7 Questions For Microsoft Channel Chief Allison Watson

The channel response to unified communications has been very positive. Since launching our unified communications platform last October, the number of partners that have earned a UC competency in the areas of instant messaging/presence, messaging and voice has more than doubled -- from 793 in 2007 to more than 2,000 in 2008.

We expect this strong response to continue as customers are realizing that unified communications is a way to cut costs in areas like business travel and telephony.

Salesforce.com recently mentioned the possibility of potential price war in the SaaS market. Does the current economic uncertainty help or hurt SaaS vendors?

We are seeing people taking a look at services faster than they would otherwise. But we haven't heard about a price war, and that's not a game we would want to play. We have a fairly well priced offering as it is.

Customers will look little more carefully than in the past, and perhaps, move sooner, especially with something like Business Productivity Online Services (Microsoft's set of Exchange, SharePoint, Office Communications Server, and LiveMeeting services).

Is Microsoft Finance seeing an uptick in the number of channel partners seeking resources?

We're definitely talking with partners about financing. Microsoft Financing has been fairly underutilized because financing has been easy to get. We want to make sure partners know available. It isn't just free financing, however. Companies have to qualify in order to receive it.

Financing options are available for hardware, software, and services. Partners have great opportunities now to leverage assets of the total deal bundle wrapped into the bundle. And we are seeing partners interested in leveraging that.