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The Odd News Tidbit Interrupts Multilingual Grumbling at WPC

Going into day three at WPC and most of the talk is still about the tepid Software + Services announcement from Tuesday morning. Suffice it to say resellers here are underwhelmed by the Microsoft vision for delivering a hybrid of cloud and on-site applications. And the recurring revenue stream promised by a 12 percent upfront […]

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Chris Gonsalves

Jul 9, 2008

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Going into day three at WPC and most of the talk is still about the tepid Software + Services announcement from Tuesday morning. Suffice it to say resellers here are underwhelmed by the Microsoft vision for delivering a hybrid of cloud and on-site applications. And the recurring revenue stream promised by a 12 percent upfront and 6 percent per year for the life of the contract has been met with near universal shrugging.

The running gag at the show is that VARs–what few of them there are here at a show stacked with ISVs–would fare better teaching PC skills down at the local senior center. And the fun thing about WPC is that when folks complain, you get to hear it in dozens of languages. When Windows marketing veep Brad Brooks took the stage Tuesday to announce the Vista Compatibility Center and declare that Vista wasn’t going to stand around getting sand kicked in its GUI any longer, cursing could be heard in Goan and Kenyan Sheng.

The international flair here continued well into the after hours, where most of the best parties were being hosted by foreign contingents. Kudos to the Canadians for organizing the toughest ticket in town at Venue. Looked like a good time from out on the sidewalk, where non-Canadians were kept at a safe distance from what one can only assume was an open bar of Labatts on tap and a buffet of poutine and meatpie.

Among the other highlights of WPC thus far are:

New terms and offerings from Microsoft’s rapidly expanding finance arm. The folks with the checkbook announced a new SmartPay promotion that lets end users finance new purchases for two- or three-year terms with no payments for six months. Microsoft Finance is also giving Enterprise Agreement customers, who normally pay annually, the option to schedule monthly, quarterly or semi-annual payments.

Microsoft Financing Director Bill Liddell also says his group will introduce lines of credit for qualifying customers in October and is prepping new sales, marketing and readiness tools to help partners work financing into their deals. Partners currently don’t get a piece of the Microsoft financing action, Liddell concedes, but the availability of financing for credit-worthy end users helps grease the skids for partner engagements, he says. Microsoft’s in-house bankers did $800 million in loan origination last year, some 40 percent of which came through the channel, Liddell says. And when financing gets involved in a reseller deal, the average transaction increases in value between 40 and 80 percent, he says.

The Odd News Tidbit Interrupts Multilingual Grumbling at WPC

Chris Gonsalves

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