Kristi Hofer, U.S. Partner Channel manager for Microsoft Dynamics, has crisscrossed the country talking up Microsoft’s proposed plan that would create a franchise model for Dynamics partners. While she emphasizes the plan is still in draft mode, it appears likely some sort of program that emulates franchising will come to fruition.
What kind of feedback have you gotten from partners?
The feedback that we’ve gotten from the potential franchisors has been some positive and some negative.The biggest piece that people are concerned about is giving up their name, and they’re concerned they’ll lose control of their customers. And there are the requirements of the franchisees. It’s the three-person requirement that people had concerns about. There are a lot of folks that are really small and they’d like to go on without meeting the SPA [Solution Provider Agreement] requirement.