Windows 7 Home Basic Key Microsoft headed for a se

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Microsoft is on the collision course with its hosting partners.During the previous couple of weeks, Microsoft officials have began touting publicly the handful of hosted managed providers that Microsoft is selling straight to clients. This week in the NXTcomm 2007 present in Chicago, Microsoft is out hawking its
“Microsoft Solution for Hosted Messaging and Collaboration,” “Hosted Microsoft Dynamics for CRM” solution and “Microsoft Solution for Managed PC.”These three providers are just the tip of the iceberg. Earlier this month,Windows 7 Home Basic Key, Ron Markezich, Microsoft Vice President of Managed Solutions,Genuine Office 2007, said Microsoft is looking to build and support a Microsoft-hosted service component for almost every one of its software products. Next up are a Microsoft-hosted business-intelligence solution and some kind of Microsoft-hosted SoftGrid application-virtualization offering.Currently, Microsoft only has four corporate clients for these managed solutions. But inside the coming months, Microsoft plans to turn up the marketing heat on its hosted wares.That;s not the best news for businesses which have carved out a business for themselves over the previous few years selling hosted SharePoint, hosted Exchange and hosted SQL Server companies. Now these telcos, integrators,Office Standard, resellers and managed-service providers will be competing head-to-head with Microsoft to sell hosted versions of Microsoft;s software.The clash between Microsoft and its service partners could come to head in mid-July at Microsoft;s Worldwide Partner Conference (WWPC) in Denver. At that show, Microsoft is offering a number of sessions designed to attract more partners to sell hosted versions of Microsoft;s unified communications and security wares. “Add a New Revenue Stream: Promoting a Portfolio of Hosted Services” is the title of one WWPC session. “Managed Services? Building a Sustaining Business Model to Succeed” is another.Markezich told me in early June he was well aware that he could face a tough crowd in the WWPC. He pointed out that Microsoft currently has a “very small sales team” selling Microsoft-hosted versions of these services. Microsoft is relying primarily on its dedicated acount executives to let clients know they can buy these companies straight from Microsoft, he said.“I do talk to partners quite a bit about this (Microsoft;s entry into the managed solutions market),Genuine Office 2010,” Markezich said.One way Microsoft is hoping to lessen channel conflict with its partners in this space is by convincing service providers to embed Microsoft;s managed solutions as part of their larger managed/outsourced datacenter offering, Markezich said. He noted that Siemens Business Companies is doing call-center and desktop support for Energizer Holdings,Office Professional 2010, the first customer Microsoft signed up for its managed providers pilot a few years ago.“Migration and transformation work is also a good place for partners” to sell managed-services solutions based on Microsoft products, Markezich said. And in cases where “clients want servers on premise (but would prefer someone else to run them), we send them to partners,” Markezich added.Any partners out there worried about Microsoft;s pending encroachment into the managed-service space? Buyers using managed providers: Would you rather have your hosted e-mail managed by Microsoft or an independent partner?