(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) – Microsoft (www.microsoft.com) has announced the global availability of Microsoft Communication Services, a partner program to help hosting providers and their resellers sell hosted unified communications to small and medium-sized businesses.
Announced Tuesday at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2009, Microsoft Communication Services provides certified hosting providers and resellers a common set of marketing collateral and the ability to utilize the Microsoft brand beyond individual product brands for better recognition in the SMB marketplace.
“One of the interesting points that hosters told us (specifically those who host unified communications offerings based on Office Communications Server and Windows SharePoint Server) was that they didn’t know how to reach their end-point customers – in the language of their customers,” said John Zanni, general manager of the Worldwide Software plus Services Industry team for Microsoft’s Communications Sector.
Over the course of several months, Microsoft and communications provider Comcast (www.comcast.com) conducted extensive market research, developing a tool kit to market these services to potential customers.
Also, making it only available to certain hosts and resellers assures SMBs that the services they buy will not only improve their business, but also function properly. “The end customer knows that the service is being hosted by a hoster that has the capability of providing hosted collaboration services,” Zanni said.
Providing collateral including demo videos, marketing guidance and telesales scripts, the communication services toolkit was designed to help partners offer higher-margin services, develop customer loyalty and become a trusted advisor. Collateral and guidance focuses on marketing a solution of collaborative hosted services, including hosted Microsoft Exchange Server, Hosted Windows SharePoint Services, Microsoft Office Communications Server and Microsoft Office Live Meeting. .
“That’s what hosters are excited about – we’re not only helping them build products, but also helping them sell,” Zanni said.
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