Sep 10, 2018
Six years ago, I wrote
a post that was directed at IT Directors/Managers, about the
need for them to re-imagine their roles in the face of the then
rapidly growing cloud thing. Today, the role that needs to be
re-imagined is that of Microsoft Business Applications Partner.
Between Microsoft and the Citizen Developer, the space previously
occupied by the Partner is getting narrower.
You can't Get There from Here
Not that long ago, if you wanted to bring Business Applications
into your organization, a significant part of your budget planning
had to include a pretty big chunk for an Implementation Partner. It
did not matter whether it was Microsoft Dynamics or Salesforce.com,
a large bucket of cash had to be allocated. For most implementation
partners, this was their entire business model. It has been a great
model... for years... for the partner that is. But not so great for
customers who had to pay for it, or Microsoft who got no vig on it.
Back in 2016, I wrote another post titled
The End
of the Microsoft Partner, which may have been a little early,
but it is coming to fruition now.
The End is Near
Two days ago I was driving somewhere and stopped at an
intersection. A well-dressed man, who looked like a banker, was
waiting at the crosswalk. When the "Walk" sign lit, he walked
across in front of my car, and as he reached the middle of my hood,
he stopped, pulled out a piece of paper from his suit jacket
pocket, unfolded it, and held it up to me. It said "The End is
Near". After a few seconds he folded it back up, put it back in his
pocket and continued on. I was not sure if the massage was for me,
or all of humanity, but I checked my seat belt anyway. As I was
driving away I found myself thinking about a call I had with one of
our customers last Thursday.
It's About Bob
Bob (not his real name) is one of our Dynamics 365 customers. Bob
is pretty technically savvy, but was quick to say that he was not
very familiar with Dynamics. He also said that, while he wanted to
learn more, he had a pretty full plate of other responsibilities at
his mid-sized company. Bob also felt his company was an excellent
candidate for Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Marketing, and that he
wanted to jump all over that with us, as well as build out his
entire sales process. Most partners would probably be drooling at
the Project Services opportunity that this appeared to present. The
engagement seemed to be ramping up rather slowly, we built a basic
custom entity, after which things quieted down, with just the
occasional questions here and there. Then suddenly, it seemed like
all-hands-on-deck with the Marketing App. Last week he wanted to
have a call with me to show me "Something he had been working" on,
just to see if he was on the right track. Over the years, I have
had similar calls, and so have learned to not chuckle, when a
customer shows me their feeble efforts, so I felt I was prepared. I
was not prepared.
Bob the Builder
I joined the call at the appointed time with Bob, and made him a
presenter. He wanted to show me an "App" that he was working on for
a segment of his sales team, to get my thoughts. Of course my first
thought was, "Why are you building it instead of us". Until I saw
it. Bob, who did not know Dynamics 365, and had a full plate, was
able in his spare time, to build an app that would rival any I have
seen most partners do. Sure, there were a few areas for minor
improvement, but truly minor. My role was limited to pointing out a
few ideas, that I am sure Bob will go explore on his own.
Bob's Limits... for now
Bob ended up needing more help with the Dynamics 365 for Marketing
application, but in reality, most of the areas where he needed
help, we also needed help. Mainly, as one of the first customers of
this new application, we were both working through some V1 issues.
Issues that were being addressed and eliminated as we went. Bob
probably would not have even needed our help with that, if he were
starting in October. or at least not much.
Bob is Coming
As I said, our Bob is pretty tech savvy, but not unique. There are
a lot of Bob's out there in our customer organizations. Meanwhile,
Microsoft is continuing to lower the barriers to entry, and the
level of tech savviness to accomplish what Bob is doing, will
continue to come down. What will be the partner role in a world
full of Bobs?
The Answer
To be honest, the answers are hard to come by here. It is obvious
that partners will need to reinvent themselves, but into what? How
long before we are over-run by Bobs? Who knows, but probably
quicker than you are hoping. It seems partners will need to go even
deeper down the rabbit hole of either the super complicated shit,
or the brand new shit, because what was too complicated yesterday,
is no longer.