From Microsoft To Intel To Sun, Plenty Of Channel Changes Are Happening
Microsoft held its annual worldwide partner conference here in Boston, and it was (as usual) very well executed. You have to give the company and especially its worldwide channel guru, Allison Watson, credit for once again pulling together an information-packed week and making the time out of the office worthwhile for solution providers.
First and foremost, there is never any question with Microsoft as to whether its CEO will show up. Steve Ballmer understands how important partners are to the company's success. Sam Palmisano at IBM could learn something from that.
Ballmer hit on a number of issues while on stage, including the unclear future of software as a service (SaaS) and how Microsoft and partners will work together as the model unfurls. He did announce that Microsoft will form a partner advisory board to help it "define the business model on how to work with partners" in the SaaS world. Give Ballmer and Watson credit for stepping up and being up front about the uncertainty surrounding this issue and the future relationship it poses for software companies and their channel partners.
But much of what Ballmer showed on stage from a product standpoint left me wondering when Microsoft would do something innovative instead of merely duplicating what others have already brought to the table.
For instance, the Windows Live Search that was demoed is already available on the Macintosh operating system and has been for some time. The ability to add video chat to instant messaging is also available elsewhere—again from Apple, as well as from AOL. The Vista gadgets look very much like widgets. The one feature that was shown that I at least had not seen from a competitor is the ability to type in a phone number in Microsoft Office and initiate a VoIP call.
In closing, I have to give Microsoft an "A" for its channel planning and engagement, and a "C" for introducing products that are available elsewhere and late to boot. But it goes to show you a superior channel can make a vendor successful with products that are less than cutting edge. One final question: Now that Microsoft has "People Ready" software, does that mean the applications we've been using weren't ready for people to use?
The bloodletting is beginning at Intel with its announcement last week that it will cut 1,000 managers. Many years ago, a very smart short seller on Wall Street told me he never shorts a company's stock until it has announced a bad quarter because one bad quarter is almost always followed by another. I can assure you the same holds true for layoffs and cutbacks. No company ever goes through just one round when it gets into trouble. The upshot is that 1,000 could quickly turn into 10,000, and the cutbacks will go far beyond just personnel. They are certain to include programs and other investments.
And speaking of layoffs at a company under pressure, Sun Microsystems is good for at least one major executive departure a week, it seems. The latest is Greg Stroud, vice president of Sun's U.S. Partner and Alliance sales organization, who resigned last week without an explanation.
Sun's senior management has never committed to building a world-class channel structure, and it's fundamentally one of the reasons it can't seem to get back on track. We'll have to see whether Stroud's successor can achieve that.
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