The Death of Reason: WPC2012–Day 2–SQL Analytics and AX Under EA

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Источник: http://thedeathofreason.wordpress.co...d-ax-under-ea/
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#WPC12:  Lots of good content today but I spent most of my time with SQL Server looking at its big data capabilities and PowerView. 

Without going into huge detail, suffice it to say that SQL12 is a much bigger release than you may think, providing an array of capabilities greater than I’ve seen in any other release.  xVelocity in memory storage, tabular and dimensional data models, much bigger integration to Sharepoint, PowerView for data visualization, massive upgrade to SSRS, data streaming and adapters to Hadoop as the big data platform of choice.  I could spend the next two years of my life buried in this product and still come away challenged and happy.  I can’t wait.

The big news for AX…MS will now start (in September) selling AX under Enterprise Agreements.  Partner margins for the next 12 mos will be 25% – that’s right, 25%.  They then go down to 10% the following year unless you hit certain EA revenue targets (about $500K to MS).    In addition, MS plans to continue strengthening the MS consulting capabilities in AX to provide service to the Enterprise Accounts. 

Oh, wait….what’s that noise?  I think it’s the collective jaws of the large Dynamics partners hitting the floor as they watch their existing business model disappear. 

Its going to take a while for us all to work out what the EA announcement really means, but I think we can make some assumptions:

• We need to behave more like System Integrators and Global System Integrators (see the SAP business model as an example)
• The SMS&P market will be more about volume
• Presales will become more about services not product – MS will take the heavy lifting on product.
• Services gross margins will be critical but, at the same time, everyone is going to continue competing aggressively for CRM and AX resources – against each other and against MCS – driving costs ever higher and pushing down gross profit.  Alternative methods for finding resources will be critical so start thinking about my previous comments about college recruiting.

Good times.

More later.


Filed under: General Comments, Microsoft Conventions Tagged: WPC 2012; AX and EA

Источник: http://thedeathofreason.wordpress.co...d-ax-under-ea/