Emergence of a Master VAR, Part 2: How the SBS Group Partner Network Aims to Maintain Order and Foster Growth

When Jim Bowman joined SBS Group, he arrived with an understanding of what works, and doesn't work, when it comes to mergers and acquisitions in the Microsoft Dynamics partner channel.  In Part 1 of this story, we examinedt the formation of SBS Group's partner network over the last year-and-a-half.  But the network has two sides to it that need to work in tandem to produce results - both the corporate office and its affiliates in the network. 

Operating as a networked organization

The network offers the ability to help members augment their staffs to engage on projects that might have been outside their technical competencies when they were on their own.  Bowman says their partner network is currently logging a thousand hours of cross-affiliate services billed per quarter with an expectation of even more going forward. 

"It's not any secret that Dynamics solutions we sell today are more complex from a business feature, process, and functionality perspective, as well as from a technical perspective compared to seven or eight years ago," he says. "For partners to be that single source provider to support many of the platform aspects of the Micrsoft business - SharePoint, Lync,and others - these products all have increasing roles in Dynamics and that can be a challenge to master those other parts."  

Branding has been a much-debated issue in the Master VAR discussion, Bowman confirms.  "From our perspective, it comes down to this: as we go forward, the amount of resources a partner needs to maintain and establish a brand in the world of Web 2.0 and social marketing and to stay on top of that becomes a greater challenge.  Many times we're talking about ...