Tag: Janet Gibbons

Microsoft doles out gongs to its chums

Posted on May 22, 2013 by - News

msMicrosoft announced the winners of the 2013 Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) Awards.

According to the company the awards recognise the skills and hard work of companies in Microsoft’s global partner network.

It said that this year’s competition had attracted over 3,000 entries, but only 11 UK partners made it on to the list of finalists, of which there were six award winners.

In the UK, partners were awarded the “coveted” Cloud Partner and SMB Cloud Partner awards, with Solidsoft and Tech Quarters respectively winning these titles. Microsoft said the UK wins  demonstrated that the UK channel is leading the way in global cloud adoption. Is it?

Other UK winners included the IM Group, which scooped the Microsoft UK Partner of the Year, while Global Knowledge was named Learning Partner of the Year. Oxford Computer Group, was the Identity and Access Partner of the Year and eBECS, ERP Partner of the Year.

The winning partners will be presented with their awards in Houston at this year’s Worldwide Partner Conference. Furthermore, Microsoft will continue to work closely with the winners as part of its ongoing investment to champion the fantastic work achieved in the UK channel.

Janet Gibbons, Director Partner Strategy and Programmes at Microsoft said she was delighted to see so many UK winners: “I would like to congratulate all of the winning parties. It is great to see the UK partners achieving recognition for their hard work across many different categories.”

Microsoft woos channel with Office 365

Posted on February 12, 2013 by - Interviews, News

cloud 1Businesses and consumers have reached a “tipping point” in the market, leading to a huge appetite for the cloud, a Microsoft’s director of partner and strategy programmes has claimed to ChannelEye.

The company, which, over the past year has brought out a range of new products for both consumers and business, is now trying to win over resellers in the lead up to the launch of Office 365 for the commercial space.

“Last July we called the upcoming year a new wave for Microsoft,” Janet Gibbons, director of partner strategy and programme, told ChannelEye. “Not only was this because of the range of products, including Windows 8, that were launched but also the migration to the cloud.”

She said Office 365 had spearheaded this message with the home version for the first time offering a household licence for up to five devices, including Macs and tablets.

“This was a new way of consuming software,” Ms Gibbons added. “It shows how we’re going to be taking products to market.”

Microsoft says it is doing as much as it can to ensure its partners are ready for the commercial launch of Office 365, on the 27 of this month.

It has also changed the way its resellers can bill clients for the product, meaning that from 1 March resellers will be able to bill customers directly.

The current model for reselling Office 365 sees partners receive kick-back payments for what they sell, with Microsoft controlling billing. However, now resellers will be able to set their own margins and bill customers themselves.

“From a channel perspective we have advised our partners ahead of the launch so they in turn can help their customers,” Gibbons told ChannelEye. “We’re scaling this through distribution channels to target 7,500 partners, offering training and face to face meetings.”

The company has also embarked on licensing training  through December to Feb, putting on a two day event targeting 1,700 partners.

This covers other products relevant to resellers including Sharepoint and Link.

“We’re aiming to catch the market when the market is ready for new changes,” Ms Gibbons said. “From what our resellers tell us, their clients are ready.”