Now The Adjustment Begins

The sweeping changes will take some time to totally sink in, partners told CRN.

"You always want the field to quickly adopt and be able to do the things the CEO is saying. That'll take time, because of their size, and their global footprint," DiBenedetto said. "But I've been doing this with them for 18 years, and even if there are unintended consequences of organizational changes, they fix it pretty quickly. They get feedback from top partners about what's working and what's not working. We work with other tech companies, but Microsoft is the most partner-friendly, uber-billion-dollar business you're going to find."

DiBenedetto said he expects that "it'll take six months for [the changes] to have an impact, then another quarter for [Microsoft] to make another adjustment from what they learned in the first six months. There'll be benefits right away. But this is a much more major shift than had been in prior years."

Opal stressed that "change is always hard, and this change is massive, so it'll be a little harder. There's a reason that the windshield is larger than the rearview mirror. Those that are successful are focused on the windshield. The attrition will be for those that are too focused on the rearview."

Pagnusat feels like things got off to a great start with Inspire, however. "It feels like we were meeting with the right folks, talking about the right things," he said. "In past years it felt like we were just meeting to meet. This year we've been meeting with folks that are really important to meet with, and coming up with strategy."