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Helping Customers in a Down Economy

In a time of contracting budgets, the job of the channel partner is to help customers find a way to continue to spend and attain the greatest ROI, so when the economic crisis subsides, the customer is in an even healthier position to do business.

by Lynn Haber
January 23, 2009

While the unstable economy is a cause for great concern among Microsoft channel partners and their customers, it is also a great opportunity for partners to focus on what they do best to help customers cut costs, improve business processes and productivity, and attract and retain new business.
The truth of the matter is that even in the face of budget cuts businesses must keep the lights on. “The job of the channel partner is to help them do that,” says Tiffani Bova, vice president of research indirect programs and sales strategies, worldwide at Gartner Group.
The task, however, goes beyond that. In a time of contracting budgets, the job of the channel partner is to help customers find a way to continue to spend and attain the greatest ROI so when the economic crisis subsides, the customer is in an even healthier position to do business.
CIOs appear to be on the same page.
According to a recent Gartner survey CIOs expect IT to contribute results in the midst of economic uncertainty. Although the survey of more than 1,500 CIOs revealed that IT spending budgets will remain flat for 2009, the same survey listed a number of CIOs top business priorities for 2009 such as improving business processes, reducing enterprise costs, improving employee effectiveness, attracting and retaining new customers, and increasing the use of information analytics, to name a handful.
In fact, there’s never been a better time for the channel to strengthen its strategic partnership with its customers and lead with business solutions that target business benefit.
Focus
In mid-November 2008, Allison Watson, corporate vice president of the worldwide partner group at Microsoft, sent an e-mail to channel partners addressing everyone’s concern about the economy and offering advice on how to wade through tough times. In her message she outlined three key areas where effective partner conversations should take place and pointed to the Microsoft tools that fit the bill:

Core Infrastructure Optimization to reduce customer costs: Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack; Windows Vista; Microsoft System Center; Infrastructure Optimization tools; Virtualization solutions and the Integrated Virtualization ROI tool; and Deployment Solution Accelerators
Application Platform Infrastructure Optimization to boost productivity and efficiency: SQL Server 208; Windows Server 2008
Business Productivity Infrastructure Optimization for cost reduction and performance improvement: Microsoft Online Services; and, Unified Communications Solutions

Watson also addressed how partners can help customers help drive competitive advantage and take out costs for business decision makers with Microsoft Dynamics, which helps customers drive sales, marketing, finance, and other core business activities at lower costs and higher productivity.
Finally, she added Microsoft Financing to the toolbox to help qualified customers refocus tight budgets to grow their business.
The channel was listening.
Sharon Ward, director of ERP solution strategy at Green Beacon Solutions, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner located in Boston, Mass., is heavily focused on Dynamics AX and Dynamics CRM with the company’s manufacturing customers. Why?
“Dynamics AX is agile and gives our customers who are interested in the supply chain the best of all IT architectures,” says Ward, who explains that it’s the underlying software architecture that allows custom capabilities and configuration to enable customers to differentiate themselves and meet changing demands.
Despite the economic slump, Green Beacon customers aren’t shying away from technology investments.
“We’re not seeing too much pullback because most our customer base is astute and realizes that IT business applications are a key way to differentiate their business and be more effective,” says Ward.
The solution provider does, however, detect a customer base that’s more cautious when it comes to spending and more focused on understanding ROI in greater detail. Green Beacon’s SMB customers span a number of vertical markets such as manufacturing, professional services, financial, and health care.
George LaVenture, president at Trinity Consulting Inc., a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner located in Marlborough, Mass., isn’t seeing a lot of panic among customers either. “Customers are being more deliberate in the solutions they’re looking at. Everything we do today must have a payoff,” he says.
What customers are interested in today are green IT initiatives such as virtualization because it reduces hardware requirements and improves cost of ownership. Customers are also taking a look at Microsoft’s Online Productivity suite for better ROI.
“In an economic downturn customers want to reduce costs and not cut into their core business services,” he says. Trinity Consulting caters to a mix of SMB and enterprise customers in the financial services sector, health care, manufacturing and non-profit.
LaVenture believes that Microsoft Financing is one of the more unique arrows in the quiver. “It would behoove all partners to take out this arrow whenever they need it.”
For some customers, Microsoft Financing is a boon enabling them to make productivity improvements today. “I think it’s one of the best things that Microsoft has done over the past few years,” he says.
In-house, Trinity’s strategy for success during these uncertain times is to fall back on the things they’re expert at, such as messaging systems, database systems, document management systems, and security.
That’s the same strategy Microsoft Gold Certified partner Competitive Innovations (CI), Fairfax, Va., is pursuing as it watches its government customers scramble to find funding for projects.
“Our core strengths are Microsoft Web services in a secure environment, cyber security, web content management and SharePoint,” says Mike Kennedy, president and CEO of CI.
Solution integration around SharePoint is shaping up to be a big piece of business for CI among government customers. “We’re helping agencies transform their business or the way they do business to become more effective,” says Kennedy.
Focusing on business outcomes and less on solutions and service is where the sales cycle is moving, says Gartner’s Bova.
Channel partners are confident that by helping customers optimize IT today their customers will be well positioned to run their businesses tomorrow. It’s the customers who hang back on spending that they’re worried about. “When the economy turns around these companies are going to find themselves behind the eight ball,” says Ward.

Lynn Haber writes about business and technology from Norwell, Mass.