Jim Lejeal has written a great post on Working With Microsoft. Jim is CEO of Oxlo – one of our companies – and was previously co-founder and COO of Raindance (now publicly traded on Nasdaq – RNDC – I was one of the first round investors). Microsoft is a key partner of Oxlo’s (all of Oxlo’s technology is based on Microsoft technologies – including Biztalk and Sharepoint) and Microsoft was an investor in Raindance. So – Jim’s had plenty of experience in this sandbox.
I’ve been a long time Microsoft partner and advocate – going back to my first company (Feld Technologies) which was in the first class (around 1990) of Microsoft Solution Providers (I still have the plaque with Dawayne Walker’s name on it somewhere). Many of my current investments – including Commerce5, ePartners, Gold Systems, Newmerix, NewsGator, and Oxlo – have deep relationships with Microsoft and extensively use Microsoft and .NET technology as part of their products and services.
I’ve learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t work with Microsoft over the last 15 years. Jim’s advice is worth reading.