Microsoft Mobile Communications Partner Summit 2008 Part II

I would be remiss in my responsibility if I did not follow-up on my original post. I will hold to my contention that MY time would have been better invested elsewhere. That is not to say that the summit was bad.

Quite the contrary. Actually it was very well organized and well managed. The posted schedule was honored and the speakers generally did a very respectable job of presenting their material. The problem for me was that the material wasn't terribly relevant to me, my business or my clients.

If I were the owner of a larger company, focused on serving the Enterprise space or if I had a team of developers, I would have probably been quite satisfied with the entire event. Microsoft made it abundantly clear that they were embracing, in fact, dependent upon, the developer community for the ultimate success of their Mobile platform. Their repeated focus on System Center Mobile Device Manager was squarely directed at partners serving the enterprise customer.

The second day was somewhat redeemed when I was able to ambush Rachel Jusseaume, Senior Product Manager-Windows Mobile, SMS&P in the break area. We agreed to follow-up after the new year. IF there is to be any fruit borne for Quality Systems Solutions, Inc in Windows Mobile, working with her is what is going to make it happen.

The Summit was closed with a keynote by Rachel's boss, Dametra Johnson-Marletti and her whole team. Dametra did a nice job of showing how Microsoft was aligning their Marketing Campaign with the hardware, the software (platform) and service (SCMDM) components. She also illustrated the multifaceted approach to the campaign including consumer, retail, competitive, enterprise and even a brief nod to SMB.

In the end, I would say that most attendees probably gave the event high marks. As for me, next year, I'll take a pass.

Managed Services for God?

"Managed services" is a term that if you are in the IT space, you are probably very familiar with. It is based upon the idea of a proactive approach to managing IT resources and often times is presented in an "all you can eat" model.

Today a group of Managed Service (MSP) providers gathered together to discuss service in a rather different light. The topic was Marketplace Ministry and the forum was an Internet Radio program hosted by Stuart Crawford. The program was recorded here. Along with Stuart; Jeff Wood, Brad Schow, Arlin Sorensen and me (all HTG members) discussed how we use our influence as business owners and managers to serve people and ultimately serve God. There was hearty discussion on how each of us has been convicted to share our faith as freely has as we share our professional and technical knowledge. Check it out!

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.