Partnering with Microsoft How to Make Money in Trusted Partnership with the Global Software Powerhouse
February 9, 2009 by Christian
“Folks who read this book will be rewarded with an unfair competitive advantage in the marketplace. . .hide it under the newspaper on the airplane!” —Nick Copping, CEO, ZOOM Marketing; former strategist for Global System Integrators, Microsoft
“Partnering is in Microsoft’s DNA. Partnering with Microsoft helps you understand Microsoft, speak their language and thrive in the Microsoft ecosystem. It’s the most definitive perspective I’ve seen.” —Sam Jadallah, General Partner, Mohr Davidow Ventures; former General Manager for Worldwide Business Strategy at Microsoft, and the architect of Microsoft’s partnering strategy
“…offers insight into the fast paced nature of working and succeeding with Microsoft.” —Allison L. Watson, Vice President, Worldwide Partner Group, Microsoft Corporation
“As much celebration as analytic advisory, Partnering with Microsoft prescriptively explores one of the least understood but most important mechanisms driving Microsoft’s global success.” —Michael Schrage, MIT Media Lab, and author of Serious Play
MICROSOFT is the largest software company in the world, dominating the information technology industry. Software, services and reseller firms have a choice: they can either compete with Microsoft or partner with it. More than any other company in the computer industry, Microsoft has proved the value of partnering and the efficiencies of the channel model. In fact, many attribute Microsoft’s monumental success to its early recognition that it would need a strong channel of service providers, resellers, developers and manufacturing partners in order to seed the PC industry.
This book is the first practical resource for business leaders showing how to build a successful partnership with Microsoft. Separate chapters focus on the unique requirements for resellers, systems integrators, and independent software vendors.
The book shows readers how to increase and leverage their firms’ connections to Microsoft—at various levels and with different groups in the organization, playing to the company’s culture and strategy—in order to expand the terrain of shared interests between their firm and Microsoft. Doing so will help make more money in a trusted partnership through effective co-marketing, efficient channel relationships, assured referrals and joint success in selling complementary products or services in the United States and around the world. This book demystifies Microsoft’s culture, global organization and strategic trajectory, and orients readers to the tactics required to increase and work their firms’ connections to—and trusted partnership with—Microsoft to achieve optimal success.
The authors draw on many years of experience to help readers understand the Microsoft culture and be attuned to its strategy in order to succeed in partnering—and how to help Microsoft perceive their firms as high-value partners. They also guide readers to focus on the many business-growth opportunities that unfold when they become successful partners with Microsoft. Successful partnerships will extend a firm’s business and technical development opportunities into new accounts and new markets with the globally powerful backing of Microsoft.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars DANCING WITH MICROSOFT
Within 21 years of becoming the most powerful company therein, Microsoft has ascended to the pinnacle of the IT industry. Authors by Ted Dinsmore and Edward O’Connor have done an outstanding job of telling the readership of this book, how by virtue of its own commitment of partnering with other firms, Microsoft has done so to an extent unparalleled by other large companies in the industry.
Dinsmore and O’Connor begin this book by telling you why you should partner with Microsoft. Next, the authors detail the core attributes of Microsoft’s culture, organization and strategy, and explain the position of Microsoft’s partners in its ecosystem. Then, they build on the responsible understanding of the ecosystem by elucidating the principles of partnering with Microsoft. The authors next focus on the partnering tactics that successful ISVs employ vis-a-vis Microsoft. Dinsmore and O’Connor continue by focusing on the partnering tactics that successful services firms employ vis-a-vis Microsoft. In addition, the authors focus on the partnering tactics that successful resellers employ vis-a-vis Microsoft. Finally, they advance the tactics implicit earlier in the book; that is: how to leverage other Microsoft partners not only to improve your relationship with the company, but to accentuate your firm’s success by working productively with other partners in Microsoft’s Partner Ecosystem.
With the preceding in mind, the authors have done an excellent job of helping your firm come to terms with Microsoft, to assess and mitigate the risks of partnering, and to pursue and realize the rewards of partnering with this globally successful company. At the end of the day, only by understanding what makes Microsoft tick and how the company thinks and behaves, can your firm be a successful Microsoft partner.
3 Stars Good but a little tedious
I’ve worked for different Microsoft partners for almost 10 years. I hoped this book would provide new, interesting, and perhaps secretive information that I could use in building relationships with the field level sales teams.
I did like how the author starts out by talking about how Microsoft views the partner ecosystem. The author compares the Microsoft partner ecosystem to other big software/hardware makers such as Oracle, Sun, Apple, and IBM. With a partner driven model, these chapters helped frame how good we have it in the Microsoft ecosystem.
The book contains sections on how different types of partners can be successful with Microsoft. The author compares working with the Microsoft corporate office versus the field sales teams. I found this very beneficial in how I prioritize my time investing with Microsoft personnel. I work for a services partner so the software partner, reseller partner, and hardware partner chapters were not very beneficial to me. However, those chapters may be a good reference for future use.
I found the book to be a slow read compared to the last dozen business books I’ve ready this year. Perhaps it was because I’ve been doing this type of work for years. I also became weary of how the author repeatedly told the reader he was going to answer a question in a future chapter. By the time I read the later chapter, I didn’t go back and cross reference the question. Am I supposed to be doing that?
Despite some concerns with the book, this is a must read for any professional working for a Microsoft partner; especially in a sales role.
5 Stars Serious Momentum with Microsoft
I had the privilege in attending a “Partnering with Microsoft” presentation and I am reading Ted Dinsmore’s book now. Since the meeting with Ted Dinsmore, our organization is adopting many of the techniques revealed in his book and our corporation now has serious momentum with Microsoft. I highly recommend reading the book, and if the opportunity arises to meet Ted, don’t miss it.
2 Stars Good information, terribly written
If you partner with Microsoft in sales, this is a must read. But it’s also a maddening read becuase the same topics are reviewed over, and over, and over, and over again. It’s like the author had to make a certain word count, so they just kept repeating themselves to make the magic number. I would recommend you digest the material over a period of weeks rather than a day or two. It’s certainly not a page turner. . .
5 Stars The Inside Scoop on Working with Microsoft
A great many companies want to use computers in their business to do something a little bit different than what the programmers originally thought. Many companies do not want to invest, perhaps they cannot invest in their own IT department to understand and develop exactly what they need.
Microsoft understands this very well. Consequently many of their products are designed so that someone else can take their products and make it function as the final customer needs.
A perfect example is a database. A company wants to keep track of something. A database is the ideal way to do this. But does anyone at that company understand enough about database design to implement the database, design the forms and reports to make it easy enough for the clerks in the company to use, and then train the clerks?
The result is Microsoft’s partnering philosophy. If you will set up your company to take Microsofts basic software and make it work as the final customer wants, then Microsoft wants to work with you, will supply you with support and leads, give you all kinds of advantages.
The alternative in the IT industry is to do your own thing, perhaps in competition with Microsoft. History tends to say that this isn’t all that wise.
The authors fo this book are experts in working with Microsoft. In this book they give you the whole scoop, including the bad points (Suppose the customer really should use Linux!).
