Microsoft’s commercial VP Judson Althoff outlined a glorious five areas for partners which he expects them to focus on in the coming Aeon.
Talking to the assembed throngs at Vole’s Inspire partner conference in Las Vegas he said there there five areas that partners should focus – culture, enterprise accounts, customer acquisition, customer retention and learning.
Althoff explained that he wants partners to mimic the atmosphere that Microsoft has developed internally. While many might think this was fear, he claimed it was one of having a growth mindset.
“You cannot bring solutions like the ones that you’ve seen and the ones I’ve talked about today… without investing in your own potential and investing in the fact that all potential can be nurtured. For us inside the company, it’s about operating as one Microsoft and being obsessed over our customers. It’s also about diversity and inclusion, and I slow down to say each of those words separately because each of them are important”, he said.
Vole wants to focus on deepening its reach into enterprise accounts by building out specialist capabilities in different industries.
This process, he said, will see Microsoft call for more bespoke solutions developed by independent software vendors and partners.
Althoff claimed that the vendor will be investing in helping partners develop their own learning capabilities.
“We’re going to invest heavily in learning and readiness because, once again, if you don’t do these things, you can’t nurture your potential”, he said.
“I’m really excited that we’ll be rolling out a brand new learning platform this year, and we’re rolling it out simultaneously internally and externally because, once again, you are an extension of everything we do.
“We’re going to revolutionise role-based learning like no company has ever done before in quick and nimble ways, across sales readiness as well as hands-on technical.”
Althoff also praised Microsoft’s wider commercial strategy, following an overhaul of the structure last year.
For those who did not know, Althoff said that Vole’s crown jewels were its One Commercial Partner Programme.
“It really enabled us over this last year to build more with you – in fact, five times as many solutions are available today versus one year ago in our commercial marketplace. That’s all of your hard work and effort building code, investing in intellectual property, differentiated by industry to make a difference for our customers.
“We then took those solutions to market – tens of thousands of wins across these new solutions sold with you, effectively, to deliver more for our customers.
“This commercial model is resonating and it’s going to remain steadfast and be a consistent part of our strategy moving into FY19.”
