News

Reorg: Willis Takes over U.S. Dynamics Team from McCollum

The 16-year Microsoft veteran previously ran the East Region of U.S. SMS&P.

• By Scott Bekker
• December 01, 2008

Dave Willis

McCollum left the company to "spend time with his family and pursue other opportunities both inside and outside the business applications industry," according to a Microsoft spokesperson.

Before being pulled into his new role as vice president for U.S. Dynamics, Willis was vice president for the East Region of the U.S. Small and Midmarket Solutions & Partners (SMS&P) Group. West Region Vice President Margo Day, a former vice president of the U.S. Partner Program, will cover both East and West Regions until a replacement is found for Willis.

Willis, a 16-year Microsoft veteran, will keep working out of the New York offices. He continues to report to Michael Park, corporate vice president, U.S. SMS&P. Willis, whose resume also includes experience in business applications, will also work closely with the Dynamics business group run by Kirill Tatarinov.

According to McCollum's internal e-mail announcing his departure, there will be no other changes to the overall organizational structure, including the U.S. Dynamics field team, which was shaken up in July. He wrote of that shake-up: "Since it was implemented in July, we have received tremendous feedback from our partners and are already seeing positive results due to the change."

The Microsoft spokesperson declined to describe the July 1 reorganization. A source close to Microsoft says the reorganization pulled responsibility for U.S. Dynamics sales from the regular field organization and centralized the business applications sales under McCollum. Willis now holds that more authoritative position, which includes about 60 to 70 employees.

In spite of the reorganization, Dynamics sales growth seems to have slowed since July 1. According to Microsoft's most recent 10-Q filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Microsoft Dynamics customer billings increased 10 percent between July 1 and the end of September. For the same period a year ago, Microsoft Dynamics customer billings were up 18 percent. For all of Microsoft's fiscal year 2008 (ended June 30), Microsoft Dynamics customer billings had been up 21 percent.

McCollum came to Microsoft in September 2004 to establish the sales strategy for the Dynamics unit and its channel partners. His experience in business applications included a senior vice president and general manager role at Best Software Inc., a division of Sage Group plc., and senior management positions at FieldCentrix Inc. and Lawson Software.