More questions for BillG

Further to
my earlier post about questions to ask BillG, I got a terrific question
overnight:

"If Microsoft wish to continue to have partners in the industry, they
need to leave room for the partners to make a living as well. With MBS,
Microsoft is now directly competing with many of their partners (or former
partners), particularly ISV's.

ISV's need to feel secure that if they develop an area of software,
they won't have it invaded by their own partner if it becomes
successful.

If Microsoft's partners end up with no room to make their own income,
won't they move to partner with other platform vendors that do leave them that
room? Also, aren't partners then less likely to trust Microsoft's intentions
in joint marketing efforts?"

That's a beauty! A few months back we had a visit by Satya
Nadella, who is the Vice President for Microsoft Business Solutions
Group. He was asked the same question and his answer was pretty cool. The
basic gist of the response was that Microsoft can't do every horizontal &
vertical solution and this is where ISVs are so important. The ISVs have the
domain knowledge for a particular industry. What MBS is trying to do is provide
consistent plumbing layer for ISVs to innovate. There is a good discussion on
this topic over at Directions
On Microsoft.

BTW, I used to work with Satya many many years ago. His office was across the
corridor from me while I was in the Interactive
TV group. Ah, those were the days.

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