Microsoft hosting partners welcome the visibility that the company's plunge into the hosting market brings, but they say many corporate users will find the Exchange and SharePoint services fall short of the mark.
The partners say that Microsoft’s pricing structure will cause them some disruption, but that users will realize Microsoft’s prices don’t include a full complement of add-ons, integrations, customizations, support and maintenance that they must purchase from partners.
The biggest upside hosting partners see is that Microsoft is shining a bright light on the benefits of hosted online services.
“Initially we had a concerned reaction that Microsoft was coming into our space,” says Ravi Agarwal, founder and senior executive
officer of GroupSpark, Microsoft’s 2008 partner of the year in the advanced infrastructure/hosting solutions category. “But
as we looked at the details we saw it was a limited offering. It really is an opportunity for us. Microsoft will spend a lot
of marketing money to create awareness and that solves one problem for us.”
Microsoft Online Services (MOS), currently in beta and slated to come online later this year, include a Business Productivity Suite anchored by Exchange and SharePoint, and separate Exchange and SharePoint offerings targeted at users who are not always tethered to a PC.
“I think what they are going for is a simple way to get basic SharePoint,” says Paul West, a principal with provider SharePoint360, which has consulting and hosting businesses built up around the collaboration server.
| Service station Microsoft last week revealed the pricing for its corporate collaboration services expected to ship this year. The Business Productivity Suite is a combination of e-mail and collaborative services that also can be purchased ˆ la carte. Options for Exchange and SharePoint services targeting workers who spend little time at PCs also are being offered. Microsoft plans a base service, and many corporate users will require augmentation from a third party for add-ons or customizations. |
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West says that since most of his customers customize the platform for their specific needs that he doesn’t see Microsoft cannibalizing his business. “We provide the personalization and customizations a lot of people are looking for.”
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Comments (5)
This is all under the pretense that big marketing dollars alone will bring in the masses...By Anonymous on July 10, 2008, 10:45 pmThis is all under the pretense that big marketing dollars alone will bring in the masses. Hosting is already somewhat of a commodity, but it's a way to bring in...
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Microsoft Owns The CustomerBy Mitchell Ashley on July 11, 2008, 2:23 amFor me, the most notable aspect of the announcement is that Microsoft owns the customer, partners are just POR (partners of record). I have some more thoughts...
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Incomplete articleBy Anonymous on July 11, 2008, 8:21 pmWhy does this article only focus on the standard offering as if it's the only offering for MSFT. There's a dedicated offering as well that will allow customization...
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Not Suitable for Small to Mid Sized BusinessesBy Anonymous on July 25, 2008, 12:59 pmBare bones hosted sharepoint and exchange arent really going to help small to mid sized businesses, especially small businesses. They dont need solutions which require...
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HyperOffice Launches Web Conferencing?By Anonymous on August 18, 2008, 1:35 pmto follow up with an earlier comment, i recently read an article about Hyperoffice launching a new web conferencing application, http://www.hypermeeting.com, which...
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