I'm Jigisha Deb, Senior Product Marketing Manager
at Dynamics 365 Sales.
With me, I have the pleasure of hosting
Whit McIsaac from SAGlobal.
Whit, welcome, and please introduce yourself, please.
Jigisha, thanks for having me.
It's very nice to spend some time with you.
I'm Whit McIsaac, as you mentioned.
I'm the CEO of SAGlobal for the Americas.
I also act as the president of our Vertical Solutions Group.
So we'll talk more about that as we get into the session
in a little bit more detail.
Based in Atlanta.
Been working with Microsoft since 2004, 2005.
We were one of the very first vertical industry partners
when Microsoft started that direction.
So it's been a fun journey.
We've had a lot of success
thanks to our close relationship with Microsoft,
and we're very grateful.
And this is the perfect time to say
and congratulations for being nominated
as the finalist for Partner of the Year for Dynamics 365,
Intelligent Sales and Marketing.
And I wish that I could take credit for it.
You know, I've got an incredible team.
We've got wonderful clients.
We've got a great platform to build on.
So if you pull all that stuff together, this represents
our 11th Partner of the Year award with Dynamics.
So again, it's been a great journey and a lot of fun.
Very impressive, 11th, wow.
But as we all know, life and work,
they both change quite a bit,
what's been going on with COVID
and the crisis that we've all been facing.
What has it been like that for you and your practice?
And what are some of the challenges that you had
to think through to maintain business continuity?
You know, I think that all of us, not only at Microsoft
but in the partner community,
we're super-concerned about
what our future was gonna look like.
You know, from our standpoint, we were a virtual company,
so, very few people actually in the office here in Atlanta.
Everybody's home-based.
But our business was based on the road,
and we were in three or four cities each week.
We lived on Delta Airlines,
which is what Atlanta is about, obviously.
So for us, we didn't know how we were gonna be able
to make that transition.
And, very fortunately, because we had
the infrastructure in place,
we were able to make the transition pretty easily.
I mean, the teams, like the session we're on right now
has really been a lifesaver for us.
Our clients, on the other hand, really struggled.
Most of them were in large metropolitan areas
in high-rise buildings,
so, the definition of brick-and-mortar.
So, architects, engineers, construction companies,
law firms, accounting firms, consultancies,
advertising media agencies, again,
all in major cities around the world.
Those groups did not have the infrastructure
to be able to support going remote.
So one of the things that we got called on to do
that we didn't expect was to help those clients understand
how they could use this type of technology to go virtual.
So it became a really nice section of our practice,
allowed us to build confidence with those clients
really, really quickly,
and allowed us to really continue the business
without much of a hiccup.
It looks different, but you know,
we made the transition without too much difficulty,
so we're very grateful.
Awesome.
Obviously, like you said, in spite of all these challenges,
you and SAGlobal have had a very successful year
and ended strong.
Would you say Dynamics 365 Sales has helped in some form
with the success?
So we're, as you can imagine,
we're true believers in the platform.
We use it throughout our entire organization.
So we run on F&O and we run on Talent,
and we use PSA for scheduling our resources.
And obviously our sales teams, marketing teams
all use the D365 platform.
So for us, as a professional services organization,
we're able to take our experience using the platform
and take it to our clients.
So, we build IP on top of that platform.
So we have aec360, legal360, Accounting 360.
And essentially these are application layers
that drop down on top of Dynamics 365.
And what they allow us to do is to step into
these implementations and these sales processes,
and actually show clients how the technology works
without having to build anything.
And we're 80% down the road with our IP on top of Dynamics
before we even start the implementation.
So what it does is it transitions the implementation effort
away from building software,
away from having to learn their business or their industry,
and it turns it into how do we find the best data
from their other business systems, from the Web?
And how do we capture that data, harvest that information,
and then incorporate it into the centralized D365 portal?
And we were really fortunate in 2019.
Microsoft put us in a pilot group
where they wanted us to experiment
and find out how artificial intelligence
could be used in our marketplace.
So we actually use it in a really,
what sounds like an archaic way.
We actually use AI and predictive analytics
and machine learning to capture contact data
and build relationships, and establish connections
between employees and contacts, contacts, companies,
companies, clients, clients, matters or engagements.
We build that web of connections
using that Microsoft platform.
And it's really, it's the secret sauce in the solutions
that we're delivering in the marketplace.
Amazing.
So, obviously, you've got all the skills and the knowledge
that you already have, and then you're using AI
to enhance it all.
And you're taking the same thing to your customers
to help them deliver their business better.
We are, we are.
And you know what's happened in our marketplace
is we compete against
some very strong long-term proprietary industry solutions.
And unless we have in-depth understanding
of the marketplace, of the specific vertical sector
of the systems that we need to integrate with,
of their workflow and their business process,
unless we know it, we're not gonna win.
So for us, being able to, again, capture the requirements,
build the IP, establish the best practices,
and then take that to market.
And it's not unusual for a client of ours to say,
"Tell me what we don't know.
"Show us the path, help us understand
"how we can be successful."
And that's a core component
associated with our implementation process.
Awesome.
Obviously, we're all making some form of adjustments
and we're in the planning stage now for FY21.
What kind of adjustments are you planning to make
for your business model in FY21?
And has the definition of success changed for your business?
It really, you know it's something
that we've been analyzing pretty closely,
because we obviously, right in the middle of this crisis,
Microsoft Q4, we enjoyed quite a bit of success.
But we did it differently this year
than we did the previous year.
So, last year, they were larger, big bang forklift upgrades.
This year, it was a lot of smaller implementation projects
that were phased.
So, phase zero, phase one, phase two, phase three.
In the end, the projects are gonna be larger
than what they were last year,
but they're just going to happen in smaller increments.
So, from a sales standpoint, the concern was
these clients don't want to commit to a very, very large spend
all at one time.
'Cause they don't know if their clients
are gonna be paying them.
So we actually adapted the sales process
and we actually started going to these clients
with a smaller, let's just get started with the basics
and let's grow on our success.
So, the revenue model was a lot of smaller efforts
for more clients that ended up being similar in revenue-wise
to what we were getting the previous year,
but just lots more activity associated with it.
But interestingly enough, the amount of success
was much greater because the wins were easier.
They were smaller, more digestible pieces.
So what it did is it built success for the clients,
confidence for our team, and momentum.
And success, confidence and momentum
has really grown our business.
That's perfect, that's awesome.
Because your customers are seeing the value really quick
and they also have the trust in the relationship
that they were looking for before going all in.
But they, like you said, success is coming from that trust
and from that relationship you've built with them.
Obviously, you've already given one of very key advice.
Are there any other tips or advice
that you would share with partners in the industry
that are exploring new ways to grow their business?
Or what is the one question they should be asking themselves
at the beginning?
And what would you recommend?
Yeah, so it's probably pretty easy for everybody to see
what we think is our success,
and that's the fact that we're vertical.
And we're very focused, we're very disciplined.
And you have to figure out a way to differentiate yourself.
And in our case, it's been very, very good
at our specific little micro vertical segments.
But if you can't differentiate yourself,
you can't get margin, you can't get recurring revenue,
you have a tougher time winning.
So, my suggestion, my advice to any partner
is try to figure out how to build IP, how to go vertical,
how to be very, very good at a smaller subset
of the marketplace instead of trying to be
all things to all people.
And it's worked for us.
This is now our third vertical effort in the marketplace
with Dynamics and it works.
And the recurring revenue has continued to grow.
The business is stronger because of that.
Our people are better and better
with each implementation they do.
Our clients are happier.
The reference base is big
and that leads to more momentum and more success,
like we talked about a few minutes ago.
Perfect, that is really great.
This is really some good advice that you've given.
Start small, go with where your strengths are,
and then build when you're ready for it.
Perfect, really good.
Any other closing words you'd like to leave behind?
You know, I'm gonna say this,
even though we're on a Microsoft fireside chat,
but it's something that I would sincerely recommend
to any partner or any seller that's out there,
align as closely as you can with Microsoft
from a product roadmap,
from understanding the managed account list and the markets,
and where the white space is, and how we can work together
and collaborate to win.
The field engagement for us,
the engagement with the product teams,
the engagement with the industry teams,
that's been a terrific experience.
It actually, it adds such a dimension to our business
that there's no way we could do that ourselves.
So, align closely with Microsoft at all levels,
drive success, and it's amazing what the rewards will be.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Whit.
And I have to say once again, thank you so much
for joining me at this chat.
It was really fun.
It was also very educational and valuable.
And I would like to leave with saying
congratulations once again.
Thank you for joining me.
Jigisha, thank you for having me.
All the best.