According to Gavriella Schuster, the Corporate Vice President of Microsoft, the company can’t really afford running every single partner’s organization because it’s not free. She’s even surprised by the long-term implications of the “internal use rights” being granted 24 years ago. She said that the overall cost would be large and could overrun the entire budget this year, although she did not provide any figures pertaining to that claim. Maintaining good relationships with partners is essential and could critically affect this issue for the company.

Key Takeaways:

1. Microsoft will end the benefit in one year. The new policy was announced to take effect on July 1, 2020. Obviously, it is gaining negative reactions from its partners who are contemplating quitting the program.

2. Options are being considered which include paying for traditional licenses and looking at the technologies needed for running the business.

3. Microsoft has more than 300,000 partner companies and organizations, which is also expected to be growing at a rate of 7,000 more per month.

Quote: “We have to figure out, how do we help our partners to utilize the products so that they can sell them,” Schuster said. “But we can’t actually afford to run every single partner’s organization all around the world anymore, because it’s not free.” (Bishop, 2019)

Link to article: https://www.geekwire.com/2019/cant-afford-partner-cloud-costs-blindside-microsoft-companys-solution-causes-uproar/