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An Ultimate Guide to Partnering® Guide to Microsoft Inspire

For this Microsoft Inspire special edition, I’m joined by two industry friends, Per Werngren and Rob Fegan, for a chat about the renowned event and what to look for this year from Microsoft.

What You’ll Learn

You will hear from two industry veterans about how they prepare for the big Microsoft Inspire Conference, what sessions they are most eager to view this year, and what’s in store for Microsoft’s new fiscal year.

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On becoming, The Ultimate Partner™

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Why Ultimate Partner?

Over six years ago, I embarked on a mission to empower partners struggling to navigate the complex world of tech giants like Microsoft, Google, and AWS. Today, I’m thrilled to announce the launch of Ultimate Partner, an extraordinary media, events, and advisory company dedicated to transforming your Cloud Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy and fostering Ecosystem Led Growth.

Having witnessed the industry from multiple perspectives – leading a $4.6 billion Ecosystem at Microsoft, spearheading partnerships for a billion-dollar company, and hosting 200 episodes of the Ultimate Guide to Partnering® -, I’ve gained invaluable insights and crafted a manifesto of principles to guide your success.

In an era defined by tectonic shifts, such as the global pandemic, economic headwinds, and the rise of AI, the role of hyperscalers has become increasingly critical. With investments of billions of dollars in ecosystems, technology, and customer acquisition costs, they have secured over $200 billion in customer commitments to durable cloud budgets. We stand on the precipice of a marketplace moment where simplifying and streamlining economic models associated with co-selling and ecosystem-led growth will shape the decade ahead.

Yet, as vendors and organizations demand more from us while resources diminish, we ask, “Where do we go? How do we navigate these seismic shifts? How do we thrive during this decade of the ecosystem?”

If you’re a partner, you’re likely grappling with these questions. The watering holes of the past no longer offer the guidance required to transform into a Cloud GTM and embrace Ecosystem Led Growth. That’s why Ultimate Partner exists – to be your trusted compass amidst the noise.

Transcription – by Otter.ai – Expect Many Typos

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

microsoft, partners, fy, business, conference, rob, microsoft cloud, strategies, event, great, fiscal year, session, inspire, good, talking, excited, share, focus, ecosystem, align

00:05

I’m excited to welcome to Industry friends and Microsoft experts for a discussion on the upcoming Microsoft inspire conference. Bear Warren grin. You’re the founder of the iamcp and a five time worldwide president and a successful entrepreneur and CEO of identities. So welcome. Thanks for yours. And Rob, you’ve been in the Microsoft ecosystem for over 15 years and lead a successful firm, then vido focused on helping partners achieve their greatest success with Microsoft. And I love all your your LinkedIn posts and advice you give to partner so so happy to have you on board as well.

01:27

Thanks for watching. I’m looking forward to our call today.

01:29

So why should partners watching or listening today attend Microsoft Inspire?

01:35

Well, as you kind of mentioned, travel is light. It is easy to travel to this conference. And the fee is not excessive, because it is free. But the true value lies in the content and the content will be awesome. I would say that the keynote the first day. When Satya sets the scene together with Jensen alto, Nick of the Sun is the most important session. That session will give you a guidance for the rest of the conference and help you prioritize but also help you navigate your own companies year ahead, serve this conference is a goldmine for knowledge has always been will always be.

02:19

Yeah, as Paris said, I think this is a goldmine for partners. But for me, it’s really about their Microsoft is sharing their focus and strategy for the upcoming fy 24. And what we can do as partners is we can translate that into sales tactics into solution plays and sales motions, where we can turn those strategies and those ideas into actual solutions for our clients. So I’m super excited for the conference. And like Carrie said, it is just an absolute goldmine of information for partners. So I encourage everyone to

02:51

attend. Yeah. So Rob, specifically for you? What areas are you most excited about as we move into fiscal year 24?

02:57

For me, in FY 24, I think that Microsoft has made some really big investments in the Microsoft cloud partner program. And that’s something that I think is really helping partners set themselves apart. It’s really letting them differentiate themselves in the market. So I’m excited for that I’m excited for what partners can do to translate the strategies from Microsoft through their solution designations and their specialties. So for me, that’s a big part of FY 20.

03:25

I’m glad you mentioned that Rob. In fact, this week, we rerelease the episode we did earlier last year with Dan Rippy, where we talk specifically about that. So I want to put a link in that for our viewers and listeners in the show notes. But how about you pair? What are you most excited about?

03:42

Well, first of all, it is important to see how the new Microsoft cloud partner program is progressing. The house is under construction, it is not finished. But there are several rooms that are finished. And I like those rooms. And hopefully the new rooms under construction will be equally good. And by that I mean that we will probably see more tailored stuff geared to partners that felt that they were not part of the first face will probably see more support for ISVs. And the cloud partner program. Well, it has been evolving for two decades, and I’m pretty sure that it has continued to evolve. And it is important to pay attention to what is happening so that you can navigate your own firm and you can navigate your relationship with Microsoft and make sure that you’re well aligned, like healthcare. That is something I like. And if I would single out one session like out of the blue, it is F s 401. I did some prep work. It is called Microsoft cloud partner program. The road ahead. Let’s pull light Natori Yeah,

04:55

really great points here apart from keynotes.

04:58

Yeah, and it’s not session is on two Tuesday and I’m excited as well pair to join that session. So thanks for sharing. Yeah,

05:05

you know, some so many great sessions. Thank you both for providing that information for our viewers today. You know, we had been talking about this, I’ll call it the tectonic shifts we’ve been seeing, right, we had COVID, we’ve had these economic headwinds these last 18 months or now, these last 18 months or so, what are you seeing the best partner is doing differently now than they were perhaps a year 18 months ago?

05:28

So for me over the past 18 months, what I’ve seen the best partners should do and make a shift from is talking speeds and feeds or talking about the technology and really focusing on the business problems. How are they revolutionising their customers business processes. And I think that is where the real goal is, in terms of helping your clients as a Microsoft partner, find out how you can reengineer their business process, how you can streamline the business process, and I think the person that have done the best and made the biggest steps forward in the Microsoft ecosystem, are those that can really envision the change they can bring to their customers in terms of business process, business reengineering, and then align the technology that helps to achieve that, versus coming at it from the technology first standpoint.

06:15

Yeah, really great points about standing out in this ecosystem of 470,000 partners, working with this Microsoft field organization, right.

06:25

I’ve always been a big fan of recording and revenue. So I see that more partners are embarking on this road, trying to shift from selling hours per product based hours, and sell recurring revenue services. That is good for profitability. And it is good was for enterprise value. I see that to answer more successful except as Rob said, they are focusing on business problems and not so much on technology. Of course, technology is an enabler to solving these business problems. And they are also paying attention to a certain industry. So they build knowledge about an industry that also makes it easier to partner with Microsoft. I also see that the successful ones are less sentimental. When it comes to coding. They are embracing power platform and other low code, no code platforms, and are open to try out GitHub co pilot coding will never be the same as before and as good for profitability.

07:31

What about the organizations that struggle here? Some organizations come to Microsoft expecting maybe results or an unachievable? What guidance do you have for them?

07:41

Wilson did JFK that said, Don’t ask what your country can do for you ask what you can do for your country did better Potter’s they don’t ask Microsoft what they can do for them. They instead make a case what they can do for Microsoft. And that Microsoft loves that that makes pottering so much better.

08:00

I love that point there. Rob, what about you?

08:03

That is such a great point. And for me I share with partners that are struggling is there’s really three things in my mind that you have to align with Microsoft first is mindset, you really have to have the mindset to work with Microsoft and think of a win win mindset. It’s not just you as a partner winning, she was a partner, your client and Microsoft need to win in this engagement. So that’s the first thing I share with them as mindset. Next is messaging partners have great messaging to their clients, but a lot of partners Miss messaging to Microsoft and really sharing with those peers at how am I helping you Microsoft and get aligning that message. So that resonates inside of Microsoft. And then finally is the mechanics, you really have to understand the mechanics of working with Microsoft. And that includes the Microsoft cloud partner program. It includes Microsoft Partner center, you need to leverage all of those components to really work seamlessly with Microsoft. So again, it’s mindset and messaging and mechanics that you really need to focus on to execute at the field level.

09:04

So what’s some of the advice you have for our viewers and

09:06

listeners as they go into Microsoft’s fiscal year 24. Vince, my main piece of advice for Microsoft partners heading into FY 24 is really to understand and align their business with Microsoft’s FY 24 priorities. And we’ll see those priorities come out in the Inspire event. And then I know you’re hosting an event on July 20, where I think we’ll get to even go deeper into those priorities and understand what those priorities are and how we as partners can align our business and our strategies and our tactics to Microsoft’s larger vision for FY 24.

09:45

I’m glad you brought up that event. Rob. We are hosting. Microsoft’s will call it the unofficial after party. It’s a companion event to the Microsoft inspire conference on July 20. We’ve got some of the leaders from Microsoft coming in To help our viewers better understand, like what they just heard, how do they take that and I’ll use Microsoft parlance here landed in their business. And then we have some of the practitioners and experts coming to help you as a partner better understand how to take that and make it relevant to your business strategy for success in fiscal year 2024. Pair, what do you think? What are you What is your advice departments,

10:26

I think that identify what waves of change that there will be this fiscal year, find one of these waves, and focus on that many Potter’s tried to do a little bit of everything. And if you want to be successful, find one thing, focus on it and specialize on it so that you become master on it. And that will help market communication because everyone wants to do business with someone that is best in a field. And that also opens up for partnering with others. When you’re specialized, there is a need to partner with others that are specialized in other areas. And that is good for customer satisfaction. And customer satisfaction is good for profitability. So we as your event are attentive, what is the main things that you will talk about, I know that your cannot reveal all your wonderful guests. But this give us a hint?

11:25

Well, first of all, we’ve got several executives from Microsoft coming. I’m calling it the red carpet, they’re coming in after the event, right? We’re doing these fireside chats. And you’re going to hear from them specifically, how to take what you heard the last two days, the 18th and 19th. And applying it to your business, you’ll hear directly from Julie Sanford, who’s the CMO for the partner business, you’ll hear from Kevin P skirt, who runs the SMC business, which is a massive $70 billion business and Microsoft. And you will also hear from the leader of the marketplace organization, Jake Swenson and from Nicole Harding, who is the partner leader for the Americas. So each of them will share specific highlights and things that you need to do now, leading into fiscal year 24. We’re also joined by some of the top practitioners in our partnership with tackle IO, we’ve got some of their leaders coming in to help organizations better understand how to implement marketplace strategies into their organization. We have two workshops, a co sell workshop, and a go to market workshop. And we have a spotlight session on AI specifically, to help partners better integrate AI into their business strategy. So lots of great learnings that will be shared uniquely the day after the Inspire conference. So I want to thank you both. So great to see both of you, my good friends, pear and Rob and I’m excited to share more with each of you watching today at our live event, our live digital event winning with ecosystems, July 20 11am. Eastern time, I hope you join us there and pear Rob will be coming in for the after party at the end of the event and open for questions and giving advice back to us partners. They’ll share some of their best learnings coming out of the Microsoft inspire conference as well. So hope to see you all thank you for joining the ultimate guide to partnering. Today I’m excited to announce ultimate partners first live digital event winning the ecosystem taking place on July 20. We’re all be joined by Microsoft and the leaders leading this movement to cloud go to market and ecosystem led growth. This will be a companion event to the Microsoft inspire conference where you will learn how to achieve your greatest results in 2024. Please follow the link in our show notes. To sign up for this exciting event. You’ll learn about the speakers and agenda that are shaping up to help you achieve your greatest results. Thank you for joining us