Microsoft Plugs Partners Into Live Offerings

In his keynote at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference, Chris Capossela, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Business Division Product Management Group, outlined various points of entry where business partners will find opportunities in reselling, hosting or customizing the software that Microsoft is rolling out as services.

He also emphasized just how strategic the online services push is for Microsoft, the IT company best known for its traditionally shrink-wrapped software that now faces a new era of competition from the likes of Google, Salesforce.com and other online services mavericks.

"This software Live era is really important for us -- a huge bet, and we are driving a huge business around it," Capossela said. "And we strongly believe you have to take a great partner eocosystem with you. We don't have all the answers now, but we need you.

Some of the biggest plays for partners are around Office Live and the new Microsoft Dynamics CRM Live, he said. Microsoft is predicting CRM to be a $1 billion business for the company, and the Live version of the product is being positioned to go up against Salesforce.com. From a partner perspective, they can resell subscriptions to the CRM Live service and undertake the integration and customization services with end-user customers. Meanwhile, Microsoft will also provide revenue-sharing, and some partners can choose to host the CRM service themselves.

Office Live is being heralded as a chance for partners to serve small businesses with basic office applications solutions in far less time to market than doing on-site installations, Capossela said. Partners reap services dollars for customization work they do, in addition to getting a referral fee from Microsoft when a customer signs up for the service. In the fourth quarter, partners can sign up for Office Live Solution Developer Program, through which they can build their own solutions services. Those solutions will be promoted via Microsoft's Solutions Finder tool on its partner portal site.

Capossela also highlighted a new service called AdCenter, an online platform for creating, targeting and disseminating online advertising. Partners can use AdCenter, in which Microsoft has invested $35 billion, to design ads for customers in conjunction with Web site development, for example.