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The Works Services-as-a-Subscription Model Update
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Power Platform Blind Spots
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Power Platform Outside the Bubble
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The Microsoft Partner Dilemma
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Steve has yet another Chat with Charles
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Let’s Talk About Funnels
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It’s Time for a New Services Model for Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform
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The Myth of Single Version of the Truth
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Are you over-paying for Dynamics 365?
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Pay as you Go, Go, Go
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Hit 50K Users? Get ready for the knock-offs.
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Your organization (tenant) is over capacity
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“Even after everything, we still have adoption problems”
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We Upgraded from Dynamics 365 to RapidStart CRM
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Steve has another Chat with Toby Bowers
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Dynamics 365 for Outlook Deprecated Alert
Many of our customers have been asking about the ominous alert that appears in their advanced settings area for either Dynamics 365 or Power Apps Model driven environments. In this short post I will explain it, and show you how to get rid of it. Dynamics 365 for...
Steve has a Chat with Ryan Cunningham
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$10 bills for $3 each, for a limited time!
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Microsoft marching masses to peak of Mt. Stupid
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The beatings will continue until morale improves
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Microsoft taking away Direct CSP from Small Partners
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Steve Reads Jukka’s Post
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I recommended Zoho!
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The Evolution of an ISV
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The Microsoft Cloud Partner Margin Squeeze
Just a few short years ago, Office 365 launched. At the time, selling the product required genuine knowledge, and migrating to the product required genuine expertise. There was significant partner margin and incentives on the sale of Office 365, as well a nice margins on deploying it. Those days have long since passed.
Today, most customer companies are well aware of Office 365 and many are making plans to move to it. The seller’s job of explaining what it is, and why the cloud is a safe place to be, has become significantly less necessary. With tools like Skykick and Bit Titan, the technical expertise required to migrate a typical customer has been all but eliminated. Basically, anyone with a quarter of a brain, can sell and deploy office 365 today for a broad category of customers. What this means, as if you don’t already know, is that margins have been significantly compressed. If you did not see this coming, then you weren’t paying any attention at all.
Maybe the On-Premise guys were Right!
We were quick to move to Office 365 right when it launched. Coming from a cloud background as a former Salesforce.com consultant, may have given us a leg up, but frankly, before Office 365, we had no play to make in that space because we did not possess the technical hardware skills to fix a broken mouse. As Office 365 took off, and yanked us and and other “early movers’ up with it, the conversation shifted to “Why are all you other partners still selling on-premise?. Jump in, the waters fine!” Many could not figure out how to switch revenue models, which is another conversation entirely. Now with the compressed margins on cloud, some of those on-premise partners who stayed on the sidelines might be looking pretty smart, but their days are numbered as cloud continues to inhale their customers.
I’ll Race you to the Bottom!
Before CSP, most partners acquired Office 365 via the portal (WebDirect). This is also the same place that customers could by it directly. In WebDirect, Microsoft set the retail price. Now, in Direct CSP, Microsoft sets the wholesale price to partners, in the case of Indirect CSP, Microsoft sets the wholesale price to your distributor, who then sets your price. In either case, you set your selling price to the customer. Good news? Well, this means that partners now have some margin to play with and can actually sell Office 365 to end customers at below the retail price. Let the race to the bottom commence. Offset that further by the additional costs you incur via CSP, like managing billing and support, and you can quickly see where the margin squeeze is inevitable. Office 365 is now a commodity (actually it has been for a while now). With the exception of complex projects, there is little money to be made and if your focus is on Office 365 alone, you won’t be around very long.
Did Microsoft pull the Rug Out?
I guess if you have not been paying attention, and just lifted your head up one day and wondered where all the money went, you might think that MS pulled a fast one on you. But if you look past MS to the entire market, and the competition, it is not hard to see that MS is just reacting as they must. Your ability to make a nice profit as a Microsoft Partner is not their obligation or responsibility… it is yours. It’s not like Microsoft has not been warning you that this was coming. How many times have you heard them tell you that you need to develop some I.P. or focus on a vertical and gain specific expertise? That you did not act on these suggestions/warnings, is not their fault.
Can Azure save the day for you?
For the moment, partners that have moved more of their focus to Azure are doing very well. But that path ultimately leads to the same place, but maybe not as quickly as genuine technical skill is still a requirement. The same goes for EMS, Cloud PBX, or any other “utility”. But watch as Microsoft, and third-parties, work to eliminate that expertise requirement from the equation. Remember the skills that it used to take to setup an on-premise exchange server? Now that can be setup online by a complete moron who checks a few boxes. It won’t be long before Azure is a dashboard of a few checkboxes.
So can this I.P. idea solve the squeeze?
Maybe, for a while. The I.P. space is littered with hole-plugging solutions for which the hole they were plugging was eventually plugged by Microsoft. It’s not that they singled them out for elimination; odds are the hole was on the roadmap to be plugged eventually. For the most obvious holes, there will be multiple solutions created, and those are the most likely to be plugged. Most I.P. like that has a short shelf life. I.P. that has a true shelf life seeks to plug holes that Microsoft will never plug, holes that are obscure enough that multiple players will not seek to plug them, which brings us full-circle back to verticals. While Microsoft has made a few direct attempts at vertical solutions (see Matter Center for Law Firms) they consistently give up on them after a while. Microsoft simply does not have vertical expertise. It may appear that sometimes they are travelling up the tree to certain large branches, but they will never get to the leaves. Microsoft is simply too wide to get very narrow.
That Leaves us the Leaves
In order to sustain good margins in the future, you will eventually have no choice but to focus on some verticals. Focusing on ten verticals is not focusing, it’s marketing. Customers have always been willing to pay a premium for partners who actually understand their specific needs, yet almost all partners are generalists. There is money being left on the table. It takes more than memorizing a few buzzwords to grab that money however. Having an attitude that, from a technology standpoint, all businesses are basically the same, is the generalist’s pitch; easily overcome by someone with actual vertical expertise.
How long before CRM becomes a Commodity?
There are few business applications that need to be vertically specific more than CRM in order to succeed. Ironically, where there are multiple CRM solutions for a particular vertical, there will be price pressure, but there are a lot of “leaves” still to pursue. Business Applications are far more resistant to commoditization than say, Email, Back-up services or Virtual Machines. While our RapidStart solution is not vertically specific, we have worked with a few vertical partners who have developed their own version on our platform that is quite vertical, and they are selling it at three to four times what our generalist partners are. If you have some genuine vertical expertise, let’s talk about a RapidStart model specific to your target clients’ needs.


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The New Weapon – Cost Predictability
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The Works Services-as-a-Subscription Model Update
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Power Platform Blind Spots
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Power Platform Outside the Bubble
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The Microsoft Partner Dilemma
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Steve has yet another Chat with Charles
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Let’s Talk About Funnels
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It’s Time for a New Services Model for Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform
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The Myth of Single Version of the Truth
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Are you over-paying for Dynamics 365?
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- 42 – Podcast – Preparing for the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Fall 2018 release wave
- 41 – Benefits and process to building ISV solutions with Microsoft PowerApps, Microsoft Flow & AppSource
- 40 – Four MVPs in a Room
- 39 – Dynamics 365 Saturday Atlanta
- 38 – Mary Jo Foley on (Not) keeping up with Dynamics 365
- 37 – Early reaction as Dynamics 365 for Marketing, Sales Professional reach the market
- 36 – So you want to be an Independent Consultant?
- 35 – Dynamics Marketing with Kishan Chetan and Steve Mordue
- 34 – 2018 Dynamics 365 Predictions
- 33 – Unexpected Curves Crash Microsoft's Dynamics 365 Roadmap
- 32 – MSDW Podcast: Talking Microsoft Dynamics platform plays and eclipses with Steve Mordue
- 31 – Microsoft waffles regarding what's next for Dynamics 365 for SMBs
- 30 – Business Edition vs Enterprise Edition: what you need to know (Webinar)
- 29 – Azure App Service Isolated caters to enterprise security concerns
- 28 – Steve Mordue on Microsoft’s sales shakeup, SMB commitment, and partner survival
- 27 – Tip #896: Don’t get blacklisted by blasting emails from Dynamics 365
- 26 – Microsoft FastTrack: Partner Friend or Foe?
- 25 – Tip #856: Modifying disabled users
- 24 – How Can Microsoft (and Its Partners) Leverage LinkedIn?
- 23 – IT Community Champ
- 22 – Microsoft Dynamics CRM SMB Apps
- 21 – Dynamics 365 Pitch Must Reach Channel
- 20 – Dynamics 365 Needs more Cowbell
- 19 – Can Microsoft Make Dynamics 365 Work?
- 18 – Whiteboarding Microsoft Dynamics 365
- 17 – Timing Microsoft Dynamics 365: CRM partners lament 'fuzzy' pre-launch license planning
- 16 – Microsoft Dynamics 365 to start rolling out November 1
- 15 – Dynamics CRM at a crossroads
- 14 – The Reinvention of the Microsoft ISV
- 13 – Microsoft Dynamics 365: New roadmap, licensing details revealed
- 12 – Dynamics Introspective: What Is Microsoft’s Next Big Bet On Dynamics CRM Success?
- 11 – IP assets: Channel companies seek differentiation
- 10 – Add new business offerings for long-term sustainability
- 09 – The gamification platform: Cool toy or CRM partner opportunity?
- 08 – How one of Microsoft's top CRM partners uprooted its business
- 07 – Cloud channel partners, vendors grapple with metrics
- 06 – Building a successful sales team to maximize profitability
- 05 – Cloud Partner Strategy 2.0 – Going Vertical
- 04 – It just works better: Why we made the move to Microsoft
- 03 – Microsoft Dynamics Partner Roundup
- 02 – Escape from Salesforce: Beware lock-in risks when migrating to Microsoft Dynamics CRM, says one partner
- 01 – Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013: More favorite features from the field
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