Microsoft Shuffles Deck; Orlando Ayala Tapped For New Role

Notably, Orlando Ayala, who for three years has served as senior vice president of the Small, Medium Services and Partner (SMS&P) Group, will be taking on a new role at the company, driving efforts to grow Microsoft's business in emerging and underserved markets. His new title is senior vice president, Emerging Segments Market Development Group.

Ayala, a 15-year veteran with the Redmond, Wash, software giant and a familiar face to partners, will be replaced by Eduardo Rosini, another Microsoft veteran and former distribution executive. Rosini takes the helm of the SMS&P post starting July 1, when Microsoft embarks on its new fiscal year.

Among the other changes, the SMS&P organization as a whole will shift from the purview of Microsoft president Jeff Raikes' Business Division to become the operational responsibility of COO Kevin Turner, according to Ayala. Additionally, channel maven Allison Watson will have her title elevated; she will now be corporate vice president, one of only 130 companywide. Her role remains in place, heading the Worldwide Partner and Small Business groups.

Speaking to VARBusiness about the changes today, Ayala said partners should see real positives on a number of fronts: For one, Turner -- who is coming up on one year at tackling Microsoft's vast, operational sales and marketing juggernaut -- is highly channel-oriented. Second, Ayala's new position in developing markets will mean more business opportunity for partners.

"This is a big push to lower the barrier of entry for users in these countries," Ayala said. "And that means different business models to develop, such as pay-as-you-go."

Those different business models dovetail closely with the channel's move to managed services. Ayala's group will also be tapped, along with partners, to devise more affordable technology models. Ayala said the emerging segments group is not just about well-known markets such as China and Russia, but about finding ways to access underserved communities -- even here in the United States -- with Microsoft solutions.

Ayala will remain headquartered in Redmond. Rosini, who will have his coming-out party at Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference the week of July 10, has had a varied career at the company, starting as a product manager in Argentina to running marketing there, then spending time as vice president in the XBox group. Most recently, he worked as vice president of Asia-Pacific.

"Eduardo's DNA is channel-friendly," Ayala described. "He came from the channel [as a Microsoft distributor], and all of his activities with us have been very channel- and marketing-oriented."

The latest executive shakeup comes on the heels of other partner group maneuvers, including the decision to move U.S. Partner Group head Margo Day to a role running the company's Western field region. She is being replaced by Robert Deshaies, field head for the Eastern region.

Last, Ayala's "second job" as COO at the company's Dynamics applications division will be absorbed back into the group.