Microsoft Shifts .Net Message
Chris Atkinson, who had headed the overall effort as vice president of the .Net Developer Solutions Group, is now vice president of sales and marketing for Asia. Michael Risse, who was general manager of the .Net Enterprise Solutions Group, is also being redeployed. Prior to this move, the .Net marketing groups reported to Risse. "Now they will report into the various product lines," said one Microsoft source, who requested anonymity.
MARKETING MOVES
>>%A0Chris Atkinson is now vice president of sales for Asia.
>>%A0.Net marketing efforts more tightly tied to product development groups.
>>%A0Brad Goldberg, senior director of enterprise .Net server marketing will ensure message cohesion.
There were "too many marketing teams that weren't getting anything done," said the source.
Another Microsoft source confirmed that similar moves are being made across the company. "Marketing all over is being pushed back to the various product groups,Office, the Windows client,everywhere. It's part of a cycle; we go full circle every nine to 18 months," said the source.
Paul Flessner, senior vice president of .Net enterprise servers, decided that alignment between marketing and development is a good idea for the overall .Net effort, the source added.
Brad Goldberg, newly appointed senior director of enterprise .Net server marketing, will ensure the message is cohesive and noncontradictory, the source said.
Richard Warren, chief software architect for Internosis, an Arlington, Va., solution provider, said Microsoft is focusing its message as actual products draw nearer to reality.
Once the tools are out, developers can start building real products, and real deployments will hopefully follow, said Dwight Davis, software analyst for Summit Strategies.
Microsoft did not return calls for comment.