Microsoft Mobile Communications Partner Summit 2008

Day one of the Microsoft Mobile Communications Partner Summit 2008 is in the bag, at least for me. I decide to skip the Partner Party, so for others it is almost in the bag. Come to think of it, I would imagine that some others are "almost in the bag..." We'll see who is late for breakfast in the morning.

This was an invitation only event and I guess that I was invited because we are one of the just over 400 Microsoft Partners in the US with the Mobility Competency. I was reluctant to come, mainly because is going to turn out to be over a $1,000 in out-of-pocket expenses and basically 4 days shot, with travel. After day one, I'm thinking that I should have followed my intuition and took a pass.

I don't want to be critical of the event, as it seems to be fairly well organized, but I really think that I am going to have a hard time realizing any real ROI in the investment. The benefit I was really hoping to gain, did not materialize today, but perhaps some fruit will be borne tomorrow. What I was looking for was some REAL, tangible engagement with the Mobile Operators, ATT, Sprint, Verizon and with the Microsoft Sales and Partner Engagement team. I was frustrated, at best, in those efforts.

I made two attempts to engage with ATT to see how as small VAR like Quality Systems Solutions, Inc. could leverage their Microsoft Mobility Competency to offer Mobility Solutions directly to our SMB clients. None of the four people I spoke with could tell me how we could activate devices and data plans within the ATT system, directly for our clients. Without such a program, we are forced to tell our clients to "go to the mall, pick out the Windows Mobile device that you like, bring it back to us and we'll get you setup on the network." That doesn't add much value and certainly doesn't put much money in our pockets.

About a year ago, we were invited by Verizon to participate in a pilot program, where we had an agency agreement that permitted us to sell and activate mobile devices and data plans. We received an activation fee and recurring revenue on the monthly service fee. Verizon terminated the program in January of this year. THAT is the kind of agreement I was expecting to forge with the Mobile Operators, while attending this event. It does not appear like that is going to happen.

The highlight of the day for me was listening Allison Watson, Corporate Vice President, World Wide Partner Group, "discuss the advantages of the Microsoft partner approach in a tough economy." She built her presentation on the premiss's established in the book "Built to Last." There were some interesting facts presented on how IBM emerged from the Great Depression (which Allison repeated referred to as a "Recession") as the market leader in cash machines, primarily because they focused on Sales and Marketing, despite the market conditions. There was also some talk about the "High performance/Low cost" paradigm. It would take me more time to develop those concepts than I care to at the moment.

Suffice it to say that with respect to tomorrow, I am hoping for the best but preparing for the worst. I would sure hate to go home with nothing more to show for my trip than the silly little trinket that ATT passed out at the registration.