| News: Microsoft Explores Options for Partners to Handle BPOS Billing By Scott Bekker Microsoft is reviewing the direct billing model it uses for cloud computing customers, the company's channel chief Jon Roskill told partners this week in a town hall meeting. When partners resell the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) and other Microsoft Online Services products, the customers are billed directly by Microsoft. A partner of record is named, and that partner gets margins on the sale from Microsoft separately. But most partners currently have no way to integrate BPOS into their own billing to customers. Some partners have said they won't consider Microsoft's cloud solutions until they can bill customers themselves, while others have said BPOS billing creates business-model problems for them. A question from Jamison West, of Seattle-based managed services provider JWCS and one of a few dozen partners at the town hall meeting at the new Microsoft Store in Bellevue, Wash., prompted Roskill's comment about the direct billing review. After saying that Microsoft "gets" the partner channel more than any other vendor he works with, West said, "I understand I'm going to make money selling [BPOS] and all of those things, but having my clients go direct to Microsoft is a struggle for me." Roskill, corporate vice president of the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group, made a pitch for the flexibility of Microsoft's current billing options, but also acknowledged West's concerns. "Let me start by saying, we are very serious when we say we are dedicated to taking the cloud to customers through the channel," Roskill said. "Ideally, you want to be able to put things like BPOS seats in with your total offering, provide a single bill to the customer and we hear that and we recognize and respect that." After listing existing features like a quoting tool, systems for putting partner branding on Microsoft's billing and hyperlinks that automatically register a partner when customers do a BPOS service trial, Roskill said Microsoft is working on the issue... Continue reading. | 
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