Barker Bites Back
A look at some newsy stuff and interesting bits as well as those hopefully amusing byways of technology.
Wednesday 11 March 2009, 1:45 PM
Microsoft says it's a SaaS mistake
SQL Data Services is a scalable, on-demand data storage and query processing utility service.
This is what Microsoft apparently said through the director of its Software Plus Services (software-as-a-service or SaaS as the rest of world calls it) strategy Shannon Day:
" … there is definitely a movement afoot to let you resell services, and you would own the paper and agreement with the customer."
In other words the news, as reported by the trade newspaper and web site CRN, was good for resellers of Microsoft software. They could "own" any relationships they had with Microsoft and Microsoft's customers and Microsoft would be happy with a cut of any deal.
We asked Microsoft to comment or enlighten us further but received no direct reply until Tuesday. Microsoft it now seems had made an error, or rather a Microsoft executive had unfortunately given us a misleading message.
We received a statement from Microsoft:
"In Q2 2009, Microsoft will give Microsoft Online Service partners the opportunity to create a Microsoft Online Services order tailored to their customer. Once enabled, partners will populate an order with recommended services and quantities while designating themselves as partner of record. The order generates a URL the partner sends directly to the customer to confirm and complete the order. Partners continue to own and manage their customer relationships, while Microsoft manages the billing process."
So there it is. Yes, resellers can "own" the customer/Microsoft agreement but when it comes to the real heart of it, which is of course the money, Microsoft is still keeping control.
PreviousComments on this post
Which also means that if the customer goes out of business then MS still gets its money from the reseller as the reseller must take the hit. Risky business "owning the customer/Microsoft agreement" especially with Microsoft.
Seems to be that Microsoft can invoke and revoke these options at will.
What's to say that they will change their mind again a few months down the track? Where does that leave resellers who have 'hooked' their customers into the Microsoft SaaS 'platform'? Once entangled within the Microsoft API cobweb, it's damn hard to get out.
Which is why, as a reseller, I place my faith with open source software. That way, no-one tells me what to do with my business, platforms and customers.
