Stand and Deliver, your customers will be mine!

/dans , , , , , /par

Upgrade your Customers NOW! Or Someone else WILL.

One of the biggest risks for any business, particularly business software vendors, is the potential loss of customers. Customers are your bread and butter and they are what helps keep your businesses ticking, the lights on and gets you that recurring revenue that helps you survive.

So, if you want to keep hold of those customers then you need to make them feel special. You have to make sure that they are not tempted away by some flash looking ‘dandy highwayman’, who we’re all too scared to mention, who spends lots of cash in grabbing their attention. Especially after so many years of your hard work to build that relationship.

To keep the dandy highwayman at bay, as a software vendor you need to show that you have your customers best interests in mind. When your customer starts to experience a problem, they should turn to you FIRST – even if you aren’t able to directly provide the solution. This though is good as you can help the client select the right product that doesn’t affect their existing solution and supports their infrastructure. This builds the bond and positions you as their trusted advisor.

However, what your customer (and you) may not realise is that maybe their problems can be solved by upgrading to the latest version of their existing solution. Keeping them up to date with the latest technologies is critically important so they understand what is available to them, how they can avoid risks such as not being compatible with other software upgrades and data protection. Because if you aren’t doing this that dandy highwayman will be lurking in the bushes to jump out and just steal them.

With the release of NAV 2018 those customers that are using anything older than the latest release are at risk of going to another reseller for the upgrade or worse still moving away from your product altogether. Your biggest advantage over the dandy highwayman is that you should already understand the customer’s needs. You will be able to advise them what is best for their business. You can also explain the knowledge gaps that other vendors may not be able to fill should they switch, such as moving away from your IP.

You need to think about how you should be informing your customers about what they have available to them and how easy it is for them to upgrade to the latest version when you use QBS Upgrade services. But what makes this even easier is that your customer can spread the cost of that upgrade monthly instead of a big capital investment. With the combination of QBS Upgrade services and the access to lease/loan through QBS Finance there is no reason for them to be on anything other than the latest version.

If you don’t know it by now there is still plenty of potential for you to generate revenue from those customers, especially your legacy customers. That’s all it takes is to spend a little time making your customers aware of the future potential of the business by upgrading to the latest technology. Better you earn that income than the rogue with white striped face who doesn’t care about the customer’s best interests.

So, Stand and deliver stop making those excuses and provide your customers with some extra special services.

If you grew up in the 1980s then you should know to what I refer, if not check this out.

 

Business Edition is off – long live Tenerife!

/dans , , , /par

Our team is just getting back from Directions in Madrid. It was a remarkable event in many aspects. First it has been the 10th anniversary of Directions and fact that it has been now with more than 2.000 attendees is not just a testament to the success of Directions, but also to the momentum this community of partners have built.

At same time, Directions this year signaled a significant step in the product strategy for NAV and the SMB agenda for Dynamics. While Microsoft gave up on having two editions of Dynamics 365, by basically no longer launching the Dynamics 365 Business Edition, it become clear that the NAV platform remains an important pillar to the Dynamics 365 strategy. This statement has been doubted in weeks before, after some announcements that could have led partners to believe that NAV becomes almost legacy. But if anything, no one should have any doubt that NAV will stay platform of choice for customers that want to have a suite of business process capabilities, delivered on-prem or through cloud.

That is an important message, the capabilities and in fact the code base is 100% identical, regardless if you want to deploy on-prem or cloud. So the promise, that your customers can migrate to cloud in their terms, is not just a promise. And you can then add capabilities as you go, being it in sales, marketing or field service or even human talent. Since all Dynamics applications, including next version of NAV, code name Tenerife, will use the Common Data Service, they can seamlessly work together.

As QBS Group, we extend this agenda to you, we serve you and your business regardless if you want to deploy your solution for your customers on-prem or of you want to offer it through private or public cloud. We have the trainings and programs in place to help you migrate your solution to the Tenerife platform, we will bring you new customer prospects through our Take-the-Lead program, create new capacity in your technical teams with migrations service or help you build your strategy around your all up business or marketing wih our individual workshops. In any case we invite you to talk to us about your future, either in one of our upcoming QBShares, through your local QBS teams or by contacting me or any of our staff. Finally in case you want to know more about what main themes were discussed at Directions this year, we recommend that you listen to the recoding of our recent webinar “HOT News from Directions EMEA” and keep an eye out for our Directions business report, that provides you with all important insights.

General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) – a Microsoft perspective

/dans , /par

The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the most important change in data privacy regulation in 20 years – make sure you’re prepared.

On May 25, 2018 the new regulations around how we treat personal data in all EU countries* will come into effect. The key changes of the new regulations is much about introducing consequences to previously established rules from former directive, so if you’re not living up to these – this is the time to get your house in order. You may not think that these new regulations will have any effect on your business – simply because you don’t process personal information. Well – you would be surprised what is considered “processing personal information”. Very few companies do not in some shape or form. E.g. if you support your customers via remote help – that’s a case of a situation that require rules and processes to be described for cases of breaches.

On this session, the National Technology Officer of Microsoft Denmark, Ole Kjeldsen, gave an introduction into how Microsoft views the GDPR – what their advice to the industry is and also touch upon some of the things happening on the R&D front of Microsoft to comply with GDPR.

*The GDPR not only applies to organizations located within the EU but it will also apply to organizations located outside of the EU if they offer goods or services to, or monitor the behavior of, EU data subjects. It applies to all companies processing and holding the personal data of data subjects residing in the European Union, regardless of the company’s location. That means that Brexit won’t exclude UK companies if they do business abroad.

7 Strong arguments to sell Dynamics NAV today

/dans , , , , , , /par

Dynamics NAV finds itself in an interesting position today! On the one hand, it is the most successful ERP system in the worldwide mid-market by far. On the other hand, the recent announcements around Dynamics 365 created questions and even some confusion around its future. Sounds familiar to you?

In this edition of QBS Talks we give you ‘7 strong arguments to continue selling Dynamics NAV’ as the safest choice in the market today, combined with the brightest future available. We’ll teach you three smart scenarios to take your prospective customer by the hand. Step 1: let them make a safe start with Dynamics NAV or CRM. And step 2: guide them into a great Dynamics 365 future whenever the product is completely localized and the transition moment is there for them.

After watching this valuable 52 minutes’ video, you’ll walk away with a good understanding of how to position your Dynamics NAV solution even better and more effectively in the ever-changing Microsoft world. Honestly, for you as a Dynamics NAV partner, missing this session is not really an option!

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

/dans , , /par

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.