鲍尔默留给微软的烙印

    微软成为大型企业市场最大的技术供应商之一的过程中，鲍尔默同样起到了关键作用。如今，微软已经拥有200亿美元的企业业务。而之前并不总是这样，微软最早是一家以消费者为中心的公司。

    纽约专门研究微软的分析公司Blue Badge Insights创始人安德鲁•布拉斯特表示：“人们认为微软凭借Windows和Office在企业级软件市场占有一席之地。不过事实并非如此。事实上，Exchange、Windows Server、SQL Server、SharePoint、System Center和Dynamics CRM都面临过激烈的竞争。但微软不屈不挠。如今，这些产品都已经成为了各领域的重要竞争者，有些甚至处于统治地位。这是微软公司成为企业市场主宰的来源，是在鲍尔默的关注之下缓慢而稳定地建立起来的。”

    鲍尔默表示，转变公众的看法花了许多年时间。“五六年前，人们才开始真正认为我们有能力投身企业市场。现在人们说我们就像是‘天生就是为企业市场而生的’。不过我要说，就在2007还是2008年，仍然有人认为我们根本就不是一家企业服务提供商。”

    这一点尤其令人惊讶，因为1988年盖茨领导下的微软聘用了VMS微型电脑操作系统之父戴夫•卡特勒，来帮助编写全新的企业操作系统Windows NT。

    鲍尔默认为，在这段时期，公司开始逐渐将网络和数据库领域纳入业务范围中，这对他日后管理微软的企业业务提供了重要的指导。他说，在那期间，他获得了顾客对于价格和产品授权的需求与期望的第一手信息。同时，他还与熟悉向企业推销产品的经销伙伴建立了紧密联系。因此，在就任首席执行官后，鲍尔默将技术支持和服务上的投资作为了重点。

    鲍尔默说：“我们只是用一种积极的方式拉丝保持拼劲和决心，借此来来证明我们能够进入企业市场。”而“这（个领域）让我觉得有特别的赞助价值。我为曾经推动过这个进程感到非常高兴。”  

    Ballmer also played a significant role in building Microsoft to become one of the largest technology providers to big businesses. Today, Microsoft maintains a $20 billion enterprise business. This wasn't always the case; Microsoft began as a consumer-hobbyist company.

    "People think of Microsoft as having inherited its enterprise software company chops by virtue of Windows and Office," says Andrew Brust, founder of Blue Badge Insights, a Microsoft-focused analyst firm in New York City. "That's revisionist, though. The truth is that Exchange, Windows Server, SQL Server, SharePoint, System Center, and Dynamics CRM each faced an uphill battle. Microsoft persevered, and now each of these products is either a major player in its category or dominates it altogether. That's the genesis of Microsoft's enterprise juggernaut, and it was built slowly and steadily on Ballmer's watch."

    Ballmer says that it took many years to shift public perception of the company. "It's really only the last five or six years that people say we're right for the enterprise," he says. "Now people say we're like, 'born for the enterprise.' But I would say as recently as about 2007 or 2008, we'd still have people who would say we weren't an enterprise supplier at all."

    That's particularly surprising since, in 1988 under Gates, Microsoft hired Dave Cutler, the celebrated father of the VMS minicomputer operating system, to help write a brand-new operating system for businesses: Windows NT.

    Ballmer cites this period, when the company gradually added networking and database field expertise to its repertoire, as important in informing his later management of Microsoft's enterprise businesses. It's when he gained firsthand exposure to customers' requirements and expectations around pricing and licensing, he says. It's when he forged relationships with reseller partners who knew how to sell to the enterprise. And it's why, as CEO, he made it a priority to invest more in support and services.

    "We just kept hell-bent and determined -- in a good way, in a positive way -- to prove that we could be enterprise-worthy," Ballmer says. And "that's one [area] that I feel particular unique sponsorship for. I feel particularly good about having pushed that."