The 15 Minute Guide to:

Microsoft Online Services

2| Cloud computing goes mainstream

3| Microsoft Online Services: The opportunity

4| Making more with Microsoft Online Services

6| Dynamic Edge: Ready for the Future

7| the support store: Leading with the cloud

8| Useful urls

Contents

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Dear Partner

The industry buzz around concepts like cloud computing continues to grow. Indeed, analysts predict that UK spending on cloud computing services will double within the next two years, to over £1.2 billion. This prediction is easily understandable, as amongst its many compelling customer benefits, cloud computing can lower upfront and ongoing software costs, as well as streamline deployment and management.

Given the impressive growth projections, Microsoft® is focused on delivering solutions for our partners that maximise the cloud computing opportunity.

For Microsoft partners that have built a business around selling hardware and on-premises software solutions, we now offer an opportunity to continue to serve clients with the traditional model, while also beginning to take advantage of additional revenue streams available via hosted services.

Flexible delivery options

Microsoft offers three models for delivering solutions – on-premises, partner-hosted, and Microsoft-hosted – ensuring exceptional choice and flexibility. Microsoft-hosted solutions are referred to as Microsoft Online Services, including Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS).

In summary, the three delivery models are:

• On-premises: Software is installed at the customer location and licensed to the customer in a traditional manner.• Partner-hosted: The infrastructure and software is owned and licensed by a Microsoft partner, purchased through a Service Provider Licensing Agreement (SPLA). • Microsoft-hosted: Microsoft owns the infrastructure and provisioning of the software, which is delivered as a service to customers via the Internet.

Within this introductory guide, which is suitable for transactional partners operating in the small and medium-sized business (SMB) market, you’ll find explanations of key concepts and advice on how to get started. Now’s the time to consider your cloud computing future – and as always, we’re here to help you succeed and thrive.

Simon Gautrey Cloud Computing LeadSMS&P, Microsoft UK

Foreword

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Microsoft Online Services: The opportunityFind out how Microsoft Online Services can help your customers grow revenues while at the same time reducing costs

Businesses face all sorts of external pressures, caused by changes in the political, economic, competitive and technological environment.

Globalisation brings with it the need for worldwide communication and collaboration, along with new competitive and regulatory challenges. Niche businesses are competing with established brands, and as more and more business is conducted online, security issues develop from users accessing company applications and data from a variety of locations and devices.

While businesses still need to cut costs wherever possible, there is a corresponding need to be well positioned to take advantage of the future economic upturn. Remaining competitive and ready for re-growth demands an intelligent and agile response to the current financial pressures.

Opportunities are often created during periods of hardship or change – and Microsoft Online Services are a case in point. Microsoft Online Services can help your customers grow revenues and reduce costs.

Help customers grow revenues and reduce costs

Microsoft Online Services provide businesses with subscription-based Microsoft-hosted online services that offer access to rich communication, collaboration, and productivity applications from anywhere. As well as helping your customers to reduce costs, these services help free resources and enable staff to focus on initiatives that deliver competitive advantage.

Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) provides reliable, cost-effective, readily scalable online IT services to support your customers.

These services include:• Microsoft Exchange Online for enterprise messaging.• Microsoft SharePoint® Online for intranets and document sharing.• Microsoft Office Communications Online for real-time communication and presence (instant messaging and related capabilities).• Microsoft Office Live™ Meeting for interactive web conferencing.Microsoft brings years of experience and industry-leading expertise to bear on each component involved in Microsoft Online Service delivery: the data centre, the services infrastructure, the network, and mobile and desktop applications. Microsoft Online Services are designed, deployed, and operated from the ground up with efficiency, security, availability and privacy in mind.

The benefits of Microsoft Online Services for customers include:

• Better control of IT technology investments: customers can buy what they need now – and partners can generate additional revenue from their value-added services and solutions.

• Simplified software subscription: license management for attractive pricing and a predictable cost ensures better cash flow management for customers.

• A Microsoft commitment to deliver secure, available, and private online software services, financially backed by a 99.9 per cent availability service-level agreement (SLA) and certified by third-party audit.

• Increased productivity: robust integration among Microsoft Online Services and with existing on-premises software, empowers your customers with rich communication and collaboration.

• Access to the latest business productivity software services: as new versions of the software are released by Microsoft, your customers can start using them immediately with no deployment delay.

The benefits of Microsoft Online Services

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Cloud computing services have already started to transform the world – impacting the lives of individual consumers right through to the workings of the largest enterprise organisations and government entities. Furthermore, as Yankee Group predicts that software-as-a-service global sales will outpace those of traditional software by 2012, significant business opportunities exist for Microsoft partners to utilise our solutions within a cloud computing model.

This growth opportunity is expected to be very significant for partners that focus on selling hardware, software, and services to customers with fewer than 500 seats. In fact, based on the results of a recent cloud-services study, it is estimated that partners that offer total solutions and sell into the small and medium-sized business (SMB) customer segment are expected to account for the largest portion of channel revenues in the office-infrastructure, online- services category through 2012.

Partners that resell hardware and software have traditionally realised one-time revenues for selling these products. With Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), the potential rewards are attractive.

Attractive rewards

The Microsoft partner that drives a sale and is designated by the customer as the ‘partner of record’ will receive an initial payment for the customer’s BPOS subscription. Additionally, the partner will receive a recurring revenue stream for supporting the customer for as long as the subscription is maintained.

The partner of record will receive an initial payment that equates to 12 per cent of the net purchase price (after any discounts or promotions are factored in), plus 6 per cent of the ongoing subscription fees paid by the customer.

Incremental services revenue

For partners that already have a substantial services business, BPOS also provides an excellent opportunity to generate incremental revenues, by offering a variety of value-added, high-profit services such as:

• Technical consulting: Partners can now separate the infrastructure side of managing collaboration and offer consulting services to show immediate business value to the customer.

• Data migration: Nearly all customers have legacy data that they want migrated to the online environment. Partners can provide project management and implementation of this activity.

• Integration services: Integration of Microsoft and third-party applications represents another opportunity for partners to generate services revenues.

Making more with Microsoft Online ServicesAs the cloud computing market is predicted to explode, how can you increase your profitability with Microsoft Online Services?

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• Customisation services: Partners can design applications,

automate services, and customise experiences to help customers utilise BPOS to its best advantage. For example, you might consider designing automated business processes for customers by quickly leveraging built-in SharePoint workflows and templates. Alternatively, you could design and implement document-management systems by utilising built-in SharePoint content-management capabilities, customising them to the unique needs of your customers.

• Managed Services: For partners that offer managed services, BPOS creates opportunities to provide services such as first-tier support, remote desktop management, and even remote monitoring and administration through third-party platforms.

How to get started:

The first step you need to take to start building a Microsoft Online Services business practice, is to become a Microsoft Online Services Authorised Reseller, by logging onto: www.quickstartonlineservices.com.

The benefits of becoming a Microsoft Online Services Authorised Reseller

To become a Microsoft Online Services Authorised Reseller, you must study for and pass the Online Services Advisor Assessment. You also need to review and sign an Online Services Partner Agreement. And that’s it – then once you start to sell BPOS, you just need to submit some documentation (i.e. invoice and bank details) to start to receive fees.

Once you become a Microsoft Online Services Authorised Reseller, you will have access to a huge range of sales and marketing materials to help you create and close deals. There is also a range of training options for your technical and sales staff as well as support to help establish your Microsoft Online Services business practice.

Long-term success in selling Microsoft Online Services solutions and related services will be driven by your ability to create ongoing relationships with your customers. At stake is the opportunity for you to secure continuous, repeatable annuity revenue, and to achieve this your customer relationships will need to be effectively managed. Ongoing customer communications, education, reporting, and business reviews are all part of this, and for every step of your cloud computing journey, Microsoft is here to help you.

Trusted-advisor relationship

Vendor’s brand reputation

Exception technical support

Fast turn around and delivery

Unique vertical knowledge

Top five characteristics of best-in-class partners offering Microsoft Online Services solutions

By successfully marketing Microsoft Online Services to your customers, you can further develop your reputation as a trusted advisor. By investing in long-term customer relationships, you can focus on providing insight and support that promotes the overall health of their business, including issues such as total cost of ownership and return on investment. You can also work to ensure that each deployment is supported and appropriately customised to the customer’s needs.

With Microsoft Online Services, you can leverage the Microsoft brand in conjunction with your own, boosting customer confidence.

While Microsoft includes technical support for IT professionals, best-in-class partners make support an important part of their business as well. Maintaining a long-term relationship means ensuring that your customer has the deployment, integration, customisation, and tiered support they need. If you can’t provide all of these services directly, you can help your customers acquire them from other reliable partners.

Best-in-class partners focus on the value they can provide in efficiently delivering BPOS through a combination of shorter implementation cycles and increased productivity.

By understanding the unique issues that customers in a particular vertical industry face, best-in-class partners are able to advise customers on the best implementation to help them achieve their business goals.

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Ready for the FutureDynamic Edge is a pure cloud computing services consultancy and explains how it leads with the cloud in all customer conversations.

Established in 2009 in Aberdeen, Dynamic Edge is a Microsoft Gold Certified and Small Business Specialist partner, which positions itself as a pure cloud computing services consultancy. Employing five staff and focused on the small and medium-sized business (SMB) market, over 90 per cent of its clients are benefitting from Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS).

“Customers are very receptive to a cloud computing message”

Managing Director and founder, Robert Hamilton recalls the exact moment when the concept for his consultancy crystallised: “Back in 2008, it was clear that there was a fundamental step change occurring in the IT industry that made plain to me the opportunity that the cloud could offer.

Starting any business requires bravery but we were confident that our cloud focus would not only future-proof our offerings but provide an early differentiator.”

Dynamic Edge immediately aligned itself with Microsoft and became a Microsoft Online Services Authorised Reseller. The resources and training provided by Microsoft enabled Dynamic Edge to execute its business plan quickly and helped Hamilton create the portfolio of services that the company offers, on top of selling BPOS.

“We make our money from the value-added services we provide, particularly those relating to migration, support, development and desktop management. Our sweet spot in terms of prospects and customers are those with 10-150 users. We always lead with the cloud in our customer conversations.”

Hamilton reports that customers are very receptive to a cloud computing message – particularly in terms of the cost savings, increased productivity, security and reliability benefits. But he also advises that partners must become trusted advisors for their customers.

“Microsoft Online Services is the seed from which you can grow other opportunities for your business. When you deliver cost savings for your customers, it will build trust – and trust opens doors. You can capitalise on that relationship by helping solve other business challenges for your customer. For example, we are doing a lot of SharePoint development work, which has greatly boosted our bottom-line and delivered significant benefits for our customers.”

“Plan for your future today”

Looking towards the future, Hamilton is confident, and bearing in mind the growing momentum surrounding cloud computing, is doubly reassured that the focus of his young consultancy is apt. For others considering what their cloud computing future might be, Hamilton is unequivocal. “Don’t get left behind. Cloud computing is an industry game changer. At the very least, try to understand what the opportunity is and how it might be applied to your existing business model. I can guarantee that this will be time well invested – plan for your future today,” he concluded.

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Specialising in delivering cost- effective technical support solutions to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) based in London and the South East, the support store is a Microsoft Gold Certified and Small Business Specialist partner. Founded in 2000, it is a Microsoft Online Services Authorised Reseller and provides a complete portfolio of IT operations, security, applications and maintenance services.

“Cloud computing is transforming our industry”

A long-term advocate of shared services, the transition to developing a cloud computing practice has been smooth according to Managing Director, Rod Reed. “We’re always keen to leverage any new opportunities and it’s been very clear for quite a while that cloud computing is transforming our industry. We became a Microsoft Online Services Authorised Reseller to understand what we could offer to our customers and it’s subsequently changed our operating model.”

That operating model is now firmly focused on selling Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) as well as a range of complementary services. By the end of this year, 50 per cent of

the support store’s customers will be using BPOS. For Reed, a hugely positive spin-off of the move towards cloud computing has been the take-up for the additional services the support store provides.

“The traditional break-fix model of the past has always had its limitations but a move away from it has been one of the most positive benefits of our transition to cloud. As a result, the consultancy experience can be much more positive and proactive, which ultimately leads to stronger customer relationships.”

For any IT organisation that hasn’t yet considered its position on cloud computing, Reed’s warning is stark. “If you don’t already offer some type of cloud computing service, then someone else does – and you’ll lose out. With BPOS, you can create new customer relationships and keep the ones you have. Customers are asking about cloud so you need to be able to offer them choice. If you don’t, they’ll go somewhere else.”

Reed’s advice for those about to embark on their own cloud computing journey is concise. He firstly advises becoming a Microsoft Online Services

“Use the resources and training Microsoft provides”

Authorised Reseller and encourages partners to deploy BPOS in their businesses. Then use the resources and training Microsoft provides to help you establish your own cloud computing practice. Finally, spend time developing the value-added services you can offer.

“Since we’ve moved to the cloud, we’ve been able to pitch for bigger contracts – and where those customers required services we don’t provide, we’ve buddied up with other partners to secure that business. My advice is don’t be afraid to network with other partners so that together you can offer a comprehensive set of services. We’ve done so very successfully with a SharePoint expert and it’s working out very well for both of us,” Reed concludes.

Leading with the cloud the support store advises how other Microsoft partners can develop their cloud computing futures.

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The information contained in this document represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation on the issues discussed as of the date of publication. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information presented after the date of publication. This guide is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT.

www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/cloudandyouFind out more about cloud computing and the opportunities it presents to your business.

www.quickstartonlineservices.comBecome a Microsoft Online Services Authorised Reseller today.

www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/askpartnerDo you have any product or licensing questions relating to Microsoft Online Services?

If so, you can get help from Ask Partner.

Tel: 0844 800 6006 or e-mail: askpartner@microsoft-contact.co.uk.

© 2010 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

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