Partners preparing to cash in

With the release to business subscribers of Windows Vista and Office 2007 perhaps as little as a month away, Microsoft partners are trying to generate customer interest through seminars and special programs.

Yet MultiHat Solutions, a Vancouver-based Microsoft-certified training partner, has seen only mild interest in four one-day $495 “First Look” courses it’s offering this month and next aimed at corporate IT staff who will have to do some of the implementations.

“There is some (interest), but the classes are not filling, that’s for sure,” said Oliver Upshaw, the company’s president.

“I’m not sure people are going to move to it right away based on the interest we’re getting for our classes.

Many organizations may be doing their own – free – testing of beta and release candidate software, and Microsoft does have an aggressive early adopter program VARs have been encouraging customers to take advantage of.

Still, many companies hold off on new software releases for several months or the first service pack.

While no one doubts that Vista and Office 2007 will be big revenue earners for Microsoft, will VARs be able to sell these products quickly to customers?

Not at first, suggests industry analyst Michael Cherry of Directions On Microsoft, if only because of the timing.

“Nobody’s going to start a conversion at year-end,” he said in an interview.

He’s also skeptical Microsoft will release the software on time because the latest release candidate of Vista he’s testing still has bugs, although Office 2007 seems in better shape.

On the other hand, he acknowledged that organizations will be interested in Vista’s BitLocker drive encryption and easier central management capabilities.

Early deployment

Marty Grosh, director of enterprise services at Compugen, a national systems integrator with close ties to Microsoft, is overseeing 19 rapid deployment customers. Half have software in production in some way.

From them he’s heard praise about ease of deployment, as well as appreciation that Vista, Office and Exchange 2007 are being released in a relatively close time frame, making it possible to upgrade all three at once.

“My expectation is a faster adoption rate than we have seen previously (with Windows or Office),” Grosh said.

Robert Gervais, CEO of managed service provider Pre2Post, who sits on Microsoft certified partner board, believes the company’s early adopter program is one reason it will have success with Vista and Office 2007.

Partners he’s talked to are excited – and nervous, he added – about the number of new products Microsoft is rolling out in 12 months.

As for Upshaw, he’s not disappointed at his inability to cash in early on the new software. “It’s kind of expected,” he said. “A lot of people hold off until the bugs are out of new software.”

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Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

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Howard Solomon
Howard Solomon
Currently a freelance writer, I'm the former editor of ITWorldCanada.com and Computing Canada. An IT journalist since 1997, I've written for several of ITWC's sister publications including ITBusiness.ca and Computer Dealer News. Before that I was a staff reporter at the Calgary Herald and the Brampton (Ont.) Daily Times. I can be reached at hsolomon [@] soloreporter.com

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