By Karima Moudoub

“The recipe for successful tech innovation is changing. The strategies that worked in the 2010s will not work in the 2020s. Firms that make big bets on new business models, new ways of working, and new talent will be more adaptive and resilient to the disruptive forces that will characterize the 2020s.” – Brian Hopkins, VP and Principal Analyst, Forrester

One of those ‘new ways of working’ includes the creation of inclusive environments. At the most recent QPB (Quarterly Partner Briefing), members engaged in an in-depth discussion on two hot topics: ‘How to maintain business resiliency’ and ‘Why Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) is key for our IT landscape and our Society.’

A meeting of D&I-focused minds

Our team comprised a community of like-minded IT professionals from across EMEA. Each of our EMEA Committee leaders, as well as our guests from Microsoft, came with a testimonial of their own dedication to one of the pillars that undermines our inclusion culture, sometimes without us being aware of it, acknowledging that D&I stands for embracing any difference.

Together, partners reinforced their commitment to D&I by examining its top three objectives, within the IAMCP.

1. Drive a responsible approach from enterprises, HR, and recruiters in the IAMCP ecosystem based on Microsoft’s leadership in challenging the status quo and in bringing an equal opportunity of employment in the workspace by creating the conditions for a diverse and inclusive IT work environment for all in the technology sphere.
2. Create an appetite for partners to learn about our individual Unconscious Biases and consciously apply that learning in the workplace.
3. Evangelize and encourage IT leaders to open their eyes to the need for change and to drive behaviour towards it however they can within their organisations from the top down.

In establishing the overarching objectives of D&I, the group felt it important to define the pillars that drive D&I to impact culture change through the IAMCP community members and guests. These were identified as Gender, Ethnicity, Age, Sexual Orientation, Religion and Differences, such as disabilities.

The importance of D&I in the next decade

The IT pace for business growth worldwide is creating job opportunities, and it doesn’t appear that it will slow down any time soon. This is an ideal time to implement your D&I strategy to ensure that your roles attract the top talent through an inclusive environment that will shape the future of the IT industry and broaden the scope of talent from which to choose.

Become a D&I ambassador

Challenge the status quo within your own organisation. Encourage your team to learn about Unconscious Bias and how it can affect our habits in recruiting that cause us to surround ourselves with like-minded individuals or others who look like us or share a similar profile. Become aware of the minority groups within your company and engage with them, then make hires that reflect the scope of those differences.

Learn more about the IAMCP’s commitment to D&I and become an ambassador for an inclusive environment in your organisation. Also, explore the range of free articles on D&I topics offered by LinkedIn to help foster allyship.

“It’s more important than ever to specialise as an IT solution provider. And that means finding complementary business partners to go to market with to provide complete solutions to your customers." – IDC Research

In this era of specialisation, single-handedly meeting a client’s needs with an end-to-end technology solution is an ongoing challenge for small-medium businesses. With the lightning-speed of tech evolution that we are witnessing today, specialisation is important, but addressing the scope of a customer’s requirements is equally so.

That’s where Partner-to-Partner (P2P) relationships can help to set you, and the partner(s) you select to work with, above the noise. Because when experts in their respective fields collaborate, the result is a best-in-class solution – and a satisfied customer – because partners can achieve great things when they work together.

We’ve heard time and again from IAMCP members that P2P relationships have been the golden egg that helped them to drive their businesses forward, creating new opportunities, locally, nationally and even globally – and those opportunities are the reason that many join the IAMCP.

The P2P success secret-sauce

All that said, developing a partnership that will withstand the tests of time and deliver business results takes more than simply the desire to make it happen. Here are some time-tested tips from five-time IAMCP President, Per Werngren:

1. Develop a strategic plan

Having a roadmap for your partnership will help you to steer it in the right direction, over time. The P2P Maturity Model is a great framework for creating a structured approach toward successful partnering, together with your partners. A structured, collaborative plan will help to lay a solid foundation for the partnership and achieve greater success than an ad hoc approach. It will also ensure that everyone understands their role and make it easier to revisit and tweak the plan annually.

2. Consider not just the partner relationship you want, but the kind of partner you want to be

Make your partners an integral part of your operation and build trust by being totally transparent under a formal non-disclosure agreement (NDA).

3. Clearly define your area of expertise

Establish your core focus based on what you are truly great at eliminate all efforts to sell and deliver in areas where you cannot compete at a world-class level. Today's environment is highly competitive, so it’s important to spend your time and money on solutions where you stand out as a leading player and let fellow partners help you with non-core needs.

4. Ensure that you have top-down P2P buy-in

A successful partnership takes commitment at all levels of the organisation. Senior leadership might need help to see the value of a P2P relationship. Understanding the financial benefits might help them to see the bigger picture and will lead to the greater success of the partnership.

5. Align with companies that are experts in areas where you cannot compete

Forge partnerships with companies that can help you in the areas where your customers need help but that are outside your own scope. Invest time in mapping your needs and create a longer list of potential partners that you can then narrow down to a shorter list.

6. Select partners that can help you expand into other geographies

If geographic expansion is your objective, this approach carries much less risk and cost than opening branch offices or subsidiaries in those areas. Consider your needs and identify what you can bring to the table that will help companies in other areas to sell their services.

7. Ensure that the partnership is mutually beneficial

When everyone in the partnership feels that the relationship is financially successful, the partnership will thrive. When selling each other's billable hours and services, make sure that the margin is be the same for both and nobody is getting a better deal. By establishing equal and strong margins for all parties, everyone will be happier with the arrangement.

8. Value sales through your partners as equal to sales generated directly

When your salespeople receive the same level of compensation for deals through partnerships as for deals done directly, they will feel that they are part of the greater team and won’t be threatened by the relationship. Compensation drives behaviour, which, in turn, drives the bottom line.

9. Assign ownership

Someone in your organisation needs to be responsible for nurturing and developing your partnerships, because the nurtured relationship is a thriving relationship.

10. Approach challenges with resolution in mind

Problems can arise in any partnership and taking a strategic approach to resolution can help everyone to feel involved in the solution. When things go bad, invest in resolving issues in a way that makes the customer and your partners willing to continue working with you. Together with your partners, analyse what you can improve to avoid future problems. Long-term partnerships are the most profitable and, by being willing to learn from problems, you can deepen your relationships with other partners.

If a P2P relationship is in your cross-hairs, what better place to be than the Microsoft ecosystem, which is chock full of top-level partners with which to build mutually beneficial and rewarding partnerships.

“Microsoft has always been a partner-led company, and we’ll always be a partner-led company. What really drives us, what makes it all possible is your passion, your commitment, and your drive to make us better.” – Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft

By Paul Solski and Per Werngren

“The magic happens when people get together – either in person or virtually. And, the more people, the greater the opportunity.” – Per Werngren, 5-Term President, IAMCP Worldwide

If your main reason for joining the IAMCP was P2P (Partner-to-Partner) opportunities, you’re in good company.

And, if you’re seeking ways to take those partnership opportunities beyond your local chapter and into broader geographies, read on.

Whenever we ask members why they joined the IAMCP, we’re almost certain of what the answer will be: forging partner relationships that will drive deals and help build businesses. As the world’s largest community of Microsoft partners, the IAMCP is ‘the place to be’ for partner-to-partner connections. Just as, in marketing, we know that we need to be where our customers are; in partnership success, we need to be where our partners are.

From Chapter Alliances to Global Partnerships

You might be wondering what the P2P Opportunity Groups (POGs) are all about. In a nutshell, P2P Opportunity Groups are a tremendous new value opportunity for your business. It delivers on the IAMCP’s core promise of enabling members to grow their businesses, collectively.

Understanding the power and importance of P2P relationships for our members, the IAMCP’s goal with this initiative is to facilitate partnerships and help to expand members’ reach from the local chapter to across regions and across the world.

This can mean different things to different people. For some, wider expansion means making partner alliances in other cities within their country. For others, it’s about creating relationships in other international regions, learning the nuances of another culture, and understanding how to conduct business in a different country.

Whatever it means to you, the IAMCP P2P Opportunity Groups are here to help you build trusted relationships on a global level.

Making P2P Practical, Accessible and Scalable

The brainchild of the P2P committee, the P2P Opportunity Groups will offer member-specific, business-focused opportunities tailored to specific areas of interest.

In a recent 3-month pilot program conducted in the Americas, members made requests via a survey for groups focused on Manufacturing, Business Applications, MSPs, ISVs, and Business Development (Sales, Marketing, and Growth). More recently, groups that address Modern Workplace, Security, Financial Services, and Healthcare have been added to the roster of choices.

The pilot program saw an attendee rate of over 400 attendees, with 18-44 members per session and many attending multiple times. The virtual sessions consisted of a short introductory period, followed by small breakout sessions, each 15 mins in duration, in which members discussed their respective skills and asked the question, “What can we take to market with a partner?”

Almost immediately, members began posting opportunities in the chat area, indicating that there are myriad untapped opportunities ready for the right partner to bring them to fruition.

The next phase of the P2P Opportunity Groups program is a full roll-out to EMEA, APAC, and expanded topics in the Americas.

“Carpe diem (seize the day)! The P2P Opportunity Groups truly deliver on IAMCP’s core value to members: business growth through collaboration. By participating in the POGs, you will be able to win more opportunities, provide better solutions and address more markets. Register now to leverage this unique benefit for your success.” – Paul Solski, International P2P Lead & IAMCP Seattle President

Interested in New P2P Opportunities?

Visit the IAMCP website for more information – and take advantage of this opportunity to broaden your partnership reach and grow your business.

Per Werngren 5-Term President, IAMCP Worldwide		Paul Solski P2P Lead & IAMCP Seattle President

Microsoft Inspire has wrapped up for yet another year, leaving partners across the globe with new information and fresh inspiration to use technology to set them apart in their specific areas of business.

Once again, taking place as a virtual event due to the ongoing social constraints of the pandemic, Microsoft Inspire 2021 pulled out all the stops to include, educate and entertain everyone in attendance.

Something for everyone

True to form, Microsoft Inspire 2021 featured a wide array of topics ranging from technology updates and breakthroughs to educational forums on partner-to-partner (P2P) alliances and business development opportunities to social impact sessions, such as accessibility and equity in the workplace. Topics were covered by the BCPA (Black Channel Partner Alliance), WIT (Women in Technology), Women in Cloud, and many more.

Each year, the conference delivers something new, and this year was no exception. One of our favourite aspects of the event was the unique way in which content could be accessed after the conference. It was announced that each item that an attendee stored in their virtual backpack would be available in transcript format post-event, making it easy for partners to save their preferred content and refer to it again and again.

A few key highlights

The ever-engaging Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft, delivered the opening keynote address, reinforcing the importance of the trust on which the Microsoft cloud is built. He stressed that cybersecurity has never been such a great threat, making data more important than ever. He emphasized the need for companies to become sovereign in their data protection, with every organization essentially becoming a technology company in its own right.

Building on last year’s tour of Microsoft’s hometown, Richmond, Brad Smith, President of Microsoft, took us on a virtual field trip: “Hometown Heroes.” Along with Brad, we toured several towns and cities where we met Microsoft employees working to improve in areas such as access, digital skilling, cybersecurity, and environmental protection.

Judson Althoff, Chief Commercial Officer, Microsoft, brought our focus to Digital Optimism, encouraging us to ‘find the positive and be the positive, particularly in the light of the pandemic and its personal, societal, and economic impacts that have challenged us over the past year. Every organization is on a digital journey, striving to achieve greater agility and resiliency, and technology has a great role to play in the world’s recovery.

Nick Parker, Corporate Vice President Global Partner Solutions, addressed the importance of Microsoft as the best partner for business growth, with Microsoft cloud innovation, go-to-market scale, and differentiation opportunities, as well as the investments Microsoft is making in the partner ecosystem.

Jared Spataro, Corporate Vice President, Modern Work, and Alysa Taylor, CVP Industry, Apps, and Data Marketing, discussed how the Microsoft Cloud is the only cloud built for the new world of work. With 145 million daily active users, Teams has become the primary collaboration tool for organizations, whether remote or in office environments.

Of course, Microsoft Inspire 2021 featured many more engaging speakers – too many to mention here – no fewer than 14 of which are IAMCP members.

As ever, the Partner Lounge drew partners from across the globe, seeking to connect or re-connect virtually with like-minded associates.

We hope you enjoyed Microsoft Inspire 2021 and used the backpack feature to get the most out of the sessions that matter most to you.

Watch for news coming soon on the next IAMCP QPB (Quarterly Partner Briefing), another opportunity to connect, learn and grow.

Data-driven marketing refers to the methodology of extracting actionable insights tied to consumer behaviour from large data sets in order to predict consumer behaviour in relation to new products, marketing positioning and users’ likelihood of interacting with a brand.

Throughout the past year, marketing has changed dramatically as companies strive to communicate with customers in a rapidly evolving landscape, due to the pandemic. This has meant that marketers have had to innovate and must now rely more than ever on information about prospects and their purchasing proclivity – you’ve likely noticed this shift in your own organization – and those answers lie in data.

Our expectation is that this trend will continue and that the evolution we see in front of us will become the status quo for marketing over the next three years.

So, what’s next for marketers and what can we expect? Here are five predictions to watch for:

Trend #1: Marketing Integration

Marketing departments can expect to be under increasing pressure to create value across their organisations. This will mean that marketing will no longer be an isolated department, with marketing becoming a deeply ingrained discipline in a number of areas of the business.

Trend #2: Sales, Product & Marketing on the buyer journey

The above prediction will see an increase in the roles of sales and product departments, as an extension of the marketing team.

Each will be striving to put in the right piece of information in front of the right person at the right time to help move them through the buyer journey. This will also require internal alignment to sell initiatives to stakeholders.

Trend #3: Accountability for marketing spend

Stakeholders will be the decision-makers as to whether or not marketing initiatives will proceed, based on their alignment with the overall goals of the organisation, so teams will require solid projections for performance and ROI. A data-driven approach to selling promotional activities internally will be key to success.

Trend #4: Pursuit of insights

Data will continue to play a role in what will become a relentless pursuit of insights from within different areas of the company. While we might not yet be seeing this trend at the enterprise level, it’s definitely where we are headed.

Trend #5: Harnessing machine learning

This is where data will become a competitive differentiator, so expect to see leaders asking increasingly more frequent questions about how to use current and historical data to gain insights that will predict consumer behaviour and provide a marketing advantage.

If you’ve relied on gut instinct for the design of your marketing initiatives, it may have worked in the past, but the future lies in the collection of data that you can use to drive your marketing decisions and create relevant and personalized experiences for your customers.

Some things to consider

As you build out your data-driven marketing approach, you will want to focus on the entire customer journey, while paying attention to each step of the sales funnel. For example, you can look at whether or not the user will engage with your website, how long they stay, what they do and the kind of experience they have.

You can also consider pricing strategies and how you can experiment with them, such as upselling and cross-selling, and how to keep bringing the customer back so that they dive deeper into the dynamics journey with your organisation.

Additionally, you can consider ways in which to build loyalty so that the customer becomes a brand advocate, or referral source.

Even at the top of the funnel, a data-driven approach should have as much automation as possible to help drive traffic creatively – asking yourself the right questions along the way is key.

Four key steps to growth

1. Creative Marketing

Data-driven creative uses inside machine learning to create personalized ads that boost your return on investment. These can be employed in specific media campaigns to provide real value to the customer, leading them to take action by triggering their attention. This requires the right combination between the medium and the message; once you have an established flow of customers, you can begin testing creative options.

2. Data and Testing

In this step, you begin using the data, both hard and soft, that you have gathered, tracking it across the entire buyer journey. This experimentation and testing of how to improve conversions are what we refer to as lean marketing.

3. Behavioural Psychology

In this context, buyer behaviour and psychology are used in tandem to alleviate the stress of shopping, as well as to personalize, streamline and elevate the customer experience. The combination of data testing with behavioural psychology reveals the sweet spot for conversion optimization.

4. Automation

Finally, once you have run your testing to find out what works, you can use coding and automation to build those successes directly into the product, either by systemizing it or by productizing it. The combination of automation and creative marketing results in technical marketing.

Identification of how each sphere in this model works for your organization results in meaningful growth.

Traditionally, marketers used a timeline, a plan and a correlating budget to be allocated to a project, evaluating the results at the summation of the campaign. Emerging trends are based much more on a learning approach, where rapid testing is used to enable adjustments and course correction in situ to optimise success and improve ROI, while also providing the relevant data for future investment.

The benefits of using Big Data

Gain better clarity about your target audience. Customer information allows you to gain a laser-sharp understanding of your target audience, enabling you to better predict their future behaviour. Your historical data is key to helping you spot patterns, which you can then parallel with your funnel for deeper situational understanding. As a result, you will reach your customers with the right message at the right time and can begin tuning and refining each stage of your funnel.

Build stronger connections with potential customers. Campaign data will help you adjust in real-time in order to match the engagement of your target audience, enabling you to deliver a campaign that will match your audience’s expectations in a continuum.

Uncover the best channels for promotion. It’s important to show up where your customers are. Here, the principle is to understand where your target audience is, as the data could reveal not only your target audience preferences, but suggest the channels your brand should be using to engage now, and in the future, to help you position your campaign and messaging.

Personalisation. Today’s customers are very skeptical about the generic marketing messages that we all receive on a daily basis so, to engage them, marketers must focus on personalising the individual experience. According to ZoomInfo, 78% of organisations say that data-driven marketing increases lead conversion and customer acquisition. In addition, a study from Forbes reveals that, for 66% of marketing leaders, use of data leads to an increase in customer acquisition. It’s important for marketers to shift to a customer-centric mindset, then use the data to improve communication with them.

The key is to view data as a language that is helping you to better understand your customers and embrace it as a tool to drive customer engagement and, ultimately, increased ROI.

Barriers to data-driven marketing adoption – and how to overcome them

When we look at the many benefits of data-driven marketing, it makes one wonder why everyone isn’t doing it, yet according to Campaign Monitor, 81% of marketers consider implementing a data-driven strategy to be extremely complicated. Here are four tips to getting started:

1. Gathering the data

Many marketers feel overwhelmed by collecting customer information, wondering where to find it and how to handle the sheer volume of information. It’s easy to understand how it could seem overwhelming to embark on a project of such magnitude.

Most likely, this data already exists within your organization, but it can be challenging to work with it in an isolated way with an already burgeoning workload. We all know that our companies have data from CRM tools, web analytics, e-commerce, social media. So, that’s where it is.

2. Pulling it all together

For optimal use, your data must be as fresh as possible. If you can, use real-time information, otherwise your data should be updated frequently – at least once per week. The challenge is that manually pulling and updating all this data on a regular basis is a very tedious and monstrous task, especially if you are compiling the information in a spreadsheet. This challenge can be overcome with a data dashboard – and there are many great tools for this that enable you to tailor your dashboard to your unique needs.

3. Overcoming data silos to analyze the data

Few companies store all their data in one place, such as a data warehouse, but have it spread out between locations, teams, or departments, rendering them unable to provide a single customer review. As a result, it is difficult to have one narrative within a whole ecosystem and run baseline reports on past marketing performance.
Unfortunately, for most companies, breaking down the data silos will be an arduous process, which typically involves setting up common data standards, changing the culture of data exchange and embracing marketing analytics platforms. Marketing teams could consider a CRM solution.

4. Building an in-house data team

personal experience: years ago, I found myself handling five different platforms, 20,000 products, six different markets and three currencies. This meant a tremendous amount of data and I didn’t have a single view of it. I took the approach of working more closely with the product team, which had a data analyst, and we built a ‘one view’ to bring in the live data from different channels as a band-aid solution. The point is here that you don’t need to build immediately if it is too overwhelming to hire an expert, or do a huge transformation in your business; you can start small with a person who is trained to build these reporting sheets, for example.

What I learned was that, once my colleagues and the larger organization started seeing the value of having this approach, the idea became popular and we then became a more data-driven organization. This resulted in positive changes in how we communicated and made decisions.

There’s no one answer for this one. You can start small, or you can make the radical decision to make a huge transformation – it’s likely a broader business decision for the organisation.

Regardless of the size of your organization, nature of your business, or the geography in which you are located, data-driven marketing can help you achieve exponential growth – along with a better understanding of, and relationship with, your customers.

So, what are you waiting for?

The team delved into why they are so passionate about D&I and encouraged the audience to become D&I ambassadors. Openness to diversity widens our access to the best talent. Inclusion allows us to engage talent effectively. Together, this leads to enhanced innovation, creativity, productivity, reputation, engagement, and results. 

Leading from the great conversations we had at QBP, we asked some of our members what D&I means to them; this month we showcase a video from Karima Mouboub – EMEA D&I Lead.

This time last year, the world was in the initial throes of pandemic life and the associated work/life adjustments were new to all of us. Move forward one year and we have learned how to convene virtually to learn and collaborate with our clients, our colleagues – and our IAMCP community.

The May IAMCP QPB was a classic example of how our leadership has come together to ensure that the IAMCP mantra  “Connect. Learn. Grow.”  can thrive in a virtual environment, delivering an event that covered all the important elements of the association’s promise and providing real business value to the IAMCP members and Microsoft Partners who participated around the world.

A Few Highlights

The May QPB delivered a broad spectrum of topics so, regardless of your area of business growth, there was valuable information for every attendee.

We heard about the benefits of  Partnering  – and how to do it effectively;  expansion into other geographic markets  – why, when, and how, along with things to consider before you leap, and the  Value of IAMCP Membership .

There were sessions on  achieving more with Microsoft , such as the  new competency system , effective use of  Solution Workspace,  and  new technologies in Azure . In addition,  Gavriella Schuster , Corporate Vice President, Microsoft, addressed many aspects of  revenue growth with Microsoft  in her keynote address.

If Marketing is your area of focus, you might be interested in learning more about  emerging marketing trends , or even new approaches to  lead generation .

For those seeking the competitive benefits of a strategic approach to hiring, there were sessions on the importance of  skilled talent, where to find it , and alternate  talent sources through Microsoft .

D&I  (Diversity & Inclusion) initiatives continue to rise in popularity across many business sectors and that was reflected in the May QPB, which hosted no fewer than  21 sessions  covering topics such as  accessibility, allyship, mentoring for inclusion, unconscious bias , and many more.

In addition, there were  local chapter sessions  from countries across different regions – and the launch of the  LATAM Virtual Chapter.  Of course, the ever-popular  IAMCP Lounge  was available, where members convened for  Happy Hour  at the end of the two-day event.

Recognition and Appreciation

As mentioned by Sarika Malhotra, President, IAMCP International, in her foreword for this edition of our newsletter, the IAMCP presents its Prometheus Award annually to a Microsoft staff member who has demonstrated an exceptional level of service and commitment to IAMCP Partners. 

The IAMCP is delighted to present the 2021 Prometheus Award to Gavriella Schuster, with our deepest appreciation for her commitment to the IAMCP and its members across the globe.

In addition, Gavriella’s support of the IAMCP will be recognized in perpetuity through the new  Gavriella Schuster D&I Partner Award , as well as the  Gavriella Schuster Equity and Parity Seat on the D&I Advisory Board . 

“I'm left speechless after the IAMCP Quarterly Partner Briefing. I'm super-humbled and emotional to receive this year’s Prometheus Award, and to learn of the new Parity & Equity seat on the #IAMCP D&I Advisory Board AND D&I Partner of the Year award in my name! A big thank you to the IAMCP International Board and everyone involved.”  – Gavriella Schuster

Missed Something? No Problem

All sessions are now available on a view-on-demand basis for those who registered to attend this virtual event. They will be available to  non-members until Monday, May 31, 2021; for  IAMCP members, access is available until Tuesday, August 31, 2021 .

Please sign in to access the event platform, click on the sessions tab and view the sessions of your choice.

We thank you for attending and hope to see you at the next virtual IAMCP QPB.

The recent QPB (Quarterly Partner Briefing) was chock full of interesting and educational sessions for Partners – so many that it would be difficult to attend them all.

If you missed some sessions that were of interest to you, there’s good news: the sessions have now been uploaded as gated content on the MPN, where you can access them when you are logged in with an MPN ID. The menu of sessions and related links is below:

As you may have read in the foreword of the IAMCP International April 2021 Newsletter, the next QPB is scheduled for May 19-20; the platform will be live the week of May 10 so that you can view the session times and build your personal agenda.

Yes, it’s that time of the year again. The time when Microsoft partners can look back at their achievements over the past year and take the opportunity to enter a submission for the annual Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards (PoYA). 

The Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards acknowledge outstanding successes and innovations by partners in over 100 countries and in a wide variety of categories, including partner competencies, cloud to edge technologies, entrepreneurial spirit and social impact.

This year, there are more categories than ever before, making it even easier for partners to showcase their solutions and earn recognition for their work.

It’s not too late

The submission deadline is 11:59 P.M. Pacific time on April 21, 2021, so you still have lots of time to craft your entry and tell the story of your solution.

Is it worth the effort?

There are many business benefits to winning an award, such as:

• greater visibility for your company
• new or better business opportunities
• positive press coverage announcing your success
• increased market recognition
• customized logos that allow you to showcase your company as an esteemed Microsoft partner
• custom public relations templates to help promote your award status (for both winners and finalists)
• recognition collateral to help celebrate your success
• message of congratulations from a key Microsoft executive 

What’s important?

A well-crafted submission has a stronger chance of getting the judges' attention… and winning. Here are a few tips:

Every good story has a hero (you), a damsel-in-distress (your customer) and a villain (the problem that the solution addresses). Tell your story in an interesting manner and showcase how you solved a customer’s problem with your solution – a before and after scenario can help illustrate the scenario.

Take the time to read the guidelines to ensure that you meet the criteria for the award you have selected.

Make sure you answer all the questions – you don’t have to answer them chronologically, but make sure you address them in your story.

Remember to provide strong evidence that your solution was built on Microsoft technology and showcase its scalability for future growth.

Make sure that you submit your entry before the deadline: April 21.

You can download the awards guidelines and enter your submission here.

So, get writing – and best of luck.

By Aileen Provan

As we mark Women’s History Month this March, the IAMCP is honouring women in technology around the world and recognizing the hardships they have endured and changes they have undergone in the past year.

“The backward slide in women’s participation is worrisome and as a community we need to act to reverse this. As the economy limps back to normalcy, it is time to reassess and improve diversity within our workforce, create special programs for flex-work options and upskilling, and provide a conducive environment for women to return to work. It is our prerogative as a community to recognise the women who have contributed to our success and ensure they continue to thrive in an inclusive environment.

To my women colleagues, whatever the odds, don’t give up. Whether it is flexibility at work or starting something of your own, in the IAMCP community you will find all the support and mentorship you need.” – Sarika Malhotra, President, IAMCP International


The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics states that women accounted for 55% of the 20.5 million workers who became unemployed last April, compared to a 13% unemployment rate for men. In the U.S. alone, that’s a staggering total of 2.2 million women who have left the labour market during the pandemic.

In addition, a McKinsey study says that 68% of women report spending more hours on household duties than they did pre-pandemic – a second work shift for many.

It has been a full year since COVID-19 pandemic restrictions began to impact millions of lives across the globe. Much of what we formerly took for granted has disappeared, while we also see great opportunities to change some of the things we previously endured and accepted as the status quo.

None of us remains untouched by the societal constraints imposed to contain transmission of the virus, but some groups are more severely impacted than others. And one such group is: women.

Why are women more greatly impacted?

In addition to the disappearance of so-called non-essential jobs, many mothers who were still working in a work-from-home environment have had to leave their employment or reduce their working hours in order to balance work, childcare, eldercare and home-schooling responsibilities. And, as home-schooling parents can relate, women with several children in different grades are forced to become multiple teachers to address the educational needs of their family, while still trying to deliver quality work to their employers.

And, while technology has raced forward at warp speed to help organizations adapt to managing teams and delivering to clients from work-from-home environments, the situation is exacerbated. As companies adopt AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning) technologies to handle more and more tasks, jobs previously held by people are disappearing. Hard fact: most of those jobs are held by women.

So, what can be done?

In her recent TED Talk, ‘BeCOME an Ally: How to achieve gender equity’, Gavriella Schuster, Corporate Vice President, One Commercial Partner, Microsoft, shared some advice that can be incorporated at both the company- and individual-level to help change the gender-inequity pattern: “Become an Ally: breaking through the gender equity divide. Ignited by digital transformation and a global pandemic, the world is finally uncovering the gender gaps and inequities that have plagued women in our society for generations. Today, through technology democratization, purpose-driven leadership and male allyship we can close the gap of inequity and create a new narrative.”

Missed Gavriella’s TED Talk? You can view it here.

What does allyship look like?

For larger organizations with more robust resources, a Harvard Business Review article suggests an update to Human Resources policies to reflect the current needs of employees, offering attractive options, such as:

1. A leave of absence for pandemic-strained employees

Until governments implement relief policies, companies can create solutions to bring women back to work. Much like a maternity leave, a pandemic leave of absence could be from 6 month to a 12- to 18-month period, guaranteeing the employee the same level of seniority, if not the same job, upon her return to work.

This approach enables companies to keep their best employees with the organization, while building mutual support and loyalty.

2. Ensure the pandemic gap-year bias does not influence hiring practices

People have long struggled with bias due to employment gaps on their resumes. Women in particular face this stigma when they’ve left the workforce to have children, and those forced to leave their jobs due to the pandemic are no different.

This approach will ensure that candidates aren’t concerned about being viewed as unambitious or lacking skills and are more likely to apply for jobs.

3. Ensure that your candidate pool reflects diversity

By educating hiring managers on the importance of diverse candidate pools, companies can ensure that other biases, such as gender, race, or pandemic resume gaps, are not barriers to female candidacy for roles in the organization.

Testing this approach in areas of high female attrition will provide results to share with other organization departments to help them make better hiring decisions.

4. Retrain and reskill women
Retraining and reskilling are powerful retention incentives to returning employees who might be worried about how they are perceived after having been out of the workforce. This also gives employees the opportunity to qualify for roles they might not previously have considered. By coupling the employee with a mentor, the organization paves the way for a smoother transition back into the workplace.

Flexible approaches such as these can help attract women back into the workplace – and retain them once they’re hired. And, as an added bonus, a Harvard Business Review study shows that companies with women in the c-suite realize greater profits.

“When women are empowered, we all win. March is Women’s History Month, a time to reflect on what women have achieved and to consider how we can help all women prosper. I am proud of the initiatives Microsoft has taken to foster an environment where people of all genders and backgrounds can thrive.” – Gavriella Schuster

To understand where Microsoft is going, it is always clarifying to listen to what Satya Nadella talks about and how he frames and categorizes Microsoft technology.

As you can read in the IAMCP guide to partnering with Microsoft: In our view, what Nadella has brought to Microsoft is clarity, simplification and consistency. He launches concepts. Those concepts then pop up in speeches, interviews, quarterly earnings calls and annual shareholder letters. He iterates on these concepts and you see the refinement with each iteration. These concepts then become strategy. Then structure follows strategy by organizing the Microsoft organization around the strategic imperatives and then finally other supporting processes get adapted to support the strategy and structure.

This consistency means that by studying what Nadella says you can foresee where Microsoft is going over the next couple of years. There is no surprise.

Highlights from the Q3 earnings call

SATYA NADELLA:

What we are witnessing is the dawn of a second wave of digital transformation sweeping every company and every industry.

Digital capability is key to both resilience and growth.

It’s no longer enough to just adopt technology. Businesses need to build their own technology to compete and grow.

Azure

We’re building Azure as the world's computer, with seven new datacenter regions in Asia, Europe and Latin America.

Hybrid computing. Azure Stack HCI helps businesses extend the power of the cloud to sovereign workloads. More than 1,000 customers now use Azure Arc to simplify hybrid management and run Azure services across on-premises, multi-cloud and at the edge.

Azure Synapse brings together big data, data warehousing, and data integration, all into one powerful solution.

Data governance will grow into an important category on its own, as critical as any AI or analytics category today. Azure Purview provides an end-to-end view of an organization’s data estate across on-premises, multi-cloud and SaaS apps.

Developers

Developers have been critical to business continuity over the last year, and we’re helping them collaborate and scale their impact to drive organizational outcomes. From GitHub to Visual Studio, we help developers to rapidly go from idea to code and code to cloud.

Power Platform

We are empowering domain experts, enabling anyone in an organization to build applications, automate processes, create virtual agents and analyze data.

Power Platform has more than 11 million monthly active users, up 95 percent year-over-year.

Dynamics 365

Dynamics 365 is taking market share as companies in every industry turn to new business applications to grow.

The customer data platform, Customer Insights, has helped customers unify over 2 billion customer profiles, providing a single view of interactions across marketing, sales and e-commerce to deliver more personalized experiences.

Microsoft Cloud for Retail is bringing together platforms and tools across the shopper journey, accelerating time to value. It builds on the success of Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is seeing record levels of engagement across the platform, now with 740 million members.

Sessions have increased by 30 percent and conversations by 48 percent. The number of hours spent on LinkedIn Learning increased two-fold, compared to a year ago.

LinkedIn’s advertising business had a record quarter, accounting for more than a third of LinkedIn’s total revenue, while LinkedIn Marketing Solutions was up over 50 percent

Secular shift to remote selling. Businesses are using the combination of LinkedIn Sales Navigator and Dynamics 365 to ensure salespeople have the context they need to sell remotely.

Microsoft 365

Flexible work is here to stay. To empower the digital workforce, organizations will need an organizing layer for all the ways in which people work, learn and collaborate. That’s what Microsoft 365 and Teams provide.

Teams is for meetings, calls, chat, content collaboration with Office and business process workflows—in a secure, integrated user experience.

Teams enables people to collaborate both synchronously and asynchronously, retain business context and stay in the flow of work – driving increased usage across Office 365 and Power Platform.

Power Platform monthly average usage on Teams has grown 4X year-over-year, and with Microsoft Dataverse, you can now create and deploy custom solutions with Power Apps and intelligent bots with Power Virtual Agents, directly in Teams.

The pandemic has shown the importance of empowering the 2 billion frontline workers around the world with the right technology.

In education, more than 200 million students and educators worldwide rely on Microsoft Education products for remote learning.

And leading customers in every industry are increasingly turning to our premium offerings for advanced security, compliance, voice and analytics capabilities. Microsoft 365 E5 revenue has grown in triple digits for the past four quarters.

Security

Focused on ensuring that organizations deploy and maintain a Zero Trust architecture.

Over the past 12 months, our security business revenue has surpassed $10 billion, up more than 40 percent.

Gaming

Gaming surpassed $5 billion in revenue for the first time this quarter, reaching the world’s three billion gamers, wherever they play.

The launch of Xbox Series X and Series S was the most successful in MSFT history, with the most devices ever sold in a launch month.

Console share is gaining, as gamers recognize the value of broader ecosystem.

Xbox Live has more than 100 million monthly active users and Game Pass now has 18 million subscribers.

This is transforming how games are distributed, played and viewed, bringing cloud gaming in Game Pass to iOS devices and Windows PCs over the next few months.

Microsoft is pleased with the overall growth in consumer subscriptions, with Game Pass and more than 47 million Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscribers.

The organization sees significant growth opportunity in both these segments as they move to services and on-demand models.

Financials

This quarter, total revenue was $43.1 billion, up 17 percent and 15 percent in constant currency. Earnings per share was $2.03, increasing by 31 percent in constant currency and both top- and bottom-line growth were in double-digit figures. Material growth was experienced in the region of 10 million-dollars-plus Azure and Microsoft 365 contracts.
We are seeing stronger Azure consumption, as well as higher usage of Teams, Power Platform and our advanced security and compliance offerings.

Within the small and medium business customer segment, transactional licensing trends continued to show some improvement.

In consumer business, the overall PC market was stronger than expected, benefiting our Windows OEM, Office Consumer and Surface businesses.

The advertising market continued to show improvement, benefiting our Search and LinkedIn businesses.

In Gaming, we experienced record engagement and monetization across our platform, as well as console demand that significantly exceeded supply following the Xbox Series X and S launches.

Conclusion

Microsoft continues to fire on all cylinders. Being able to consistently grow by double digits on these large revenues is impressive. By looking at how Satya Nadella groups his messages, you can see what the key areas are for Microsoft: Azure, Developers, Power Platform, Dynamics 365, LinkedIn, Microsoft 365, Security and Gaming.

About the Author

Michiel van Vliet is Managing Director of AdopTic, a business consultancy focused on helping customers to transition from Digitizing Work to Working Digitally as individuals, as teams and as organizations. Michiel is the President of IAMCP EMEA & Spain and author of the IAMCP Guide to Partnering with Microsoft.

By Aileen Provan

2020 may not top the charts as “a year to remember”, but it’s certainly one that we’ll never forget.

When we sat down last January to plan our communications for the year, nothing prepared us for what lay ahead, how it would change the ways in which we work and live our lives, or shape the nature of our communications.

COVID-19, and its myriad impacts, is the single-most discussed topic of 2020 across the globe. Many of our businesses as we knew them have changed, some for the better, others not. Most of us can only visit our family and friends via video calls, and yearn for the connections that we cherish. Others have been physically impacted; some have even lost loved ones.

Yet throughout this time, one thing has remained a constant: the connectivity of the IAMCP. As we bring the year to a close and think of the things for which we can still be grateful, we thought we’d take a moment to celebrate some of the great events and initiatives that have taken place in the ecosystem this year.

New Chapters

This year saw several new chapters formed across the globe, in every geographic region that we serve, increasing our global presence and bringing more education and greater opportunities for collaboration for many more members.

Led by Ulises Aguilar, IAMCP Americas, LATAM, the Membership committee continues to work towards expanding and extending our membership, with high standards of member satisfaction, increase the level of maturity amongst our existing chapters and increase collaboration between IAMCP members to drive more P2P deals.

The QPB: See You Again in February

Launched to better inform our member base and create greater connectivity with Microsoft, the QPB (Quarterly Partner Briefing) event received great accolades from around the world and will now be a staple in our communications toolbox. We look forward to seeing you virtually at the next event on February 4, 2021.

“The IAMCP QPB is a brilliant format to keep partners in sync throughout the year with Microsoft. It helps us to stay focussed on our mutual priorities and enables an ongoing dialogue as well as feedback. Look forward to the next QPB!” - Prashanth Subramanian, Vice President, IAMCP International

The Magic of the IAMCP Lounges

In this time of resourceful connectivity, the IAMCP Lounges were hosted at several events and have proven to be a popular member favourite, with some areas now conducting the forum on a permanent basis.

The "original lounge" was put together by the Americas Board during Microsoft Inspire 2020, spearheaded by Ro Kolakowski, IAMCP International Board, Compliance Chair, to fill the void missing from the in-person conferences. Christopher Cost, IAMCP Americas DFW Membership Chair and D&I Chair, adapted that lounge format for the DFW (Dallas-Fort Worth) Chapter, and invited the other chapters in TOLA (Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Arkansas) to participate. Originally taking place twice weekly for 3 hours each, Christopher now hosts the lounge for two hours every Friday (except after holidays) as a social networking lounge to build relationships with fellow members. Christopher also hosts the Partner Empower Lounge for TOLA on select Tuesdays, which brings in Microsoft FTEs, and others, to provide members with very personal experiences and relationship opportunities to help their organizations thrive.

“The lounge format has gone over very well for TOLA, partly because it is a regular weekly offering. We have members from across the Americas interact with our chapter through the lounge. I truly believe they are going to be a continually growing experience for our membership, even when we can meet in person again. Through the pandemic, many of the members have gotten to know chapters far away from them. The relationships will persist if the chapters are providing healthy experiences for these guests.” – Christopher Cost

Giving Back in Times of Need

IAMCP Portugal – Free oximeters and hospital equipment for care facilities

The “Estamos Mais Próximo” project was initiated by Nuno Guerra, P2P Chair at IAMCP Portugal, early in the pandemic. The initial goal was to provide nursing homes with free oximeters, so staff could detect at an early stage when a person was starting to develop a respiratory infection, way before it was traceable. That project is still ongoing and because of it, Nuno developed close contacts with nursing homes and hospitals in Portugal, identifying the need for increased bed capacity, especially with specialized beds for these situations. Nuno challenged the IAMCP board in Portugal to start a fundraising campaign. Together with a local non-profit, “Fundação São João de Deus”, the campaign started taking shape. During the past weeks, several Portuguese tech leaders and public figures have been challenged to join the movement as ambassadors, now totaling over 30.

Thus far, the movement has been able to donate: 20 articulated beds, 10 articulated beds with electric elevation, 33 anti-bedsore mattresses and 60 metallic guards. Learn more about this campaign.

IAMCP Spain – Create Future – Training future Microsoft experts

Recognizing the gap between industry need and the availability of well-trained talent, Microsoft and IAMCP Spain combined to develop Create Future, a solution that will help train future employees in Microsoft technologies, assist partners through the candidate validation and selection process, and pave the way for a future in which there is an available pool of talent from which partners can hire.

IAMCP U.S.A. – Launching of the Black Channel Partner Alliance

The BCPA (Black Channel Partner Alliance) program aims to close the huge gap in the number of Black-owned partner business (less than 1%), versus White-owned. The foundation of this initiative, the Cloud Solution Accelerator pilot program will launch in January 2020 and is committed to serving 100+ partners or more in 3 years. The program is also committed to gender equality by focusing on attracting Black women founders, so that they too have access to this opportunity with Microsoft.

IAMCP Spain – “Todo desde Casa” – Making the right connections for COVID-aid

With only 3% of its workforce remotely employed in 2019, Spain was faced with the challenge of enabling remote workers for the first time when the COVID-19 pandemic hit – and the IAMCP was there to help. The “Todo desde Casa” (or, Everyone from Home) initiative, spearheaded by the International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners (IAMCP) of Spain, is designed to connect organizations who need support during COVID-19 with the people and companies who can provide it. By providing support to organizations in need, IAMCP Spain, Microsoft, and other partners are helping keep Spaniards safe, governments moving, and businesses afloat while instilling a renewed sense of community.

IAMCP India – Enabling Medical Training via Teams

Ganga Hospitals, is one of the foremost organisations in the world for microsurgery, plastic surgery, orthopaedics and trauma care. It is also an active teaching and research centre and has trained thousands of surgeons, globally, via its signature Hand and Microsurgery Operative course – a real-time, live event unlike most surgery courses, which are recorded videos.

Due to COVID-19 constraints on social gathering, Ganga Hospitals could not host its vital training – until Prashanth Subramanian, IAMCP Vice President and Marcomm Chair, and his team at Quadra Systems stepped into the picture. Working with the Director of the hospital, and the Chairman of the Department of Plastic Surgery, the team identified way to conduct the conference as intended – in live format, with interaction as a Teams Live event.

This event marked a revolutionary breakthrough in medical training – the very first time that Teams had been used for a live surgery conference. Despite the immense logistics involved – specialized cameras, audio and video equipment, multiple operating theatres, requiring sophisticated meeting architecture to address all the challenges, the 2-day event went off flawlessly and received accolades from over 500 doctors across the globe.

Community Resilience

Our human need to serve is almost as great as our will to live and that has played out in the many ways in which we’ve each adapted to home offices, video conference calls, home-schooling and spending much more time in close confines with our families than we ever envisioned. And still our clients are served and the work gets done.

In his keynote speech at the first-ever Virtual Inspire, Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft addressed the resilience of the community and talked about how people have been resourceful in making technology advancements to address new challenges, faster than ever before.

“We faced 2020 with uncertainty and endured. Imagine the possibilities of what a group like ourselves can achieve by stepping into 2021 with confidence. We now know what works and what doesn’t. We’ve assimilated new work routines. We’ve seen where the pitfalls are and will avoid them. My guess is that, together, we will have a great year ahead in 2021” – Sérgio Baptista, President, IAMCP International

As we close the door (firmly!) on 2020, wherever you are and whatever you’re celebrating, from our homes to yours we wish you a very happy holiday season, the gift of health, the joy of sharing with family and friends – and all the best of everything in 2021.

The initiative, spearheaded by the International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners (IAMCP) of Spain, is designed to connect organizations who need support during COVID-19 with the people and companies who can provide it. By providing support to organizations in need, IAMCP Spain, Microsoft, and other partners are helping keep Spaniards safe, governments moving, and businesses afloat while instilling a renewed sense of community.

The effects of COVID-19 are being felt worldwide. None of us is immune to the impacts of the virus, but unfortunately, schools, small businesses, and local governments are being hit particularly hard by the pandemic and the resulting economic slowdown.

Organizations everywhere are trying to enable telework for their staff in order to stem the virus’ spread, but in Spain where only 3% of workers were remote in 2019, this has proved to be a challenging transition. Many organizations lack the infrastructure, technical expertise, or funding to enable teleworking for their employees or students.

Determined to face this challenge head-on, the International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners (IAMCP) of Spain launched an incredible new initiative titled “Todos desde Casa”, or in English, “Everyone from Home”. In broad strokes, this initiative seeks to connect organizations in need of teleworking support with the people and companies who can provide it. But, in reality, this initiative is doing so much more.

The birth of the initiative

On March 12th, 2020, President of IAMCP Spain, Michiel van Vliet, was contacted by representatives from the Microsoft partner program regarding an initiative called “Flexible Working”, dedicated to supporting Italian businesses during COVID-19. Its story inspired Michiel to roll out something similar in his own country and the next day, IAMCP Spain began work on the “Todos desde Casa” campaign.

The core idea was to bring together the demand for teleworking solutions with organizations who could supply it, while leveraging their expertise to smooth the transition however possible. All participating partners are expected to donate at least four hours of consulting or training to recipient organizations, and if that isn’t feasible, they’re expected to provide something else of value such as instructor-led training or sharp discounts on hardware or software. For consistency and transparency, IAMCP Spain drafted a “Todos desde Casa” contract for all participating organizations to sign, outlining the ethos of the initiative and the expectations of all its partners.

Becoming a partner

The process is simple. To become a partner in this initiative, any individual or organization can fill out the sign-up form. Requests are reviewed daily by IAMCP leadership, and if the applicant has capabilities or offerings that match the initiative’s needed, they are sent the contract and enrolled as a partner. Later, they’re matched with an organization in need of their support. So far, more than 80 partners have been enrolled including nine public entities, four business associations, six tech communities, and numerous private volunteers with relevant expertise.

“I had a personal experience helping a private school to move from 100% on-premise to 100% online with Microsoft Teams in 24 hours. This made me realize that as Microsoft Partners, we could do so much more to help small businesses and educational institutions.” -Michiel van Vliet, President, IAMCP Spain

Supporting organizations in need, however they need it

So, what type of support can recipient organizations expect from the “Todos desde Casa” initiative? Unsurprisingly, it depends greatly on the organization’s specific needs.

The first step is usually ‘needs identification’. In this stage, the recipient organization discusses their current situation with the partner and they work together to devise a modernization plan that will help them reach their goals and maintain business continuity.

From there, the partner helps them execute on their plan, assisting them with tasks like updating their cloud infrastructure, installing new hardware, or deploying teleworking solutions to their employees or students. These can be difficult and expensive processes for small businesses and schools, so having an expert to assist them through their transition is invaluable to recipient organizations.

The most common requests are for solutions related to cloud platforms, such as Microsoft Azure, and for collaboration and productivity tools such as Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams. With Teams’ functionality any organization, no matter its size, can now transfer daily activities to the digital world, chat, collaborate, exchange files, and hold meetings—all with maximum security and privacy.

“This initiative has done more than just help small businesses, schools, and local governments shift to a teleworking model – it has reinforced a sense of community across Spain. The outpouring of generous support from IAMCP, Microsoft and all the “Todos desde Casa” partners has been incredible to witness. Times are tough, there’s no doubt about it, but by coming together and supporting one another, we will get through this. From the bottom of our heart, we’d like to say thank you to all of the “Todos desde Casa” partners who are helping make this initiative a reality.” – Michiel van Vliet

“The ways in which we have adapted have brought extremely high valuable to our membership. Each new circle has introduced new members and a new leader in our local leadership team. At IAMCP Germany, we encourage all partners globally to consider topics that matter to them, approach their local board and propose a meeting to address them and invite colleagues so that everyone can learn from one other.” –  Till Vieregge, President IAMCP Germany

Like all IAMCP chapters worldwide, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, IAMCP Germany was faced with the challenge of transitioning its meeting format to a virtual platform in order to protect its members, while still keeping them engaged and informed.

The chapter took a strategic approach that would provide members with a broad spectrum of topics for education and networking in the form of virtual meetings, mentoring programs and member-only sessions, adding value even although they couldn’t meet face-to-face.

Just this year alone (as of September), the German chapter has grown from 155 member companies to 198 – an increase of over 28 percent. IAMCP Germany attributes this incredible growth to the success of the circle events – and the activity of its members.

How they did it

In addition to “Business Talk”, which takes place in the form of ten virtual regional meetings across the country, there are also a dozen “Business Circles”, which are dedicated to the discussion of best practices within special interest areas such as ERP, CRM, Learning, Teams & ACM, AI, M&A, Power Platform, SAP on Azure, and more.

Each of these events is conducted via Teams, on a quarterly basis, with a pre-designated lead whose role is to prepare the agenda with discussion points that are top-of-mind for his or her own company – and participation levels are high. The topics range from discussion on strategic directions to current issues and challenges in the market or the Microsoft ecosystem, with the objective of arming members with information to help them navigate the business channels in which they work.

Premium offerings

While many meetings are open to guests who want to “check out” the IAMCP, the “Hinter den Kulissen” (Behind the Scene) meeting series is exclusively for IAMCP members. Similar in structure to the newly-established International QPB (Quarterly Partner Briefing), this event is a monthly member update from the German Microsoft leadership team.

In addition, members are able to access two special programs. The first, “Mentoring”, is a forum to help partners that are new to the ecosystem, or to a competency or vertical, to become acquainted and access necessary information. Another is “Innovation Cluster”, a collaboration hub with Microsoft Germany conducted in small groups of 3-5 partners.

How Truenorth Corporation and TimeXtender - two PoY winners and IAMCP members - joined forces to deploy a new data warehouse for the Government of Puerto Rico, resulting in the customer’s revenue increase and new Microsoft awards.

In the midst of celebrating their respective Partner of the Year (PoY) wins at Microsoft Inspire in 2018, Truenorth Corporation and TimeXtender met for the first time. They never imagined that a connection created by chance could generate a new partner success project with the power to modernize government entities. However, that’s exactly what happened.

Just a few months later, the partners joined forces to deploy a new tax collecting solution for the Government of Puerto Rico, resulting in multiple benefits for all parties included:

• The customer increased its revenue by 31% and gained massive time savings
• Taxpayers got a system that is simpler to use
• The partners leveraged their complementary skills and went on to win new Inspire awards in 2020 with this project

“Using TimeXtender’s Discovery Hub®, we were able to identify over $250 million in annual net new revenue by integrating CRIM’s data silos, while reducing our development efforts from 9 weeks to 15 days.” - Juan Carlos Chipi, Senior Manager, Truenorth Corporation

Reimagining the Tax System

It’s generally fair to say that none of us enjoys paying taxes. And, when processes and systems are poorly implemented, citizens feel that not everyone is paying, and that the system is unfair, tax remittance compliance is even lower. So, to be an effective revenue generation platform for government, the tax billing and collection system must be perceived by citizens to be fair - and easy to use.

Shortly after Hurricane María devastated Puerto Rico in 2018, the country’s property tax authority, “Centro de Recaudación de Ingresos Municipales (CRIM)” launched an initiative to improve its billing and collections processes. Given the impact and timing of Hurricane María, this was a high-profile initiative, as citizens inquired about tax billing and collection systems, as well as use of public funds.

The partnership of Truenorth, Puerto Rico’s leading provider of strategic technology and management consulting, and TimeXtender, an international organization with headquarters in the U.S. and Denmark, was selected to integrate the CRIM’s many data silos.

$250 Million Lost

In the case of the CRIM, the estimated potential revenue represents a multi-billion dollars opportunity. Yet, due to billing and collections problems directly related to the data silos and lack of accurate information within CRIM’s many information systems, a mere 22% of these funds were being received.

An evaluation was clearly warranted. Handled by Truenorth, the data systems assessment identified myriad discrepancies in properties pending for appraisals, properties in CRIM’s billing system, and properties in the digital cadastral database, resulting in lost annual revenue of over $250 million.

To satisfy the many needs of its citizens, the CRIM set out to reduce the losses and increase its income by at least 10%.

From PoC to Deployment in 15 Days

TimeXtender’s product, Discovery Hub®, an automation and machine learning platform that prepares and delivers the data needed for any analytics initiative, served as a cornerstone for the project.

The Partners took a three-phased approach. TimeXtender provided their Data Estate Modernization skills and product. Truenorth provided its Data Analytics skills, the consulting, and the implementation of TimeXtender’s product, Discovery Hub®. The team brought together several Oracle databases, SQL databases, Hansen software, and a geographic information system. Truenorth and TimeXtender connected these data sources during a two-day on-site Proof-of-Concept (PoC).

From Proof-of-Concept to implementation, the entire project took just 15 days.

The data warehouse runs on Microsoft SQL Server on-premises, while the data visualizations run on Microsoft Power BI. With Discovery Hub® generating the code required for managing these multiple data sources and delivering the data to Power BI, the CRIM team now has the data it needs to address its challenges.

$250 Million Retrieved and 2 Awards Received

Remember the plan for having a 10% increase in revenue? The solution is now reversing over $250 million in specific annual losses, representing a 31% increase in revenue - well in excess of the CRIM’s revenue increase goal - due to correction of:

• Indeliverable invoices due to incorrect addresses or contact information (annual net new revenue of $117 million)
• Returned invoices due to incorrect addresses or contact information (annual net new revenue of $46 million)
• Property improvements pending for appraisals (annual net new revenue of $22 million)
• New pools pending appraisals (annual net new revenue of $7 million)
• New properties pending appraisals (annual net new revenue of $62 million)

Submitting this joint venture solution for the 2020 Inspire Awards, Truenorth

received the LATAM Partner of the Year for Data Analytics Award and TimeXtender

was recognized as the LATAM Partner of the Year for Data Estate Modernization.

What’s Next?

The team is currently working with the Government of Puerto Rico to make this solution extensible to other government agencies, in order to consolidate their data and make it a government-wide data warehouse.

About the Partners

Truenorth, a member of the IAMCP Puerto Rico Chapter, deploys management and technology systems to protect or create revenue, profit, and customer loyalty. As a client-centric services firm, Truenorth is recognized for excellence, reliability, and providing an exciting work environment for employees, while serving the community.

TimeXtender’s Discovery Hub® enables businesses to make quality decisions faster by easily merging data from a wide variety of data sources and using agile data modelling to effortlessly build a modern data warehouse and semantic model. Discovery Hub® is a single, integrated, metadata-driven, agile and automated software platform.

Winning an annual Microsoft Partner of the Year (Inspire) award is no small feat. Your submission is competing with, on average, 3,000 applicants from across the globe, each vying for the PoY title and submitting their best work in that endeavour.

However, the IAMCP is a winners’ club and we are proud of our members who ace this contest year after year, which is why we organized a virtual roundtable where some of our winning partners shared their success stories.

Hosted by our International President, S érgio Baptista , the roundtable panellists were:

Congratulations to our incredible IAMCP PoY winners!

As each of the award winners shared the tenets of their company strategy and culture that led to their success, a few truths rang clear across every experience:

• Prioritize customer successes

  We’re all in business to win - and that means our customers are too. By adopting a customer-centric business approach, we set our customers up for success and that pays dividends on both sides of the business relationship.

  “When our customers succeed, we succeed, employee morale is elevated and we all win – and that’s what this is all about.” David Little

• Leverage the P2P opportunities within the IAMCP

  As technology expands, so do the niches – and that means more opportunity to collaborate on projects that require different skills sets to deliver a stellar solution, instead of homogenizing your offer.

  “Take advantage of the knowledge and skillsets in the Microsoft ecosystem – reach out, make connections and build relationships. No matter the depth of the challenge you are facing for a customer, there is a partner out there that will have the skills you need to succeed, when you need them.” – Margaret Totten

• Align your business KPIs with those of Microsoft

  Microsoft’s success is heavily reliant on meeting measurable goals that are carefully planned and revisited on a regular basis. When a company’s goals are aligned with those of Microsoft, a stronger partner alliance is formed.

  “Think ahead and carefully plan your business outcomes in alignment with Microsoft. Your aligned goals will mean aligned successes and a greater opportunity to be noticed by Microsoft.” – Prashanth Subramanian

• Write a winning submission

Microsoft judges will review an incredible number of submissions and ensuring that yours is noticed is critical to your success. Ensuring that you answer all the questions in your category and state how your solution helps Microsoft achieve its objectives goes a long way.

“We worked closely with our Microsoft account executive all along and that helped us to better understand what was important to Microsoft and incorporate those points in our submission.” – Fernando Reino da Costa

In closing the panellist segment of the roundtable, Sergio Baptista said, “Success is not about doing one thing 100% better; it’s about doing 100 things 1-2% better.”

An award-winning submission formula

In the latter segment of the roundtable, IAMCP International Marcomm Content Manager and freelance content writer, Iva Vlasimsky , who helps Microsoft partners to create winning entries every year, shared her proven formula for creating award-winning submissions.

Iva began by reminding us of the benefits that winning an award can mean for partners, such as recognition, new business opportunities, increased ROI, free marketing and PR, and elevated employee motivation and talent acquisition opportunities.

Key points to create a solid submission

• Start early – a great submission takes time to prepare and write
• Talk about how your solution can be scaled across a vertical or horizontal market
• Illustrate a strong customer story, showcasing the “before and after” scenario that tells the judges how your solution makes a difference in the lives of others, and highlight the benefits
• Include metrics and tangible results, such as proven revenue increase, increased number of customers, seats sold, time and cost savings, etc.
• Incorporate quotes and testimonials from clients and from a Microsoft representative, such as your assigned Account Exec.
• Leverage 3^rd party evidence – e.g. PR articles, videos, case studies, etc.
• Mention any wins over Microsoft competitors (Google, Amazon, VMware, Salesforce, etc.) – Microsoft is not interested in wins over other Microsoft partners.

Write your winning entry

• Use an engaging headline that includes the outcome of your customer story and the impact of your solution
• Start with a dynamic introduction to capture the judges’ attention
• Use the executive summary to tell an interesting story – and be the hero. You don’t have to follow the order of the questions in the guidelines, just ensure that you answer ALL of them in your submission
• Close strong with details of how your solution effects change, wins markets in partnership with Microsoft, and how the solution can be scaled.

The IAMCP looks forward to congratulating many future Inspire winners from our chapters across the globe. We wish you the very best of luck in the Microsoft PoY Awards 2021!

Thought Leadership. You’ve probably heard the term, but perhaps you thought it was just another marketing “buzzword”.

However, 49% of decision-makers say that thought leadership can be effective in influencing their purchasing decisions. Thought leadership is one of the most effective marketing strategies today, so let’s dive into what this term really means.

According to Forbes, a thought leader is an individual or firm that prospects, clients, referral sources, intermediaries and even competitors recognize as one of the foremost authorities in selected areas of specialization, resulting in its being the go-to individual or organization for said expertise… A thought leader is an individual or firm that significantly profits from being recognized as such.

In other words, a thought leader provides insights in their particular area of practice to those who share an interest in that field and builds a reputation of being an expert by sharing their expertise and vision to help others.

That also means that though leadership is never about self-promotion; it’s about providing timely, relevant and insightful information that your audience can apply in their day-to-day lives to help grow their businesses.

It’s common knowledge in business today that people by from people; those whom they know, like and trust. And in our new covid-impacted business environment, establishing connection, affinity and trust is more challenging than ever before, without the benefits of regular, face-to-face interactions with our customers and prospects.

Hence, the emerging popularity of thought leadership initiatives as a key aspect of the marketing strategy.

Should you include thought leadership in your marketing mix?

Making thought leadership part of your marketing strategy can be extremely powerful and essentially capitalizes on intellectual property that you already own: your knowledge.

Not only can it help educate others, it can significantly elevate your position in the marketplace; here’s how:

• Shortens the sales cycle and help you achieve your objectives more quickly

  When you deliver insightful solutions that solve the problems that your customers and prospects are facing, you can build credibility, establish a connection and start a meaningful conversation.

   

• Builds your credibility as a viable source of information – and a potential business partner

  Using your expertise to take your audience’s knowledge to a new level, or educating them on something that they haven’t previously considered, makes you they go-to solution provider – without you ever having to try to sell them something.

   

• Establishes trust

  Busy executives devour quality content that they can ingest quickly and find value. When you deliver valuable insights, your prospect will be more engaged and will trust you as a source of guiding information, making them more likely to do business with you.

   

• Builds social proof and industry recognition

Social media provides myriad opportunities to showcase your knowledge, attract a wider audience and gain peer recognition. The third-party interest that it generates is the fastest road to validating your authority in your sector.

And that’s the desired end-state.

The thought leadership numbers are in – what do they say?

The 2020 Thought Leadership Impact Study from Edelman, which surveyed decision-makers, states that:

• 89% say that thought leadership can be effective in enhancing their perception of an organization
• 59% agree an organization’s thought leadership is a more trustworthy basis for assessing its capabilities and competencies than its marketing materials and product sheets
• 42% would be willing to pay a premium to work with an organization that produces thought leadership versus those that do not

The numbers speak for themselves, yet for many the questions remain: “Where do I start?” and “How do I do it right?” After all, thought leadership done wrong, could be catastrophic.

The IAMCP is here to help

Here’s the good news! The IAMCP can help you leverage your expertise to create a thought leadership article; there are two ways in which we can do this together:

• You write an article on your topic of expertise; we have it professionally edited, then publish it on the IAMCP website.
• We book a meeting between you and our dedicated writer, where you will be interviewed. The article will then be ghost-written on your behalf, citing you as the author, and sent to you for your review before publication.

Thought leadership blogs that you’ve seen on the IAMCP website:

Karl Joseph Ufert: 4 Top Tips For Smarter Marketing For Microsoft Partners

Frank Valdivieso: What Came First: Diversity Or Inclusion? The Answer Depends On Whom You Ask

Klaus Fander: Moving Into The “Business Central Era” Is Easier With Partners At Your Side

Rebecca Little: What Is Social Selling?

Paul Solski: Partnering For Success In A Global Economy

Simon Langdown: Finding Your “Why?” And Why It’s Important

Michiel van Vliet: COVID-19 Impact On Microsoft Insights And Strategies For Partners

Sarika Malhotra: Inclusive Leadership

This service is free to IAMCP members who have knowledge that they’d like to share with the member community. Plus, you get free marketing exposure and the article is your asset to share on your website and social media channels.

Said Sérgio Baptista, President, IAMCP International, “This is just another way in which the IAMCP demonstrates its commitment to our members’ growth. The power of thought leadership cannot be undermined. Think of the many years you have spent building your business; the hurdles you’ve cleared, the lessons you’ve learned – and the proficiency you’ve gained. By sharing your expertise with the partner community, you deliver knowledge and spawn ideas in others, build your credibility for partner-to-partner opportunities and, best of all, you walk away with an evergreen asset that you can use in your marketing efforts, again and again.”

Interested?

Contact intl.marcom@iamcp.org to discuss your idea and arrange for scheduling. We’ll be happy to talk to you and ghost write your Thought Leadership blog.

By Sarika Malhotra

What is Inclusive Leadership?

It’s a good question and one that I’m asked frequently.

The reality is, there are many recognized leadership types and styles; Inclusive Leadership is a hybrid of good leadership protocols and has several key tenets.

UK-based enei (The Employers Network for Equality & Inclusion) defines inclusive leaders as ”leaders who are aware of their own biases and preferences, [and] actively seek out and consider different views and perspectives to inform better decision-making. They see diverse talent as a source of competitive advantage and inspire diverse people to drive organisational and individual performance towards a shared vision.”

As D&I (Diversity and Inclusion) Chair for IAMCP International, over the past year-and-a-half, I’ve seen companies at various stages of D&I implementation, from learning about what it is and why it matters, to understanding how it can help them and seeking guidance on how to get started – and do it right.

D&I is a Journey…

Initially the D&I Committee was heavily focused on messaging to inform and educate IAMCP members about the benefits of a D&I strategy for their organisations.

As companies become more aware of D&I, not just as a concept, but as a benefit to their overall business strategy, we are starting to hear more questions, such as, “Where do we start?” and, “How do we do it?”

Firstly, it is not an overnight fix; it’s an ongoing journey. The most important aspect, from my perspective, is that Inclusive Leadership is driven by leadership; that is to say, it is driven from the top levels, down through the organisation.

Where are the speed bumps?

One of the greatest challenges in transitioning a non-diverse company into one that enjoys all the benefits of diversity is addressing practical issues, such as ways in which to attract diverse talent to your organisation.

It’s human nature to gravitate to those who look, think and act similarly to us. But how comfortable is a 20-year-old being interviewed by people in their 50s and beyond? Or a female person-of-colour in front of a panel of white males?

Ask yourself how that unfolds in your organisation. Sometimes we are unaware of these things because they don’t lead us out of our personal comfort zone, so we are not as in-tune with the perspective of others.

Of course, your implementation process will largely depend on the size of your organisation. I recommend starting the education process with your leadership team, coaching and grooming them to open their minds to the concept of a diverse and inclusive workforce, then working down through the various levels of management within your company.

Step 1: Invest in a diversity mentor

A D&I practitioner can work with your employees to effect real change. This is not an HR (Human Resources) matter, it can only be addressed by leadership – an HR executive cannot change the company culture, because culture is defined by leadership.

Example: The IAMCP has a member-company in the U.S. with a staff comprised of only white people. The company is small, with a D&I-aware leadership that wants to take steps towards a more diverse culture. As such, the founders, who are white males, moved to start employing women, yet the employee base remained all white.

The organization’s navigation strategy was to engage a non-white mentor to coach the leaders through moving out of their respective comfort zones. The mentor will not just help leadership steer through the challenges, but will also be an active part of the hiring team, providing prospective candidates with a more diverse experience as they go through the hiring process.

So, start with the leaders: if the leaders are inclusive, the team thrives in that comfortable space and slowly the culture of the organization changes. Culture changes on the ground with the people; then you can attract more diverse talent and, in turn, they will refer other people to you.

Step 2: Make your job posts inviting to diverse groups

As CEO of C3IT Software Solutions , diversity and inclusion are close to my heart and I am passionate about fostering an inclusive culture within our organisation.

Our hiring decisions are based on skills and ability, not biases, so I was surprised to learn that we had very few female applicants. We recognised that women only apply if they meet 100% of the job criteria, whereas men apply even if the fit is only 50%, so we tweaked our job descriptions to segregate “mandatory” skills and “preferred” skills and the female application rate increased.

This is now one of our corporate hiring best practices, because when great talent feels the possibility of inclusion, the first barriers to success for an organisation are already overcome and an open-minded leadership team makes hiring diverse talent much easier.

How will you know if your D&I efforts are successful?

In a nutshell: measurement. But measurement for all organisations has to look more deeply than employee satisfaction; it has to address the impact on the all-important “bottom line”.

Of course, it’s easy to look at your workforce and determine your organisation’s diversity based on hiring statistics.

But, the real litmus test for D&I success is employee retention, which is often driven by inclusion. Do you know your company’s inclusion rates? Quite likely, you don’t – or at least not yet.

Ask yourself: “Once we’ve hired, how will we retain our employees? How will we ensure that they are included? How will we handle stereotyping within our team?

If your leadership is not inclusive, you cannot hire the right people. And if you don’t have the best talent, you’re losing a competitive advantage.

This grid from Mercer , a Marsh and McLennan company, illustrates the impact of Inclusive Leadership on competitive advantage. 

Hint: the top-right quadrant is the sweet-spot – and the ultimate organisational goal.

Step 3: Measure your employee retention rates

Your business success is highly dependent on your company’s ability to retain great talent – not just to hire it. After all, think about the costs of onboarding and training new hires – good employee retention rates help you to realise a return on that investment.

According to Ryan Gottfredson, Ph.D. , a leadership and management professor at the Mihaylo College of Business and Economics at California State University-Fullerton (CSUF), in order for employees to say that they work in an inclusive work environment, they must believe that they are treated fairly, valued for who they are and included in core decision making.

This belief, and an inclusionary experience, makes people want to be deeply engaged, committed, and motivated.

“When employees have a voice, and they feel their voice is valued, they will believe that they are an important contributor in the organization. When they believe this, they will be excited about going to work, be more creative, and be more dedicated to fulfilling the mission of the organization, largely because they helped create the mission of the organization.” – Ryan Gottfredson

It’s leadership that sets the tone to make people feel comfortable to contribute which, in turn, leads to more debates in brainstorming, better ideas and stronger outcomes, because everyone brings a different perspective to the table.

Still experiencing high employee attrition rates? Leverage exit interviews when employees leave the company. People are reluctant to speak up until they’re leaving, but they will provide you with valuable data that you can use to help your organisation improve its inclusion practices.

D&I is outward-facing too!

It’s no longer news that we are living in a changing world, albeit more rapidly now than ever before. Take a moment to evaluate the scope of diversity your teams encounter on a daily basis, not just within the organisation, but at every touch-point with all your corporate dealings.

Chances are, you’ll notice that your company’s outward-face needs to represent the diversity of all those with whom your team comes into contact – and a diverse and inclusive organisation can better help you forge strong relationships and meet the needs of others.

Step 4: Revisit your organisation’s overall objectives

As organisations strive to effect change that will drive competitive advantage, sometimes it’s necessary to go back to the core company values and make sure that their strategy is aligned with their new D&I focus.

For example, ask yourself whether your Mission and Vision statements are still valid:

• Are they structured to include Diversity and Inclusion as core values of the company?
• Do they address ALL points of contact, from employees and clients, to partners and suppliers – and even investors?
• Do the overarching organisational objectives need to be updated?

What’s the ‘Secret Sauce’ for Inclusive Leadership?

D&I truly is a continuous journey and there really is no end-point, as we all have our own biases; culturally, we look at things very differently – even so far as to have varying nuances of words.

Bias is about how we are programmed from an early age, but recognizing bias is the first step to overcoming it. Companies that embrace a D&I culture live its reality as a team and, together, experience the benefits that help people to get rid of their biases and create success for everyone.

Coaching your team to a state of Inclusive Leadership will involve addressing the key attributes of an inclusive leadership culture.

According to an article from Deloitte Insights , inclusive leaders exemplify 6 key traits:

• Cognizance – ask questions and be aware of your team’s perspectives and differences
• Curiosity – it may have killed the cat, but it’s a business leader’s greatest defence
• Cultural intelligence – try on your team members’ “glasses” for a different perspective
• Collaboration – you’re not alone; you are a team and together you can achieve more
• Commitment – it won’t happen overnight, but the dividends are worth the effort
• Courage – embrace others’ ideas and face the possibility that there might be better ways of doing things

This infographic says it well:

About Sarika Malhotra, Leader, Committee Chair and D&I Advocate

Sarika Malhotra is the CEO of Pune, India-based C3IT Software Solutions , an MS Gold Partner and provider of IT solutions in the areas of Business Intelligence, Content and Collaboration and enterprise-level custom solutions. The company’s focus is on helping customers utilise data effectively for collaboration, compliance and insights.

Sarika is also the Chair of the IAMCP International D&I (Diversity and Inclusion) Committee, serves as President of the IAMCP Pune Chapter, which she founded in 2016 and is a member of WIT India.

http://www.linkedin.com/in/sarikamalhotra

SarikaMalhotra0

By Simon Langdown

“The purpose of life is a life of purpose.” – Robert Byrne, Author, 1930-2016

Why do you do what you do?

It may sound like a cliché, but finding your personal purpose is the key to satisfaction – in every aspect of life.

We all understand the importance of a well thought-out and defined strategy in the success of a business. Organisations that know why they do what they do are more innovative and successful than their competitors.

But how do we bring that concept to the personal level, enabling us to be more focussed, productive and fulfilled? How do we know if our personal “why” aligns with the “why” of the organisation for which we work?

And why is it important?

Let’s look at some employee engagement statistics

Worldwide, only 15% of employees are engaged with their work. Conversely, 71% of executives say that employee engagement is critical to their company’s success.

And a recent Gallup study shows that highly engaged workplaces saw 41% lower absenteeism. 

Read it and weep.

As a financial executive, team leader and self-professed “numbers guy”, those statistics matter to me.

At Microsoft Inspire 2019 in Las Vegas, Simon Sinek’s presentation, The Infinite Game, caught my attention and later that day, I revisited his TED Talk on finding your why – the most watched TED Talk of all time.

This was my epiphany moment, in the middle of Sin City – winning isn’t everything, especially when we all have different definitions of winning. I needed to realign my thinking.

I needed to find my “why?”.

So how did I do it?

With the help of our HR Business Partner, Gemma Thornley, I did my own soul searching to understand my purpose, particularly in my role with Seaton Partners, until I was ready to draft my “why statement”.

This was the challenging part. It requires one to make a simple, clear, actionable sentence that focuses on the effect YOU will have on others, expressed in affirmative language that means something to you.

The format is important, because it means you have no places to hide behind flowery language. It requires you to be authentic and honest. It’s easy to remember and that means you’re more likely to commit to, and act on, your promise.

This format is:

TO__________SO THAT__________.

The first blank represents the CONTRIBUTION you make to the lives of others. The second blank represents the IMPACT of your contribution. Our contribution is not a product or service, it is the driver for everything we do - decisions we make and tasks we perform that result in the impact we want to make.

My personal “why?” - and why it matters to me

"To use discipline to focus actions, thoughts and behaviour, so that we can unlock each individual's potential allowing recognition and success for all."

Expressed differently, this means that the impact I seek is to use discipline and self-discipline to help my team achieve the things for which they aim.

I have learnt that people want to be respected and valued by others around them for their contribution. Recognition, both as a member of a team and as an individual, is important. It also means seeing the difference between recognition and appreciation. Recognition is a process of being recognized, appreciation is a feeling, or an expression of gratitude, admiration or approval. Appreciation focuses on the value of a person, and can come from any direction - not necessarily recognition from the top levels of leadership down.

My “Why?” is an expression of wanting my contribution to make people feel like they belong – a key aspect of the human psyche.

As the famous American philosopher William James said, “The deepest principle of human nature is to be appreciated".

Ready for you and your team to find your “why”?

Here are some key questions that you can ask yourself, and guide your team through, to help define your purpose:

What are you passionate about?

Identifying what you really care about will help you to understand your true values – and whether or not they align with those of your organisation.

What are you good at?

You know you’re good at something! This isn’t the time to be modest. This is where you accept yourself and what makes you shine. It’s also where you’re most likely to be financially successful.

How does what you do help, or impact the lives of others?

Evaluate how your skills help to solve problems within your team or organisation. This is your innate value and where you are most likely to find focus and job satisfaction.

How will you measure your impact?

This is where you decide what you stand for within your organisation and how you draw the meaning from it that drives you to pursue it and hold yourself accountable, day after day.

Because, once we understand WHY we do what we do, we do it with passion and commitment – and THAT drives personal fulfilment.

About Simon Langdown

Simon Langdown holds the position of Financial Director & Company Secretary at UK-based  Seaton Partners Ltd, a Microsoft Gold Competency Partner with a global reach, delivering complete Microsoft Dynamics 365 business solutions. Simon has held financial roles in many types of service industries and is al

If you think 2020 has been a weird year on an unprecedented scale so far, you’re right. And you’re not alone.

First, our friends in Australia knew raging fires that ravaged their land, stole their homes and decimated wildlife, along with hearts and souls.

Then, the world was hit by a virus that knew no boundaries and scattered us all into our homes like cockroaches when the lights go on. We were glued to televisions and internet news sites for updates on statistics we didn’t understand and learning to work in new ways, while home-schooling our children.

“The COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc across the Microsoft ecosystem, affecting companies and their employees across the globe. In the IT world, we are innovators, yet some of the greatest innovations we have seen were in how people found ways to stay motivated, remain productive, maintain connections – and keep helping customers throughout this crisis.” - Sérgio Baptista, President, IAMCP International

And then.

Suddenly, George Floyd, a black man in the U.S., was horrifically killed at the hands of local police and the world halted.

And, across the globe, people stood up and said “NO! We will not tolerate this kind of treatment. We will not tolerate racism.”

Perhaps yours is one of the many companies that sent employees home in advance of violent protests near your offices. Or maybe your team was already safely ensconced in their respective houses, doing their best to stay connected and productive.

Either way, it’s safe to say that we’re all living in a different world and adapting to change on a global scale.

“These are times of drastic change and change can be uncomfortable for some. But the time has come for all of us to have real conversations about discrimination and racism. These issues impact all of us and it’s only by working together and being inclusive that the issues will be solved.” – Frank Valdivieso, D&I Chair, IAMCP Americas

Where do we go from here?

Everyone has been affected by recent events. And everyone is talking about them. You can be sure that, whether around the water cooler or online, your team is discussing what’s been going on in the world.

George Floyd has been more widely recognized in death than he was in life and his story has spawned discussions everywhere.

And that’s why now is a good time for healthy discussion on D&I (Diversity and Inclusion).

But not solely on the subject of racism. It’s a good time to discuss all aspects of our human differences, not just in the workplace, but on the streets of our neighbourhoods and in our children’s schools.

Because many of us hold unconscious biases of which we are not aware. Discussion creates knowledge, which opens the gates of understanding, making our environments better for all.

We live in a biased world

“From a young age we are taught right from wrong, based on the country in which we live, the culture and heritage of our surrounding area, our family, the teachers at our schools and universities who influence us and, of course even more today, the news and comments shared on social media.”  Mary Hunter, IAMCP Diversity, Inclusion and Culture Lead and Managing Director at Columbus UK, an organisation deeply committed to diversity and inclusion.

The IAMCP is delighted to help you start your organizational conversation through exclusive member access to Microsoft’s Unconscious Bias Training to support you in the thinking, development and/or enhancement of your diversity and inclusion strategy. 

The e-learning course can be accessed here: Unconscious Bias Training.

“In the first year of the D&I Committee’s existence, we focussed on “why?”– to help the community understand the meaning, relevance and importance of D&I for businesses. In our second year, our focus has shifted to “how?”, with all initiatives directed towards creating guidance on how our members can become more diverse and ethical suppliers.” – Sarika Malhotra, Chair, Diversity & Inclusion Committee, IAMCP International

Look for more information on how the IAMCP is working towards effective change, coming soon.

Are we really open for business? What’s next for leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic?

By Aileen Provan

Join Jon Rivers (President & Digital Marketing Strategist, Marketing Monarchs, and IAMCP Tampa Chapter President) and Titu Sarder (President & CEO at Learning Library TV [LLTV] and NYC Chapter President) on Tuesday, June 30, 11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. EDT for the next in a series of virtual conferences specifically created to facilitate senior leadership discussion on global business issues. Register here.

Leadership in an evolving world

Whatever your leadership style, you’ve likely had to adapt it to accommodate team engagement and productivity in a work-from-home environment.

For many leaders, this is a new experience that brings a fresh set of challenges, such as a lack of face-to-face connections with peers, employees and customers alike, as they strive to demonstrate leadership and calm, while keeping their teams motivated and informed.

What does the future bring?

Hear from a strong line-up of business leaders as they discuss the future of leadership – what leaders are facing, how it will look… and how they will have to adapt. See the speaker bios.

The speakers:

• Todd Thibodeaux, President and Chief Executive Officer at CompTIA
• Jeffrey Weber, Executive Director at Robert Half Technology
• Linda Rose, M&A Coach, Business Consultant, Speaker, Advisory Board Member, Author
• Per Werngren, Thought Leader P2P, Business Owner, Author P2P Maturity Model, Serial Entrepreneur & Investor
• Jodi Rabinowitz, Licensed professional counsellor with a private practice in New Haven, CT

Plus, over 975 participants from the global business community.

A chance to win!

During the event on June 30, 5 lucky registrants will win an Amazon Echo Dot (3rd Gen) - Smart speaker with Alexa. That’s right – 5!

Register today for an informative discussion forum - and a chance to have some fun. Because even in austere times, fun is important.

And there’s more to come!

Mark your calendar for the next event on Tuesday, July 28, which will focus on “Why and How the Cloud has Become so Crucial During the Pandemic”. Hear from speakers such as:

• Tiffani Bova, Growth Evangelist at Salesforce, about Growth in the New Future
• Amy Nenner, Chief People Officer at Noven Pharmaceuticals, on The Intersection of Management and Leadership
• Joseph Landes, Chief Revenue Offer at Nerdio, on Why and How to Build a Cloud Practice
• Paul Solski, MD at AIM International, on Global Expansion, P2P, and Packaging IP 

And many other leading experts - more details will follow soon.

Leading in the community

Leadership Goes Beyond make a donation on behalf of At-Risk / Disadvantaged Youths Charities from the proceeds of this event. 

What questions are keeping you up at night?

If you have topics that you would like to see covered in future sessions, or are interested in speaking about a senior leadership topic, the Leadership Goes Beyond Team would love to hear from you: info@leadershipgoesbeyond.com

After they developed a crisis communication template for Microsoft Teams, BindTuning from IAMCP Portugal joined forces with partners - Insiso (UK), Claranet Portugal, DevScope (Portugal), Progel (Italy), SharePrime (Brazil), and C2C Online (Australia) - to create a solution localized by language and country-specific information 

By Aileen Provan

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and our world changed overnight, everyone had questions about what was happening. And for every question, there were multiple answers – some legitimate, many not. Some companies wondered about how to assist their employees, now working in remote circumstances, to maintain their productivity from a home environment with their families around. Employers wanted to communicate vital company updates, provide assurance, and a sense of protection. Also, they needed to help their workforce understand the scope of the outbreak and the impact on their lives.

That’s when the BindTuning team – founded by Beatriz Oliviera, a long-time IAMCP member and the current president of the Portugese chapter - recognized a global need and a way to help.

With companies struggling to communicate accurate facts to remote teams, BindTuning leveraged the power of Microsoft Teams to build a solution. Outbreak Preparedness Kit – a template built for Microsoft Teams – was originally envisioned as a tool to enable accurate communications, and quickly grew to much more.

Spreading fast

After its initial splash, the Outbreak Preparedness Kit quickly caught the attention of the media and other partners in the Microsoft ecosystem. With offers of partnership, starting with Insiso, and followed by Claranet Portugal, DevScope, Progel, SharePrime, and C2C Online, the Outbreak Preparedness Kit was localized both by language and country-specific information to serve people in different communities with relevant information.

“At Insiso we were seeking an opportunity to provide support and advice in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. When our long-term partners at BindTuning released their Outbreak Preparedness starter kit, this provided us with the perfect opportunity to both participate and collaborate with BindTuning in configuring the starter kit for distribution within the UK.” - Ravikumar Dinakarkumar, Senior Software Developer, Insiso

With collaboration from partners in several countries – from Europe, South America and Australia, the template quickly took off – to the tune of 40,000 users, worldwide.

Localized kits currently available on the BindTuning app:

• UK Kit – Insiso
• Portuguese Kit – DevScope
• Portuguese kit plus very specific content for customers – Claranet Portugal
• Italian Kit – Progel
• Brazilian Kit – SharePrime
• Australian Kit - C2C Online

This rapid adoption rate is largely due to the fact that no coding or IT support is required, making it easy to setup. And, to sweeten the pot, the template is free to download and use for the first 3 months, to help companies get started while adopting austere measures in their businesses.

The Outbreak Preparedness Kit was released at the onset of the pandemic in early March 2020, the exact same time at which Microsoft generously announced a worldwide, free 6-month Teams subscription.

By leveraging the power of Teams as the go-to virtual workspace solution, the template provides companies with a crisis communication channel and a reliable information center for their employees, now working from home. What would have taken organizations weeks to establish and install is now ready-to-go in this pre-packaged solution that they can deploy in seconds and customize in minutes.

“It is rewarding to be able to bring our expertise together to help others, especially in times of crisis. Creating the template was the first step, but our partnership with other teams is the real crux of the success of this initiative. By enabling companies to deliver real-time, relevant information during this pandemic, we know that we are facilitating a value that many of us hold dear: human contact.” - Beatriz Oliviera, CEO of BindTuning and President of IAMCP Portugal.

The success that this partnership demonstrates lies in the country-specific data and translated content within the app, which open the potential of this product beyond the initial deployment. It could be white-labeled to content providers that issue reliable content about the pandemic (WHO, CDC, Government health organizations, etc.). Also, the app can serve as a resource beyond the current outbreak to support the needs of other events, like weather-related disruptions.

"At DevScope we strongly believe in the power of partnerships, where "one plus one" is more than just two. When BindTuning released its Outbreak Preparedness starter kit, in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, we were helping our local customers gather data and PowerBI data for similar challenges. Making this content deployable in minutes made it way more useful for many more." - José António Silva, R&D Director, DevScope

Normally, I reflect on Microsoft earnings releases from a business and content point of view, looking at subtle changes that Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, might be making through a lens of the topics on which he speaks. I do that because Nadella launches concepts which then pop up in speeches, interviews, quarterly earnings calls and annual shareholder letters.

Satya iterates on these concepts and you see the refinement with each iteration. These concepts then become strategy. Then structure follows strategy, and finally other supporting processes get adapted to support the strategy and structure. This consistency means that, by studying what Nadella says, you can foresee where Microsoft is going over the next couple of years. There is no surprise. 

A world on the move

Thanks to COVID-19, we now live in an accelerated world that is rapidly transforming at the same time. Where we used to react in months, now we need to react within weeks and, similarly, weekly adjustments have become daily adjustments. I decided to focus this review of Microsoft earnings on the past and future impact of COVID-19 for partners. 

As Nadella stated in the Q3 earnings call on April 29th, “COVID-19 impacts every aspect of our work and life. We have seen two years’ worth of digital transformation in two months. There is both immediate surge demand, and systemic, structural changes across all of our solution areas that will define the way we live and work going forward.” 

Summary of impacted areas of business going forward 

• Certain Industries, like travel, tourism, retail

• SMB Segment  

• Transactional business 

• Advertising 

• New Dynamics projects 

• Consulting business 

Summary of opportunities 

• Accelerated digital transformation 

• Healthy Azure consumption and increased usage across:

• Windows Virtual Desktop,

• Power Platform,

• Microsoft 365, particularly in Teams and advanced security solutions 

IAMCP Covid-19 Impact Survey 

The IAMCP conducted a global survey on the impact of COVID-19 on its associates´ businesses at the end of March.  Here are some of the key takeaways from that survey:  

• More than 90% of IAMCP partners see their business impacted and more the one third see their business impacted by more than 25%. 

• The biggest impact is in a reduction of pipeline followed by cancellation of signed projects that have not started yet, and issues with customers allowing remote work for consultants.  

The impact of Covid-19 on Microsoft´s Q3 numbers 

Microsoft summarized the impact as follows: 

“In our consumer business, the landscape evolved quickly following our mid-quarter guidance update. The supply chain in China returned to more normal operations at a faster pace than we had anticipated. And, we saw increased demand from work, play, and learn from home scenarios, benefitting Windows OEM, Surface, Office consumer, and Gaming. This was partially offset by a significant reduction in advertising spend, which impacted our Search and LinkedIn businesses.” 

“In our commercial business in March, we saw healthy Azure consumption and increased usage across Windows Virtual Desktop, Power Platform, and Microsoft 365, particularly in Teams and our advanced security solutions. However, we also saw some changes to our sales dynamics particularly in the industries and segments most impacted by COVID-19. We saw a slowdown in our transactional business across segments, but particularly in small and medium businesses. In enterprise services, growth rates slowed as consulting projects were delayed. And on annual contracts in LinkedIn's Talent Solutions business, renewals were impacted by the weak job market.” - Amy Hood, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Microsoft Corporation.

Microsoft included an additional slide in the earnings call addressing COVID-19 impact: 

• Net revenue: Minimal impact to total company 

• Productivity and Business Processes, Intelligent Cloud: Increased cloud usage driven by remote work and learn scenarios in Microsoft 365 including Teams, Azure, Windows, Virtual Desktop, advanced security solutions and power platform. Slowdown in transactional licensing, particularly in small and medium businesses. Reduced customer advertising spend impacting LinkedIn revenue.  

• More Personal Computing: Increased demand to support remote work and learn scenarios benefitting Windows OEM and Surface. Supply chain constraints in Windows OEM and Surface that improved late in the quarter. Increased engagement in Gaming following stay-at-home guidelines. Reduced customer advertising spend impacting Search revenue.  

• Capital expenditures: Delayed cloud infrastructure spend due to supply chain constraints.  

• Operating expenses: Reduced discretionary spend in areas such as travel and marketing.  

Current quarter impact 

However, this was this past quarter. What I think is most interesting is to see what Microsoft sees for the quarter ahead and the immediate future.  

Microsoft sees a higher variability in the range of guidance. However, for Productivity and business processes and Intelligent cloud, 80 percent of this revenue comes from the earnout on existing contracts and agreement renewals. The remaining 20 percent of revenue, primarily from annuity agreements and transactional licensing, is subject to more volatility in the current environment. This is in stark contrast to More Personal Computing where roughly 75 percent of revenue, across OEM, Surface, Search, and Gaming, is earned in-quarter and therefore will be more susceptible to the overall business climate. 

Positive impact Microsoft sees 

• In Office commercial, revenue growth will continue to be driven by Office 365, with strong upsell opportunity, particularly to advanced security solutions. 

• In Azure, revenue growth will again be driven by our consumption-based business, with continued strong growth across the customer base for Azure, but with some moderation in the most impacted industries and segments.  

Negative impact Microsoft sees 

• Overall transactional weakness (all on-premises transactional licensing).

• LinkedIn and Search ad revenue. 

• In Dynamics a slowdown in new projects with longer lead times. 

• In Enterprise Services, expect a low, single-digit revenue decline driven by continued delays in our consulting business. 

Some additional insights from the analysts’ Q&A 

Question on the monetization of some of the first responder help Microsoft is providing 

Satya Nadella: “Overall the approach we take is really to be there for our customers at their time of most acute need. We don't go in there with the mindset of what does it mean for our revenue. When our customers do well, we'll do well on a long-term basis, that's at the core of our business model.  

Amy Hood on expanding the customer base versus adding seats or consumption within that customer base: “We actually saw both this quarter again, the way you would have seen a little bit of weakness, I guess, in on-premises Office Commercial due to transactional weakness and maybe SMB. The one difference I will say is just because there was so much deployment done in the past 4 weeks, especially around Teams and some of the other workloads, there's certainly a distinction that a lot of that was expanding the footprint as opposed to deployment much faster than I think many enterprises had initially planned to do so.” 

Amy Hood on Dynamics: “As long as business applications like Dynamics 365 address the immediate pressing needs, these projects will happen because that's the way for economic activity to return. But at the same time, with business applications that have longer lead time in terms of implementation, people are probably going to take some more time to decide on it. But we think we are well positioned to capture the new scenarios with Power Apps, because we think about Power Platform and Dynamics as both what we do with business applications, and we feel that between these two, along with Azure, are well positioned to address what are going to be increasing digitization needs, where people don't have months to deploy or months to implement.” 

Amy Hood: “And I think that you would say that we've seen that in our pipeline and really in the customer demand scenarios. So, I think what we've seen is really more of a shift to some of these quick time-to-value deployments and a real change in terms of new, long lead time projects there, and I think that's probably not surprising.” 

Insights and strategies for partners 

Industries 

There is a general impact on certain industries like travel, tourism, retail etc., which is affecting Microsoft customers and, of course, partners that work with customers in these industries. At IAMCP we have also seen the most impact on partners that have a customer base across these most affected industries. Partners will have to devise diversification strategies. 

Segment 

As a segment SMB is more affected than Enterprise, and Microsoft is admitting this impact as well. At IAMCP we have seen strong continued business in the enterprise and a mix of impact in SMB. Most partners have been busy getting their SMB customers up and running in a remote working environment which has caused a spike in business, but we need to wait and see if that continues. Partners that focus on SMB will have to have a diversified portfolio of customers in order to balance the positive and negative impacts. Partners working in the enterprise space can see an increase in work as some customers have decided to accelerate their digital transformations (except for the most affected industries). 

Transactional Business 

Most transactional business is affected as customers will reduce spending where they can. However certain categories have seen growth in demand only restricted by supply chain issues (PCs, Office365 consumer). At IAMCP we do have anecdotal feedback that some SMB customers are reducing consumption of CSP licenses. On the other hand, there is feedback of growth in O365 CSP revenue from distributors because of the spike in home working.  

Dynamics 

Microsoft sees a delay in new Dynamics projects and a longer lead time for closing deals. At IAMCP we have seen some Dynamics partners more impacted than partners that work on other parts of the Microsoft stack.  

Enterprise services consulting business 

Microsoft enterprise consulting business is a reflection of most project-based partner business, so if Microsoft foresees a decline in MCS, that is not a good overall sign. Then again MCS is working, in general, on mission-critical, leading-edge projects and less on pure cloud infrastructure projects.  

Where are the opportunities? 

Before going into detail on the opportunities, I would like to reflect on something I see as a milestone. Microsoft has been on a transformation to become a cloud company but more personal computing (to simplify = Windows) has been the biggest revenue generator all these years. Productivity and business process (Simplified = Office) was structurally the segment that generated most profit. In the figure below you can see that Intelligent Cloud is becoming the biggest revenue and profit generator (Simplified = Azure). This is an excellent trend for partners as this means more complex services will be needed long-term. 

In the short-term, Microsoft sees healthy Azure consumption and increased usage across Windows Virtual Desktop, Power Platform, and Microsoft 365, particularly in Teams and advanced security solutions. 

If you are a partner specializing in these workloads, you can see a short- to medium-term boost. Long-term, the secular trends of cloud, data and AI will be the most important drivers for business.  

Michiel van Vliet has been working for and with Microsoft and the Microsoft ecosystem since 1995 in several positions and within Microsoft Spain as Services Lead, responsible for the EMEA enterprise partner Team, working with some of the largest Microsoft alliances. In 2018 Michiel published a book on how to work with Microsoft called ´Refresh the Road Ahead´, and currently runs his own consulting business focussed on business and work transformation. Michiel is the president of IAMCP Spain, President of the IAMCP in EMEA and is a global IAMCP Board Member. 

If you’ve ever been out of work, or have had a reduction in your client base that made it difficult to make ends meet, you know how stressful and demoralizing it can be.

If you’ve had that experience personally, you can probably relate to the plight of the many out-of-work people with a disability who face an additional barrier to finding work. Perception.

The perception that they might not be able to do the job.

According to BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics), 19.3% of people with a disability in the U.S. were employed in 2019. By contrast, the employment-population ratio for people without a disability was 66.3%.

Each April, the Autism Society of America celebrates National Autism Awareness Month to spread awareness, promote acceptance, and ignite change. The IAMCP is an organization that fosters diversity and inclusion (D&I) – and that’s why we’re sharing this story.

Another way of looking at things

Recently, during an IAMCP Chicago Chapter meeting held at the Microsoft office in Downers Grove, Illinois, our members heard a very different version of what employment reality could look like – and what’s in it for partners.

“Work is a fundamental human right. And there is a wealth of untapped skill sets and intelligence in our communities that companies are missing out on.” – Joanne Callahan, the Working Together Chicago Program Director and an Occupational Therapist.

Joanne Callahan presented the IAMCP members in attendance at the chapter meeting with a viable talent sourcing alternative – one that even makes employee onboarding seamless and easy for the hiring organization.

Many questions were asked after Joanne’s presentation – perhaps you’ll have some of your own.

Curious?

The program is run by Working Together Chicago (WTC), an organization that facilitates paid internship opportunities at local businesses throughout the Chicagoland area to help young adults with disabilities gain corporate experience.

WTC is a program of the Center for Independence through Conductive Education, an Illinois Not-for-Profit organization that helps those with physical disabilities to maximize their independence. The organization initially relied on the generosity of the Coleman Foundation, a Chicago-based grant-making group, to cover operational costs.  WTC continues to rely on corporate, private foundations, and personal donations for support, all which can be made on the WTC website.

How does it work?

Each employee is initially available for a 10-week paid internship, after which the employer has the option to retain the employee.

There are a number of steps to ensuring the right ‘fit’:

• Each employee candidate is vetted for employability through the Illinois Department of Rehab Services, by establishing a “DRS” account, and working with a social services agency
• Through the social services agency and WTC, employment opportunities are investigated
• A meeting is held with the employer to establish needs and assess skills compatibility
• WTC brings 2-3 candidates to interview for positions
• Once the employer has made a selection, a Job Coach (for onboarding and staff education) and Mentor (for empowerment and job development) become a team, paired to support the employee throughout the internship period
• WTC, along with the social services agency, work to support both the employee and the employer

“We take these rigorous steps to ensure a positive outcome for both the employer and the employee, and our team provides both parties with the support they need to succeed,” said Joanne. “Together we can do amazing things!”

And Joanne would know. At an early age, her own daughter, Mary Kate Callahan, contracted a virus that left her a paraplegic. Despite challenges finding suitable employment, she is now employed by a major player in the technology sector. Said Joanne, “Mary Kate’s only challenge is mobility. We are deeply grateful that her employer was able to see beyond the wheelchair to her skills and personality, giving her meaningful work and an opportunity to contribute.”

So, you don’t live in Chicago?

This initiative has been so successful that many other states are in discussion with WTC, and the organization has set a long-term goal of creating a national entity.

“We envision a world in which every different-abled person can work. People with disabilities are so worthy of employment, and together we can make this a reality.” – Joanne Callahan

IAMCP Members are encouraged to seek D&I opportunities such as this in their respective locations.

How Leaders Inspire Today and Tomorrow in the COVID-19 Crisis: the first in a series of virtual leadership conferences

By Aileen Provan

What do we do in times of crisis, or change that is beyond our control?

We look to our leaders. We want to understand a collective direction. We want to work together, to collaborate for the greater good of all.

Throughout history, in wars, famines, or economic crises, we have seen great examples of leadership in times of strife. And we have seen great examples of humans coming together to help one another.

We are in such a time.

But, to whom do our leaders look for guidance on how to navigate uncharted territories and keep the ship afloat? How do they know which decisions are the right ones in an all-new world?

In hearing the questions being asked by many of their clients at the C- and VP-levels, two industry leaders formed Leadership Goes Beyond to address the burning question: “What’s relevant today, tomorrow, and beyond?”, particularly in this economic climate during the COVID-19 crisis. It’s safe to say that these are issues no leader was expecting, all without an end-date in sight.

Jon Rivers (President & Digital Marketing Strategist, Marketing Monarchs, and IAMCP Americas MarCom Committee Chair) and Titu Sarder (President & CEO at Learning Library TV [LLTV] and NYC Chapter President), each a leader in his own rite, brainstormed into the “wee hours,” and conceived the concept of a virtual conference suite tailored to the current needs of senior leaders.

Leadership Goes Beyond’s inaugural conference, “How Leaders Inspire Today and Tomorrow around the COVID-19 Crisis”, was held on Tuesday, April 14. This event was pulled together in just two weeks, with only a few days for promotion and drew approximately 60 registrants.

“The concept of a virtual conference is new to many; we’re all used to enjoying the personal, face-to-face connections that events usually afford us, so we were delighted to have so many participants for our first event. Some attendees created their own badges and posted images on social media, giving the conference the sense of a live-event environment.” – Titu Sarder

The event’s impressive speaker line-up discussed how a leader might tackle:

• Employee motivation to deliver exceptional work – from a remote location, outside that person’s comfort zone, away from team connections
• Showing leadership and establishing team connection with peers and direct reports in new circumstances
• Maintaining the face-to-face connections upon which many companies rely

This accomplished suite of leaders addressed how principals will adapt, today, tomorrow and beyond to tackle those concerns. It discussed what the challenges will be, how they will present themselves, and how leadership will have to adapt to lead their teams effectively.

“We were very fortunate to have established relationships with business leaders who instantly understood what we were trying to accomplish at a high level, and developed informative presentations that dug deep into the issues of today. This was a classic example of people coming together to help others in tough times, and we are deeply grateful to each and every one of them for their invaluable input.” – Jon Rivers

What’s Next from Leadership Goes Beyond?

Maintaining the momentum, Leadership Goes Beyond is already planning the next virtual event, slated for June 11: “How the cloud is playing a vital role during the COVID-19 crisis”.

This event will focus on the transition of people learning to work from home and learn to rely entirely on cloud-based services, discussing questions such as: “Am I ready?”, “Is my business ready?”, “Is my customer ready?”

Leading in the community

After expenses, all proceeds of the conference will go to Meals on Wheels America, a program that is on the front line every day, keeping our older Americans safe and nourished in communities across the country. 

Got a Question? Have an Idea?

If you have topics that you would like to see covered in future sessions, or are interested in speaking about a senior leadership topic, the Leadership Goes Beyond Team would love to hear from you: info@leadershipgoesbeyond.com

How technology can help you continue to build your business, even during social lockdown

Do you find yourself doing business differently in this time of isolation due to COVID-19? Or do you find yourself wondering how to do business, with all your customers and staff working from home?

You’re not alone.

And that’s why now might be a good time to learn some new skills - and form different habits.

The IAMCP U.K. Chapter took the lead on just such an initiative and recently hosted a webinar on Social Selling, featuring the next era of innovation sales: LinkedIn Sales Navigator, presented by Matthew Quinlan, Senior Account Executive, LinkedIn.

Why? Because people buy from people. And in periods of isolation, social media can help us maintain, and even increase, our connectivity with others. It’s time to get social – virtually, of course!

There are still a lot of myths surrounding social media as a sales tool, but it is highly effective and helps people to connect with others by leveraging their own connections to grow their network and provide more customers with unique solutions.

5 Social Selling Myths - Busted

Myths can be barriers to success, so let’s break them down and open the sales floodgates.

Myth #1: It’s the responsibility of marketing

But anyone can do it! And it’s easy. Watch the webinar to find out just how easily you can make social selling a part of your daily work schedule – in as little as 20 minutes a day.

Myth #2: Social media doesn’t drive the pipeline

But connectivity DOES! Making more connections using your own network of contacts will help you increase your reach to people who genuinely want (or need) to hear from you.

Myth #3: You can’t track it

Oh, but you can. During the webinar, Rebecca Little cited a number of sources that you can use to gauge your level of social impact, one being Social Selling Index (SSI) from LinkedIn, which measures how effectively you are establishing your brand, finding the right people, engaging with insights and building relationships – and it’s updated daily.

Myth #4: It’s just online advertising

No, it’s much more personal than that. 90% of decision-makers say that they never respond to cold outreach. But when a personal contact introduces you to one of their connections, the response rate to your outreach averages 50%.

Myth #5: It’s only for millennials

Okay, we’ve probably all asked our son, daughter, niece or nephew for a bit of help when navigating new online platforms. But in reality, 66% of LinkedIn users are 30+, and 33% of us are over 50. And with 675 million members worldwide, your target group is there for mining.

“The key to social selling is to post relevant content often, follow others and share their content - and don’t forget to check for new opportunities daily.” – Matthew Quinlan

How Social Selling Works

In a platform such as LinkedIn, we each have our personal network of business contacts. LinkedIn Sales Navigator helps you to leverage those contacts to expand your network even further by:

• Expanding your relationships
• Acquiring new business
• Maximizing your sales productivity

Sales Navigator’s filters provide much greater search flexibility than LinkedIn alone.

• Updates information based on the type of business that you want to target
• Allows you to follow people with whom you are not connected, based on the theme of their posts
• Provides different information for everyone on your team, based on their filter criteria
• Enables searching by lead or by account
• Provides a warmer introduction opportunity

Fact: 90% of top sales people use social media as part of their sales strategy and 84% of C-level and VP-level executives use it for purchasing.

Ready to take the next step in growing your business? Watch the video – and let’s get social.

Rebecca Little is an IAMCP UK Microsoft Alliance Chair and a Director at ResourceiT, a technology channel marketing agency that has delivered thousands of projects to clients since 2003.

“If we want to build a company that we can look back and be proud of, we have to be bold about our gender equality goals.” Said Paul Cosgrave of New Signature at the International Women’s day conference in Toronto, held on March 5^th and organized by The WIT Network.

International Women’s Day, traditionally celebrated on March 8^th, had many events and conferences around the globe attended by the members of IAMCP and The WIT Network. Let us take you on a journey across three continents: from Toronto, North America, across European cities of Oslo and Munich, to Asia and Coimbatore in India.

Toronto

With over 400 attendees, 23 speakers, and an agenda packed with empowering and inspiring messages, The WIT Network’s International Women’s Day conference in Toronto was an event you didn’t want to miss. However, many that wanted to come had to miss the in-person event, because the tickets were sold out already a few weeks before the conference. Luckily, everything was live streamed – thanks to the sponsorship of a Digital Storytelling agency Mercer-MacKay Solutions – so, in reality, much more women and men were able to soak up the sessions of the fantastic keynote speaker line-up.

Two “cornerstones” of The WIT Network: Christine Bongard and Corinne Sharp kicked off the event. Energetic and inspiring figures such as Barbara Hardy from the US, whose work focuses on leadership, diversity, and inclusion, or Kate Wood from UK, who is passionate about engaging employees, both lit the audience. Sarah Haggard of Tribute presented a fascinating app for mentoring – a crucial discipline in generating new leaders, while Nicole Mumford, a CEO of AirGate and a mother of an autistic boy, spoke about neurodiversity and inclusion. There were many other speakers that shared their career paths, lessons learned, ideas and thoughts about gender equality, and inspiring leadership tactics. And while all of them won the hearts of the audience in different ways, attendees were blown away by young women in technology. A social entrepreneur Aisha Addo is making a difference through a number of impressive initiatives for women, and a teen prodigy Ananya Chadha, left everybody in awe while talking about brain-controlled prosthetics, remote control cars, and robots controlled by brain signals.

IAMCP was also attending the Toronto conference, through its Canadian and US representatives: John Zarei, Titu Sarder, and Jeffery Goldstein, as well as the content team from our International MarComm Committee.

Oslo

On the same day, March 5^th, only across “the pond”, another event was celebrating equality. SHE Conference 2020 in Oslo, Sweden, is Europe’s largest gender diversity conference and the agenda included many valuable sessions, panels and discussion, covering topics such as the global aspects of diversity and gender equality, diversity and inclusion as the future of business, and the power of the individual. IAMCP’s representation was also present at the event with a booth that was visited by many among the total of +2400 conference attendees.

“The SHE Conference was a great place to brand the IAMCP. The conference itself had an impressive line-up of inspiring speakers and was absolutely “The place” to promote different D&I initiatives.” Said Susann Hauglie, Vice President and Treasurer at IAMCP Norway.

Munich

In Munich, The WIT Network joined forces with Microsoft Germany and organized a value-packed event with inspiring speakers in a wide range of backgrounds: from young entrepreneurs, to top managers and university professors. They shared their experiences and views on diversity, women, career paths and inclusion, while interesting workshops provided attendees with practical knowledge.

Because the IWD 2020 campaign theme was drawn from a notion of 'Collective Individualism', Munich conference agenda had a lot of discussions about every one of us being parts of a whole and how our individual actions, conversations, behaviours and mindsets can have an impact on society.

“Collectively, we can make change happen. Collectively, we can each help to create a gender equal world. And this community we built is phenomenal! The energy in the room, the emotion throughout the day... I am touched and grateful!” Said Franziska Schaadt from the conference’s organization committee the day after the event.

Coimbatore

Last, but not least, the celebration of the International Women’s Day in Coimbatore in South East India was not another conference. It was a very special celebration of women’s rights and equality within one company – Quadrasystems, a Microsoft partner and an IAMCP member – that turned well-known messages about “more female leaders” into action.

“We believe in walking the talk. It was not just about empowering and inspiring words; we promoted two women to senior leadership positions, as members of an elite group who influence decision making and strategy at Quadra. We also inducted a new batch of women hires from leading campuses and laid the foundation for even more women leaders to emerge. We made sure we don’t just “say it”; we “do it”. To quote Cindy Gallop, words like 'hire', 'promote', 'pay', 'raise', 'bonus', 'invest in' and 'lead' matter much more than 'empower' and 'celebrate'.” Said Quadra’s Co-founder and Executive Director, and IAMCP International’s MarComm Committee Chair, Prashanth Subramanian.

By Aileen Provan & Iva Vlasimsky

With the coronavirus spreading across the globe at wildfire speed, the world has become one big quarantine zone. The virus outbreak is now present in every corner of the globe, causing many health and economic problems and limitations. Our community has chapters in over 40 countries worldwide and, unfortunately, none of us will be spared of the pandemic and its impacts.

“We recognize the risks and concerns posed by the COVID-19 virus and want to make sure we have a unified plan for keeping our members safe, while allowing them to stay engaged in IAMCP activities and P2P opportunities,” said IAMCP International President, Sergio Baptista.

Just as we are all advised to work from home by our governments and the World Health Organization, IAMCP will move all its activities online until the current situation improves.

While this change may be new for many organisations and businesses that need some time to adapt, we at the IAMCP have a slight advantage. Our IT sector is already well-versed in communication technologies and, therefore, prepared for remote working. Staying in touch with your teams and groups of interest, such as this association, conducting webinars and other presentations in the virtual space is something we all know well.

That’s why we are certain that our community moved online will successfully maintain its mission - to ensure a friendly environment for Microsoft partners who want to learn from each other, develop partnerships that generate new values, and grow together.

“We are still moving forward with virtual guests and presentations at chapters all over the world. Let’s all work together to come up with creative solutions to keep our community active and vibrant during these trying times,” said Baptista.

Virtual community

Here is some advice on how to maintain your IAMCP activities:

• Virtual chapter meetings - we highly recommend that all chapters worldwide move their monthly chapter meetings and other gatherings to a virtual format utilizing Microsoft Teams.
•  Use the IAMCP calendar - we encourage you to use and bookmark the IAMCP events calendar because, as IAMCP members, you will have the opportunity to join other virtual chapter meetings. All IAMCP meetings will continue to be posted to the calendar as usual.
• Join the US virtual chapter - as many of you know, we have a virtual chapter based in the U.S. that you and your members are always welcome to join for meetings. Find the link here.  

We are honored to have Gavriella Schuster as a guest in our next virtual chapter meeting scheduled for April 7^th, 12- 2 PM Pacific time. She will reflect on the current situation and share early thoughts on FY2021. We are extremely grateful for this opportunity; register here so you don’t miss it!

Additional message from our Americas leaders

In keeping with guidelines from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), we are aligning our protocols with these key CDC prevention strategies:

•  Plan ways to limit face-to-face contact between people at your organisation. Several ways to do this include offering workers the option to telework, replacing in-person meetings in the workplace with video or telephone conferences, and postponing non-essential meetings and travel.
•  Review your process for planning events, programs, and services. Identify actions to take if you need to postpone or cancel events, programs, and services temporarily. Consider limiting access to your organisation from non-essential visitors.
•  Plan ways to continue essential services if on-site operations are scaled back temporarily. Provide web- and mobile-based communications and services, if possible. Increase the use of email, conference calls, video conferencing, and web-based seminars.

Our members’ business advice

Because IAMCP is a community of Microsoft partners that help each other and exchange best-practices and ideas, our friends from Quadrasystems.net, India are sharing several useful tips for overcoming the upcoming challenges, based on their experience:

•  The unique aspect of this crisis is the fact that only a collective effort can yield results. At Quadra, we realize that we need to not just support our families and businesses, but also take care of our communities and the society around us. No one is safe until everyone is safe.
• We will undoubtedly feel the financial impact of these troubled times. Hence it is important to monitor cash flow and be prudent when it comes to expenditure and new investments, especially those with long ROI cycles.  Make sure that you have reserves to tide over the situation – and it is very fluid at the moment.
• It is essential to evolve a remote working strategy. We have always had this in place at Quadra, and we even have a few senior employees who have been remote working for several years. Being in the technology industry, this may come easily to us, but the crucial aspect is to develop a system and process to manage and execute work remotely. This may be more difficult than just setting up a technology solution.
• We need to evolve a business continuity strategy – how can we continue to keep delivering services to our customers – who depend on us to manage their technology infrastructure, even while we keep our employees safe.
• If working from home is not an option, isolate your teams and senior leaders so that you can contain any possible impact. This is something we have already put in place at Quadra.
• Devise means to stay connected even when working remotely – it could be as simple as video calls. Make sure that, as leaders, your presence is actively felt in every sphere. Your team needs this guidance more now than at any other time ever.
• Customers will also empathise and be flexible – so it’s a great time to explore new ways of meeting them, such as over video calls.
• Make sure that your financial systems run well, and payment cycles are monitored. We have always been disciplined about this in Quadra, but now we need to be even more well-planned.

Stay safe

As many of you are already practicing remote working, we compiled a short list of useful resources on how to make the most of it and how to overcome the typical challenges of working from home:

• Remote working tips
• Guidance for supporting remote workers
• Working from home with Azure AD

“We will continue to monitor the global situation and update you as needed. In the meantime, if you have any concerns, questions or need further assistance, reach out to us. And of course, stay safe,” said Baptista.

Take care of yourself and others, be responsible, and stay at home. The new global threat will have many consequences on our private and professional lives, on our businesses, families, and communities. However, if we stay responsible and kind, if we help each other and stay connected, we will overcome this and recover faster.

After all, that is something that every Microsoft partner and IAMCP member knows very well - that we are better and stronger together.   

IAMCP D&I committee chair, Sarika Malhotra

By Aileen Provan

Despite the need for much more work and greater awareness, over the last decades, we have come a long way towards establishing balance in gender equality. This would have never been achieved without leading examples of bold women who dared to take new initiatives and chart new territory typically "reserved" for men.

On International Women's Day, we celebrated the achievements of those women who have helped pave the way towards an equal world and whose courage, determination, and success inspired others to follow their lead.

We didn't have to look far for inspiring role models; we found them in our IAMCP community.  Our Diversity and Inclusion Committee Chair, Sarika Malhotra, is one of those fearless women who dared to be different.

20 years ago, women as technology leaders or female entrepreneurs were a rare breed in India. Sarika started her first tech company in 1996, then five years later, co-founded another one, becoming its director and CTO. She continues to be at the helm of that company, Pune (India) based C3IT Software Solutions, as its CEO. Anyone who has had the opportunity to work with, or for, Sarika Malhotra, knows that she a formidable force who leads her team with compassion and embraces diversity as a strength.

Unfulfilled army career

Her tenacity and determination have empowered Sarika to overcome challenges throughout her career and now to lead a staff of over one hundred technology employees. Of course, her leadership was developed and shaped over many years, and it all started with her idea of joining – the army! 

Sarika greatly admired her father, an engineer in India's army, and desperately wanted to follow in his footsteps. That passion escalated after his death during her high school years, but India's military rules back then forbade women to enlist other than in a medical capacity. Sarika preferred active service and was deeply disappointed that she was denied the chance to fulfill her dream. Despite pressure from family, she decided to pursue an engineering career, albeit outside the military.

A girl in STEM

The India of the '80s saw very few women entering the engineering field. At her university, Sarika was one of only 6 female peers in a group of 250 students. This gender imbalance meant fewer opportunities and also prevented female students from comfortably speaking up in a male-dominated classroom.

Sarika persisted through these challenges, went on to complete her Master's Degree on a full scholarship, and eventually won a Gold Medal from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee, India. She was then hired from campus by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a large multinational Indian organization. Here she worked on mainframes and Cobol, then moved on to build a banking software solution, which is one of TCS's flagship offerings in the BFSI domain even today.

The working Mum and tech entrepreneur

In 1995, Sarika's husband was transferred to Pune, which meant an end to her role with TCS in Delhi. While TCS offered Sarika an opportunity in Pune, she found the work was not challenging enough, and coupled with the challenges of raising a 3-year-old daughter, no childcare support and a long distance to travel to work; she left TCS. Not one to sit idle, Sarika started teaching courses, eventually freelance consulting when her daughter started school. As her assignments increased, she started designing and selling software and, before she knew it, had 10 customers!

She formed a small company that caught the attention of a large ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) company with which she merged. Sarika was invited to join their management team, but the distance to their office was quite prohibitive for the mother of 2 young children. Eventually, despite tasting some success, a difference in leadership mindset led Sarika to start afresh and partner with a professional friend to begin C3IT Software Solutions – now in its 18th year.

Reflecting on her greatest challenges through this transition, Sarika said,

"Again, I found myself in a man's world, with no clue about corporate finance, or how to read P&L statement. Networking was tough, being the only woman trying to break into a group of men standing around a bar with a drink in their hands. It was the toughest thing I had to learn, and when I did it, I felt victorious! Of course, as for all women with a young family, work/life balance was difficult, even with a supportive spouse. We worked mostly with U.S.-based companies, so the time difference was hard on my family. My children became very independent at an early age, doing things by themselves that their peers could not".

Leader, Committee Chair and D&I advocate

Today, Sarika is the CEO of C3IT Software Solutions, an MS Gold Partner and a provider of IT solutions in the areas of Business Intelligence, Content and Collaboration, and enterprise-level custom solutions. The company's focus is on helping customers utilize data effectively for collaboration, compliance, and insights.

Sarika is also the Chair of the IAMCP International D&I (Diversity and Inclusion) Committee, serves as President of the IAMCP Pune Chapter, which she founded in 2016 and is a member of WIT India.

C3IT and D&I

At C3IT, Sarika sets the D&I tone, leading by example and demonstrating that the model works.

"We have very successfully integrated a diverse community within our organization. Our hiring decisions are based on skills and ability, not biases. A few years ago, we realised that we had very few female applicants and recognised that women only apply if they meet 100% of the job criteria, whereas men apply even if the fit is only 50%. So, we tweaked our job descriptions to segregate "mandatory" skills and "preferred" skills, and the female application rate increased."

In one instance, the company hired a woman in her late 40s who had graduated but had been a full-time stay-at-home mother all her adult life. Having recently lost her husband, she found herself in financial distress and had two sons to educate. She started her career at C3IT at a late age, and the company has also subsequently hired one of her sons who recently graduated in Engineering.

This model was again reflected when the company was called upon to consider hiring a young girl, Shikha, a mechanical engineer who was recovering from depression and life-threatening illness. While she was responding to treatment, she needed to be financially independent and get her life back on track. When she started looking for work, she realized that all potential employers were located in industrial zones far outside the city, and she was not yet physically able to make the long commute. Although C3IT usually hires people with education in IT-related streams, the company devised a creative solution and hired Shikha as an intern to do QA (Quality Assurance) testing, training her from the ground up on quality standards.

And the outcome? After just 6 months, C3IT was able to hire Shikha as a full-time employee.

Said Sarika, "We were very happy that Shikha recovered well and has grown to become a valuable part of our team! By breaking down barriers we connect with people better, hear different perspectives and learn more from one another. It is empowering for individuals and makes companies stronger and more successful."

 LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/sarikamalhotra

Twitter: SarikaMalhotra0

Introduced by Microsoft

When Microsoft sees opportunity for partners to provide solutions to customers, it does its best to facilitate those relationships for the greater benefit of all. And that’s exactly what happened when the Global Managing Director of Microsoft’s Travel and Transportation Group, recognized a potential communications solution for the travel industry.

Microsoft introduced Silicon Valley’s PopcornApps - a specialist in digital transformation, online and mobile channels, customer relationship management and emerging AI technologies - and Indra - a leading IT multinational in Europe and Latin America, with presence in more than 140 countries and around 40,000 employees. This introduction facilitated a partnership with excellent synergy and a combination of offerings that could deliver more value to the end customer through a joint Go-To-Market strategy, integrated offerings and bundled offers.

Together, the two organizations made it possible for PopcornApps’ Airlines Conversational AI Template to be used effectively in airlines’ customer communications across languages and geographies. The solution adopts conversational AI to modernize traveler engagement by leverage messaging, which is the most frequented engagement channel.

Transforming travelers’ engagement

While the initial offering was in English, PopcornApps knew that worldwide airlines would have customers who could use this communications solution in multiple languages such as Spanish, Arabic, French, and many more. By working together with Indra, they extended their market reach in places like Latin America and Europe.

By combining expertise, stretching the limits of the technology through close collaboration with Microsoft, and leveraging the Microsoft Bot Framework and Cognitive Services, the team turned a unilingual platform into a multi-lingual solution with international opportunity.

“Together, we are able to share best practices around mediums and approach customers in regions and ways that we individually couldn't have done by ourselves. This has taught us innovative ways in which we can partner and how that partnership can improve the scale of the offerings of our respective organizations.” - Rohan Marfatia, Vice President - Sales, PopcornApps

The sky is the limit

This solution is pre-integrated to both Amadeus and Sabre travel technologies, making it an applicable solution for approximately 90% of airlines, globally. This has led to subsequent initiatives like PopcornApps being a Gold sponsor of Indra’s travel summit 2020 in Madrid, Spain, held on February 17^th/18^th, where partners jointly met multiple airlines.

In addition, they showcased their newer offerings like the Airlines CRM solution for a 360-degree view of the passenger.   

About PopcornApps

PopcornApps is a global Systems Integrator & Independent Software Vendor headquartered in the Silicon Valley, California with offices in the UK, India and Singapore, and a member of the IAMCP Northern California Chapter.

A Gold Microsoft partner, the company is also a vendor to Microsoft on Microsoft Retail Reimagined and a member of the Microsoft’s prestigious Artificial Intelligence Inner Circle Program and on Microsoft’s Bot framework partner advisory board.

By Paul Solski

The benefits of partner-to-partner (P2P) relationships are no secret to IAMCP members. In fact, we have seen success stories from around the globe where members have formed alliances, both locally and internationally, to provide innovative customer solutions and win business.

The forging of local partnerships often takes place through IAMCP chapters, where members have the opportunity to get to know one another, learn about respective skill sets and form a bond of trust.

International partnering can be much more challenging, however, with the obvious complications of distance, familiarity, and cultural differences.

Challenging, but with the right groundwork and approach, IAMCP members are poised for great success through partner knowledge- and skills-sharing on a global level.

Key Factors to Consider Before Attempting an International Partnership

There are two phases to this section: firstly, considerations prior to launching internationally and, secondly, considerations in forming an international partnership.

Before Launching Internationally

It’s important to evaluate your success in your domestic market. Simply put, it is much easier, cheaper and faster to grow market share in a market where a company already has a presence, is familiar with the way business is done, and has existing contacts and people that know their competitors, the industry and potential clients.

Good indicators of being ready to expand internationally include:

•  Having established a profitable business locally
• Having a significant domestic market share (e.g. 10%)
• Having developed an existing partner network in your home country
• Experience in selling and winning against global competitors
• Some experience with selling and supporting international clients
• Willingness to invest in activities and resources in a new country for 12 months, even without generating new sales there.
• Having a notable number of international brand name client references (at least 3)

Forming International Partnerships

Consider which of the following two scenarios best describes your business:

a)    A company with packaged repeatable software IP, such as an ISV

b)    A company with specific professional services expertise such as an SI, MSP, or VAR

For ISVs, the main objective for building international partnerships is to achieve increased scale in sales, marketing and support. This can be best achieved by levering international partners who already have the people, premises, infrastructure and local contacts that can be applied to these areas.

To maximize the impact of partnerships there has to be a thoughtful matching of partners. When evaluating potential partners, consider:

1.     Their ability to reach their target customers and build a pipeline

2.     Their ability to sell, implement and support customers

3.     Their willingness to invest in training and resources to create the desired scale

Beyond the individual attributes of partners you are considering, it’s also important to:

• Assess the market opportunity and ROI for specific countries you are considering

• Define the GTM (go-to-market) strategy for each country – direct or indirect, industry specific or horizontal

• Define meaningful differentiators to competitors already in your identified target markets

• Identify the right partners for your target industry segments

• Define a clear business case for partners to justify in partnering

• Prepare a complete partner program that enables you to ramp partners up and rapidly enable them to become self-sufficient.

Barriers to Success – And How to Overcome (or Avoid) Them

One of the keys to partnering success is having a thorough understanding of the target market.

A market that isn’t dominated by a single competitor is more open to best-of-breed solutions and therefore to international solutions. Where there is a dominant single competitor, it’s more likely that there is a vast ecosystem of partners and customers who have a preference for the dominant competitor, e.g. SAP in Germany, or Dynamics NAV in Denmark.

Cultural considerations are another important factor and need to be taken into account.

How is business done? Are customers open to foreigners or do they have a preference for doing business with locals? Do customers expect to be wined-an-dined or is it strictly professional? Do customers or partners expect “gifts” to do business with you and is that acceptable to your company (and government) policies? Which factor dictates the purchase: price or value?

Underestimating the cost and time for success can be a key financial trip-wire.

It takes time to gain sales momentum in a new country, especially if the GTM is through partners. Expect to invest approximately 3 months to recruit and activate a partner. Then, the sales cycle for a particular solution has to be added before the first partner sales are realized. An expectation of 12 months to build a customer opportunities pipeline and sales momentum is realistic and should be factored into your projections.

Even if an ISV solution is in the cloud and sold through partners, anticipate the need for at least three resources in a new country: the Business Development Manager, the Pre-Sales Specialist, and the Technical Implementer. Then there are expenses for a serviced office, communications, and travel, etc. to consider. In the US, a three person subsidiary may cost $500K per year.

Approaching an international venture as a long-term investment, vs. an opportunistic one, should be part of your partnership strategy and planning process.

Ability to offer meaningful differentiation to drive customer appeal and business growth.

When considering dealing with an outside entity, international customers and partners will want an answer to this question: “Why would I buy/sell your foreign solution when there are already good local ones available?”

Having meaningful differentiation is a must. This can lay in features, capabilities, TCO (total cost of ownership), or ROI (return-on-investment). Price can be a differentiator, but is not always a good one as it can be associated with inferior products or services.

Ideally, your solution will address the needs or “pain points” of certain types of customers who are currently underserved.

The ability to form effective partnerships - the engine that drives increased scale. There are two types of partnerships to consider: re-sell and co-sell.

In re-sell partnerships, an ISV can leverage partners’ resources and contacts - the primary revenue drivers. The ability to clearly state “what’s in it for the partner” is a key success factor in the formation of re-seller partnerships.

Co-Sell partnerships with other partners, and with industry leaders such as Microsoft, can help to identify more opportunities, build more credibility for your brand and enable you to offer clients more complete solutions.

Developing Your International Partnership Strategy and Business Case

Your partner strategy should be based on building a partner network that is able to deliver complete solutions to specific target customers with the highest value. Therefore, defining the target customers in terms of industries/verticals, customer segments (SMB, MM, Enterprise) and the optimal solution is a pre-requisite to engaging with potential partners.

With your strategy in hand, it is then about recruiting the right partners based on the three key criteria mentioned earlier.

Your business case will define the market opportunity for partners – i.e.  (target customers) x (likely to buy) x (sale price) x (retained margin). A multimillion-dollar per year market opportunity is necessary for your proposition to be compelling to partners.

Defining the ROI for potential partners is equally as important. Your prospective partners will need to know how much they should expect to invest in people, training, marketing and support. Justification of this with the retained margin on sales and maintenance are important elements of your business case.

There are also strategic elements of a business case to consider from the partners’ perspective, such as the ability to cross-sell other products and services, become more strategic to their clients by becoming a trusted advisor, and improving their ability to compete with other partners.

Leveraging The IAMCP for Success

IAMCP partners are well-poised to succeed because, through partnerships, they can sell better solutions to more customers.

Many partners focus on an area in which they have become experts, for example partners who have developed practices in Microsoft Dynamics, Sharepoint or security. However, customers often look for complete solutions that may include all three components. An individual partner offering only one of these components may not be as attractive to a customer as a consortium of partners that can provide a complete, integrated solution that they undertake to deliver together for an agreed price. The advantage to a customer is that there are no surprises or disappointments. Often, when the partner who has the relationship with the customer takes the lead, there is just a single invoice to pay, one throat to choke and no finger-pointing.

IAMCP partners can also identify and address more opportunities. Each IAMCP partner is prospecting for clients in their local markets and customer types. By partnering, instead of prospecting in one location, you can prospect nationally, and even internationally, to identify more opportunities.

Also, you can prospect more diverse customers because, through a consortium of partners, you can collectively sell more diverse solutions. This has the potential to have a significant impact on the businesses of all the partners within the partnership.

Appealing to Foreign Companies

Partners can appear more attractive for both re-sell (with ISVs) and co-sell (with other partners) partnering opportunities by demonstrating a clear focus and leadership in particular customer segments, and solutions that solve specific business challenges.

This can be achieved through specifically targeted messaging on your website, featuring customer references and case studies, articles and blogs, and by engaging in social media discussions.

You can also use various databases and tools, such as the IAMCP’s INDEX, to profile your company and solutions expertise and make it easier for other IAMCP partners to find your organization.

In addition, you can establish visibility by engaging with Microsoft solution, industry, product and field teams to increase your opportunity to be recommended to other international ISVs and partners.

Globalization - Partnering in a Global World

As our world “gets smaller”, there is an expectation to be global and many customers today expect that their technology providers are global – especially when dealing with Microsoft partners.

Therefore, answering questions about providing services and support in other countries need to be a part of your story in appealing to other IAMCP partners internationally.

The IAMCP itself can be a part of this story when partners engage together. With 4,000+ partners across the globe, in most major countries and across all Microsoft technologies, the IAMCP forms a common foundation for the delivery of solutions to customers worldwide.

For example, if a partner in France is bidding a Dynamics CRM sale to a winery which also sells its products in the United States, there are ample IAMCP partners within the U.S. who can provide implementation, maintenance and support for the solution at the local level.

It is becoming easier than ever to go global!

With the growing expectation that technology partners can provide solutions globally, the technology, tools and partnerships are arising to make that easier. A good example of this is the transition from on-premises to cloud computing. With Microsoft Azure, the platform and applications are available anywhere in the world, and even data security and privacy issues are addressed. 24/7 support is commonplace with support centers located across multiple time zones.

The shift to globalization is here – embrace it!.

About Paul Solski

Paul Solski is Managing Director and Founder of AIM International, which specializes in enabling software companies (ISVs) to expand their market reach, build partner channels and win new clients in targeted vertical markets both domestically and internationally.

Paul is also the President of IAMCP Seattle.

As 2019 drew to a close, we took a moment to consider what the IAMCP achieved over the past year and draw up some goals and plans for a dynamic year in 2020. Here are some of the highlights from the past year:

• Internally, we have reorganized the Americas to include Canada, U.S. and LATAM. The Americas and EMEA boards have undergone some changes, with terms ending and new executive members being elected. You can read more about the changes here.

• The Membership platform has now been unified to better serve our Member base.

• Our Marcomm team has worked throughout the year to improve our image, increase our presence and communicate more frequently and clearly with our Members. You might have noticed an increase in the frequency of our newsletters and, within each issue, an escalated focus on the various committees within the IAMCP, and updates on their respective mandates.

• A key component of our brand presence is the re-vamping of our website, to be launched shortly (watch for an announcement). You will find it better organized, easier to navigate and more relevant to its users, both Members and visitors alike.

• Of course, one of the biggest highlights of 2019 was our 25^th Anniversary, celebrated around the globe and, most especially, at Microsoft Inspire with our anniversary party.

• The IAMCP made a huge splash at Inspire this year with a global and impactful presence. The P2P Awards were a special highlight, with many submissions of powerful partner-to-partner stories. You can read about them in our upcoming eBook, “Teamed Up for Success”, which celebrates the partnership solutions of our winning partners across all regions.

• The IAMCP is actively engaged on the Microsoft P2P Program, powered by the Workspan technology, with partners from the Americas and India being first on the platform.

• Along with our increased global presence comes greater engagement of Microsoft execs in IAMCP events, most notably the SoCal 10^th Anniversary and fundraising event with Gavriella Schuster, as well as events in the Americas and EMEA.

So, Where Do We Go From Here?

As we kick off 2020, we have some exciting goals to achieve that will make the IAMCP stronger and benefit our Members in more ways than ever before. This year we intend to:

• Achieve a dramatic increase in Membership and grow our net new members in larger countries.

• Expand our geographic reach to include new countries which haven’t benefited from having an IAMCP chapter yet. Let’s strive together for 20 in 2020! We’re already off to a great start, with new chapters poised to launch in Turkey, Malaysia, and Ghana.

• Focus on compliance and transparency across the organization to make us better, stronger and consistent.

• Increase awareness and encourage usage of the tools that are available to members, such as the Thought Leadership Blog where Members can share their expertise to educate others in the form of a blog, which the IAMCP can help you write (simply email Marcomm at intl.marcom@iamcp.org)

We wish you all the very best in 2020 – to your prosperity!

The IAMCP International Board

S No

Date/

Month

Global/US only/

EMEA only/APAC only

Event Title

Short description

Relevant URLs

1

Jan 4

Global

World Braille Day

Celebrating the birthday of Louis Braille and his method of writing words and music used by blind people around the world.

https://globaldimension.org.uk/calendar/

2

Feb 1

Global

World Interfaith Harmony Week

Spreading harmony and tolerance among followers of the three monotheistic faiths and all the world’s religions

https://globaldimension.org.uk/event/world-interfaith-harmony-week/2020-02-01/

3

Feb 21

Global

International Mother Language Day

Promoting linguistic and cultural diversity.

https://globaldimension.org.uk/event/international-mother-language-day/2020-02-21/

4

Feb

Global

LGBT History Month

Celebrating the lives and achievements of the LGBT community

https://globaldimension.org.uk/event/lgbt-history-month/2020-02-01/

5

Feb

US

Black History Month

Recognise contributions of people of the African diaspora

6

Mar 8

Global

International Women's Day

7

Apr

Global

Autism Awareness Month

8

May 9

European

Europe Day

Celebrating the creation of the European Union

9

May 17

Global

International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia & Biphobia

Campaigning for a prejudice-free world

https://globaldimension.org.uk/event/international-day-against-homophobia/2020-05-17/

10

Aug 19

Global

International Youth Day

Celebrating the experiences and voices of young people.

https://globaldimension.org.uk/event/international-youth-day/2020-08-12/

11

May 21

Global

World Day for Cultural Diversity

Enhancing our understanding and acceptance of different cultures.

https://globaldimension.org.uk/event/world-day-for-cultural-diversity/2019-05-21/

12

Sep 26

European

European Day of Languages

A day to celebrate languages and language learning.

https://globaldimension.org.uk/event/european-day-of-languages/2020-09-26

13

Sep & Oct

US only

Hispanic Heritage month (Sep 15 - Oct 15 )

Recognise Positive Contributions of the Hispanic community to enrich the US society

14

Oct 10th

Global

World Mental Health Awareness day

Global reminder on the importance of acknowledging good mental health and supporting those with mental health needs

https://www.who.int/mental_health/maternal-child/en/

15

Oct 4

Global

International Dyslexia Awareness day

16

7-13 Oct

UK (Europe)

Dyslexia Awareness Week

Promote Dyslexia awareness through articles, interviews with successful professionals with Dyslexia

https://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/support-us/awareness-events/dyslexia-awareness-week/daw-2019

17

Oct 13

World Sight Day

Raising awareness about the problems, prevention and treatment of blindness.

https://globaldimension.org.uk/event/world-sight-day/2020-10-13

18

Nov 13-19

UK

Inter Faith Week

Aims to strengthen inter-faith relations and increase understanding.

https://globaldimension.org.uk/event/inter-faith-week-scotland/2020-11-13/

19

Nov 14

Global

Global Entrepreneurship Week

A celebration of enterprise and entrepreneurial people.

https://globaldimension.org.uk/event/global-entrepreneurship-week/2020-11-14/

20

Nov 16

Global

International Day of Tolerance

Encouraging respect, dialogue and cooperation among different cultures, civilizations and peoples.

https://globaldimension.org.uk/event/international-day-for-tolerance/2020-11-16/

21

Nov 19

Global

International Men's Day

22

Dec 3

Global

International Day of People with Disability (UN sanctioned)

Promote an understanding of disability issues and mobilize support for the dignity, rights and well-being of persons with disabilities. It also seeks to increase awareness of gains to be derived from the integration of persons with disabilities in every aspect of political, social, economic and cultural life

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations%27_International_Day_of_Persons_with_Disabilities

23

Dec 5

Global

International Volunteers Day

Celebrating the contribution and achievements of volunteers.

We all are volunteers at IAMCP:)

https://globaldimension.org.uk/event/international-volunteer-day/2020-12-05/

24

Dec 18

Global

International Minorities Rights Day (UN sanctioned)

Increase awareness about the right of minorities to

· enjoy their own culture

· practise their own religion

· use their own language

freely and without any form of discrimination

https://web.archive.org/web/20120106024749/http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/minorities.htm

25

Dec 20

Global

International Human Solidarity Day

Developing a culture of solidarity and a spirit of sharing in order to achieve social justice and combat poverty

https://globaldimension.org.uk/event/international-human-solidarity-day/2019-12-20/

When IAMCP members collaborate, we're always a powerful team. But when IAMCP Members come together to raise funds for charity, we're an indomitable force.

The IAMCP SoCal 10th Anniversary celebration was such an event, with members coming together to raise over $100,000 for CHOC (Children’s Hospital of Orange County) and the Orange County Ronald McDonald House (RMH)!

CHOC is affiliated with the University of California, Irvine, the regional pediatric healthcare network includes a 316-bed main hospital facility in the City of Orange, and a hospital-within-a-hospital in Mission Viejo. CHOC also offers many primary and specialty care clinics, over 100 additional programs and services, a pediatric residency program, and four "centers of excellence" - the CHOC Children’s Heart, Cancer, Neuroscience, and Orthopaedic Institutes.

CHOC will be using the funds to help implement new technology in its Seacrest Studios, an in-house multimedia broadcast center, such as the Surface Hub „collaboration kiosk“, which will connect with another one at the RMH house so that parents can easily commuicate with one another.

Microsoft HoloLens, an untethered mixed reality headset, will be introduced to help children keep their minds off their treatments. With the assistance of the Microsoft's Justin Slagle and his team, the hospital is also looking at ways to can help the staff with better technology through Surface Hub and Microsoft 365 to assist with staff productivity and better ways to enhance guest satisfaction.

Ronald McDonald House Expansion

Orange County RMH is currently undergoing an expansion and is considering how technology could play a role in the upgraded facility.

A rendering of the RMH expansion

Said Noel Burcelis, Executive Director of the Orange County Ronald McDonald House, “We are excited to explore the possibilities of how we can use the funds to enhance guest experience of families staying at the Ronald McDonald House Orange County.” 

This could involve providing products for entertaining the patients and siblings who stay at the House in the proposed Teen Room, or using technology to improve the guest check-in experience and decrease the stress of the “admission process.” In addition, RMH is considering using funds to attain products that could assist staff in collecting, analyzing, and reporting on guest data. 

“This truly is an exciting opportunity for our charity to use technology to further our mission of providing care, comfort, and support to families with seriously ill children.” – Noel Burcelis

                                            The kitchen at RMH

Expanding Partner Opportunities with a Winning P2P Strategy

Andosi rejoins IAMCP to win the IAMCP Americas Gold P2P Award

Andosi, a Boston-based IAMCP member and direct CSP, has a great deal of experience with partner-to-partner (P2P) relationships. In fact, the organization has made P2P part of its business strategy, embracing the benefits that partnership can bring to all participating parties – including the customer.

A True Culture of Collaboration

Andosi first joined the IAMCP Tampa Chapter in 2009, but later left the folds of the organization. After a hiatus, Founder and CEO Tom Karpowich renewed his interest in 2016, recognizing that the IAMCP embodied the spirit of collaboration that was an intrinsic part of Andosi’s culture.

“We came back to the Tampa Chapter because it promotes a true Partner-to-Partner (P2P) culture of collaboration,” Karpowich says. “We also opened a Boston office, and our team in that region was already heavily involved in the IAMCP Boston Chapter.”

Karpowich cites two main benefits for maintaining an active membership in both the Tampa and Boston groups.

“Actively participating in IAMCP events gives us the opportunity to meet other Microsoft partners and establish relationships that can turn into business opportunities,” Karpowich explains. “We get the chance to understand each other’s strengths, and this leads to referring business to each other in our respective areas of expertise.”

Another major benefit of IAMCP that Karpowich appreciates is the education that the monthly meetings provide. “The partners give great overviews of new technical features that have been added to existing Microsoft solutions and the capabilities of new Microsoft solutions,” says Karpowich. “This helps us expand the value of the solutions we deploy for our customers.”

Resource for Identifying Required Expertise

Karpowich regularly attends meetings hosted by the Tampa Chapter and participates in panel discussions. He also plans to give solution presentations in the future. In the Boston Chapter, Andosi is well-represented by Senior Account Director, Sandra Knight, who is the chapter president and a member of the board of directors for IAMCP North America.

With the internal team including many Microsoft Dynamics CRM experts and clients from across the U.S., Andosi regularly utilizes the IAMCP Partner Portal. This helps identify ideal partners with which to collaborate on customer projects requiring other Microsoft expertise, and partners with resources in other geographic locations.

“One of our clients required professional services at a satellite office in the West Indies,” Karpowich points out. “The portal enabled us to quickly identify a viable partner based in that area, and the project went very smoothly.”

Partners Respect Each Other’s Territory

When Andosi turns to the IAMCP Index Partner Portal, Karpowich knows the members are trustworthy. “Other partners won’t upset our existing customer relationships, and we don’t step on each other’s toes when it comes to interacting with clients,” he says. “Every partner respects one another’s territory.”

Karpowich cites how any Microsoft solution provider that joins IAMCP does so because they are open to forming partnerships with other solution providers.

“Any time we need a partner—whether it’s for a particular set of skills, additional resources, or a presence in another geography—we turn to IAMCP first,” Karpowich says. “We still go through the vetting process to evaluate if we are a good match for one another, but the membership base provides an ideal starting point.”

Collaborative Efforts Pay Off with IAMCP Americas Gold P2P Award

Andosi’s active participation in IAMCP and the many joint-partner Microsoft Dynamics 365 projects that the solution provider has participated in were rewarded in a big way in July 2019. IAMCP awarded Andosi the Americas Gold P2P Award during the Microsoft Inspire conference in Las Vegas.

With this award and the many successes Andosi has enjoyed through collaboration projects with other IAMCP members, Karpowich plans to continue expanding the firm’s IAMCP activities.

“By giving presentations and participating in the IAMCP P2P marketing program, we can increase our presence in the Microsoft market,” Karpowich says. “This will not only bring in more potential business for us, but also expand the value we deliver to clients—by giving them access to a wider range of Microsoft expertise. There’s so much IAMCP partners can do by working together.”

About Andosi

With offices in Tampa, Boston, Indianapolis and Kentucky, Andosi is a Microsoft Gold Partner in Cloud Customer Relationship Management and ISV as well as a Silver Partner in Cloud Platform. The firm’s experience with Microsoft Dynamics and business management goes deeper than just concepts—the executive team has worked with Microsoft Dynamics GP since its inception. Since then and for more than two decades, Andosi has watched, learned and played a role in the growth of Dynamics GP and its transformation into a powerful business system.

Andosi IAMCP Activity at a Glance

(2016-2019)

13 joint projects with IAMCP members

$500K+ in total revenue  

The WIT Network has been recognized as an important part of the Microsoft Partner ecosystem – and endorsed by Gavriella Schuster – who attended our happy hour at Inspire earlier this year. The WIT Network hosted another amazing Happy Hour on November 6th at Microsoft Ignite. Attendees were able to interact with, and be inspired by Ann Johnson, Corporate Vice President of the Cybersecurity Solutions Group, at Microsoft. A big thank you to Nintex who not only sponsored the event, but let us hold it in their booth.  

One of the hot topics of discussion at Happy Hour was The WIT Network 2nd Annual International Women’s Day Conference taking place in Munich, Germany, on March 8 and 9, 2020. Planning is in full swing for this year’s conference, the theme of which is “Believe. Achieve. Celebrate.”

Mark your calendars and be prepared for two days full of inspiration and actionable advice to help guide us all on how to live our best lives and make a positive impact in the world.

More details will be forthcoming in the next few weeks, so stay tuned here for more information and to register. If you’re interested in receiving great publicity and sponsoring the IWD conference, please reach out to The WIT Network President, Christine Bongard.

The story of Carlene Jackson, who turned dyslexic challenges into an advantage, became an entrepreneur, and launched a successful tech organisation

Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) isn’t limited just to visible minorities, or those with different religious beliefs, or sexual orientations.

Just ask Carlene Jackson, CEO of UK-based tech company Cloud9 Insight, a Microsoft Gold Partner which has provided more than 600 UK businesses with cloud-based CRM software systems.

Growing up with dyslexia, Carlene faced many learning challenges throughout her schooling. But she also learned coping skills and realised that dyslexia, often considered a disability, gave her a distinct advantage in that it enhanced her creativity.

In fact, many well-known and tremendously successful entrepreneurs are, or have been, dyslexic; Richard Branson, Lord Alan Sugar, Anita Roddick, Walt Disney and Henry Ford were all reportedly diagnosed with the condition, and research suggests dyslexia is disproportionately found among entrepreneurs. 

"Dyslexia is a gift that’s helped me in business," says Carlene. "If you're dyslexic, you can never truly fail, because you simply accept that succeeding first time may not happen so you’re going to have to find a way around the problem. You learn differently, see the world differently and these things are very useful when you're an entrepreneur.” 

How can businesses benefit from embracing Dyslexia?

Much of what takes place in the workplace is now being automated and many people are questioning what role human beings will play in industry. If you can create a rule for something then it can probably be automated. There are going to be a lot of robots in the office soon, efficiently following rules. But, for a business to be truly successful, this will need to be married with creativity – and if there’s one thing that doesn’t follow rules, it’s the process of creativity. 

Creativity is about innovation, taking leaps into the dark and daring to fail; it’s about breaking rules, not following them. Many dyslexic entrepreneurs are successful because they don’t follow the rules of their industry and instead look to create completely new models which change the game for everybody. 

Workplaces need creative people and so can benefit greatly from welcoming people with dyslexia and autism, as well as other natural rulebreakers. Just because someone’s brain is wired differently, doesn’t mean they can’t perform a major role. 

Businesses that recruit and work with rulebreakers will have opportunities to solve problems that automated software and bots cannot. 

Carlene’s path to success

Born in Dublin, Ireland, Jackson moved to Brighton at a young age and entered the corporate world. She learned sales at IBM and moved into the growing field of customer relationship management (CRM) software. Carlene self-identifies her greatest strength as sales strategy. She quickly understands customers, connects with them, drives change and helps companies set a vision.  

But it was when cloud computing began to emerge that Jackson saw the chance to realise her ambitions and become an entrepreneur. She recognized the potential of cloud technology early in her career and went on to build a thriving consultancy business with 20 staff. 

“My brother is a serial entrepreneur, and encouraged me to stop making millions for others and make it for myself. Microsoft, at that time, was getting lots of attention with a cloud-based CRM solution for the UK market, which had previously only been on-premises. I saw opportunity there, so I seized the moment to start a new business focused on Microsoft Dynamics, and have never looked back since.” – Carlene Jackson  

Carlene talks passionately about partnering with Microsoft, staff and apprenticeships and how a ‘learning difficulty’ has made her a better entrepreneur. 

Staff development has always been a key driver for Jackson, with her skills winning her several industry awards for investing in people. “I’m proud of the fact that many of the people I have recruited have not worked in the tech sector before and I have coached them to the success they have achieved. I am passionate to help people fulfil their potential and dreams – being an apprenticeship provider will help Cloud9 Insight achieve this even further,” said Carlene.

What is Dyslexia?

Dyslexia is a common learning difficulty that can cause problems with reading, writing and spelling. It is a lifelong problem that can present challenges on a daily basis, but support is available to improve reading and writing skills and help those with the problem be successful at school and work.

People with dyslexia find it difficult to recognise the different sounds that make up words and relate these to letters. Dyslexia isn't related to a person's general level of intelligence. Children and adults of all intellectual abilities can be affected by dyslexia. 

The exact cause of dyslexia is unknown, but it often appears to run in families. It's thought that certain genes inherited from parents may act together in a way that affects how some parts of the brain develop during early life.

About Cloud9 Insight

Founded in 2010, Cloud9 Insight has 20 staff and is also an award-winning apprenticeship provider. The company is on target to reach £2m turnover in 2019 and has gained over 600 clients in the small-medium business (SMB) sector. Cloud9 is also an apprenticeship provider to the tech industry and received government accreditation in Autumn 2019.  

IAMCP SoCal brings the Microsoft ecosystem together in celebration – and raises over $100,000 for charity.

October 24, 2019 was a big day for Microsoft, IAMCP and the local partner community, with the 10th Anniversary celebration of the IAMCP SoCal Chapter bringing together Microsoft Partners from across the country, along with 42 Microsoft Execs, Field Sellers and OCP Team members.  

The event was full of education for partners, feedback for Microsoft, a focus on Diversity and Inclusion, and a huge drive for GIVE, which resulted in a generous total donation of over $100,000 for the Children’s Hospital of Orange County and Ronald McDonald House!

Some Event Highlights:

• Over $100,000 raised for Children’s Hospital of Orange County and Ronald McDonald House!

• Sweepstakes featuring a Porsche Macan giveaway and over 40 mentoring opportunities for partners with Microsoft Execs, Field Sellers and Partner Team

• Partner of the decade awards, honoring: IAMCP SoCal Area Diversity & Inclusion Partner of the Decade - TaraByte Solutions; IAMCP SoCal Area Member of the Decade - Dave Seibert; IAMCP SoCal Area Most Partner Friendly Member - PartnerSource Solutions; IAMCP SoCal Area Partner Choice Award - Manish Bhardia – Think AI; and IAMCP SoCal Area Partner of the Decade - 6th Street Consulting

• A VIP Reception at which Challenge medals were given to all guests, Moscow Mule Copper Mugs given to all, honoring our friend Tom Castiglia who passed away earlier this year, and guests had photo opportunities with Microsoft execs

• A celebration expo featuring 38 exhibitors

• A suite of partner 101 sales and marketing tracks

• Advanced technical tracks

• Executive Roundtables with David Smith, Beth Cavanaugh, and Brent Combest

• Many partner side sessions

• An outdoor expo, refreshing for many exhibitors that are normally inside for the “typical event expo”

• A Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) panel, with moderator, Sarah Geoghegan, SoftwareONE and SoCal WIT Network President; Dave Shah, Skyworks; Rodney Campbell, Microsoft; Heather Newman, Creative Maven; Seppy Azadi, Korn Ferry; and Beth Cavanaugh, Microsoft

• Special highlights: Goodwill Staffing Services, which helps place people with barriers to employment, and the WIT Network

• A donut wall (yes, you read that right!)

• IAMCP Party Tattoos

• LinkedIn Head shots by the Microsoft Retail Store

The presentation of the Porsche Macan (2 Year Lease) was made at the end of the evening. And the winner was… Jon Stypula, President of Dynamic Consulting!

But Jon decided to donate the $25,000 prize to the selected charities, instead of taking possession of the car, which helped in achieving the $100,000 stretch goal for giving at the event! Congratulations and thank you Jon!

Another highlight in giving was when Justin and Alexis Slagle were presented with a plaque showcasing the sponsorship of an Adopt-A-Room program through the Ronald McDonald House Orange County from the IAMCP SoCal Partner, showing their appreciation for everything that was done for this event.

What the attendees said:

 “I left the party thinking I want to do more with Microsoft.”

 “That night changed the definition of what it means to be a Microsoft Partner. Pretty cool!”

 “The event deepened my understanding and love of Microsoft.”

“I came away with way more respect for Microsoft as a company. I don't view them just as a giant in the industry, but a company who employees a compassionate, caring and supportive team.  A company that cares about their partner's success.  A Company that does everything with class.”

 “Never in my career have I had the access to such great executives from Microsoft.”

“The access we got to the Microsoft team was unparalleled from any Microsoft event I've attended.

“The sense of community was prevalent throughout the event. The camaraderie and inclusiveness of all attendees was infectious.”

“I don't have many words left to express what amazing event it was. I loved every single presentation, but the two that really were my favorites were: 1) Brent Combest’s partner profitability, sharing how he evaluates each partner and 2) The D&I panel discussion - I walked away with so many new things I learned, not only to apply to business, but also things I could be much more mindful of as a parent when talking to my kids.”

Next Steps:

Let’s keep the momentum going!  Stay engaged with your local IAMCP Chapter and build more P2P success stories!  

Read more about the event:

LinkedIn (148 posts): https://www.linkedin.com/feed/hashtag/iamcpsocal10/

Twitter (278 total tweets): https://twitter.com/search?q=%23iamcpsocal10&f=live

See the entire event in pictures - there are nearly 700 that tell the full story: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AgLQKsU5--Ohn_FGEsiKHtaHi2ihKw?e=cnrDF5

Intelegain Technologies, a global company with four locations in the U.S., India, Singapore and Australia, has been providing customers with expert technology solutions for over 15 years. But when a customer needed a solution that fell outside of Intelegain’s scope of expertise, the company’s CTO, Neeraj Gargi, had to get creative – and he turned to members of his local IAMCP chapter, India West to solve the customer’s problem.

Wonderchef, a rapidly expanding premium kitchen wares distributor selling in India and exporting to APAC, was experiencing difficulties with its on-premises MS Dynamics ERP solution, necessitating an immediate migration to the cloud in order to reduce maintenance costs, resource efforts and time. But the company simply couldn’t afford to be out of commission for the 5-7 days downtime that the migration would require.

Despite Intelegain’s expertise in Azure Migration and Implementation, the company needed external support to deliver the complete fail-safe hybrid cloud solution in a time frame that would involve minimal impact to the customer’s business.

Building on relationships that had been formed over several years through IAMCP chapter meetings, Neeraj approached two partners: Mumbai-based Graftronics and Sunbridge of Pune region. With the team’s combined expertise, a solution was born that would see the migration of the customer’s datacentre to a new facility during a period when the volume of billing transactions was highest. This challenge was further impacted by a rapidly-approaching deadline on the existing lease at customer's facility.

And the result?

With Intelegain leading the customer relationship and the set-up of the infrastructure on Microsoft Azure, Graftronics handled the on-premises appliances and facilities such as routers, VPN connectivity and firewall, etc. Meanwhile, Sunbridge brought in its expertise in Dynamics, ensuring that the Dynamics NAV Migration took place with virtually zero downtime.

“IAMCP has given me great confidence to work in the Microsoft space and share expertise with other partners. This solution has illustrated how impactful Partner-to-Partner relationships can be for all parties involved and I know that I have support from the MS community when I have a challenge.” – Neeraj Gardi

The entire process was seamless for Wonderchef, with Intelegain as the single point of contact, eliminating the need to co-ordinate with multiple partners and mitigating the risk of communication gaps.

In just two weeks from the diagnosis of the required solution, the migration was successfully completed in under 3 hours, outside of productive working time, and without disruption to the operation of the business.

What does the P2P APAC Gold win mean for Intelegain?

“Winning this award is a tremendous honour for Intelegain,” said Neeraj. “There was lots of competition with great solutions and it’s fantastic to be recognized by an international community – especially at Inspire, where everyone is watching. We’re going to keep on partnering – and next year we’re going for the global award!”

Building on the success of the Wonderchef solution, Intelegain is now working with partners from different regions, including China and Africa. And the company is committed to the power of P2P relationships, with four guiding success principles:

1.         Trust your partner

2.         Be Transparent

3.         Be Reasonable

4.         Be Honest

Because IAMCP membership is all about community and great success opportunities!

Klaus Fander CEO of acadon from Germany and the IAMCP International Board treasurer is sharing his professional insight about Microsoft’s directions in Business Central and the new development environment announced at Directions EMEA.

By Klaus Fander

The Directions EMEA Vienna conference is the leading trade fair of the European Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Community. Last week, 2,370 partners from across Europe met in Vienna to discuss the latest trends around Microsoft Business Apps / Business Central. 

As at the worldwide partner conference "Inspire" in July, Microsoft confirmed the roadmap: Business Central should become more user-friendly, i.e. easier to introduce, use and expand. Therefore, the current release ("BC15") replaces the Windows client with the Web client. With this step, installation on computers is no longer necessary and the look & feel has been adapted to the modern Office 365. This makes it much easier for users to navigate and quickly trigger the desired actions.

Also, the twenty-year-old development environment ("C/SIDE") will be replaced by a modern state-of-the-art environment based on Visual Studio Code and Azure Devops. This allows partners to make their industry solutions and customizations more secure and modular. In the future, customers will be able to create smaller customizations much more easily by themselves. These are retained during the update and require practically no migration effort.

The decisive market advantage of the old "Navision" is thus elevated to the new "Business Central" era: the simple adaptation of a comprehensive standard solution to the individual needs of the customer. Of course, it is necessary to use the current version. But once this step has been taken, future updates will be straightforward, users will benefit from easier operation and the use of new functions of the industry solution, external modules or individual adaptations will be faster and cheaper. Our customers can also benefit from the simple connection to other Microsoft cloud services such as Power BI or Artificial Intelligence.

For us as a Microsoft partner, the transition period means a great deal of effort, because our ISV solution and our customer solutions have to be migrated at the same time.

In this respect, it was logical that IAMCP was represented as an official community partner at Directions EMEA for the first time this year. 

The exchange between partners is more important than ever. As members of the IAMCP, we benefit from the high willingness to cooperate and provide mutual support. This gives us more time for the individual requirements of our customers and we can support them to transition through the digital transformation even faster.

At the same time, the cooperation between BC partners and partners from other workloads allows us to offer our customers more holistic solutions.

If you are not yet a member as a partner, register - so that your customers are ahead of their competitors!

Klaus Fander is the CEO of acadon, a Microsoft-Gold-Partner with more than 30 years of experience in more than 1000 projects. Based on the international standard products of Microsoft Dynamics 365 (NAV / Business Central), they offer integrated and customer orientated services such as acadon-industrial-solutions for the timber (lumber) and packaging industry.

Frank Valdivieso, DC Chapter President for the IAMCP (International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners) and chair of the IAMCP’s Americas Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Committee, has seen diversity and inclusion from two sides. Frank’s experience is both from the perspective of either being included or rejected based on the color of his skin, and from the standpoint of doing the right thing to include others.

By visual identification, Frank is a Black Hispanic, and thereby falls squarely into the category of “visual minority”. But that’s only if we’re categorizing people. And why are we?

What is D&I?

 Said Frank, “Diversity focuses on things that divide us – the things that make us different. Inclusion is about bringing people together; it provides us with opportunities to be more inclusive in how we sell and support our products, and offer better service to our customers.”

Having had negative experiences, Frank has a deep understanding of the impact of D&I and has built a successful company that actively embraces the practice – both internally and externally.

As President & CEO of Gryphon Consulting, a Largo, MD based MSP providing IT support to companies with less than 250 employees, Frank believes that D&I is a top-down initiative, and while Gryphon is a small company from an employee statistic standpoint, 50% of Gryphon’s employees are minorities. Plus, Gryphon’s customer-base is almost entirely comprised of women entrepreneurs, and the company’s suppliers are all either women- or minority-owned.

Making a Difference

D&I is not the only problem for today’s technology businesses; the lack of skilled talent presents an enormous hiring challenge.

Recognizing this issue through experience, Gryphon Consulting became one of the first supporting clients of the recently-established training program, Franklin Apprenticeships, a Maryland-based help-desk level apprenticeship course.

The progressive program offers hands-on skills-training to those for whom a 4-year college degree might not be an option, through a combination of in-class instruction and internship placements, and predominantly serves at-risk youth, and those who want to make a career change.

“This program has been very beneficial for Gryphon. Previously, post-hire, we found that a candidate’s resume did not necessarily match their skill-set. Through Franklin Apprenticeships, we are able to hire employees with the assurance that they have received adequate training and experience. Plus, we know that we are supporting an initiative that assists an underserved community,” said Frank.

Shaping Change

In addition to embracing progressive hiring practices, Frank Valdivieso is also a member of Voices for Innovation (VFI), a technology policy advocacy group. Sponsored by Microsoft, the organization is comprised of technology professionals who meet to discuss and advocate for issues that impact the IT industry, and support IT job growth.

For Frank Valdivieso, programs like the ones in which he is involved provide him with a way to give back to his community and drive polices and practices that improve people’s lives and strengthen organizational culture for the greater success of all.

 “D&I is all about learning – understanding what we can do better. The IAMCP creates a safe environment through the individual chapters to explore these topics. We can leverage this platform to educate our members so that they can go back to their organizations and champion D&I within their companies, leading to greater success for everyone – we all need the same chance to compete.” – Frank Valdivieso

So, what came first: Diversity or Inclusion?

Perhaps it doesn’t matter. An organization can have diversity, but no inclusion. Or, it can have inclusion, without diversity. But when the company’s strategy is to make the two symbiotic, each works best when the other is in play, and can attract and retain great talent. What does your D&I playbook look like?

For more information on Gryphon Consulting visit http://www.gryphon-consulting.com/

The IAMCP is delighted to congratulation South Africa-based Mint Group on winning both the Worldwide and Gold EMEA awards in this year’s P2P (partner-to-partner) contest with an innovative AI (Artificial Intelligence) solution.

“Mint Group is proud to be recognized as the Worldwide and EMEA winner of the IAMCP P2P awards for 2019. We champion the IAMCP ethos in South Africa and across the African continent through valuable partnerships via joint solution implementations, best practices, learning and knowledge sharing. Mint believes in the strength of growing together in the partner ecosystem with the shared outcome of delivering value to our customers.” - Sugeshni Subroyen, Head of Marketing, Mint Group

The Challenge

When the University of Venda (Univen), a rural South African comprehensive university, located in Thohoyandou in the Limpopo province, was encountering low student participation and dwindling pass rates, the faculty knew that a solution was required – but what?

As an educational instituation that runs predominantly on grants for funding, and serves approximately 16,000 students, Univen needed to increase student success rates to maintain its reputation and secure future funding.

In addition, sometimes there were people on campus who did not belong there and the facility did not have the capacity to monitor activities, making student and staff safety a concern that had to be addressed.

A Success Trifecta

In a quest to solve the problem, Univen partnered with Mint Group, which created Intelligent Campus through the application of AI on the Azure platform, to address challenges and unlock opportunities for the institution. The partnership made Univen the first university in SA to pilot the use of artificial intelligence (AI) for access control and enable:

• Strict student access control through facial recognition across the University
• Student tracking and verification across the campus
• Sentiment analysis within classrooms to correlate sentiment to student performance
• Attendance tracking to correlate attendance numbers to student pass rates

To achieve the desired outcome, Mint Group required a strong partnership with a hardware provide and found this in Gijima, which could successfully install technology across the campus to cater for the Intelligent Campus vision and the Vision APP solutions to be implemented, at the same time taking all other infrastructure challenges into account (wheelchair access, speed bumps, security booms, dorm turnstiles, etc.).

Since the successful pilot program at Univen, the AI system is now being rolled out to the entire University as a first step towards digital transformation which will:

• Enable facial recognition and access control of 16,000 students per day;
• Monitor 72 classrooms with up to four cameras in each class scanning the faces once every minute for classroom attendance;
• Serve as the basis for a future roadmap for advanced analytics such as predictive drop-out detection etc. which will further increase pass rates as well as Azure consumption; and,
• Drop security incidences down to 0%.

The Results Are In!

 As 99% of Univen’s students study through the allocation of government grants, the allocation of funds can now be backed by data, and student performance can be monitored to ensure money is being spent on the correct students.

“Through the powerful capabilities of Azure, we empowered Univen to resolve the issue of safety, streamline staff productivity and student management, and address student performance through sentiment analysis and tracking with the Mint Vision App, a solution that will continuously drive transformation. Winning these awards is an important recognition of the transformation Mint Group is driving in SA’s education and health industries, and how we achieve that through partnership,” said Carel Du Toit, CEO, Mint Group.

Other universities are following suit and Mint has been in negotiations with 6 other universities and has secured a pilot project with one institution which will commence in Q1 FY20.

By Karl Joseph Ufert

Being both in the advertising industry and the IAMCP, I’ve seen it time and again – to get their message out companies get caught up in costly staffing or, even worse, don’t have the internal resources to market effectively and end up doing little... or nothing at all.

After over 20 years of marketing experience as a president, co-founder and partner at Mitra Creative, and many years working with the IAMCP and Microsoft partners, I got to understand the needs and challenges of our community in-depth.

And the fact is the partner community is not rolling in money, and the models that they have relied on for co-brand dollars are changing, in terms of how Microsoft allocates money – funds are limited today, so partners have to market smarter.

No.1 advice: Make your website an employee

Yes, really.

For SMBs (small-medium businesses), most marketing is digital, due to the prohibitive costs of mass marketing tactics, and a key component is the company website.

But the cost of hiring dedicated talent to plan and execute a marketing strategy and manage a website can run a company well into 6-figures annually. Plus, there’s the overhead cost of providing office space and equipment for those employees, which is another large budget line.

Here are my 4 top tips on how to utilize resources to optimize budget and results for our members.

1.    Build a professional website

It may sound trite, but let’s face it: your website is the face of your company, and the first impression that prospects will receive. Likely, no-one is going to come to your office, meet your charming receptionist, see your cool office space, and ask to see the CEO, ready to buy.

Rather, they will follow you online to determine whether or not you can solve their pain-points before contacting you for a discussion about their particular needs. And they won’t call you from receiving your business card – they’ll look at your website first.

That’s why your website needs to be professionally designed, responsive and search engine-friendly, so that it meets Google’s complex requirements and, thus, people can find you. Plus, you need to be ever-present with information that resonates with your visitors. If you’re not, your website might be a key component of marketing strategy that you’re missing.

Once you have your website, you turn it into your #1 employee and make it work for you. Invest in it, just as you would with a staff member through training, conferences, desk space, etc. Allocating funds to your website is effective – and highly measurable.

2.     Create interesting and relevant content

Many companies rely on internal teams to drive social and on-website content and they often only use automated tools to distribute it, with disappointing results.

The key is to find the right mix of platforms for talking to your audience, then feed them regularly to keep dialogue and communication alive – even if its just curated content. No matter how often they post, companies are not going to build a brand on Instagram alone. Or Facebook for that matter.

You can also curate content and personalize it with a message – a concierge approach wherein you post an article that you found highly relevant and interesting and include customer key words and hashtags in the post.

Important note: when you curate, don’t use automation – the result will be that you’re just promoting the company whose article you’re sharing.

Ideally, you would develop a suite of digital media marketing or social marketing that addresses your:

• Prospects;

• Customers; and,

• Professional Partner Community

Each group will, of course, receive different messaging, which is relevant to them respectively, and the timing and frequency of communications will be different for each segment too.

Of course, it’s important that content is interesting and relevant to your audience, well-written and well-timed. If writing isn’t your forte – or you simply don’t have time – external resources can help you put your best content foot forward, and save you time and money.

3.    Test. Measure. Test again.

The world is constantly changing. And that means the information to which people respond is in constant flux too.

That’s why measurement is so important: so that you can see what worked and what didn’t, and avoid throwing good money at bad ideas.

It’s important to take the convergence of digital communication across available platforms and not only judge your marketing spend, but make the spend as effective as it can be. It’s not about likes and shares – it’s about ROI, so we need to think in dollars and cents.

4.     Hire a pro

If that all sounds like a lot of work, it’s because it is. And, chances are, you’re an expert in your own field, not in the field of marketing. So often we see small business owners struggling to master tactics that aren’t in their skill set – and that just diverts their energy from where it’s best spent.

Which is partly why companies hire outside resources to help them with their marketing strategy and execution. They also do it because it’s fiscally prudent – it costs less to hire an expert to do the job right, than to invest in year-round, internal resources that might require training and support. Plus, when an expert develops your materials, you know that they will hit their mark.

About Karl and Mitra Creative

Karl’s most recent role with the IAMCP was on the sponsorship initiative for Microsoft Inspire 2019 (International and Americas). He also worked on the sponsor-related core social media marketing last year, and developed the first microsite for Inspire. Karl manages social media for the New Jersey IAMCP chapter, and is the social chair on the board. He also co-manages the Microsoft Marketing Round Table Group with Eric Rabinowitz (of Nurture Marketing) and is a member of the New York Chapter of the American Marketing Association.

Mitra Creative, Inc., founded in 2005 by Karl Joseph Ufert and Vincent Wang, is a privately held company providing marketing, communication, brand and interactive/print design consulting services to mid-sized technology, media, entertainment and public sector enterprises in the U.S., Asia and other parts of the globe. The company is currently led by Karl Ufert, Ifan Chang, Jay Huang and Frank Louvis.

Mitra Creative’s offices — including its strategic consulting, design and development/technology teams — are based in New York City (Manhattan).

Want more tips from Karl Ufert?

You can learn more about Karl and read his recent blog posts here, or follow him on Twitter so that you never miss a tip:  Follow @KarlUfertMitra

With Microsoft Inspire 2019 now behind us, it seems that the one thing everyone agrees upon is that the energy was high and the week flew by!

And in our 25^th Anniversary year, we had lots to share and attracted much attention. Here are some of the highlights, along with a special feature spotlight on our D&I (Diversity and Inclusion) committee:

• Our 25^th Anniversary Party, which totally rocked the conference and attracted over 600 guests – 200 more than expected – to help us celebrate!

• A personal visit to the Americas Board Meeting from Gavriella Schuster, Corporate Vice President, One Commercial Partner. Gavriella wanted to personally share Microsoft’s decision to reverse its position on the topic of IUR (Internal Use Rights) – a collective win for Microsoft, IAMCP, and all our members and partners around the globe.

• A big moment when David Willis, Vice President, US Dynamics – Microsoft, opened the US General sessions congratulating the IAMCP on its 25th Anniversary, and more.

Many new IAMCP members during the conference, from US, South Africa, Canada, India, Ghana, Cyprus/Lebanon/Malta, China, BeLux, Austria, and UK.

The announcement of the launch of a new chapter in Greater China Region – a country-first for the IAMCP! You can read the full press release here.

 An eloquent message of 25^th Anniversary congratulations from Brad Smith, President of Microsoft Corporation, encapsulating how IAMCP has effected change in the last 25 years and commenting on what the next quarter-century might bring. You can view it here.

And, a very busy Petey, who even had a photo op with Gavriella Schuster!

Prometheus Awards – Celebrating those who help make our successes possible

The Prometheus Awards provide an opportunity for Partners to recognize the Microsoft staff that work with them on a day-to-day basis. Partners have an opportunity to vote for a member of staff who has provided an outstanding level of service to the Partner and has shown an exceptional level of commitment. A huge thank you and congratulations to this year’s winners for all you do in support of IAMCP Partners!

Diversity & Inclusion in the Inspire’s Spotlight

With Diversity and Inclusion an important strategic mandate for the IAMCP, our D&I committee was very much in the limelight at Inspire 2019, and the significance of this topic was a key theme of the entire conference. From Satya Nadella mentioning it in his keynote address, to its noticeable presence in every event, D&I was evident throughout the week.

“There was so much to learn with an incredible number of sessions and events on Diversity and Inclusion, not to mention the huge area in the Hub dedicated to it. Also, thoughtful details were built into the event itself, such as accessibility, which had been given so much more thought than in previous years. There were many more options for special diets, prayer spaces, areas for mothers, and the celebration venue ensuring wheelchairs could be used easily.“  – Sarika Malhotra, IAMCP D&I International Chair

At the WIT Luncheon, Satya Nadella and Gavriella Schuster engaged in a fireside chat on Inclusion, where they spoke about how diversity and inclusivity aren’t just nice to haves—they are key for high-performing teams, innovation and business success and also addressed the importance of women and other diverse candidates in the workplace.

For the IAMCP D&I Committee, the highlight was our Chair, Sarika Malhotra, being invited to  join the WIT Luncheon Panel, together with MSFTs Chief Diversity Officer, Lindsay-Rae McIntyre and Coco Brown of The WIT Network.

The panel topic was the “Case for Inclusion“, and was moderated by Christine Bongard, President, TWN. Panelists were asked to address what inclusion meant to them, and to cite both challenges and successes that they had encountered in their work environment.

The panel discussed how companies that emphasize inclusion and diversity gain increased innovation and better performance within their organizations. Three key take-aways from the discussion:

• Diverse candidates represent our society and are also a very important part of economic potential.

• Heterogeneity has been shown to greatly increase the innovative prospects of teams. With more effective teams and greater potential for innovation comes better business performance.

• Employers who have a diverse workforce attract diverse and high performing talent, and are often in a better position to keep and develop their workforce, as employee morale is often higher.

The panel also acknowledged the importance of not focusing solely on diversity. Inclusion is a crucial business imperative, because when an organization embraces diversity, but doesn't have an inclusive culture, diversity does not bring any benefit.

It’s a Wrap!

By all accounts, Microsoft Inspire 2019 was a huge success and enjoyed by all our members in attendance. Our very own Munesh Jadoun, CEO of ZNet Technologies, member of the IAMCP Delhi, India chapter, and a Global Marcomm Committee team member, shared his experience with us; we couldn’t have said it better:

“As I had anticipated, Microsoft Inspire 2019 was a grandiose event again this year, made all the more special with the celebration of IAMCP'S 25th anniversary. Microsoft also made a special mention of this!

The 5 days passed in the blink of an eye. It was an absolute delight to meet Microsoft partners from across the globe. Inspire provided me with unparalleled networking opportunities and some great learning experiences.

The IAMCP booth was one of the most frequented, and featured a number of knowledge-sharing sessions from different influencers. Satya Nadella's keynote was very compelling, as was Gavriella Schuster's. In all, meeting so many Microsoft personnel and attending executive round tables and regional networking sessions left an everlasting impression on me.

It was a delightful experience and I certainly look forward to being there in 2020!”

And in closing, a special message from our International IAMCP Inspire Chair, Americas Secretary and Prometheus Award Winner, Debra Pfundstein, who worked tirelessly to ensure a positive and memorable Inspire experience for all our members:

“As 2019 IAMCP@Inspire Chair, it was my pleasure to help the IAMCP Celebrate our 25th Anniversary, working closely with Microsoft and many IAMCP member volunteers who dedicated their time to deliver a wonderful experience for all of us at Inspire. I can’t thank all our volunteers enough, for without their dedication to our community, Inspire simply wouldn’t be the same. As we dig into the plans for IAMCP@Inspire2020, please let us know if you’d like to join the team that helps build the experience for IAMCP@Inspire; we can be reached at us.inspire@iamcp.org.

I look forward to seeing everyone next year at Inspire2020. In the meantime, please keep celebrating our 25 Years of Partnerships!”

Please watch for upcoming announcements from Microsoft regarding Inspire 2020. The timeline has been pushed back a week to allow for Microsoft to release their FY2020 earnings, enabling them to discuss their financial results and performance to the partner, and allow for more FY2021 goals and targets to be shared.

Missed any of the Inspire sessions? It’s not too late – visit the Microsoft Inspire website to watch them all and ensure you don’t miss any valuable tips!

The IAMCP celebrates its 25th Anniversary and takes a walk down memory lane with founding father, Bob Marsh

Whether you’ve been an IAMCP member for the long-haul, or are a recent addition to the IAMCP family, you know that you’re part of a powerful organization that is present in more than 40 countries and gives you access to over 2000 Microsoft partners around the globe, with whom you can collaborate to serve your customers and grow your business.

But it wasn’t always like that. From being barely-known to becoming a major Microsoft ally, the IAMCP has earned its stripes, mostly through the dedication of its founders to the partnership vision they created.

We caught up with one of our greatest supporters and forefathers, Bob Marsh, to hear his perspective on the early years.

A little background:

Once upon a time, Microsoft was just one of many technology providers and had enormous competition in the marketplace.

So, in 1994, when Sam Jadallah, Microsoft Corporate Vice President from 1987 and 1999, wanted to impose certification on partners to allow them to use the Microsoft name, there was significant push-back. After all, who was Microsoft? Move forward 25 years, and Microsoft is a household name, with a roster of successful partners around the globe!

Bob Marsh helped make that happen.

Our beloved Bob Marsh fell into the IAMCP relationship quite by accident. Hired by Microsoft to get teams ready for product launches 6 – 9 months ahead of the official launch, so that partners were ready and informed about product capabilities, was Bob’s key role.

But, one pivotal afternoon in the early 2000s, Bob’s manager, Raul Bandeira, asked him to facilitate a dinner meeting with a group of IAMCP partners in Redmond, VA, because his colleague had a conflicting engagement.

And Bob just listened. He heard, and saw, the IAMCP vision, and asked to be assigned to manage the relationship from the Microsoft perspective.

Microsoft loves feedback. And Microsoft listened.

Under Bob’s leadership, the the IAMCP worldwide board came into Redmond on a quarterly basis, and Microsoft collaborated by bringing in the product team in to present forthcoming products.

This gave the board the feeling that they were part of an inner circle and could return to their respective countries and ready their local members in advance of any launch.

The Secret Society

A self-proclaimed “bad boy”, Bob acknowledged that all of this was done without any official authorization – Microsoft didn’t really believe in the IAMCP channel at that time.

This “underground network” gave the IAMCP members, worldwide, a leg-up and advance notice as to what would be happening in the channel in the coming year.

Some key accomplishments:

• With a quiet nod from management, Bob initiated the “Registered Partner Program” which featured the key offering of a Microsoft Action Pack Subscription, where a Registered Partner could get around $30,000 worth of MS software licenses for internal use and customer demo use for just $195 per year, as a subscription. This was coupled with local quarterly briefings covering technical and marketing topics to help enable local partner success. These sessions were provided worldwide in 26 languages. Bob added the first Microsoft Hands-On Labs in 1999 to support the launch of Windows 2000 Server, replacing Windows NT Server.
• Within a couple of years, the IAMCP had restructured to map Microsoft’s model, and had an international Board of Directors, Regional Boards, National Boards, and local chapters with Boards acting locally. This gave each level of Microsoft’s sales & marketing organization a peer-level with whom to partner within the IAMCP.
• Then the impossible happened: the IAMCP leadership made it to the big stage at Microsoft’s Big Tent Event for partners, known over the years as Microsoft Fusion, Worldwide Partner Conference, and now, Inspire.

"It was truly inspiring to see Per Werngren, then IAMCP WW President, on the Big Stage. Within Microsoft, it was a serious milestone in your career to ever make it to the Big Stage. For me, it was a real milestone to see an organization I had helped strategize and grow make it to the Big Stage.“ – Bob Marsh

Fun fact about Bob Marsh: Bob’s IAMCP name is Gandalf. Characterized in J. R. R. Tolkien's novels, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, it’s meaning is of Norse origin and implies “wand elf” or “wizard”, and Bob Marsh has certainly been a wizard for the IAMCP.

Thank you, Bob, for all your endeavors in helping the IAMCP become what it is today, and HAPPY 25^TH ANNIVERSARY!

And he’s been busy; in just a few months, Petey has covered a lot of ground. Here’s a quick peek at his most recent travel destinations:

• February – Boston, MA Chapter Meeting

• April – Virtual Chapter Meeting

• April – Las Vegas - to get a sneak peak of our 25^th Anniversary Party Venue

• May – EMEA AI Event – Madrid Spain

• June – Long Island Chapter Meeting

• June – New York City Chapter Meeting

• June – Boston Chapter Meeting – 25^th Anniversary Chapter Celebration and Boston Chapter D&I Launch

Plus, he traveled with Tyler Bowman from Velosio on a trip that started in Long Island, went to New York city and ended in Boston! He loves our sponsors too!

Where next? Well that’s where you come in. All you have to do is request a Chapter visit and Petey will be happy to oblige.

And, of course, he’ll be at Microsoft Inspire, as well as the SoCal 10th Anniversary Party in October!

Petey is a pretty fun guy to have around – and he can help you get your chapter featured in a forthcoming newsletter.

He’s willing to travel the globe, so invite him for a visit and get to know him better!

You can follow Petey on Twitter @IAMCPGnome. He has “likes” on Twitter from Tracey Pretorius, Katie Quigley, Toby Richards, and other MS staff, as well as interactions with IAMCP Members and chapters.

Lots of news coming from the WIT Network! For one, three of its members have been selected for the Women in Cloud (WIC) Microsoft Cloud Accelerator 2.0 Cohort.

The Accelerator provides women-led cloud start-ups with access to Microsoft technology tools, mentorship from executives, networking opportunities and more, and only twelve companies were selected for this prestigious program.

Here are the three nominees from WIT and what they said about their companies:

Gail Mercer-Mackay, Mercer-Mackay Solutions (and Board Member of The WIT Network)

“The solution we are building is a marketing content and campaign management solution specifically for the technology industry (i.e. Microsoft partners).”

Sarah Haggard, Tribute (and Partner to The WIT Network)

“Tribute is a modern mentorship app for the workplace that connects employees through shared life experiences and stories.”

Madinah Ali, Safe PC Cloud (and The WIT Network Atlanta community lead)

“Safe PC Cloud's vision is to be the leading IT solution and Managed Service Provider (MSP) in the world when it comes to providing the ultimate customer experience.”

New: The WIT Network Central Canada

On June 13th, with a skyline view from the Ernst & Young venue, The WIT Network Central Canada (GTA) kicked-off!

The Central Canada community co-chairs, Joanne Shields and Nympha Lee, held a pre-Raptors soirée Women in Tech of all Ages, at all Stages of Their Career.

The WIT Network COO Corinne Sharp and WIT Canada Country Lead, Lidia Feraco, introduced the evening’s inspirational speakers - Fawn Annan, Gail Mercer-MacKay and Stefania Villeneuve. 

With the event sponsor, Checkpoint, and over 200 members, The WIT Network Toronto community is off to a terrific start!

Learning together: The WIT Network Columbia & IAMCP Columbia

On May 28th, The WIT Network Columbia community was invited to an event with IAMCP Columbia at Visión Software. The training examined frequent errors made in business relationships and the importance of empowering women into more leadership roles.

"We are happy to contribute our thoughts on the transformation of companies to being more inclusive," says Claudia Gomez, The WIT Network Colombia community lead.

The WIT Network Virtual Mentor Circles

The WIT Network is busy with setting up virtual mentorship circles that will focus on topics supporting:

• Development: Help women to develop and advance their careers in the industry.

• Retention: Provide needed support to help women stay in the field when they are facing the difficult challenges inherent     in the industry.

• Build: Help women in the network meet others, build business opportunities and connections and grow the ecosystem.

Visit the WIT Network’s website to learn more and either sign up to be a mentor or to be mentored.

If you’re a parent, you can probably relate to the chaos of life with a busy job, a commute and several young children, each requiring transportation to their various extra-curricular activities.

Add to that the challenge of being a part-time single parent, sharing custody with an ex-spouse. A hectic schedule, to say the least.

So, imagine yourself at the end of one such day, electing to take your children to a restaurant so that you can feed them more quickly, then having the unthinkable happen. A stroke.

That’s exactly what happened to young father, Francisco Gonzalez. During a restaurant dinner with his young children, he suddenly started to lose control of his right side and fell over in his chair, diners all around watching him and wondering what was happening.

Although he didn’t know it in that moment, Francisco was having a stroke that would prove to be debilitating - right in front of his children.

The beginning of a nightmare

That was just the start of Francisco’s nightmare. He recanted his experience in the hospital, aware of the emergency team working frenetically around him and thinking that his time was up.

“I told myself to just take a breath. And then another, and another. I kept going and today I’m still breathing!” said Francisco.

But, when he awakened in the hospital, Francisco had lost the use of his entire right side and had suffered damage to his speech, making communication almost impossible.

As a freelance programmer, Francisco’s future looked dim.

And things were about to get worse

The need to work to support his young children fueled Francisco’s fierce battle for recovery, living in a wheelchair and working diligently every day to recover mobility and speech, and enduring grueling physiotherapy treatments, with the hope of eventually returning to work.

And recover he did. If you were to talk to Francisco today, you wouldn’t have any idea that he’d had a stroke.

Feeling ready to enter the workforce again, Francisco started to contact recruiters for employment opportunities. And things seemed to be going well - until he mentioned his stroke. Imagine his humiliation, thinking that he had a chance at a job – a chance to support his family – only to receive no further communication or response to his follow-up efforts.

“I was afraid,” said Francisco. “I didn’t know if I would ever work again, or how I would support my children. Ever since I first touched a computer, I knew that I wanted to be a programmer. In just one year, with my divorce and then the stroke, I felt that I my life had been turned upside down; I had lost everything and I was losing hope.”

An angel in corporate clothing

It’s been said that angels appear in many forms. For Francisco, his appeared as a gift from his past.

In a spur of inspiration, he reached out to the company for which he had worked as a freelancer, Barcelona-based TOKIOTA, to discuss the possibility of a full-time role with the organization. Always pleased with the quality of his work, the principals agreed to talk to Francisco and considered a lighter role for him, such as testing. They tested him to ensure that he could achieve the required objectives – and his results were perfect. Francisco demonstrated that he still had excellent software development abilities and TOKIOTA welcomed him back in a full-time capacity.

“Paco, as he’s known to us at TOKIOTA, has been a colleague and friend for many years. We are a family at TOKIOTA, and we were all affected by what happened to him, so it wasn’t really a question of whether or not we should help, but how we could help him. Welcoming Paco back was a good decision for all of us, and we’re happy to have him as part of our team again. TOKIOTA didn’t have a particular diversity and inclusion policy before this situation occurred; it was just a part of how we operated naturally, which is a reflection of our inclusive culture.” - Toni Alarcón

Although Francisco has not recovered the use of his right hand, he can still code with his left, making it possible for him to continue the pursuit of his passion, utilize his skills, and make a decent living.

“I can’t believe what TOKIOTA has done for me. I am living my dream, doing what I love, and I can support my family again. Thank you, Toni Alarcón, Diego López-Pajares and my whole TOKIOTA family – you have made me whole again! And for anyone in a situation like mine, I have only one message: never, never give up. Never.  – Francisco Gonzalez

What does “Diversity and Inclusion” really mean?

“We are all different and, to us, that means opportunity. The chance to share and learn from different perspectives, to see things differently, and to grow together, makes us much more effective as a collective group. We can all benefit from embracing others, both in our personal and professional lives, and I encourage other companies facing situations such as this one to open their minds, eyes, and hearts to the scope of opportunity for all,” said Toni Alarcón.

We hope you’ve enjoyed Francisco’s inspiring story! How are you embracing diversity and inclusion in your organization? The IAMCP would love to share your story – you can submit your D & I experience to: intl.marcom@iamcp.org

You may or may not be a social media butterfly but, to many, networking at a conference where there are thousands of attendees can be overwhelming. Using social networks successfully during conferences like Microsoft Inspire can help you connect with other people. Here are 10 tips that will help you be successful with social media during Inspire.

1.     Build an online presence. While you’re posting during the conference, make sure you're including the hashtag #MSInspire, as this will allow you to enhance your online network

2.     Meet new people. Did you catch a tweet from a like-minded attendee? Then message them and plan to connect at one of the meeting places throughout the conference.

3.     Trade Contact Information. Instead of worrying about business cards, make sure to have the LinkedIn Mobile App installed so that you can take advantage of the “share contact” feature. To connect, tap on the three dots at the top of the screen to the right of the search entry, then either one of you can share your code, while the other does the scan function. Now, if there is a bigger group, you can use the “Find Nearby” option by clicking the “People” option at the bottom of the screen and then clicking the “Find Nearby” button which will then list everyone who is nearby. This option uses your device’s Bluetooth to help with the connection.

4.     Connect with speakers. Was there a speaker that you liked? Connect with them on social media, as that will allow you to set up a simple channel to communicate and listen to what they have to say.

5.     Keep learning and posting. If you don’t think your skills are up to par on social media, watch what others are doing - but don’t stop posting yourself. Remember to use the hashtag #MSInspire when posting.

6.     Different view. Hey, you can’t be everywhere, and even when you are, it’s hard to consume all the fantastic content that is being delivered. I find it fascinating to watch and listen to what others have to say through their social feeds. Personally, I like to utilize tools like Tweetdeck to set up channels for topics I want to listen to.

7.     Stay relevant. I know it might seem tough to post and learn at the same time, but I always find it a great way to help with my note-taking.

8.     Share information. Looking for the best place to eat in Las Vegas? Chances are, someone has already been there and has tweeted about it.

9.     Stand out from the crowd. As Inspire is combined with Microsoft Ready this year, an estimated 40,000 people are attending, so social media gives you quick access to the ones who are utilizing it, as well as the people who are not participating.

10.  Have fun. We are all utilizing social media in a business environment, but it doesn’t mean we can’t sprinkle a little fun and personality into our posts as well. So be sure to have some fun along the way.

Make sure to follow me @jon_rivers and the IAMCP during the conference as we will be sharing a lot of valuable information on our social channels.

Drop us a note and let us know how your social media experience went at the conference.

###

About the Author

Jon Rivers is an acclaimed expert within the Microsoft social community for his leadership in helping partners develop their social brands and strategies.

Jon is the president of Marketing Monarchs, which looks to overcome partners digital marketing challenges by leveraging the power of social platforms, maximizing their social footprint, and ultimately driving more leads.

Jon has been tapped as a speaker at many Microsoft-focused events and has been a Social Media Ambassador for conferences like Microsoft Inspire.

Brain researchers estimate the human mind takes in 11 million pieces of information per second through our senses, meaning that much of the information we process is unconscious.

That’s why D&I is pleased to bring a Microsoft developed training programme on ‘Unconscious Bias’ to IAMCP members. This course will help deepen our understanding of unconscious biases, how they influence behavior, and how they impact us all. We will also learn numerous actions we can take to help counter bias in our work environment.

The course begins with a brief introduction to unconscious bias, followed by scenarios that will help you to explore bias and what you can do about it through video scenarios, interactive exercises and opportunities for reflection.

This training is offered free of charge and you can take it here.

And just one quick favor: once you’ve completed the training, please share your feedback at this link.

Thank you for your participation and commitment to a culture of Diversity and Inclusion!

NEW: The D&I Advisory Board

The D&I Advisory board is a newly developed part of the D&I committee, and is comprised of D&I Practice Leaders who will complement what the IAMCP leadership has in enthusiasm and drive with their knowledge and experience.

 How this group will help us strengthen the D&I commitment:

• Brainstorming on how we can make an impact on our partner communities and roll out programs for them to use

• Sharing their internal policies, and their unique perspectives and experiences from applying them in the workplace

One of the key initiatives of this board is to help create the D&I playbook for our members to use as motivation and guidance for setting up their D&I practices.

The D&I Adv board has two members on board and we will continue to grow this team of experts. Please welcome Estelle Jackson from Poly, and Pam Cory from BitTitan:

Estelle Jackson - At Poly, Estelle is responsible for fostering and nurturing a culture that encourages collaboration, flexibility and fairness, where all voices are heard, respected and valued. The philosophy Estelle brings to Poly is to embrace all perspectives, honour all differences, and ensure all employees have equal access to opportunities that contribute to their full potential and encourage retention of their skills and perspective. 
Estelle supports 68 countries across the globe in their Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging efforts - both driving change locally and enabling the business to be a catalyst for change globally. Poly owns its data and uses it to be creative in its approaches to recruiting, retaining, motivating and engaging with employees.

Pam Cory - Vice President of Global Marketing at BitTitan, Pam has 15+ years’ executive experience developing global go-to-market and digital excellence for technology companies. She served on committees for Women in Tech at DellEMC and is involved in local meet-ups; serves on the board of HeyMentor, a non-profit organization helping low income students access college education; and is a mentor at Seattle University for international MBA students.

Inspiring examples

 This month we are presenting several inspiring examples of companies that stand out as truly inclusive organizations: Columbus UK, Omni, and TOKIOTA.

Read their stories and get inspired!

Few highlights to help you plan your networking, learning, and overall experience at the premier conference for Microsoft partners from Debra Pfundstein, IAMCP@Inspire Chair.

With Inspire 2019 currently taking top-of-mind place for Microsoft partners around the globe, we thought we’d share a few highlights to help maintain the momentum of excitement and get you prepared for all the events you don’t want to miss.

Inspire 2019 takes place in Las Vegas, NV from July 14-18. This gathering of Microsoft partners is a spectacular experience and the premier event for the growth of Microsoft partnerships. It brings together thousands of attendees from 130 countries around the world for a week of networking and learning — all with the goal of increasing partner profitability and accelerating business growth.

This year the corenote speaker lineup will include Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, President Brad Smith, Executive Vice President Judson Althoff, who leads Microsoft’s Worldwide Commercial Business organization, and Corporate Vice President & “Channel Chief” Gavriella Schuster, who leads Microsoft’s One Commercial Partner organization.

Can’t make the session you want to see in person?

No problem; you can watch the keynotes live, beginning at 8:30 a.m. PT on Monday, July 15 here.

Other Featured Speakers

Simon Sinek

Optimist and best-selling author leading a movement to inspire people to do the things that inspire them.

Rebecca Alexander

Author, psychotherapist, disability rights advocate, and extreme athlete who is almost completely blind and deaf.

Jacqueline Jones

Head of Strategic Partnerships for Global Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging at LinkedIn.

Polly LaBarre

Bestselling author and champion for humanizing organizations.

Dr. Kendrick Wong

TalentSmart’s Director of Training, focused on helping others develop emotional intelligence skills.

What’s different from last year?

Your Microsoft Inspire experience has been enhanced in a few key ways for 2019. Here’s what’s new:

• Microsoft Inspire and Microsoft Ready expos are now one centralized expo—giving you more access to Microsoft employees, sponsors, and other partners than ever before
• A revised schedule ensures you have more time to network and make valuable connections
• Simplified schedule and event experiences so you can take in every bit of the conference more easily

IAMCP Special Events

• IAMCP 25^th Celebration Party is on Sunday at 7:30 p.m. Note: Registration and Conference Badge Required
• Exclusive for IAMCP Members only: Join our Executive Roundtables with Microsoft Executives

• Follow and watch the IAMCP Social Channels for the Executive Lineup
• Must log into the iamcp.org account to register
• Registration will be live this week – watch for email from Sergio Baptista, International IAMCP President for details

• NEW FOR 2019 - Present a Best Practice in the IAMCP Inspire Booth Theatre
• Scheduled networking events @Inspire for IAMCP Members

• IAMCP Int’l All Members Meeting - Guests welcome – IAMCP Booth Lounge July 14 at 5:30 p.m.
• IAMCP Networking Events:

• Americas – July 15 at 5:00 p.m.
• APAC – July 16 at 5:00 p.m.
• EMEA – July 17^th at 3:00 p.m.

• Volunteers Needed: volunteer your time at the IAMCP Booth, or other Inspire activities – click here.

Any questions – visit us at the IAMCP booth and talk to us!

Also, visit the iamcp.org/inspire for updates.

Inspire Features

• The MyInspire scheduling tool – take advantage of this feature to plan your time to your greatest advantage
• Plan the sessions that interest you the most. We’ll single out “Tech for Social Impact” that is taking place on July 16^th with 3 different sessions, talking about Microsoft’s commitment to help nonprofits advance their missions through digital transformation – plus, how you can engage. You can find out more by visiting its booth in the #MSInspire Community Zone
• Core notes will take place on Monday & Wednesday of the conference
• The Microsoft WIT Luncheon focusing on diversity and inclusion and co-hosted by IAMCP will be held on Wednesday – registration is required so register here as soon as possible using this code: IAMCP19
• The One Celebration Party will take place Wednesday night @Las Vegas Fair Grounds

• Queen + Adam Lambert will be performing

• The Hub closes at 5pm on Wednesday, Conference ends Thursday after lunch
• And, if you missed the “Know Before You Go” webinar, you can still view it here
•  

Brand-Building Sponsorship Opportunities

There are still a few sponsorship opportunities available, and what better way to get your brand noticed at Inspire?!

Contact us.inspire@iamcp.org to find out which opportunities are still open and find out what will work best for your organization.

Congratulations IAMCP on our 25th anniversary!

Help IAMCP Celebrate around the globe and let the world know who we are! Celebration ideas:

• Record a video –test the sound so we hear you!

• “Why did I join IAMCP?”
• “What value has IAMCP brought to me and my business?”
• “What does IAMCP/Partnership mean to me?”
• “Tell us your IAMCP success story”
• Wish IAMCP a Happy 25th Anniversary!
• Share who you are and where you’re from in each video

• Take pictures of your members at a landmark that represents your chapter
• Provide artwork / images of what partnership means to you
• Where were you in 1994? Share “then and now” stories and pictures
• Write a poem or short story about “What Partnership and IAMCP means to you”
• Record your chapter singing “Happy Anniversary”
• Share your success stories, written or in videos
• New Chapters' in 2019 – celebrate with a picture and story of your local startup
• Send historical chapter pictures and videos
• Share partnership stories - videos and email
• Tell us a joke
• Anything else you can think of!!

Send your submissions to: intl.marcom@iamcp.org and we’ll share them with the world!

Debra Pfundstein

2019 International IAMCP Inspire Chair

President, Channel Development Consulting Solutions

“We are proud of the diversity and inclusion our company has developed, borrowing from our family values as an independently owned and operated company.” – Diana Powell, Human Resources Specialist, Omni Technology Solutions

It’s no secret that embracing a diversity and inclusion practice within the workplace makes a company stronger by exposing the team to different perspectives, thought processes and skill sets.

With Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) a key factor in the IAMCP’S 2019 strategy, we are pleased to highlight companies around the globe who are demonstrating D&I practices within their organizations.

In this issue, we are showcasing Omni Technology Solutions, headquartered in Edmonton, AB, with locations throughout North America and Europe, and parent company of Riva CRM Integration and Identity Maestro.

What does diversity look like at Omni Technology Solutions?

Here’s a snapshot of the organization’s diversity statistics: 

• Gender: 25% of Omni’s employees are women, with the majority working in STEM-related roles such as Software Development. In addition, women represent 30% of the company’s Senior Management team.

• Cultural background: Omni’s employees represent over 20 different nationalities, with over 18 nations represented in the Canadian HQ alone. Despite being a Canadian-founded organization, less than 50% of Omni’s employees are Canadian.

A family-run business, Diversity and Inclusion have been at the core of Omni’s values since the company’s inception and it prides itself on embracing cultural, ethnic, religious, and all diversity.

Ensuring the “right fit”

Omni’s hiring practice is so rigorous that, even prior to determining a candidate’s technical fit to a specific role, the company strives to ensure a fit with the organizational culture, making sure that both the corporate environment and the company values are clearly explained. And the values are strong:

• Bring your passion;
• Build the future;
• Be part of the solution;
• Lead with integrity;
• Deliver customer delight;
• Improve daily, and;
• Have fun!

Omni endeavours to ensure that, in its hiring practices, offers and processes remain as open and transparent as possible and has implemented policies and practices to prevent discrimination during the hiring process and in the workplace.

The senior management team leads by example and employees are encouraged to embrace all aspects of diversity and to share in cultural celebrations amongst the team, as well as social events that help build relationships.

In addition, Omni does not practice location discrimination, so everyone is welcome to apply, regardless of their geographic location. This has resulted in Omni being the first employment position in Canada for many staff members, with most eventually becoming Canadian permanent residents and a few even obtaining Canadian citizenship!

And it doesn’t stop there!

Omni’s dedication to diversity and inclusion seems to know no bounds. With fully wheelchair accessible offices, gender-neutral washroom facilities, and a flexible remote working policy to support family life, or those who need to visit family overseas for extended periods, Omni enjoys a high employee retention rate and exceptional employee satisfaction rates in internal surveys.

And the diversity continues to grow!

Attracting – and retaining - international youth

In a drive to attract international students and intentionally increase cultural diversity in the organization, Omni partnered with the AIESEC program, a global platform for young people to explore and develop their leadership potential.

AISEC is a non-political, independent, not-for-profit organization, run by students and recent graduates of higher education institutions. Over the last few years Omni has hired several international students through this program, all of whom remained with the company post-contract.

WIT is alive at Omni

Recently, Riva executive members supported female employees by founding Omni WIT, which has 30 members representing areas such as technology development, marketing, human resources, sales, and support.

While in its infancy, Omni WIT is focused on creating and supporting its internal network, and will soon focus on how to expand that to empower and educate those in the surrounding communities. As a part of this initiative, the women at Edmonton HQ were invited to an International Women’s Day: Balance for Better Networking Event to celebrate Women’s Day 2019. You can read more about that event and see the pictures here.

Fostering the Diversity and Inclusion vision

Our employees are on board with our company values; they are open to differences and are encouraged to improve daily. To aid this, Omni is investing in a new program to help everyone lead with integrity. New training will be offered to employees to educate them about harassment, bullying, and unconscious bias and give them keys and actionable insights to prevent such situations. 

“Continuously accepting and celebrating cultural, religious, age, and gender diversity allows us to bring and consider new ideas that a less diverse team might not have considered. Diversity allows us to draw on a variety of personal, educational, cultural, and professional perspectives within a team to continually innovate. An inclusive environment allows everyone to be secure in sharing their unique perspective. This helps Omni, including Identity Maestro and Riva CRM Integration, remain leaders in their fields.” – Diana Powell

About Omni Technology Solutions

Omni Technology Solutions, Inc. is a software application development company headquartered in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Omni is the parent company of Riva CRM Integration and Identity Maestro and has locations in the US, Canada and Europe. The Omni group of companies (Omni) employs 125 staff with 80 based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Omni is a Microsoft Gold Partner, and a proud member of IAMCP.

GDPR Kicks Off a New Era of Privacy Compliance

By Ryan Risley – Advocacy Chair IAMCP Americas

Exactly a year ago, as many in the tech sector know, the European Union’s General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR) went into effect.

In addition to impacting businesses and consumers worldwide, this wide-reaching new regulation is also helping to spur the development of new privacy regulations in the United States. Just one month after the GDPR went into effect, California enacted its own new digital privacy and security law. In 2019, we could see Congress take action on this issue as well.

As state and federal lawmakers weigh regulatory action, it will be critical for technology professionals, enterprise customers, and consumers to be part of the discussion. Our shared goal should be sensible policies that protect consumers, treat businesses fairly, and enable ongoing data innovation. On the other hand, an unwieldy patchwork of rules could drive up costs and undermine the growing benefits of data analysis.

The GDPR at 1 Year

It is still too early to fully assess the impacts—positive and negative—of the GDPR. While thousands of companies in Europe and worldwide have taken steps to comply with the GDPR, others have taken a watch-and-wait approach. Regardless of the mixed record on compliance, the GDPR has raised awareness about the increasing need for data protection.

I recommend that the Microsoft solution partners work with the IAMCP (International Association for Microsoft Channel Partners) to their clients to take all necessary steps to comply with the GDPR—not simply for the sake of legal compliance, but also to provide greater privacy and security protections to their own customers. This approach can enable companies to strengthen trust with their own customers, and it can also serve as a competitive differentiator for the customers.

Complying with the GDPR now will also mean that your company is ahead of schedule in meeting state compliance such as California’s Consumer Privacy Act, which goes into effect in 2020.

Supporting GDPR Compliance with the Microsoft Cloud

Meeting privacy, security, and compliance requirements is not simply a task to be completed and a box to be checked. It involves ongoing services as well as developing, deploying, maintaining, and updating software and hardware.

The tasks of complying with the GDPR and many other regulatory requirements are strongly supported by Microsoft cloud services and solutions. Microsoft has dedicated hundreds of engineers to work on GDPR compliance.

The features and functionality of Microsoft Azure, Dynamics 365, Enterprise Mobility + Security, Office 365, and Windows 10 can help enterprises comply with the GDPR. Microsoft also maintains the infrastructure and expertise to meet the ongoing evolution of IT compliance requirements.

An Appeal for Regulatory Optimism

I am an optimist about the ability of privacy regulations to benefit both businesses and customers. A privacy baseline that all businesses must adhere to fosters trust in technology. Without trust, we’ll see technology adoption falter—and in turn, the benefits that technology brings will slow. Given technology’s growing role in addressing a range of challenges, we cannot put trust on the back burner.

Technology professionals and customers must also not sit quietly and wait for government to singlehandedly develop new digital privacy policies. We should all claim a seat at the table, raising our voices about what makes sense—and what doesn’t. Lawmakers are often not tech-savvy, and it’s important for tech professionals and users to share their informed views by participating in advocacy programs such as Voices for Innovation and the International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners. 

Find your voice, get engaged and help tell the story.

###

Ryan Risley serves as the Americas Advocacy Chair of the International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners (IAMCP). He is a member of VFI’s Advisory Task Force and he is the past president of the IAMCP’s Washington D.C. chapter. He is Partner and CTO of Wipfli LLP CPAs and Consultants, and leads the firm’s Worldwide CIO Advisory Services Practice. 

With Diversity and Inclusion as one of the IAMCP’s key strategic mandates this year, Columbus UK is leading the charge in raising the bar for equality in the workplace. And the organisation isn’t just talking the talk; Columbus UK has made Diversity & Inclusion part of its overall growth strategy, demonstrating examples of the principle and providing its employees with standards that they can embrace and to which they can aspire.

It was under the guidance of Mary Hunter, Managing Director at Columbus, the winner of the 2018 IAMCP Leadership Award for Women in Technology, and Global Sponsor for Diversity and Inclusion, that Columbus started to create more opportunities for women to take senior roles.

For instance, male leaders within Columbus are mentoring women in their teams with the objective of increasing the number of female applicants to more senior positions.

New job opportunities are now listed on Women in Technology boards to encourage female applicants.

And with over 2,000 employees worldwide, Columbus is currently in the process of formalising a global diversity and inclusion programme. The programme will be conducted through the corporate employee training portal, Columbus Academy, making the initiative available to all staff around the world, and its main objective is to raise awareness on a global level.

“I have had experiences in my career where I haven’t been given the same opportunities as my male colleagues and have had to work harder to prove my worth, often taking the jobs no one wanted.  I also haven’t been given the same title and recognition as my counterparts, and I proved my position through consistent results and determination before demanding the title and sticking up for what I believed was rightfully mine.” – Mary Hunter, Managing Director of Columbus UK

Here’s how Columbus conducts its Diversity and Inclusion strategy:

1. International Women’s Day 2019 workshop for all female Columbus employees and the partners of male employees, focussed on the empowerment of women through the sharing of success strategies to overcome workplace challenges.
2. Women in business luncheons and events in the UK and globally, to raise awareness and provide opportunities for women to share their own journeys and inspire others. 
3. Flexible work hours in support of family life and to enable women to return to the workplace while juggling family responsibilities to actively encourage parents to continue working.
4. Motivational speaking to inspire confidence for all to feel empowered in their roles and to build a team ethos of an army of leaders.
5. An open-door policy and a safe, confidential environment where employees can speak openly about personal or professional challenges and find non-judgemental support to achieve resolution.
6. A shared diversity mind-set that everyone on the team is a valued member and brings their own experiences and viewpoints to every situation, delivering more innovative ideas and results.
7. A global graduate curriculum in its 8^th year of operation and a local apprenticeship programme to help those looking for their first job roles in a STEM career.
8. A diverse employee base: in the UK office alone, Columbus’s employees represent over 20 nationalities and 30% of the team is female. 
9. Deeply committed to driving change through STEM education, it’s difficult to fill roles due to a shortage of applications and so they are leading the way by going into schools to share knowledge and help to educate the next generation.

“Diversity and Inclusion is not just something that organizations need to think about, but rather make it the strategic starting point for their growth plan; it has been shown that businesses which embrace diversity and drive it are more competitive and more successful. I continue to fight for diversity in all forms and I push for female equality so that others don’t have to go through the same experiences that I have. I believe that I can truly make a difference in our industry for the next generation and that keeps me driving my goal to inspire more change.” – Mary Hunter

It is clearly Columbus’s mission to continue to support, promote and grow diversity and inclusion in the workplace. The objective is to ensure that all team members can reap the benefits of an inclusive environment where everyone feels valued and able to participate to reach their full potential – because Diversity and Inclusion is in everyone’s job description.

Following the exciting announcement of the official alliance between the IAMCP and The WIT Network, we are delighted to share our news and activities with IAMCP members and cannot wait to see the results of joining our two great communities even closer together.

You won’t be surprised to hear that the IAMCP, The WIT Network and Microsoft are all working hard to drive the D & I agenda. But did you know that, between now and the end of June 2019, you can get a reciprocal 25% off individual membership from either organisation – The WIT Network and the IAMCP? This applies if you are a member of one or the other. On July 1^st, the discount drops to 10%, so take advantage of this offer NOW, before it goes away! Just email women@thewitnetwork.com or info@IAMCP.org to find out more.

International Women’s Day Conference

The Inaugural International Women's Day Leadership Conference, held on March 8th in Kansas City, was a day filled with inspiration, strength, practical takeaways, good food, new friends, laughter, a few tears, and so many stories. Kicked off by The WIT Network President Christine Bongard, the keynote was given by Barbara Hardy, Global Head of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging at NetApp, who asked each participant to unlock their untapped brilliance, and know it’s okay to do so, because we were “born for this.” Barb Was joined by many fantastic speakers including Kati Quigley from Microsoft, Kelli Kirwin, Director WW Software Sales at Cisco, Coco Brown, C-Level Advisor, Founder and CEO of The Athena Alliance, and Andrea Conner, President of ATHENA International. 

What was instantaneous? The connections and support that came together in the same place at the same time. Lisa MacKenzie, Director of our new partner, Women of The Channel, was so very right: together we shine brighter!

Webinar in the “Be Your Best” Series – Cracking the C-Suite Code with Cassandra Frangos

On our April 18 webinar, Cassandra Frangos, Author of Crack the C-Suite Code, and Consultant at Spencer-Stuart, along with Julie Simpson, CEO of ResourceiT Consulting, Global VP of the WIT Network and President of IAMCP UK discussed the nitty-gritty details of how to reach the top and stay there! Cassandra shared her insights, what prompted her to write her incredible book and opened up to answer burning questions such as:

• How are boards of large companies addressing their desire to change – are we making any progress?
• How can women working in organisations communicate better to get businesses to change?

In the Spotlight

• The WIT Network, Germany:  To celebrate International Women’s Day, approximately 200 attendees (including ten supportive men) came together at the #BreakingBarriers Brunch in Germany. In addition, The WIT Network is building on the German community’s great success and next year The WIT Network Annual Women’s Day Leadership Conference will be held in Munich, Germany! Save your frequent flyer miles because you aren’t going to want to miss this!
• The WIT Network, South Africa:  This new and vibrant community has a great idea they want to share.  They've asked women to bring their pre-loved bags to events and meetings so they can be passed on to others who maybe in desperate need. Other communities are jumping on the ‘bag wagon’ and pursuing this idea as another way to give back.
• The WIT Network (and Wine), Long Island, USA: The WIT Network Long Island had its inaugural monthly Wednesday WIT & WINE Happy Hour event on February 20^th, 2019 at The Melting Pot in Farmingdale, NY. Despite a snowstorm, there was still a great turnout! Sponsored by CompTIA, the community also had great local support from several male allies and supporters of The WIT Network from IT and Cybersecurity company, CCSI. Women, at various stages of their careers, attended leading to many insightful discussions.

Calling all women working in the IT industry, who are passionate about gender diversity! If you’d like to know more about The WIT Network, or connect with your local community, please contact us by emailing women@thewitnetwork.com.

We’d love to hear from you!

“Our chapters are sharing the D & I message in their meetings. New Jersey and Boston Chapters in IAMCP US, and the Pune Chapter in India, have taken the lead, and other chapters are following suit. We are confident this will lead to many thought-provoking discussions on this topic amongst our members and will help create awareness,” said the new D & I Chair, Sarika Malhotra.

D & I is back with a lot of exciting news and a great team in place, with the intention to showcase the best business practices IAMCP has to offer, in terms of accepting differences, overcoming bias, and promoting participation.

Here’s the new D&I team:

• Frank Valdivieso - IAMCP US, representing the Americas region
• Bo Bauhn – IAMCP Sweden, representing the EMEA region
• Koushik Ramani – IAMCP India, representing the APAC region
• John Halsell – IAMCP US, representing the Americas region
• Sarika Malhotra – IAMCP India, Chairperson

D & I Advisory Board

We are inviting D & I experts from within the Microsoft partner ecosystem to join our advisory board. The goals of the advisory board are to advise the IAMCP on putting in place a framework to:

• Meet its goals of enhancing D & I across its member organizations;
• Improve Diversity within its leadership teams; and,
• Message D & I in the right manner and spirit to its members.

Please contact us at intl.diversityinclusion@iamcp.org

D & I Implementation Stories

Our goal is to showcase D & I stories from across our member organizations. If you have implemented D & I internally, please share your story. If you have other success stories of individuals who have overcome bias, please share these with us, too. You can email us at intl.diversityinclusion@iamcp.org

D & I Trainings and Webinars

D & I is pleased to bring a Microsoft-developed training program on ‘Unconscious Bias’ to the IAMCP. This course will help deepen our understanding of unconscious biases, how they influence behaviour, and how they impact us all. We will also learn numerous actions we can take to help counter bias in our work environment. We are in the process of getting the training program made available through ‘IAMCP University’ (yes, IAMCP now has its very own learning channel!), the brainchild of the MIST Committee. Very shortly, we shall share the details on how you can access the training and urge all members to participate.

Also, on the anvil is a webinar which is part of the ‘Ask IAMCP’ series. We have an exciting speaker lineup, so stand by for details on this event.

The New Jersey Chapter leads with D & I

The IAMCP New Jersey chapter welcomed their March keynote speaker from Fairleigh Dickinson University, Jackie Lue Raia, Director of Corporate Outreach and Training. Jackie is a dynamic speaker who reminded us that Diversity and Inclusion is a learned skill with many societal biases that need to be overcome. Group participants shared their experiences and the mistakes they made and how learning from these mistakes made them better people. Jackie made it clear that people make mistakes and should be comfortable exploring their biases with those whom they have hurt, with a view to changing future behavior. 

The key topic points from this session were:

• The respective definitions of DIVERSITY and INCLUSION;
• The inner-circle and the outer circle of DIVERSITY and INCLUSION;
• How the movement of DIVERSITY and INCLUSION is everyone’s responsibility;
• That Diversity is being invited to the party and Inclusion is being asked to dance; and,
• Becoming aware of the biases we must deal with in order to move forward with D & I.

Participants also played a game using the Diversity Ball, during which they answered difficult, random questions related to biases they may not know they had and/or discrimination they may have faced.

IAMCP and The WIT Network Join Forces

In case you missed this news, check out the blog by Gail Mercer-MacKay, a well-known face in the IAMCP community.

The IAMCP and The WIT Network will continue to work at local levels to run joint in-person events and offer membership discounts. A great example is the Mumbai, India chapter, where all IAMCP events also have a correlating WIT session.

To accomplish these goals, MIST is focused on several key initiatives this year:

•  To bring value to and empower our members through
  •  Education
    •  Competency Training
    •  Business training
    •  Professional skills training
    •  Sponsor product and solutions training
  •  Mentoring
    •  Online mentoring circles
    •  Updated release of the Partner Maturity Model
•  To partner more effectively with Microsoft
  •  “Get caught doing good things”
    •  Track and report on
      •  Microsoft business IAMCP drives globally through better partnering
      •  How IAMCP is giving back in communities around the world
      •  How IAMCP is advocating for critical initiatives like
        •  Diversity and inclusion
        •  STEM education
    •  Share the IAMCP story with all Microsoft employees and partners
  •  Drive strategic initiatives together with Microsoft
    •  Cloud Adoption
    •  Digital Transformation
    •  AI
  •  Facilitate consistent, clear communication with Microsoft

 Meet the MIST Team

Neeraj Gargi – APAC Region – IAMCP India

Neeraj considers himself a ‘Born in IAMCP’ Microsoft partner. He started his journey with the IAMCP India West chapter in 2016. According to Neeraj, the IAMCP community played an important role in getting him acquainted with the Microsoft ecosystem. In 2017, he joined the India West chapter board as joint secretary. In 2018, the India board nominated Neeraj to be the International Board member representing the APAC region. Since joining the IAMCP International board, Neeraj has been selected to lead the IAMCP International Membership committee.

Neeraj is the CTO & Director of Intelegain Technologies. Intelegain is a Microsoft Certified global company with expertise in Application development, Mobility, Azure and Dynamics applications.

Cheryl Salazar – Americas Region – IAMCP US

Cheryl Salazar has worked in the technology channel for 30 years, in both Africa and the U.S. After immigrating to the U.S. in 1998, she joined Microsoft in Redmond and worked in various partner-facing roles including the Direct Access team, BCentral, partner and field marketing with Great Plains, Navision, Axapta and CRM v1, SMS&P and the U.S. Public Sector. She left Microsoft in 2010 to join The Partner Marketing Group, a technology marketing firm based in U.S., as a consultant. In 2018, she acquired the company with her business partner, Michelle Glennie. She is currently serving as Secretary for the US Virtual Chapter.

The team at The Partner Marketing Group are all technology channel veterans and specialize in building business and marketing strategies for technology companies worldwide. Working exclusively for the technology channel (VARs, MSPs, ISVs and Publishers), they assist with developing marketing and messaging that reflects each company’s unique IP and focus, helping them grow their businesses and their channels in their desired markets.

Michiel van Vliet – EMEA Region – IAMCP Spain

Michiel van Vliet has worked in the Microsoft ecosystem for 25 years. His first real direct experience with Microsoft goes back to running support for W95. He then joined Unisys where he first ran the EMEA Microsoft Practice, then the global Microsoft practice. Following that, he joined Microsoft Spain to run the services division and from 2010 to 2015 he ran the EMEA enterprise partner team for Microsoft. In 2015 he joined a Microsoft partner as CEO and in three years’ time the company more than doubled revenue and headcount and made finalist partner of the year in Spain. Since January 2019 Michiel has been the COO of Tokiota, one of Microsoft´s top partners in Spain. Michiel is the author of “Refresh the Road Ahead”, a book on Microsoft and how to engage with Microsoft, for which he interviewed 40 award-winning Microsoft partners in 20 countries, published in August 2018.

An IAMCP veteran, Michiel is currently the President of IAMCP Spain and represents Spain on the International board. His expertise, enthusiasm and global connections are a welcome addition to the IAMCP MIST Committee.

John Zarei – Americas Region – IAMCP Canada

John is co-founder of Point Alliance and today serves as the Chief Executive Officer. Directing the activities of the Cloud and Web services practice, John also plays an integral role in Point Alliance's overall business development and strategic planning. John has also been the lead concept designer of Point Alliance’s mobilextension SAAS offering and the Launch Pad for Web content management product.

John is a 25-year veteran of the IT industry, having worked with clients in a wide variety of sectors. He has a very hands-on approach to managing client engagements and truly believes in the value of customer service.

John has been deeply involved in Point Alliance’s Microsoft relationship ever since the company became a Microsoft Partner, shortly after its inception in 2004. He is currently the President of IAMCP Canada and represents Canada and the Americas Region on the International Board.

Randy Steinle – MIST Chair – IAMCP US

Based in Austin, TX, Randy has been an IAMCP member for over 16 years.  He served as President of the IAMCP Austin Chapter, and is currently the chapter Treasurer and Advocacy chair.  Randy has served as Secretary, Vice President and President of the US board and is currently the Past President for the US board and Chair of the MIST Committee on the International Board.

In addition to his IAMCP roles, Randy serves on the Advisory Task Force for Voices for Innovation (VFI) - a Microsoft supported community of technology professionals and everyday Americans who work together to shape public policies for our 21^st century digital economy and society. Steinle was also selected as the “2018 Man of WIT” by the IAMCP Women in Technology members and currently serves on the board of The WIT Network - a community of professionals across the world who believe in making it easier for women to imagine, begin, and develop a career in IT.

Randy is the Vice President of Onsupport Corporation, a 26-year old managed services practice and Microsoft Silver partner. He’s also the Co-Founder of Cyber Trust Alliance, a risk management and compliance business focused on the healthcare industry.

The International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners (IAMCP) is excited to be Partnering with Microsoft to participate in this year's Inspire Partner Conference. Returning to Las Vegas and the Mandalay Bay Convention Center for 2019, the Conference kicks off Sunday, July 14^th, with the Welcome Reception in The Expo.

“Immediately following the Welcome Reception, the IAMCP will be hosting our annual party, and for 2019 we'll be celebrating a milestone, our 25th Anniversary,” IAMCP’s Inspire committee chair Debra Pfundstein announced.

New this year, Microsoft is combining their two biggest conferences into one huge learning and networking opportunity: Ready, Microsoft's Global Sales Conference and Inspire, Microsoft's Global Partner Conference. Bringing together over 40,000 attendees to these joint conferences, Microsoft is also expanding the size of The Expo and extending the conference by a full day. This year, the Expo will almost double in size and be open all day on Thursday, July 18th, ending after the Happy Hour at 6 p.m. This provides a full additional day of networking for the attendees. 

As in previous years’ Inspire Partner Conference, the IAMCP welcomes volunteers to help across a variety of opportunities. From assisting staff at the IAMCP Booth in the Commons Expo or at our 25th Anniversary Party, to participating as a member of our IAMCP Social Squad to amplify our message, volunteers will be needed. Please contact us.inspire@iamcp.org for additional information.

The IAMCP also has high exposure Partner Sponsorship Opportunities available for Inspire 2019. There are programs that will help from support of the 25^th Anniversary Party celebration, to "Powering our Booth", to support of our philanthropic activities for the Rudy Rodriquez Scholarship Fund. We have opportunities available for all so please contact us @ us.sponsorship@iamcp.org for the conference sponsorship guide.

Have you met Petey, the IAMCP Partner-to-Partner Gnome?  He will be making appearances throughout the world, helping us celebrate our 25^th Anniversary leading up to his appearance at Inspire. He may even make a few side trips to Vegas to ensure all our plans are in place. Tweet to @IAMCPGnome if you'd like Petey to visit your chapter and help celebrate our anniversary!

Coming soon you’ll see announcements about our annual P2P Awards Program and our Prometheus Awards Program which honors Microsoft reps who support our communities. More details will be provided about our 25^th Anniversary Celebration and, for the first time in a while, there will be an opportunity for our members to present in the IAMCP Booth mini-theatre, to help promote maturity and partnership in the IAMCP.  

We do hope you'll be able to join us in Las Vegas this July, but if you can't, please consider hosting an Inspire Viewing Party at your local IAMCP Chapter office. Microsoft simulcasts the CoreNotes on the Inspire website in real time and it's an incredible opportunity to participate in this global community in a local way.

Back to the IAMCP 25^th Anniversary - that's 25 Years of Partnership to celebrate and we want everyone to join us!  If you have a story to tell about celebrating partnerships, have pictures from your chapter meetings, want to record a video wishing the IAMCP a Happy 25^th Anniversary, or want to write a poem or take a chapter picture in front of a local landmark, DO IT!!  Share those details with us at intl.marcom@iamcp.org. We'll be glad to share them with the world!

Make connections and get insider info that propels your business

Wherever you are in your journey as a partner, the relationships and knowledge you’ll acquire at Microsoft Inspire will make attendance a valuable investment in your future. Not only will you interact with other successful partners, industry leaders, and influential Microsoft experts, you’ll also attend product demonstrations and immersive training sessions, gaining critical insights you can use to your advantage in the fiscal year ahead.

Don’t miss your chance to be a part of this year’s community. Join thousands of partners from over 130 countries to find inspiration from shared experiences and unite with your peers as a powerful catalyst for business growth.

Register here for Microsoft Inspire!

As the IAMCP celebrates its 25th Anniversary this year, we were fortunate to be able to sit down with our former Chairman, Per Werngren, to reflect on the evolution of our organization and hear about some of his memories over the years.

Q: Originally formed in 1994 as the Association of Microsoft Solution Providers (AMSP), the IAMCP, as it’s now known, has over 100 chapters, is operating in 40 countries, and has attracted over 2,000 members. Impressive stats! What was your role when you became involved and how did it change as the organization, and its needs, grew?

- I joined IAMCP through the Swedish chapter in the early 2000s and at the 2002 MS Fusion Conference (now Inspire), I was invited to join the international board meeting; this was my first encounter with the larger organization. In 2003, I was elected worldwide president and there was an important meeting which resulted in a plan to make the organization (only present in the U.S., Canada, Italy and Sweden) worldwide. My mandate was growth and, under my leadership, we expanded to include chapters in 44 countries, meeting people around the world. At the same time, I was running a successful business in Europe and it was extremely important to ensure that no favours were given to either my company, or my country. The IAMCP represented all 44 countries.

From there, we branched out to include Europe and started in Asia Pacific.

In the end, I stepped down in 2016 to allow fresh leadership and new ideas to take the stage, and in the last year, we have started a diversity program to encourage more female leaders within the IAMCP, along with people of varying lifestyles and backgrounds.

Q: How did the Microsoft ecosystem look to the IT industry at that time and what was the basis upon which the IAMCP was formed?

- The IAMCP started as a lobby group, helping Microsoft and its partners tell a story to the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ), which saw the organization as an evil empire that wanted to control the world and wanted to divide it into portions. The organization spoke about the impact that a corporate split would have and, today, Microsoft is seen as a good corporate citizen. That said, after the battle was won, the IAMCP became less relevant and was somewhat forgotten.

However, in the late 1990s, new energy was injected in the U.S. and Canada; the IAMCP was growing with new chapters, but it was still a North American entity. With newly injected talent, such as Bob Marsh of MS, the IAMCP was able to start garnering the attention of Microsoft.

Q: You travelled to many different countries in your role of opening new chapters. With this new concept of membership in a collective body, how were you generally received at that time?

- In the smaller countries, we were told that our services were not required, because they believed that everyone knew one another. But when we started to talk about growing international business, we got their attention. Also, the local Microsoft office in each country would give me a speaking slot where I could sing my songs and gradually people started to understand the opportunities.

In Europe and Latin America, we were initially perceived as being in opposition to Microsoft, so our message had to convey that it was good business in the Microsoft ecosystem to be part of the IAMCP.

Q: What do you think was the most important thing prospective members needed to hear in order to come onboard?

- We were able to provide an atmosphere where competitors could meet and discover how to do business together, through each other’s area of expertise; we fostered building trust between MS partners, helping them to understand that they had to see it to believe it!

Q: And has that changed today, or do you think the message – to address the pain point – is still the same?

- The message remains the same, but it’s only recently that it has become fashionable to be specialized. With companies focusing on specialized skills, it’s now easier to communicate within the IAMCP, as everyone is talking the same language. Specialization drives the need for partnering.

Q: We understand that, initially, Microsoft didn’t pay much attention to the IAMCP, yet now we see integration between both organizations and, more recently, with WIT (Women in Technology). What do you believe drove such change?

- I’m pleased to see WIT growing and proud that it was created within the IAMCP. Microsoft has always embraced diversity, but it has been hard for women in tech to get access to funding. Microsoft’s Allison Watson was very important to the IAMCP and helped grow the ecosystem.

Q: On the IAMCP website WIT page, there’s a wonderful quote from you about how WIT is driving diversity at all levels. It says: "You make IAMCP stronger. Because of what you do, we reach new groups and female leaders who are under-represented in our industry. We need your help to drive more diversity at all levels."

What are your thoughts on the importance of this in both the future of the IAMCP, and in encouraging young women to pursue a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) education and career?

- Society has changed and customers have changed. Women are more visible as leaders on the customer side; as a vendor, you need to mirror your customer landscape, so it’s important for vendors to be as diverse as their audience.

Plus, why say no to talent? Open up to recruiting those who are different, brighter and able to contribute in another way. We see women in marketing, rather than tech positions and by promoting STEM, we will have more women in the tech area. But it’s not all about tech, there are other ways to be a leader in this industry. I’m not tech, but I have been running tech companies since the 1990s – it’s not about technology; it’s about leadership!

Q: In your initial email response to me, you mentioned your passion for the IAMCP and I can really feel it – it’s your baby, and over your years of involvement, you must have seen a great deal of change as the organization evolved. What are the key highlights that stand out in your memory over this period?

• LATAM – brought new people to the international board and introduced new dynamics;
• IDC reports, which validated our worth as an independent party;
• First time on the big stage for me and for IAMCP – recognition for the organization as a whole;
• Speaking at the MS partner conference in India – I truly felt the opportunity for starting chapters in the largest democracy in the world; and
• Speaking in Russia through a translator – a very different experience, which all worked out perfectly!

Q: And this brings me back to the stories about opening the various chapters around the world. Please tell me more about those events!

 - When we met with the Bulgarians, a two-day meeting started with lunch and vodka – this was hard for me to do and I had to change and simplify my speech for the audience, but in the end, they accepted my proposal. On the 3^rd day we came back to Sofia and I was the guest of honour, invited by the local politicians to cut the ribbon at the opening of a sports venue.”

Q: Is there another particularly memorable scenario you can share?

- Sure. I was invited to Switzerland and was so late! I missed my flight, but MS picked me up; they joined for dessert and then they started bumping the table with their fists and I thought they wanted me to leave – it turned out that this is a cultural show of appreciation!

Q: Where do you think IAMCP will go from here?

- It’s time to celebrate the creation of something really successful and proven over long-time effort. Members have built successful businesses, in part due to their association with the IAMCP. It’s important to look ahead to the future, and it’s also important to celebrate where we’ve been and what we’ve done.

Also, facilitating the growth of partners in P2P, and in the promotion of female leaders within our chapters around the globe, will help the organization to expand. Through the D & I Program, we’re learning to mirror the world and that of our customers.

Q: Per, in closing, what is the single, most important message you’d like to deliver to current IAMCP members and those who might be considering membership?

- My old punchline: if you really spend time with IAMCP and go to meetings, it’s impossible for you NOT to get great monetary benefits from association with the organization. Best advice: give another partner an opportunity – play the givers’ game and don’t ask for opportunity; give the opportunity!

Many Members have built successful businesses, in part due to their association with the IAMCP. It’s important to look ahead to the future, and it’s also important to celebrate where we’ve been and what we’ve done. For me, it’s like seeing my children grow up!

We are grateful to Per for sharing his memories from the past and his perspective on the future of the IAMCP; thank you Per!