The following is an illustration accompanying an article published by Directions on Microsoft, an independent research firm focused exclusively on Microsoft strategy & technology. Each month we make one or more key articles available to non-subscribers.
The Communications Sector group is one of the few sales teams hosted in a product group, rather than in the sales organization. The group, housed within Pieter Knook's Mobile and Embedded Devices business unit, is led by Vice President Maria Martinez. Within this group, three general managers are in charge of sales to telecommunications providers: Harry Patz in North America, Michiel Verhoeven in the Asia-Pacific region, and Rene-Philippe Mantrand in a third region encompassing Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), as well as Latin America. General Manager Pascal Martin focuses on commercial hosting businesses (such as ISPs, application service providers, and Web hosters), who are logical customers for hosted versions of Microsoft server products such as Exchange. General Manager David Sliter is in charge of building solutions for all types of businesses in the communications sector—for example, his group developed the Connected Services Framework (CSF), a set of guidelines and accompanying code that helps telecommunications companies integrate new Web-based services into their existing systems. General Manager Michael O'Hara is in charge of sales, marketing, and strategy to network service providers, network equipment providers, and the media and entertainment sector.
Microsoft has one other vertical sales group with a worldwide mandate—the Public Sector group, headed by Vice President Gerri Elliott, is responsible for selling Microsoft solutions to governments. However, this group is part of Microsoft's broader sales organization, which reports to Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner.
