Okay, so if I was given a penny for every time I was asked:

1. How do I prove my value to Microsoft?
2. What should I do to get more visibility inside of Microsoft?
3. What should I do to get more face time from MSFT?

...then I would be a very rich man indeed...sadly this is not true and I impart these small words of wisdom freely (see how nice I am :-))

So here it is the top secrets to working with Microsoft (there are books on the matter just in case these few bullets whet your appetite):

1. To demonstrate your value sell your platform into specific verticals
2. The revenue they see as a result will demonstrate your value as a partner
3. The stories you create will demonstrate your business value and give you the PR legs to take your platform further

Many partners look for credibility from Microsoft. The way to demonstrate this is to deliver the following:

1. Predictability - 'revenue on the platform'
2. Proof Points - 'stories of how your product helps ours'
3. Pipeline - 'how we can take the initial stories further'

I have shared these with different alliance managers in the past working now in companies from Orange to O2 and many other types of partners. There are no complex rules and calling higher up usually doesn't work. It's nice and simple - help us to succeed and we will help you.

Enjoy!

Righty ho, so not being the most technical person in the world I have been trying out a few different blog writers/posting apps to varying success. My favorite was Live Writer until I realised that it does sometimes cut off URLs hence the apology to you all for some frustrating posts where you cannot follow my links!

This should all be over now as the boys and girls in Redmond have let me try out some funky new version of LiveWriter which totally and utterly hums! Thanks to Joe Cheng and the gang in Redmond for helping me look less stupid (tough I know).

Normal service is now resumed ;-)

So there are a few of us putting a lot of thought into how partners are going to make money in 6 to 36 months from now...essentially the team I sit in take on the new technologies and have Microsoft commercialise those today through partners. But importantly, we also have an eye to the future so that we and our partners always know what is coming but most importantly shape our business to accommodate the way our partners will wish to work with us in the future...hence the catchy title. If you want to read more about this and the teams work then check out the post from Steve here: 

Microsoft UK: Partnering For The Future

Enjoy!

One of my colleagues Nick over in Oz sent this post over to me which made me smile:

http://blogs.msdn.com/nickmayhew/archive/2007/02/21/google-versus-live-search.aspx

Nick fed us this vital bit of context as apparently the chap playing the tv presenter is actually the CEO of Channel 9, check it out:

In Australia everyone gets it more easily than others will for there is a sub context:

· The presenter is a guy called Eddie McGuire, and the show is on a channel called Channel 9 (one of the big 4)

· He also happens to be the CEO of Channel 9

· MSN in Australia is actually a joint venture between Channel 9 and Microsoft

Nice...expecting the Google response any minute :-)

So you can probably all feel the momentum building behind Microsoft Compute Cluster Server in the HPC space now -

On-Demand Supercomputing: Wolfram gridMathematica and Microsoft CCS  www.wolfram.com/r/gridwebcast

Another webcast from another ISV - great to see the momentum building! make sure you register today to find out more...