If you influence the sales of Select and EA agreements within your larger clients, be sure to check out the Influence Program for Microsoft Partners which is now available.

For those of you that also work with some larger clients in addition to your Small Business clients, the Influence Program may be something you want to take a look at. The Influencer Program, which captures the identity of the partners that influence EA & Select Agreements that are transacted by LARs, officially launched in March and is now fully operational. To-date, hundreds of partners have gotten engaged and millions of dollars of influence have been reported on their behalf. Other program updates include:

1. Reporting is available to you - We have launched a secure, on-line tool that you can use to access the influence detail that has been reported for you. Instructions for accessing the tool can be found on the Influence Program Portal (URL can be found below).

2. Microsoft PAMs, executives and managers in the field and the product marketing groups are now receiving reporting from this program. So, make sure you are engaged with the program and getting influence recognition for all the EA and Select opportunities that you initiate.

3. In Fiscal Year 2008, we plan to launch a program that will recognize the top influence partners in each region of the US. Look for details in your partner newsletter and on the Influence Program Portal (URL can be found below).

How you can get involved:

You can do two things to contribute to the success of this important program:

1. Get engaged with the program. Everything you need can be accessed at https://partner.microsoft.com/us/influence

2. Access the new reporting tool – use your reporting to drive better planning with Microsoft and within your company.

Again, this is designed for those Partners who work with larger clients in addition to their Small Business clients since the Select and Enterprise Agreement Programs are designed for those clients with 200+ PCs.

Thank you and have a wonderful day,

Eric Ligman
Microsoft US Senior Manager
Small Business Community Engagement
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights