Microsoft has announced the global availability of Microsoft Communication Services, a partner program to help hosting providers and their resellers sell hosted unified communications to small and medium-sized businesses.
Announced Tuesday at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2009, Microsoft Communication Services provides certified hosting providers and resellers a common set of marketing collateral and the ability to utilize the Microsoft brand beyond individual product brands for better recognition in the SMB marketplace.
"One of the interesting points that hosters told us (specifically those who host unified communications offerings based on Office Communications Server and Windows SharePoint Server) was that they didn't know how to reach their end-point customers .Providing collateral including demo videos, marketing guidance and telesales scripts, the communication services toolkit was designed to help partners offer higher-margin services, develop customer loyalty and become a trusted advisor. Collateral and guidance focuses on marketing a solution of collaborative hosted services, including hosted Microsoft Exchange Server, Hosted Windows SharePoint Services, Microsoft Office Communications Server and Microsoft Office Live Meeting.