“Our customer satisfaction is at 100%. We see customers wanting to use more powerful tools like System Center so we are getting repeat business for more complex projects.” - Soon Man Kwon, Senior Technical Consultant, TechData


After attending the Microsoft® Desktop Optimization Practice Accelerator (“PA”), TechData developed a unified and consistent approach to deployment projects, shortened their sales cycle, and grew revenues while increasing customer satisfaction. The Microsoft brand helped improve TechData’s customer confidence, leading to repeat business and increased profits.

Situation
TechData, a Microsoft gold competency partner, provides platform, support, and solution services to maximize corporate computational management cost savings to clients in Korea. TechData’s practice development process was complex. Their consultants had extensive experience building solutions on the Microsoft® platform and were very familiar with Microsoft content. TechData wanted to use as much Microsoft built, branded, tested, and standardized content as possible to accelerate the development cycle for new services. The challenge they often faced was in reviewing Microsoft content to assess which approach would be most cost-effective and the highest quality for their clients. By studying and testing the proscribed methodologies, they developed the best project model. However, the process of research, review, and validation was extremely time consuming. The resulting deployment service offerings were hard to sell and expensive to deliver.

Once they had developed a solution practice and knew it was the best available for customers, they had to sell it in a highly competitive market. This was a significant challenge without independent validation. The cost of sales was high because of the extended sales cycle and the opportunity cost was high, constricting the company’s growth.

Our customers had challenges with which we couldn’t help them. After PA, we are no longer faced with this situation, saving us time and improving customer satisfaction. Soon Man Kwon Senior Technical Consultant TechData

Solution
TechData consultants attended the Microsoft® Desktop Optimization Practice Accelerator (“PA”). Designed to help partners build a services practice around Microsoft solutions, a Practice Accelerator is a comprehensive set of reusable tools, resources, and best practices introduced with training via Microsoft Office Live Meeting. It enables consultants to successfully identify customer requirements and project scope, design requirements, and deploy a solution. The complete documentation set includes project guides, templates, architecture guidance, as well as planning and design guides. TechData customized the PA tools, methodology, and customer deliverables to develop a delivery practices. Especially valuable to TechData’s solution is a Proof-of-Concept (“PoC”) Lite implementation that they deliver at no additional cost during deployment projects.

In line with TechData’s business philosophy of leveraging the Microsoft branding, their sales, marketing, and consulting teams all share the same PA playbook when developing client communications. They utilize PA’s tools to help clients create and deploy Microsoft Windows® 7 and Office 2010 images upgraded from Windows XP. Soon Man Kwon, Senior Technical Consultant, TechData credits the Desktop Optimization with Windows and Office (“DOWO”) PA for revitalizing their desktop deployment practice saying, “Our customers had challenges with which we couldn’t help them. This cost us time and impacted our customers’ satisfaction. After PA, we are no longer faced with this situation, saving us time and improving customer satisfaction.”

Benefits

The [DOWO PA] project included 28 of the 30 individual companies owned by STX Group and was so successful that STX revenue increased 100% over the previous three years average. Kim Hong-Tae CEO TechData

Adopting the DOWO PA has reduced the cost of developing, selling, and delivering deployment services. It allowed TechData to build a successful practice from the unviable solution they tried to build alone.

TechData’s adoption of the DOWO PA reduced their practice development costs by 30%, increased the number of projects by 50%, and cut project delivery time by 40%. The PA-based methodology has had other significant impact on TechData. By offering a proof-of-concept as a standard part of their projects, TechData shortened their sales cycle by 50%. They point to one example where the PoC Lite helped them to win a large project and secure an Enterprise Agreement renewal. They were in a highly competitive situation for a deployment project. Leveraging the PA methodology, beginning with a PoC Lite, TechData demonstrated to their customer, the STX Group, that they could complete the project 50% faster than the competition and won the deal. Kim Hong-Tae, CEO of TechData, described the impact on the STX Group, “The project included 28 of the 30 individual companies owned by STX Group and was so successful that STX revenue increased 100% over the previous three years average. We are happy to see the results our close relationship with STX and Microsoft have had on our customer and that their overall satisfaction continues to be excellent after project completion.”

Satisfied customers are coming back for more services and solutions. “Our customer satisfaction is at 100%. We see customers wanting to use more powerful tools like System Center so we are getting repeat business for more complex projects,” says Kwon. The increase in repeat business, enthusiastic customer feedback, and improvement in client satisfaction signals the successful reconfiguration and launch of the once unviable deployment practice, adding three new projects every month. “The most important thing is that we can save time for our customers,” says Kwon.

Members of the Microsoft Partner Network receive benefits to help expand their skill set, compete with confidence, and execute reliable deployments. Using their benefit of advisory hours, partners can take advantage of Microsoft’s Technical Enablement offerings (including Practice Accelerator) which provide essential overviews, best practices, and deep-dive technical skills on Microsoft solutions. Partners can also use their advisory hours for Technical Pre-Sales and Advisory Services to get customized guidance for competing, developing, and deploying solutions to effectively service their customers.

For more information:
Web: http://partner.microsoft.com/practiceaccelerator 
Email: ASKPTS@MICROSOFT.COM