Software + Services: what does it mean for SBS?

Lots of comments & discussion at the moment around Microsoft's recent Software + Services updates & announcements at WPC.

Whilst the specific details are still being worked out for Australia, what is clear is these changes are part of the ongoing shift in our business model - a change that we, the channel & our mutual customers need to get our heads around.

Hosting is the fastest growing license type for SBS & so these changes will impact upon this space as well. What exactly does it mean? When will it happen? How will it affect your specific business? I don't know. But we do want to discuss it & look at all the options.

With this in mind, our Group Manager of Partner Strategy in Australia, Nick Mayhew, is inviting all SMB partners to provide comments & feedback on this - either in public or direct to him. Please use the email link on his blog to post your thoughts: https://blogs.msdn.com/nickmayhew/

His summary is below & I'd love to get this conversation going - particularly relevant given Allison Watson, MS Corporate VP of all things partner, will be at the Australian Partner Conference in August & will more than likely be discussing this as part of her presentation.

Cheers,

Robbie

 

From Nick Mayhew's Australian Partner blog:

"With all the announcements last week on the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) as part of our Software+Services strategy (S+S) we know there will be questions arising in the minds of Australian partners large and small, from value-added resellers to system integrators and ISVs.

Whilst we won't necessarily have all the answers I wanted to use my blog as a way to help our partners engage in a dialog on the subject, ask some specific burning questions and for me to roll out an FAQ type response that I build on as we go forwards.

So feel free to send me any questions you have on the announcements last week, the S+S strategy as a whole, the BPOS partner model etc etc I will then either answer directly to you or via this blog in FAQ format. It is an exciting time in the industry but one with which we understand can create uncertainty in many people's minds - we are committed to helping partners embrace the business opportunities going forwards and of course to better server your customers."