https://www.channelfutures.com/wp-content/themes/channelfutures_child/assets/images/logo/footer-new-logo.png
  • Home
  • Technologies
    • Back
    • SDN/SD-WAN
    • Cloud
    • RMM/PSA
    • Security
    • Telephony/UC/Collaboration
    • Cable
    • Mobility & Wireless
    • Fiber/Ethernet
    • Data Centers
    • Backup & Disaster Recovery
    • IoT
    • Desktop
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Analytics
  • Strategy
    • Back
    • Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Channel Research
    • Business Models
    • Distribution
    • Technology Solutions Brokerages
    • Sales & Marketing
    • Best Practices
    • Vertical Markets
    • Regulation & Compliance
  • MSP 501
    • Back
    • MSP 501 Rankings
    • NextGen 101 Rankings
  • Intelligence
    • Back
    • Galleries
    • Podcasts
    • From the Industry
    • Reports/Digital Issues
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
  • Channel Futures TV
  • EMEA
  • Channel Chatter
    • Back
    • People on the Move
    • New/Changing Channel Programs
    • New Products & Services
    • Industry Honors
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Channel Futures 20: Top Tech Providers
    • Advisory Boards
    • Industry Organizations
    • Our Sponsors
    • Advertise
    • 2023 Editorial Calendar
  • Awards
    • Back
    • 2022 MSP 501
    • Channel Influencers
    • Circle of Excellence
    • DE&I 101
    • Technology Advisor 101 (TA 101)
    • Channel Leaders Lists
  • Events
    • Back
    • 2023 Call for Speakers
    • CP Conference & Expo
    • MSP Summit
    • Channel Partners Europe
    • Channel Partners Event Coverage
    • Webinars
    • Industry Events
  • About Us
  • DE&I
Channel Futures
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • Technologies
    • Back
    • SDN/SD-WAN
    • Cloud
    • RMM/PSA
    • Security
    • Telephony/UC/Collaboration
    • Cable
    • Mobility & Wireless
    • Fiber/Ethernet
    • Data Centers
    • Backup & Disaster Recovery
    • IoT
    • Desktop
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Analytics
  • Strategy
    • Back
    • Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Channel Research
    • Business Models
    • Distribution
    • Technology Solutions Brokerages
    • Sales & Marketing
    • Best Practices
    • Vertical Markets
    • Regulation & Compliance
  • MSP 501
    • Back
    • MSP 501 Rankings
    • NextGen 101 Rankings
  • Intelligence
    • Back
    • Galleries
    • Podcasts
    • From the Industry
    • Reports/Digital Issues
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
  • Channel Futures TV
  • EMEA
  • Channel Chatter
    • Back
    • People on the Move
    • New/Changing Channel Programs
    • New Products & Services
    • Industry Honors
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Channel Futures 20: Top Tech Providers
    • Advisory Boards
    • Industry Organizations
    • Our Sponsors
    • Advertise
    • 2023 Editorial Calendar
  • Awards
    • Back
    • 2022 MSP 501
    • Channel Influencers
    • Circle of Excellence
    • DE&I 101
    • Technology Advisor 101 (TA 101)
    • Channel Leaders Lists
  • Events
    • Back
    • 2023 Call for Speakers
    • CP Conference & Expo
    • MSP Summit
    • Channel Partners Europe
    • Channel Partners Event Coverage
    • Webinars
    • Industry Events
  • About Us
  • DE&I
    • Newsletter
  • REGISTER
  • MSPs
  • VARs / SIs
  • Agents
  • Cloud Service Providers
  • Channel Partners Events
 Channel Futures

Business Models


Shutterstock

Empty Wallet

Microsoft Channel Chief on Internal Use Rights: ‘We Can’t Afford This’

  • Written by Jeffrey Schwartz
  • July 11, 2019
Microsoft partners plan to give execs an earful at the Inspire conference.

Microsoft channel chief Gavriella Schuster on Thursday addressed the company’s decision to eliminate free internal use rights (IUR) for its software, saying the shift to cloud has magnified the costs to an unsustainable level.

“We can’t afford this,” Schuster said during a prerecorded virtual briefing in advance of next week’s Microsoft Inspire, the company’s annual global partner conference.

Schuster recalled that she was on the team responsible for coming up with IUR in the mid-1990s to ensure partners were using the company’s products, hence making them more familiar with the software.

“At that time nobody even knew what our stuff did,” she recalled, adding IUR was put into place as an “opportunity cost.”

As Office, Dynamics and Microsoft’s various infrastructure and applications have pivoted to a cloud-based subscription model, it has increased the company’s cost of offering the software to its partners, Schuster said. Moreover, 7,000 new partners join the Microsoft channel community every month, having an exponential impact on the program’s cost.

“We didn’t really think that through very much, until recently, when the bills were getting very big,” she said. “We can’t actually afford to run every single partner’s organization all around the world anymore, because it’s not free.”

While the usage rights will remain intact for one more year, thousands of partners are protesting the change, many of which say it will have a devastating impact, as reported earlier this week. More than 5,300 people have signed an online petition as of midday Thursday, up from 3,000 late Tuesday. Schuster, along with David Willis, corporate VP for Microsoft’s U.S. One Commercial Partner Group, and Brad Smith, company president and chief legal officer, will get an earful from partners at next week’s Inspire conference in Las Vegas.

The International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners (IAMCP) is soliciting partner feedback and will address the issue with during its annual executive meetings at Inspire, said Jeffrey Goldstein, president of the IAMCP’s U.S. chapter and managing director of Queue Associates, a Microsoft gold partner that specializes in Dynamics.

IAMCP's Jeff Goldstein

IAMCP’s Jeff Goldstein

“We will collect feedback, quantify it and go back to Microsoft with it,” Goldstein said.

A committee of the partner association, called the Microsoft IAMCP Strategic Team (MIST), intends to investigate the issue, according to an email sent to members yesterday.

“We feel it’s important that IAMCP leadership not rush to any conclusions until we have a chance to meet with Microsoft leaders at Inspire, in order to both seek to understand what’s driving these changes and what we can expect as partners,” the email stated. “We also know an important part of our job is to advocate on behalf of you and be a unified global voice to Microsoft about how these changes will impact our businesses.”

The co-author of the message, Randy Steinle, VP of Microsoft partner Onsupport, told Channel Futures he didn’t want to guess whether Microsoft will offer some form of concession to partners who will be adversely affected by the loss of IUR.

Onsupport's Randy Steinle

Onsupport’s Randy Steinle

“There is no way to predict what Microsoft will decide,” Steinle said. “Our job is to listen, seek to understand, help provide clear communication to our members and advocate on their behalf.”

Microsoft has come up with compromises to changes that were poorly received in the past, Goldstein recalled. For example, when then-channel chief Allison Watson revamped the Microsoft Partner Network a decade ago, the company ultimately relaxed certain requirements, he said.

Goldstein said he hasn’t heard from Microsoft about the IUR changes, but he urged partners not to presume that there isn’t any middle ground.

“It could be how they are negotiating this,” he said. “The way you negotiate is you take everything away, and then you give back a little until people are happy.”

Tags: Agents MSPs Business Models Cloud Leadership Strategy

Most Recent


  • Making Waves
    7 Channel People Making Waves This Week at TD Synnex, Veeam, Kaseya, Zendesk, More
    Microsoft has discovered malicious activity by a state-sponsored threat actor based in China.
  • Businessman reading cloud computing news
    Cloud Computing News: VMware, Celigo, Google Cloud, AWS Dominate the Week
    Find out what the vendors are up to this week and how partners are impacted.
  • OffSec Partners Get Expanded Global Partner Program
    The expanded partner program includes three new partner types.
  • Tech investments
    3 Ways Businesses Can Optimize Their Tech Investments
    Help customers start small, minimize risk and demonstrate business value in a condensed time frame.

Leave a comment Cancel reply

-or-

Log in with your Channel Futures account

Alternatively, post a comment by completing the form below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

  • First Step
    DE&I Awareness to Action: 10 Keys to that First Step
  • IPO
    6 Things to Know About the Upcoming SentinelOne IPO
  • New normal
    IoT's Evolution During COVID-19 and Into the 'New Normal'
  • edge computing
    'Challenging Results' for MSPs in Channel Futures' Exclusive Quarterly Survey

Upcoming Events

View all

Channel Partners Europe

June 13, 2023 - June 14, 2023

Channel Futures Leadership Summit

October 30, 2023 - November 2, 2023

Channel Partners Conference & Expo

March 11, 2024 - March 14, 2024

Galleries

View all

7 Channel People Making Waves This Week at TD Synnex, Veeam, Kaseya, Zendesk, More

June 2, 2023

Cloud Computing News: VMware, Celigo, Google Cloud, AWS Dominate the Week

June 2, 2023

Channel People on the Move: HPE, Lumen, Sophos, TD Synnex, AireSpring, More

June 1, 2023

Industry Perspectives

View all

Dell Technologies World: Dell Apex Expanded Across On-Premises, Cloud and Edge

May 22, 2023

Identity Is Increasingly Valuable – and Targeted

May 18, 2023

Gaining a Competitive Advantage through AV Managed Services

May 10, 2023

Webinars

View all

From Problem to Profit: Mastering the Science of Selling Using Business Outcomes

May 9, 2023

Meet the 2023 Channel Futures Channel Influencers

April 13, 2023

DE&I Dialogue: How the Right DE&I Initiatives Can Propel Your Business

April 5, 2023

White Papers

View all

6 UCaaS Reseller Challenges and How Real World Businesses Solved Them

February 1, 2023

Frost Radar: North American UCaaS Market, 2022

February 1, 2023

The Complete Guide to White-Label UCaaS for Reseller Success

February 1, 2023

Channel Futures TV

View all

Coffee with Craig and James Episode No. 123: MartinWolf M&A Advisors, CP Expo Preview

UScellular Takes On Rivals with Partner Program Simplicity

April 21, 2023

OpenText Simplifying Deal Registration, Doubling Down on MDF

April 21, 2023

Everything-as-a-Service: CloudBlue Touts Critical Customer Transition

April 18, 2023

Twitter

MSP 501

The industry's largest and most comprehensive partner awards program.

Newsletters and Updates

Sign up for The Channel Report, Channel Futures Update, MSP 501 Newsletter and more.

Live Channel Events

Get the latest information on the next industry-leading Channel Partners event.

Galleries

Educational slide shows and images from live events.

Media Kit And Advertising

Want to reach our audience? Access our media kit.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • Channel Partners Events
  • Telecoms.com
  • MSP 501
  • Black Hat
  • IoT World Today
  • Omdia

WORKING WITH US

  • Contact
  • About Us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter

FOLLOW Channel Futures ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2023 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.
This website uses cookies, including third party ones, to allow for analysis of how people use our website in order to improve your experience and our services. By continuing to use our website, you agree to the use of such cookies. Click here for more information on our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy.
X