Issue link: https://impartner.com/resources/i/1473122
Solution Showcase: Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Impartner PRM — A 'Better Together' Solution 3 © 2019 by The Enterprise Strategy Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Customer Challenge The end-customer was reliant on a highly customized system to manage its customer and partner relationships. With an annual contract end-date looming a few months away, they were facing significant annual renewal costs, and they felt they had to change the game, possibly even transitioning to a modern integrated CRM/PRM solution that met customer and partner team expectations regarding ease-of-use, similar to solutions found in consumer-type applications. They considered the option of improving the existing, custom system, which would have required a choice between investing in a new GUI (further customization) and a portal rebuild, or starting over with completely new customized development. Any move to an alternative needed to be compelling to overcome any resistance to change. Then someone on the team asked a great question: "What other creative alternatives haven't we looked at yet?" This simple question led to an acknowledgement that they weren't using the existing system as a true PRM. Rather, it was mostly used as an extension of the CRM system to support just sales and marketing activities. With this on the table, it made sense to investigate moving their CRM needs to Dynamics 365 as the company was already heavily invested in Microsoft technology. Replacing existing partner portal functionality on a fast-track implementation was a must-have, including ensuring a smooth transition of key elements used every day by their account managers during "deal-pursuit" in order to manually connect customer-facing information in the CRM tool with partner-facing information held in PRM, such as: • Partner nomination, review, and approval. • Deal registration. • Deal tracking and sales management. • Proposal and price approval. • Opportunity rebates, warranties, and coupons. • Legal and compliance requirements. The Process That was when the stars began to align around a truly transformational opportunity, driven by: • A significant financial disadvantage for the customer to not make a change right away. • Alignment with existing investment in Microsoft technology across the company. • Realizing the benefits of transforming to fully leverage their direct and channel partner sellers. With this in place, the parties worked together to develop a solution. Microsoft brought in Avtex from the beginning of the sales process, and they built rapport right away with the customer. Because Avtex had the specific skills to drive the implementation and had already taken companies to Dynamics 365, the customer was comfortable that they could both handle their global needs and would work with them to meet the aggressive timeline. The next step was an evaluation of several portal/automation providers, including Microsoft's in-house portal offer, and Impartner's full-featured PRM solution using a like-for-like comparison and scorecard process, which included: