Oct 27

Written by:
2010/10/27 08:12 AM 

There has been a lot of talk of Microsoft being the big capital giant, bleeding developers dry. Charging extensive amounts of money for it’s products.

Many so eagerly compare open source products like PHP and mySQL to the more costly products of Microsoft.

But many take the argument against Microsoft in ignorance. Without knowing how much effort Microsoft is putting in to helping new business, up and coming developers, and start-ups, achieve their goals.

Yes, Microsoft might seem more expensive than what most small businesses and new start-ups can afford. But all good things in life are hardly free.

Even so, Microsoft is out there helping you and I to get going in the development environment. Check out my post on Microsoft BizSpark, where you can get $100 000’s worth of free software.

Now Microsoft want to partner with you and develop a network to help grow and market your business. When you join the Microsoft Partner Network, you receive a set of core benefits that can help you save time and money while you strengthen your capabilities, better serve customers and build connections to reach your full business potential. You'll be able to make the most of your unique expertise with support for all stages of your business cycle. And as you increase your commitment to your Microsoft partner relationship, Microsoft recognises you with higher-value benefits.

Technical Benefit

Depending on their relationship with Microsoft, partners might receive early releases of Microsoft OSs and applications, preferred access to Microsoft technical resources such as SDKs, and Microsoft templates (such as solution accelerators) that outline the software, services, and configurations partners should use to achieve positive results predictably and economically.

Marketing Benefit

Microsoft's customer base is in the tens and hundreds of millions. What would you do to tap into that resource? Joining the Microsoft Partner Program Puts you in contact with that customer base .

Microsoft can reach many of its customer’s with broad-based advertising and promotions which, while expensive, are less costly on a per-customer basis than more targeted advertising. Partners benefit from these campaigns without any direct expenditure on their part.

Other marketing benefits for partners include the following:

• The Windows Marketplace, which features more than 90,000 software and 50,000 hardware items made by and sold through Microsoft partners
• Marketing collateral and campaigns, produced by Microsoft but distributed through partners
• Solution and partner databases that let customers locate software or expertise and aid partners in finding other partners who can complement their offerings or open new markets
• Go-to-market campaigns, which identify specific market opportunities and organize and support partners in addressing them.

So what are you waiting for? Join now.

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