Microsoft Partners Get Their Due, But Do You?

Microsoft's annual Worldwide Partner Conference kicks off this week and it's going to be, big, Big, BIG.

During the event, Microsoft typically shows its partners love, and this year will only differ in the amount of love. Microsoft could and perhaps should call 2008 the "Year of the Partner." At no other time in its history has Microsoft offered partners more reasons to get exited or more reasons to worry (more on the worrisome stuff in a few paragraphs).

Microsoft has more products in the market requiring a partner's touch than any other year in the company's history. The best for partners: How Microsoft is packaging disparate products as enterprise solutions in categories like business intelligence or unified communications that require hefty testing, deployment and ongoing maintenance services. Better still, many Microsoft products are more complicated than ever, particularly when interacting with the company's other software.

Take Office 2007 and its new user interface, which necessitates extra training or help desk support; or the new server-function SKUs, which nearly require a mathematics degree to understand the pricing structure and benefits. Then there's Windows Vista, where hefty system requirements and resistance to custom applications mean lots of testing and integration work for somebody. Windows Vista is sure to keep many Microsoft partners fat and sassy even in lean economic times.

SharePoint Server 2007 is Microsoft's grab bag solution for collaboration, content management and blogging. Those team sites multiply faster than rabbits, and they're even tougher to manage. Microsoft marketing is pushing SharePoint harder than ever, plus there's a lot of cross-product integration with the server software.

Best yet: It's raining server software. Hyper-V, SQL Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 are the starters. Plus, there's a new line of "Essential" business server software. Somebody is going to have to integrate this stuff. Can you say "Microsoft partners?"

But, using a highly overused Microsoft term, the "goodness" doesn't stop there. Microsoft is going into the hosted server software business, where it will compete with some partners. But not to worry, partners. The choices—partner hosted, self hosted or Microsoft hosted—will be confusing enough for many enterprises, so there will be plenty of consulting and integration services for somebody.

While my tone is a wee bit facetious, the partner opportunities are real and Microsoft has been quietly assembling supporting marketing and sales programs for them. Some of that valuable disclosure comes in the form of interoperability information that's sure to generate business for savvy partners looking to better piece together Microsoft products or join them with third-party products.

Who Really Pays?
My question for Microsoft: What do "real" customers pay extra for the privilege of all that partner assistance? I chuckle at nearly every Microsoft press release that touts enterprise benefits from the latest products or solutions that are simpler to use. Really? Simpler for whom? What I see is increasing complexity, everywhere. There are more Microsoft widgets to assemble together, more widgets requiring other ones to work and more complicated licensing SKUs for the widgets.

Microsoft doesn't have a big, dedicated sales force. The company relies heavily on partners to sell, as well as deploy and service its software. Microsoft's business model is intricately entwined with middle-men—partners—who make lots of money from complexity. Sure, other high-tech companies—like HP, IBM, Oracle or Sun—thrive on services. But, I believe, Microsoft's dependence on its third-party sales channel is a disincentive trait, and this leads to its enterprise software being more complex than needed. It's a symbiotic Microsoft-partner relationship where complexity is the common base.

So, I come to the important question: Who is Microsoft's real first customer? I say, it's the partners long before the enterprises actually paying for and using the software. Partners get their due—and there's plenty coming in 2008 and 2009—but do enterprises? I wonder how much better Microsoft software could be if it were engineered for enterprises as the first customer.

I suppose that some Microsoft product managers will contend that the software user, whether consumer or business, is the first customer. My response: Then why is there so much more benefit to the people selling or integrating the software? And why is there still so much complexity—and by my observance, more of it?

No question: It's a great time to be a Microsoft partner. Exception: This week's punishing heat. Why would any company hold a conference in Houston in July? The daily high temperature is expected to be about 90 degrees Fahrenheit and balmy, with humidity around 75 percent every day.