Something To Sell
The scary thing is that after so many fits and starts and delays to the Vista/Longhorn/Office 2007 release, even solution providers who were banking on upgrade implementations seem disheartened and unexcited about the so-called Microsoft product waves.
Question: What happens if you launch a product wave and no one cares?
This may no longer be a rhetorical query, and that is definitely not a good thing. Most corporate and SMB customers view upgrades as a necessary evil. They swallow them because they have to. Hell, I still know folks who would be on XyWrite to this day if they weren't forced into the Windows vortex years ago.
Solution providers, on the other hand, see upgrades as a golden opportunity, and—being techies at heart—they love to play around with new toys and share their joy with customers. They see how new technologies can ease workloads and even excite users. Bless their hearts.
But now, both Office 2007 and Vista seem old and frayed even before shipping.
The malaise goes way beyond Microsoft, however. It's endemic.
Many of the Oracle/PeopleSoft/Siebel Systems/J.D. Edwards faithful are equally eager for more clarity around Oracle's "Fusion" message and maybe even more detail about deliverables around it. Expect to hear more around this at Oracle OpenWorld next month in San Francisco. The show will highlight Fusion—as in the melding of the best and brightest from the diverse app lines—and the upcoming Oracle 12 applications suite.
Until then, and until Vista and Office 2007 ship, we'll just have to watch Google, Zimbra and other Web-ified companies blast out their Web wares and hope they satisfy a need for newness. Oh, and there's always Apple.
Or we could all focus on the industry scandals like options abuses, "pretexting" to illegally obtain people's phone records and board malfeasance. The list is long. But VARs can't sell those kinds of goods.
What're you seeing regarding Vista interest? Get back to me at (781) 839-1223 or via e-mail at [email protected].