Meet our new ISV Channel Audience Manager.....
After what feels like months of waiting, our new Independent Software Vendor (ISV) Channel Audience Manager, Christian Longstaff, has finally joined us from the not-so-fair shores of England.
He's sitting in the desk next to mine, so any ISV questions or comments you have, send them through and I'll be able to roll my chair over and get the inside scoop. Or else you can check out his brand new blog.
He's only been here 4 days, but I've already had a chat to him about why he's made the move to Australia and what he's looking forward to in the new role, so in Christian's words......
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Christian, I know a lot of Partners will be very happy to hear about you starting, tell us a bit about what your role is going to cover?
Thanks Lorna... I’m really excited to be here in Sydney. My role as an ISV Channel Audience Manager will include 3 broad areas: 1) managing the ISV community; 2) managing ISV programmes and 3) partnering for the future (which to me means Partners developing solutions on our new platforms).
So how do you see the first 6 months planning out?
Well my first week has been about finding out who’s who and collecting ideas from around the business. I’m slowly meeting partners and hearing first hand what’s needed. Our new financial year is about to begin, which means there’ll be some planning about how to realise some of these ideas to put them into practice. There’s also the Australian Partner Conference in August which I’m look forward to participating in. Hopefully I’ll manage to fit some skiing in somewhere as well.
How did you find your way to this role? Was there life before Microsoft Australia?
Life before Australia was almost 6 years at Microsoft UK where I was a Channel Development Manager helping new Partners develop a relationship with Microsoft.
What gets you out of bed in the morning?
My Wife + coffee.
How do you filter the Microsoft jargon to talk real speak to partners?
Moving to Australia made me appreciate again how much of it exists... there’s just so much content at Microsoft and there’s so much to say that it’s sometimes necessary to use abbreviations simply to finish a sentence, especially with some of our product names! I believe if you are passionate about something and there’s a clear message on where Partner’s can make money, it’ll filter through. If not, there’s always the bable fish.
What celebrity do you look like?
What do you like most about working in the partner organization within Microsoft?
It’s an amazing group within Microsoft as it allows you to work with people across the organisation from our Developer Evangelist Group, to the Product Manager’s, to the Programme Managers and best of all: Partners :-).
So if you see me at an event, please say hi now you know what I look like.
