schmoozer of corporate CIOs and CEOs. Older than the average Redmond employee, with white hair that's reassuring to traditional corporate execs, he spent the past five years as a kind of roving ambassador to enterprise customers worldwide.
Incidentally, the move into services will tap a substantial recurring revenue stream. In the past, Microsoft promoted itself as a product company that wasn't out to make money from after-sale services. In the quarterly results announced last week, its revenue from consulting and product support grew 38 percent year over year.
Still, McDowell insists that the primary motivation for creating the new global services entity is to enhance the product line and boost sales of the enterprise software. In the latest quarter, enterprise software sales grew 22 percent to $1.25 billion. McDowell projects continued growth of 20 to 30 percent annually.
