Stepping away from my Channel Maven shoes for a moment, as a consumer, when I first used Vista I was, well, beyond frustrated. Not being a technical person myself the only person more frustrated then me was my IT guy. “Steve, it’s doing the thing again!” “Steve I lost the file I was just working on!” “Steve why can’t I find anything?” You get the idea.
Now back in the Channel Maven shoes, partners were beyond frustrated and took a hit to the “trusted advisor” status they worked so hard to attain. On August 16th, Windows 7 will be available for Download to resellers. Microsoft needs this to be big. Coming out of their worst year, Microsoft is looking at Windows 7 to reengage partners and customers.
So what do partners think? Is this something you are proactively suggesting to customers? Are you concerned about Vista-like problems with Windows 7?
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Microsoft will be able to generate interest for businesses using XP to look at the benefits of using W7. The first opportunity for a partner is to evaluate a business’ readiness (can all their applications run on 7, do PCs need to be replaced or can they be upgraded, learning curve and training concerns, how much will it costs?)
Microsoft partners have a lot to look forward to: Office 2010, SharePoint 2010, Exchange 2010, MS virtualization, Azure, Dynamics now that Sage is struggling, and Unified Communications/ OCS.