Microsoft added a vice president's hat to the head of Enterprise Partners as it drives a new initiative to engage enterprise partners tactically from Redmond, instead of regionally.

Peter Boit, formerly vice president of the Commercial Sectors Group, takes on the new role from Jared Wheeler, who led the group as General Manager of Enterprise Partners within the Enterprise and Partner Group, led by Simon Witts, Microsoft said.

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The measure elevates the enterprise partner rank of the post and allows the software maker to manage partner relationships and create joint opportunities directly from Redmond instead of through Microsoft's 99 regional subsidiaries.

"Recently we have seen the need and had success in structuring alliances with partners who don't necessarily have that global business reach, who predominantly do business in one area of the world, or who have a specific solution capability and value to the customers," Boit said.

"Today, we have the opportunity of extending how we work with partners from headquarters in Redmond to a much broader set of enterprise partners globally."

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Microsoft established structured alliances with Chinese partners to meet the specific needs of partners there and collaborated with several firms building businesses in the Unified Communications industry, to "jointly build out their business and deliver specific value to our customers," Boit said.

Boit, a 15-year Microsoft veteran, will coordinate with Simon Witts, vice president of Enterprise and Partner Group Worldwide and Allison Watson, corporate vice president of Worldwide Partner Group.

Wheeler is now general manager of incubated sales in the Enterprise and Partner Group.