Today at the Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston, Microsoft released a new study from IDC that shows partners selling cloud-based solutions benefit from higher gross profit, more new customers, higher revenue per employee and faster overall business growth.
The study also revealed customer buying preferences that highlight the importance of the role of partners in the overall industry cloud transition:
· Sixty-three percent of customers expect to have a single cloud service provider to meet their needs
· Sixty-seven percent expect to purchase a wide variety of cloud services from a single vendor
· Seventy-four percent expect their cloud service provider to be able to move a cloud offering back on-premises if needed
What this data tells us is businesses prefer to buy end-to-end IT solutions from a single cloud vendor, and want to work with a company with whom they have an established relationship. With Office 365 now on a $1 billion annual revenue run rate and more than 250,000 customers using Windows Azure, with thousands more added every week, Microsoft partners are in a prime position to support this. This research validates our belief that the most successful partners are the ones who are offering a hybrid approach to IT.
WPC is a global gathering of top Microsoft partners, which provides the roadmap to activate and drive joint business. The conference will take place from July 7 to July 11. Partners will be immersed in a breadth of devices and services that empower business, will experience various opportunities for business conversations and will hear other partner and customer success stories.
WPC content will focus on the following topics this year: Cloud computing, the modern data center and how to reduce costs; Big Data and increasing business success through data-driven decision making; devices and mobility; and enterprise social.
To get the rest of this story, read this press release. Also, be sure to check out the infographic in this post. Finally, to stay up to date on all the latest WPC news, head on over to the Microsoft News Center.
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Posted by Jeff Meisner
Editor, The Official Microsoft Blog