Windows 7 Microsoft headed for a services show-dow

Microsoft is on the collision course with its hosting partners.Throughout the past few weeks, Microsoft officials have started touting publicly the handful of hosted managed services that Microsoft is selling straight to customers. This week in the NXTcomm 2007 show 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 companies are just the tip of the iceberg. Earlier this month, Ron Markezich, Microsoft Vice President of Managed Solutions,Office Home And Business 2010 Key, 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 consumers for these managed services. But within the coming months,Office 2007 Enterprise Key, 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 couple of years selling hosted SharePoint,Windows 7, hosted Exchange and hosted SQL Server solutions. Now these telcos, integrators, 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 indicate,Office 2010 Key, 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 Providers? 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 at the WWPC. He pointed out that Microsoft currently has a “very small sales team” promoting Microsoft-hosted versions of these providers. Microsoft is relying primarily on its dedicated acount executives to let customers know they can buy these solutions straight from Microsoft, he said.“I do talk to partners quite a bit about this (Microsoft;s entry into the managed companies market),” 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 services as part of their larger managed/outsourced datacenter offering, Markezich said. He noted that Siemens Business Solutions is doing call-center and desktop support for Energizer Holdings, the first customer Microsoft signed up for its managed solutions pilot a couple 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 “consumers want servers on premise (but would prefer someone else to run them), we send them to partners,Microsoft Office Pro Plus 2010,” Markezich added.Any partners out there worried about Microsoft;s pending encroachment into the managed-service space? Consumers using managed providers: Would you rather have your hosted e-mail managed by Microsoft or an independent partner?