Microsoft will pitch security as a "competitive
advantage" at its worldwide partner conference in Toronto next
week, but it may be a tough sell to attendees who are still waiting
for the software maker to deliver on some of last year's
security-related promises.
Microsoft's second annual Worldwide Partner Conference is
focused on helping its partners to sell more Microsoft
products.
Attendees at last year's event welcomed Microsoft chief
executive officer Steve Ballmer addressed head-on some of the
security challenges the software maker faces and outlined steps it
said it would take to address them.
However, Microsoft has yet to deliver on most of the promises
Ballmer made. For example, customers are still waiting for a single
patching experience and an update to the Software Update Services
(SUS) patch management tool, both of which Ballmer said would be
out in the first half of 2004, and both of which have been
delayed.
Additionally, Ballmer promoted the security enhancements in
Service Pack 2 for Windows XP. That update was scheduled to be
released in the first half of the year but has also been delayed
and is now expected some time in the third quarter.
As a result, many of Microsoft's partners will come to Toronto
with the same concerns about security that they had last year, said
Paul DeGroot, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft. The concerns
may have even grown because of the recent attacks on Microsoft's
Internet Explorer web browser, he said.
"There have been enough fires between now and last year's
Worldwide Partner Conference; security is still going to be a
preoccupation for partners," DeGroot said. "The things that Ballmer
promised progress on haven't been achieved."
IDC research director Marilyn Carr agreed. "You can expect to
hear the same issues tabled this year, as they have not gone away,"
she said.
Partners, just like end-users, want Microsoft to make it less of
a headache to keep up with security patches, she said.
Microsoft has planned 10 sessions in a special security breakout
track at the event. The introduction to the track on Microsoft's
website makes it seem as though the supplier believed its security
challenges are a thing of the past.
"Clearly security has become a competitive advantage as we
engage with our mutual customers," it said.
Ballmer is set to address the partner audience on the final day
of the conference. He will be joined on stage by Mike Nash, head of
Microsoft's Security Business and Technology Unit.
Partners come to the event looking for guidance on Microsoft's
strategy and for information that will make it easier for them to
sell their products. It includes keynote speeches, breakout
sessions and hands-on labs, as well as an extensive opportunity to
network with other partners and Microsoft experts.
Over 5,000 paid attendees have registered this year, about 20
percent more than last year, according to Microsoft. Tracks that
include some of the sessions include sales and marketing, business
leadership, application platform opportunities and vertical
markets.
Aside from security, another challenge for Microsoft is
persuading users to upgrade to the latest versions of its software.
Microsoft sells most of its software through its partners, so it is
important for it to give them the right training. Sessions have
been planned on moving customers from Windows NT 4.0 and Exchange
5.5 to newer editions of those products.
On the desktop, Microsoft has made it a priority to sell more
copies of Office 2003 and Windows XP. At the event it will discuss
its latest "desktop deployment initiative" and a tool called the
"solution accelerator for business desktop deployment" to make it
easier for partners to deliver systems with those products.
This year's partner conference will be the second event to
combine Microsoft's "traditional" partners with those that it
inherited when it bought Great Plains and Navision,
applications suppliers that are now part of Microsoft Business
Solutions (MBS).
Microsoft has also been consolidating its various partner
programmes into a single, global Microsoft Partner Programme,
announced in October. The programme went into effect in January and
will be implemented in phases through 2005. MBS partners started to
join this month, and the transition has not gone completely
smoothly.
"Microsoft is at a very transitional stage," Directions on
Microsoft's DeGroot said of the supplier's partner
organisation.
"I expect them to announce a few additional services for
partners at the conference, but I think they are in a situation
where they probably don't want to significantly tweak the partner
programme."
Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference starts on 10 July.
Joris Evers writes for IDG News Service