Denver – Microsoft channel chief Allison Watson was trying to do business to the power of three. She announced three key objectives which are value; compete to win, and partner profitability along with three core pillars: referrals, resell and the expansion of PAM (Partner account managers) at its Worldwide Partner Conference.
Tom Keane, president of Nitrosell, a partner based in Ireland, had these thoughts on the objectives and the core pillars: “Expanding the product range from Office Live for multi-channel deals on e-commerce solutions such as Dynamics with in store software and Web design will be great for CRM partners. My advice is to jump on board as fast as you can, deliver increased productivity and be local and global.”
Watson also announced that there will be Software+Services blueprints for partners along with a new search engine for ISVs, and a marketing centre with company campaigns that can be localized for 62 countries.
Microsoft wants to bring customers to partners in a new online lead generation effort announced at the conference. The Microsoft solution finder database has on average 1.8 million customers searching at any given time and partners are able to upload solutions to the database.
Microsoft introduced the next version of its Demo Showcase for the People-Ready Business at the Colorado Convention Center, the site of the conference. Demo Showcase enables channel partners to do platform demonstrations through scenarios that are aligned with Microsoft customer campaigns that are relevant to the decision-maker’s specific role, business requirements and technology needs.
There were many Canadian partners who won an award at the worldwide partner conference. Unfortunately, these partners were all from the eastern part of Canada.
In the business process and integration category Cactus Commerce Inc. of Gatineau, Que. won. The smart client development and custom development solutions winner was Momentum Advanced Solutions of Toronto.
Microsoft was hyping the information worker product portfolio during the conference and to no one’s surprise they had not one but two awards in this category, which was won by Compugen of Richmond Hill, Ont. and Ideaca Ltd. Compugen’s solution was based on Office System, while Ideaca’s was on portals.
Hamilton, Ont.-based gold partner Integrated Business Intelligence Corp. was a first time winner picking up the award for small business specialist partner of the year.
