Make or Buy?

In the Dynamics industry focus and specialization is key. Either on a certain technology or in verticals.

The new Microsoft Partner Network is forcing Microsoft Dynamics partners to dive even deeper into its own (vertical) specializations in order to serve more customers, speak the industry or customers language and grow faster at the speed of Microsoft. The Microsoft partnership model aims at creating large numbers.

For customers it is good to see that they are in good company as the market share for Microsoft Dynamics AX is growing much faster than the market growth. Customers can benefit from the multimillion dollar investment from Microsoft R&D enabling them to realize their full potential. For partners to meet or exceed the expected numbers by Microsoft is only possible in partnering with companies that deliver standard software solutions, like Dynamics Software.

Dear partner, please sit back for a while and think how you are going to perform on this? How fast and predictable are your implementations? How many different AX versions did you install in your customer base so far? How satisfied are your customers anyway? And how much profit in your company is un-utilized? Are you a generalist or a specialist? Are you RE-active or PRO-active? Is your growth rate 2% or 20%?

Dear (potential) customer, please sit back for a while and have a look at your business system environment. Did your system implementation reach the business goals which were defined? Did you reach these goals within the defined period? How flexible, adaptive, maintainable and upgradable is your solution? Did you really make the return on the investment?

Please consider the following criteria when deciding to buy or deliver customizations or standard add-ons:

Thomas Friedman’s book on globalization perfectly underlines the importance of partnership by his saying “Before You Can Multiply, You Must First Learn to Divide". Customer success, Microsoft’s success, Dynamics Software’s success and the success of our partners are one and the same. When you ask any successful person what the key to their results was, they will reply, “Others who helped me”. Please ask your selves the questions:

1. Do we act alone or together with partners?
2. Do we partner opportunity driven or on a strategic basis?
3. And what about our discipline…..?

Microsoft and IDC recently conducted an economic survey on the Microsoft Dynamics Channel. The top half partners showed a significant advantage in gross margin at 56% versus 35% for bottom half partners. And some lessons learned from the Top Partners: "Industry Focus Means More Customer Adds and a Trend Towards Higher Profits". Dynamics Software plays a pivotal role in bringing to market what partners and customers want — choice, quality, flexibility and cost savings with standard software solutions that work with Microsoft Dynamics AX. With our business solutions we amplify the Power of Microsoft Dynamics AX!