Driving Dynamics 365 Commerce Customer Success Through P2P Engagements

How should partners work together in a P2P arrangement to help customers achieve their goals? 

Managing relationships amongst partner team is a key part of P2P success, but a new panel of Microsoft and channel veterans also discussed why customers need their partners to come to an engagement with a combination of product expertise, project planning, and requirements management to deliver great results.

Evenica’s Kelly Mazur and Gustavo Roland were joined by Julian Poirier, Senior Technology Specialist at Microsoft along with Michael Mellegaard, Director of Strategy and Solutions at Accenture for an event hosted by Microsoft MVP Rick McCutcheon. According to Poirier, the advantage of strategic alliances is extending the reach on accounts, improving research, and driving innovation for products and ISV solutions directly. Mellegaard agreed, explaining that Microsoft can greatly extend its reach through partners and ISVs.

“At Evenica, we like to say that Dynamics 365 Commerce exists where transaction meets interaction. It’s the meeting point between ERP and CRM,” Mazur added. “We look at all of the Microsoft ecosystem when a customer begins a digital transformation and bring in experts for complimentary products. [For instance, that could mean bringing] in Accenture, [whose team] specializes in supply chain management in conjunction with commerce implementation.”

What best practices can ISVs adopt to get the most out of working with Microsoft? For many ISVs, Microsoft training is a good starting point to gain sophisticated understanding along with investing heavily in understanding the roadmap, Mellegaard said. 

Microsoft’s Poirier added that, beyond standard resources, collaborating on sales opportunities can fortify an ISV’s messaging and improve their understanding of their value in the ecosystem:

When we do respond or join a customer to solve these challenges, this comes with a holistic and unified approach. Co-sale really involves responding to customer need, to be truly relevant with the [partner network] and ISV Success Program. There are many programs that give access to a partner manager that will definitely be a good practice for the partner and ISV to work with Microsoft.

“Understanding the product allows seamless interaction, offering one face for the customer. They don’t want to have to deal with ‘whose issue is this,’ they just want to get it solved,” Mellegaard said. 

Roland and Mazur remarked on Microsoft’s Catalyst training and the help it provides for partners to speak to customers with “one voice” by standardizing the way sales teams train on Microsoft business apps. 

Resources, training, and the ability to speak with one voice boosts project success and is central to P2P success. Evenica has over 20 years as a specialist in Commerce, Mazur noted, but believes in enabling Microsoft customers across their needs by clearly mapping dependencies and bridging the gaps between the different “swim lanes” of Microsoft partners. 

She explained that strong P2P success depends on everyone being aware of timelines and responsibilities to achieve customer success. Poirier added that positioning in advance for a project matters a lot, with biweekly meetings to align visions and ensure that everyone involved is “customer obsessed.”

Roland encouraged partners in the audience to put effort into sharing insights when working with the same customer to improve clarity about dependencies across B2B channels. “Evenica has developed a solid B2B strategy for different partners and customers. When the subject is commerce partners bring us to the table… Getting customers believing they are working a common team with common objective of customer success [is essential,” he said.