Microsoft blog sparks criticism

On Roger Lawrence’s (Microsoft manager developer evangelism) blog, Nick wrote: “This is exactly what is so wrong with Microsoft’s community initiatives in Australia.

"They are squarely concentrated on one company. I have not seen this happening anywhere else in world."

“Just talk to someone who does not work for Readify, does not attend User Groups (because it is the same set of people all the time), and get a fair view."

"I was there at TechEd and I heard comments like and I am paraphrasing here "...this event should be called ReadifyEd...".

According to Nick, by giving so much exposure to one company and by making its employees heroes, the software giant was missing out on a large pool of talent.

“I personally attended talks given by Readify employees and I learned from them. But Microsoft is a big global company and it seems like I scratch your back and you scratch my type of bonding between Microsoft and Readify,” he claimed.

Lawrence was diplomatic on the matter and thanked Nick for his feedback.

“You certainly raise an interesting perspective. One which I don't share, considering the number of organisations I work with in my role,” he said.

“However, I can see how easily this perception can build. I'd really like to talk to you more to get your insight about this.”

However the Melbourne IT consultancy firm has defended claims that Microsoft’s community initiatives only favours one channel partner.

Graeme Strange CEO at Readify told CRN that his complaints weren’t justified.

"I'm happy to talk to Nick about his delusions - sorry his concerns. For one thing TechEd isn’t a community initiative,” said Strange.

“We paid for 40 of our consultants to attend the event. This blogger has disregarded the fact that we spent $100,000 to attend the conference.”

Strange claimed its IT consultants are at the “elite end” of the industry and were already heavily involved in giving presentations.

According to Strange, Readify consultants get a lot of exposure through its free training courses and they get asked to appear at different events.

“Our consultants are seen as thought leaders in their space. During TechEd there were six or seven presentations that needed to be filled and we put our hand up to fill those spots,” he claimed.

Strange said it should be seen as a positive that its IT consultants were willing to share their knowledge with other channel partners.