Cisco, Microsoft team up in SMB channel

Microsoft Corp. multipurpose server and CRM (customer relationship management) software for companies with 500 or fewer employees will fly into U.S. small and medium-sized enterprises on the wings of Cisco networking gear if a new partnership takes off as the companies hope.

The partnership could help bring advanced call center capabilities, combining data with voice calls, to smaller companies. It also is intended to lift the companies' channel partners, with system integrators and resellers taking advantage of architecture blueprints, system verification by the vendors and packaged offerings, the companies are set to announce Thursday at Cisco's partner summit in Honolulu.

Small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) will be able more easily to set up a server and get on the Internet safely, according to Rex Bloesser, director of business development for the U.S. midmarket at Microsoft. They also will be able to get CRM functions integrated with converged voice and data communications, improving productivity and customer experience just as many large enterprises already have done, said Peter Alexander, vice president of Cisco's Worldwide Commercial Market Segment.

For example, when an existing customer calls, call center employees will be able to see a screen of information on a PC about that customer, including the caller's buying history, he said.

Whereas most of CRM software has been focused on large enterprises, Microsoft has seen the need for sophisticated CRM in SMBs and delivered its Microsoft CRM software to met those customers' needs, Bloesser said. In addition, many of Microsoft's smaller business customers also are Cisco shops, and many channel partners offer both companies' products, he said. The companies aim to provide incentives for channel partners they have in common to offer such systems; they also want each vendor's partners to join up in order to offer complementary products.

Many SMBs can benefit from these kinds of integrated systems but lack the in-house expertise to implement them; that's where channel partners are needed and where they have their opportunity to add value, Cisco's Alexander said.

"It's an area that is looking for guidance from the major vendors, and certainly Cisco and Microsoft are two of the most visible vendors in the SMB market," Alexander said. "We reduce the risk and complexity of these implementations."

The companies' plan includes the following immediate steps:

-- Develop reference architecture blueprints to provide channel partners with guidance for planning, building, operating and supporting sets of technologies for customers.

-- Introduce a joint product offering that combines the Cisco 831 Broadband Router and Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 Standard Edition software, a unified server that includes file, application and other servers in one platform. Microsoft CRM 1.2, released in December, can run on Small Business Server.

-- Work together to further integrate Microsoft CRM software with Cisco's Call Manager Express IP telephony platform. This work, which is still going on, is intended to give SMBs advanced call center capabilities, Bloesser said.