We already host client domains on GoDaddy, so assuming that this partnership includes easier on-boarding procedures (better be click-and-done)… We’ll accept this as a complementary offering that allows us to on-board new clients and make management easier. I’ll take “non-partner friendly” and honest over the “listen to our words and ignore our actions” culture that exists currently. Or, he can stop paying lip service to the partner community if their decisions aren’t really going to be partner friendly. The next CEO must be more partner friendly. We never signed up to sell it and just continued to offer solutions that included MSFT, but out of our own data centers using the SPLA agreement. Could this “strategy” be any more less friendly to partners? (They should have put it on SPLA to start with and their reasons for not doing so are specious and less than compelling.) Then, they cut the already meager commissions and introduce a commodity priced competitor into the channel. Then, they offered O365 on Open/Volume agreements, but wouldn’t let you allocate unused licenses on one agreement to another.
The incentives they offered, that they are now cutting, were never attractive to a MSP/CSP (showing that MSFT has no clue about how we operate our businesses and the margins we find attractive). The entire O365 experience has been a colossal failure from a partner perspective.
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. So here are my questions for our MSP audience: Will these Microsoft Office 365 developments affect your MSP business? Are you operating in the one-time commission structure with Office 365, and if so, how much does it contribute as a percentage to annual revenues? And if not, what services do you provide around your customer’s Office 365 implementation?Īnd separately, does the GoDaddy deal matter to you? Will it cut into your business, or is t complementary.
GODADDY OFFICE 365 PROFESSIONAL
“We’ve created a simple way to attach Office 365 to a domain name, helping small-business owners look professional and work anywhere, making the business of running their business easier.” “Combining our small-business expertise together with Microsoft’s productivity offerings opens new doors for small businesses to easily get the tools they need to get more done in their day,” said Steven Aldrich, senior vice president of Business Applications, GoDaddy, in a prepared statement. The service also includes 24/7 customer service for small business customers. The deal provides GoDaddy small business customers with better pricing on Office 365 offerings – made up of Microsoft’s productivity suite online including Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Lync, and gives Microsoft access to GoDaddy’s existing customer base of small businesses. Check out coverage over at Talkin’ Cloud here.
GODADDY OFFICE 365 FULL
Now, as sister site Talkin’ Cloud puts it, “All that good karma Microsoft earned in 2012 when it ceded to partners’ wishes and granted them the ability to directly bill their end customers may well slip away later this month when partners find their cloud commissions cut.” Check out the full article here.Īdding insult to injury, Microsoft and web hosting company GoDaddy this week announced an exclusive partnership to sell Office 365 to small businesses. In response to the backlash from the channel and several influential MSPs, Microsoft introduced Office 365 Open, putting MSPs back in the game. Microsoft first introduced the service as a direct-only play, only granting direct billing capabilities to a handful of huge service providers and telecom providers. The decision has raised the ire of many Microsoft partners, some of whom have even threatened to jump to selling competitor Google Apps.Īnd they come after a rocky start for Office 365 with the channel. These will range from 15 percent to 50 percent, Talkin’ Cloud reports. Here are the details of both stories.įirst, the commission cuts. Second, Microsoft announced a giant deal with GoDaddy which lets the web hosting company offer Office 365 to small businesses at a discounted price. The commission cuts will affect not just Office 365, but also Exchange Online, as well as other Microsoft cloud services. First, last week Microsoft revealed that on January 25 it will cut commissions to service providers who sell this service and others under the Microsoft Advisor Enterprise Agreement Deploy volume licensing program. Channel partners offering Microsoft (MSFT) Office 365 got a few unpleasant surprises recently.