"The desktop will take longer, and it won't be this year [for the other managed solutions]," he said. '"It won't be in this calendar year."
Microsoft will continue to scale the service in a measured, incremental manner, adding one enterprise customer at a time, according to Markezich. This year, Microsoft will sign two more paying customers, a financial services company and a conglomerate, he said, declining to name the companies. The Redmond, Wash., software giant isn’t trying to become EDS or a hosting powerhouse but deliver a mass-volume, managed desktop solution online for enterprises with 2,000 or more desktops.
Microsoft calls its managed solutions "products" rather than managed services because they are one-size-fits-all offerings that will be standard, not customized, Markezich noted. "We're building a product, not a service. We're trying to find the perfect desktop--with a standard menu and standard price. It's complicated," he said.
In recent months, Microsoft has briefed partners on a planned enterprise security service and Groove Enterprise Service, but Markezich said he wasn’t familar with those plans. This week, Microsoft acknolwedged that it may deploy a software and licensing asset management service, in the wake of its acquisition of AssetMetrix, but Markezich said that effort isn’t tied to his managed solutions group.
Microsoft has yet to work out the channel plan for its managed solutions platform, since it's still in an early phase, according to Markezich. But he said partners will be included in the revenue sharing.
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