Dann Anthony

A big-brand win for Microsoft and the Microsoft Cloud. Columbia Sportswear plans to deploy Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Azure for its retail, call center, CRM, and merchandising operations, the companies announced today. "[We] have a long history of leveraging innovative technologies to help connect active people with their passions," said Columbia's Chief Information Officer Michael Hirt in a statement.

Pricing your services based on your costs creates a peril; any bargaining eats your margin. Yes, you may charge a fixed fee or tiered-level prices for low-risk services or discrete products. But those pricing models do not work once you introduce your expert services, unique experience, and any open-ended project risk.

Microsoft's new leader of One Commercial Partner (OCP), Gavriella Schuster, delivered a Microsoft State of the Channel briefing today and noted the positive results so far around partner co-selling efforts. OCP focuses on three areas in which Microsoft interacts with its partners - "build with," "go-to-market" and "sell with" - and Schuster focused upon the co-sell success.