Microsoft: Strong Signs in “Weak” Q3 Results
Wall Street didn’t like Microsoft’s Q3 results, but VARs certainly should.
The company’s Q3 net income ($2.98 billion) coupled with a tepid outlook for Q4 has spooked investors. Even so, there’s a silver lining for VARs. The Q3 results, announced April 27, revealed that Microsoft SQL Server sales jumped 30 percent compared to the corresponding quarter last year.
For SQL Server VARs, that’s rather impressive. It proves that Microsoft has a winning solution vs. fierce competition from Oracle, IBM DB2 and open-source options such as MySQL. In theory, Oracle and MySQL should be squeezing Microsoft from above and below. But Oracle’s database sales have been largely flat. And the Windows/SQL Server combo continues to hold its own vs. Linux/MySQL.
Still, SQL Server VARs can’t rest on their laurels. You should be climbing up the software stack and specializing in higher-margin applications that run on SQL Server-including ERP and CRM solutions for the mid-market.