Q. Could you tell us a bit about yourself and what your current role is at Microsoft?
Hi, I am Emily Lambert and I am a Channel Development Manager at Microsoft. I am responsible for Value Added Reseller (VAR) partner relationship and engagement in the UK. This means I work with a spectrum of partners managed partner’s, such as distributors and Direct Market Resellers, Large resellers down to small one man band resellers. I am also responsible to the Small Business Specialist Community in the UK.
I am a university graduate who started their working life at Nortel Networks. After a few years there I moved to Microsoft, where I have been for the past 5 years.
Q. What made you join the Small Business Team and wanting to work with SBSC Partners?
I have had a variety of roles since being at Microsoft but it was probably my last role, as Marketing Manager for Windows Mobile, that I developed a keen interest in small business. In this role I got the opportunity to meet and work with SBSC partners. After 2 years in the Windows Mobile team I was looking for a new challenge and the role came up to work with the VAR partners and theSBSC channel. The role really appealed to me so I applied and was lucky to get appointed!
Q. How have you found this role and are you regretting it yet?
Regretting it? No, though it has been challenging at times! J My role is only partly focused on the Small Business Specialist Community but it’s one part of the channel that is most rewarding to work with. It’s fair to say that when I came into role there was a high level of dissatisfaction amongst SBSC partners with regards to their relationship with Microsoft. This has been a huge challenge to address but it is very satisfying when I hear positive feedback from partners that some of the work my team and I have accomplished has made a difference to the community.
Q. What were your challenges when you got into this role?
As mentioned above, the greatest challenge I faced when coming into this role was the high level of dissat amongst the SBSC partners with regards to their relationship with Microsoft. It was clear that partners had various expectations of Microsoft – and where these expectations were not met the partners clearly felt frustrated. My challenge is to rebuild that relationship with Microsoft, to set expectations with the partners on what Microsoft can and cannot do for the channel, and to regain the trust of the partners.
Communication mechanisms with SBSC partners was another challenge as we only had a monthly newsletter in place to update the partners on key information. We’ve relooked at the newsletter format and content to ensure it meets the needs of our partners and also introduced a UKSBSC blog to update partners in real time.
Overall, the first 6 months in role has not been easy but I think we are slowly getting the house in order and demonstrating to the SBSC channel that we are listening and responding to their needs.
Q. What are your aims for the coming year?
To continue to listen to this channel of partners and where possible respond and address their needs from Microsoft.
Q. You’ve been travelling the UK on the WESS Tour, meeting and talking with SBSC Partners what has struck about these events and are there any common themes coming through?
The WESS Tour was great (though somewhat tiring!) as it gave me the opportunity to meet with all the user group leads, core members plus other partners too. It became clear as I visited the groups that many SBSC partners had little knowledge of the tools and resources available to them as a partner and that some of our key communication mechanisms out to partners are not fully utilised. What also struck me about these groups is how different one is to the next. This probably came out most in the feedback given in the evaluation forms. That said, the most common theme was how in demand marketing training is for this partner base and that partners really found benefit from the marketing 101 session.
Q. What made you (Microsoft) decide to launch WESS through the SBSC Partner Groups?
We decided to launch WESS through SBSC partners are SBSC partners specialise in servicing small businesses. As such, we felt it would be silly to not take the time to meet with SBSC partners and introduce them to the new products. Alongside this, it was an ideal opportunity to set expectations with the channel, help encourage new partners to join the groups and also deliver a marketing 101 session which partners had requested. We chose to cancel a bigger event that excluded SBSC partners in order to carry out this tour. I really hope the SBSC partners think it was the right decision too!
Q. If you had to advise SBSC Partners of only 3 Microsoft resources to use, what would they be?
Only three?? Um..
1. Keep a close eye on the UK SBSC Blog and/or the sign up to the Partner RSS Feed as this is the only way we can provide you with relevant news in real time.
2. Go to Ask Partner for any queries you have.
3. Join the Microsoft Partner Network (www.microsoftpartnernetwork.com) for interaction with other SBSC partners and Microsoft employees.
... but of course there are other important resources too:
- Online Technical Communities
- Microsoft Partner Portal for product and licensing information, as well as sales and marketing resources.
- Subscribe to the SBSC newsletter
- Utilise the UK SBSC 2009 logo – download it from the SBSC pages on the partner portal
- Utilise the SBSC customer ready awareness data sheets in your sales and marketing activities – available on the SBSC pages of the partner portal
Q. How would you like to see the SBSC Programme Develop?
My ideal would be a community of partners, specialising in small business, that are all trained and skilled to an equal level both technically but also from a business development point of view.
Q. Do you think Microsoft is committed to SBSC and what challenges do you face in educating your fellow Microsoft colleagues about the SBSC Pogramme?
Yes, Microsoft is committed to SBSC partner channel. We recognise that the brand is a great way to help small business customers easily identify a partner that can help them with their issues. The channel also offers the opportunity to gather partner feedback in an informal manner. The challenge we often face though is justifying the revenue potential of this channel. As such this can impact the marketing budget we have to work with this channel.
The challenges I face internally amount to two key things:
· Ensuring Microsoft personnel know about the channel and its reach to small business customers. Though we have come on leaps and bounds in the last 6 months with colleagues actively seeking me out to work with SBSCs.
· Demonstrating the revenue generated by the SBSC partners’ verses Microsoft’s investment of budget and resource in this channel. It is to this point that I appreciate the frustrations articulated by one or two SBSC partners. Did you know that Microsoft UK employees 2729 employees? Of that number 420 are technical people, 111 are Partner Account Managers, 40 are Business Managers, 11 are Marketing Managers and only 19 are Product Managers. These roles span across small business, mid market, Enterprise and Public Sector. I wonder if this information aligns to the expectations of SBSC partners in terms of Microsoft’s resources? Given this make up, Microsoft often has to prioritise where to spend budget and resource on what will generate the quickest ROI – hence my challenge to educate some Microsoft colleagues.
Q. What do you think SBSC Partners do well and what do we do badly?
SBSC partners are great and giving open feedback to Microsoft and strongly voicing their opinions. This is a good thing as if you don’t tell us where the issues are we cannot address them.
I am somewhat loathed to say SBSC partners do anything badly. J What I can highlight is that some, not all, SBSC partners have serious misconceptions about Microsoft. There seems to be a perception that Microsoft has bottomless pots of marketing and advertising budgets available that can be drawn on at any time. The reality is very different. Within any large corporation the different organisation groups within a company act very much like smaller businesses within themselves. Budgets are tightly controlled and any spend has to clearly demonstrate ROI. The issues we currently face with the SBSC channel is that we cannot track the all up revenue generated by the channel which often means less budget to spend on the channel.
Q. What do you enjoy about working for Microsoft and what would you change about it if you could?
I enjoy working for Microsoft as having visibility of and access to cutting edge new technology. it’s great to work for and engages in some phenomenal work to help charities which is often not publicised.
If I could change anything, based on partner feedback, would be to find a way to make things such as licensing and ease of finding Microsoft resources a little less complicated for our partners.