Microsoft partners really, really, really want to be recognized by the quality of their work. And not surprisingly, they want to be paid for it.

One recurring theme sounded by Gold Certified partners as reported earlier this week in SearchITChannel.com, is that being Gold is no longer enough. These partners say there are too many VARs sporting the Gold designation and that leads to cut-throat pricing to win deals. And razor thin margins on the deals won.

Several solution providers, Rand Morimoto, president of Converged Computing among them, say the vendor needs to recognize its truly -top tier partners.

“I’ve always commented to Microsoft that there’s a need for a ‘platinum’ level, kind of like what Novell had during their heyday,”

Partners say Microsoft has been told this over and over and talks about better recognition of partners who put the most “skin in the game” but still resists the notion of another program level.

But least one Gold partner disagrees with the notion of another tier, saying that would just add more confusion into an already confused partner program.

Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS) Dynamics partners, in particular, feel that the company has done too much recruiting in their bailiwick. This is a particular sore point since the ERP and CRM offerings they deal with make for a longer sales cycle, more hand holding and thus so far command higher margins than the volume-oriented Windows-Office-SharePoint-type products that can be sold by anyone. A Dynamics sale, on the other hand, requires an authorized MBS partner.

“There seems to be a continued push to add more and more partners instead of driving the capacity and ability to scale to those partners that continue to constantly grow and invest in Microsoft. The monies spent on recruiting new partners should be directed toward accelerating and adding capacity to the successful partners in the channel,” said one partner, who thinks his organization would benefit from this treatment. But he is not alone. Over the past two or three years, there has been a push among larger MBS partners to consolidate talent and geographical coverage all to better sell and support CRM and ERP applications.

Barbara Darrow can be reached at bdarrow@techtarget.com.

I couldn’t bring myself to write about this survey on April 1, because I figured you’d think I was pulling your leg. Although those who DO know me know that I am pretty much incapable of lying (my face gives me away) and am generally a very unfunny person (at least intentionally).

But, here we are on April 2, and it’s safe now, so here goes.

I was briefed late last week on some research that was conducted by the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council and sponsored by Blueroads (the company that does one of the partner relationship management portals). The data, which the CMO Council is calling a scorecard, includes responses from pretty much anyone you would consider a reseller or a dealer. It doesn’t just represent the high-tech channel that has been my obsession for the past 18 years, it also covers businesses that represent consumer electronics or audio-visual equipment.

So, ready? Here are some of the high-level findings:

• Fewer than 7 percent of the 500 respondents said vendors are their most valuable source of sales leads
• And, only 19 percent of these folks said those leaders were “highly actionable”
• Approximately 70 percent said vendor marketing campaigns were either “ineffective” or “only somewhat effective” in driving their business
• About half engaged in any kind of cooperative selling

(You can download the full report if you choose to register here.)

“We’ve got this significant issue of lack of trust, lack of valued process between vendors and their channel,” said Dave Murray, executive manager of the CMO Council.

Do you sense a trend here? And, are you really surprised by the results? Honestly, I wasn’t shocked, and neither was Craig Downing, director of product marketing and demand generation for Blueroads. “The punchline here is that overwhelmingly, the partners say that customer referrals are their most valued source of business opportunities,” Downing said.

After all, what most vendors forget over and over again, is that most solutions-focused VARs MUST work with a slate of high-tech suppliers in order to serve their customers best. Even resellers that could be considered “exclusive” need to find great applications and infrastructure products to complement their main offering — whether they are offered in partnership with another reseller or ISV or whether they are part of the first VAR’s product suite.

Do I think vendor marketing teams could do a better job? Sure, but I think the best tools that any channel marketing team could provide are the research and solutions arguments to help their channel partners talk to prospective customers in terms they’re more likely to understand. The days of brochureware are fast fading. What this survey does point up in vivid terms, however, is the vital role that marketing plays in channel relations. So, ask yourself, do your key high-tech suppliers worrying about flashing corporate branding campaigns and the next Super Bowl commercial? Or are they focused on extending your own marketing resources, with the focus on customer-facing conversations?

Heather Clancy is a high-tech business journalist and channel communications strategist with SWOT Management Group. You can reach her at hclancy@swotmg.com.

How many high-tech vendors can still claim great channel relationships with some of their original VARs? Ones that have been with them since the very beginning of their channel program. Well, Autodesk just feted seven resellers that each recently celebrated their 25th year of doing business with the 26-year-old software company, which logs $2 billion in 2-D and 3-D design product sales every year. Roughly 85 percent of that amount goes through its roughly 1,768 channel partners.

I spoke with both Steve Blum, vice president of America sales (note, he doesn’t have “just” a channel title) as well as one of the VARs in question, a Premier Solutions Provider called Kelar Corp., for perspective on what has given this relationship staying power.

One of my observations, after speaking with both sides, is that channel marriages aren’t conducive to the “opposites attract” philosophy. If a reseller’s sales objectives are diametrically opposed to that of their vendor partner, that doesn’t make for a great long-term combination. “Besides the fact that Autodesk has a topnotch product, we are very much alike technically,” says Mo Mansouri, president of Kelar Pacific in San Diego. “The ideas that we have go along with what they’re doing.” (Incidentally, while Mansouri hasn’t been with Kelar for the full 25 years, he has been with this relationship for 17 of those years.)

Which is not to say that Autodesk doesn’t encourage its resellers to think for itself. Blum says that the seven companies that were recently recognized — Applied Software Technology, Autodraft, CADD Centers of Florida, IRISCO, Kelar, KETIV Technologies of California, and Robotech CAD Solutions - shared a passion to grow and evolve along with Autodesk’s product line. “These folks have all been able to evolve based on market conditions,” Blum says.

One program that Autodesk put in place for partners to keep ahead has been an education series called Foundations for Success, which encourages its partners to focus on business development activities for their employees as well as ideas for how to run their businesses better from an entrepreneurial standpoint. The latest twist to that initiative, which started Feb. 1, focuses on helping resellers develop first-time sales managers, Blum says.

Autodesk also continues to carefully stage its product releases, working with top-tier vertically oriented solutions partners first when bringing new software to market and then opening it up to other partners over time. In a sense, the first set of VARs are Autodesk’s evangelists in the field, and they are recognized for taking risks within Autodesk’s deal registration program. Volume partners are encouraged to focus on a different set of skills and challenges. “Volume means very different things to me here at Autodesk than it might to another company,” Blum says.

The final equation comes down to commitment on both sides. Autodesk has actually invested, at least in terms of resources, in helping a reseller explore a new practice area, according to Mansouri. “They commit to a dealer if they see potential in your growth. They invest in the partnership,” he says.

How unique is Autodesk? What other vendors are worth the investment? E-mail your thoughts to Heather Clancy, a long-time channel observer and communications strategist for SWOT Management Group.

Howard Diamond, who has been CEO and chairman of ePartners, is relinquishing the CEO post.  Michael McCarthy has been promoted from president to CEO, according to  a  company statement posted last week. 

It was unclear from that release whether Diamond would remain chairman. A spokeswoman was unsure about the chairmanship.

McCarthy and Diamond have worked together for years, at the old Corporate Software and then at Level 3 Communications, which bought Corporate Software in early  2002. A few months later, Level 3-with Diamond-snapped up Software Spectrum, another big LAR, and merged its operations with those of Corporate Software.

At one point, Corporate Software was the largest of the Large Account Resellers or LARs selling Microsoft, Lotus and other software to big  companies. Software Spectrum was one of its biggest rivals.

Diamond has been chairman and CEO of ePartners since 2005 when he came out of retirement to manage  the merger of EYT and ePartners, two large Microsoft Business Solutions partners.

Howard has been an articulate champion of the value that software partners can bring customers. For example, last year he spoke to me about how ePartners derived the bulk of its revenue from its own customization and specialization work atop the Microsoft stack, not from reselling the stack components themselves. As we all know, those margins are mighty thin.

In this age of Web-enabled software distribution, it’s more  important than ever that software partners continually build and bolster their vertical and domain expertise.

In other words, don’t rely on your vendor partners to provide you with the margins needed for survival. They’re fighting the same battles you are, so if you want a friend, get a dog. If you want to survive, make sure your value stays current and, well, valuable!

Barbara Darrow, a Boston-area reporter, can be reached at badarrow@comcast.net. 

What will be the defining partner issues of the coming year? Here’s a completely unscientific take on what solution providers of all stripes should watch for.

One: Will Dell’s new-found (or born again)  channel religion take? Can EqualLogic’s Don Bulens endow what partners see as Darth Vader with his good partner karma?

Two: Will VMware forestall the coming-from-everywhere virtualization onslaught? Current players like Citrix/Xensource are gunning for it as are VM newbies Oracle and Microsoft. If Microsoft stumbles with its Windows 2008/Hyper-V combo, VMware’s head start may prevail and its lock on enterprises continue. Should Hyper-V soar, Microsoft could be the go-to virtualization player at least in smaller companies and then it must wrestle with vexing licensing issues. How to adjust pricing when customers will have to buy fewer copies of the OS?

Three:  Will single-core, single-processor computers go the way of the buggy whip and the Edsel? Could be.

Four: Can/will Google transform itself into a power within the firewall? It’s using its appliance and apps as Trojan horses but will IT really tolerate this consumer-led push? Can it afford not to?

Five: Conversely, can Microsoft transform itself into a software-as-a-service power? Microsoft, unlike Google, has to defend its on-premise turf. Will it figure out how to bring its partners along for the ride? Or throw them under the bus?

Six: Can Hewlett Packard beat back Dell’s new partner efforts to build on its hardware dominance? Will HP partners defect?

Seven: Can Microsoft regroup from its  under delivered Vista? Will SP 1 re-invigorate the market, spur “killer app” development? Or will Redmond simply declare victory and start hyping the next release?

Eight: Will computer retail survive/prosper? Was  CompUSA’s demise a sign of things to come in retail consolidation or just a specific case of mismanagement and missed opportunities?

Nine: Will the iPhone parlay its blockbusting consumer popularity into the enterprise? Will it “work well with others” as in existing  corporate e-mail and other systems? Or will the corporate classes cling to their Blackberries?

Ten: Will Microsoft sort out its self-hosted ERP puzzle? The company wants to offer hosted options for its apps but so far has been publicly mum on what could be called “ERP Live.” Maybe it can’t figure out which of its four (count ‘em, four!) ERP lines should be the underlying code base?

Bonus item: Who will win the unified communications marathon? Networking powerhouse Cisco or application dominator Microsoft? Or could there be a dark horse?

Barbara Darrow, a Boston-area reporter, can be reached at badarrow@comcast.net. 

Well, credit Dell with putting on a  good show for solution providers with its most recent pledge to embrace the channel. Maybe the company will make good on its promises this time around but here are a few things to remember.

First, this whole Dell-vs.-the-channel thread isn’t as cut-and-dried as it seems. I’ve talked with several resellers over the years who preferred dealing with Dell than with the allegedly more channel-friendly HP or other hardware vendors.  Many said that hardware margins were so thin anyway, they usually skipped that part of the sale unless the customer insisted. And in those cases, Dell was as good a choice as any. At least until Dell service woes surfaced so publicly.

And, many solution providers who had healthy hardware businesses a decade ago are now software-and-services only. That tells you something about the nature of competing not only with Dell but with CDW and other low-cost suppliers.

Let us not forget that Dell built its fortune on being great on logistics. It never led the field in great, creative, fun machines. Nor on service.  (I’m sure Michael would beg to differ–what would you expect?) But there’s nothing wrong with using a supplier who can drop-ship you a server or a PC but fast.

And another thing: Dell has had many enablers in its partner-bashing past.  You know who they are.  Big names. Like Oracle and Microsoft. When it was top dog, Dell got T&Cs from all of these guys–Intel too, I’d wager–that no one else could hope for.

Dell’s sales force types are no angels. Witness the tales of VARs who say the a strategicically gifted flat-panel TV to a customer exec spelled the difference between them and Dell winning a given deal. But is that sales force any worse than Oracle’s  or IBM Global Services in the enterprise arena? All of these vendors–including Microsoft– want account control for themselves. No partner can ever forget that.

So, let’s wait and see what happens with Dell’s new programs. But how hard is it going to be for any VAR battered by Dell in the past to start registering leads with the vendor now?

Most solution providers will tell you they see lead registration as a vendor tool for collecting customer info it later uses for its own (often direct) benefit. And Dell certainly didn’t patent that idea.

Barbara Darrow, a Boston-area reporter, can be reached at badarrow@comcast.net.

You could see this one coming.

Two sets of plaintiffs are trying to make their lawsuit over Microsoft’s “Vista-capable” claims into a class action tiff.

Vista has hit more than it’s share of  bumps since general release early this year.

This just proves that with Microsoft’s claims, buyers better beware. Solution providers had long warned that even so-called “Vista capable” PCs might technically run Vista, but the experience would be anything but delightful. So much for underpromising.

Lesson? While dispensing “I told you so’s” to customers is never smart, this might be a time to remind them that you, not the vendor, should be their trusted advisor on new hardware-and software-purchases.  

Barbara Darrow, a Boston-area reporter, can be reached at badarrow@comcast.net.   

Here’s  another news nugget that bears watching.

Bruce Chizen is leaving his spot as Adobe next month after 13 years with the company. Shantanu Narayen, who is now president and chief operating officer, will take his slot.

Chizen rode herd on Adobe’s blockbuster buyout of Macromedia. That buy gave Adobe, already ubiquitous with its Acrobat reader and the PDF format,  even more desktop presence and mindshare with Macromedia’s Flash franchise.

Barbara Darrow, a Boston area journalist, can be reached at badarrow@comcast.net.  

 IBM Software has long made a big racket about how it’s an infrastructure player and would never ever, ever (again) compete with applications partners.

But now it’s buying Cognos for five billion big ones. That’s five billion. For Cognos! So those arguments are sounding pretty flimsy. Of course, IBM would (and will) argue that business intelligence and analytics are not applications per se. Yes, and you can probably fit a million angels on the head of a pin.

BusinessWeek’s headline summed it up:  IBM, Cognos, and the end of Best-of-Breed. Once again, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, who has long said that best-of-breed was a goner, is proved right. Of course, as Bill Gates once said, Larry spent billions of shareholders’ dough proving that contention. But enough digressing.

A reporter pal could have one upped BusinessWeek with her suggested (but unused)  Cognos headline:  ”Well, it needed killin’.”

 Of course IBM’s pledge of application agnosticism has long stuck in the craw of such “applications partners” as Information Builders and others. Many never bought the premise especially as the infrastructure of all the major players has crept up, up, up the application stack.
After  SAP bought Business Objects and Oracle bought up the rest of the known universe including Siebel and its analytics powers (Siebel had already bought nQuire) IBM must have figured it had to move. Don’t forget, Microsoft had its own buying binge snapping up Dundas technology along with Proclarity, ActiveViews, DeepMetrics, AssetMetrix (or parts of them) to beef up its BI portfolio.

So, as Cognos was the last BI player standing, it was only a matter of time. It has also been very closely aligned with IBM for years, especially once Microsoft started coming up the stack with its own reporting and analytics tools. In fact, IBM used to tout Cognos as a example of how it, unlike Microsoft and Oracle, does not compete with applications partners.

As SAP, Oracle, Microsoft continued their feeding frenzy, maybe it became an if-you-can’t-beat’em-join-em thing for IBM.

For  BI solution partners who’ve been in demand for their skills, will have to get used to playing with bigger and bigger partners.

Barbara Darrow, a Boston area freelancer, can be reached at badarrow@comcast.net.  

The blurring of corporate/consumer computing lines continues.

Any solution provider or integrator working with corporate clients (SMBs to enterprises) knows how there is simply no way to prevent consumer-oriented services (Napster, AOL or Yahoo instant messaging, YouTube, you name it) from penetrating the firewalls. Some of these beasts—Second Life leaps to mind—are even claiming that they have relevance inside the firewall.

Last week, Google took another step, backing what it calls a set of “open” APIs for social networking application development. No skin off Google’s teeth there: It’s really not a huge player in this Facebook/MySpace world. Yet. Why not declare yourself a player while claiming the moral high ground in a battle field where you’re barely a blip? Sounds positively Microsoftian.

Leading into that news, F acebook declared itself to be far more than a voyeuristic social networking site, but a for-real application development environment.

Anyway, solution providers know this poses a challenge—and an opportunity for them to help customers sort through these worlds and keep the customer as secure as possible.

An opportunity because these trends shift faster than Paris Hilton changes poses and a challenge because it may be hard to persuade clients to pay for expertise in this respect.

Barbara Darrow, a Boston area freelancer, can be reached at badarrow@comcast.net.