Partnership Yields 98 Percent Increase in Profits ...



Overview

Country or Region: United States

Industry: Professional services

Partner Profile

Portland, Oregon–based Centerlogic is a technology consulting company with approximately 25 employees, providing business analysis and technical implementations throughout the region.

Business Situation

Although it had a partnership with Novell, Centerlogic wanted a more strategic relationship that would help the company gain access to more potential customers and provide them with increased value.

Solution

Centerlogic became a Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner and now is one of the trusted partners for Microsoft in the Pacific Northwest.

Benefits

■ Support for lead generation and marketing

■ Ability to provide greater expertise

■ Increased profitability

■ Improved value for customers

| | |“Our 2005 year-end numbers showed exponential growth in our project sizes—a 98 percent increase over 2004. We’re doing larger, more profitable projects as a result of working with Microsoft.”

Kevin McVicker, President, Centerlogic

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| | | |A long-time partner of both Novell and Microsoft, Centerlogic found that more and more customers were|

| | | |interested in deploying Microsoft® technology. Centerlogic invested in becoming a Microsoft Gold |

| | | |Certified Partner and fostered a closer relationship with the local Microsoft office. As it proved |

| | | |its capabilities, Centerlogic was called upon frequently to speak at Microsoft-sponsored events, take|

| | | |part in co-marketing opportunities, and follow up on leads. For Microsoft, the partnership has meant |

| | | |providing customers with an expert service-delivery provider. For Centerlogic, the partnership has |

| | | |resulted in exposure to more potential customers and greater access to sales, marketing, and |

| | | |technical resources, not to mention increased sales. In fact, since it strengthened its ties with |

| | | |Microsoft, Centerlogic has seen a 98 percent increase in profits. |

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Situation

Centerlogic—a technology consulting company based in Portland, Oregon and serving the Pacific Northwest region—provides IT solutions for medium-size and enterprise customers in a variety of industries, including healthcare, financial services, professional services, and manufacturing. With projects addressing everything from centralized desktop management to work force collaboration, Centerlogic helps customers with the design, analysis, implementation, migration, and customization of solutions.

Founded in 1997, Centerlogic soon joined the partnership programs of both Novell and Microsoft. At that time, Centerlogic helped foster an extremely strong local Novell presence and conducted some of the largest Novell implementations in the Portland area. Novell-related projects accounted for approximately 70 percent of the company’s work, while Microsoft® technology–related projects made up approximately 30 percent. “We wanted to address the needs of our customers,” says Kevin McVicker, President of Centerlogic. “Both Microsoft and Novell technologies were present in customers’ environments when we started the company, so we determined that we should be agnostic with regard to technology.”

In 2002, Centerlogic acquired a development group from another local technology consulting firm. “That particular group had a strong focus on Microsoft development technology,” says McVicker. “Integrating that group added tremendous breadth and expertise to our development practice and bolstered our relationship with Microsoft.”

Over the next three years, Centerlogic sought to strengthen its relationship with Microsoft because more and more of its customers were asking for solutions that were based on Microsoft technology. “We’d always handled Microsoft technologies, but after bringing in the development group, we decided that it would be smart to proactively invest in a more deliberate partnership,” says McVicker. “At that time, the name Centerlogic didn’t mean much to Microsoft—even though we’d been in business for more than five years—and that was our fault.”

Once it began to foster a closer relationship with Microsoft, Centerlogic noticed differences between the Novell and Microsoft partnership philosophies. “Microsoft proactively promotes partnership opportunities and activities around its solutions, demonstrating its commitment to a partnership that adds value to Centerlogic,” says McVicker.

Another motivator for moving away from Novell and toward Microsoft was the Novell decision to embrace Linux technology. “Our customers are confident that Microsoft will be around in the long term and will continue to provide solid support and continued development of its technologies today and in the future. These systems are the foundation of their business and they feel the risk is still too great for them to adopt Linux for their enterprise businesses,” says McVicker. “As a result, we’re busy performing Novell-to-Microsoft migrations. In some cases, we help encourage the move away from Novell, but in most situations, customers seek out that transition on their own. Even for our existing Novell customers, the proverbial writing is on the wall.”

Says Bryan Campbell, Enterprise Relationship Manager for Centerlogic, “One of our long-term customers summed it up best: ‘We’re not leaving Novell—Novell’s leaving us.’ Of the Novell customers in the commercial sector with whom we’re working, there are very few that are not moving or making plans to move to a Microsoft infrastructure.”

Solution

In 2003, Centerlogic became a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner to promote a tighter relationship with Microsoft and thus deliver more value for customers. As such, Centerlogic takes advantage of many Microsoft Partner Program benefits, including:

■ Marketing support. Centerlogic uses support from Microsoft to help drive its marketing events, including both live and Web seminars. Centerlogic advertises every event that it spearheads on the Web site, where visitors can use the “Click-To-Attend” feature. Centerlogic also makes the most of pre-made, campaign-specific resources from Microsoft, such as templates, targeted e-mail messages, and direct mail pieces.

■ Joint partnership opportunities. Centerlogic and Microsoft often work together to generate leads, with Microsoft providing funds and Centerlogic providing staff support.

■ Sales support. Its strong relationship with Microsoft helps Centerlogic ensure that it has the expertise that it needs to close deals. When a potential customer needs information about how a particular migration would affect its systems or what the options are for a specific deployment, Centerlogic can ask a Microsoft Technical Account Manager (TAM) to join a customer meeting as a resource.

■ Customer referrals. The trusted relationship between the two companies is a good source for leads for Centerlogic; when Microsoft salespeople learn of opportunities, they bring in Centerlogic to win the business.

■ Partner Account Manager support. To further support its partner, Microsoft dedicates Partner Account Managers (PAMs) who help provide access to experts and resources within Microsoft. PAMs also conduct strategic planning sessions with Centerlogic, which include developing partnership plans that the two companies update together on a quarterly basis.

■ Specialized training. Centerlogic takes full advantage of the technical and business training that Microsoft provides to partners in advance of new information such as product launches and updates.

Centerlogic has been so pleased with its partnership with Microsoft that it now bases 96 percent of its projects on Microsoft technology—an increase of more than 60 percent in the last 4 years. In fact, the company formally terminated its partnership with Novell in July 2005.

Benefits

The ongoing partnership between Centerlogic and Microsoft has a positive impact on both companies in terms of sales, profitability, and customer relationship-building. “The Microsoft business model depends on partners,” says McVicker. “If a customer needs work done, Microsoft will bring in a partner to do that work—every time. That’s in stark contrast to our experience with the Novells and IBMs of the world, which will do the work directly or take a percentage of the profits for themselves.”

Support for Lead Generation and Marketing

For partners, the relationship brings in new business because Microsoft often has access to leads that may otherwise be unavailable to smaller companies. “Working closely with the Microsoft sales team and technology specialists has helped us achieve better end results,” says McVicker.

Microsoft also invites partners such as Centerlogic to participate in its local events. “Being invited to participate by Microsoft lends us credibility in the minds of potential customers,” says Mary Allen, Marketing Coordinator for Centerlogic. “We get to present to and mingle with them, and the events almost always result in opportunities for new business.”

Centerlogic also receives Microsoft support for its own events and campaigns. Often Microsoft is willing to help provide resources for an event or campaign if Centerlogic is willing to lead it. For example, the Centerlogic Novell-to-Windows® migration campaign received Microsoft funds for a direct-mail piece and telemarketing campaign in which Centerlogic introduced customers to its Microsoft migration offerings. In the course of preparing for the campaign, Centerlogic saved time and resources by taking advantage of existing Microsoft research and marketing strategies from the Microsoft Partner Web site partners..

Ability to Provide Greater Expertise

Microsoft continually makes training opportunities available to partners such as Centerlogic, including plenty of information and instruction on new products before they’re released and involvement in technology adoption programs. “At every level, Microsoft is investing in our early education so that we have the experience to help our customers determine and implement the smartest technology strategies,” says McVicker.

As a former Novell partner, Centerlogic has the advantage of having expertise in non-Microsoft–based environments, which, combined with advanced Microsoft training, gives the company a deep understanding of how best to handle migrations. “Whether or not we bring a TAM or PAM with us, customers know that we have the resources to help us give them informed recommendations and to conduct well-run projects,” says Campbell.

As part of the partnership, the local Microsoft office facilitates contact between Centerlogic and other Microsoft employees, who help resolve technical issues and accept feedback about product features as they relate to customer engagements. Additionally, on the rare occasions when things don’t go smoothly during a customer meeting, Microsoft stands by the partnership. “Microsoft has shown unwavering support of its partners and customers and will go to extraordinary lengths to address any customer satisfaction issues that arise,” says McVicker. “Contrary to that, Novell did not support us or help see the situation through.”

Increased Profitability

Its partnership with Microsoft has resulted in increased sales for Centerlogic. Since becoming a dedicated Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, Centerlogic has experienced one of its most successful years ever, with the best revenue performance in eight years and the second-best profitability in that same timeframe. The company is focusing on fewer customers, yet is seeing increases in revenue. “Our 2005 year-end numbers showed exponential growth in our project sizes—a 98 percent increase over 2004. We’re doing larger, more profitable projects as a result of working with Microsoft,” says McVicker.

For instance, when a large home-entertainment company needed planning assistance for a migration to Microsoft technology but lacked the resources to get help, Centerlogic and Microsoft funded and conducted a joint planning project with the company, free of charge. “Our customer felt good about the resulting plan and had conserved enough of its resources to hire us for the implementation,” says Campbell. “This means of engagement puts us in a great position because we’re helping customers get financial assistance while presenting sales opportunities to Microsoft.”

Improved Value for Customers

Although it seems counterintuitive, the increase in profitability for Centerlogic has come even as it is lowering the total cost of ownership to its customers. Says Campbell, “When compared with a Novell-based environment, the Microsoft infrastructure has the lower total cost of ownership because it’s one single environment. With Novell, you need extra directory software, security and rights administration, and so on—purchasing and supporting all that adds up. Microsoft technology is far easier to tightly integrate with other applications, making it more cost-effective for our customers.”

Adds McVicker, “Support resources also are more readily available for Microsoft technology than for Novell, not to mention the cost of training users on less familiar software. The biggest value that we see our customers gaining by migrating from Novell to Microsoft is the ease of use and integration.”

A Trusted Partnership

For Centerlogic, a Microsoft partnership is about more than just profits; it’s about peace of mind. “The level of trust between a partner and vendor is critical,” says McVicker. “Microsoft is truly committed to us and the rest of its partners—they’re not just paying lip service.”

Perhaps the most telling comment about the value of the Microsoft partnership is the reaction of Warren Cox, the new Government and Educational Account Manager for Centerlogic. “I’ve spent the last five years partnering with Novell, and I thought it was a good relationship, even though I had to work hard to find the right person to get my questions answered. In just my first three weeks with Centerlogic, I’ve had people from Microsoft proactively calling me to introduce themselves and see how we can best work together. It’s clear to me that Microsoft fundamentally wants to partner with us and that we’re a valued resource to them. I’ve been amazed by the time and care that Microsoft puts into its partner relationships.”

Microsoft Partner Program

The Microsoft Partner Program is all about your success. The program is committed to helping you better connect with your customers through use of innovative tools, information, and services. Every day partners around the world are moving their businesses forward, increasing their market reach, improving their customers’ satisfaction, and reducing their cost of doing business. You create the path to your business growth through achievements like gaining a new skill, hosting your first product training event, landing an elusive client, or building a long-needed business collaboration. This is how your business moves, every day, in the direction that you desire.

For more information about the Microsoft Partner Program, please visit the Web site:

partner

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“Of the Novell customers in the commercial sector with whom we’re working, there are very few that are not moving or making plans to move to a Microsoft infrastructure.”

Bryan Campbell, Enterprise Relationship Manager, Centerlogic

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© 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Microsoft and Windows are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Document published May 2006 | | |

For More Information

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For more information about Centerlogic products and services, call (503) 288-8886 or visit the Web site at: .

“It’s clear to me that Microsoft fundamentally wants to partner with us and that we’re a valued resource to them. I’ve been amazed by the time and care that Microsoft puts into its partner relationships.”

Warren Cox, Government and Educational Account Manager, Centerlogic

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“At every level, Microsoft is investing in our early education so that we have the experience to help our customers determine and implement the smartest technology strategies.”

Kevin McVicker, President, Centerlogic

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