Interviews

‘Microsoft Has Committed Dedicated Resources To Help Partners’

Interviewed by Snigdha Karjatkar Wed, Nov 25, 2009

We had conducted a special 16-city road show to ensure that the partners were well versed with the product features before the beta version was launched.
Ramesh G Director, Windows Client, Microsoft India

What has been the response of the partners and end users to the beta version released by Microsoft?

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RAMESH: We have received an extremely promising response to the beta version that we have released. It has been installed for more than 3-4 months at various partner organizations and we are encouraging partners to deploy the OS at their customer’s premises as well. The version holds a validity of one year, which gives them enough time to understand and use the system. The feedback has been excellent and OS has been appreciated by both.

What are the schemes launched by Microsoft to facilitate and encourage partners to help promote the product?

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RAMESH: We had conducted a special 16-city road show to ensure that the partners are well versed with the product features before the product is launched. It was a platform that explained to the partners the various opportunities that the new product will offer them. Today almost 5-7 million machines run XP and this is a huge market for upgrading to Win 7. Besides, new licenses and services will generate substantial amount of business.

How have the various schemes helped Microsoft increase the reach?

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RAMESH: There was an interesting incentive scheme for the partners for deployment. There was a scheme launched especially for the promotion called ‘Saat Ka Dum,’ that allowed us to increase the number of deployment at the customer end. The scheme rewarded installation in every five PCs, which gradually helped us reach out to more number of end users. The scheme enabled us to deploy Win 7 at 800 plus customer locations in addition to the 400 partner organizations.

What are the plans to provide technical support to the channel partners?

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RAMESH: We have invested in the partners and we are confident that this will definitely help us scale up the deployment of the Windows 7.There is technical readiness and we have already committed dedicated resources that will help partners in the deployment of the new OS. We are also doing technical training in 14 cities across the country that will help to have the right level of skills for the deployment. Besides, in next three months, there will be 60 online technical briefings for the partners on Windows 7.

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