Distributors eagerly await MS decision
Partners to be awarded Authorised status still waiting to hear the news
Despite a UK partner conference last week giving the vendor the perfect announcement opportunity, Microsoft’s UK distributors are still waiting to hear which of them will achieve Authorised status.
In July, the vendor announced its intentions to hold a series of assessments for its current UK distribution strategy. However, the process has been dogged by delays (CRN, 17 July).
In a letter to distributors last month, Steve Haddock, partner group manager at Microsoft, claimed that distributors who had failed to make it past the second stage would be informed within seven days (CRN, 18 September). Despite this, most of the distributors are still waiting to hear.
Haddock told CRN last week that he had not yet spoken to all of its distributors and was unable to give any clear indication about when any final decisions would be announced.
Roger Mather, managing director of current Microsoft Authorised distributor Actebis, told CRN: “We are eagerly awaiting the announcement from Microsoft.”
Many partners believed an announcement would be made at Microsoft’s partner conference. However, the vendor simply updated partners on its UK business plans.
Jon Hughes, director of Microsoft partner group, said: “2007 will be a really important year for Microsoft. We need to make sure all our partners are ready to make the most of this opportunity.”
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