At WPC, Partners Worked to Align Cloud Interests of Customers, Microsoft, and Selves

When it comes the attitudes of Microsoft Dynamics customers and prospects toward cloud-based ERP, CRM, and related solutions, Microsoft's latest positioning coming out of Worldwide Partner Conference may be arriving just in time for the partners out there working on new client deals.  While interest in cloud options for ERP and CRM varies depending on whom you ask, partners at Worldwide Partner Conference - both resellers and ISVs - are reporting a growth in serious inquiries.

Greg Pierce, managing director at Tribridge says the growth of his firm's new cloud platform for Dynamics ERP and CRM, Concerto Cloud Services, was driven by customer demand for cloud as a delivery mechanism.

"I think adoption is accelerating. Last year we had a lot of conversations about the cloud," says Pierce.  "This year when we have conversations, people are genuinely interested and it is the model that they prefer."

Pierce sees roughly 80% of his new clients considering a cloud option for their Dynamics ERP or CRM solution. Of those, a little less than half end up selecting the cloud, he estimates, but both the interest and the final decision indicate a trend away from on-premise solutions for many companies.

In addition to interest in cloud offerings, Tribridge is seeing higher demand for packaged IP offerings in verticals like public sector, and consumer and packaged goods.  They are also finding traction with pre-tested combinations of ISV solutions in repeatable offerings. 

Greg Milliken, president of document management solution provider M-Files, Inc. , says that his company's newest product, M-Files Cloud Vault, a document management solution hosted in Windows Azure that supports Dynamics CRM as well ...