As Microsoft changes and the market evolves: Stay on top of your Dynamics business

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As we prepare for the Directions conference in Madrid, I was reflecting on the last changes that Microsoft did to their field organization.

Having been at Microsoft myself for a long time, I understand the intension to heavily focus all resources on the main objective you have as a company and that is certainly to become the leading provider of cloud services. The data cloud with Azure, the productivity cloud with Office 365 and then the business cloud where Dynamics 365 Business Edition should be the focus for SMB customers. So decision was taken to align their field resources to enable that cloud transition at scale. So the previous role of a Partner Account Manager or Partner Sales Executive, as it was called last year, simply no longer exists. Amongst other roles you now find the Partner Development Managers that will support you in transforming to cloud, build offerings on top of Microsoft’s cloud services and monetize your IP and services. But when it comes to the traditional NAV business, you might feel a bit like Kevin home alone.

Where to turn to if you have questions around NAV licensing, what if you want to still add customers on prem and with a perpetual licensing? Of course, Microsoft still offers all of that, but will you find the same dedication as you had few months back? Your initial reaction might be similar to mine, to see that change as a challenge. But then I suggest to join the QBS Network. While partners in our network are all different, they are facing many of the same challenges. As QBS, we can aggregate and execute programs that single partner can’t afford or create. We now have more than 400 partners in our network across Europe and we do everything we can to make sure their investments are secured and that they transform and evolve at their pace, which is not necessarily the same that Microsoft has in mind. They benefit from offerings that generate qualified leads, so they can add customers for their solutions and services, we provide additional capacity and capabilities that they can tap into without hiring new resources, we enable new technologies like D365 with their teams and we keep their operation up and running, making sure our partners can focus on providing value to their customers.

If you are partner interested in our services and our community, please come to our booth (#10) at Inspire or visit my session at Directions on Wednesday at 15:30 in room Milan. Hope to see many of you in Madrid.

What Dynamics SMB partners can expect from Directions 2017

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For many years, Directions was the annual event for Microsoft Dynamics NAV partners. Driven by partners – organized for partners. This year however, the event makes a shift from ‘NAV only’ towards embracing the full Microsoft stack. DIRECTIONS is now open for all Dynamics SMB partners and focuses on attracting the Dynamics CRM partner community as well. Being a Dynamics SMB partner in todays’ market is like dancing on a volcano. And the various Microsoft announcements that partners can expect at these events will make the dancing effect even stronger!

The Directions conferences bring together developers, implementers, technical experts, marketeers, sales and executive/owner representatives from Dynamics SMB partners, ISV’s, service providers and Microsoft. At present, there are three editions of Directions. The 13th US edition will take place on September 17th till 20th in Orlando, Florida. According to the website, both the venue for the event and the Orlando international airport have survived hurricane Irma, so everything is good to go. The EMEA edition picked Madrid as the 2017 location for their tenth anniversary that will be organized from October 4th till 6th. And finally, in March 2017 the first edition ever of Directions ASIA was organized in Bangkok, Thailand.

The EMEA edition is expected to book another all-time high partner registration. Last years’ edition in Prague counted some 1.750 attendees, which by that time was a record. This year, the organization committee expects even (far) over 2.000 registrations, mainly due to the additional CRM attendees!

This article aims to give you an overview of what Dynamics NAV and Dynamics CRM partners can expect of these events. And where they should put their focus regarding the sessions.

  • The position of Dynamics NAV is under pressure. The announcement of the Dynamics 365 concept at WPC 2016, combined with today’s limited geographic availability of the D365 Finance and Operations Business edition (D365FOB) SMB solution has put Dynamics NAV in an uncomfortable position. Competitors have successfully sowed confusion in the market about NAV’s future determination. Microsoft now has the challenge, together with her partners, to recover the positioning of Dynamics NAV as her flagship ERP solution for SMBs. Partner can expect messages on this in the keynote presentations!
  • Many Dynamics SMB partners are eager to make a real start with Dynamics 365. However, this is of course directly related to the availability of the Dynamics 365 Business Edition. That includes both the ERP domain (‘Finance and Operations’) and the CRM domain (‘Sales’ and ‘Marketing’). In the interview we’ve had with Marko Perisic for our Inspire 2017 business report, he stated: “At DIRECTIONS, we will communicate our localization plans in detail. It means that every single Dynamics SMB partner in the world – be it NAV, GP, SL or Dynamics 365 – of every partner type in the channel – be it VAR, SI, or ISV – in all geographies of the world will get clear guidance on what they need to do to participate in Dynamics 365.” So every partner should look for news, guidance and a clear roadmap of their path to the Dynamics 365 platform.
  • Microsoft will officially launch Dynamics NAV 2018 – formerly known under the code name “Tenerife”. The agenda offers all kind of functional and technical sessions for this new version.
  • Over the past 12 months, Microsoft has managed to maintain the same code base between D365FOB and Dynamics NAV. Although this is a more technical statement, it is also a very important and strong strategic statement that should put partners at ease, since it means that any investment made in D365 Finance and Operations, Business Edition is a 100 percent investment in NAV, and vice-versa. At this season’s events, all Dynamics SMB partners should find further evidence for this statement, including the motivation and confidence for their ongoing investments.
  • All Dynamics NAV partners need to transform their businesses to stay relevant in a cloud-first world. However, many partners still have not started this process at all! Paul White, the former worldwide general manager for NAV, predicted during DIRECTIONS 2016 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. Partners can expect many sessions on this important topic.
  • To be successful with Dynamics 365, SMB partners must walk on two legs. For Dynamics NAV partners this means that they have to add the CRM domain to their solutions portfolio. And the Dynamics CRM partners have to find a way to expand their offering into the ERP domain. Failing to do so will, over time, limit their chances to win new deals and at the same time will put their customer bases at risk. Of course, there are several paths partners might follow to get there like building a new practice, cooperating with other partners, or acquiring the missing part. Partners should watch for sessions that give them guidance in this process.
  • The prospects for business success with “stand-alone” Dynamics NAV and/or CRM are expected to decrease over time. Separate from their attention to Dynamics 365, all partners should prepare to expand their current portfolio with solutions like Office 365, Power BI, Flow, Cortana Intelligence, and Azure. Most partners will probably not be able to take all at once, so they must make choices. What workloads are most important for your target markets? How much can you afford to invest? And what employee capacity do you have available? At the two events, there will be many functional and technical sessions that will give guidance on how to plan for these opportunities.
  • With the channel converging on Dynamics 365 solutions, the competition between partners will become much more intense. A Google search on ‘Dynamics 365’ results in tens of millions of results. So it’s far from easy to be found just based on the standard solution. More than ever before, Dynamics SMB partners need to differentiate their offerings by specializing on specific workloads and/or markets. Again, partners might want to select those sessions that help them prepare for this process.
  • Furthermore, success in the Dynamics 365 arena demands for modern marketing, sales, delivery and support processes. The reality is that most Dynamics SMB partners are still far away from that ideal situation. So it makes sense to attend the specific sessions on these topics as well. Digital transformation is the overall umbrella that Microsoft is using in her marketing and branding. Dynamics SMB partners should adapt the positioning and branding of their propositions to take advantage of this. And at the same time consider what digital transformation means for their internal IT processes.
  •  What business model do you need to make a financial success out of Dynamics 365? Probably even more important than all the product aspects – no matter how interesting they are – is the business side. Marketing, selling, implementing, and supporting Dynamics 365 demands a different approach compared with the traditional Dynamics projects. In order to be successful, most partners will need to see Dynamics 365 as a whole new chapter in their businesses – one that involves less license margin, smaller services revenues, and cheaper delivery people who work with a different mindset.
  • Partners much figure out Microsoft’s One Commercial Partner model. OCP is the biggest change in the Microsoft sales organisation of the last 10 years. It’s important for any Dynamics partner to understand this model and the impact it will have on their relationship with Microsoft. Are you still a managed partner in FY18? If so, will you be managed by a Microsoft Dynamics contact person or a more generic Microsoft contact person? And if you’re an unmanaged partner – where can you go for business support, especially for the more traditional NAV and CRM business issues?
  • What’s the future of Dynamics partner events? Now that Microsoft decided to finally integrate her different workloads into the new Dynamics 365 offering, the question arises of what this all means for events that were traditionally single-product focused but now are compelled to evolve, like DIRECTIONS (traditionally NAV-focused) and eXtreme365 (traditionally CRM-focused). Should they integrate as well? Partners can expect some indications on the future of these two events.

I will not be in Orlando, but I do hope to see you all in Madrid!

Guus Krabbenborg

Winning more deals by using strong communication templates

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Well, there are not many industries where (sales) people make promises so easily. And at the same time, the follow-up often is so poor. That’s bad news, right? However, you can also see this low expectation level as a huge opportunity! Why? Because it’s relatively easy to stand out of the crowd. Just by saying what you do and do what you say. It can be as simple as that! But of course, a right mindset is not enough. You will also need practical tools, like communication templates.

In this edition of QBS Talks you’ll learn why strong communication and an accurate follow-up has a huge positive impact on the decision-making process of your prospects. After this session, you’ll walk away with a good understanding of the psychology behind the buying process. And why being reliable and accurate improves your win chances dramatically. We also introduce a valuable set of sales documents that help you guide your prospect through his or her complete buying cycle.

If you’re active in sales or marketing, this is a session you definitely don’t want to miss!

Important factors to consider when implementing a CRM solution

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The key to a successful implementation

Implementing a CRM solution can be challenge. You can put many effort in it, and at the end it’s a challenge to meet the customer’s expectations. Every partner and customer wants to make the most out of their Sales or Marketing. But how to make it a success?

In this edition of QBS Talks Arjen Jansen from MindsUnited will give you important factors you need to consider when you are implementing a CRM solution. After watching this session you’ll walk away with a great understanding of how to make the implementation of a CRM solution a success.

General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) – a Microsoft perspective

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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 custo- mers 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 orga-nizations 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.

General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) – a Microsoft perspective

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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.

Strategic alliance with 1ClickFactory

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1ClickFactory and QBS group are delighted to announce a strategic relationship between the two companies. The synergies in such a relationship are apparent: both organisations are partner centric and dedicated to the Microsoft Dynamics products with very different yet complementary services.

Since 2009 1ClickFactory provided partners worldwide with extended development capabilities around Dynamics and packaged services aimed at specific tasks, such as Upgrade Services, code transformation, provisioning on Microsoft Azure, Certification for Microsoft Dynamics and much more.  Today 1ClickFactory does business every year with more than 300 Dynamics partners.

Since its creation 4 years ago, the QBS group network of partners in the Dynamics channel has grown to encompass 400+ partners. The services that QBS group provide partners range from strategic partner advice and management, staff readiness, sales and marketing support through to being the distributor of Microsoft licenses and enhancement plans and a CSP platform for partners.

Søren Fink-Jensen, CEO, 1ClickFactory:
“This will be a great partnership, where both 1ClickFactory and QBS partners, will benefit increasingly from an end-to-end experience, provided by 1ClickFactory and QBS”.

Michael Hartmann – CEO, QBS group:
“We want to be the best provider of services to Dynamics partners, and this alliance is a big step on the way”

Inspire 2017 Business Report available

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From 9 to 13 July the Microsoft partner conference Inspire was held in Washington DC. Inspire (aka WPC) is the most important annual Microsoft partner event. QBS group was there with a team of 8 people to hear from firsthand about Microsoft’s plans for FY 18 and beyond. And with that same team we have once again written our unique and well known Inspire/WPC business report.

Microsoft and her Dynamics partners live in exciting times! The switch from the traditional long-lasting, heavily services oriented on-premise projects to a more product oriented, vertical-specific approach based on subscription pricing is a big challenge!

At QBS Group, we understand that informing Dynamics partners well is crucial in that journey for making the right strategic decisions. That’s why we strive every single day to make “QBS Partners the best-informed Microsoft partners.”

We have been writing business reports on the Microsoft WPC/Inspire events since 2004. This year’s report will be our thirteenth annual publication. So we know what we’re doing.

What you can expect
This unique report features broad, insightful and independent business reporting on the happenings at Inspire 2017, especially for Microsoft Dynamics partners. The report, which consists of 54 pages of need-to-know information, is bought by leading Dynamics partners from all over the world.

The report contains no less than 16 pages about everything you need to know about Dynamics 365. It also features exclusive interviews with Marko Perisic(General manager for Microsoft Dynamics SMB) and Jeff Edwards (Director ERP Channel Strategy and Programs).

Index of the report 

What do Dynamics partners say about these reports?

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

  • “We are a loyal purchaser of these WPC/Inspire 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. QBS helps 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 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 satisfaction score for this report over the last 5 years was 8,6 on a 1 to 10 scale.

First taste?
To get a good idea of what you can expect from our Inspire 2017 Business Report, you can now download the 2016 edition of our WPC Business report for free. 

Order your copy now!

Partners of QBS group receive this Inspire 2017 report at no additional cost, as it is part of their QBS 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 18 and the opportunities these create for your business? Then order your copy today!

As a Microsoft Dynamics professional, can you afford to miss on this important information?

Inspire 2017 – daily business updates

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From 9-12 July in Washington D.C. QBS group attended the Inspire 2017 edition.

Are you ready to be Inspired? Watch here the daily business updates back from Guus Krabbenborg during Inspire 2017.

Day 1

Day 2 

Day 3

Exclusive interview with Joe Longo – SBS Group

Day 4

Day 5

QBS group receives prestigious Microsoft 2017/2018 Inner Circle Award

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For the fourth year in a row QBS group is awarded Inner Circle for Microsoft Dynamics

For the fourth consecutive year, Microsoft has awarded QBS group with the prestigious membership of the Inner Circle for Microsoft Dynamics. The 2017/2018 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.

Membership in this elite group is based on sales achievements that rank QBS group in the top echelon of the Microsoft global network of partners. Inner Circle members have performed to a high standard of excellence by delivering valuable solutions that help organizations achieve increased success.

This recognition of Inner Circle for Microsoft Dynamics came during Microsoft Inspire (formerly Microsoft WPC), the annual premier partner event, which took place July 9-13, 2017 in Washington, D.C.

Maria Garaña, Vicepresident EMEA, Microsoft Business Solutions: “QBS group continues to be a strategic partner for Microsoft across Europe. Not only do they serve more than 400 partners with sales, marketing and technical services, they will also one of our key partners to launch  Dynamics 365 Business Edition. QBS will further grow their impact in Microsoft’s partner ecosystem by enabling partners new to Dynamics to build solutions and serve SMB customers across Europe.”

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.”

Michael Hartmann, CEO QBS group says: “I am extremely proud that we have succeeded in receiving this prestigious award for the fourth 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 also a constant reminder to provide services that will help our partners take full advantage of the opportunities that come with Dynamics 365.  Our community counts now more than 400 partners and we will continue to invest heavily to make QBS the most attractive service provider for partners.”

Microsoft Dynamics 365 – an SMB perspective

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Live from Inspire Washington the latest insights into the upcoming Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Editions!

Microsoft Dynamics 365 is taking CRM to the SMB. There will be some big changes in the SMB world of CRM with the launch of the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Edition for Sales and Marketing apps later this year. Microsoft is finally offering a truly SMB ready CRM solution.                                

We’ll discuss the latest updates and insights. You’ll learn the latest highlights about the Business Edition apps. Do you wait for it or start selling now? And what’s in it for you as a partner? Don’t miss it!

Part 4 Microsoft Dynamics Development Preview

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Microsoft released during last Christmas an Azure Virtual Machine where you can play around with the new Development Environment.

It is the fourth blog about the development environment. As this one does not rely on previous created code, you can start with this one. When the new NAV development tools are completely new, then please start with the first blog.

This blog will describe how you can upgrade your existing objects to be used in the new development environment. To upgrade your code, the June update is required. Additional information about this update can be found on the NAV Team Blog.

There are multiple ways how you can work with the new development environment:

1. Via Azure

If you have already installed a previous preview version, please remove complete Azure resource group, and create a new VM.

The deployment will start and it will take some time to finish. In the end, you will see the VM with additional stuff.

2. Local

Eric Wauters aka Waldo created a blog post how you can install the new development on your local machine.

So it is up to you how you continue.

In the NAV team blog post of June there is some information on how you can upgrade your code.

To get things going I need some files from a current development system. I choose to use a small piece of our internal system and opted for our Quattro subscription system as it has almost no impact on standard NAV.

The following objects need to be upgraded

As this is only a part of our internal system, I copied these files to standard NAV database and compile them, of course there is some interaction with standard NAV.

On MSDN you can find an item on how to upgrade your code via the TXT2ALtool.

The first step is to export the NAV objects in a clean format. The only way this can be done is via the command line, the command I used:

finsql.exe
Command=ExportToNewSyntax,
File=c:\temp\exportedObjects.txt,
Database=”Demo Database NAV (10-0)”, ServerName=<servername>\NAVDEMO,
Filter=Version List=*IPS*

That gave me the objects in a well-known but clean format.

Even the extension (version 1) codeunit is converted 🙂

Next step is to create .DELTA files, as these are all new objects, no files should be located in the ORIGINAL directory. The above created file should be copied to the MODIFIED directory.

When the PowerShell command Compare-NAVApplicationObject is executed the DELTA files are created.

Now it is time to transform the objects to AL objects. Copy the created obect to the directory c:\project\al_original.
This conversion can be done with the TXT2AL tool, execute the following command via the command line.
TXT2AL –source=c:\project\al_original –target=c:\project\al_ready –extensionstartid=71000000.

The files in the al_ready directory should look like this. Ready to be used in the new development environment.

And what about the standard NAV objects that didn’t compile? Well, maybe it is time for redesign? If you don’t do it now, you will never do it.

Generate more leads via prospect education

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Traditionally, the IT industry tries to seduce potential customers via functions and features.

At the end of the day however, the solution of choice consists of only 30 to 40 percent of the ultimate project success. On top of that, most of today’s ERP and CRM solutions can deliver almost all the functionality companies are looking for. So rather than focusing on the solution, it is much more effective to focus on the other success factors. Like the preparedness of the customer organization to change, the internal communication and the exemplary behavior of the management.

Have you ever thought about educating your prospects? Helping them to understand the way to project success? And are you willing to deliver that education yourself?

In this edition of QBS Talks you’ll learn how to start the process of prospect education. We will show you concrete examples of education content and formats.

“By 2020 we will have expanded our partner channel capable of selling and delivering rich Microsoft Intelligent Business Applications.”

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Exclusive interview with Tony de Freitas *

Tony – in your opinion, what is the status of the transformation process in the Dynamics partner channel today?

“Well, the answer really dependents on the view of the channel type that you look through. Today, the CRM view differs from the ERP view or even the ISV views based on the level of maturity of the partners and the respective solutions. I do see a difference in partner maturity in developing and delivering Dynamics 365 solutions in the market. One thing is for sure; there is an acceleration in our ecosystem to cloud solutions. Generally spoken, most partners are on their way to shift their traditional business models to the SaaS world. And that includes the switch from one-time services to providing ongoing recurring value through managed services, the improvement of their marketing, digital presence, developing vertical capabilities and adjusting their sales compensation plans. Speaking for the Dynamics for Customer Engagement (aka Dynamics CRM): 80 percent of all of our Value Added Resellers and Services Partners already transact and deliver services in the cloud today. The opportunity for our partners is to build on that transformation to further expand, differentiate and grow their revenue yield through Dynamics 365. That means more cloud deals. Richer deals with more IP. And more of the overall Microsoft Cloud platforms.”

Do you see any differences in the transformation between VAR’s and ISV’s?

“The Value Added Resellers for Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement have made a tremendous leap-frog recently. Three years ago, a small number of them transacted in the cloud. Today that’s already 80 percent! And a great majority of them are vertically focused. We believe that the ISV partners become even more important to us in scaling our success in growing, evolving and transforming with an extensible Business Applications platform. And we see AppSource as the flywheel for the ISV and IP partners. Fundamentally it is the destination for business users to find business SaaS applications.”

What are your expectations on how CRM partners will handle the competencies challenges that come with Dynamics 365?

“The solutions that CRM partners come up with for this challenge will heavily depend on the richness of our Customer Engagement product roadmap. Overall, we all expect that over time partners embrace the broader set of Business Applications and services such as Analytics in delivering richer solutions to customers. Having said that, in the near term, I personally don’t expect that many of our traditional CRM partners will start to build out ERP practices. But evolution is starting to occur where they tend to partner to deliver on all of the Dynamic 365 applications. Our product roadmap will further accelerate the expansion of partners beyond just Customer Engagement business applications. The other way around is probably more logical and we see that taking place in the market. Most of the today’s Merger & Acquisition activities in the Dynamics channel worldwide is Dynamics AX partners buying Dynamics CRM partner companies. Anyway – I expect more partners to favor partner-to-partner cooperation over acquisitions.

Finally, I expect an overlap of our formal CRM partners that will deliver both the Dynamics 365 Enterprise edition and the Dynamics 365 Business Edition.”

Where do you predict Dynamics 365 will be in the year 2020?

“The pace of our innovation, the richness of Dynamics 365 business applications, the strength of the Microsoft cloud platforms and our accelerated growth puts us in a strong position as leaders in the marketplace. I believe that by 2020, we will have significantly expanded our partner channel capable of selling and delivering transformative customer experiences through rich Microsoft intelligent business applications. On top of that, I expect Microsoft by 2020 to be both the thought leader and the worldwide market leader in intelligent cloud solutions. For your orientation – the Microsoft cloud today grows three times faster than the cloud market.”

In your observation of the current CRM ecosystem, what are the characteristics of a successful partner in today’s market?

“Look…. this is driven by customer expectations. And it is easy to spot the partners that can deliver on those expectations. Some of the characteristics are reflected as they have vertical and deep functional expertises, transform customer experiences through digital transformation services, application development capabilities, systems/data integration and bringing insights to their business through data and analytics. This is why Dynamics 365 becomes such an important platform for our partner success. I also do not want to loose the fact that at times customers expect our partners to be an orchestrator in the ecosystem, for example they have the ability to bring other strategic partners into the solutions to meet customers needs.”

Finally. In your opinion – what are the most important Go Do’s for CRM partners?

“There are of course lots of things to do for partners. But at the end of the day this would be my top-4 recommendations:

1)      Built a business model for the SaaS world;

2)      Go deep in both functional level and vertical market(s);

3)      Lead your customer’s digital transformation process

4)      (as a bonus) Built your company on business centricity (think organization structure, culture and growth mindset), a key imperative to succeed in the first 3 aspects.”

* This is interview was part of the eXtreme365 Business Report 

7 Strong arguments to sell Dynamics NAV today

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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!

Dynamics NAV Development: Extensions or Extinction?

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No one wants to be a dinosaur, it does not get you very far! If we want to run an analogy to the Yucatan asteroid some 65 million years ago, the advent of NAV 2016/NAV 2017 marks a shift to the new way of developing solutions and a threat to your capabilities if you don’t change the way you do things.

Those of you who, like me, have been involved with Microsoft Dynamics NAV (formerly Navision) for over 10 years, would be all too familiar with developing using C/SIDE. All your development work to date has been carefully planned around capitalising on endless days of development work on seemingly lengthy projects.

 
Dynamics 365 Acceleration Program
Are you a Microsoft Reseller who is looking for new growth possibilities and a way to honor the needs of your customers for an end-to-end solution.  Read more about this program

Services revenue may be your current strength and focus, but please consider these few points and why Extensions are making a difference:

  •  Traditional NAV development is becoming less prominent – your competitors are now quoting prospects both for traditional development and for Extensions.
  • Extensions, together with Eventing, bring complete future-proofing to your customer’s ROI in Dynamics NAV – it allows them to replace the current NAV version each year with the new version, taking advantage of any new functionality without having to undergo a traditional and costly NAV upgrade project.
  • Extensions can be re-utilised for other projects – no need to waste development time in reinventing the wheel!
  • Developing Extensions keeps your NAV Developers up-to-date with skills. They are sick and tired of doing work in NAV 2013, NAV 2009 or below. They want new challenges. If you don’t offer them the chance to stay “current” they will go and work for someone who lets them.
  • Learning about Extensions also allows your current NAV developers to get their heads around developing Apps for Dynamics 365 for Financials. The technology is the same, the purpose is different.
  • There are many .NET/C# developers on the market, looking for work at rates considerably below the NAV developer ones. If they know .NET as a programming standard and its .NET Framework, they can grasp Extensions and Eventing at a fast pace. If you already have developers with .NET skills in your organisation, you can offer them a move to your Dynamics practise.

Do you want to be in business 5 years from now, or do you want to join the dinosaurs?

As you can see from the above bullet points, there is a lot for you to think about. Do you want to be in business 5 years from now, or do you want to join the dinosaurs? They, at least, have left proof of their existence for many, many millions of years. Your business will soon be forgotten in this fast-paced digital age.

Would you like to know more? I am happy for you to drop me a line at aderosa@qbsgroup.com.

The Dynamic Channel is dead – Long live the Dynamics Channel

/in /da

I recently read the Directions 2016 business report from Guus again.

In an interview, Paul White, GM of Dynamics Product Marketing stated that only 20% of current partners will make it through the cloud transformation. This is a provocative statement and for that, it is a good wake up call to really think about your own cloud strategy  and get started in the transformation. However, I would argue that the 20% is only correct if you narrow cloud business to scalable, repeatable Dynamics 365 Business Edition business. In that 10-99 employee space, Paul makes a fair point that this segment is underserved with business applications but most customers do not accept to pay premium for typical project led implementation of an ERP and CRM application. They accept standardization in return of simple and affordable platform. And if you want to go in that standardized, simplified business you can only make it profitable if you do it at scale and reduce your cost of sales and time to market. I also agree that it is unlikely you can do both approaches, the project led and scalable small business in one organization. You need different skill sets and processes in sales and marketing. So far, so good and to that extend, only few partners will take that leap and create a new and differentiated organization and go-to-market.

But here is my big BUT…. Not all customers will go for standardized and simplified solution. We will continue to have customers that have very specific business processes , that have a rather sophisticated organizational setup or complex processes to maximize impact for their customers. And if they want to optimized these processes with a business application, they need expertise and deep knowledge to map business process with a business application. No doubt, this business application will likely be a multi tenant cloud solution in future. But that doesn’t take away the need to spend quality time with customer to understand their specific needs, developing process flows and customize the business application to fulfill the needs of a customer. And here we are again at the project led business with consultants and a tailored solution.

So my point is that embracing the cloud architecture and Dynamics 365 for that matter, does not equal having a scalable, standardized go-to-market approach. And if you happen to transform your Dynamics Solution into the cloud and App architecture, but you maintain your consulting approach to customers that outgrow the standardized solutions, then you have a bright future ahead of you. You will not count to the 20% of partners that scale in terms of customer adds, correct, but that was not your business strategy to start with. Again, embracing Dynamics 365 and transforming IP to sit as extension and app on top of Dynamics 365 is a mandate in my view. You want to provide a modern, flexible and scalable platform to customers and stay ahead of competitors.

In that process, we take pride in being your sparring partner, providing trainings, consultancy and best practices to undergo this transformation. We also like to provide you with a platform to optimize your resources, outsourcing some of the lower level migration work and bringing in fresh capabilities and capacity through Dynasource. And we want to bring new prospects for your solution and your services through our Take-the-Lead program, even if you are not counting yourself into the 20% scale cloud partners. We are confident, you have a prosperous business ahead of you.

Do you know your new competitors with Dynamics 365 for Financials?

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The new kids-on-the-block with outsell you on Dynamics 365 for Financials!

Just as you thought you had your grip on your direct competitors in the Dynamics NAV channel, here comes the new breed of “born in the cloud” Dynamics 365 for Financials new-kids-on-the-block.

Up to now, you have been able to showcase your competencies, capabilities and company strengths whether you have been “head-to-head” with other ERP vendors, or existing NAV VARs. It hasn’t mattered if you won or lost against these competitors: they are seen as your constant antagonists and you have assumed that “I may have lost this time, but next time I will win“.

This is exactly how most Dynamics NAV partners think. Let me tell you that you need to start thinking differently! Your new competitors are a different kind of antithesis. You could define these as:

  • Start-Up & entrepreneurial
  • Aim for high customer adds with minimum accountability
  • Building their practice on a OPEX model: CSP recurrent revenue
  • Vibrant and with a “no job is to small!” attitude
  • Considerably cheaper than your daily rate! Let’s remember: they could be a “one man band” acting as marketing/sales/implementers.
  • They would typically spend most of their days working hard and capitalising on the Microsoft brand.
  • Will be “low touch” after initial customer deployment
  • They know what they are selling and how to say “No, it won’t do that!” – they are both smart and upfront
  • They may be your employees going solo and exploiting the new market

These new competitors may sound pesky to both you and I, but you need to really look at the opportunity afforded to them before we point fingers at them: they have been handed a great “All-In-One” solution, Dynamics 365 for Financials. This product bears the very recognisable and quality-assured Microsoft trademark! Microsoft Dynamics has a history spanning beyond 15 years in Microsoft’s ownership, together with a huge commitment for R&D and a clear roadmap. Integration features into the wider Microsoft stack are clearly a selling point against the likes of Sage 50, Xero, NetSuite and other cloud-based solutions.

They are seeing an opportunity that’s too good to be missed.

They are seeing an opportunity that’s too good to be missed. They know that they can leverage the Microsoft brand, Microsoft Cloud resilience and a simple “per user per month” pricing structure, together with tiered pricing which is both very appealing and easy to sell. They also understand that in order to be successful, they need to consider low overheads, high ROI when looking at the business model for their small enterprise. They have the determination to succeed and understand that investment does not need to come at a huge upfront cost. They don’t need expensive NAV Developers, nor Project Managers, nor a well-oiled Service Desk, although support will matter to potential customers and services remain key to profitability. “Does the prospect need a certain type of functionality? Let me check the Appstore and see what’s already there that I can resell to them?” would be their approach.

Dynamics 365 Acceleration Program
Are you a Microsoft Reseller who is looking for new growth possibilities and a way to honor the needs of your customers for an end-to-end solution.  Read more about this program

So what is my advise to you today? Start thinking of emulating their approach. Don’t let them gain grounds and outsell you. Think about how you could start a new line of business to go head-to-head with them.

Have I made you think already? Do you wish to find out more? I am happy to have a chat with you. Please feel free to contact me via email: aderosa@qbsgroup.com.

Are you using marketing as a panic button?

/in /da

If you are, you are definitely not alone. This is a very natural reaction when the order books are empty and your pipeline is dryer than the Kalahari desert during a dry spell… you panic!

 

And a natural place to run to in panic is to marketing – they must be able to do some kind of magic trick that makes new customers appear – almost like out of the blue – right? And you are also willing to turn up that discount lever to make those customers sign sooner rather than later.

We’ve all been there – using marketing as a kind of fire extinguisher to that burning pain of a hurting business, making everybody from marketing to sales frantically busy with getting that urgent direct mail out – and the entire company getting involved in that “all hands on deck” calling day, where no stone is left unturned.

The fact is – that all the while this hectic activity is taking place – chances are, the business is slowly recuperating – not as a result of the instant activity – but more likely because seeds were planted months ago, that is then coming to realization. So while everybody goes “phew – we kept the business a float with our quick thinking” – all people think to themselves “how on earth did that happen?”. Because that’s what marketing is all about: that long term haul, intelligently considering the right time and audience for the right messages, that will make customers come to realize their needs and pains – and slowly but surely turn to you for advice. The best approach is rarely to just bulldozer the market.

“Well – but this way we get to pick the low hanging fruits” the counter argument normally goes….

And I know the term “low hanging fruits” is a much loved term by all business owners – because who doesn’t just want to stroll around, picking those low hanging fruits? But who says you can’t pick those fruits while at the same time preparing the soil for the long term growth and crop?

Most of us agree to the fact that customers are on a buying journey (see former QBS article on buying journey here) – so how come we insist on a selling “moment”?

Marketing takes time and effort – and it begins with you knowing your own business. Answering these 3 big questions:

  1. Where are you today?
    (who are your customers, and what does your product solve with customers are some of the sub questions here that are painfully important to understand)
  2. What are you doing right now?
    (is your website performing as it should, are you active on social media, have you activated any campaign automations…or are you still relying on your sales people finding their own next potential customer themelves?)
  3. Where do you want your company to go?
    (picture your company in 2,5,10 years’ time – where do you want to be?)

Can bring you the insight needed in order to come to the right decisions around marketing for your business that supports your strategic goals – not just the one-off hit’n’run activity of a panicking organisation. Invite the important stakeholders in your company and do a thorough strategy workshop on marketing for your business – this way all the people that need to get behind the marketing strategy gets heard – and you get a concrete plan to work from. See example of workshop agenda here for inspiration.

 

Having a thoroughly worked through marketing plan in place that supports your long term strategy will also make it possible for you to avoid those situations where you get all hyped up about the next big trend within marketing – that one thing that everybody tells you that you must adopt or die… Because if this new hot trend doesn’t support your strategic goals, then it’s probably not suitable for you to pick up – hot trend or not. (read more in this article about why hot trends should not be followed blindly). Investing the time to do this will pay off in so many ways – you will not be spending marketing budget blindly, and you will be able to adjust, if you don’t see the results that you’ve identified in plan coming in – because you know what you are doing – and why.

Then – if you have done the hard work of considering your strategy for marketing – and set in place the appropriate activities to support your business in the long run – then there’s always room for that occasional panic action, that we all know can’t be avoided every once in a while….

If you need help to kickstart this process or to facilitate it – get in touch with QBS group – we have long term expertise in helping our partners reflect on their business and their marketing strategy – resulting in concrete executable marketing plans. Send a mail to marketing@qbsgroup.com – and we will get back to you right away.

PS. This applies also in part for businesses that targets customers with commodity items, though here you might argue that short term marketing activities at times have their purpose, as you have shorter sales cycles and shorter life cycles of products. But in the discipline of selling business process solutions, short term marketing is never best path.

Partnerships will no longer be an option

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In a recent presentation I saw from Microsoft, I was surprised to learn that Microsoft released more than 600 new features and services in Azure. You look at Office 365 and you also see a huge number of new features and capabilities. Dynamics 365 Business Edition will then follow a similar pattern of providing new features and capabilities on monthly bases. You add the opportunities and innovation you can drive by using Microsoft Flow and Power Apps and you are dealing with an amount of innovation that is almost impossible to embrace.

I think managing innovation becomes a new capability that we need to build as partners. It starts before one can learn and internalise innovation. You need to be clear about what business objectives your customers have and how IT innovation can enable scenarios that will accomplish these objectives. It is no longer a rather straightforward approach where you add capabilities over time within the same product platform. It is a constant process, transforming your customer business scenarios into a technology map. Starting at the highest level, whether they benefit from data cloud, productivity cloud or business cloud or combination of the 3. Then it specifies workload areas and then finally can touch upon certain services and product capabilities.

It also indicates, that you might not be able to master the relevant innovations yourself. In this context, partnerships will no longer be an option, they become a life blood to your future. Starting to build a network that can be accessed whenever innovation sitting outside of your competence becomes relevant for one of your customers scenarios, is becoming a foundation of our business just like operations or marketing. I am convinced that Dynasource is the best available network and platform to establish these types of partnerships and to enable capabilities to benefit from a huge range of innovation.

Having a trusted advisor who not only understands the business challenges and opportunities, but who can also map and integrate IT innovation on an ongoing basis, becomes critical.

I also think it is the right moment to bring in young talent into your practice. Most of us have internalised the client server architecture and cloud architecture a while back (which is a polite way to admit that I am getting old), I would argue that IT graduates look at these innovations in a fresh way and will likely explore and benefit in ways that we might not be aware. This is why I applaud initiatives like Generation Z that our team is driving in UK. Bringing in fresh talent to our network.

The positive side of this is that managing innovation for customers becomes the key to differentiate yourself and create customer loyalty. In times of cloud services, standardisation is decreasing the opportunity to differentiate through functionality. Customers will look at more and more functionality that comes from cloud services as being a commodity. But having a trusted advisor who not only understands the business challenges and opportunities, but who can also map and integrate IT innovation on an ongoing basis, becomes critical. If we believe the scale and complexity of innovation is hard to manage for us as Dynamics Partners, then it is even harder for most of our customers. They will rely on you to explore available and upcoming innovations and how these can benefit their business.

At QBS group, we also change the way we deal with the massive amount of innovation and opportunity ahead of us. We have established the role of a Cloud Solution Architect, a senior person that looks across the 3 Microsoft clouds and 3rd party innovation, making sure we can provide guidance and insights to our partners. We also intensified our investments to provide the right learning platform, through a Learning Management System. And we want to provide more platforms for partners to share their learnings and insight on innovation, so we live up to our promise that we have the best informed partners. We understand, with the amount of innovation ahead of us, we cannot trust on us alone to embrace technology and translate that into customer benefits and loyalty. Sign up now and become a QBS group partner.