Microsoft’s WPC — Denver, 2007: Keynote Summary
This article was originally posted on July 15, 2007.
I recently returned from Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) in Denver, and although it wasn’t quite as convenient as last year’s event in Boston, I always leave these events energized with the great possibilities that are out there in the marketplace for us as a partner. (I guess that’s kind of the point.) This acute enthusiasm, which wells up when a particularly good demo hits home, typically lasts until I cannot get wireless network access at the next break, or I have to re-boot my stinking (Windows Mobile) Treo three times in three days, etc. That being said, I thought I’d share some of the broad points touched on at this year’s Keynote speeches. I’ll follow up with a subsequent post about some of the relevant (to our business) software publishers I met with at the WPC Expo.
I did not make every keynote, instead choosing ones that I thought were most relevant. Some details:
Kevin Turner, Microsoft’s Chief Operating Officer, provided a few high-quality metrics for us:
- Over 40 million copies of Vista installed in first 100 days after release (highest “absorption” ever)
- 85 million licensed SharePoint users
- 2.5 million seats of Lotus Notes displaced by MSFT Exchange Server (2008 target: 4 million)
- $20 million of R&D investment by Microsoft was released in products in 2007
- Big bets on Live platform, especially Office Live
His message to the assembled partners for 2008: Execute and monetize the opportunity that this creates! He also reiterated Microsoft’s commitment to releasing new technology into the market to accelerate partner opportunities: Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, and Visual Studio 2008, all slated for release on February 27, 2008.
Chris Caposella, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President for the Business Division Product Group, is always an entertaining and dynamic speaker. He had a ton of ground to cover in time that was a little bit cut short, so his (Boston-style) pace was even greater than usual. A couple of data points from Chris that I found of note:
- There are now 5,300 Information Worker (IW) partners, up a factor of 16 since 2005
- The Business Productivity Infrastructure Optimization (BPIO) model will be an important sales tool, with new competencies to align to this
- Major FY08 launches include Office Communications Server and PerformancePoint Server, both slated for Fall, 2007
- Major investment(s) in building IW partner skills: $5MM in free training, discounted certification exams, etc.
- Huge investment in and focus on Office Business Applications (e.g., SAP Duet, Microsoft Dynamics SNAP, etc.)
Sanjay Parthasarathy is the Corporate Vice President of Microsoft’s Developer and Platform Evangelism Group, and he showed some really exciting demos of Microsoft’s new presentation tools: SilverLight and Windows Presentation Foundation. He gave the partners five key calls to action:
- Integrators and developers: Get up to speed on OBA
- ISVs: Learn about hosting your apps (guidance on MSDN)
- Join the ISV Community and take advantage of resources there
- Get a fast start on the next wave on innovation (Kevin Turner’s product announcements above)
- Investigate and start working with Windows Presentation Foundation and Silverlight, which will dramatically change the visual experience of applications
Overall, the key themes that stuck with me (keeping in mind my perspective as a business development person for an Information Worker partner) were:
- Huge Microsoft attention to/investment in Office Business Applications
- Huge Microsoft attention to/investment in rich authoring tools like Silverlight and Windows Presentation Foundation
- Huge Microsoft bets on Live Platform (Turner demo’d Dynamics Live CRM in the first keynote demo)
I missed Steve Ballmer’s keynote, but relied on Mary Jo Foley’s always reliable summary. More on the Expo to be posted soon…
Originally published at https://mikegil.typepad.com.
