A few weeks after the initial announcements around Dynamics 365, I wrote a post titled something like “The Fog Clears”. With Microsoft’s response to the reaction from the Directions announcements, some fog is clearing, but some fog has shifted… to a different partner type.
I decided to step away from the third-rail and talk about something else. If you are a Dynamics 365 Partner, you should already know about AppSource. Maybe you have already published an App, or are thinking about it, or maybe you are just thinking about it as a place to …
So I am approaching this post with some trepidation. My last one led to a bunch of phones blowing up in Redmond, and I don’t want a repeat of that for sure. But I do want to share my thoughts, now that the dust has started to settle.
I happened to be scrolling through a list of our past customer deployments the other day. I stopped on one we had recently “completed”, and was remembering the initial phone call we had. Things ended up a lot different.
The Common Data Service (CDS) is suddenly the talk of the town. The potential power of this service is fast becoming a significant differentiator in the competitive landscape. But did this innovative technology start life as a “Hack”?
Those of you who follow me, know that we have a product called RapidStart for Dynamics 365. Well, not “we” actually, RapidStart LLC is a separate company owned by my wife. So I guess I should say, “she” has a product called RapidStart for Dynamics 365. Anyway, that product has just …
Along with the “Cloud Revolution” comes a whole new set of required skills for Partners and Customers. These new skills are not to be added to what you already know, instead they are to replace what you already know. Because, the things you already know… nobody will need anymore.
I can certainly look back at many decisions that I made, that did not work out. I like to convince myself that, at the time, it made total sense, and I would do the same thing again. Sometimes that is even correct. But most of the time, I just wonder …
If you have been around the channel for a while, you are quite familiar with the Microsoft messaging to partners. “Add a Dynamics Practice”, or “Add an Azure Practice”, or “Add a whatever we want to sell now practice”. I suggest you ignore these messages.
I guess it’s no surprise, that 90% of my blog readers are Microsoft Partners. Most of them, operate in the same space that we do: Dynamics 365. From that, I can also assume that most of my readers were on the Executive Briefing calls last week. So what did we …
Yesterday we had the Executive Briefing for the Dynamics 365 Business Edition Sales and Marketing Apps. It was non-NDA so that means we can talk about it, that also means that lots of details were left out. I have been working with that team for some time now, and while …
As some of you may know, we were formerly Salesforce Consultants, a product that was “Cloud” from day one. For us, cloud was not something we even thought about, until we pivoted to become a Microsoft Partner in 2011. Suddenly “Cloud” was a new thing? Huh?… Okay, we’ll play along.
Yes, I know, Divorce is a nasty sounding word, and it does not seem applicable to your relationship with your Microsoft Partner… I mean you are not legally “Married”. But today, more than ever, your relationship with your Microsoft partner is feeling a lot more like a marriage, particularly, if …
Selecting the best platform and partner for you to work with, is probably the most important determining factor to your success with Business Solutions. It really is the “make or break” ingredient, and selecting the wrong one(s), can lead to disaster. Here is a fictional first-person account.
We were working with one of our larger customers the other day on their Lead Import process. We noticed that many leads were failing to import. The person handling the importing said “Yeah, if I can’t figure out the issue, I just ignore those“.
A “Meeting of the Minds” is probably the number one challenge in the SMB space, particularly with Business Solutions like Dynamics 365. Am I saying SMB customers are not smart enough to understand? Not at all, but I have learned that a nodding head, is not a good indication, that …
I just finished watching the live Microsoft Business Forward event, and it was pretty impressive. In addition to Satya Nadella giving us the Grand Vision, Microsoft also trotted out a few customers who had “Digitally Transformed” their businesses… big customers. But as I was watching this, with my SMB Customer …
Let’s get real for a minute. The typical SMB customer does not wake up every day thinking, “How can I spend more money with my Microsoft Partner?” They are more likely thinking, “How soon can I get rid of my Microsoft Partner?”
Let me preface by saying, I am not an ERP Guy. At our own firm, we use QuickBooks, even though we have access to Microsoft ERP software at no cost. Is QuickBooks better? Far from it, but is it good enough?
A tweet caught my eye the other day, it was a quote from Richard Branson that went something like, “If you look after your staff, they’ll look after your customers. It’s that simple.” I could not shake this from my brain, so I thought I would try and crystallize my …
