Extend your offering for results

It’s possible to enjoy success through partners by delivering highly repeatable add-on solutions that can be sold over and over.

One of the key challenges faced by Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) like us is that we work within certain constraints – our marketing budgets have fewer digits than giants like McDonalds or Microsoft.

As suppliers, it’s up to us to educate end users about how our solutions can save them money, or make their business more effective. Without the deep pockets of say a Microsoft, and with the average margin per sale being substantially lower than the solution it is a bolt-on for, it’s a difficult challenge. How does an ISV create mainstream customer awareness? Well, by working with the right partners, we don’t always have to.

When 1+1=3

Take your typical Microsoft Dynamics ERP supplier. Fundamentally, their core business is supplying NAV licenses, but more importantly, providing the professional services necessary to turn that software into business value for their customers. But of course, customers’ IT needs often extend much further than ERP (and it’s also possible for ERP to be consumed by others within the business), so many Dynamics  partners have adopted Dynamics CRM and are beginning to adopt Office 365 to meet these needs.

They’ve discovered that there is business value for their customers in offering extended ERP, or to increase the attractiveness of their overall proposition to new prospects. In turn, this differentiates their offering from their competition. And by working with a single supplier – Microsoft in this case – there is a familiarity across the product families, the technology, the style of engagement and the culture.

Our partnerships are no different. Microsoft’s inclusion of generic document management in NAV 2016 paves the way for ISVs to embrace and extend these features. Microsoft has stated that its primary focus for future enhancements is to help build its volume business, which will be largely generated through business process outsourcers (BPO). Microsoft is therefore unlikely to focus on the document management needs of classic channel partners who customize NAV for each customer, or, offer them pre-sales and implementation advice to achieve specific outcomes.

Benefits at the core

Equisys provides a suite of business process add-ons for NAV VARs deploying bespoke NAV projects, typically on a private cloud and customized for each customer. The core benefits for VARs include:

• Additional revenue stream – reseller margins and service opportunities, simple value proposition and year-on-year annuity with proven sales and marketing programs
• Expert document management partner – we understand integrated document management and SharePoint, our products are certified for Microsoft Dynamics NAV, we invest to work with your customers’ IT infrastructure, all backed by outstanding service and support, without it distracting from your core NAV business
• Follow-on sales opportunities– a suite of business process add-ons for NAV that helps cross-selling SharePoint projects and NAV upgrades
• A product development roadmap –ensuring we support Microsoft platforms within 30 days (which we achieved with support for NAV 2016, released on 5 October 2015)
• Trusted quality – our products are Certified for Microsoft Dynamics (CfMD), meaning they meet Microsoft’s highest quality standards for a third party solution.

Critically, our solutions go above and beyond NAV 2016 and provide a key integration piece between NAV, Microsoft Office and Office 365, giving partners the ability to offer customers innovative solutions that combine ‘best of breed’ products. Our products are not third party add-ons, they are part of NAV.

‘Make a customer, not a sale’ as the saying goes; and with repeatable add-on solutions, customers can be served again, again and again.