What can Microsoft Dynamics partners expect from WPC 2013?

[Guus will be delivering his tenth annual WPC Business Report for the Dynamics community soon after WPC 2013. Download the full 2012 report and pre-order your 2013 report here. -Ed.]

Microsoft expects 15,000 participants from 150 countries at this year's Worldwide Partner Conference. The Dynamics eco-system is traditionally well represented in this event

What can the Dynamics partners community expect from this 2013 edition? This year, it's neither the various Dynamics products, nor the cloud delivery model that will take all the partner's attention. No, it's probably the split of the Dynamics channel in ‘value' and ‘volume' that will be one of the central Dynamics themes.

For many years Microsoft has struggled with the positioning of its different Dynamics ERP solutions, which has resulted in a lot of confusion among partners, customers, and especially potential buyers. Over the last 24 months however, we've seen huge changes with the introduction of AX 2012 followed by the adoption of AX in the Enterprise Agreements. Microsoft also decided to re-position Dynamics GP and NAV and focus these solutions on the large numbers of smaller companies. To facilitate that process these products are now rapidly moving towards a cloud delivery model.        

The choice for a value and a volume approach has an impact that goes beyond the product lines. The delivery of AX and also Dynamics CRM to enterprise companies demands for a highly customized and services-intensive approach. These are expensive and complex projects with a high risk profile, that needs to be managed very carefully. On the other ...