Wortell accelerated proposal development, improved offering quality and competitiveness, and raised margins using Microsoft® Practice Accelerators (“PAs”). Adopting Microsoft’s standardized practice development materials and processes allows company architects to develop new practices in half the time previously needed. The company leveraged PA’s best practices, content, and tools to improve repeatability across its services portfolio. Using its new and updated offerings, Wortell consultants prepare and deliver customer solutions 10-to-20% faster, resulting in a net profitability growth of 15%. The company’s sales success rate has gone up by 10 points, while customer satisfaction and repeat business have increased.

Situation

The Dutch professional services firm Wortell recognized a market opportunity to offer deployment services as general availability of Windows 7 and Microsoft® Office 2010 approached. The company expected that existing and potential customers would be planning upgrades from prior Windows and Office versions and needed to develop a compelling service offering.

Wortell wanted to shorten the normal service development process without sacrificing important aspects of the offering or compromising quality. Time-to-market was important because their usual build schedule would mean completing the offering after Windows and Office had launched. Being late to market would have allowed their competitors to make inroads with Wortell’s customers.

Prompted by their need for fast results developing deployment services, Wortell was focused on rapid completion of their deployment offering. However, acceleration and efficiency of the build cycle was relevant to all new service offerings. While increasing margins and getting to market quickly were essential, delivering better quality was most important.

Solution

Not only did the PA give us DOWO knowledge but it helped us improve overall as a company. Danny Burlage, TCO Wortell

Wortell technical architects, project managers, and technical specialists attended the “Desktop Optimization with Windows and Office (‘DOWO’)” and “Server Virtualization with Advanced Management (‘SVAM’) Practice Accelerator (‘PA’)” sessions during the summer of 2010. 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 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.

Upon their return, they shared what they learned with everyone involved in planning the new service. Using PA as the foundation, Wortell quickly developed their deployment offering. The project was so effective that they decided to review all of their practices to achieve consistency across their portfolio. Wortell’s TCO Danny Burlage asserts, “Not only did the PA give us DOWO knowledge, but it helped us improve overall as a company.”

Benefits

Practice Accelerators enable Wortell to cut development time while increasing quality and efficiency across multiple engagements. “If we use a Practice Accelerator we can easily save half of the time,” says Burlage. Architects incorporate the PA tools, virtual machines, documents, and presentations extensively in their proposals. Because the PA methodology and deliverables are Microsoft-created, rigorously validated, and comprehensive, they no longer have to build from scratch.

In addition, Wortell has reduced preparation time by 10-to-20% for every project. This repeatable methodology ensures project proposals are accurate and clarifies customer expectations. According to Burlage, PAs save time by “ensuring we don’t overlook anything and have all the information needed to plan and deliver each practice.”

By effectively reducing delivery time, they were able to complete more engagements and increase profitability by 15%. This allows Wortell to provide the same, or even better, quality without raising fees to their customers. Deployment projects that took twenty days can now be completed in seventeen. Consultants are more efficient and their annual utilization goes up.

Another key benefit of Practice Accelerators is the standardization of the customer experience. “We have a lot of great people working in our company, but often some are on a learning curve. This makes sure quality is repeatable even with people who are more junior,” notes Burlage. For example, a junior-level consultant was able to leverage SVAM PA materials to convert a VMware customer to migrate their entire environment to Windows Server® 2008 R2 and Hyper-V®. Even experienced consultants benefit by using the SVAM PA’s complete toolset to more easily deliver standardized, quick, and high quality virtualization migration projects that save customers a lot of money.

We have a lot of great people working in our company, but often some are on a learning curve. This makes sure quality is repeatable even with people who are more junior. Danny Burlage, TCO Wortell

Customers have reacted positively to the post-PA service. Wortell uses the Microsoft Customer Satisfaction Tool (CSAT) available from the Microsoft Partner Network to assess delivery quality at the completion of every project. The number of clients saying they will retain Wortell for additional projects has increased 10% since the company began leveraging PAs.

The solutions are also easier to sell to new clients, resulting in increased sales close rate. Burlage credits using “a standardized delivery method that has the Microsoft seal of approval on it” for raising Wortell’s sales success rate from 75% to 85%.

Practice Accelerators help Wortell “ensure we do the right things in the right way, not overcommitting tasks. Because of the structure PAs ensure, we consistently get a great outcome,” declares Burlage.

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

For More Information

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www.microsoft.com

For more information about Wortell products and services, call (+31) 20-7505051 or visit the website at: http://www.wortell.nl/

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.