Anti-cloud Microsoft partners 'off the Christmas card list' - ISV

Forceworks claims born-in-the-cloud partners are Microsoft's 'new best friend'

Big, traditional Microsoft resellers that are wary of the cloud are doing themselves no favours by speaking out against the technology, according to an ISV which claims up-and-coming born-in-the-cloud partners are the vendor's "new best friends".

Steve Mordue, founder of ISV Forceworks, which helps partners get into selling Microsoft CRM products, said that some traditional partners are keen to "blast" Microsoft at events about their cloud strategy. But he cautioned that in doing so, such firms could be damaging their businesses.

"The contrarian partner goes broke," he said. "You really need to get on board with their direction.

"I go to a lot of Microsoft internal events with small groups of partners and we'll be talking to Phil Sorgen [Microsoft's global channel chief] and he will finish and ask people to come up and ask questions. Every now and then these big partners go up and just blast Microsoft about everything they are doing wrong. In the back of my mind, I'm thinking, 'well you just got dropped off their Christmas card list'. You're not going to get any help at all. Get on board or get out of the way.

"Microsoft doesn't have to accommodate those old, big partners anymore. It doesn't matter how big and important you used to be, the fact is you're not anymore. That's your fault. [Microsoft] says 'I've got this new partner and they may have only been one for two years, while you have been for 20 years, but you know what? They are selling the heck out of the stuff we want them to sell, so they are our new best friends.'"

Forceworks is a US-based company which started off as a Salesforce CRM partner, but later switched to selling Microsoft Dynamics CRM products when the offering first launched. On realising it was one of just a few specialist CRM partners for Microsoft, it became an ISV which offers kit to help other Microsoft partners - including those in the UK - get into CRM.

Mordue said since jumping on the Microsoft bandwagon, the firm has been richly rewarded.

"If Microsoft looks over and you're walking the walk and talking the talk - drinking the Kool-Aid, if you will - they are the partners they support," he said. "We came out of nowhere and we are all over Microsoft now. They could not be doing more for us."

Microsoft has been pushing its cloud vision for a number of years now. Initially it encouraged partners to sell its cloudy wares, such as Office 365 and Azure, but later moved to push the consumption of the products, rather than just sales.

Mordue said there has been some resistance to the cloud strategy among bigger, longer-standing Microsoft partners reluctant to move with the times.

"Microsoft was forced to the cloud; they were not first to the cloud, although you would think so to listen to them today," he said. "Salesforce was eating their lunch on CRM. Google was taking customers away on the productivity side, so Microsoft had no choice to move to the cloud initially to defend their position.

"But nobody was ready for how they were able to take this aircraft carrier and literally turn it on a dime and take it in another direction. I don't think anyone anticipated the speed Microsoft could take that thing and turn it.

"But so many of their partners kept going straight, they didn't make the turn. So the partners which made the turn and stayed in the path with Microsoft are the ones which saw this [space] behind the aircraft carrier and jumped into it. There are still partners continuing down the old path, and everyone else has left it. It caught a lot of big partners off guard."