Microsoft hops into managed PC business

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is more focused on helping customers integrate Microsoft technology.

Many of Microsoft's partners do offer such services. Adams said he was not aware what, if any outreach, Microsoft has done to let partners know of its plans.

"I've not had any deep conversations with any of the different partners," he said.

That's a problem, DeGroot said, as is the fact that Microsoft has not clearly stated which services it is willing to offer and whether there is an opportunity for partners.

"It is entirely possible that they want to do this small limited experiment," he said. "Maybe this is version one and by version three, it is going to be huge. People have seen them do that before and turn things into a business. It's really important for their partner community that they clarify what the limits are."

HP, though, will be involved in the Energizer deal. Microsoft plans to serve Energizer primarily through the same means it handles its own operation, which has 92,000 users and more than 300,000 PCs. HP is part of that, helping to handle support and managing call centers that field help queries from Microsoft workers. HP will provide similar services to Energizer, Adams said.

A limited number of Microsoft workers will be placed at Energizer locations, Adams said, though most of the work is designed to be handled remotely, he said.

It's unclear how far Microsoft might take the effort.

DeGroot said the business itself is not a highly lucrative one. "There is a lot of competition and margins are not necessarily that great," he said. "Unfortunately for Microsoft, there are no businesses--no legal businesses--with the margins of the Windows operating system."

Although the software juggernaut could expand the project and eventually move deeper into the IT services realm, the Energizer deal could also be a precursor to Microsoft expanding its efforts around "software as a service." Today, only a limited array of Microsoft software is available on a hosted basis, primarily through partners.

In an interview on Wednesday, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates told CNET News.com that he expects over time that there will be a shift with more businesses wanting to have others host their software off-site.

"Clearly, we want to accommodate both models and give people even the flexibility if they want to switch from one approach to the other approach," Gates said.

[fred dunn]

Maybe they'll finally get a grip on the reality of managing....

Maybe MS will finally understand the limited and kludged tools they provide are not as seamless and reliable as they think.
As they have to consider the patching process across different applications and the infernal testing that is required. As well as detecting and patching non-microsoft products.

Fred Dunn

[rodtrent]

I broke this story a long while back

I've been blogging about this for a couple months already. Interesting, that the news media orgs are JUST now picking this up. I saw the news in the media on searchWin2000.com first yesterday.

[Bill Dautrive]

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