How will these changes affect Microsofts workforce?
Johnson: We are creating more than 450 new sales positions to staff these new and expanded initiatives. That’s a 20 percent increase in field sales and marketing resources — our largest ever one-time increase in the U.S. In fact, this increase is greater than all of the combined increases we’ve made over the past several years. That should demonstrate how serious we are about better serving customers and working more closely with partners. We’ll begin transitioning the sales team immediately. While the overall sales force in the U.S. will grow more in FY03 than it has over the past 10 years, we will need to redeploy approximately 115 employees nationwide into positions that map to the sales organization’s enhanced structure. I’m very proud of the people we have hired in the sales organization. They’re incredibly smart and they also understand the fast-changing nature of our industry. They’re fluent with change. They’ll do everything possible to help us implement this change, and we’ll
