I designed Microsoft's EA channel in 2001. It's being dismantled in 2026

Submitter here, with quick context. I was the sole designer of Microsoft's Enterprise Software Advisor (ESA) channel architecture between 1998 and 2001. The model converted Microsoft's enterprise licensing channel from a margin-based reseller structure to a direct-billing, advisory-fee structure. It launched as part of Licensing 6.0 in October 2001 and is still referenced by name in Microsoft's FY2025 10-K twenty-four years later. The piece walks through what the original architecture was, why i