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Microsoft is on a collision program with its hosting partners.Throughout the previous few weeks, Microsoft officials have started touting publicly the handful of hosted managed providers that Microsoft is promoting directly to consumers. This week at the NXTcomm 2007 display in Chicago,Office Home And Stude/nt 2010 Key, Microsoft is out hawking its
“Microsoft Solution for Hosted Messaging and Collaboration,” “Hosted Microsoft Dynamics for CRM” solution and “Microsoft Solution for Managed PC.”These three solutions are just the tip of the iceberg. Earlier this month, Ron Markezich,Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010, Microsoft Vice President of Managed Solutions, said Microsoft is looking to build and support a Microsoft-hosted service component for almost every one of its software products. Next up are a Microsoft-hosted business-intelligence solution and some kind of Microsoft-hosted SoftGrid application-virtualization offering.Currently, Microsoft only has four corporate consumers for these managed solutions. But in the coming months, Microsoft plans to turn up the marketing heat on its hosted wares.That;s not the best news for businesses which have carved out a business for themselves over the previous couple of years promoting hosted SharePoint, hosted Exchange and hosted SQL Server services. Now these telcos, integrators,Office Home And Stude/nt, resellers and managed-service providers will be competing head-to-head with Microsoft to sell hosted versions of Microsoft;s software.The clash between Microsoft and its service partners could come to head in mid-July at Microsoft;s Worldwide Partner Conference (WWPC) in Denver. At that display,Windows 7 Code/, Microsoft is offering a number of sessions designed to attract more partners to sell hosted versions of Microsoft;s unified communications and security wares. “Add a New Revenue Stream: Promoting a Portfolio of Hosted Services” is the title of one WWPC session. “Managed Providers? Building a Sustaining Business Model to Succeed” is another.Markezich told me in early June he was well aware that he could face a tough crowd in the WWPC. He pointed out that Microsoft currently has a “very small sales team” selling Microsoft-hosted versions of these providers. Microsoft is relying primarily on its dedicated acount executives to let consumers know they can buy these services directly from Microsoft, he said.“I do talk to partners quite a bit about this (Microsoft;s entry into the managed services market),” Markezich said.One way Microsoft is hoping to lessen channel conflict with its partners in this space is by convincing service providers to embed Microsoft;s managed providers as part of their larger managed/outsourced datacenter offering,Microsoft Office 2007 Enterprise, Markezich said. He noted that Siemens Business Services is doing call-center and desktop support for Energizer Holdings, the first customer Microsoft signed up for its managed providers pilot a few years ago.“Migration and transformation work is also a good place for partners” to sell managed-services solutions based on Microsoft products, Markezich said. And in cases where “consumers want servers on premise (but would prefer someone else to run them), we send them to partners,” Markezich added.Any partners out there worried about Microsoft;s pending encroachment into the managed-service space? Buyers using managed companies: Would you rather have your hosted e-mail managed by Microsoft or an independent partner?