Guest Speak of this month : Vineet Kshirsagar

Vineet Kshirsagar 
Director, Partner Strategy and Programs
Microsoft India

What is your strategy around support?   

Our strategy is simple in that we ensure to support the partners right from the time we recruit them. By engaging them in various programs like MPN we have been able to ensure that a vibrant relationship exits between Microsoft and its partners. 

How are you empowering the channel partners? 

Microsoft is a partner focussed company. More than 90 percent of our business is done through partners. The entire licensing revenue is done through partners. So obviously partners are our engagement with the customers. Being a growth engine for us it ensure that they remain profitable. Our task is to build a more scalable business and the concept is 'win together' with our partner ecosystem.

How do you differentiate your solutions from those of your competitors? 

It is our endeavour to ensure that the partners who have invested in Microsoft platform get their due both in terms of value and money. In the last six months we have launched a slew of products. And it is exciting times both for Microsoft and partners. 

Microsoft is proving its customers the best in both worlds – on-premise and cloud. The gamut of products and solutions we provide makes the lasting differentiation. 

What makes you successful amongst the channel community?

I have been in this journey at Microsoft for last two and half year. The journey has helped me in acquiring specialised skills which have stood me in good stead in imparting those skills to the partners resulting in the recognition by the customers. 

Really this specialisation journey has been key for us and we believe that this acts as a foundation to ensure that a more scalable business is built. It has been an experience for me personally because it required a lot a change in different aspects which in turn required a lot of skills in driving the change and that has been a learning for me personally.