Ten Things Microsoft Needs to Fix Today

While a lot of one-time events led to the posting of Microsoft's first loss ever, it's clear the company has lost a significant amount of momentum. From a channel perspective the success of Microsoft is critical, so with that in mind, here's a list of 10 suggestions for helping Microsoft recover its "chi" at a time when confidence in the company is clearly starting to wane.

• Anoint a Technology Leader

  

  With the passing of Steve Jobs the role of visionary for the industry is vacant. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer just doesn't have the tech cred to play that role.

• Imitation is Not Innovation

  

  It may be the sincerest form of flattery, but real innovation requires originality. The intersection of mouse, touch and voice is the next big thing. Get there first.

• Repair OEM Relationships

  

  Antagonizing OEM partners with a Surface tablet as part of an effort to boost stock price is not in anyone's ultimate best interest, especially when it's only available online and in a handful of Microsoft stores.

• Get a Head in the Cloud

  

  Azure needs to be a lot more than an alternative place to develop Windows applications. It needs to be the hub for a federated environment that create a big cloud trend across the channel.

• More Flexible Licensing Terms

  

  One of the reason IT executives are turning a blind eye to Bring Your Own Devices (BYOD) to work is they perceive Windows licensing terms to be onerous.

• Pick up the Smartphone

  

  Nokia isn't going to answer the call. Microsoft needs OEM partners to step up. By the way, building a mouse doesn't count as hardware experience.

• Get Excited about Windows Server

  

  Stop treating Windows Server 8 as an afterthought or be prepared to be subservient to VMware in the enterprise for a very long time.

• Look and Feel of Windows 8 for Business

  

  A touch enabled user interface for tablets, long overdue, is great. But the Metro user interface won't necessarily work equally well across all applications, especially in corporate environments.

• Fix the Marketing Machine

  

  Microsoft is being outmaneuvered by rivals at almost every turn. Microsoft.com is not the center of IT universe. Company execs need to engage where the IT conversations are happening.

• Motivate the Channel

  

  A few extensions to incentives to existing programs doesn't do whole lot in the way of identifying new use case and opportunities for Microsoft products and technologies that the channel can actively sell.