NC (NetPC) attack plan
Date:
Synopsis
Already covered: https://techrights.org/o/2009/01/19/gartner-corrupted-by-microsoft/Analysis: Monitoring and attacking potential NetPC accounts, lobby Gartner to fraudulently show Windows TCO as lower, feed the press fake 'the NC is dead' stories, spy on the Open Group.
Snippet
Date; To: Brad Chase, Jim Allchin Cc: Adam Taylor, Yusaf Mehdi, Windows Marketing, IF. Marketing From: Keith White, Windows Org lVlktg. Team RE: Windows Organizational Marketing 2H FY98 PlanExecutive Summary
The Windows Org marketing team has spent the past 6 months fighting the TCO battle, addressing the threat of the NC, executing a number of Windows sustain marketing programs, as well as begun the preparation for the launch of Windows 98 and Beta 2 of NTWS.
Some of the highlights include:
Even witht this Work, organizations are still in a state of confusion on the desktop. They have the issue of running multiple versions of Windows (Win95 Gold, SP1, and OSR1, 2, or 2.5, and NTW4, SP1, 2, or 3) in their environment. There is still a significant amount of Win16 (~35% of the installed base), the Year 2000 issue is taking away focus and diverting resources away from evaluating new OSs, and Windows is still expensive to deploy and support. Corporations see NTW5 as the silver bullet, and many are planning on bypassing Windows 98 in order to deploy NTW5, however many of the TCO benefits are tied to NT Server 5.0, which could expand the evaluation cycle as well.
Given the above situation our 4 main objectives for 2H FY98 will be to:
1. Increase Win32 penetration in corporates to 65% in FY98 by focusing on NTW4 sustain activities. With the huge mind-share NT3 is demanding, it is critical we continue to sell today’s products in order to increase Wn32 penetration. Along with Billsha’s OEM team, we are implementing a number of NTW 4.0 sustain activities including an "NTW Means Business" campaign to drive customers to purchase NTW pre-installed on new systems. We are also demonstrating customer momentum and standardization with case studies at high profile events such as the MMS/Intel Workstation Leadership Forum, and working with the OEM team to promote the advances NTW has made in driver, mobile, and application support.
2. Deliver a worldwide launch of Win98 to corporates in FY98, by delivering a core set of evaluation and migration tools. Though NTW is the recommended product for organizations, we are positioning Windows 98 to corporates as "A smart upgrade if you can’t move to NTW’. We are executing on a corporate and partner-driven Rapid Deployment Program in order to understand deployment issues and generate PR references. We are also developing tools such as a Deployment Guide and a Zero Administration Kit for Windows 98, as well as working with analysts to demonstrate the support and deployment cost savings realized with Win98.
3. Prepare our field, channel, and customers for a worldwide launch of NTW5 in FY99. As Billg has stated that Microsoft is "betting the company on Windows NT5", we are focusing the majority of our efforts on ensuring we generate early wide scale evaluation of Windows NT 5.0 via the Windows NT 5.0 Corporate Preview Program. We’ll gain knowledge of deployment issues and process from the Rapid Deployment Program, build tools such as the Evaluation and Deployment Guide, and educate our partners and customers on how to deploy via a series of Windows Technical Workshops and Deployment Conferences. At the same dine we are synching with the NT Server, Office 9, and the IE 5.0 teams to promote "Platform 99" as the next generation business desktop.
4. Halt the NC from making any noise in FY98. Though the NC has failed to live up to its early threat of mass PC replacement, we are actively tracking threatened accounts and monitoring and attacking the NC constituents (IBM, Sun, Oracle) with high level TCO and Windows messages. We are executing on a PR plan to expose the NC as "dead", continuing to arm our field sales force with competitive analysis and responses, and working with the Hydra and WBT OEM teams to build the Windows value proposition for thin clients.
If we are successful with the above objectives, we will have made significant progress in migrating the majority of corporate desk-tops to 32-bit Windows, adequately prepared the marketplace to shift to NTW, and stopped our chief competitor, the NC, from making any inroads. The remainder of this document will provide greater detail on the core objectives, including budget, timeline, and roles and responsibilities.
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4) NC Attack Plan-"The NC is Dead"
Though we have made great strides to ensure the NC does not gain footholds in any of our accounts, we can expect another big push from IBM and Sun in the 2nd half. IBM is already pushing their NetStations hard into accounts, and Sun is planning on releasing the Java Stations in the first half of CY98. Our focus will be to continue to expose the issues with the NC idea, while communicating the benefits of Windows and our thin client strategy with Hydra and the Windows-based Terminal. We'll execute on the following programs to ensure the NC makes no headway in the 2nd half of FY98: