Pick most any SMB software category and odds are Microsoft will be a major player. And that's certainly true in the collaboration application space, where new research by the Institute for Partner & Education Development (IPED) illustrates Microsoft's dominant position in the SMB channel. The research also shows IBM hanging in as Microsoft's chief competitor in the Collaboration arena. IPED is the research arm of Everything Channel, which also owns ChannelWeb.
According to IPED's new Channel Affinity Index, Microsoft accounted for nearly half of the value of all collaboration software proposals to SMB customers in the first half of the year. The Redmond, Wash., software vendor also snagged more than half of the deals closed during that period and was projected to win almost half of all deals expected to close in the second half of the year.
But despite that healthy business, Microsoft finished third in the Channel Affinity Index rankings, perhaps indicating its lofty status could be at risk.
The following slides illustrate some results in the SMB collaboration software category.
