Ballmer, Watson Reassert Microsoft's Commitment To Partners, ISVs

"We are committed to being the best in class [in partnering]. Our $1.5 billion investment in the channel is the largest in the industry, and we are committed to continuing it," said Allison Watson, vice president of worldwide partner sales and marketing.

That figure includes support, training, account management, reward programs, relationship programs and salaries for 2,500 Microsoft channel-related employees, 800 of which were added in the last year, Watson said.

Microsoft last year committed an additional $500 million over a two-year period, bringing the total to $1.5 billion, Watson told CRN.

Broadly speaking, channel partners include systems integrators, ISVs, resellers and system builders.

Microsoft, with its fingers in so many pots, has had problematic relationships with ISVs in the past. And friction has ratcheted up since the company entered the business applications space over the past two years with its Great Plains and Navision acquisitions. The Microsoft Business Solutions group is now trying to position itself as a provider of foundation technologies that third-party ISVs can build upon in their own vertical business applications.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said the company continues to seek out ISV partners. "There is always room for innovative work. What makes people uncomfortable are changes in the footprint. I point to our relationship with Citrix [Systems]. It's not always comfortable, but it works. We have engineers who want to do better than Citrix but we're happy to see Citrix succeed," Ballmer told CRN Tuesday.

Citrix makes terminal emulation software, and Microsoft builds some of that capability into its offerings.

IBM Software has made hay with ISVs by claiming that it will stay out of the applications space and is thus a better ISV partner than Microsoft. Ballmer characterized IBM's claims as "patent hogwash."

"There are some ISVs in the largest customers who prefer to work with IBM. [But ] what has traction in small and medium businesses? WebSphere? No traction. Notes? No traction. WebSphere in SMB space ... Hello? DB2? It's a SQL Server and Oracle world."

"Despite the rhetoric, they don't show up," Ballmer said.