Your Revenue Opportunity

Your Midsize customers are in transition. Globalization has brought with it a renewed focus on re-engineering business processes. The desire to have a broad spectrum of functionality from a single software provider continues to drive ERP’s commanding share of the overall application software spending of midsize customers, according to IDC. Manufacturing operations, CRM, and financials are among the most strategically important ERP software investments that your customers will make in 2008.

But what does this mean to you as you assess “Your Opportunity” in becoming a Microsoft Dynamics Partner? Below are the key numbers for you to consider as you think about making a commitment to invest in building a Microsoft Dynamics practice. The following data points are based on industry research complimented with our own experiences in working closely with companies just like yours.

Estimate Your Mid Market Microsoft Dynamics Profit Opportunity

Microsoft and its partner base continue to make strides in the Mid Market space with Microsoft Dynamics-based solutions. Here, we present some compelling market research that identifies how Microsoft Dynamics ERP and CRM are providing market-leading profit opportunities for you.

PDF: 296k

IDC: Partnering with Microsoft Dynamics: Eight Steps to Profitability

This new whitepaper from IDC highlights the findings from the 2007 channel economic study and provides best practice insights as to how successful partners are able to drive success. Includes three individual partner case studies where partners share in their own words the success they are driving as well as some of their key best practices that helped them build and drive a successful practice.

PDF: 140k

IDC: Microsoft Competencies: Partner Pathway to Business Performance

In this executive summary, IDC shows that Microsoft partners who have earned a Microsoft Competency in Advanced Infrastructure Solutions or Information Worker Solutions outperform comparable industry benchmarks on 12 of 14 key performance indicators. The study also shows that partners with a Mobility Solutions competency excel in business performance.

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PDF: 681k

IPED: Microsoft Proves to be the “Best Choice” CRM Vendor for Profitability

IPED research concludes that Microsoft Dynamics CRM solution providers are 35 percent more profitable than those who choose enterprise CRM vendors like SAP or Oracle/Siebel. And they report almost double the average hourly bill-rate and 50 percent higher gross margins with Microsoft versus open-source solutions. Find out how you can leverage best practices to grow the size of your deals, increase margins, and build ongoing revenue streams in the small and midsize CRM solutions market.

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PDF: 212k

IDC: Global Economic Impact of the Microsoft Ecosystem

IDC global economic impact studies measure the IT industry’s and Microsoft's economic impact worldwide. Technology is a key factor for economic, social and technological progress, and the sustainability of economies all over the world. Through its extensive industry partner ecosystem, Microsoft is in a unique position to make a positive impact on economies around the world, helping people build skills, get jobs, create new businesses and expand their existing businesses.

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Register as a Microsoft Partner

Enrolling in the Microsoft Partner Program requires that you answer a few questions, which will be used to create your Partner Profile. After completing this, you will be officially registered.

If you have already registered as a Microsoft Partner, you can skip ahead to the next step and review your legal agreements to sell Microsoft Dynamics Solutions.

Evaluate Microsoft Dynamics Offerings

Before you make your commitment to become a Microsoft Dynamics partner, we encourage you to evaluate our offerings and assess their capabilities to meet the needs of your existing and future customers. Our product overviews provide you with all the information you need to complete your evaluations.

Competitive Comparisons

If you wish to go deeper and evaluate Microsoft Dynamics against the competition, this Microsoft Dynamics portal can deliver direct capability comparisons between Microsoft Dynamics and products from Oracle, SAP, and Sage. You will also find illuminating market research that compares Microsoft Dynamics vs. the competition. For example, a recent field study conducted by Keystone Strategy discovered an 18% advantage in user productivity from using Microsoft Dynamics ERP, as compared with SAP.

Gain Access to PartnerSource

PartnerSource is a portal available to partners who focus on Microsoft Dynamics and related business products. It provides up-to-date tools that help our partners connect to customers, improve the skills of their personnel, and deliver innovative products and superior customer service. And it's available any time, from anywhere. Around the clock our partners can access product updates, downloads, and training materials; attend online sessions; register for special events; exchange information with other partners; and much more.

Once you have registered and completed your agreements, you will receive access to PartnerSource via email (this may take a few days).

Gain Access to VOICE

In addition, you will use VOICE to manage several key aspects of your Microsoft Dynamics relationship:

• Manage your MBS Partner Profile.
• Track completed sales to customers.
• Place orders for Microsoft Products for customers.
• Track support incidents related to your Service Plan.

Once you have registered and completed your agreements, you will receive access to VOICE via email (this may take a few days).

Choose a Partner Service Plan

We recommend that all new Microsoft Dynamics Partners sign up for a Partner Service Plan. Having a Partner Service Plan enables you to dramatically reduce your risks when you are closing and implementing those all-important first deals. These plans have been designed for flexibility and simplicity, enabling you to easily service and support your customers through implementation and beyond.

There are two Partner Service Plan options:

Planning Your Practice: An Introduction

Expanding Your Skills: An Introduction

Best Practices for Partner Growth: Certified Partnership Roadmap [-]

While you are planning to certify your people in order to sell your Microsoft Dynamics solution, see how those certifications can lead you toward earning your MBS Competency and becoming a Certified Microsoft Partner.

Here is a graphic depiction of your choice of paths, and the requirements toward each end:

Build and Execute Your Learning Plan

There is a wealth of training and readiness available to Microsoft Partners, both locally and globally delivered. To take the most efficient path towards achieving your certifications, we strongly advise that you explore your training opportunities, using the resources listed below.

As you plot short-term and long-term growth, consider adding more skills to your learning plan to support sales, marketing, and solution development needs.

Earn the MBS Competency For all Microsoft partners, obtaining a Microsoft Competency has been shown to improve a business’ market standing. (IDC, 2006) Microsoft Competencies allow you to promote and validate your specific capabilities to customers, and are your first step toward becoming a Microsoft Certified Partner. Certified Partners hold the strongest advantage in the market, competing head-to-head for top opportunities, and earning the highest billable rates.

Achieving the Microsoft Business Solutions competency can help you expand your skills and expertise in deploying and customizing Microsoft Dynamics solutions.

The process of earning your MBS competency will not begin until you have already completed several successful sales and implementations, and have earned at least three customer references. This hurdle helps to ensure that only our proven partners earn this competency.

This is an excellent opportunity to go back and ensure that you have acquired the solution selling and implementation skills necessary to ensure high customer satisfaction ratings, and to earn these invaluable customer references.

Become a Microsoft Certified Partner Microsoft Certified Partners hold the strongest advantage in the market, competing head-to-head for top opportunities, and earning the highest billable rates. Additionally, benefits for Certified Partners include access to premier content on the Microsoft Partner Portal to assist you with expanding your skills, retaining and growing market share, and increasing customer satisfaction.

In order to become a Certified Partner, you must have a certain number of certified professionals on staff. These goals help you accumulate MSPP Points, which are a way of quantifying and rewarding our partners’ continued involvement and achievement. 50 MSPP Points are required to become a Certified Partner; during an ongoing partner recruitment promotion, earning the MBS Competency will qualify you in full.

Building Your Solution: An Introduction

Build Your Solution

Microsoft Dynamics products are designed to be solution offerings that help your customers positively impact their financial management and customer relationship business processes. In fact, Microsoft Dynamics ERP products are sold in Business-Ready Editions that address core financial management needs, while offering extensible capabilities to be matched with any specific industry profile.

At Microsoft, we're dedicated to helping you develop and deliver solutions that can increase your revenue and profit potential even higher. In our experience top performing partners incrementally add value on top of the Microsoft Dynamics Business Essentials and Advanced Management editions such that a complete solution can be presented to your customers.

Add complementary support services
Partner Service Plans for Microsoft Dynamics keep your employees skilled and ready, your implementations successful, and enables you to add complementary services to add additional value and keep your customers satisfied.

Add complementary software and services
Microsoft Dynamics offers one of the industry’s richest portfolios of partner built business solutions to automate and improve financial systems, strengthen customer relationships and streamline supply chain management. The Microsoft Dynamics Partner Solution Finder enables you to quickly and easily find complementary software and services that enables you to add more value to your customers.

As a Microsoft Dynamics registered partner you also have an exclusive networking and resource-sharing community that can help you expand your business opportunities. Through the community including events in selected cities you can create partnerships with complementary solution providers across industries, geographies, or competencies.

Build a Custom Solution

Partners with an ISV business focused on meeting the needs of specific industries are ready to go to the next level of solution building. Microsoft wants to help you bring your ISV applications to market quickly and cost-effectively.

Design Solutions for Customers’ Specific Needs
The Microsoft Sure Step Business Modeler provides a visualization tool to help your customers create, explore and customize the people, departments and processes in an organization. This is an ideal approach to use in sales situations to show an understanding of a customer’s business and industry and help visualize solutions.

Top performing partners (such as Certified Microsoft Partners with a proven ISV Competency) can add incremental revenue and profit by charging for these business diagnostic services.

Once you have got your solution to the point where you feel confident bringing it to market, it is time to begin filling your sales pipeline with leads. Your partner business plan will help you greatly, in determining where to place your marketing bets in both the short term and long term. If you have not created one, this would be an ideal time to do so.

Filling Your Pipeline: An Introduction

Connect With Campaigns

Reach out to potential customers. Create demand. And increase sales. Leverage a collection of robust marketing tools and compelling product information to help you engage clients and capitalize on revenue-generating business opportunities.

Profile Your Solution

Microsoft Dynamics offers one of the industry’s richest portfolios of partner-built business solutions to automate and improve financial systems, strengthen customer relationships and streamline supply chain management.

The Microsoft Dynamics Partner Solution Finder enables potential customers to quickly and easily find the solution they need for their specific business needs. The Solution Finder also features strong support for solutions which have been industry-tailored.

For emerging Microsoft Dynamics Partner Practices such as yours, listing your solution in this resource can be a strong way to fill your pipeline with prospects. To list your solution, complete the Partner Solution Profiler.

Assess Your Customer’s Business Needs

When engaging with prospects in your pipeline, you are hoping to discover a business need that lines up with the capabilities of your Microsoft Dynamics solution. Once you have discovered the existence of a need, you are in perfect position to act as a trusted advisor. Help your customer assess that need, and provide guidance that will help them review vendors and their products.

Microsoft Dynamics has launched an innovative product campaign titled “Everyone gets it.” The supporting website, http://everyonegetsit.com, features an interactive presentation based on the typical needs and business pains of five customer roles across six major industries:

Evaluate Microsoft Dynamics versus Competitive Offerings

Your customers may currently use products from other software vendors, or they may consider such products and wonder how Microsoft Dynamics compares. This Dynamics Product Comparison Portal offers a customer-facing information source that can help you and your customers compare Microsoft Dynamics head to head with other vendors’ offerings.

On this portal, you will find direct capability comparisons between Microsoft Dynamics and products from Oracle, SAP, and Sage. You will also find illuminating market research that goes in-depth into these comparisons. (For example, a recent field study conducted by Keystone Strategy discovered an 18% advantage in user productivity from using Microsoft Dynamics ERP, as compared with SAP.)

More Competitive Selling Materials
PartnerSource and the Microsoft Partner Portal have a rich repository of additional proof points and evidence that helps you best position Microsoft Dynamics Solutions versus the competition: Competitive discussion guides, case studies, and presentations.

Demonstrate Your Capabilities

The Demo Showcase provides you with a series of predefined Microsoft Dynamics customer scenarios that showcase the rich capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics solutions. The Showcase environment provides you with a rich and quick to launch approach to deliver great demonstrations that stimulate solution envisioning discussions with your customers.

Dynamics Demonstration Scripts
You can find Dynamics-specific demonstration scripts on PartnerSource that show how Microsoft Dynamics products successfully implement into horizontal business processes such as Payroll, Purchasing, and Inventory.

Close Your Sales and Sell Product Licenses

Your step-by-step roadmap to closing deals with the appropriate software license will follow one of two paths, as prescribed by your chosen Microsoft Dynamics product discipline. Here is an introduction to the two primary paths, and your available licensing options:

ERP Partners

As a registered Microsoft Dynamics Partner with a signed SPA, you have exclusive access to purchase, sell and support Microsoft Dynamics ERP products. In addition, you have exclusive access to provide Business Ready licensing to your customers. For ready to go partners the Microsoft Dynamics ERP Business Essentials Edition is a great way to start selling Microsoft Dynamics ERP.

Microsoft Dynamics ERP Business Essentials Edition
The Microsoft Dynamics ERP Business Essentials Edition addresses core financial management needs and includes essential features for integrated financial and business management. It is streamlined for ease of installation, rapid user adoption, and affordability.

Financial management:

• General Ledger
• Accounts Receivable
• Accounts payable
• Fixed asset management

Supply chain management:

• Sales order processing
• Purchase order processing
• Accounts payable
• Inventory management

Business intelligence and reporting:

• Microsoft FRx Desktop (1 user)

Basic configuration and development tools
In addition to core functionality, the Business Essentials Foundation Pack includes one full access user license. Additional full access users and partial access users may be licensed.

A limited set of additional components—such as payroll components—may also be licensed for this edition.

In addition to having exclusive access to sell Microsoft Dynamics ERP through Business Ready licensing, Registered Partners can also sell Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server products (Workgroup, Professional & Enterprise editions and Client Access Licences (CAL’s)) through the Microsoft Open volume licensing program. This program is available through the broad reselling channel.

Follow up:

• How to place an order
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM How to Buy
• Microsoft Volume licensing program

CRM Partners

The process for registered Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partners with a signed CSA (but no SPA reseller agreement in place) is as follows:

• Participate in your customer’s pre-sale Microsoft Dynamics CRM software assessments and recommendations.
• Serve as the primary post-sale Microsoft Dynamics CRM implementation service partner for your customers.
• Earn Microsoft fees of up to 25%* per customer order through Microsoft Volume Licensing.

* Partners must pass their CSA certification requirements to earn fees.

Registered Partners with a signed SPA reseller agreement can sell Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server products (Workgroup, Professional & Enterprise editions and Client Access Licences (CAL’s)) through the Microsoft Open volume licensing program. This program is available through the broad reselling channel.

Follow up:

• Microsoft Dynamics CRM How to Buy
• Microsoft Volume licensing program
• Claim CSA Fees for CRM Sales

Sell ERP and CRM

Business ready licensing enables you to sell a second Microsoft Dynamics ERP solution. The Microsoft Dynamics ERP Advanced Management Edition is a great way to add more value to your customers and build a strong Microsoft Dynamics practice.

Microsoft Dynamics Advanced Management Edition The Microsoft Dynamics Advanced Management edition addresses the needs of organizations that are looking for a solution with an extensive set of advanced financial and sales functionality. All the functionality of the Business Essentials Edition is included plus the following: Advanced financial management: Cash management Collections management Advanced business intelligence and reporting Customer relationship management: Microsoft CRM Professional or Enterprise Server (at least one user licence must be purchased) Manufacturing Advanced supply-chain management: Bill of materials Requisition management In addition, the Advanced Management Foundation Pack includes one full access user license. Additional full access users and partial access users may be licensed. Follow Up: How to place an order Additional Components Some of your customers may have even more complex needs; additional Advanced Management Enterprise components are available. These additional components let you extend the Advanced Management edition by providing the following rich set of advanced functionality: Advanced manufacturing functionality, including shop management, capacity planning and job costing Field Service Management Advanced Project Management Advanced configuration and development tools including source code access

• Connect with a community of sales peers and Microsoft team members who specialize in your area of focus sharing best practices and sales tips.

• Develop skills that enhance your sales teams’ capability to solution-sell Microsoft Dynamics products and services.

• Find and use solution selling training and coaching, job aids, competitive Information, presentation resources, demos and demo Scripts, Incentives and Offers.

Add Solution Selling skills with training from the Partner Learning Center
Discover a proven, practical, cost-effective selling approach, available exclusively to Microsoft Certified and Gold Certified Partners. Find training on the Partner Learning Center.

Servicing and Supporting Customers

The ultimate goal of selling business solution software is to ensure that your customers can use it to increase their productivity. This requires expert installation by your certified personnel, and an emphasis on service and support following your implementation.

You can deliver service and support to customers in a few different ways that does not require you to certify a full support staff of your own: By leveraging the benefits of your Partner Service Plan, or by selling a Customer Support Plan to your customer.

Value to Microsoft Dynamics Partners
Depending on the Partner Service Plan you’ve signed up for, you have an allotment of support resources to give you expert help while servicing your customer. On PartnerSource, you can find how to open and track a new support incident.

Selling a Customer Service Plan
Microsoft complements your support services with a variety of customer-facing service plans that include corporate support. These services are called Microsoft Software Assurance. Depending on your customer’s needs, support plans from basic to advanced are available as well as 24-hour a day, everyday access to online self-support information. These options include:

• Desktop Deployment support.

• Vouchers for Training and E-learning.

• Access to CustomerSource.

• 24x7 Problem Resolution Support.

• Subscriptions to TechNet.

• Extended Hotfix support.