Microsoft Preaches The Customer Imperative

That's why the company will put a heightened focus around specific go-to-market strategies in the coming months and less emphasis on emotional battles over the pros and cons of Microsoft products vs. Linux and open source, they said. The developer has even launched a Web site at www.microsoft.com/getthefacts to help proselytize its message.

"We need to talk about the relevance of technology within the context of the customer," said Orlando Ayala, senior vice president of Microsoft's Small and Midmarket Solutions and Partner Group, during a Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference keynote presentation Thursday in New Orleans. His theme was echoed later by his counterpart Simon Witts, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Enterprise and Partner Group.

During his session, Ayala pointed to about a dozen go-to-market strategies for the SMB segment that will drive the company's interaction with partners in fiscal year 2004, which began in July. Ayala envisions a roughly $32 billion opportunity in total. Top priorities include realizing desktop value, at about $4.1 billion; business intelligence, estimated at $4.1 billion; and communications and collaboration, also a $4.1 billion opportunity.

It should come as little surprise that expectations about how much the new Office System 2003 and Small Business Server 2003 will contribute to this agenda are high. "We believe 90 percent of the opportunity is still in front of us," Ayala said, responding to skeptics who have questioned the value of the massive Office upgrade to be launched later this month.

On the enterprise side, Witts outlined roughly $34.2 billion in go-to-market opportunities he sees for partners catering to this market. That number should grow to $43.7 billion by 2006, he estimated.

Three top opportunities detailed in Witts' presentation include $5 billion in solutions for developers, $4.9 billion for business intelligence and $4.5 billion for realizing desktop value.

In case there was any doubt about Microsoft's firm belief that the IT industry has plenty of growth ahead, Microsoft Senior Vice President Doug Burgum finished off the morning's session with a presentation about the future of the IT ecosystem.

Using the upcoming 100th anniversary of the first manned flight by Orville and Wilbur Wright on Dec. 17 to provoke the audience, Burgum pointed to the state of innovation 30 years after the historic date when Charles Lindbergh successfully crossed the Atlantic Ocean. Not much had happened, he said. But by the end of the century, the world's transportation and economic infrastructure had been transformed profoundly.

Ultimately, IT will have the same seismic impact, Burgum suggested. "I don't think we understand how high is up," he said.