C2IT Business Solutions: ”En effektiv vej til viden og til services, der løfter forretningen”

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C2IT Business Solutions er en del af C2IT A/S. C2IT Business Solutions har 18 medarbejdere, der udelukkende beskæftiger sig med Microsoft Dynamics NAV. C2IT Business Solutions er stærke generalister, men har særlige kompetencer inden for integration, distribution og time/sagsstyring.

”Vi har været QBS partner siden 2014 og er glade for det,” fortæller Berith Skov, adm. direktør i C2IT Business Solutions og en kvinde med fingeren på pulsen.

”Før den tid havde vi et behov for assistance og information om bl.a. licenser og kampagner, som vi ikke fik opfyldt. I dag som QBS-partner får vi den hjælp, vi har brug for. Herudover har vi via QBS et talerør til Microsoft, og vi har også glæde af samarbejdet med de øvrige partnere, som har behov, der ligner vores.”

En hurtig og effektiv indgang til Microsoft

Berith Skov er glad for, at QBS’ services er fuldstændig målrettet partnernes behov, og at det er muligt at få hjælp og støtte, der gør det daglige arbejde med kunderne lettere: ”Vi kan læne os op ad QBS, fordi de kender vejen ind i Microsoft, der jo er en stor og kompleks organisation. Så vi oplever, QBS gør vores hverdag lettere, fordi vi kan bruge QBS som indgang til Microsoft, når det gælder bl.a. licenser og komplekse spørgsmål.”

Gode priser på god uddannelse

Berith har en god og tæt kontakt til QBS omkring bl.a. uddannelse. ”Via QBS får vi gode priser på uddannelse, hvilket er vigtigt, når man er i et marked, hvor viden er vigtig. Så da vi for nogen tid siden fik nye medarbejdere, var det oplagt at sende dem på uddannelse via en QBS samhandelspartner, hvor de blev godt klædt på.”

Har boostet aktiviteter på sociale medier

Hvor C2IT Business Solutions tidligere følte sig underinformeret om eksempelvis kampagner, har virksomheden i dag en viden, der gør det daglige arbejde lettere. ”Og udover den konkrete viden om kampagner, så er vi glade for at have haft en af vores medarbejdere på kursus om sociale medier. Hun kom hjem med ny og målrettet viden, som var let at gå i gang med at bruge. Så det kursus har boostet vores aktiviteter og synlighed på de sociale medier.”

De bedste priser

C2IT Business Solutions oplever QBS som en god og daglig samarbejdspartner. ”Vi er glade for de services, vi får via QBS. De er relevante for vores forretning, og de forhandler sig til gode priser, som kommer os til gavn” slutter Berith Skov.

We are once again part of a NAV community

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Herke ICT Group is a Dutch reseller of Microsoft Dynamics NAV and CRM. They are situated in the city of Alkmaar, The Netherlands and hold 50 employees. Besides being a reseller they have also developed their own solution for the construction business called BouwVision. They are not only a Microsoft Dynamics partner of Microsoft, but also an Office 365 partner. And they are a partner of Hewlett Packard for hardware.

“Before we joined we did have some doubts”, recalls Karin Buzing, when she talks about the decision of joining QBS group. She is a sales and marketing manager at Herke ICT Group and responsible for maintaining contact with QBS group. “It’s because we were afraid of losing the contacts we had at Microsoft. These contacts were good, because we are a large Microsoft partner since we also resell Office 365. But as far as NAV was concerned we weren’t big enough for becoming a managed partner of Microsoft. This means you have your own contact for support and questions.”

Becoming a QBS partner

It took a while until June 2015 before the organisation did decide to join. Karin Buzing: “It was quite a lengthy process. We first visited a couple of QBShare events and also made some financial considerations. What won us over, were the QBS services. QBSelect, the training courses, we could see the value in those. We were also drawn to the feeling of community. By joining QBS group we were part of the NAV community again and as far as we were concerned we had lost that feeling in recent years. For us, that played an important role in the decision to join QBS group eventually.”

Community

The feeling of community and the contacts Herke ICT Group has with other partners really pay off. Karin Buzing: “We already knew some other QBS group partners, but since we have joined ourselves the cooperation has intensified. We exchange leads with other partners. If we receive a lead which we can’t do much with, for example if it’s for a particular vertical, we pass it on to another partner who can. The same happens the other way around. ”

Cloud SureStep

Karin enrolled in the Cloud SureStep training which is offered by QBS group: “We have already come a long way with ‘the cloud’, we offer Office 365 products through the cloud and we are going to do the same with our BouwVision solution. Therefore the content of this training course was not entirely new to me, but it did confirm to me we are on the right track and it has provided me with some new insights which have accelerated the process.”

Pleasant contacts

Karin describes the contacts she has with QBS group as ‘pleasant’. Karin: “Once a month we have a meeting with our Partner Account Manager at QBS group. With her we discuss our business and business plan. The conversations we have with her are not just about the number of licenses we are planning to sell, she really helps us. It’s just great to have someone you can call, who calls you back and who sorts things out for you.”

Order Directions EMEA 2016 Business Report now

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Being a Dynamics NAV partner in todays market is like dancing on a volcano. The recent announcements around Dynamics 365 will make this effect even stronger! These days, Dynamics NAV partners face the biggest challenges ever in their companies history.

The combination of cloud, subscription pricing, new types of competitors, continuous innovation and the changing buying behavior invite business owners and their shareholders to explicitly step out of their comfort zones.

These trends call for new entrepreneurship, new business models and ongoing change. The question however is whether the current partner channel is ready, able, and willing to do so. If you want to read and learn more about this, order the Directions EMEA Busniess report now.

In this Business Report we have covered not only the keynotes at Directions EMEA 2016, but also various technical, functional and business sessions:

  • The business strategies around NAV 2017 and Dynamics 365
  • Dynamics 365 – Product, Positioning and Pre-sales
  • Dynamics NAV 2017 – core messages
  • Dynamics NAV 2017 – miscellaneous
  • Extensions

On top of that exclusive interviews with:

  • Paul White, worldwide Dynamics SMB Lead
  • Marko Perisic, R&D manager for NAV 2017 and Dynamics 365
  • Lotte Cordt Ihlemann and Jennifer Dorsey, Senior Marketing managers for Dynamics NAV

This unique and valuable report is bought by leading Dynamics partners from all over the world.

Can you afford to miss on this important business report?  Order now

10 TIPS to improve your website

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In today’s “new world”, Marketing is the new sales. Today, we all live in a disruptive world. Are you aware of all the relevant changes in the (international) markets for business solutions? And the impact this all has on your business, your proposition, your processes and your competencies? Many Microsoft Dynamics partners are working on ideas how to best setup a successful recurring app business in this fast evolving context.

On the vendor side we see an extremely tough competition, new cloud-based competitors and rapid changing business models. But there are also many changes on the buyer side! Your prospects prefer to stay anonymous during a big and still growing part of their customer journey. This has a huge impact on both your marketing and sales processes! Your name will not be on the longlist anymore without an impressive and easy to find website. And you definitely have to adjust your sales processes in order to stay competitive!

On top of this changing buyer’s behavior we also see that modern prospects have developed different preferences. So in order to stay successful, you need to be able to deliver your low(er) risk solutions faster, cheaper and subscription based.

At QBS group we’re happy to share some simple, yet effective tips to improve the effectiveness of your website. And most of these tip can be implemented per today.

After Directions EMEA 2016, Microsoft Dynamics NAV partners face crucial decisions on their future

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As a longtime Microsoft-observer with a perspective geared toward Microsoft Dynamics, I’d like to share some of my impressions of the important trends from this year’s Directions EMEA 2016 in Prague.

This article is based on a more detailed analysis from in this year’s Directions 2016 Business Report for Dynamics partners.

For me these are among the most important stories and questions coming out of Directions EMEA 2016:

  • Being a Dynamics NAV partner in todays’ market is like dancing on a volcano. The recent announcements around Dynamics 365 will make this effect even stronger! These days, Dynamics NAV partners face the biggest challenges ever in their companies’ history. The combination of cloud, subscription pricing, new types of competitors, continuous innovation and the changing buying behavior force business owners and their shareholders to explicitly step out of their comfort zones. These trends call for new entrepreneurship, new business models and ongoing change. The question is of course if the current partner channel is ready, able, and willing to do so.
  • According to Microsoft, all Dynamics NAV partners need to transform their businesses in order to stay relevant. However, many partners still have not even started this process – not with action and sometimes not even in their minds! Paul White, who is worldwide responsible for Microsoft Dynamics in the SMB market, forecasts that only 20 percent of the current NAV partner community will eventually make this transition. So partners who have not started their transformation process yet should really hurry in order not to be left behind.
  • A relevant question is if today’s NAV channel is mentally prepared to make this change. After all, the majority of the current business owners started their companies in the early- to mid-nineties, when they were 35 to 40 years old. Well, if you add 20 to 25 years on top of that, you’ll understand that many owners today focus more on risk reduction and pre-retirement rather than on starting a whole new business line.

  • In Prague, Microsoft announced the so called ‘AND strategy’ for her partners. This basically is the advice to partners to continue their NAV projects business, while at the same time building a new, incremental cloud business, most likely in a separate unit with:
    • A separate team;
    • A business model based on less license margin and smaller services revenues;
    • A focus on winning new customers;
    • A lower cost profile;
    • And a different mindset.
  • The Dynamics NAV product has made a great revival! Only a few years ago the future of the product was openly questioned. In Prague, however, we all felt the excitement and saw that Dynamics NAV is back again! A few observations: the launch of the new NAV 2017 version, an impressive stream of additional innovations around NAV, 100 extra NAV developers in the R&D teams, a continuously growing number of NAV customers and finally NAV was selected as one of the cornerstones of Dynamics 365 via “Project Madeira”
  • Paul White presented the audience with Microsoft’s case for the attractiveness of the SaaS markets. Today, these SaaS markets are still smaller than the on-premise markets. However, the growth rates of SaaS solutions (up to 12 percent year over year) are much higher than the growth rates in the on-premise markets (only 1 percent YoY).
  • Microsoft explained her top four priorities for the NAV partner channel:
    • Helping partner to drive down the Cost of Sales by shifting from a sales oriented approach to a marketing oriented approach
    • Helping partners to improve the lifetime value of their customers by setting smart pricing and packaging and a limitation of the churn rates
    • Channel development for Dynamics 365. Microsoft expects to find new Dynamics 365 partners in the Office 365 channel, amongst Hosting Service Providers, BPO partners via accountants, traditional Dynamics ERP partners, and traditional ISVs
    • Exploring the ISV opportunity. Microsoft plans to make a bigger effort to help ISVs reach international scale.
  • In order to be successful in the “cloud first” world, NAV partners need to expand their ERP-only portfolio with solutions like Dynamics CRM, Office 365, Azure, Power BI, Flow, and Cortana Intelligence Suite. On top of that they need to differentiate their offerings more than ever before. And finally, they need to market, sell, deliver, and support digitally. Again, these are all huge changes for the majority of the partner channel!
  • Either via on-premise or via cloud, Microsoft is still focused on reaching the 200,000 NAV customer milestone in 2019. Achieving this goal would really be a piece of art! It means that the second 100.000 customers will be recruited in only 5 years’ time, where it took Navision and Microsoft over 20 years to win the first 100,000 customers.
  • Lots of oxygen was taken out of the room in the various sessions on Dynamics 365. On the one hand this was logical since that solution can be seen as the future successor of Dynamics NAV. On the other hand, it was not logical since the general impression is that only 20 percent of the current NAV channel will be able to transform their companies to a successful cloud business. But where else should Microsoft present her new solution?
  • Rather than just focusing on the functions and features of Dynamics 365, partners definitely need to pay attention to the business side of this new solution. What does it take to make a success out of Dynamics 365? And what changes must the average NAV partner make in order to become successful?
    Dynamics 365 will not be part of the Microsoft Dynamics pricelist. This new solution will only be sold via the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program. Partners can choose between CSP Direct (aka Tier 1) or work with a Value Added Distributor in CSP Indirect (Tier 2) arrangement. In the coming weeks and months every Dynamics NAV partner has to make a choice between these two options.
  • The pricing models for Dynamics 365 are quite different from the current NAV subscription pricing. For example, there will not be a tiered model anymore that provides higher margins at higher volumes. Nor there will be bottom-up pricing from Microsoft to the partner. In contrast, Microsoft will dictate a ‘street price’ on which partners get a margin. All these changes are due to the standards of the CSP program. The days of the Dynamics teams making her own rules and policies within the Microsoft organization are gone forever!
  • The organization committee of Directions EMEA had many reasons to be proud. They reported 1,772 attendees representing 588 partners from 52 countries from all over the world. That’s an all-time record!
  • The 2017 edition of DIRECTIONS EMEA will take place on October 4th – 6th in Madrid. It will be the 10th anniversary of the EMEA event, so probably reason enough for a small party.

QBS group helps you to really understand CSP!

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The new Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program is going to play an important role in every Microsoft Dynamics partner business. This program is considered as the future of Microsoft licensing.

As from November 1st, 2016, Office 365, CRM Online and Azure will only be available via CSP! Also Dynamics 365 can only be sold over CSP. So reason enough for you to learn more about CSP, right?

Microsoft’s worldwide Dynamics SMB Lead Paul White even advised the many Dynamics NAV partners that will attend DIRECTIONS EMEA this week “not to leave Prague before you know everything about CSP.”

Basically, Dynamics partners have two options. Either you become a so called Direct CSP (aka Tier 1), or you select the Indirect CSP option (aka Tier 2) and cooperate with a Direct CSP. Just like QBS group. 😉

Interested to learn more about the requirements and benefits behind these two options? Want to understand which option works best for you? Read more about the option Direct or Indirect

Or if you directly want to start working together with an Indirect CSP start here.

Directions EMEA: it’s almost here!

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This year QBS group is a Gold Sponsor of Directions EMEA, the biggest event for the NAV Community, taking place in Prague from 12 to 14 October.

We are there with our QBS team to inform Dynamics NAV partners about our services and added value. Please visit our booth at G1.

We will also deliver a number of presentations on Directions EMEA, you can find more information here. Afterwards, Guus Krabbenborg will write a Directions EMEA report. We will inform you about that through our newsletter.
Are you going to Directions EMEA and do you want to know what to expect? Read Guus Krabbenborg’s preview blog for all the highlights.

To Guus Krabbenborg’s Directions EMEA 2016 preview blog

Which sales competencies do you need for success in a cloud world?

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Today’s buyers of business applications buy in a different way. During their online research, they try to avoid human interaction as long as they can. And in the meantime they prefer self-service and self-education. As a result, the quality and attractiveness of your website decides more and more your chance to get a position on the shortlist.

So in today’s online world, marketing is the new sales. But what does this mean for the sales role? And what should sales people focus on in order to stay business relevant?

In this edition of QBS Talks you’ll learn which competencies you need to master to be successful in the cloud world. We will give you an overview of seven competency levels for both sellers and their buyers. And discuss which levels are “under risk” and will be taken over by modern websites. We will also give you practical advice on how to develop your personal competencies so you will have even more added value for you customers.

At the end of this 30 minutes webinar you will walk away inspired, with new ideas and valuable action points that will help you become an even better sales professional!

What Dynamics NAV Partners Can Expect from Directions EMEA 2016

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DIRECTIONS is the annual event for Microsoft Dynamics NAV partners. This event is owned and organized by NAV partners for NAV partners. And that makes it pretty different from typical Microsoft events like WPC! Being a Dynamics NAV partner in todays’ market is like dancing on a volcano. And the recent announcement of the new Dynamics 365 solution will make this effect even stronger!

There are two editions of DIRECTIONS. The US edition took place on September 25th till 28th in Chandler, Arizona. The EMEA edition picked Prague as their 2016 location and will be organized from October 12th till 14th. Both editions will book an all-time high partner registration. The organization committee’s reported that they’ve registered over 700 partners for the US edition and no less than over 1,400 partners for Prague. This last number is expected to increase to over 1,700!
This article aims to give you an overview on what Dynamics NAV partners can expect of the EMEA events. And where they should put their focus on regarding the sessions.

  • To start with – Dynamics NAV is making a great revival these days. Only a few years ago there were questions regarding Microsoft’s commitment to NAV. In those days, many Microsoft people considered Dynamics AX as their favorite solution. This uncertainty of course had an impact on the atmosphere in the NAV channel. Over the last two years, however, this has completely changed. Dynamics NAV is back again! There is an impressive stream of innovations and new energy on the R&D front since Marko Perisic runs that important domain. The number of NAV customers keeps growing, and NAV is an important cornerstone of Dynamics 365 via “Project Madeira”. And Microsoft recently recruited about 100 extra NAV developers in Denmark.
  • Directions EMEA is the event where Microsoft will launch Dynamics NAV 2017. At the same event, Microsoft will also launch her brand new Dynamics 365 Business Edition Financials solution (formerly known as “Project Madeira”) for the first four European markets. The agenda offers all kind of functional and technical sessions for both solutions. So these two messages will create an interesting attention split.
  • According to Microsoft, all Dynamics NAV partners need to transform their businesses in order to stay relevant. However, many partners have not started this process at all! Paul White, worldwide general manager for NAV, predicted during WPC 2016 this summer that only 20 percent of the NAV partner community will eventually make this transition. So partners who have not started yet should really focus on the sessions that can help them to transform as soon as possible!
  • In order to be successful in the Cloud First world, NAV partners have to expand their ERP-only based portfolio with solutions like Dynamics CRM, Office 365, Power BI, Flow and Cortana. On top of that they need to differentiate their offerings more than ever before. And finally, they need to market, sell, deliver and support digitally. These are all huge changes for the majority of the partner channel. So it makes sense to attend the specific sessions on these topics as well.
  • Rather than just focusing on the functions and features of Dynamics 365, partners should also pay attention to the business side of this new solution. What does it take to make a success out of Dynamics 365? Are NAV partners able to sell it? And if so, what changes must the average NAV partner make in order to become successful?
  • Marketing, selling, implementing and supporting Dynamics 365 demands for a different approach compared with traditional Dynamics NAV projects. In order to be successful, most partners will need to see Dynamics 365 as a whole new chapter in their businesses. With less license margin, smaller services revenues and cheaper delivery people with a different mindset. Partners should look at this event for guidance on how to organize and plan on these challenges.
  • Dynamics 365 will not be part of the Microsoft Dynamics pricelist. Instead, this new solution will only be sold via the CSP model – the Cloud Service Provider program. Partners have a choice between becoming CSP themselves (so called ‘Direct’ model) or work together with a Value Added Distributor (‘Indirect’). Dynamics NAV partners should definitely not leave the event before they have a good understanding of these programs and an idea for their best future choice.
  • Extensions are the way to go for both Dynamics NAV and Dynamics 365 partners. As an illustration, Marko Perisic stated at WPC 2016: “The answer is extensions – so what exactly is your question?” Microsoft announced that it will release a new and much better version of Extensions at Directions. Due to the crucial role that Extensions will play in the near future, it’s very important for any partner visiting Directions to pay special attention to this topic.
  • The focus on Dynamics 365 could also strike prospective buyer as having negative side effects. Especially with the announced phased introduction. It will be interesting to see what ideas Microsoft will introduce to avoid this.
  • Starting in FY17 we’ve seen lots of personnel changes and also new people in many local Microsoft teams. It is interesting to note that most of them don’t have Dynamics in their job titles anymore, but the new term BizApps. Is that a possible start of a re-branding?
  • For the first time the organization developed conference paths to make it easier for partners to find the right content. And to avoid content overlap. These paths have a role orientation for the US edition and more a product orientation for the EMEA edition. There is a reason for the careful organization: the EMEA edition contains of 145 sessions, roundtables and workshops. And the expo hall is completely sold out with 60 booths. The US edition tops that with 161 sessions!
  • Now that Microsoft has decided to finally integrate her different workloads into the new Dynamics 365 offering, the question comes up of what this all means for single product oriented events like DIRECTIONS and eXtreme (Dynamics CRM). Should they integrate as well? Partners can expect some indications on the future of these events.

See you in Prague!

Guus Krabbenborg

Important ERP lessons that CEO’s can learn from “naive” students

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I’ve delivered a guest lecture at the Haagsche Hogeschool for a group of 120 Business Economics students in the last year of their study. The topic was Risk Management in ERP projects.

My first questions in this lecture was to define the top-5 success factors of a given ERP implementation. For most CEO’s and Business Owners a really difficult question! To my surprise, the students came up with some great answers.

These were the outcomes of this exercise:

  1. “The organization should be motivated to achieve success! And this starts of course with the board and the senior management team.”
  2. “The board must explain in plain and simple language WHY the new system will be implemented in order to create enough urgency for the inevitable change process.”
  3. “The organization should allow the employees enough time to be trained and to get familiar with the new system.”
  4. “The organization must strive to find only one, well integrated system in order to prevent sub-systems and everlasting integrations, and to limit complexity.”
  5. “The system of choice needs to be implemented with limited or no customizations at all in order to stay agile and to survive in today’s disruptive world.”

Pretty good answers, right?

Wished your organization would have implemented your current systems this way? 😉

Now here’s some of the reasons why I couldn’t sleep last night.

Why do masses of CEO’s and Business Owners all over the world fail to answer this question correctly where students easily give me the right answers?

Are these students so naive? And is our day-to-day practice so complex? Or are they able to see things simple and clear because they don’t know (yet) what internal politics are. Because they don’t have to defend the interests of their departments (sub-optimization). And because there is no job-protection in play? Or is it simply because they understand that today’s companies can only survive with great IT while you are distracted and swallowed up by your daily activities?

The one lesson we all can learn from this experience is to prepare yourself well if you’re planning to select and implement any new system. And it may even be a good idea to invite some “naive students” to help you find the answers to the toughest questions.

Making winners out of users

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Do you want to bring more value to your customers? Do you want to have more arguments in place to justify an upgrade?

The traditional Microsoft Dynamics NAV partner channel has for many years focused on providing solutions for small and medium sized companies around the world. The focus for these implementations have in most cases been:

  • Customize the solution to fit the individual customer or organization
  • Define and create integration with external components or applications (i.e. webshop)
  • Deploy selected third party add-ons to enhance the solution (i.e. JetReports)
  • Test, training and implementation support

The majority of these implementations are centered around Microsoft Dynamics NAV and the features and functions coming from this.

What about the users?

The most valuable part of running a company is and have always been the employees and whatever tasks that they are handling in the business. Let me give you an example; We all know that it is important for a craftsman to have the most powerful and reliable tools available to perform his job. Power tools and screw drivers come in many forms and shapes – all designed to a specific purpose.

IT users have for many decades suffered from the lack of possibilities to adapt the user experience to their specific needs generating frustration and time consuming processes.

Today the modern IT user strives to get the most benefit out of the applications they are using. Yes, applications – not just Microsoft Dynamics NAV – they actually use other tools to perform their jobs. As a modern IT supplier, we need to take this into consideration as well.

In this Talk you will learn why we need to put users in front of their applications and provide the overview they need to obtain their business goals and help them perform their daily tasks. People are different and need different tools – one size doesn’t fit all.

QBS group appoints former Microsoft SMB global partner sales lead Michael Hartmann as CCO

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QBS group (“QBS”), part of The IT Channel Company (“TICC”), in Leusden appoints Michael Hartmann as Chief Commercial Officer per October 1st 2016.

For the coming years QBS expects a strong growth, both in footprint and services portfolio in which Michael’s experience and background will be of great value. Michael Hartmann (54) has extensive experience in the ICT sector and had several leading management positons at Microsoft. Prior to joining TICC Michael was the European Middle East and Africa Timezone Lead for Microsoft’s SMB business as well as the Global Lead for Dynamics SMB Partners within Microsoft, recently. In this role his objective was to double the channel sales capacity for CRM Online in SMB, activate the commercial distribution and indirect CSP channel for Business Applications and building the Dynamics SMB teams.

About The IT Channel Company

The IT Channel Company was founded in 2012 as the result from the merger between ICT service providers Conceptsales and Partner Master Class. Since the start in 2012 TICC has experienced a stormy development and will reach a revenue of € 55 million in 2016. Within TICC QBS takes care of the distribution of the Microsoft Dynamics product range in Western Europe. QBS operates in 15 countries in Western Europe, serving more than 350 partners. For the coming years a solid growth is expected. QBS supports its partners with services in areas such as marketing, lead generation, sales support and consultancy, partner and customer care, hosting solutions, training and coaching. Last year QBS introduced the OneBizz proposition; a modular cloud application for SMEs with amongst others Office365 (Outlook, SharePoint, Yammer, Skype for Business), Microsoft Dynamics CRM and ERP.

WPC 2016 Notebook: A look back at 11 big stories for Microsoft Dynamics partners

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As a longtime WPC-observer with a perspective geared toward Microsoft Dynamics, I’d like to share some of my initial impressions on this year’s WPC 2016 in Toronto and highlight some of the important trends you’ll find more detailed analysis of in this year’s WPC Business Report for Dynamics partners.

These are among the most important stories – and questions – coming out of WPC 2016:

  • The overall focus on this WPC event was on Digital Transformation.Important for both big and small companies. For companies both in mature countries as in emerging countries. And of course also important for both Microsoft and her partner organizations!
  • Every single partner should consider where they are today in this transformation process. The ones that haven’t started yet have no time to lose. And the ones that have already made a start should consider speeding up. Microsoft tends to support the more innovative and cloud-ready partners over the remaining partners. So make sure you’re don’t get left alone!
  • Microsoft is broadly perceived as being back at the top of the industry.During the event, we saw an impressive stream of innovations and new products. Over the last week, many people talked about Microsoft as “the world’s biggest start-up”. Or as Tim Campo, CIO of Facebook, explained about his company’s selection of Office 365 for their 13.000 employees worldwide: “Microsoft got cool again”.
  • The Dynamics products made a remarkable revival! Only 4 years ago during WPC 2011 in Los Angeles, CEO Steve Ballmer felt himself forced to state that “the Microsoft Dynamics products were strategically important” in order to exorcize rumors on a potential close. This year, the very first thing Satya Nadella mentioned in his keynote was Dynamics 365.
  • The announcement of Dynamics 365 was no coincidence. In all sessions and presentations you could see, hear and almost feel that many walls between the former silo’s within the Microsoft corporation are coming down. Or even have been demolished already. The One Microsoft ambition is no longer a dream – it’s right here!
  • Dynamics 365 is shaping up to be a modern end-to-end cloud business solution based on ERP, CRM, Office 365 and Azure. The solution architecture will introduce a new Common Data Model for integrated apps and incorporates Power BI, Cortana Intelligence and Internet of Things (IoT) technology. This new solution comes in two flavors: a Business/SMB edition for 10 to 250 employees and an Enterprise edition for 250+ employees.
  • So 13 years after the acquisitions of Great Plains and Navision Software the Dynamics Group is now finally incorporated in the Microsoft organization. Direct impact: less distinction between Dynamics CRM and Dynamics ERP, and Microsoft Dynamics as a whole integrates ever closer with the rest of the Cloud and Enterprise organization.
  • Independent Software Vendors (ISV’s) play a more important role in the Microsoft strategies than ever before. ISVs have always been extremely important in the Microsoft Dynamics ecosystem. Microsoft continues to send the message that it believes that ISV’s are key for success in both industries and workloads.
  • Regarding the “stand-alone” ERP products, Microsoft confirmed that AX, GP, NAV and SL will continue to be further developed, updated and supported as ever before.
  • At WPC 2014 the Partner Account Manager (PAM) role expired and was replaced by the new Partner Sales Executive (PSE) role. This time Microsoft decided to replace the PSE role again by a new role called Partner Channel Development Manager – in short PCDM. Other than the PAM and PSE in the near past, the PCDM will have a focus on recruiting new partners. Interesting of course is to see what this means for you as a partner.
  • The Cloud Service Provider (CSP) program is the basis for all Microsoft Dynamics partners to do their business in the foreseeable future. The importance of understanding CSP was stressed in nearly every single session. So every partner should understand what CSP is and how they can benefit from it.

Guus Krabbenborg’s twelfth annual Business Report from WPC is available now! More information on how to get your copy can be found here.

What is the Microsoft CSP Program?

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In order to be successful in a Cloud first, Mobile first world, Microsoft and her partners needed not just other solutions and marketing policies, but also modernized licensing policies.

That’s why Microsoft came up with the so called Cloud Solution Provider program – in short CSP. This program helps Microsoft partner become their customers’ trusted advisors. By using CSP, partners are able to own and manage the end-to-end relationship with their customers.

Dynamics strategy officer Jeff Edwards named CSP “The license model of the future”. It’s also important for all of us to realize that CSP is a partner led model. As a matter of fact, Microsoft did some experiments with direct sales. This experiment was based on BPOS, the precursor of Office 365. However, the results of this try-out was that direct deals led to financial loss and poor customer satisfaction scores. For Microsoft another confirmation that the indirect model with partners is the best model for the company!

The main challenge for Microsoft cloud partners is to combine, package, sell, deliver and support all the value of the Microsoft stack into attractive and repeatable all-in solutions for the customers in their targeted markets. CSP heavily supports that process.

Microsoft works with two versions of CSP, called Tier 1 for the direct channel and Tier 2 for the indirect channel. This is shown in the slide below.

Dynamics partner have to choose at least one of the two models. For AX partners Tier 1 even roughly is the only recommended approach. Or partners can take both models.

Partners who select the indirect channel need to find themselves an Indirect Provider that can support them in their daily business. All the big international Microsoft distributors (“disti’s”) are offering indirect CSP to partners today. However, for Dynamics partners it’s pretty important to also look at the knowledge that these providers have from the Dynamics processes and products.

More and more Microsoft cloud solutions can only be sold through the CSP model. Dynamics 365 for example will not become part of the Dynamics pricelist, but will only be available via CSP. An extra reason for all Dynamics partners to learn more from CSP, make a choice and sign up!

Want to resell Microsoft Cloud solutions via a Indirect CSP? As a Microsoft Reseller you can start here

The Most Important Takeaways from WPC 2016

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Watch the recording of the webinar on 19 July 2016 by Guus Krabbenborg.

Want to learn more? Download our WPC 2016 Business Report.

The WPC 2016 Business Report

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From 10 to 14 July the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference was held in Toronto Canada. WPC is the most important annual Microsoft partner event. QBS group was there to hear from first hand about Microsoft’s plans for FY 17 and beyond and we have once again written our unique and well known WPC Business Report.

The report features broad, insightful, and independent business reporting on the happenings at WPC especially for Microsoft Dynamics partners. The report, which consists of 46 pages of need-to-know information, is bought by leading Dynamics partners from all over the world. It is available now.

About WPC 2016

Microsoft is cool again! Over the last 2,5 years under the new CEO Satya Nadella, the company made a remarkable transition to a modern and open vendor who improved both its vision, leadership and innovation. As a result, this 2016 edition will always be remembered as the event where Microsoft announced her first real One Microsoft solution: Dynamics 365. Over time, this new solution will have a big impact on the existing Dynamics partner channels, be it AX, CRM, GP, NAV or SL and its customers. This WPC 2016 Business Report covers not only the announcement, made at WPC in Toronto. But it also gives you a detailed impression of the impact this launch will have on the individual partner businesses. Now and in the near future.

Index of the report

  1. Management summary
  2. Justification
  3. General impressions
  4. What were the messages of Satya Nadella?
  5. Partner transformation to the cloud
  6. The Microsoft CSP Program
  7. Satya’s blog on Dynamics 365
  8. Dynamics 365, Microsofts’ new end-to-end cloud business solution
  9. Exclusive interview with Marko Perisic: “SaaS alert in the SMB Market!”
  10. Exclusive interview with Paul White: “It is time for a home match!”
  11. What does the Microsoft partner of the future looks like?
  12. Conclusions and recommendations
  13. Access to the presentations
  14. Partner Conference 2017
  15. About the author

Author

The WPC 2016 Business Report is written by Guus Krabbenborg, co-founder of QBS group. This year’s report will be his twelfth annual WPC publication.

What did Dynamics partners say about previous WPC reports?

This is what some of your colleague partners said about this report:

  • “We are a loyal purchaser of these WPC reports. Where in the world can you find a solid, structured and well-informed second opinion for so little money? We always discuss the report in our board meeting. Partner Master Class and QBS help us to stay alert!”
  • “This is a great report service! It contains lots of background information that helps us better understand how to translate Microsoft’s strategies to our daily business.”
  • “I’ve only recently started in the Dynamics channel. Thanks to this WPC report I was up to date in no time of the various Microsoft strategies, her product policies and the trends in the Dynamics partner channel”

The average buyer’s satisfaction score for this report over the last 5 years was 8,6 on a scale from 1 to 10.

Buy now

Partners of QBS group will receive the WPC 2016 Business Report at no additional cost, as it is part of their membership.

For non QBS Microsoft partners the report is available for only € 400,- exclusive of VAT per partner company.

Do you want to know all about Microsoft’s plans for FY 17 and the opportunities these create for your business? Then order this report now.

Yes, I’d like to buy the Business Report WPC 2016 (for non QBS partners only).

QBS group receives prestigious Microsoft 2016 Inner Circle Award

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For the 3rd year in a row QBS group is awarded Inner Circle for Microsoft Dynamics.

For the 3rd consecutive year, Microsoft has awarded QBS group with the prestigious membership of the Inner Circle for Microsoft Dynamics. The 2016 Microsoft Dynamics Inner Circle honours an elite group of 60 of the most strategic Microsoft partners across the globe, showing high commitment to customers reflected in their business performance and high level of sales achievement. Being a member of the Inner Circle illustrates a partner’s commitment to customer satisfaction and signifies the highest quality for delivery and support of Microsoft Dynamics products.

Frank Holland, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Business Solutions Sales & Partners: “Each year we recognize and honor Microsoft Dynamics partners from around the world for exemplary business performance. These award-winning partners represent the top 1% of Microsoft Dynamics partners in terms of sales performance, but their critical impact on the success of our shared customers is what truly stands out. Microsoft is honored to recognize QBS group for their achievements this past year and for their dedication and support of Microsoft Dynamics solutions.”

Joop van Voorthuijsen, CEO QBS group says: “I am extremely proud that we have succeeded in receiving this prestigious award for the 3rd year in a row. This award means a lot to us and is the result of great achievements by both our partners and our team. It is a collective result that our group has reached during our journey as Microsoft Dynamics Master VAR. QBS group is growing rapidly, we now have over 350 Microsoft Dynamics partners in 15 countries. This award will give a boost to our organisation, and is a clear evidence that the strategy is showing success. It also is a great foundation for further success for both our partners and our own organisation.”

What can Microsoft Dynamics partners expect from WPC 2016?

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Microsoft expects more than 15,000 participants from over 150 countries at this year’s Worldwide Partner Conference. This event will be held from July 10th to 14th in Toronto. For the first time in the history of the event, the Worldwide Partner Conference is sold out. That is a pretty remarkable shift, since last years’ WPC in Orlando was visited moderately. The Dynamics eco-system is traditionally well represented in this event.

What can the Dynamics partner community expect from this new WPC edition? This year, it’s neither the various Dynamics products, nor the cloud delivery model that will take all the partner’s attention. No, it’s probably the direction and the speed in the business transformation, both for Microsoft and for the partner organizations themselves, that will be one of the central Dynamics themes.

First of all, we see some interesting changes on Corp level.

Many partners look forward to hear CEO Satya Nadella’s keynote presentation, most probably scheduled for day 1. Since the start in his new role some two years ago, Nadella changed Microsoft from a company that was perceived as “defensive, always too late and with a lack of vision” into a “sexy company that operates in the front line of the ICT industry”.

Nadella recently was successful with the acquisition of LinkedIn – the largest business network in the world. It was a strategy that was in line with the failed attempt to buy Salesforce.com last year. In the meantime, Nadella had to deal with the negative (financial!) consequences of Ballmer’s failed Nokia acquisition just before he resigned.

Second eye catcher is the upcoming departure Chief Operations Officer Kevin Turner, often named as an important candidate to succeed Steve Ballmer as CEO. His departure was indeed expected two years ago, since Turner was perceived as part of the Ballmer camp. However, he managed to survive. Interesting question is what the impact is of the foreseen decentralization of this COO task over 5 different people going further. Most partners will miss Turner’s provocative keynote speeches, that over the last 10 WPC’s often were perceived as one of the highlights.

Third Corp topic is the Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) partner program. Microsoft announced that it will present a completely new version of this program, that will be in line with today’s Cloud first, Mobile first world. Question here is how these changes will impact the Dynamics partner communities.

But of course there are some interesting issues specific for the Dynamics area.

The first one is the move from isolated solutions towards full stack solutions. This is a topic that has been discussed for many years, also under the Ballmer regime. However, over the last two years under Nadella we’ve seen more tangible progress in this domain than in the 10 years before.

This move has a huge impact on the Microsoft organization. On the development plans and attitude for example. But also on product plans and release policies, on the local teams in the subsidiaries and on the PSE role as point of contact to the partners. Just to name a few. Dynamics partners should expect to get answers on their many questions in this domain.

Another important topic is product positioning. As the ‘stand-alone’ ERP and CRM solutions are expected to disappear over time, there will be a need for a modernized positioning of the Microsoft solutions. We’ve already seen various initiatives around the domains ‘Customer Engagement’ (formal CRM) and ‘Intelligent Back-office (formal ERP). This all will have a great impact on Microsoft’s efforts in their marketing. Hence, it will of course also mean additional work for the partners. How will they position themselves and their solutions effectively? What is the impact on their marketing? And more specific on their websites?

Another important question is what the next phase of Microsoft’s Cloud first, Mobile first mantra will be. There have been rumors that, starting in FY17, Microsoft will exclusively support cloud partners over the ones that still offer on premise variants. Even despite the risk of losing the opportunity! It’s interesting to see if this idea will be confirmed during this WPC. If so, then many partners who are in the re-active mode today will feel themselves forced to transform their business as soon as possible.

In the last week Microsoft announced her new solution set called Dynamics365– a cloud service for business apps. Including a Microsoft AppSource app store to support it. Based on what we’ve heard and seen so far this is a combined solution based on O365, Dynamics CRM and Dynamics ERP combined with Azure. The ERP part even has two favors: “Business” for SMB customers and “Enterprise” for larger deployments. Does this fully cover the ‘project Madeira’ initiative that was launched earlier this year? What is the impact on the on premise solutions for CRM, AX, GP, NAV and SL? Where will Microsoft put her focus energy and R&D money moving forward? And which of the various options should partner companies dive into? These are just some of the questions partners will look forward to find answers on the WPC event.

Guus Krabbenborg’s twelfth annual Business Report from WPC is available now! More information on how to get your copy can be found here.

Microsoft Partner Network changes competencies (MPN Evolution)

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Microsoft is changing its program for a large number of competencies (MPN Evolution). For now, this doesn’t affect Microsoft Dynamics NAV partners having an active ERP competency, but it does have consequences for other competencies such as CRM.

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You can read more about MPN Evolution on Microsoft Partner Network. There’s also a tool there with which you can see what the consequences are for your organisation and what steps to take to keep your competencies active.

More information about MPN Evolution

Microsoft WPC 2016: Webinar and Business report

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From 10 to 14 July the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference is once again being held, this time in Toronto Canada. WPC is the most important annual Microsoft partner event. Of course, QBS group will be there to hear from first hand about Microsoft’s plans for FY 16 and beyond.

We will inform you about WPC in two ways. Firstly, in a webinar on Tuesday 19 July – only five days after the event. In it, Guus Krabbenborg will update you on the most important plans of Microsoft for Dynamics partners. Register for this webinar now.

Secondly, we will also be writing our well known WPC Business Report this year, which will be available in the midst of August. This valuable report will be available for you as a QBS partner for free as part of your partnership with us. Non-QBS partners can receive the report on payment of a charge. For his report, Guus Krabbenborg has planned to do interviews with Paul White (Lead for Dynamics NAV) and Marko Perisic (R&D manager Dynamics NAV).