microsoft optimization - Redmond Channel Partner
Transcription
microsoft optimization - Redmond Channel Partner
1108rcp_IOSupp.v4 10/9/08 11:06 AM Page C1 SPECIAL PULLOUT SECTION A PARTNER’S GUIDE TO MICROSOFT OPTIMIZATION ILLUSTRATION BY MICHAEL AUSTIN New resources and deeper commitments provide partners with step-by-step roadmaps to develop their customers’ infrastructures into models of efficiency. By Scott Bekker Redmond ChannelPartner OPTIMIZATION Growth and Opportunity for Microsoft Partners “O ptimization ... brought a significant increase in revenue streams from our professional and managed services divisions and helped us up-sell Enterprise Agreements and justify the added spend on licensing.” — Anton Jooste, GM Operating Environments and Messaging, Dimension Data Take Advantage of the New Selling Opportunity Organizations need to optimize their IT infrastructures and application platforms to better manage escalating IT costs and develop the agility needed to support rapid business growth. By focusing your customer conversations on, “How do we optimize your IT investments to meet your business goals,” you can dive deeper into your customers’ organization to create new opportunities and build solutions that meet a broader set of business needs. Capitalize on Industry Standardization Efforts As the standardization of IT capability maturity frameworks from organizations like the Innovation Value Institute gain broader acceptance in the industry, Microsoft and its Optimization partners will have a competitive advantage in helping customers create more business value through IT enabled innovation. Microsoft Partners Optimized for Growth To help partners align with the Microsoft sales force and become Optimization-relevant with customers, Microsoft has developed a partner on-boarding program called the Optimization Sales Connection (OSC). OSC offers a set of training, tools, and resources to help partners succeed using Optimization with customers. Microsoft OSC partner Intergrupo reports that, “[Optimization] assessments ... often lead to services contracts to help customers improve in target areas ... Last year our Infrastructure Optimization business unit increased its revenue by 70 percent.” DON’T WAIT—Begin NOW! 1. Go to the Microsoft Optimization Partner Resource Portal at www.microsoftio.com for in-depth guidance, resources and information for Microsoft Partners regarding Optimization. 2. Complete the Microsoft OSC registration at www.microsoftio.com/osc. 3. Help your customers complete the Optimization Self-Assessment at www.microsoft.com/optimization. 1108rcp_IOSupp.v4 10/9/08 11:06 AM Page 1 B ecause Dimension Data is one of Microsoft’s highest-profile managed partners, you wouldn’t suspect that the company isn’t always 100 percent on board with every Microsoft initiative. “Anytime Microsoft announces a new program, we’ve been a little skeptical,” says Curt Wheadon, global vice president for Microsoft Solutions for the Johannesburg, South Africa-based IT services company and Gold Certified Partner. With $3.7 billion in 2007 revenues, operations in 40 countries and myriad practice areas, Dimension Data is too busy to jump on what could be tail-chasing ideas. At first blush, Microsoft Optimization sounds like it might be one of those fuzzy initiatives. The program’s description is filled with “models” and “frameworks” and “stages” and “capabilities” and “best practices.” But for Dimension Data, which began following the optimization model in 2005, the initiative has actually helped the company focus. “It changes our conversation with a customer,” Wheadon says. “As a customer gets to the point where they understand—hey, I can improve my [infrastructure] maturity; I can reduce the cost; I can enable my company to do more—then you can become more of a strategic partner.” The company credits the Microsoft Optimization models with contributing to its growth rate of nearly 30 percent per year in 2006 and 2007. “It’s the right approach because, frankly, there are too many Microsoft products to talk about,” Wheadon says. “Now we talk about priorities and we’re aligned around our solutions.” Dimension Data is among the early adopter partners for Microsoft Optimization, a 4-year-old initiative intended to move customer companies toward flexible, dynamic infrastructures that maximize the business value in their IT investments. Microsoft executives say fiscal 2009, which began on July 1, is a big year for the initiative, with broader and deeper engagement with the partner community, new efforts to reach down to midmarket customers and better integration of the initiative throughout Microsoft’s product groups. WHAT IS MICROSOFT OPTIMIZATION? Samm DiStasio, director of Microsoft’s worldwide optimization strategy, laid out the central pitch on Microsoft Optimization in a letter to customers earlier this year: “Optimization solutions from Microsoft include resources, guidance and technologies to help you optimize your IT infrastructure and application platform including: ✱ Models and best practices that can help you streamline the management of your infrastructure and platform. ✱ Solutions that incorporate technologies, products and services—driving a people-ready business. ✱ Worldwide community of qualified partners to assist your organization when implementing optimization solutions.” The central idea behind optimization is simple: Customers can, and should, get more value from their IT investments. In practice, Microsoft has sliced and diced the problem into a complex grid of smaller problems. DiStasio’s description makes clear that partners play a key role in Microsoft Optimization. In fact, much of the incubation for the company’s initiative occurred within Microsoft’s Enterprise Partner Group (EPG). The largest partner companies, the kinds of managed partners that are deeply engaged with the EPG, can handle consulting on optimization across the entire range of possible optimizations. “Microsoft Optimization basically puts us in a state of solution selling in a horizontal capability level.” Peter Boit, Vice President for Enterprise Partner Sales, Enterprise Partner Group, Microsoft RCPmag.com NOVEMBER 2008 Redmond Channel Partner 1 1108rcp_IOSupp.v4 10/9/08 11:06 AM Page 2 I N F R A S T R U C T U R E O P T I M I Z AT I O N “A lot of our products are very rich,” says Peter Boit, vice president for enterprise partner sales in the Microsoft EPG. “In order for us to be able to describe the business value, you have to do a solution sale. Microsoft Optimization basically puts us in a state of solution selling in a horizontal capability level. Most people think of solution selling in a narrow, vertical sense.” On the other hand, especially as Microsoft starts to push the optimization effort out into the 400,000-member Microsoft Partner Program and down into the midmarket, more specialized companies with more vertical capabilities can pick and choose from the Microsoft Optimization grid to push optimization for their customers within their narrower areas of expertise. At the highest level, Microsoft developed three models to facilitate optimization. They are: ✱ Application Platform Optimization ✱ Business Productivity Infrastructure Optimization ✱ Core Infrastructure Optimization All three models share four stages of optimization: Basic, Standardized, Rationalized and Dynamic. The stages describe a continuum. In the Basic stage, IT is considered a cost center. In contrast, at the top-level Dynamic stage, IT is seen internally by executive management as a strategic business asset that enables growth. (For more details about how these stages can describe the maturity level of an Infrastructure Optimization initiative, see “The 4 Stages of IO,” p. 4.) Each model is also broken down into five capabilities. Application Platform Optimization capabilities include: ✱ User Experience ✱ Business Intelligence ✱ SOA and Business Process ✱ Data Management ✱ Development Business Productivity Infrastructure Optimization capabilities include: ✱ Unified Communications ✱ Collaboration ✱ Enterprise Content Management ✱ Enterprise Search ✱ Business Intelligence Core Infrastructure Optimization capabilities include: ✱ Identity and Access Management ✱ Desktop, Device and Server Management ✱ Security and Networking ✱ Data Protection and Recovery ✱ IT and Security Process PUTTING THE APPROACH INTO PRACTICE Dimension Data has worked the optimization model deeply into its entire customerengagement process. “We’ve fundamentally changed the dialogue with a customer to stop talking about the ins and outs of licensing and start talking about the value of the software,” Wheadon says. “We work toward having a deployment plan at the time of purchase.” When Dimension Data begins talking to a customer about a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement, the company introduces the optimization methodology, emphasizing how optimization can add value to the three-year licensing agreement. Next, the partner company uses a questionnaire to interview staff about the customer company’s IT infrastructure, whether the applications it owns are installed and whether those applications are being used. Dimension Data also evaluates customers using the Microsoft Operations Framework and the IT Infrastructure Library, two standardization frameworks for achieving operational reliability. The final step in Dimension Data’s process is analyzing the data and inserting it into the Microsoft Optimization ENTER THE OSC New for this fiscal year is a set of resources to help partners become Optimization Solution Providers. The kit is called the Optimization Sales Connection, or OSC (www .microsoftio.com/osc). While any partner can offer optimization solutions, those who qualify for the OSC receive additional benefits that aren’t available to other partners. REQUIREMENTS Partners wanting to participate in the OSC must: ✱ Have a partner account manager (PAM) ✱ Complete an Infrastructure Optimization (IO)-related Partner Solution Plan (PSP) with that PAM ✱ Develop, profile and validate a solution that maps on IO models or capabilities ✱ Complete IO-related training ✱ Attain an IO-related competency in the Microsoft Partner Program, such as Information Worker Solutions, Networking and Advanced Infrastructure, Security, Custom Development/ISV Solutions, Data Management Solutions (BI), or Business Process Integration BENEFITS Partners participating in OSC can expect benefits in several areas: Sales ✱ Inclusion in the Partner Capability Report, distributed to the Microsoft sales force ✱ Access to the IO-ROI Tool ✱ Aggregated, IO-assessment data ✱ Sales training Marketing ✱ Early access to IO Business Optimization Framework materials ✱ Priority consideration for co-funding for marketing activities and case studies ✱ Ongoing partner IO communicationsand news through the OSC partner Web site ✱ IO co-marketing kit Technical ✱ Microsoft IO and technical demonstration tool kit demos ✱ Review of IO solution by a Microsoft technical specialist ✱ Workshops, IO-related webcasts and other training SOURCE: MICROSOFT 2 Redmond Channel Partner NOVEMBER 2008 RCPmag.com 1108rcp_IOSupp.v4 10/9/08 11:06 AM Page 3 “We’ve fundamentally changed the dialogue with a customer to stop talking about the ins and outs of licensing and start talking about the value of the software.” Curt Wheadon, Global Vice President for Microsoft Solutions, Dimension Data models. Once the partner develops some recommendations about moving the customer from the Basic stage to the Standardized stage or from the Standardized stage to the Rationalized stage, it’s back to the customer with priorities and plans for achieving the gains in the lifetime of the Enterprise Agreement. According to Dimension Data, Microsoft Optimization is providing context for ongoing conversations with customers even after the initial projects are complete. For managed partners, the process is an opportunity to get Microsoft engaged in large customer opportunities as well. “We work with our partner to develop a roadmap on how to go from the customer’s ‘as-is’ [state] to a ‘to-be’ [state],” says Microsoft’s Boit. “What we found is it’s a break-through way for us to come through with our partners on a customer agenda. Very specifically, it’s a way for partners to map and align their services to our sales initiatives.” MICROSOFT OPTIMIZES OPTIMIZATION Boit describes Dimension Data as a thought leader on optimization, up there with other early adoption partners like NetPro Computing Inc., Avanade Inc., Quest Software Inc., Citrix Systems Inc., Dell Inc., InterGrupo and Computacenter PLC. Through July, Microsoft had worked with 335 partners on optimization and characterized 45 of those as highly qualified. Ultimately, Microsoft channel officials say they’d like to see 1,500 managed partners participating in the enterprise space. “We’re doing a lot of work to enable and educate more and more partners on the approach, which has really moved from incubation to mainstream,” Boit says. More than 330,000 people in the partner community have taken training on the optimization models, he says. Microsoft has had optimizationrelated partner resources online awhile (see the Microsoft Optimization Partner Kit at www.microsoftio.com). This year, Microsoft packaged a new set of resources for managed partners called the Optimization Sales Connection (OSC)— see “Enter the OSC,” opposite page, for more details. Offerings include exposure to Microsoft field sales representatives, access to an ROI tool, sales training, comarketing funds and technical assistance, among other benefits. Only managed partners who have undergone optimization training and cleared a few other hurdles are able to access the OSC kit. Microsoft channel executives are also courting the larger swath of partners that serve midmarket customers. The company is primarily reaching out to those partners via the Worldwide Partner Group, the Microsoft Partner Program (MSPP) and the self-service Microsoft Partner Portal. One element in that outreach has been to make optimization concepts and practices central to many Microsoft competencies (see “The Competency Map”). “The fact that it’s within MSPP now basically unlocks a lot of potential adoption,” Boit says. In addition to drumming up optimization business through the Microsoft field, Microsoft is also trying to generate RCPmag.com demand via a customer-focused Web site (www.microsoft.com/optimization), which encourages customers to invite a partner into a deal. The MSPP is only a small part of how Microsoft is taking optimization mainstream. Boit says that since the Microsoft Optimization program began, product groups have been incorporating the maturity models and optimization concepts THE COMPETENCY MAP Microsoft recently mapped its three optimization models to several Microsoft Partner Program competencies: Application Platform Competencies ✱ Custom Development Solutions ✱ SOA and Business Process ✱ Data Management Solutions ✱ ISV/Software Solutions Business Productivity Infrastructure Competencies ✱ Information Worker Solutions (Portals) ✱ Networking Infrastructure Solutions ✱ Advanced Infrastructure Solutions ✱ Data Management Solutions (BI) ✱ ISV/Software Solutions (BI) Core Infrastructure Competencies ✱ Information Worker Solutions ✱ Networking Infrastructure Solutions ✱ Advanced Infrastructure Solutions ✱ Security Solutions ✱ Custom Development Solutions ✱ ISV/Software Solutions SOURCE: MICROSOFT NOVEMBER 2008 Redmond Channel Partner 3 1108rcp_IOSupp.v4 10/9/08 11:06 AM Page 4 I N F R A S T R U C T U R E O P T I M I Z AT I O N THE 4 STAGES OF IO In Microsoft’s view, you can judge the maturity of an IO initiative by looking at it in four stages: Basic, Standardized, Rationalized and Dynamic. Basic: This is where most IT organizations start, and, unfortunately, where many remain. At this level, an IT shop adopts technology on an as-needed basis. For instance, when a Basic shop runs out of processing power or storage space, it tosses in a new server from the low-price vendor of the week. Basic shops often buy software based on price and features, not considering how applications integrate with its infrastructure or fit in with a long-term architectural vision. Any management is done manually. Microsoft calls such an IT shop a “cost center.” Some are better termed “sinkholes.” Standardized:Although only one step above Basic, this level repre- into the products. Many current-generation products have been designed with optimization in mind, rather than having it bolted on as an afterthought, he adds. Dimension Data’s Wheadon says he’s impressed to see the product groups climbing aboard. “They’ve got the product groups aligned to the business value,” he says. “That’s like turning the Titanic.” Meanwhile, the effort isn’t limited to Microsoft’s on-premises software. As Microsoft begins to offer Software plus Services across more product lines, those hosted products can plug in to the optimization models, Boit says. “This optimization approach works regardless of how that software experience would be delivered. If a customer wants collaboration to be across the enterprise, the partner might make sure they’ve got the right migration path and augment it with SharePoint Online. The optimization model is agnostic to how the actual software experience will be consumed by a customer.” Boit says that kind of flexibility, and Microsoft’s growing commitment to the concept, means that the approach will survive beyond current product releases and software delivery paradigms. In fact, 4 Redmond Channel Partner sents a huge leap up. As the name indicates, Standardized IT shops put thought into buying products that adhere to industry standards and fit into an overall vision of how things ought to work together. Standardized shops are managed, but they lack the automation of higher-level shops. While a shop at this level is still a cost center, Microsoft labels it a “more efficient” cost center. Rationalized:Here, IT systems are managed and well-automated and the company has consolidated key pieces, such as servers and storage. IT is considered a strategic asset and a “business enabler.” Dynamic:In this top level, in Microsoft’s view, IT is a strategic business asset and a driver of growth; management is “fully automated.” This hierarchy isn’t meant to suggest that all companies should shoot for the Dynamic level. In fact, getting there is too expensive for some smaller companies; in those cases, it’s not worth striving for more than Standardized. —Doug Barney The central idea underlying optimization is simple: Customers can, and should, get more value from their IT investments. many aspects of the optimization model are relatively IT-agnostic, and the processes will work with other technologies nearly as well as with Microsoft’s. Another element Wheadon finds helpful: research and recommendations from Microsoft. “One other plug I’d like to give [Microsoft’s] team would be around the investment they’ve made in actually researching what the total cost of ownership ought to be. By aligning with the model and doing all the research, they’ve done us a huge service,” Wheadon says. “They’re showing that, for a certain type of operation, there should be one administrator for 1,000 employees or one administrator for 100 employees.” For example, Microsoft worked with researchers at IDC to get detailed NOVEMBER 2008 RCPmag.com information from 140 for-profit companies with 1,000 to 20,000 PCs. A data point from those studies: Companies at a Standardized level of the Core Infrastructure Optimization model had a per-PC-per-year IT cost structure that was 56 percent less than companies at a Basic level. The study also found that companies at a Rationalized level had an IT cost structure 60 percent less than companies at a Standardized level and 83 percent less than those at a Basic level. The original Infrastructure Optimization model was based on earlier research by Gartner Inc. and academic work from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Information Systems Research. Microsoft developed the other two models from its experience with 20,000 customers. 1108rcp_IOSupp.v4 10/9/08 11:06 AM Page 5 In a recent column on the Microsoft Optimization effort, Redmond Channel Partner magazine contributing editor Paul DeGroot cites optimization as one of Microsoft’s smarter sales innovations. DeGroot, a senior analyst with Kirkland, Wash.-based analyst firm Directions on Microsoft, says the tool essentially enables an IT conversation without apparent sales pressure. “Although [Infrastructure Optimization] aims to sell Microsoft products and services, the analysis is generally generic and vendor-agnostic. That’s why the IT person will talk to your salesperson— it’s not a conversation about products, not a pitch for money. Instead, it’s a discussion about the customer’s IT and often about the customer’s business itself,” DeGroot wrote. Forgive yourself if you didn’t immediately reach this conclusion. In noting the hundreds of possible optimization areas in Microsoft’s models, DeGroot wrote: “IO isn’t easy to grasp. In my case, it took a couple of years of head-scratching and finally a moment of epiphany helped along with a couple of beers, a margarita, a pounding band and Microsoft’s Steve Guggenheimer [currently the corporate VP for Microsoft’s OEM Division] yelling through the chaos: ‘Infrastructure Optimization helps our salespeople have an IT conversation with our customers.’” AN ARRAY OF OPTIMIZATION MODELS Following are at-a-glance descriptions of several organizations’ optimization models: MICROSOFT’S MODEL Infrastructure Optimization is linked to the Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF), which is a model established to ensure that Microsoft-based systems are manageable, reliable and supportable. The MOF itself is based on the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL). MOF is similar to Carnegie Mellon’s CMMI described below. The CMMI focuses on organizations, processes and people instead of hardware and software. MOF seeks to align IT services and people with key business goals. Taken together, the two models cover the major issues an IT shop must deal with. CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY’S MODEL Carnegie Mellon is one of the earliest developers of an IT maturity model. Devised by the university’s Software Engineering Institute, its model is called CMMI, for “Capability Maturity Model Integration” (originally just Capability Maturity Model). On the surface, this model is more complex than Microsoft’s software-driven model, as Carnegie Mellon deals largely with organizations, processes and people. THE MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY’S MODEL MIT’s Center for Information Systems Research has a four-level IT operating model. While Microsoft’s IO moves in a linear fashion from lowest to the most advanced level, MIT’s model bounces around. The MIT model’s levels are: ✱ Diversification. Minimal integration and standardization (similar to Microsoft’s Basic level). ✱ Unification. Maximum integration and standardization. ✱ Coordination. Great integration, but poor standardization. ✱ Replication. Poor integration, but great standardization. —Doug Barney A NEW OPPORTUNITY The gee-whiz, game-changing technological breakthroughs that allowed enterprises to gain competitive advantage by simply loading a new application onto their servers have been in the IT industry’s rear-view mirror for several years now. More recent progress tends to involve narrower advantages: Getting slightly more out of systems than your competitors. Paying slightly less for the same capabilities or using fewer IT professionals to accomplish them. Being more nimble at bringing customized business applications online. Part of that trend in the midmarket and below leads to customer interest in offloading stand-alone IT tasks through managed services providers and Software as a Service solutions. While those approaches may work in the enterprise, outsourcing IT isn’t a solution for every customer—or for many technologies. The on-premises side of the same impulse is driving business intelligence initiatives to better unlock business advantage from existing data. Optimization offers the same type of advantages as business intelligence—the ability to squeeze every bit of business RCPmag.com advantage out of technology investments. Economic pressures look to weigh heavily on business spending over the next year or two. Being the kind of strategic partner that customers trust to make their infrastructures hum with purpose, efficiency and possibility is a great role to play. • Scott Bekker ([email protected]) is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine. 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