With Microsoft's ecosystem of resellers and technology partners that come to rely on peddling Microsoft software to their customers, the good bet is still on Microsoft. When it comes to Outlook and Sharepoint, and Microsoft in general, the buying driver has not been superior technology or optimal business use. "Good enough" has been enough for most companies to continue sticking with good, ol' Microsoft.

 

The better question is: what will resellers do and what value can they add assuming Microsoft's move to the cloud will translate into fewer on premise installations? One answer is that resellers will need to customize Sharepoint and develop applications to meet specific customer needs. The better answer is that resellers will succeed wherever a business solution is required, and the reseller helps bridge the solution gap. This can mean custom apps or simply configuring Sharepoint to solve a business problem.

 

To witness this winning formula, look no further than your typical Sharepoint deployments and experience today. At LeapFILE, we get a lot of inquiries from businesses that have Sharepoint but had tried to use it for for file transfer or to displace email. Using Sharepoint beyond its designed purpose of collaboration diminishes the application and leads to business project road blocks, team inertia and document chaos. On the other hand, resellers can advise their customers how to make use of Sharepoint's features to enhance project management and build shared work spaces that improve business workflows.

If you want to identify which resellers will succeed in the future when Microsoft finally makes their push into the cloud, they're likely the same ones today who are relied upon by their customers to help make their work life better.