Allison Watson, Microsoft

Channel Chief Name	Allison Watson
Channel Chief Title	Corporate VP, Worldwide Partner Group
Company and Division	Microsoft
Markets Served:	Security Software
Company's overall 2007 revenue:	n/a
Percentage of revenue from solution providers:	95%
Number of years with the company:	14
Number of years involved with indirect sales:	20
Number of employees in channel organization:	120+ marketing/sales/ops; 5,000+ field sales
To whom do you report in your organization?	Eduardo Rosini, Corporate VP, SMS&P; dotted line to Kevin Turner, Chief Operating Officer
Does that individual report to your CEO/president?	Kevin Turner, COO reports to CEO, Steve Ballmer
Describe your channel organization's major accomplishments over the past year:	In the past year, we have helped partners prepare for and execute on the largest wave of innovation in Microsoft's history. Through readiness events, trainings, conferences, early adopter programs, and online resources, we armed our partners to deliver the value of Windows Vista, the 2007 Microsoft Office System, and Microsoft Exchange to hundreds of thousands of customers throughout the world. Driving the large majority of these engagements are more than 400,000 partners that continue to develop innovative customer solutions with Microsoft technologies and services.
List up to 10 of your top products sold through the channel:	Microsoft Windows Vista The 2007 Microsoft Office System Microsoft Office SharePoint Office Communications Server 2007 Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Microsoft Dynamics Microsoft SQL Server Windows Mobile 6 (including Live Local Search) Microsoft Forefront Microsoft Systems Center
Describe how your partner community has grown over the past year:	Microsoft has had a record-breaking year, and partners are the number one reason for our success. Beyond the new product launches, we've seen our channel base grow in both size and diversity, particularly as the Software + Services era unlocks new customer opportunities. The Software + Services transformation is real, and while it's not an overnight change, our partners are already capitalizing on it. Thanks to the early work we have done in preparing partners for Software + Services (such as the Software + Services Profitability Whitepaper released at July's Worldwide Partner Conference), a recent IDC study underscores that the channel ecosystem at large sees this transformation as an enormous opportunity. In fact, our internal research indicates that nearly half of our partners are already engaged in some type of services, or plan to engage in services over the next 12 months.
Name the one individual who has had the most profound impact on your life:	n/a
Please name the single most innovative initiative for which you were responsible for the past year?	1) The Software + Services Channel Framework is an industry breakthrough. Microsoft will be the only industry player with a cross-product, partner-integrated set of software plus services offerings for both on-premise and hosted applications including the hot new consumer line-up from Microsoft representing totally new business opportunities for home VARs, web agencies, telcos, hosters, and others. 2) Launched a new worldwide segment for the Microsoft Partner Program for web agencies and partners with web development expertise including packages of software, readiness, and ad-supported opportunities for web partners to engage in new business opportunities.
What were the key channel partner investments you made in the past year?	1) We drove investment deep into the distributor and VAR channel,driving unprecedented growth in our reseller and distributor channels across numerous products. 2) Our partners are getting leads online. We drove 200,000 customer searches per month to over 20,000 partners who have published their profiles into our solution directory. 3) Over 2.4 million partner employees have been trained in last 12 months on the 2007 Office system, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, virtualization, and SharePoint. 4) To address the skills shortage in the industry, we launched initiatives such as the Imagine Cup and Students to Business this past year. Students to Business is a Microsoft Community Initiative, connecting Microsoft partners and customers with universities to provide students real world experience and establish the skills and competencies needed to fuel innovation, broaden the recruiting process, and aid employability of the next generation of students. Together, these initiatives are driving the interest of more than 100,000 students to the technology field, and we're able to start linking our channel to those students for a potential hiring pipeline to address the large channel capacity issues being faced in the industry.
How are you attracting the next generation of solution providers?	One of our greatest challenges is to build and foster an ecosystem that includes a wide and diverse array of both traditional and non-traditional partners. In addition to our efforts with Software + Services, we recently introduced new competencies and specializations around Search, Unified Communications and Hosting; each represents a significant growth opportunity for our partners. As customers, partners and the industry at large evolves, we'll continue to evolve our efforts to ensure partners receive the training, support, and marketing and sales tools required to win new customers and drive greater profitability in their businesses.
What is the greatest challenge you overcame in the past year?	One of the greatest challenges I continue to face is balancing my job as the leader of the industry's largest partner ecosystem with my role as mother to my 10 year-old son.

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