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The same week that it announced that Windows Vista would again be delayed—this time until 2007—Microsoft unveiled plans for a sweeping reorganization of its Platforms & Services Division, the part of the company that is charged with both Windows and MSN development and marketing.
Kevin Johnson, co-president of that division, outlined the planned changes in an internal memo, entitled “Aligning PSD for Growth and Agility.”
The text of the memo follows:
From: Kevin Johnson
Sent: Thursday, March 23, 2006 10:01 AM
To: Platforms & Services Division
Cc: Executive Staff
Subject: Aligning PSD for Growth and Agility
Since taking on my new role last September, Ive spent quite a bit of time focused on how best to position the Platforms and Services Division (PSD) for the future. I want to share with you some of that thinking and some new changes we are undertaking today.
We continue to see a strong wave of innovation from Microsoft making its way to market. PSD is a big part of this wave. The recent launches from our Server and Tools business, including SQL Server 2005, Visual Studio 2005, BizTalk 2006 and Windows Server R2, have been well received by customers and partners, and the team is now focused on Longhorn Server. The Windows client team continues to drive forward on Windows Vista with the latest CTP that was released in February. The MSN division continues to deliver new innovation such as Live Mail, Live Messenger, our constantly improving search offerings and many other Windows Live offerings. MSN itself has enabled new channels and content and continues to expand. All of these product and service releases are evidence of a strong wave of innovation and momentum in the market.
Over the last few months, Ive made it a priority to listen to whats on peoples minds. I have had the opportunity to conduct more than one hundred 1:1s and have met with over 2,000 of you at all-hands meetings and roundtables. Not surprisingly some common themes have emerged. Your questions, concerns and feedback, taken together with the dialogue within our leadership team pointed to the need to address three key questions for our division:
What are the next steps for advancing our vision of software + services?
Are there growth opportunities upon which we should be more focused? How can we be more agile?