Emergence of a Master VAR, Part 1: SBS Group’s Growth Strategy Finds Validation with Microsoft

When Jim Bowman sold his Microsoft Dynamics practice to ePartners in 1999, he watched carefully as his firm, Business Micro Systems, and others were incorporated into the larger Microsoft partner organization.  

The lessons he learned have served him well. When he left ePartners in late 2002 to join SBS Group, he arrived with a clearer understanding of what works, and doesn't work, when it comes to mergers and acquisitions in the Microsoft Dynamics partner channel.

"As we examined the growth strategies for SBS, we tried to put together a strategy that avoided some of the pitfalls that one has in the M&A process, where we could maintain the entrepreneurial spirit at local offices and yet allow those local offices to take advantage of the great things about the larger organization," says Bowman. 

That knowledge and experience has come into play again as Bowman has led SBS Group's ongoing two-year effort to build its own partner network, which he has most recently aligned with Microsoft's new Master VAR program.

For Microsoft, Master VAR represents but one measure in its efforts to stimulate growth in sales of Dynamics - find a way for smaller partners to utilize the operational efficiencies of a larger firm in hopes of freeing up resources to focus on adding clients and licenses. 

And Microsoft has recently made it clear that attempts to go outside of the planned and sanctioned partnering programs can be stymied, if not shut down.  Katalys Group, which we covered in an earlier look at changes to the VAR ecosystem