By Simon Quicke
10 July 2008
Microsoft has used its partner conference in Houston to push its Software plus Services approach to the channel outlining details of how its model will work.
The vendor has doggedly stuck to its own version of the Software as a Service approach arguing that there still needs to be an element of software kept on the desktop.
But of course the channel needs details and those have been unveiled with those doubting that the software world is changing being encouraged to look at the difference in growth rates between traditional products, around 7% a year, and electronic distributed applications, at 30 to 40% a year.
Clare Barclay, director of partner programme and strategy at Microsoft UK, said that the channel had been waiting for details and they were now in a position to share the strategy.
“This is going to be a service sold by Microsoft available through partners with 18 percent of the subscription [going to the dealer]. At the reseller’s end there are lots of new opportunities,” she said.
She added that the vendor was being “a lot more concrete than it was before” and was trying to help resellers address the transition from on premise software to the cloud.
“As a vendor you have got to think what is next. But in a channel role if we can’t make it clear to partners then it will never become a reality,” she said.
The vendor unveiled its online services business model that offers a customers a choice of online applications including Exchange, Office Sharepoint, Office Communications and Office Live Meeting available for $15 per user as a package.
Reseller get 12 per cent of the first year contract and then six per cent of the ongoing fee, which totals the 18 per cent highlighted by Barclay.
Other announcements included the launch of a SAM optimisation model that is designed to help customers check their licensing requirements.
Michala Wardell, head of anti-piracy and licensing at Microsoft UK, said that the results of through SAM management was often savings for customers that were over-licensed.
