Channel Partners See Uptick In .Net Contracts, Potential Deals

Solution providers including ePresence, Sapient, Progressive Consulting and LGS reported a number of contracts in the works and potential .Net deals in the pipeline for the second half of 2002.

It's been a long time in the making; Microsoft's .Net next-generation platform for the Internet was formally announced more than two years ago.

"We've seen a huge uptick in business during the third quarter of 2001, and in the first quarter got $1 million [in deals booked for the next quarter," said John Dandeneau, director of strategic alliances for ePresence, a Westboro, Mass.-based solution provider specializing in directory services.

Dandeneau noted that customers are interested in integrating different directories and enabling single sign-on, identity management and federated security models that will allow them to participate in seamless, XML-based B2B exchanges in the .Net era.

And as Bill Gates gets set to reveal more information about Microsoft's .Net agenda this week, the software giant said it has already landed .Net deals with Scotiabank, the government of Australia, Deutsche Bank, Northrop Grumman and Vail Properties,all of which involve partners. At Fusion 2002 recently, Microsoft claimed bragging rights to these recently completed or soon-to-be-completed wins with partners Ajilon Consulting, Perot Systems, Accenture and Naptheon.

While the economy remains weak, customers are beginning to step up to the plate to get the B2B, EAI and directory services capabilities of their IT infrastructures up to snuff for the .Net Web services era, channel partners said. Many solution providers--including an IBM services arm in Canada--said .Net projects are now under way.

LGS, an IBM company in Quebec, began a major .Net integration project for a government agency in Canada in May, said Jean Beauchemin, an executive at LGS. Sapient, a systems integrator based in Houston, reported recent B2B and EAI wins with the New York Times, the U.S. Marine Corps and Argentina-based petrochemical company Perez-Companc.

One executive at a .Net consulting house and custom application/Web service developer in New York said .Net activity is picking up as Microsoft's Visual Studio.Net toolset gains approval by the developer community. Microsoft officially launched Visual Studio.Net in February.

"In the last couple of months, there's been a rapid shift of Microsoft shops moving to .Net as soon as they can," said Andrew Brust, president of Progressive Consulting. "We wanted to start [.Net development earlier when the beginning of the recession hit. But the slow period has been [extended enough where the backlog is really starting to build up.

"Programmers won't make buying decisions but they do have influence over those making buying decisions, and [they are at least able to convince customers to do small proof-of-concept stuff," Brust continued. "People are getting more bites and more leads. It's still tough to convert leads into projects, but not even the leads were happening a couple of months ago."

Brust said his firm will complete a $250,000 .Net application for a commodity broker in the next six months.

Microsoft's services chief, who says he is committed to bringing partners in on as many .Net deals as possible, also hinted that infrastructure preparations for .Net and the development of XML Web services are now under way. "The pipeline is filling," said Mike Sinneck, worldwide services vice president at Microsoft. "We've had some strategic customer wins."