Comments on: Two Weeks Later http://powersunfiltered.com/2008/01/23/two-weeks-later/ An entrepreneur's journey into grid computing and partnering with Microsoft, by John Powers Fri, 16 Jul 2010 02:26:46 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Powers Unfiltered » Blog Archive » Five Suggested Technical Improvements for the Microsoft Partner Web Site http://powersunfiltered.com/2008/01/23/two-weeks-later/comment-page-1/#comment-44294 Powers Unfiltered » Blog Archive » Five Suggested Technical Improvements for the Microsoft Partner Web Site Tue, 29 Jan 2008 17:53:02 +0000 http://powersunfiltered.com/2008/01/23/two-weeks-later/#comment-44294 [...] In the spirit of Todd Weatherby’s comments about opening a dialog regarding the Microsoft Partner Program Web Site, here are five technical things Microsoft could do to improve interactions with partners and customers.  I (and other partners) have put forward some more radical ideas for redesign of partner program policies and tools, but let’s start with things that could be done relatively quickly, without major surgery: 1. Enable better search tools on all parts of partners.microsoft.com. Microsoft Live Search is actually getting pretty good. The quality of search results is usually (not always) on par with Google. The UI is simple, the search engine is fast, it’s reasonably comprehensive, and it’s relatively good at ranking results. Now step into partnerland, and you’d never know you were dealing with the same company. Try to search for a Microsoft partner interested in teaming with us to market and sell to hedge funds — go ahead, I’ll wait. The search tools are limited by the fields imagined by the designers of each application lurking behind partner.microsoft.com. The way the rest of the world (including large chunks of Microsoft) addressed this years ago was with better free text search tools (like Live Search). More recently, much of the rest of the world has discovered the value of tagging, which allows users to decide on the importance of words and phrases to help others find their content. (And yes, this example is from Channel Builder, but similar restrictions limit the value of other applications as well.) [...] [...] In the spirit of Todd Weatherby’s comments about opening a dialog regarding the Microsoft Partner Program Web Site, here are five technical things Microsoft could do to improve interactions with partners and customers.  I (and other partners) have put forward some more radical ideas for redesign of partner program policies and tools, but let’s start with things that could be done relatively quickly, without major surgery: 1. Enable better search tools on all parts of partners.microsoft.com. Microsoft Live Search is actually getting pretty good. The quality of search results is usually (not always) on par with Google. The UI is simple, the search engine is fast, it’s reasonably comprehensive, and it’s relatively good at ranking results. Now step into partnerland, and you’d never know you were dealing with the same company. Try to search for a Microsoft partner interested in teaming with us to market and sell to hedge funds — go ahead, I’ll wait. The search tools are limited by the fields imagined by the designers of each application lurking behind partner.microsoft.com. The way the rest of the world (including large chunks of Microsoft) addressed this years ago was with better free text search tools (like Live Search). More recently, much of the rest of the world has discovered the value of tagging, which allows users to decide on the importance of words and phrases to help others find their content. (And yes, this example is from Channel Builder, but similar restrictions limit the value of other applications as well.) [...]

]]> By: john http://powersunfiltered.com/2008/01/23/two-weeks-later/comment-page-1/#comment-44167 john Sun, 27 Jan 2008 02:02:31 +0000 http://powersunfiltered.com/2008/01/23/two-weeks-later/#comment-44167 Todd -- Delighted to hear from you; thanks for your detailed response. I'm even more delighted that you want to "open the discussion" about the issues raised here; I'll be interested to see where that leads. More soon. Thanks, John Todd –
Delighted to hear from you; thanks for your detailed response.
I’m even more delighted that you want to “open the discussion” about the issues raised here; I’ll be interested to see where that leads.
More soon.
Thanks,
John

]]> By: Todd Weatherby http://powersunfiltered.com/2008/01/23/two-weeks-later/comment-page-1/#comment-44124 Todd Weatherby Sat, 26 Jan 2008 03:01:16 +0000 http://powersunfiltered.com/2008/01/23/two-weeks-later/#comment-44124 John..., I’m responsible for the Microsoft Partner Portal. I’m the GM of Product Management working directly for Allison Watson. I’m reaching out to you and others to open the discussion about the very real issues raised in your recent posts. Our mission is to support your profitable growth, and anything that slows you down is not acceptable. Let me start by saying that all of us here apologize for recent problems with our Microsoft Partner Program (MSPP) re-enrollment process that have taken up your valuable time and also inconvenienced your customers. We continue to invest in our on-line resources for our partners and customers worldwide. During 2007 we made several enhancements including a major release on November 30th. In early January, we realized we had some serious performance problems in some very specific steps in the enrollment process (eg. customer reference processing). Since detecting the problem, we’ve been running 24x7 triage/test/fix cycles. We also added call center staff and extended hours of service to help partners work through enrollment and maintain their access to their benefits. We’ve made some fixes that have yielded improvement. We have more to do. While parts of the enrollment process have been rough for some, partners have been using resources on the Microsoft Partner Portal in record numbers without problems, including online training, marketing and sales resources. We continue to monitor system performance closely 24x7 worldwide. Status messages are being kept up to date on the site. Our Regional Support Centers are standing by to help partners. All of us at Microsoft sincerely value your partnership. We will continue to improve and work hard to earn your trust. Feel free to send me email directly at TODDKW@Microsoft.com . Thanks, Todd John…, I’m responsible for the Microsoft Partner Portal. I’m the GM of Product Management working directly for Allison Watson.

I’m reaching out to you and others to open the discussion about the very real issues raised in your recent posts. Our mission is to support your profitable growth, and anything that slows you down is not acceptable.

Let me start by saying that all of us here apologize for recent problems with our Microsoft Partner Program (MSPP) re-enrollment process that have taken up your valuable time and also inconvenienced your customers.

We continue to invest in our on-line resources for our partners and customers worldwide. During 2007 we made several enhancements including a major release on November 30th. In early January, we realized we had some serious performance problems in some very specific steps in the enrollment process (eg. customer reference processing).

Since detecting the problem, we’ve been running 24×7 triage/test/fix cycles. We also added call center staff and extended hours of service to help partners work through enrollment and maintain their access to their benefits. We’ve made some fixes that have yielded improvement. We have more to do.

While parts of the enrollment process have been rough for some, partners have been using resources on the Microsoft Partner Portal in record numbers without problems, including online training, marketing and sales resources.

We continue to monitor system performance closely 24×7 worldwide. Status messages are being kept up to date on the site. Our Regional Support Centers are standing by to help partners.

All of us at Microsoft sincerely value your partnership. We will continue to improve and work hard to earn your trust. Feel free to send me email directly at TODDKW@Microsoft.com . Thanks, Todd

]]>