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For this special series of the podcast, leading up to Microsoft Inspire, I interview leaders from Microsoft’s One Commercial Partner team to discuss the work that their teams are doing in this age of rapid digital transformation.
My guest for this episode of the podcast is Melissa Mulholland – Melissa is the worldwide lead driving strategy and business development for how businesses can be profitable in the Cloud. Specifically, Melissa is focused on enabling partners and customers to accelerate their business transformation in the Cloud delivering increased profitability, efficiency, and scale across Microsoft’s Cloud services.
In this episode Melissa and I discuss her work consulting with Microsoft Patners to transform their businesses – the amazing body of work she and the team have produced to help partner capitilze on the digital transformation opportunity – her career journey – and what’s in store for partners at Microsoft Inspire, July 15 to the 19th in Las Vegas, NV.
If you are coming to Inspire, please join me in the Commons Theater on Wednesday, July 18th at 2:30 for a special session where I’ll share “What they don’t teach working with Microsoft”.
You can listen to the podcast or view the transcript here or on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, Google Play, Player FM, other Android podcast players.
As with each of my interview and articles, I appreciate your feedback. You can reach out to me on Linked In, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram or on email at vincem@cloudwavepartners.com. You can also review this podcast by going to iTunes and searching “Ultimate Guide to Partnering” and clicking on the album art and hitting the rating link. This helps others find the podcast.
Links to the content we discussed:
The Digital Transformation Opportunity eBook Series https://aka.ms/dtopportunity
Inspire Session: https://myinspire.microsoft.com/sessions/94a2be88-99be-4307-8a62-3347da7ef013?source=sessions
How to reach Melissa : https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-mulholland/
Transcript of the Interview
Vince: Melissa, welcome to the podcast.
Melissa M: Thank you so you much, Vince. It’s a pleasure to be here today. I love getting the opportunity to connect with people like yourselves, and the partner community.
Vince: Well, thank you for taking the time from your compressed schedule to talk to our listeners about the amazing work you and the team have been doing to enable and empower our partners, and all the great sessions in store for partners next week at Microsoft Inspire. And, I know just how busy this week must be for you. So, again, thank you so much.
Melissa M: Of course. The pleasure’s all mine. When it comes down to it, it’s being able to connect with the partner community that inspires me. It gives me all the great insight around the work that I do at Microsoft, because it’s thanks to partners that really drive our revenue across our ecosytem.
Vince: So, for our listeners who don’t know, can you explain your role and mission in the Worldwide One Commercial Partner Organization at Microsoft?
Melissa M: Thanks for that. Yes. So, I’ve been at Microsoft ten, across a variety of different roles. But, I would say that the role I’m currently in right now, is by far, the one I’m having the most fun in, in my ten years at Microsoft.
So, in the one commercial partner organization, I help partners by consulting them and helping them drive their business transformation, with the ultimate objectivity of course, of being profitable. And, I do that by, going and listening, and learning from successful companies that have built specialization and focus areas in helping drive customer problems. And so, it’s been a really interesting journey over the past year, that I’ve been in this space, because it’s fostered all this great content that we are able to share out with the broader ecosystem. So, many are maybe familiar with Partner Practice Development Play books that we have in market, as well as profitability studies we do. All of that is curated from the work that I do with Partners.
Vince: Yeah. And so, I’m fascinated by the work that you do. I know we’ve spoken before about it. And so, you’re clearly not someone who just sits at a desk, right? And you’ve been working partners that transform their business, in fact getting in, peeling back with those partners, getting to know their business, consulting with them on best practices, and the like. And so, I’d like for you to share with our listeners, a little bit about the work that you’ve been doing, specifically with those partners on results and outcomes.
Melissa M: Yeah. That’s a great one. So, I have this unique opportunity, where, I’m not specific with a partner category, which frees me to be able to work with large and small companies around the world, with different, can I say focus areas. And so, I have the opportunity to go in and actually work with the business leaders, typically CEOs, and their leadership team, to really understand how they’ve been successful. But then, more importantly, where do they want to see their business go in the next three to five years? And then, go in and help consultant determine, you know, where the opportunities that we can to even tighter partnership with Microsoft.
But, sometimes it even spans beyond just Microsoft, so going in and understanding, you know, what are their strengths today in the market, mapping out where their strategy is in the next three, like I said, three to five years. But then, determining, what are those gaps that are preventing them from seizing that opportunity. And so, oftentimes, that comes down to determining, do they need to invest in a new set of resources, or do they need to approach their go to market differently? And, by doing that, it infosters all of the learnings that I gain, that I can then take all of that, and transpire it into content that we can share with our global partner community, through the work that we do today.
It’s really interesting. I always have a saying, “We need to really take off the labels that we put on ourselves, because we create these own biases.” It’s human nature. And, we at Microsoft have done this historically ourselves. And so, what we need to really start to do is, really if you want to, “If you want to catch a fish, you need to learn how to think like a fish.” And, that’s from a mentor of mine, Mark Stuart, who leads a consulting company called, Neuro Impact, and I have been learning so much from his philosophy around that.
Because, the truth is, is that every business is different, and we really need to be humble and respect the fact that companies have been successful for some shape or reason. And, why is that? What’s really driven their success? But then, more importantly, where do they want to take their business in the future? And then, how do we help, from a Microsoft standpoint, help them grow and see that future come to life?
Vince: Mm. You’ve said something really important here about the fact that we have categorized partners, we put them into buckets. IS fees, SIs, transactional partners, traditionally over the years. And, during this transformation so much is being disrupted, including the partner business models, is what I’m hearing you saying here. I want you to peel back a little bit more on that, and what you’ve been experiencing in your conversations with these partners through the transformation.
Melissa M: Yeah. That’s a really great point. Thanks for bringing that up. Because, it’s true we all put labels on things, and sometimes it’s an easier approach, because there’s some like similarities between what we call a classifying ISV, or an LSP model, or traditional distributor. But, the truth is, is that it is really being destructed. Partners are evolving their business models when they look at their revenue streams, and no longer would I say, a traditional LSP partner is just bucketized into doing reselling. At Inspire, in one of my sessions, I’ll be showcasing a company that inspires me, because the leader and the CEO founder of the company, has really decided to say, “What’s the company we want to be? Who is that?”
And yes, there’s this whole aspect of, recurring revenue, and revenue that they need to keep their baseline in order to make that transformation, but they’re really transforming, taking off our preconceived notions of what, for example, a traditional LSP would be. And so, what I’m seeing across the ecosystem is, that their, the models are really molding together. We’re seeing some of our largest global partners have, what I would say, is some ISV like solutions in their marketplace.
And so, it’s really not on us to really come in and say that, “You are segmented into the specific category.” And, I think that’s through the innovation that we’re seeing partners strive, from doing managed services, to building out their own IP, and then adding more value on top of it, so that they can, at the end of the day, help their customers. And that, for me, is what transformations are all about.
Vince: So, you’ve been pretty busy. You and the team are publishing a new series of e-books, five books from what I understand. Digital transformation series. That are to help partners on their path transformation and building successful practices. What are some of the key findings from this work you can share with us?
Melissa M: Yeah. It’s a great one. Thanks for bringing that up. It’s been a really exciting effort. Probably some of the most rewarding work that I’ve put into these e-books, that will be launching fully at Inspire. You can access two of the books today. But, what these books are … Well, I should step back a little bit. Last year at Inspire, Judson and Satia we’re talking about the importance of digital transformation, and listening to them, quickly realized that we were not necessarily providing that guidance to what a partner transformation journey looks like. We often talk at Microsoft around digital transformation, but it’s really focused on customers. And, what occurred to me is that, it’s equally important for partners to also transform themselves, because at the end of the day, if they’re going to help serve customers better, they really need to be thinking about their business model, and being in the digital age.
So, these five e-books were written in partnership with IDC, and their built upon the successful modern partner series that we launched about two years ago. And across the five books, they focus really on the core aspect of what we see, what’s a transformed, or a successfully transformed partners looking like. But, the truth of all of it is, is transformation is never ending. It’s a continuous journey. I had … The other day I was talking to one successful CEO, and I was fascinated by his continuous push for, “Your self-critical.” Continuously pushing for, what does he want the business to look like, and inspecting it around, is he meeting those objectives? Is he transforming in the right way? And, that’s the type of, I would say, thought leadership that we try to aggregate into these, into these books. So, they’re across the four pillars of what we classify as digital transformation.
So, thinking of ways that you engage your existing customers, but also nurturing and fostering new customers in your ecosystem, to empowering your employees. So, talking about things like the importance of culture, and the talent that you want to foster in your company, to optimizing your operations. So, how do you drive efficiencies for both your internal operations, but then also drive insights that will enable you to drive more solution selling and, or products that will help serve your customers better? And then, the last one is around transforming products. Which has, I would say, very much IP lens focused to it, but, the key here is, is how are you continuously innovating to drive solutions that your customers want and need? And so, these five books, and of course, the first one’s around the whole opportunity that we see in the market, which equates to 20 trillion dollars.
Vince: Wow.
Melissa M: It’s staggering. Some people sit back and go, “Wow. That doesn’t seem accurate. It’s too big. It’s too inflated.” But, what, if you think about that, that’s not cloud transformation, that’s across hardware, software, services, so, it’s really encompassing of the whole market opportunity. And, if the partners aren’t thinking about how they’re going to capture that, and, they’re going to be left behind to be honest with you, because, we as customers are always evolving. And, everything we do now seems to be almost in the digital age, from ordering a car, via lifter Uber, to being able to do two day shipping on Amazon through your phone in a one click button. That’s all activated through digital transformation.
Vince: So, what are the characteristics of a transform partner?
Melissa M: Yeah. Great one. So, I would say, there’s … People ask me all the time, what does … Name a transform partner today. And it’s a really hard one to pin down, because, across those four facets I talked about, from how they engage customers, to how they empower their employees, optimizing operations and transforming products. I would say, a lot of partners are are doing well, in maybe in one or two of those aspects. Because transformation, is a costly endeavor. It’s, we cannot underestimate the work that a company needs to do to transform.
So, a couple of different things that I see. One is, they actively use digital marketing as a key way to engage customers. We see typically about 80% of consumers or customers coming to a website, are typically net new to that organization. and so, it’s really important to think about your business growth around capturing who those net new customers are, and, having a digital presence, is really critical to that. And, I would say it’s not just a website that you put up there, it’s around how you engage with your customer on that website, offering solutions and services. Because, consumers buying behavior has really changed. It’s really destructive. We no longer pick up a phone book, and flip through, and decide, who are we going to call. Help us. It’s all done typically, and online, or social aspects.
Vince: Yep.
Melissa M: Another aspect is, creating customer value. This is so … I cannot emphasize this enough. So many companies today that I … Tend to be very generic, and offering solutions like Office 365, where you even, as your backup storage, et cetera. But, they don’t really get into, “How am I going to solve what you’re looking for?” So, having some industry specialization, or even horizontal specialization, such as HR business processes, more financial services from an industry perspective. But, really getting anchored into a specialization, because, typically customers have an orientation, and they are looking for somebody with specialization to help solve their needs. Easy to do business with. I mean, that sounds like such a basic one.
Vince: So, how do you define that one?
Melissa M: Good one. It’s a big open ended one, but I will say that, it is easy to do business with, meaning offers customer support, is very responsive, helps customer’s needs. The other day, I was on the phone with the company trying to return some furniture, and I had to be on hold for three hours. That’s not easy to do business.
Vince: That’s crazy.
Melissa M: If you think it … Yeah. It is crazy. ‘Cause then, on the other hand, I worked with another company, and this is just me as a consumer, but, I was able to cancel my order in a one click button. And I got a notification about a minute later, the money was refunded back to my credit card. That’s digital transformation. And, how that term sometimes seems so overly used, I don’t really know of a better word. Because, it’s done digital, and it’s transformed.
Whereas, this other company, who’s a global company out there today, that we probably all purchased from, you have to do it all through the phone, and I have to wait speak to a customer service rep. And, for a moment I thought, “Is this intentionally their strategy? To make me really mad on the phone?” But, the truth is, is that, I don’t think it probably is, ’cause it probably deters people from wanting to go and purchase from there.
So, ease of doing business is, from all aspects, from how you engage with your customers, to things of response time to the solutions that you provide. At the end of the day, they to need to add value. Because, people can choose to go to your competitor at the end of the day, and you want to make sure that you continuously nurture that relationship.
Vince: Yeah. So true. So, what guidance would you give to partners to get started?
Melissa M: I would say first, really be thoughtful about your strategy of, “Where do you want to take your business?” Sometimes it’s easier to start with your existing customers, and understanding, who’s the customer that you want to acquire in the future? And then, back ending into that. But, you really need to be deliberate about what your strategy is, and what your priorities are going to be. Because, there’s an investment cost associated to any type of transformation that you’re going to do. Hiring new people, can be costly. If, for example, you want to develop an artificial intelligence practice, you may have to hire net new developers, and or data scientist, which are premium costs in the market today. And are actually, at times can be hard to find.
So, you need to be really deliberate about where you want to take your business. And, I’d also say don’t try to do all of these things at once, ’cause you need to also be profitable. And so, you know really understanding. Do you have access to capital? Do you have investors that can fund what your strategy is? And then, determining over the course of what is, six months, a year, whatever your time duration is, depending on where you’re at in the journey. How are you going to go solve that and make these transformational changes?
In the e-book series, you’ll see a number of partners that we interviewed, who have done various aspects of the transformation journey. Would I say all of them are fully transformed? No. Because, as I mentioned earlier, the transformation journeys continuous. But, they certainly made it a priority. And, I would say that, what we’re seeing even just from the research that we did with IDC, that, for example, those that have really focus on their operations and really driving automation, are seeing a 10% increase in their returns. And, conjunctively, those that have really focused on engaging customers through digital marketing, are also seeing higher profits. So, there’s a number of different aspects to it, but be really thoughtful about what types of solutions you want to provide your customers. Understanding where you are at today, and then mapping accordingly what the gaps you have are, and what are you going to do to solve that internally, so that you can continuously grow as a business.
Vince: So, across all the companies, you’ve had the enviable task of working with some of the best partners in the Microsoft ecosystem. Of the companies that you work with, what are the most successful companies doing? Where they investing in the transformational journey?
Melissa M: I would say that, most of the companies I see, are really investing talent, their employees. From, making sure that they foster a culture that it’s a place you want to work at. And that sounds so basic, but, even if I step back, and look at what we’re doing at Microsoft, that’s exactly what Satia has prioritized. Is transforming the culture of how we think, and how we go to, how we work come to work each day. And, I would say that now more than ever, I really want to think outside of the box, to help drive solutions for my partners, who are my customers, at the end of the day.
And, that’s all driven by culture. So, I would say, really focusing on the existing talent they have, but also understanding what talent they need to have in order to build for, example, IP, or be able to drive technical solutions that they want to have in market.
I would say from more of a solutions standpoint, we’re seeing a lot of companies really go deep into, I would say, more emerging solutions such as artificial intelligence. Because, when we talk about transformation, it really breaks down the mold, it’s not a one product type of offering. It’s really truly called, The Art of a Possible, because you can create endless solutions based off of it. So, we’re seeing a lot of companies invest in there, and of course, like I mentioned, how they engage your customers? How they drive automation? How they think about IP?
IP is a really big one. When talk about profitability, companies that invest in their own IP, they see 70 plus percent of margin on their offerings, because it makes them unique. It’s no longer generic, you know, I’m a cloud partner, and I can do everything for you. It’s a one size fits all offering. It’s really specialized, and it makes them unique compared to their competitors. So, IP, and I would say, talent, are the, from the top two areas that I see companies that are successful investing in today.
Vince: And you’re going to be speaking about some of these topics at Inspire, right? So, I was going through a list, and I think there was … I counted at least nine, maybe twelve different sessions that you’re part of that the Microsoft inspire conference this year, is that right?
Melissa M: That’s right. I’m going to be very busy, but, I get so much energy from meeting with partners, because it’s so great to see companies do what they do to be successful. It inspires me every day. Not to use that word intentionally, but yes, I have a general session that I’m really excited about because, I think I’ve talked to you about this before Vince, but my son is a product of technology. And so, I’m going to talk a little bit about that, and showcasing how digital transformation affects all of our lives. And, the interesting thing about my son is that, just recently, there was a French partner that came up with a solution that inspired me. And, it inspired me to say, “Could this work with helping my son be able to speak?” And, I don’t want to give too much away, but that is a story I’ll be telling at Inspire.
Because, technology has really shaped his life, and he’s not even four years old yet. But, I think I shared with you before, but his life was saved because we were able to detect an early issue while I was pregnant, and then we were able to intervene. And, this wouldn’t have been possible hundred years ago.
Vince: Yeah.
Melissa M: So-
Vince: Not even 20 years ago. No.
Melissa M: No. Yeah. And it’s what excites me about partners, is they’ve got the opportunity to create these types of solutions and really help transform our lives, whether it’s in the health care field, and or at any … I can come up with countless examples. But that’s what I’m excited about Inspire for, is a number of great sessions. You’re going to see a lot of things around artificial intelligence, and, a lot of new things that we’ve got coming out, but excited to see the partner community there.
Vince: And that general session you were just talking about, that’s called, ‘Capitalize on the Digital Transformation Opportunity’. Correct?
Melissa M: That’s right.
Vince: And that is being held … What time is that? That is a general session, on Monday, the 15th.
Melissa M: Monday.
Vince: At 4:15.
Melissa M: At 4:15.
Vince: Yep. So, we’re gonna make sure we have a link to that in our show notes for people who haven’t registered yet. I think you were telling me a little bit earlier, that’s already over oversubscribed. But hopefully, they’ll be standing room, or you’ll move to another location so that everyone can attend that.
Melissa M: Yes. PLease come. It will be great to see many of you there. It’s a general session that is … I’m a featured speaker on the Inspire portal, so you’ll see it there as well. But, I would encourage you to come as well as, try to take place in some of the great sessions that we have. But, this one is particularly interesting because, I really want to put it in the lens of, what’s valuable to a partner? Strip away all the conversation surrounding the products, and why Microsoft can really focus on some of the key learnings that we’ve gained from this e-book series, and interviewing successful partners. I’m really excited because I have this CEO of Fit Titan, G-Man. Yep. Who believe it or not, it’s global company that many of you may know, these help sponsor Inspire. But, they actually started as you know, from his house. He started this company probably, I think, about ten years ago, out of nothing, and now they’re quite successful. But he’s a great example of a leader who’s continuously thinking about, what’s next, and how he needs to evolve his company in order to really seize that opportunity.
Vince: That’s terrific. So, Melissa, you’re both a millennial, and a woman in technology, and if you’ve been following my podcast, you know that I’m fascinated by the journey, and how people got to a particular spot in their career and their life. And, I was hoping you could take our listeners on the journey. 10 years at Microsoft, tell us what it’s been like.
Melissa M: Thanks Vince. It’s been quite a ride. I can’t believe it’s been 10 years. And in technology, I’ve been in the field for the past 12 years, including my time at Intel. And, it’s been an incredible journey. I would say, there’s a couple different key milestones that really shaped my career, and if I step back and think about it, it’s one of the key, I would say, foundational aspects I had, was when I worked at Intel. And, the company at the time, was going through a massive transformation, and I was in finance, and they said, “Can you look at some of this cost reduction for direction efforts? We’re going to have to layoff 16 thousand people.” At that time. And, it got me thinking, I’m like, “There’s kind of be other ways to reduce costs.”
And so, I looked at the time, I was studying environmental economics, and they came up with this idea of taking recycled chips and turn those into solar panels. And, they said, “Why not? Dig into it. Let’s see what you find out.” And, now they’re one of the most greenest companies in the world, because they did end up implementing this project across their facilities. While it’s a remarkable story, the thing that really touches me, is that they did not limit me by age, or gender, or anything, they let me come up with a great idea. And, I’d say, that was a hallmark for me around, anything is possible if you really dig in, and you really learn something, and you’ve got great coaching and mentorship to guide you, you’ll see success.
And so, that has really just given me the confidence to come in and then, obviously in my time at Microsoft had similar types of aspects along the way. And, being a woman in technology isn’t always easy, especially when I walk into a room, and they think I’m twenty years old, and I’m not. “Does she have any credibility to provide?” But, what I’m finding more and more is that, people’s perspectives are changing, and you overcome that. And if you really have something valuable to provide, people are usually quite open to hearing about it. And so, it’s been an incredible journey being in this field of technology, and having a company that sponsors me to be able to work with global CEO’s of billion dollar industries around the world. It’s an incredible opportunity that I have, and I’m really excited to be able to do this as a career.
Vince: So, you must’ve had some incredible mentors and coaches along the way. What was one of the best pieces of advice that you received?
Melissa M: That’s a great question. I have to think about that one. I would say two things with quality and integrity. I’m a big believer in, don’t do something if you don’t really believe in what you’re doing, and do it with the utmost quality. I would say my current manager is by far, probably been the best manager I’ve ever had at Microsoft, and he really pushes me to think bigger, bolder, and to continuously do things better and think outside the box. Additionally I would say, always listen and learn, be humble, know that you continuously can always learn more from others, and be open to what’s possible. Because, when you open up your mind to anything that could come your way. the opportunities will come. We often … I really like say this, we often create our own biases, or we limit ourselves, because of, we don’t think we’re good enough, or we don’t think we can do it, or we’re not smart enough. But, if you try to remove those own internal ISC’s, you really will be able to open your mind to something new. And, that’s where creativity comes, and innovation in which you’ll be able to do something that much better.
Vince: I love that. And, you get to work with so many great partners. You get to see the ecosystem from left to right, from the top down. What is one thing that isn’t taught, that you believe is true, successfully partnering with Microsoft?
Melissa M: I would say, relationship building is so important. If you say you’re going to do something, really follow through. and have integrity in what you do and your actions. So oftentimes, we say we’re gonna do something, we don’t follow through, or we burn relationships.You never know when you’re going to cross that bridge again, and you’re going to have to come across that individual. And so, really building out a strong network of people to help guide you, support you, learn from, is so critical. I wouldn’t be able to do any of the work I do, if it wasn’t for the incredible partnership I get from Partners, because all of it, to be honest with you, is built by Partners. The playbooks that I do, are written by Partners in the course, I co-write them. We go in and we interview successful companies that have built a practice area in that solution. We do that with Partners.
So, the key to me that I have always learned is, relationship building and having trust, is so important, and that’s not something that you can just be taught through a course. Something you really have to continuously put effort too.
Vince: And, you’ve been heads down, really busy right now, planning for Inspire, putting out the series of e-books. But, is there a book that you’ve read, either recently or in the past, that has inspired you, and especially inspires you now during this time of transformation?
Melissa M: So, I don’t think I have a specific book in mind, probably because, I have been doing so much writing. We have, in addition to the e-books, we’re also launching a cloud migration a modernization playbook at Inspire. An, ISV playbook at Inspire. I’m doing so much writing. We’re refreshing the AI, so you’ll be able to get printed copies. Actually, at Inspire, we are going to have a few printed copies, so please, make sure to pick those up. Quite a big hit for Partners, and we continuously to provide that.
But, I would say, what I have … The most recent thing that’s really inspired me, and I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s a book, but I’ve been following him through blogs, is a psychologist named Michael Gervais, who has taught this incredible course at Microsoft, and works with companies around the world and leaders, to really think about harnessing their own capabilities, and activating their high performance mindset.
And, that is something that I have continuously practiced each and every day. Satia has been doing it as well. And, you’ll see articles published about it. But, it’s really taking the time to think about, intentionally mindfulness training, I guess you would say it. So, that’s something that I’ve been following up on recently, just because I think, there’s so much to really putting 100% yourself into a specific project, or key thing.
Vince: Yeah. I love Dr Michael Gervais. He’s amazing. I think, we’ve spoken earlier, I’ve gotten the opportunity to work with him, and he has a podcast as well, so we’ll probably, point our listeners in that direction. But I wanted to peel back a little bit on the e-books, ’cause you’d mentioned them. I wanna make sure that we reference them one more time, and we’re going to put links in the show notes that people can find them. Can you go through that list of the e-books that you’re releasing?
Melissa M: Yes. So, as I mentioned, I’ve been a busy writer. So, we have a five e-book series called, The Digital Transformation Opportunity series. So, that’s five e-books, so there’s a Digital Transformation Opportunity. And, these are co-written with IDC. There’s four more, so, Engaging Customers, Empowering Employees, Optimize Operations, Transform Product, and, if you’ll be at Inspire, you’ll get a … Hopefully. if all goes well, I’m finishing Transfer Products, today. You’ll get a printed copy of the books all in one. And then, additionally, we have the Cloud Migration of Modernization playbook, which I’m really proud of. It’s been almost a year’s worth of work to aggregate the best practices of actually how do you do this. It’s quite a complex process and being able to pull that together in a guide, really excited about.
And then, additionally, we have the AI playbook, which has been very, very popular, we launched it back in January. And, refreshing that, because we made a lot of updates at Build, our developer conference, that have been released, we want to make sure we have the latest and greatest for Partners. And, we have a new IC playbook coming out as well. So, lots of great content. It’s all available on our NPM portal. But, for the digital transformation e-book series, we’re actually launching a new page on NPN that will house all of the links, and of course, we’ll make sure to get this out the audience today.
Vince: Great. There’s just so much great information, our listeners need to find that. There’s just some great nuggets there for all of us who are transforming or building businesses. And, for listeners who want to learn more about engaging with you in the team Melissa, what’s the best way for them to do so?
Melissa M: You can always find me on Twitter, LinkedIn, but, you can also reach out to me too. I’m, like I said, relationships are so critical to my learning and development, and also you know how I can help support you, so, you can always reach out to me in e-mail as well, so we can provide that to you following the call. But please, by any stretch, you can always reach out to me through social media.
Vince: And what are your social media handles?
Melissa M: It is, my Twitter handle is @melimulho, it’s a tongue twister and then, you can find me Melissa Mulholland on LinkedIn.
Vince: OK will provide that, those links in the show notes as well. Melissa, I want to thank you. I know just how busy, in fact, if you were listening on this podcast, you could realize how busy. You’re still writing as we’re getting ready for Inspire. So, I want to thank you for taking time for our listeners, to spend time here on the podcast, to join the Ultimate Guide to Partnering and for allowing us, and taking us through this amazing transformation and journey.
Melissa M: Thank you so much for the opportunity. It’s always a pleasure to get to connect with you, and the audience, ’cause, it’s the best part of the job that I get to do each and every day. So, thank you.
Vince: We’ll see you at Inspire. Thank you.
Melissa M: Take care.