ISV Royalty License Program – Celebrating its First Decade!

Time really flies. 10 years ago, almost to the day, I had the pleasure of shaking the hand of Mr. Tagir Yapparov, CEO of I.T. Co., an ISV that had just announced the shipping of a new product. As Computerworld Russia reported in “A new platform for BOSS”, Yapparov and his team had just completed migrating their software solution to Microsoft SQL Server. They chose to go with enhanced functionality, better performance, great development, and strong marketing support.

And there was one more special reason for celebration that day – Yapparov and I had just signed one of Microsoft’s first Product Integration Program (PIP) agreements. PIP later became part of the broader ISVR – the Microsoft Independent Software Vendor Royalty License Program, as it is known today. What Yapparov and I.T. Co. realized back then (and they’ve been part of the program all these years), is true today – there is a great deal of upside in the opportunity to embed Microsoft’s products with their applications. Customers benefit from the ease and efficiency of an integrated solution. ISVs have the ability to reduce their costs, increase their revenue, extend the solution lifecycle, earn Microsoft Partner Program points, and even distribute royalty-free.

A decade later, I take pride in the fact that I have the privilege of working with the passionate ISVR program management team at Microsoft. Lead by Debbie Aarvig, in the past few years ISVR has grown significantly. It’s become simpler to take part in; and is truly worldwide, with over 3,000 participating ISVs, ranging from huge enterprises to the latest start-ups. What began with “only one item on the menu” (Microsoft SQL Server), now has more than two dozen product family offerings, with Microsoft Office Professional Plus among the most recent additions. And we are looking to add more.

So, if you are an ISV that is already a participant of ISVR: thank you and congratulations! It’s been a great decade! If you have not signed up yet – please consider the opportunity. Regardless of where you are in respect to the program, we really look forward to connecting with you. Some of you we hope to meet in the coming months, as the core team embark on a trek around the globe. Starting in Japan and the Asia Pacific region (Singapore) in October, we will be meeting with ISVs and Microsoft’s local teams, and discussing how we can make ISVR even better. But I do want to make sure that we hear from you, so please – write to isvroy@microsoft.com.

Sincerely yours,

Alexey Palladin

Group Manager, WW ISV Marketing, Programs & Operations

Developer & Platform Evangelism, Microsoft

www.microsoft.com/isv