Microsoft partner pens plaintive poem

In a show of literary creativity not frequently seen in the business software market, one Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS) partner has dedicated a nine stanza poem to its frustrations with the software giant.

Mark Rockwell, chief executive of Rockton Software, a Microsoft partner based in Puyallup, Washington, first delivered the elegy to company executives last month at the software maker's partner conference in Minneapolis. Rockton has since posted the tribute to its Web site in the name of spreading its CEO's message.

Some sections of the poem praise Microsoft for doing a better job than in years past working with its business software partners, which support the company's Great Plains, Navision, Axapta and CRM product lines. However, the most enlightening stanzas deal with the changes Rockwell has observed since Microsoft purchased South Dakota-based Great Plains Software in 2000 and assumed control of the company's products and support.

He writes:

"Our support incidents first took their great dive, When we went from 200 way down to five, While we used to call Fargo and get help right away, Now I call Redmond for a 4-hour delay."

"And what product" they ask, "do I need support on?" "Dexterity" I say -- and then I hear a dead calm. "It's a Microsoft product!" I try to explain, and you hear their mouths curl with a little disdain."

"I give up!" I just say -- "Just give me Great Plains," "I'm tired of playing this repetitive game," If you'd let me call Fargo direct for support, I'd get so much more done in a time that's more short."

Moving beyond the support complaints, which one can expect to hear at almost any vendor's partner meetings, Rockwell took direct aim at Microsoft's emerging vertical sales strategy within the MBS group. The plan stresses that Microsoft's technology resellers try to attach themselves to certain business markets in the name of providing specialized support.

Rockwell and some others have complained that they'd rather sell applications using a broader, or "horizontal" approach that isn't quite so industry specific. To that end he wrote:

"The next issue I raise - As ISV's it hacks us, You seem to think there's only a vertical axis, Your systems are designed with pigeon holes, where ISVs can serve in only one role."

"There's a huge number of us who are horizontal, But you want us to specialize it things like "periodontal," My point is just this - Microsoft must resort, To give horizontals their complete support."

Microsoft has not said whether it plans to address Rockwell's plea in the form of a sonnet or haiku. In 2004, the executive first made waves at the partner conference by delivering his complaints to the software giant in the form of a song.