Five things Microsoft partners want to hear at WPC

With Worldwide Partner Conference less than three weeks away, Microsoft partners reveal the issues they want to hear about most at the Florida gathering

In just over two weeks' time, thousands of Microsoft partners will gather in Orlando, Florida, to hear the latest news from Microsoft at its Worldwide Partner Conference.

It has been a busy year for Microsoft - preparations for Windows 10 are well under way ahead of the launch next month, which is also when support for Windows Server 2003 finally comes to an end, rounding off another year-long migration campaign.

As the conference draws closer, we caught up with some Microsoft partners to see what they are most interested in hearing about.

Microsoft Partner Network changes

Partners have pointed to certain creases in the MPN which they want to be ironed out - details of which they hope for at WPC.

Continuing struggles with Microsoft partner locator Pinpoint have been raised by some who claim their firm's search ranking is not as high as it ought to be, as well as issues with how Microsoft awards competency badges to its partners.

International Association of Microsoft Partners treasurer Kelvin Kirby said:

"On Pinpoint, there are still search issues which need to be resolved. It tries to be too clever, assuming customers' intentions in advance, rather than allowing customers to choose their search parameters. It's a good tool in general and could be awesome. I think partners would want to see some announcements about improvements in the tool to drive better adoption."

Cloudamour's chief executive Mitchell Feldman said competency tweaks were top of his wish list when it comes to MPN.

"We are looking forward to seeing some of the new competencies and what they mean. I guess the biggest thing for us is the new remuneration SKUs for partners and how that is going to work in terms of consumption vs deployment. I am hoping that the competencies will be based around deployed seats as opposed to having passed the exams.

"It will sift out the quality people from the less-competent people. I think there is too much crossover between those who can and those who can't. That gap will widen and there will be stricter governance on how they award competencies."

Surface products

The Surface tablet has been available to the channel for some time now and it appears the teething problems Microsoft had with availability and supply in the channel have ended. More recently it unveiled the Surface Hub - a large-screen videoconferencing device for meeting rooms which starts at $6,999 (£4,463).

The product will be available to partners from 1 July, so partners are keen to find out more about the opportunities it can bring them.

"A key thing [we want to hear about] is the practical application of the Surface Hub," said TSG chief operating officer Steve Cox. "Especially when it comes to the price point, which is quite high. What are their plans around that? And the Surface as well. I am really impressed and it will be interesting to see what their plans are."

Windows 10

The new operating system is set to launch at the end of July - just after WPC comes to an end. Research from Spiceworks this week predicts the new OS will be even more popular than Windows 7 was when it first hit the market.

The product is likely to be a talking point at the conference, which SoftwareONE's UK managing director Zak Virdi said would be welcome news.

"We've done quite a lot already in Windows 10 - quite a lot of customer events - so we are pretty up to speed with what it is and what its capabilities are. I'm sure [WPC] will be a platform to remind us how wonderful it is, but that's what it's for, isn't it?"

Cloud Solution Programme (CSP)

The arrival of the CSP was one of the talking points of last year's WPC. The scheme allows partners to own the entire customer relationship including billing and support on cloud tech. Since the launch, a number of resellers and disties have been signed up.

Martin Saunders, corporate development director of Claranet, said he is keen to hear more this year.

"Microsoft will be announcing more capability and information on their new Cloud Solution Provider programme," he said. "CSP is an important new step for Microsoft trading through partners, moving them away from the old-world licence key model to the new recurring, pay-as-you-go consumption model. Claranet was one of the first European partners to adopt and we hope the evolution of CSP will continue to give us new ways to help our customers do amazing things with their technology."

Skype

At last year's WPC, Microsoft did a live demo of its Skype Translator product, impressing many in the audience with its accurate efforts. The offering has been previewing over the past year, with it expected to be widely available later this year.

But the company's general strategy around communications kit is a high priority for some resellers.

Cloudamour's Feldman said: "We want some visibility into Skype for Business as a fully fledged phone system - a PBX replacement. Microsoft's stance two years ago was that they didn't want to become a telco, which seems a bit of an oxymoron considering they bought Skype. We want some clarity and visibility into that."