February 17, 2010
Momentum Keeps Growing for Microsoft Online Services
Welcome to my first Redmond View blog post. I’m also getting set up on Facebook and Twitter so I can get your feedback and chat with you about what’s going on in the marketplace and in your business. Today’s subject is Microsoft Online Services, and the momentum we’re seeing from customers and partners. People are starting to make money and transform their businesses. It’s an area where I’d love to get your feedback.
Microsoft Online Services is comprised of multiple individual projects including Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Office Live Meeting, Office Communications Online, CRM Online and with the new launch of Microsoft Office Wave 14, a series of products under the Office family as well. These offerings are packaged in a suite called Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) that is available for small business customers with one to five seats, as well as our largest enterprise customers.
We already have over a million seats running BPOS today, and over 450 million seats of our consumer-based Online Services as well. Interest is growing daily, and it’s important that you’re a part of the dialogue. We are providing tools and resources to help you understand the business opportunity, but it’s important that you internalize our offerings in your unique business requirements, and then give us feedback about what you need to capture the opportunity.
A lot of partners are asking me, “How do I make money in this deal?” It depends on whether you’re a reseller partner, an ISV partner, or an integrated partner. Based on all the deals we’ve done to date, we’re hearing that the average partner opportunity is about $167 a seat. That includes partner referral fees, the initial setup and migration fees, as well as factoring in some of your managed service fees. That’s a pretty big opportunity.
There are four key tools that partners are using to help build their businesses with Microsoft Online Services:
The first is the profitability modeling tool. Partners using it tell me it really helps them understand the revenue impact and the cost impact to their businesses to make the shift.
The second exciting feature is the partner link tool. This tool allows partners to embed direct quoting and trial capability into their outbound working efforts to their customers. Last month, we had so much excitement around this tool that we had over a thousand quotes generated, resulting in over 500 deals from partners.
The third tool is co-branded billing that allows you, the partner, and Microsoft to have names front and center on bills so that you maintain your partner relationship with the customer, a top-requested feature.
And finally, there’s a commerce dashboard you can use to understand how your sales and trials are going, and follow up with the customers that you have in your pipeline so that you can achieve your revenue objectives.
Partners become even more convinced about the value of BPOS for their businesses when they move their own business onto BPOS. So whether you’re large or small, we encourage you to take advantage of the internal use rights offered. You have up to 250 seats available for internal use as long as you’re committed to selling two customer deals per year. Every partner I’ve spoken to that has done it is raving about the benefits.
Additionally, as you may have heard in the press, Windows Azure has become available commercially in the marketplace. It’s an important time for you in the business of development, custom integration, and line of business to get involved with the cloud-based platform in the sky, and Microsoft Windows Azure is a great opportunity. It’s time for you to learn it, try it, and use it for yourself and your customers, and to take advantage of the benefits that are available through the Microsoft Partner Network.
Please catch up with me on Twitter, Facebook, and here on my blog. I encourage you to post comments below to let me know what’s going on in your market. I look forward to hearing from you. --AW
