Microsoft Taps Ayala

But most importantly for Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS) partners, Ayala and Senior Vice President Doug Burgum pledged more Microsoft support, including feet on the street, to help sell and implement the company's business applications lineup.

"We are putting solution specialists in the field, [people] highly specialized in CRM and ERP. We're investing in partner recruitment for MBS," Ayala told CRN.

MBS has also tapped insiders to lead the MBS charge into corporate accounts. That will raise some eyebrows because of Microsoft's stated goal to concentrate on small and midsize companies. But the lines are being blurred.

Company executives, including CEO Steve Ballmer, last week at Tech Ed referenced MBS's role within large enterprises.

"MBS cuts across [the] SMB [market] and the enterprise," Ayala said. "Last year we had no leaders dedicated for corporate accounts. Now we will.

"This is a very important move," he said. "We're still focused on scenarios where our products fit well. We're going for the spoke, not the hub. Our strategy is not to change the ERP at Ford."

In the reorganization, Ayala will continue in his current role as senior vice president of the company's Small and Midmarket Solutions and Partner Group. He will report to Burgum, who spearheads the business applications push. Burgum will now report to Ballmer. Previously, both Burgum and Ayala had reported to Jeff Raikes, group vice president of productivity and business services, the group responsible for all of Microsoft's Information Worker initiatives.

Ayala stressed that this move does not represent a merger between his group and MBS, but a closer alignment of the two.

Microsoft executives have conceded that a confusing sales channel reorganization hampered MBS momentum last year. Ayala and Burgum said although MBS is cutting some 100 jobs by outsourcing development and support of Solomon financial applications to a third party, Microsoft remains committed to the potentially lucrative business applications market. MBS will have 600 people in the field this year working with partners on MBS sales, compared to about 200 people last year, Ayala said. "We are putting the pedal to the metal," he said.

Compensation has also been changed to spark more MBS sales across the board, he said.

While Microsoft pledged anew to keep selling and supporting its existing ERP lineup until 2013, some partners said the writing is now on the wall for the Solomon line.

"Who's going to buy it now?" said one longtime MBS partner. "This is great for me, [because it] gets rid of some of the confusion over the product lines. The analysts are always screaming that there are too many MBS lines. This will help."

Glen Gulyas, president of Gigatrust, a Microsoft partner in Herndon, Va., said this is "vintage" Microsoft. "They're moving to common elements across the board. They don't want people to think Great Plains or Solomon, they want customers to think of one thing," he said.