Channel Development is a new role in Microsoft UK and is chartered with building our partner channels for solutions, specialisations and competencies - working closely with our Partner Technical Specialists (PTS) to do so. Over the last 10 months we've been working hard to do this in mobility and a number of other areas and it's been incredibly educational. Very quickly we figured out that we had a lot of information to share but needed to find a way to do it as effectively as possible with as little intrusion as possible - with mobility things happen pretty frequently (new devices, new applications, new services) so we decided to publish a WIndows Mobile kitbag email on a bi-monthly basis and send it to the partners we knew were working in mobility. This newsletter of sorts aimed to keep partners up to date on new devices, applications, tips and tricks and potential partners to partner with. I think we'll continue to do this but over time it became clear that a blog was a more efficient rouete to communicate this kind of information. Why you may ask (well you may not but in case you were wondering)

  • A blog is "opt in" - i.e. you choose to read it rather than get the newsletter which you may never have wanted (though we did give you the option to "opt out"
  • A blog is less intrusive - you can decide when this information gets to you and who. There are a tonne of great ways to get a blog delivered be that in to Outlook with tools like Newsgator, FeedDemon or SharpReader (my personal favourite). You can also get feeds on your Windows Mobile device with applications like Newsbreak
  • A blog allows us to drip feed information in a more timely manner - a lot can happen in 2 months which is our usual schedule for the newsletter
  • A blog is just cooler :)

With that said, I hope you enjoy this blog and find the information we publish useful and relevant. If not, we're failing and I'd appreciate you letting us know. I'll explore the channel development role a little more soon and hope to give you a useful insight in to what a typical week holds for me and I'm sure Martin will do the same from a PTS point of view. All I can say for now is that our mobile technology is a valuable asset in the way I (and 1600 or so other people at Microsoft UK) go about our work. Stay tuned!