Is Microsoft trying to get rid of partners through Office 365?

http://blog.williamhilsum.com/2011/08/office-365-partner-experience-is.html

by wilhil • 15 years ago

12 9 15 years ago

blog.williamhilsum.com

ghurlman• 15 years ago

They're not getting rid of their managed or gold partners, or even really the small ones... they're just not going out of their way to avoid hurting the "partners" with an online presence like this: http://www.ezpcltd.com/

wilhil3• 15 years ago

I do not understand what you are trying to achieve by a comment like that, I get my clients through personal recommendations and other means... I never said I was the biggest partner or made any claims. I however am like thousands of other small Microsoft partners and these are simply my experiences. That being said, I am not trying to promote my company anywhere here (or even on the blog), and do not really see how it is relevant. All points from the blog post still stand.

raganwald• 15 years ago

I feel that Microsoft are really screwing partners... the new hosted Exchange solution costs less and offers more than any hosted solution from any partner I have seen - I simply do not know why any partner will want to offer their own hosted Exchange going forward.

In simpler words, partners that offer hosted Exchange no longer add any value to the customer experience or to Microsoft's business other than as a sales channel. Given the direction SaaS is going, into massively centralized clouds, this shouldn't surprise anyone at all.

It doesn't feel like Microsoft is being predatory here, I'd say this is simply an instance of a larger market force acting on everyone in the space. A vendor who makes a hosted software solution is either going to host it themselves in a ginormous and expensive cloud or host it in a cloud utility like Amazon or Google. There simply isn't extra fat in the "supply chain" to support an intermediary host.

This explains why Microsoft's own solution is cheaper and better. It has to be. My conjecture is that the only reason it has taken so long to be cheaper and better is because of internal politics over hosting their own Office competing with desktop license revenues.

sunchild3• 15 years ago

Does Microsoft offer migration services directly? I'm sure that's a huge requirement for most enterprise and SMB customers. While the partners are going to lose their hosting windfall, they still have a chance to build a third party services market for migration/backup similar to what you see on Google Apps, no?

I know next to nothing about Office 365 offerings, BTW. I looked at them briefly, and gave up trying to figure them out. Also, I've read Microsoft's terms for BPOS and they scare me.

runjake• 15 years ago

Just a comment for fellow HNers who peruse the comments before hitting the url:

1. The HN submitter is the linked post's author.

2. I fail to see how this has anything to do with startups or hackers, but I've been wrong before. Raganwald's comment sums it up.

wilhil3• 15 years ago

Sorry if you feel like that! Not trying to hide anything... I read similar posts all the time... Cloud/Microsoft/Company v Company...

I found out about this place after someone else submitting one of my articles and have since submitted my own posts a few times simply because I felt they would be a good fit.

sunchild3• 15 years ago

As long as we're OT, I want to address your other article: http://blog.williamhilsum.com/2011/07/my-take-on-google-apps...

Using Google Apps with Outlook is a recipe for disaster. I use Google Apps IMAP (for local backups) via Apple Mail, Postbox, Swallow and other clients. I've never had the slightest issue.

On the other hand, I've supported IMAP users in Outlook and hated every second of it. Outlook generally is a mess when it comes to playing nice with other non-MS tools. For example, .ost files that fail to back up properly, etc. It's definitely 90% my ignorance of Outlook, but I can't be bothered to learn the nuances of Outlook when everything else just works. The other 10% is due to the Google vs. MS rivalry.

I realize you had no choice, given the client's use of a plug-in. I just wanted to point out that using Outlook with Google Apps is asking for trouble.

Is Microsoft trying to get rid of partners through Office 365?

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