In recognition of its business partners' importance, Microsoft Corp. today announced it is significantly increasing investments in its worldwide partner ecosystem. The company will increase its investment in the partner channel from $1.5 billion to $1.7 billion over the course of fiscal year 2005. Announced at the Microsoft� Worldwide Partner Conference 2004, the increased investment will cover additional field specialists, training, sales and marketing support, and services -- the same areas in which Microsoft has been making considerable investments for the past two years. The additional funding for field specialists will be allocated primarily to system builders, independent software vendors (ISVs) and partners that focus on Microsoft Business Solutions.

In addition to the $1.7 billion investment, each of Microsoft's global subsidiaries will allocate a total of 35 percent of global marketing funds, previously earmarked for direct customer marketing, to help partners build their businesses through joint marketing efforts with Microsoft. The goal of the new approach, called "through-partner marketing," is to utilize the highly recognized Microsoft brand to increase visibility for partners, to extend partners' opportunities by more closely aligning their business goals with Microsoft's marketing strategies, and to increase the added value to customers.