More items of CRM interest...

A busy time for Microsoft Dynamics CRM... There is a lot on which we thought we'd share.

Just got back from a great Sales presentation at Thames Valley Park. Some very interesting compete info vs Salesforce.com, too

On 9 March 7global will be speaking at the Caltech Forum in central Leeds. There will be demonstrations and exhibition stands as well as customer case studies, industry speakers and a great networking opportunity. We will be doing a slot exploding some of the myths associated with hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Not too late to book a place!

We have our on partner event on 13 May @ the UK Microsoft HQ in Reading aimed at existing and prospective partners wishing to sell hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM more effectively.

We have an inspirational keynote speaker, David Ednie (CEO of SalesChannel Europe) who is an authority on selling SaaS, overcoming the obstacles and reaping the many benefits. Microsoft will be doing a slot and there will be some great partner success stories. A well spent morning!

More crystal ball gazing...

So it's the start of another year. Indeed, it's the start of a new decade. One thing that we've been reflecting on is how much of the SaaS hype of the noughties has been...well, hype.

This article has some nice insights that steers clear of the "is it good? Short answer yes with an if, long answer no with a but" that some analysts provide at this time of the year.

Our experience is that people are consuming SaaS apps at a rate of knots. Hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a prime example with sales consistently higher month on month and retention good as well.

Back from Convergence

Had a great day at Microsoft Dynamics' Convergence event in London yesterday. Great to catch up with CRM partners and meet some interesting new people Some good presentations and case studies. Pleased to see an emphasis on customers and not the partners- ultimately it's them we're trying to reach out to.

I have to admit was all incredibly low key following a few years of attending big shows at the Bella Centre in Copenhagen. I guess they're using that place to save the world at the moment so they're forgiven!

Still, miss the razzmatazz of Copenhagen. Hope they glam up the event next year.

Registration

The first and most significant thing about going to the Earnest Morial Conventions Centre and seeing inside is the bland look of the place. I know when I arrived at about 10AM Sunday it is early and there are only a few people about but the place feels drab. Also when talking to regular attendees it seems that there is a low key feel compared to previous years. I’m sure it will pick up Monday when the conference starts in earnest. Sorry about the pun!

Anyway I had a very constructive morning passing the time with the original CEO of 7global Karl Roe. Karl looks after SPLA for Microsoft in the Middle East and Africa which is no mean feat. And has possibly the most stamped passport I’ve ever seen.

Even though it’s early in proceedings I’m starting to meet more people including another ex 7global guy Nick Caw who works in the UC arena again for Microsoft in the UK. 7global currently has 3 ex employees who work for Microsoft the other being Martin Walker who mirrors Karl by looking after SPLA in the UK and is due in later today, good to see so many of our people in prominent positions in Microsoft, this probably reflects the fact that we’ve been in the business for a long time providing ASP services back in 2000 and now still out there with SaaS, Incubation Centre and S + S in 2009, ok advert over. I’m just about to have my first meeting of the week. If it goes well it will mean we have found a great addition to our Hosted Dynamics CRM service....

Well the meeting went well, and I hope to progress things when back from WPC. Now there is jazz band playing at maximum volume only a few yards away, great music, just a bit too LOUD. The ability to meet potential partners and add products to our portfolio is my prime objective for the week and although it’s difficult to mention product specifically you will be unsurprised to know that my focus on Mobility, UC, BI and collaboration.

After spending the day in and out of the conference I think that overall there seems to be a big push on Dynamics and the inevitable Windows 7 hype. I also think that there are going to be some big announcements that will have far reaching consequences to hosters like 7global; wave 14 and all that. Talked to some really great people in the 'meet and greet' sessions form places as far apart as Scotland, Mexico and the Middle East.

The most standout thing in that was we all had similar problems and experiences, it is a small world and this certainly is that case when I talk to people at that WW Hosting Summit. That's it for today it's 20:45 and high time I carried on networking, you know what I mean!

Genesis acquires Increase...and then there were two.

Interesting to read about Genesis's acquisition of Increase CRM earlier this month. The acquisition creates a very large organisation actively promoting hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM. This has got me thinking and crystallising what I think of the state of play in the UK marketplace.

One trigger to my thought process was pulled when I was asked recently by a partner what I thought about the deal. Was I pleased that there was one less piranha in the tank? Or was a nervous that there was an even bigger shark in the tank that had just eaten the piranha and was now devouring everything in the tank with the ferocity of a starving megaladon? Ok, he didn't phrase it quite like that but briefly that's what it sounded like.

My feelings are that this is a Good Thing. There's no doubt that having a large telco (Genesis), which has acquired what was in all but name a Microsoft Dynamics CRM boutique with a 100% dedication to the hosted market (Increase) has created a powerful competitor.

However, I think 7global's partner network really offers a strong alternative. 7global's partners are large and small, cover the whole of the UK (and a lot of Europe), have specialisms in most verticals, with staff specially trained to deal with those industries.

By acquiring Increase Genesis has definitively moved from a 'wholesale' approach to a full service approach, which will certainly compete with other Dynamics Partners which should heat up the marketplace a little more. As a telco they had a telco approach to CRM, just as 7global has a hosting provider approach. Now they have a Dynamics Partner approach. Will be interesting to see how that pans out.

One advantage of our approach is we can marry our hosting expertise to partners Dynamics CRM expertise which I think creates the more compelling solution. However, if Genesis draws attention to the value of a hosted solution I will be there applauding.

New Year, New Hangover, New Challenges

So, 2008’s gone and 2009 is here. 2008 is already being clumsily auto archived by my brain so it now seems like a year ago as opposed to a few days. However, addled by Christmas and New Year festivities though my poor brain is, I think it is on to something. 2009 certainly will be throwing up brand new challenges in the marketplace and as firms seem to be going bust everyday, knowing who will be here and who will not is a scary consideration.

That said, from 7global’s perspective the message we can bring to businesses is, if anything, even stronger. Essentially, organisations still need cutting edge IT solutions to compete. I would say that is even more important as margins are cut and marketplace is squeezed. Rather than employing new staff or redirecting existing employees I think we have an extremely powerful ‘spend money with us to save money’ message.

Take hosted applications, like Microsoft Dynamics CRM or Exchange. Why spend money building and maintaining an infrastructure, 24 x 7 management, buying hardware and training staff unless absolutely necessary (I concede there will be times when on premise is the only solution)?

Take bespoke managed hosting. Why go through the very real pain of providing a top tier hosting environment when you can plumb in your solution to an existing infrastructure (preferably ours!) which manages all the pain for you? Or hire consultants to specify solutions when we can do that for you as well as deploy it?

Take outsourced network services. With 7global managing firewall, SSL-VPNs and other on premise devices it can take the hassle and cost out of using new or existing staff on doing something on which we can bring our engineering and support teams, not to mention special relations with vendors such as SonicWALL and Cisco, to bear.

Something to ponder over your Alka-Seltzer, perhaps…

Musings on the channel

Living in the business development world like I do I'm always looking closely at (obsessing over?) where we succeed and where we fail. It's essential to understand both (although I much prefer looking at the former rather than the latter for obvious reasons). It's also hard to get to the real truth as it can often be a case of success having many parents and failure being an orphan.

We have built a very successful, vibrant channel for Hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM in a very short period of time (less than a year) despite a very real initial scepticism about the hosted model and in the face of some very stiff and very slick competition.

One thing has been our resolute and complete insistence on a channel model. We do not sell direct. We do not offer consultancy, training, development or any of that good stuff our partners do. On one level this has been hard. There's a lot of good money in adding these services. On the other hand it was a 'no brainer' and I'll tell you why.

We're a hosting company! We're not a CRM house. Our people, skill sets, expertise, business acumen, infrastructure, ongoing investments, [deep breath] internal mechanisms, ideology, partnerships and approach have been forged on the anvil of hosted services, not Microsoft Dynamics consultancy. By not trying to fix what ain't broken I think we've been able to provide something that the Dynamics Partner community, largely, really wants. A specialist Microsoft-based hosting provider which is really rather good at delivering applications on demand. As opposed to a really rather rubbish Dynamics Partner that happens to do hosting, which was the alternative.

By grasping this nettle I think we've carved a good niche for ourselves. We're not a telco-doing-hosting-as-well nor are we a Dynamics-Partner-doing-hosting-as-well. We're a hoster doing hosting. Makes sense really.

Please ignore the fact that this post has sidestepped what we do badly- I will go into this, probably on a Monday morning when I'm feeling hacked off. :-)

Partners- a conduit to the real world.

One of the great things about our model is we work with a large number of partners day in, day out. These are typically ISVs who are using us to manage their infrastructure and have a number of individual mini platforms (I say mini. Some are pretty bloody huge but you know what I mean). We get a real insight into the sectors of the economy in which they work which we would never have if we were working in a vertical niche ourselves.

The same is true (more so?) of our Hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM partners. We’ve created a network of some really first class and really rather interesting MS CRM partners over the last year or so. One of the things I always find illuminating is what their drivers are and how they tackle the marketplace. Like our ISVs it varies, sometimes fundamentally, from partner to partner and indeed geography to geography.

Take the financial crisis. Not the best place to go looking for new business- or so you’d think. Some of our partners who are targeting this sector (Mayfair, admittedly, rather than the City) are getting a lot of traction with the hosted message. The opex versus capex attraction weaving its magic. Because, ultimately, people need software- it’s just paying for it, and the infrastructure to deliver it, that becomes a bit tricky. One to watch I think.

7global- the wanderers return

I've just come back from some European events. Sounds very glamorous but actually pretty intense, and extremely worthwhile.

Last week (18-20 November) saw two 7global representatives (Paul Doherty and Mike Williams) in wonderful Copenhagen for Convergence 2008, the annual Microsoft European conference on all things Dynamics. for those unfamiliar with 7global we are a leading provider of hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM and so it was great to run into some of our partners, make some new friends and talk about what we've been doing in the year (lifetime?) since last year's event.

One of the things we were particularly interested in was QGate's CRMMigrate product. CRMMigrate allows the (allegedly) legions of disgruntled Salesforce.com users who are hacked off with the usability of the SFDC system but like the hosted model to migrate over to Hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM. We're offering users free 30 day trials with their own live data to see how simple it is. You can find out more here.

Copenhagen is a lovely place but it was a very busy 48 hours so we didn't get to see much of it. A highlight was Microsoft Corporate Vice President Kirill Tatarinov singing karaoke, a regular fixture which never fails to...entertain. Took lots of Tuborg to drown out the memory.

Sunday, 7global (this time Chris Bithell and Paul Doherty) were in Athens for the EMEA Hosting Club (24-25 November). Great to see all our industry colleagues and Microsoft guys who have been helping us over the months and years. Lots of exciting stuff happening- very invigorating, very exciting. Back in the office now to start building on some of the inspiration.