* Roy Schestowitz peremptorily fired off this memo:
> Microsoft partners want their pound of flesh
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
>| UK MICROSOFT partners have demanded a percentage of profits the vendor makes
>| from its direct sales venture to compensate for the loss of as much as a
>| quarter of their sales.
> `----
>
> http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/04/03/microsoft-partners-pound-flesh
More Microsoft partner betrayal?
Microsoft using a push poll?
It said at the time that its direct strategy would be a good
opportunity for its partners. In evidence it produced a snippet from
a survey it commissioned of 700 partners, which said they thought the
direct sales strategy would be a good opportunity for them.
Further details of the survey, however, reveal that it may have been
designed with the sole intention of supporting the strategy. And
partners do not think its coming up roses.
But it's not all bad for the partners, yet. They still get to make
some revenue from "installing and maintaining Microsoft's Sharepoint
product in-house at its customers, with all the equipment sales and
hands-on money-earning potential that went with it." And
For now, it will only sell a basic version of Sharepoint online, so
if any partner's need to modify the software, as they often need to
do, they still get the sale. So Wallis is trying to persuade
Microsoft to register him as an Independent Software Vendor selling
add-ons for Sharepoint.
--
I'm sorry that we have to have a Washington presence. We thrived during our
first 16 years without any of this. I never made a political visit to
Washington and we had no people here. It wasn't on our radar screen. We were
just making great software.
-- Bill Gates
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