Microsoft's Plans To 'People-Ready' Partners Still Hazy

Solution Finder is a database of partner profiles spotlighting specific competencies, backed by customer references. The intent is to let customers hitting Microsoft's Web site seek and contact partners with specialties suited to their needs.

Now live on Microsoft's Dynamics Web page, Solution Finder is will soon be expanded to other areas of Microsoft's site, including its people-ready campaign Web portal, company executives said.

"We have high expectations for traffic coming directly to partners from this site," Watson said.

Early Solution Finder participants said they are enthusiastic. Microsoft has previously offered a Yellow Pages-style Partner Resource Directory, but solution providers said it's unwieldy and not designed for end users. Traditionally, customers seeking partners have to work through Microsoft field representatives, who will listen to their needs and attempt to matchmake with local firms. For partners, that approach means it's vital to form a good relationship with the local reps and to stay on their radar.

Scott Boedigheimer, central region general manager and vice president of sales at Altara, a Basking Ridge, N.J.-based MBS partner Altara, said he hopes Solution Finder will enable prospects to contact his firm more directly.

"It changes the whole process to be more customer-facing," he said. "Previously, it was a big secret as to who the Microsoft Business Solutions partners were. If you're on the phone with a Microsoft rep and say, 'Give me the names of three partners in this area with these competencies,' they wouldn't even do that."

Beyond projects like Solution Finder, plans for deliverables to back up Microsoft's people-ready crusade remain murky. "I think they're still working out some of the specifics around product alignment," said Neil Rosenberg, CEO of Quality Technology Solutions, a Microsoft Gold Partner that participated in the people-ready kickoff event in New York. "There hasn't been much direct partner contact beyond the launch."

Despite the lack of details about the people-ready package, Rosenberg is among those who like the wrapping. "It makes sense in light of where Microsoft has been and where they're trying to go," he said. "Microsoft started in its roots as a software company not for business processes, but for personal productivity. This resonates."