MS Lars to lose out in UK management rejig

The software giant?s plans to create another division mean that it will axe its number of Select Lars

Microsoft was locked in meetings last week putting plans together to reorganise its UK management structure and Lars in time for the start of its financial year on 1 July.

The software developer admitted that it was creating a third division, called the application developer customer unit (ADCU), to sit alongside the organisational customer unit (OCU) and enterprise customer unit (ECU).

One source said: ?Microsoft is desperately trying to get big developers on board, like Lotus has, to focus on SQL and Exchange. People still don?t believe that SQL is big and robust enough.?

But the restructure will push Microsoft one step closer to culling the number of its Lars. One source speculated that Microsoft was looking to reduce the number of dealers which sold Select from over 35 to about 17 over a period of time.

Sources suggested the direct Lars which sit in the OCU, reporting to corporate customer unit manager Gordon Smillie, will be transferred to the ECU, which is headed by Chris Lewis, Microsoft enterprise partner manager.

One dealer said: ?The company has realised it?s silly to have Select resellers stranded across the two groups. All Select resellers will report to Chris instead. That means one person will be in control when it comes to reducing the number of Select contracts.?

A Microsoft representative refused to comment on who would head the ACDU group. ?We are tying in people who deliver business applications. We want to do more for the corporates so we are creating a new group for developers ranging from individuals to ISVs and resellers with development skills,? he said.