fouts takes over from Craig Stilwell.After eight years as Citrix Americas Channel Chief, Craig Stilwell has stepped aside from the position to become VP of Sales in the Southeast United States. Taking Stilwell’s place is Mike Fouts, who actually was a director of Sales in the territory Stilwell is moving into.
The move took place Oct. 1, 2011, but Fouts made it offi cial at the end of November in his inaugural blog post, where he outlined his priorities. Fouts, whose actual title now is senior director of Americas Channels and Field Operations, assured partners that Citrix will continue its model of off ering programs, solutions, and resources aimed at helping both the company and the channel remain profi table.
In his role as channel chief, Fouts also leads the company’s marketing eff orts. He signaled plans to help the channel monetize opportunities in virtualization and the growing fi eld of cloud computing. “The primary objective of the Citrix channel program will continue to center on off ering innovative programs, solutions and resources that make Citrix the most profi t-able business for the channel community,” he wrote. • —J.S.
As the Parallels CTO, Michael Toutonghi will bring intimate familiarity with Microsoft, both from a technical and business standpoint.
Microsoft Technical Fellow Heads to ParallelsMichael Toutonghi becomes CTO at the cloud services enablement and desktop virtualization company. By Scott Bekker
{ Transitions }
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In the December issue of Redmond Channel Partner magazine, we published a story about the potential impact of the new Master VAR program for U.S.-based Microsoft Dynamics partners (“Reigniting Entrepreneurial Spirit?” RCPmag.com/MasterVARs).When the issue went to press, only two of the three Master VARs had been named. A few days later, in mid-November, Microsoft announced the third company, Tampa, Fla.-based Tribridge.
It was the start of a busy two weeks for Tribridge. Not only did Tribridge become one of the Master VARs, which are companies that will be able to create their own Microsoft-sanctioned networks of smaller Dynamics partners—called Sales Affi liates—throughout the United States that will leverage the Master VAR’s centralized marketing, support, operations and training, but less than two weeks later, Tribridge acquired ePartners Inc., the high-profi le Microsoft Dynamics partner based in Dallas.
The deal, terms of which were not disclosed, combines two award-winning and very connected Microsoft partners.
{ Movers }
Tribridge on a Tear in the Dynamics ChannelTampa-based company named Master VAR and acquires ePartners.
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“Tribridge has won Microsoft Dynamics Partner of the Year awards three of the last fi ve years,” said David Willis, vice president of Microsoft’s U.S. Dynamics business, in a statement supporting the merger. “Their acquisition of another Microsoft Dynamics Inner Circle partner with a sizeable customer base, industry expertise and additional, committed resources will help Tribridge continue to grow their business exponentially.”
For its part, ePartners was a Microsoft Global Partner of the Year in 2001 and 2004 and was a fi nalist for Microsoft Dynamics U.S. Reseller of the Year in 2010.
In a statement explaining the deal, Tribridge CEO and Chairman Tony DiBenedetto said, “Tribridge secured equity funding last year to make strategic acquisitions like ePartners possible.” He said ePartners was especially attractive to Tribridge for its vertical experience in health care, as well as its broad ERP practice and cloud computing expertise.
According to a Tribridge statement, “more than 90 percent of ePartners employees and executives will join the Tribridge team in a variety of roles.”
The deal comes after ePartners sold its U.K. operations in August to eBECS Ltd., a Microsoft Dynamics reseller in the United Kingdom that specializes in Microsoft Dynamics AX and Dynamics CRM solutions. • —S.B.
Follow us at Twitter.com/RedmondPartner
““Tribridge securedequity funding last yearto make strategic acquisitions likeePartners possible.”Tony DiBenedetto, CEO and Chairman, Tribridge
MICROSOFT LYNC HITS FIRST BIRTHDAYMicrosoft credits partners for communication platform’s growth.
After one year on the market as of December, Microsoft’s newest unifi ed communications (UC) off ering has grown to 3 million voice lines—with no small thanks to Microsoft partners.
Speaking at a Credit Suisse Technology Conference, Derek Burney, corporate vice president for Microsoft Lync and Microsoft Offi ce Data, credited the success of Lync Server to its association with the Microsoft Offi ce product line, as well as to the partner community associated with Lync.
A related Microsoft blog stated that there were “over 130 Lync-optimized devices” with partners submitting “over 1,100 Unifi ed Communications applications” in the last year.
Lync can save on long-distance toll charges via VoIP technology and it can save on hardware maintenance costs associated with legacy PBX systems, Burney said. Lync is typically described as a UC-type solution that can support e-mail, instant messaging, presence, video, voice and application shar-ing via a single client interface, depending on the confi guration setup and licensing.
The Microsoft Skype acquisition is still in its early days, but Microsoft plans to extend the Lync integration in the enterprise to connect with the 700 million registered Skype users. Burney said that this business-to-consumer integration is “super-important” for Microsoft customers. •
—K.M.
{ UC }
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Redmond Channel Partner JANUARY 2012 RCPmag.com14
Ideas forBIG
2012
ASKED FOR THEIR BEST PIECE OF ADVICE FOR THE YEAR AHEAD, 19 CHANNEL LUMINARIES OFFER THEIR TIPS ON WAYS TO MAKE 2012 A BANNER YEAR.Compiled by Scott Bekker
R C P C O V E R S T O R Y | M A R C H I N G O R D E R S
RCPmag.com JANUARY 2012 Redmond Channel Partner 15
Stretch to the CloudTiff ani BovaVice President, Sales & Channel Strategies Worldwide, Gartner Inc.With cloud dominating CIO conversations around the globe, one hurdle, which can have tremendous impact on how quickly adop-tion can and will happen, looms over the market. That hurdle is the capability of the indirect channel to position the value of cloud services, and sell, deliver and support integrated cloud solutions. Similar to what happened with system integration, the channel will need to catch up to market demands quickly or be left behind. There is real opportunity for the channel to leverage its relation-ship with customers and play a role as a “cloud service brokerage” (CSB) where they can aggregate, customize or integrate various cloud services.
There’s real risk for the channel as customers shift the way they want to consume and use IT. It will be up to the entire eco-system to invest, fi nd ways to remain relevant and stretch capabilities to include cloud-based services while new “born in the cloud” players enter
the market. The competition of today will not be the competition of tomorrow—customer demands of today will not be customer demands of tomorrow. The reality for the channel in 2012 is rapid change, new players entering the market and IT fl exibility.
Guide Enterprises Through Cloud LicensingJohn CullenVice President-Research, Licensing & Partner Strategies, Directions on MicrosoftFor those enterprises wishing to leverage their Enterprise Agreement (EA) contract for purposes of using Microsoft Online Services, moving between on-premises systems to online services will be a complicated endeavor. Trusted advisors can help in several ways:
• Help the business verify that online services make sense. The nature of Online Services presents a host of factors to consider: Service Level Agreement parameters and warranties for the delivery of online services; privacy and other legal consider-
very year, Redmond Channel Partner magazine invites prominent figures in the Microsoft ecosystem and the broader channel to step away from the daily grind and think about the year ahead. We ask them, “What’s your best piece of
advice for Microsoft partners for the coming year?” No one knows what’s right for your channel business better than you, but our hope is that you’ll come away from this special report with some nugget of an idea, or validation of an impulse, that you can develop throughout the year.
We’re fortunate in this installment of our annual Marching Orders issue to have entries from Microsoft channel executives, industry analysts, business consultants and Microsoft partners. With 19 contributors, we’re giving you access to more professional wisdom from more people than ever before.
Enjoy the feast of ideas, and best wishes for a prosperous and professionally fulfi lling 2012.
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ations; technical features and limitations thereof; and online services integration issues.
• Assist the business in up-front licensing homework. Advanced preparation reduces the likelihood of unexpected factors such as costs, payment timing and administrative burdens. It will be crucial for customers to fi nd a competent Large Account Reseller (LAR). Avoid letting your customer be the company the LAR “learns on.”
Work with the LAR or Microsoft to map out the numbers as well as the administrative procedures and timetables.
• Offer additional administrative/technical help. Adding online services in an EA can make it more complex to administer. It will likely require midyear tasks (vs. once-a-year as before). Also, annual reporting can become considerably more complicated, especially in hybrid on-premises and online scenarios. As a result, customers will require more sophisticated asset management systems and procedures.
Break Through the Air of Mystique Circling ‘the Cloud’Jenni Flinders Vice President, U.S. Partner Group, MicrosoftFor all the industry dialogue around the vast potential in cloud services, we know that most U.S. customers don’t necessarily associate “the cloud” with the powerful, scalable, high-value tech-nology solutions. It’s the duty of the Microsoft Partner Network in 2012 to help partners in the channel break through the air of mystique circling “the cloud,” and have straightforward conver-sations with customers about what this solution could mean for their businesses.
The Windows Azure Platform gives partners a signifi cant opportu-nity to capture a large portion of the rapidly expanding cloud market. To realize this success, Microsoft is working closely with partners to help them fully appreciate their Windows Azure opportunities.
We have a national team chartered with creating a vibrant ecosystem of Windows Azure partners and solutions, by recruiting, on-boarding and enabling Windows Azure platform partners.
Build Your IP in the Cloud Jeff Edwards Director of Channel Strategy, Microsoft Business Solutions, MicrosoftCloud continues to off er new opportunities for partners to inno-vate and grow their businesses. They should consider utilizing the cloud to expand their solution footprint and deliver even more value to their clients and prospects. Take advantage of Windows Azure to package up vertical- or industry-specifi c code, Offi ce 365, Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft Dynamics ERP and CRM into a compelling solution for customers. The ability to build on Windows Azure will not only reduce Microsoft Dynamics partner investments required to develop these solutions, but also will put them ahead of the curve as we deliver more of our applications in the cloud.
This approach will give partners the ability to diff erentiate themselves in the market, improve the “stickiness” of their solutions and, with a high percentage of recurring revenue from the annuity model, paints a compelling long-term opportunity for Microsoft Dynamics Partners.
“The Windows Azure Platform gives partners a signifi cant
opportunity to capture a large portion of the rapidly expanding
cloud market.”Jenni Flinders,
Vice President, U.S. Partner Group, Microsoft
MOBILITY
Manage MobilityHoward M. CohenIT Consultant & RCP ColumnistSometimes we forget that the “P” in “PC” stands for “personal.” But with the consumerization of computing bringing more hand-held smartphones and tablet devices into the corporate network, new challenges arise that create tremendous opportunities for channel partners.
Microsoft has already indicated that the next version of Systems Center will include management support for a large selection of handhelds and tablets well beyond their own. Partners should begin now to plan to add MMSP—Mobile Managed Services Partner—to their portfolio. Client concerns include information security, network access control, authentication, data encryption, containerization, and
separation of personal and business data, kill and wipe capability for lost devices, not to mention mobile application development and more.
Between cloud and mobile devices, more and more rogue IT initia-tives are springing up and IT management will need help to keep proper control over the corporation’s data assets and network. Prepare now to provide those incremental new services.
Deliver a Consistent User Experience Across DevicesDave Sobel CEO, Evolve TechnologiesMy big idea is simple: Don’t focus on the wrong thing. Cloud computing is getting an amazing amount of buzz, and the chan-nel has focused considerable energy on this opportunity, which looks big. I’ve heard numbers from $160 billion to $200 billion.
Redmond Channel Partner JANUARY 2012 RCPmag.com18
R C P C O V E R S T O R Y | M A R C H I N G O R D E R S
Mobility, which is generating less buzz, looks to be an opportunity of $1.2 trillion. By my math, mobility is thus roughly six times larger—but generating so much less noise. Don’t fall for the noise: Focus on what’s really important, which is delivering a consistent user experience across any device. That’s the real opportunity, and what users are clamoring for.
Social Local Mobile Commerce Liz Eversoll CEO, SLM Technology LLCThe writing is on the wall, the message is on your mobile … there will be 20 billion connected devices by 2020 or roughly three devices for every person on the planet.
Your mobile device will be the entry to your digital world, which authenticates your identity; manages your roles in life; connects you with friends, matches, brands, locations and communities; secures your wallet, health records, fi nancial records; centralizes your coupon books, reward cards and other discounts; informs you with helpful content, recommendations and referrals; manages your schedule, to dos, preferences and behavior-tracking; knows your location and intent based on this information; and entertains you, among other things.
Social commerce, a $300 billion market, has many aspects and tools including social shopping, social advertising, social media, social networks, group buying, fl ash sales and many others. The winners will create a social, local, mobile and highly personalized experience based on a consumer’s location, intent, and preferences and validated by their trusted community, resulting in consumer purchases. Don’t miss the message.
Use Mobility as a Cloud ‘Trigger Point’Keith Lubner Managing Partner, Channel Consulting Corp. & RCP ColumnistThroughout 2011 we worked with a lot of resellers who were
making the move to the cloud. The successful ones had multiple cloud products in the portfolio that they could leverage when engaging with a customer. The key became fi nding the customer “trigger point” when it came to the cloud solutions. A key trigger point for resellers in 2012 will be mobility because it will enable conversations with prospects on so many levels and because the market for mobility management services (think mobile apps, device management, content, security, policy controls, network services and so on) is predicted to experience tremendous growth. Most organizations will have these devices in one form or another. Make mobility part of your portfolio and it will surely enable you to sell more cloud solutions across the portfolio.
ISVSWindows 8 and the XAML Investment
Andrew BrustFounder, Blue Badge Insights & Visual Studio Magazine ColumnistFor 2012, watch Windows 8, and keep an eye on Windows Phone, too. Then think hard about XAML, and how its dots are connect-ing. This is the year that Microsoft will fi ght back with a serious tablet play, and XAML is Redmond’s common thread between the tablet, the phone and the classic Windows desktop. XAML inside Silverlight for today’s Windows browser and desktop; XAML and Silverlight for Windows Phone 7, XAML and the Windows Runtime for Windows 8 and some fl avor of XAML for Windows Phone 8.
But Windows 8 isn’t partial to XAML. It speaks HTML5, too, and so does the rest of the industry. People are worried about Silverlight’s longevity, and Windows Phone has only fl edgling market share. Is XAML a sucker’s bet? The trick here is to be cognizant of legacy while being vigilantly future-facing. You’ll be supporting Windows 7 for a long time, and you must start breaking in Windows 8. You need something to connect them, other than your bottom. XAML is that thing.
Get Ready to Leverage the Microsoft StackDr. Petri SalonenFounder & CEO, Tellus International & Former IAMCP PresidentOne of the most exciting waves by far in software technology is the cloud and what it enables for software vendors from an innova-tion perspective.
Based on our work with ISVs, lots of organizations have already made a decision that their solutions need to be supported by a true multi-tenant cloud architecture. What we also see is that many orga-nizations haven’t realized the combination of the cloud and mobility. This is where we think that Microsoft partners will be specifi cally in a strong position during 2012, and we expect to see new ways of using the cloud with a mobile device.
Microsoft with the Windows Azure platform is one of the few vendors that enable development of solutions that are enterprise-ready. Applications can be integrated within the cloud and this combined information is consumed by mobility users providing a seamless user experience.
“A key trigger point for resellers in 2012 will be
mobility because it will enable conversations with prospects on so many levels and because the
market for mobility management services is predicted to experience
tremendous growth.” Keith Lubner, Managing Partner,
Channel Consulting Corp. & RCP Columnist
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Redmond Channel Partner JANUARY 2012 RCPmag.com20
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Percolating Partner PowerMike HarvathCEO, Revenue Rocket Consulting Group & RCP ColumnistIt looks to us that 2012 could be a year in which we begin to see the emergence of a more activist partner community. This activ-ism is being driven by:
1. Ongoing spending by corporate America in pursuit of productivity gains2. Ferocious competition among IT services companies for that spending3. The voracious appetite among partners for new avenues of intellectual, fi nancial and operational capital
The three signs of this activism are: fi rst, the continuing trend for mergers and acquisitions as companies seek to fortify themselves with greater presence and clout in the market; second, a movement to collaborate with other partners as IT services executives seek to extend their reach by creating a network of their own to sell their new IP product or service; and third, a call for their vendors to pony up more fi nancial and marketing assistance.
This activism is a good sign. It means that IT executives are optimistic about the future, and they’re willing and eager to fi nd ways to keep up the “Big Mo.”
Partners Partnering to Win TogetherJon RoskillCorporate Vice President, Worldwide Partner Group, MicrosoftPartners partnering together to accelerate their businesses is not a new idea—in fact, it was the core point behind the “N” in MPN … Partner Network! MPN eff orts over the past year have concen-trated on bringing line-of-business-focused solution partners together with infrastructure partners or Business Intelligence partners connecting with Web design shops.
As we head into 2012, the cloud is going to be the big accelerator and partners actively working the expansion of their own “partner network” are going to be the ones that win big.
So how do you get going at expanding your partner network? A great place to start is the local IAMCP chapter. The IAMCP aims to help people and companies in the Microsoft ecosystem broaden their base of business opportunities within their own communities and around the world through partnering among IAMCP members.
Engage Deeply in the MPNJulie BennaniGeneral Manager, Worldwide Partner Group, MicrosoftWe learned from an IDC study in March 2011 that partners who connect more broadly and deeply in the MPN had 28 percent greater revenue per employee and 68 percent larger deal sizes. Partners should look at how their organization and people can maximize the value in MPN for their businesses. Are you taking advantage of the enhanced Internal Use Rights (IUR) for Microsoft software and services? Are all your people taking advantage of our Partner Learning Paths (role-based) and Sales Success System to keep their skills and expertise current and of the highest quality? Have you engaged in Business Model Transformation workshops to help move your business to the cloud? Are you engaged and taking advantage of our solution incentives? We strongly encour-age you to look for ways to engage more deeply with the MPN to help you derive more business opportunities in 2012.
Work Collectively with Your Government AdvocatesPer WerngrenOwner & CEO, Idenet AB & Former IAMCP PresidentIt is very important that bureaucrats and legislators meet with people that represent small and midsize enterprises (SMEs). SMEs form the backbone of the economy in all parts of the world. Collectively we employ more people than all the big com-panies together—and it’s within SMEs that jobs are created!
While we’re all very busy driving our businesses, trips like a meeting in 2011 between IAMCP SME Union and members of the European Parliament can be productive. We found that we were warmly welcomed in the aisles of power because they wanted to hear what we had to say. The agenda we used, with topics such as how governments can support the diff usion of cloud computing or support intellectual property protection, can be easily replicated in other regions.
“As we head into 2012, the cloud is going to be the big
accelerator and partners actively working the expansion of their
own ‘partner network’ are going to be the ones that win big.”
Jon Roskill, Corporate Vice President, Worldwide Partner Group,
Microsoft
RCPmag.com JANUARY 2012 Redmond Channel Partner 21
Find Your Place to ThriveBarb LevisayOwner, Marketing for Partners & RCP ColumnistAbout three years from now, your business isn’t going to be the same as it is today. It’s not just the cloud. It’s unimaginable quantities of data, instant global communication and fl at-world competition. No matter what size partner you might be, the time has come to fi gure out how your business will adapt.
Take a critical look at the strengths and weaknesses of your orga-nization. How can you apply those strengths to emerging business models? How can you phase out those parts of the organization that serve declining markets? Defi ne your vision for the direction of the company based on your strengths.
Then, explain it to your employees. Even if they haven’t said it, your employees are wondering how the company will adapt to the changing market. If you have the right people, they want to help you build the next-gen company.
Listen to SMB CustomersCindy BatesVice President, U.S. Small and Medium Sized Businesses, Microsoft Operating under the assumption that a product or service is right for a customer prior to conducting a needs analysis only robs the partner of the opportunity to form a strategic, consultative relationship and the customer of the right solution for its business requirements. Continue to listen to your customers in 2012 and work to address the specifi c needs of that business no matter their size and consider options such as Windows Intune and Offi ce 365 as possible solutions.
We want to equip our customers in 2012 to make the right decision for their businesses. I encourage partners to visit the Microsoft Ready-To-Go Marketing portal to easily fi nd content and resources that will help them eff ectively plan and execute their marketing eff orts and communicate with small to midsize businesses (SMBs) of all sizes.
Key Words: Vision, Clarity, FatigueKen ThoresonPresident, Acumen Management Group & RCP ColumnistAs I look in to my crystal ball, three words keep spinning up: Vision, Clarity, Fatigue. As leaders, each of us must have a vision of success for the New Year. Have you defi ned both short- and long-term levels of success? Clarity means that everyone in the organization can clearly articulate your value proposition—and that it separates you from your competition. From a leadership position, clarity means that the vision for the organization is clearly understood by everyone and the operational, marketing and sales tactics required to achieve the objectives are understood and expectations of accountability are clear. As for fatigue, the past few years have been challenging for everyone, with layoff s, budget cuts, tougher competition and general stress. The leader-ship team in a partner organization has to fi ght malaise by making sure there’s a focus on culture, fun, excitement and team building. Do you have a fun organizational 2012 kick-off meeting planned?
Refocus on Marketing FundamentalsM.H. (Mac) McIntoshPresident and Senior Consultant, Mac McIntosh Inc.The keys to success with driving leads and sales today is engaging prospective customers, then helping them move forward in their buying process. Here’s how:
Use lower-cost-per-touch marketing to address the earlier steps in the buying process; create awareness, generate inquiries and nurture them until they’re sales ready. Change your marketing and sales processes to match your prospect’s buying processes, instead of trying to make your prospects fi t your sales process. Stay in sight and top of mind. One-shot campaigns rarely work, so use ongoing, multi-touch marketing campaigns instead. Make the right off ers (calls-to-action) designed specifi cally to engage prospects at diff erent stages of their buying process, and to move them forward in their buying process. Relevant content is critical to your success. You need it to be found on the search engines and in social media and to use as off ers or calls to action designed to get prospects to engage.
Get Creative in 2012Darren Bibby Program Director, Software Channels Research, IDCMicrosoft partners should consider how they can do something to stand out in the crowd in 2012.
In my role as a channels analyst, I talk to a lot of interesting partners every year. No two are the same. All these companies are doing some great things. But every once in a while you spot a really cool idea. Here’s an example I love:
• Derek Sardo of Rolling Thunder Inc. co-hosts a drive-time weekly radio call-in show called “The Computer Clinic” in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He’s fantastic at it. And he has barely needed sales or marketing staff in the last seven years he’s been doing it—he gets so many leads based on the show. •
“We want to equip our customers in 2012 to make the right decision for their
businesses.”Cindy Bates,
Vice President, U.S. Small and Medium Sized Businesses,
Microsoft
Redmond Channel Partner JANUARY 2012 RCPmag.com22
R C P F E AT U R E | W I N D O W S 8 H A R D W A R E
Millions of developers are evaluating the Windows 8 Developer Preview, unleashed by Microsoft at its BUILD conference this past September.
While the Developer Preview has been out for several months, perhaps you’re ready to give it a spin, maybe to build some apps or just to get the feel of Windows 8 and its brand-new Metro interface.
The ultimate experience of Windows 8 will come from a new crop of machines that are being designed specifi cally for the new OS but
Microsoft has indicated that many existing PCs will be upgradable as well. You might be surprised to know there are more than a handful of Windows 7 systems—both desktops and portables—that have touch interfaces.
Back at the Windows 8 Developer Preview launch, Steven Sinofsky, president of the Microsoft Windows and Windows Live division, published a list of machines that are in the company’s test labs. Sinofsky emphasized that these are by no means recommended, certifi ed or
THE HARDWARE
Inside the Microsoft Windows 8 development labs, the company had a few dozen PCs and other peripheral devices used to test its fi rst preview of its new OS and Metro interface. These are a few of them. By Jeff rey Schwartz
WINDBEHIND
The HP Slate 500 provides a pretty straight-forward reference platform for comparing Windows 8 builds against other tablets.
Touch-enabled, the Lenovo ThinkPad X220T might provide what enterprises are seeking for their information workers.
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PREVIEWNDOWSDEVELOPER
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devices with a Microsoft logo, but rather a view of what the company has been using to build and test Windows 8 Developer Preview.
“We think if you’re looking to experience some of the latest scenarios and aspects of Windows 8 before there are purpose-built Windows 8 machines, this is a good start,” Sinofsky wrote.
If you want to use hardware that Microsoft has already tested before releasing the developer build, it makes sense to consider those machines. Sinofsky also emphasized that the list he published is
not an exhaustive inventory of hardware in the lab and surely more systems have since worked their way in.
The following is a glimpse of some of those on the list. But you should keep in mind that just because these machines are in Microsoft labs, there’s no guarantee they’ll be optimal for the fi nal shipping version of Windows 8.
Some of them are relatively new machines and are easy to procure, while others are several years old and have been discontinued by the vendors.
The Samsung Series 7XE700T1A is a hefty tablet with an optional dock.
With the Dell Latitude 6420, the Windows 8 Developer Preview gets the ruggedized test.
The Asus Eee Slate EP121 comes bundled with a wireless keyboard and supports digital ink.
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R C P F E AT U R E | W I N D O W S 8 H A R D W A R E
HP SLATE 500Back in 2010, just a week before the introduction of the fi rst Apple iPad, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer famously demonstrated a prototype tablet from Hewlett-Packard Co. that he promised would
ultimately usher in a new crop of such devices designed to run Windows 7. Well, that didn’t quite come to pass as planned. Not only did HP drag its feet on promoting that device and bringing it to market, but it ultimately acquired Palm Inc. for $1.2 billion and announced plans to develop a tablet on that company’s platform webOS. And then suddenly the company went dark on its plans for a Windows-based slate. Meanwhile, millions of iPads shipped.
Ultimately, though, the company delivered the HP Slate 500 six months after the release of the iPad. Weighing in at 1.5 pounds, the HP Slate 500 has an 8.9-inch diagonal LED-backlit WSVGA wide-viewing angle display supporting 1024x600 or 1024x768, depending on the app. It’s powered by an Intel Atom Processor Z540, 2GB of RAM, a 64GB solid state fl ash drive, an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 500 and a Broadcom Chrystal HD Enhanced Video Accelerator.
Peripheral support includes one USB 2.0 port, an SD slot, a built-in 3MP outward-facing camera and an inward facing VGA webcam. Networking interfaces include 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth. HP claims a battery life of 5 hours. It comes loaded with the 32-bit version of Windows 7 Professional.
HP has recently upgraded this device with the new HP Slate 2 Tablet PC. With a similar form factor, it has a more powerful Intel Atom Z670 processor, improved touch, improved local wireless support (WLAN and Bluetooth) and compatibility and optional mobile broadband support. HP also improved power management in the upgraded system, saying it supports up to 7.5 hours of usage.
If you want to go with the unit running in Microsoft labs when Windows 8 Developer Preview was built, the HP Slate 500 starts at $799. Actually, the newer model costs less; the HP Slate 2 starts at $699.
ACER ASPIRE 1420PBack in November of 2009, attendees of the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in Los Angeles received all of the test soft-ware the company was giving out on an Acer Aspire
1420P. Suffi ce it to say, there are probably more than a handful of developers that probably still have this system around. So it’s not surprising to learn that at least one of them is in Microsoft labs as well.
The Aspire 1420P is a convertible with an 11.6-inch multi-touch display powered by a 1.2 GHz Intel Celeron processor. While it starts with 1GB of RAM, it’s upgradeable to a healthy 8GB. Storage options include either a 250GB or 320GB hard drive. The version given out at PDC had a 250GB drive, 2GB of RAM running Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit edition.
Acer built this machine with either a 1366x768 resolution WXGA display or a 1024x600 resolution LCD, though PDC attendees received units with the higher-res HD display. It weighs 3.8 pounds.
Equipped with a 6-cell lithium ion battery pack, Acer has rated this machine at 8 hours of battery life. It’s available with or without 3G broadband communications, supports 802.11 b/g WiFi communications as well as Bluetooth 2.1.
Of course, while Windows 7 isn’t a touch-fi rst OS, the Windows 7 Sensor Location Platform allows users to switch between landscape and portrait modes and allows apps to adapt based on the whereabouts of the device, as determined by GPS sensors and other communications devices.
LENOVO THINKPAD X220TThe ThinkPad line is popular with enterprise users, especially the X-Series line. The Lenovo X220 convertible is less than a year old and is available in a wide variety of confi gurations.
At the CPU level, users can opt for an Intel Core i3, i5 or high-end i7 processor and a variety of storage options, ranging from solid state drives to traditional hard drives in diff erent speeds and sizes. It can hold up to 8GB of RAM.
The X220T is touch-enabled, designed to accept input from a pen or fi ngers and is designed to switch from laptop to tablet mode by just twisting the display panel. Lenovo says the X220T can run up to 15 hours on a single charge when using its 9-cell battery. This model
DISPLAYS FOR DEVELOPERSWhile most of the devices initially in the Microsoft test labs are PCs, the developers also have a few external displays as well.
The two that stood out were the Planar PX2230MW 22-inch optical multi-touch monitor and the 3M Multi-touch Display M2256PW.
The Planar PX2230MW is an active matrix 1920x1080 HD monitor with a 1,000:1 contrast ratio, a response-time rating of 5ms and a horizontal viewing angle of 170 degrees. It has both analog VGA and digital inputs. Planar said the monitor is designed to work with the touch interfaces of Windows 7.
The 3M model is also 22 inches and is based on the company’s 3M Projected Capacitive Technology, which supports multi-touch capabilities with 6 ms response time for 20 simultaneous touches. 3M says that equates to accurate touch response over the entire touch surface.
According to the company, it also incorporates 3M PCT Multi-touch Technology, which has received Windows Touch Additional Qualifi cation (AQ) for multi-touch interactivity. —J.S.
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is available in both standard laptop and tablet editions, though those wanting to test Windows 8 will naturally want to get their hands on the latter. Pricing for the tablet version starts at $1,200.
LENOVO THINKPAD T41If you’re partial to the ThinkPad line of notebooks but the X200T is too small for your taste and portability isn’t a primary concern, the older T410 can also be used to test the Windows 8 Developer
Preview. Not all T410s have a touchscreen display, which cost $400 extra at the time of its release back in mid-2010.
The T410 weighs about 5 pounds and comes with a 14.1-inch display in either WXGA 1280x800 or WXGA+ 1440x900. It’s available with either an Intel Core i5 processor or an i7. Although not in the Microsoft labs, at least initially, a 15-inch T510 model is marketed with the T410, with the diff erence primarily being the display size.
It supports up to 6GB of memory or as little as 2GB and is available with either a hard disk drive up to 500GB or an SSD up to 128GB. Lenovo has since upgraded this machine to the T420, which had a starting price of $747.
SAMSUNG SERIES 7 XE700T1A When many people think of Samsung, PCs and tablets are not the fi rst thing to come to mind. Let’s face it, the company is best known for its plasma TVs, computer displays and its smartphones these days.
Samsung does have a line of PCs and tablets and they gained some prominence back in September when Microsoft gave out a model specifi cally developed by the company loaded with the Windows 8 Developer Preview at BUILD.
To be sure, Samsung is not a newbie to tablets, the company’s Galaxy Tab devices running the Google Android OS have had marginal success as well.
If you weren’t one of the lucky 5,000 developers attending BUILD and don’t have a Windows tablet, the Samsung Series 7 XE700T1A is certainly worthy of consideration. This tablet has an 11.6-inch 1366 x 768 HD LED backlit touch display, powered by an Intel Core i5-2467M processor and Intel HD Graphics 3000 chip.
It has a 64GB solid state drive, comes with 4GB of RAM (maximum capacity), a 2MP front webcam and 3MP rear camera, 802.11 a/b/g/n WiFi, one USB port, a micro SD slot and an HDMI port.
For a tablet it’s a bit on the heavy side, weighing in at just a tad under 2 pounds and is available in four versions starting at $1,100. Samsung off ers an optional dock for $100 as well. A higher-end version of the XE700T1A is available for $1,349 with 128GB of SSD storage. This device is available in the channel.
ASUS EEE SLATE EP121A few years ago, you’d be hard pressed to fi nd custom-ers in the United States familiar with ASUSTek Computer Inc. (Asus). The Taipei-based company quickly came to prominence with its reliable netbooks,
which among other things were popular for their long battery life and lightweight form factor. These days, Asus is a familiar alterna-tive brand with a broad set of PCs. And that includes tablets.
The Asus Eee Slate EP121 was released a year ago and is one of two Asus PCs Microsoft has in its Windows 8 labs. The system runs on an Intel Core i5 470um/ HM55 processor and features a 12.1-inch Wacom digital pen-enabled multi-touch display.
Although Asus machines are popular for their long battery lives, this machine doesn’t share that attribute. The four-cell battery is rated at a mere 4.5 hours. It’s available with either a 32GB or 64GB solid state drive, 2GB or 4GB of RAM and one 2 MP camera.
DELL LATITUDE 6420If you want to give Windows 8 a try in a tough envi-ronment where a little more size isn’t a drawback, the Latitude 6420 should be a suitable alternative. It’s available with an Intel Core i5 or i7 processor
and sports a 14-inch display. Its higher-end LCD off ers 1600x900 resolution with an anti-glare display.
The Latitude 6420 is available with a large 256GB solid state drive or 500GB hard disk drive. It has an optical drive, accommodates up to 8GB of RAM and is marketed by Dell as a machine for those looking for rugged performance. Our sister publication, Government Computer News, ranked it as one of the 11 best products in 2011.
HP TOUCHSMART 610HP was the first to make a splash with its touch-enabled TouchSmart desktops several years back. While it was based on HP’s own touch interfaces, it’s a good sign that at least one TouchSmart model, the 610,
seems to be in line with where Microsoft is headed with Windows 8.This all-in-one desktop has a modern look. Based on a 23-inch
widescreen 1080p HD display, it can be mounted on a wall. This machine is available with an Intel Core i7 quad-core processor,
accommodates up to 16GB or RAM and comes with a 1TB hard drive (a 2TB option is available as well). It’s available with a variety of graphics cards, either 1GB or 2GB. A recent upgrade, the 620, adds 3-D support.
DELL INSPIRON DUOIf you’re looking for a low-cost convertible, the Dell Inspiron Duo starts at $500 and functions both as a netbook and a tablet device.
The Dell Inspiron Duo is small with a 10.1-inch HD display and is powered by a dual core Intel Atom N570 processor, 2GB or RAM and a 320GB SATA hard drive. Its four-cell battery gets just under 4 hours of battery life.
While this machine is defi nitely a compromise over some other systems in this roundup, its price tag and multipurpose form factor will appeal to those not wanting to spend a fortune for a convertible. •
Jeff rey Schwartz is Redmond Channel Partner’s executive editor.
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R C P F E AT U R E | D Y N A M I C S
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Ava Idom, president of AIM Solutions Inc., plans to support on-premises Dynamics customers for years, but has added third-party Software as a Service off erings for ERP in the cloud.
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s cloud solutions mature and businesses build their understanding of options, Dynamics VARs are faced with a growing dilemma. How to compete with Software as a Service (SaaS) ERP solutions when there’s no clear equivalent for
them in the Dynamics product line. In response, an increasing number of Dynamics ERP partners are looking to add competing SaaS ERP packages to their services offerings. Could this be a wakeup call for Microsoft?
“We had clients come to us looking for a cloud solution written in Azure which we couldn’t off er through Dynamics,” says Ava Idom, president of Dallas-based AIM Solutions Inc. “A hosted solution and cloud solution are not the same. I think we’re on a tipping point and people are understanding the cloud. They don’t have to put in all the hardware, all they need is a browser.”
After Microsoft touted the Windows Azure cloud and how effi cient it was going to be, Idom was anxious to deliver those benefi ts to her clients. Adding the Acumatica SaaS ERP, which was highlighted on the main stage at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference as a Windows Azure solution, to the AIM Solutions product set seemed
the natural choice. “Acumatica is built on the Azure platform, which was an important part of our decision,” Idom says. “We are Microsoft-born-and-bred here. We’re not doing Microsoft a disservice because we’re still on the Microsoft platform.”
Idom believes that the SaaS market is moving past just the early adopters and into the mainstream. “We have as many leads in the pipeline for Acumatica as we do for Dynamics, and this year we’ll implement an equal number of projects for each product,” Idom adds.
That’s not to say that AIM will abandon the Dynamics on-premises product line. With almost 200 Dynamics clients, AIM’s commitment to Dynamics will remain for some time to come.
WHAT IS MICROSOFT’S MESSAGE?Microsoft Dynamics ERP products are currently available through a partner-hosted model, with some partners offering licensing models that mimic SaaS. While arguably a cloud solu-tion for Dynamics ERP, it’s not a true SaaS deployment. The next major versions of all four Microsoft Dynamics ERP solutions are promised to be available for cloud-based deployment using the Windows Azure platform.
While waiting for Microsoft to put ERP cloud off erings online, some Dynamics partners have started padding their portfolios
with SaaS-based ERP solutions from other vendors.
By Barb Levisay
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R C P F E AT U R E | D Y N A M I C S
Microsoft’s public communication for customers interested in moving their ERP solutions to the cloud is a little foggy. The Cloud ERP Deployment page on the Microsoft Dynamics ERP main Web site refers to the partner-hosted deployment solution and includes the white paper, “The Future of Software-plus-Services for Microsoft Dynamics ERP.” The document is dated Nov. 17, 2009.
An excerpt from the white paper reveals that Microsoft recognized the need for cloud ERP two years ago, “At Microsoft, we believe that acceptance of cloud-based ERP applications will begin to accelerate as the systems become more readily available and as organizations increasingly discover that security is no longer a barrier to the many benefi ts cloud-delivered ERP systems can provide. We believe that companies will soon begin to understand the effi ciencies of cloud-based applications and will begin to demand that ever more robust ERP applications be delivered through the cloud.”
With that 2009 forecast, it’s not surprising that partners are impatient for Microsoft to deliver on the promise of true SaaS Dynamics ERP soon.
Customers looking for guidance on the Microsoft ERP cloud strategy on the Microsoft Dynamics Marketplace—the partner profi le site—will be challenged to fi nd many answers there. The Cloud Computing search delivers two results for partner applications, two for professional
services and one for company. Not a strong showing for customers who come looking for a cloud ERP solution from Microsoft.
If partners are getting requests from their prospects, it seems likely that Microsoft customers and prospects are searching the Microsoft Dynamics Web sites for guidance. With no more current information on the Microsoft Web site to guide customers interested in a Dynamics SaaS solution, it’s not surprising that partners are looking to other vendors to fi ll the void.
PARTNERS REACT TO CLIENT NEEDSDynamics is the cornerstone of the Washington, D.C.-based Raff a Inc. technology group practice, led by Seth Zarny, a Raff a partner.
“As a forward-looking professional consulting firm we always have to be evaluating our off erings and the markets that we’re in,” Zarny says. “The perception as a gold competent ERP partner is that we have a huge investment in ERP. We need reputable strong products that the vendor will stand behind. Dynamics absolutely fi ts that bill. We’re always going to be supporting and actively promoting Dynamics.”
“But, there is room in the market for other options. Adopting a pure SaaS solution is attractive to some smaller percentage of our client base. These solutions are younger than the traditional on-premises solutions and have certain strengths and weaknesses but it seemed appropriate to at least consider and adopt,” Zarny says.
After researching its options, Raffa chose to add Intacct to the company’s product line. “There was a maturity level that Intacct had
achieved that made it worth consideration and that we were willing to adopt after full review. Keeping in line with powerful, dependable functionality, we felt that Intacct had gotten to the point where it had the capabilities that made it an appropriate selection for us to off er to our clients,” Zarny says.
PRODUCT DIVERSITY AND THE DYNAMICS CHANNELDuring the 1990s it was unusual for an accounting systems VAR to represent only one product. Some combination of Macola, Great Plains, Solomon, Platinum, Sage and a few others were supported by each VAR. The intention was to provide the prospect with multiple choices as they were evaluating accounting packages, without forcing them to look to more than one VAR.
That multiple vendor model began to change in the late 1990s with vendor pressure to unload competing ERP products and focus marketing and consulting teams on a single solution. After Microsoft’s acquisition of Great Plains/Solomon in 2000 and Axapta/Navision in 2001, Dynamics ERP partners agreed and were ready to embrace the promise of a full Microsoft stack.
In the past, Microsoft has made concerted eff orts to deliver solutions to diversify the ERP solutions set for Dynamics partners. In 2002,
Microsoft CRM v1.2 was promoted to Dynamics (Microsoft Business Solutions at the time) partners as an extension from the back offi ce to the front, expanding the service footprint into customers. An immature product and a new market approach was challenging for all involved but over time, Dynamics CRM has become a valuable addition for many Dynamics ERP partners.
SharePoint was the next expansion product promoted to Dynamics partners. Because business process re-engineering is a big part of the ERP implementation process, the workfl ow and document manage-ment components of SharePoint seemed a perfect fi t. While some partners—generally larger ones—have found SharePoint to be a tremendous business builder, the legacy Dynamics mom-and-pop shops don’t have the technical resources to support SharePoint.
Now that the cloud has become a driving force in the business solutions marketplace, partners who have been waiting for Microsoft to lead them to the new frontier are getting anxious. They’ve bet the farm on Microsoft’s ability to deliver the solutions that customers want to buy.
WHAT PARTNERS WANTFrederick, Md.-based KTL Solutions Inc.’s leadership team is currently evaluating adding a cloud-based ERP solution to its practice. KTL Solutions CEO Tim Lally says, “We’re looking for a true cloud off ering and a company that’s more innovative.”
Gary Francart, director of sales and marketing at KTL, adds, “We need to be able to serve the small business market instead of walking
“I think we are on a tipping point and people are understanding the cloud. They don’t have to put in all the hardware, all they need is a browser.” Ava Idom, President, AIM Solutions Inc.
RCPmag.com JANUARY 2012 Redmond Channel Partner 29
away from those deals. We’re getting questions from the fi ve and under customers and they want an ERP solution that fi ts in their budget. We need a SaaS solution to be competitive in that market.”
As they evaluate the options in the SaaS market, Lally is looking primarily at functionality to deliver to the customer. But other factors weigh in on the decision as well. “We’re a looking at factors like whether
the vendor competes with the channel.” Lally says. “Availability of good tech support is huge—and the ability to customize the solution.”
Of the leading ERP SaaS solutions, SAP Business byDesign, Intacct and Accumatica appear to be garnering the most interest from partners. NetSuite is often mentioned as a product that was considered, but discarded early in the process based on perceptions of direct channel confl ict.
Brittenford Systems Inc., based in Reston, Va., evaluated multiple solutions—including NetSuite—when their customers started requesting a SaaS solution. Brittenford CEO Shereen Mahoney
says, “Many of our prospects were interested in a cloud solution. We lost a deal that we’d been working for a long time to Intacct. We needed to provide a solution in addition to the hosted Dynamics solutions as an off ering.”
As a member of the Dynamics SL advisory board, Mahoney reached out to another member who had added Intacct to their solution set. With the positive feedback from an active partner and the endorsement from the American Institute of CPAs, Brittenford chose to add Intacct as their SaaS ERP solution.
“We’re meeting a business need. We needed to off er a cloud solution in addition to hosted Dynamics. Now we offer Dynamics hosted, on-premises and Intacct,” Mahoney says.
Brittenford continues to leverage the full Microsoft stack and off er additional services related to Dynamics, whether that’s SharePoint or CRM or analytics. Intacct is a further complementary service for their client base. “As a trusted advisor for the client we provide full services for our Dynamics clients and all the systems that they touch,” Mahoney says.
From the vendor perspective the Dynamics channel is a great fi t. Doug Johnson, vice president of marketing for Bethesda, Md.-based Acumatica is pleased with the interest that Dynamics partners are showing in its product. “Acumatica is a great solution for partners looking to add a Web-based solution to their bag of tricks,” Johnson says. “There’s some confusion about the about cloud and Web. What customers are looking for is Web-based and not cloud-based.”
Johnson says that the overriding theme his company hears from Dynamics partners contacting it about its partner program is that they have a customer who wants a Web-based solution. Because Acumatica is built on the Microsoft .NET Framework and optimized for Microsoft SQL Server, it’s easier to support for the Microsoft channel.
MERGING SAASAdding a new solution to a partner organization with limited resources is not a small undertaking. Consultants must learn func-tionality and fi t of new solutions for specifi c client requirements, sales teams need to get up to speed and company messaging has to be updated.
In the early stages of adoption, partners are cross-training the consulting teams rather than hiring new solution specialists. The business process and accounting skills that Dynamics ERP consultants already possess can be applied across applications. The SaaS vendors compress training to minimize the interruption in productivity for functional training.
A benefi t from SaaS solutions for both the customer and the service partner is the reduction of time that has to be spent on the supporting technology. At AIM Solutions, the company is fi nding that the ability to focus on function is an advantage. Idom says, “I’m now more of an
advisor to the client instead of a fi xer to the client. Clients are getting more involved in how their product works because of the economy. They have to make their software work for them because they’re not hiring people. And, with the price point so much lower, clients are willing to spend more on services.”
As for sales and marketing, partners are rolling the new applica-tion off erings into their current eff orts as opposed to targeting new markets. Brittenford’s Mahoney says, “Our goal has always been to help our customers fi nd the best solution to meet their needs. So, we’re marketing to prospects that are looking for a new system and then present them with their options.”
That’s a strategy that sounds very similar to where partners started in the 1990s. •
Barb Levisay owns Marketing for Partners, a marketing and service delivery leadership fi rm for Microsoft Dynamics, SharePoint and ISV partners. She also writes the Marketing Matters blog on RCPmag.com.
“We need to be able to serve the small business market instead of walking away from those deals. We need a SaaS solution to be competitive in that market.” Gary Francart, Director of Sales and Marketing, KTL Solutions Inc.
Of the leading ERP SaaS solutions, SAP Business byDesign, Intacct and Accumatica appear to be garnering the most interest from partners.
Redmond Channel Partner JANUARY 2012 RCPmag.com30
It was 30 years ago this past August that IBM introduced its fi rst PC. IBM’s was not the fi rst PC, but it did validate and launch an industry. IBM had a policy challenge, in
that nobody but IBM was allowed to sell IBM—so how was the company going to allow Sears Business Centers, Nynex and ComputerLand do so? The solution was to sell the IBM PC to these companies and allow them not to “sell” them, but to
“resell” them, thus creating a new sales channel that would quickly come to be known as “the reseller channel” and, later,
“the channel.”Today we talk about the channel with
an innate fondness. For many of us, it’s where we grew up, where we built our own personal business networks and rode a business roller coaster for the past 30 years.
Change: The Only ConstantIt is said that the only constant is change, and the channel has been no exception. Part of what has kept it so engaging for so many is that there is always constant change.
This column is about those changes, how they impact all of us in the channel, hopefully with some good insight into how we should react and respond to changes as they occur. Taken in the context of the history of our industry, we will work together to learn the lessons of the past so we don’t have to repeat them. We’ll examine the infl uences and events that are constantly remolding and reshaping
our channel, and hopefully gain insight into our best strategies for surviving and thriving within all that change.
Is It Still a Channel?One of the issues I’ll address in coming installments of this series is whether the Microsoft partner channel is really still a channel at all. About three decades ago, most people entering this channel were there to sell hardware and software products on behalf of manufacturers and software publishers. It wasn’t long before a few resellers began to discount heavily causing profi t margins to spiral down-ward. A few recognized early that the key to ongoing success would be to sell and deliver the services that surrounded these products. They started by selling
“product-attached” services along with every hardware sale, such as confi gura-tion, installation and maintenance. Soon they were recommending consultative and supporting services.
Today, many IT fi rms have decided to cease selling products at all, preferring to refer a qualifi ed fulfi llment partner to supply the products needed. By taking no profi t from the sale of products, they hope to distance themselves from responsibility for the performance of those products.
Many of these solution providers who have walked away from product sales over
the past decade are no longer in business. While shedding the costs of credit for their customers and tissue-thin margins on the products they also severed the important strategic bond between them and the principal manufacturers whose products they originally went into business to represent and support. Without those relationships they lost their true diff er-entiators, the strategic advantages that separated them from their competition. If you’re not selling a manufacturer’s products then you’re not a true reseller or any other kind of sales channel. As more and more channel fi rms move away from product sales, does the channel cease to truly be a channel?
We’ll talk with VARs who say yes, we’re still a channel, and with consultants who will likely ask why that matters. We’ll learn about what specifi c manufacturers, software publishers, distributors, service providers and others expect from the channel and how well they feel they’re serving the channel and how well the channel is serving them.
While some are busy fi guring out new ways to move more products to more customers, others are marching headlong toward becoming true professional service practices. Which are you? Where are you headed? What would you like to know? I hope you’ll participate and make The Changing Channel a thriving dialogue about our business, our home, our channel. •
Howard M. Cohen is a consultant to IT vendors and channel partner companies and a former board member of the U.S. chapter of the IAMCP. You can reach him at [email protected].
THE CHANGING CHANNEL B Y H O W A R D M . C O H E N
Is There Stilla Channel?
VISIT RCPMAG.COM FOR MORE OF COHEN’S PERSPECTIVE ON THE 30-YEAR PROGRESSION IN THE CHANNEL
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One of the issues I’ll address in coming installments of this series is whether the Microsoft partner channel is really still a channel at all.
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We’ve been getting more requests of late from the partner community asking us to help them rethink
and rework their relationships, both with their vendor network as well as within the broad partner network—that is, working and collaborating with other partners. It seems that the constantly evolving IT industry is causing some angst among channel partners as they look for new ways to compete in the future.
This level of concern was brought home by a presentation I attended recently given by Peter O’Neill of Forrester Research. O’Neill spoke about some research the company conducted in which they identifi ed an affl iction they called “cloud identity disorder.” This was defi ned as “the confusion and fear about their (and their partners’) place in the cloud computing demand chain and doubt about tech vendors’ abilities and intentions to help them transform their business.”
It seems that the “the vast major-ity of channel partners are confused, disoriented and fearful about how cloud computing will impact their business.” Of concern to the partner community is their belief that “they’re not getting much help or guidance from their vendor partners.”
What intrigued me about this research is our experience that this confusion and fear
on the part of partners goes well beyond whatever they think they’re getting or not getting from their vendors about cloud computing. There’s a broad-based and legitimate concern about their ability to work with their vendors in general.
We’re constantly asked by our clients, how do we manage our vendors going forward? How do we manage up in work-ing with Microsoft and others? How do we better optimize our relationship with these folks? How do we get more out of them? What’s the best way to work with them? How do we get our fair share of leads?
The research they did put some numbers behind these issues. For example, to the question, “What would you value most from your vendor partners?” Forty-eight percent said
“protect our company’s territory from other partners”; 45 percent said “fi nance some of the cost of infrastructure”; 34 percent said “business model training”; and 31 percent said “marketing training.”
What this research reveals to us corroborates what we’re hearing as well, and that is, the fi ght for market share is intensifying, and as a result the costs for a share point of growth are getting frightfully more expensive. This explains the desire for territory protection, business model and marketing training and, of course, fi nancing.
It also explains why many partner fi rms are actively looking to extend
their reach by enlisting new partners themselves, or creating a new network of their own to sell their new IP product or service. What was most revealing in the research was the fi nding that more than 70 percent of channel partners indicated they collaborate with other channel partners. Of these 70 percent, what many are asking of us is how do we go about fi nding, evaluating, recruiting, managing, supporting and incenting new channel partners? How do we fi nd the fewer, better partners that will work on our behalf with the same focus and intensity as our own direct sales force? How do we help them become better at what they do? How do we bring value to them?
Channel management has been a staple growth strategy for IT companies from the beginning. However, like most things in the IT world, the partner ecosystem is constantly evolving, which makes managing current and new channels all the more challenging.
The old rules for channel management are just that … old. The blurring lines, the shifting priorities, the emerging new rela-tionships are demanding new rules, new models and new ways of managing your partner network, upward to your vendor and outward to your partner network.
The partner community is quite right to be expressing these sentiments, surfacing these issues and asking these questions. As Yogi Berra is purported to have said, “The future ain’t what it used to be.” And, from Peter Drucker, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” It seems like some partners are heeding this advice. •
Mike Harvath is CEO of Revenue Rocket Consulting Group, an IT services growth consultancy. You can reach him at [email protected].
ON GROW TH B Y M I K E H A R V A T H
The Cloud Gets EvenCloudier in the Channel
RCPMAG.COM: GO ONLINE FOR HARVATH’S SERIES ON M&A SUCCESS (AND FAILURE)
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The fi ght for market share is intensifying, and as a result the costs for a share point of growth are getting frightfully more expensive.
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Next Time: Principles of Partner Management
Redmond Channel Partner JANUARY 2012 RCPmag.com32
Application stores and marketplaces are becom-ing a popular means of distributing software and cloud-based apps for PCs
and mobile devices.Made popular by Apple Inc. with the
iTunes App Store, now it seems every major software and cloud provider has released one or has one in the works. App stores and marketplaces will be among market researcher Gartner Inc.’s top 10 strategic technologies for enterprises this year.
Gartner is predicting that app stores will facilitate 70 billion downloads of mobile apps per year by 2014. While it is primar-ily consumer-driven today, it will gain momentum for enterprise apps as well, according to Gartner. By 2015, Gartner is
predicting 60 percent of organizations will have their own private app stores.
Looking to capitalize on that trend, several vendors are rolling out new platforms that enable partners and enterprises to develop their own cloud-based marketplaces. Among them are FullArmor and Partnerpedia.
FullArmor recently launched the AppPortal Marketplace, which allows enterprises, ISVs, solution providers, distributors and bandwidth providers such as telcos to create their own app stores. It’s a cloud-based service that lets businesses that want to create their own app stores to provision and host them.
It provides the functions needed to create an app store or marketplace, including setup of storefronts and catalogs, checkout and billing, explains FullArmor CEO Rich Farrell. “It’s a turnkey system,” he says.
For enterprises, it provides a form of governance over the use of apps that can be procured through third-party app market-places, Farrell says. IT organizations have lost control over the procurement of such apps because many are free or low-cost, allowing end users to bypass IT.
That creates all sorts of issues ranging from system confi guration management to security to licensing. The AppPortal Marketplace creates an app store that IT can confi gure themselves for employees to use, while providing a chargeback and tracking mechanism, according to Farrell.
For ISVs, resellers, distributors and telcos, the marketplace allows them to host their own stores or create them for their customers.
AppPortal Marketplace is currently hosted on the Microsoft Windows Azure platform, though FullArmor plans to support other cloud services including those provided by Amazon.com Inc.,
VMware Inc. and others, Farrell says.The Partnerpedia Enterprise AppZone
also lets both enterprises and partners establish turnkey marketplaces for mobile apps. In its announcement this past fall, Partnerpedia talked up the centrally controlled app vetting, publish-ing, distribution and management capabilities of Enterprise AppZone. It also off ers security features such as virus detection, monitoring, policy manage-ment and the ability to perform remote wipes on devices.
Partners would be ill-advised to ignore the growing popularity of app stores. •
Jeff rey Schwartz is the executive editor of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.
CHANNELING THE CLOUD B Y J E F F R E Y S C H W A R T Z
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Check out The Schwartz Cloud Report blog at RCPmag.com/CloudReport
Gartner is predicting that app stores will facilitate 70 billion downloads of mobile apps per year by 2014.
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