In-Depth Features


SCE Aims for the Middle

System Center Essentials is the answer for your customers driving a small to midsize business.

Close the Deal on Lotus Migrations

With every Exchange release, Microsoft touts the opportunity for Lotus conversions. Now that SharePoint is in the mix, partners see more potential than ever before.

Unveiling the Influencer

A new Microsoft program aims to pull those partners that influence sales of Microsoft software out of the shadow of the Large Account Resellers who close all the deals.

Before the Storm

As some Microsoft partners know all too well, a solid emergency-response plan can mean the difference between surviving or sinking when disaster strikes.

Quest Compliance Suite: Follow The Rules

Quest Software's Compliance Suite for Windows helps your customers meet both their compliance obligations and IT performance benchmarks.

Breaking Waves

Last year, all the talk at Convergence was about waves of integration for Dynamics. Now, it's all about how the suite fits into the Microsoft stack. But not everything that Microsoft is saying is clear, and some partners are confused about where Dynamics is going.

Paving the Way

Growing demand and attractive margins have partners of every description jumping into managed services. Should you join them?

First-Class Mail

The new Exchange taps into 64-bit power to drive a host of new capabilities.

Best Practices: The Narrative of Numbers

Opening the books can help your employees better understand your company's story-and empower them to help write its future.

Head Start on Search

QuickStart for Search gave partners a way to market search skills ahead of a full-blown competency specialization. Here's how it's working nearly one year later.

Power to the Partners

Microsoft's Partner Advisory Councils (PACs) provide a chance for partners to be seen and heard-and even to change Microsoft.

The Vendor's Channel Program -- It's All in the Details

The key to determining a program's success is knowing to keep a close eye on the small stuff.

Microsoft and SAP: Bittersweet Symphony

Microsoft and SAP have a successful Duet together, but they'll be less harmonious as they battle for ERP supremacy. Partners might be forced to take sides.

Clash of Titans: Microsoft's SaaS Play

Microsoft's next version of CRM software, code-named "Titan," will reveal the company's competitive response to Salesforce.com and its approach to Software as a Service.

Dynamic Destiny

Microsoft's move to standardize its enterprise-applications suite offers both opportunity and challenges for partners that sell those solutions.

Ready, Set, Launch!

SharePoint and Vista implementations head the list of opportunities that Microsoft's new product wave offers partners -- but taking advantage of them requires careful preparation.

Smooth Move

Ghost's efficient disk imaging and client management can give your customers peace of mind as they migrate to Windows Vista.

The New Office: Something for Everyone

Office 2007 gives familiar applications a welcome makeover on both the interface and file-format level.

Secrets from the Winners' Circle

Want to take home a Microsoft Partner Award? Try this insider advice from past recipients.

From the Ground Up

By forming their own grassroots groups, partners find power in numbers.