Microsoft throws $$$$s at resellers who snare shiny new cloudy punters

Microsoft is again chucking wads of cash at channel types that convince entirely new customers - those not familiar with outages - to sign up to SKUs of Office 365 and CRM Online Pro.

Money talks - financial encouragement is a proven method to shape the behaviour of third party sellers - and under the Sprint to the Finish incentive, Microsoft expects channel folk to listen.

The ‘Think Office 365 first’ strand pays resellers either $15, $30 or $50 per seat depending on the product flavour, with a payment ceiling set at $10,000.

The size of the prize is even greater for those flogging CRM Online Professional; $120 cash back per seat, up to a maximum of $100,000. Maybe Microsoft is feeling the heat from Salesforce.

The programme is to “reward” folk in the channel for “customer adds, customer use of cloud services, selling premium SKUs, and cross selling new cloud services,” said Microsoft in a statement.

To qualify, resellers must be named by their customer as the incumbent supplier, manage customer activation and usage, and register for the programme.

Microsoft has a long running battle with Google over cloud bragging rights, and has fired multiple financial rewards at sellers of Office 365 in the past.

Of course the timing of Sprint to the Finish is designed to help swell Microsoft's coffers in the run up to its year-end on 30 June, which, er, coincidentally is when the incentive offers ends.

But resellers will have to wait until 30 August for the cash claims to be calculated and another month for the payments to be made. ®