January 7, 2025 • 44 mins
Exploring Digital Transformation and the Power of Partnerships
In this IAMCP Profiles in Partnership episode, hosts Anthony Carrano and Rudy Rodriguez sit down with Ronelle Naidoo, Chief Sales Officer at Mint Group. Ronelle shares her insights on digital transformation, the significance of partnerships, and her personal journey into the world of boxing.
Throughout this episode, Anthony, Rudy, and Ronelle dive into:
- Navigating Digital Transformation in Healthcare: Ronelle discusses Mint Group’s specialization in healthcare solutions and the challenges faced in public healthcare. Discover how collaboration and shared values are crucial for overcoming obstacles in this complex sector.
- The Essence of Meaningful Partnerships: Ronelle emphasizes the importance of learning from experiences and the role of strong partnerships in driving mutual growth. Learn how Mint fosters collaboration with partners to ensure success and deliver exceptional value.
- Reinvesting in Client Relationships: Ronelle highlights the significance of nurturing client relationships and shares strategies for reinvesting in partnerships. Find out how prioritizing client needs leads to sustainable business growth for both Mint and its partners.
- Empowerment through Learning: Ronelle reflects on the lessons learned from her journey, both personally and professionally. Hear her insights on the value of listening, understanding, and evolving through experiences.
- Advice for Aspiring Partners: Ronelle provides practical tips for IAMCP members on building and maintaining successful partnerships. Her advice underscores the necessity of shared vision, clear communication, and mutual benefits in every collaboration.
This episode offers a compelling exploration of digital transformation, partnership dynamics, and the importance of community in achieving success. Ronelle’s hard work and insights inspire listeners to embrace collaboration and strive for excellence in their professional endeavors.
Listener Links / Resources
LinkedIn: Ronelle Naidoo | LinkedIn: Ronelle Naidoo
Company LinkedIn: Mint Group | LinkedIn: Mint Group
Company Website: Mint Group: Mint Group Company Website
Show Hosts:
Anthony Carrano LinkedIn, Managing Partner at Dunamis Marketing
Rudy Rodriguez LinkedIn, Managing Partner at Dunamis Marketing
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Anthony Carrano (00:05):
Welcome to the IAMCP profiles and partnership,
a podcast that showcases howMicrosoft partners and IAMCP
members boost their business bycollaborating with other members
and partners. I'm your co-host,Anthony Carrano In each episode,
I'll be talking to some of themost innovative and successful
partners in the Microsoftecosystem. The International
(00:26):
Association of Microsoft ChannelPartners, otherwise known as
IAMCP, is a community ofMicrosoft partners who help each
other grow and thrive. Memberscan finally connect with other
partners locally and globallyand access exclusive resources
and opportunities.
Whether you're looking for newcustomers, new markets, or new
solutions, IAMCP can help youachieve your goals. We'll hear
(00:48):
their stories, learn from theirexperiences, and discover the
best practices and strategiesthey use to create customer
loyalty and grow revenue.Whether you're a new partner or
an established one, you'll findvaluable insights and
inspiration in this podcast. Wehope you enjoy this podcast and
find it useful and inspiring. Ifyou do, please subscribe, rate,
and review us on your favoritepodcast platform.
And don't forget to follow us onsocial media and connect with us
(01:09):
on our website,www.profilesinpartnership.com,
where you can find moreinformation, resources, and
opportunities to partner forsuccess. Thank you for
listening. Now let's get startedwith today's episode. But before
we dive into our interview, letme ask you a question. As a
(01:32):
Microsoft partner and member ofthe IAMCP, how do you find and
develop partner relationshipsthat'll help you grow your
business?
Finding the right partner can bechallenging, but it can also be
rewarding. In fact, according toa recent study by IBC, Microsoft
partners who collaborate withother partners generate 2 and a
half times more revenue growththan those who don't. That's a
(01:52):
huge difference, and it showsthe power of partnering. So how
do you leverage the Microsoftpartner network and IAMCP to
support your partnerships, andhow do you ensure success for
your customer? These are some ofthe questions we'll explore in
this podcast with the help ofour guest, a recent P2P award
nominee who is also an expert inpartnering.
She'll share stories,challenges, and successes, and
(02:15):
give you practical tips andadvice on how to partner for
success. Are you ready to joinus on this journey? Then stay
tuned because we have a greatshow for you today. Our guest is
Ronelle Naidoo, the chief salesofficer at The Mint Group, a
preferred Microsoft CloudSolutions provider with
expertise in implementingMicrosoft Business Solutions
Technologies. The Mint Group hasachieved amazing results, such
(02:38):
as the one on the story thatyou're about to hear in their
partnership with 3 differentpartners to implement a solution
on Microsoft Azure and PowerPlatform in order to develop a
data management system thatsignificantly reduced response
time and improved the accuracyof information during civil
unrest and natural disaster.
(02:59):
Let's hear what she has to say.Welcome, Ronelle, to the podcast
today. Really appreciate youjoining us.
Ronelle Naidoo (03:06):
Thanks for having me, Anthony.
Anthony Carrano (03:09):
Excellent. Well, why don't we start off and
tell us a little little bitabout yourself and your role in
the company?
Ronelle Naidoo (03:15):
Yeah. My name is Ronelle Naidoo, and I'm
currently the chief salesofficer at Mint Group. I focus
on the transformational dealswith my extended sales team. We
focus on areas from financialservices to government to health
care and education. My rolereally involves driving,
(03:35):
initiatives of supporting ourclients in achieving their goals
as they navigate digitaltransformation in this new era.
I'm also a mother of 2 amazingboys who keep me on my toes,
and, they keep me with thelatest trends and latest lingo.
I've been at Mint for over 7years now. And previous to that,
(03:57):
I was at Microsoft also around 7years. So it's really been
incredible to witness thecompany grow from strength to
strength, and really driven bythe core values of this company
and the mission of creatingtomorrow.
Anthony Carrano (04:09):
That's fantastic. And when did you
join, the IAMCP?
Ronelle Naidoo (04:14):
So Mint has been part of the IAMCP for many
years. Though the South Africanchapter, I think it closed for a
while. And during that time, theMint team, we worked very
closely with the EMEA chapter.And then about 2 years ago, we
helped relaunch the IAMCP SouthAfrican chapter here in South
(04:36):
Africa again. And Mint reallyhas been played an instrumental
role in that growth.
And I'm really super excited tobe part of this journey. And and
as we've just grown now, youknow, I see this chapter in
South Africa just continue togrow, and it's really exciting
to be part of it. But, yeah,really 2 years now that I'm
being part of this.
Anthony Carrano (04:58):
Okay. Okay. Now so in addition to being, you
know, a a tech exec and a, youknow, a very involved mother, I
hear that you're a boxer. Is isthat true?
Ronelle Naidoo (05:09):
I wouldn't say a professional boxer. I wish I
would.
Anthony Carrano (05:12):
Not yet. Not yet.
Ronelle Naidoo (05:13):
Not yet. Not yet. But definitely, I I have
found my calling. I always laughand say that you know what? If
sales is not gonna work out forme, I'm going into boxing.
I absolutely love it. I thinkit's such an underrated sport.
So, yes, I actually started inthe beginning of 2024 and, just
fool around with ladies. It's ina all ladies gym, but it's
(05:36):
really it's so exciting.
Anthony Carrano (05:39):
Now I have to ask, and and we are gonna get to
the partner story, so Iappreciate you kinda flowing
with me on this. What what gotyou into that?
Ronelle Naidoo (05:48):
So, you know, I think being in the industry that
we're in, and we tend to havethis discipline and this
commitment of just focusing onwork and focusing on being
certain, you know, certain goalsettings that you need to do
that you forget about yourself.And one of my friends actually
approached me last year, andthey're like, bro, what do you
do? You know? What do you do foryourself? And and I didn't have
(06:11):
anything.
And I was actually on TikTok,believe it or not.
And it came up with this misfit,and there was these ladies, and
they were boxing. I was like,this looks cool, and I signed
up. And it was really about me,you know, finding this mental
toughness of doing somethingthat had more resilience for
myself and just to push throughand and it really just made me
(06:35):
find a place that I belonged forthat 1 hour where you could just
lose yourself. So it was really,really just about being present
and just thinking differentlyand building my own self
confidence, and it was amazingthat I could find this in a
little gym with, other ladiesjust having some fun. So, yeah,
it was just about findingsomething special for myself to
(06:57):
do.
Anthony Carrano (06:57):
That's fantastic. Well, I really
appreciate you sharing that withus. And, we're looking forward
to getting into, you know, yourpartner's story, which was
really amazing. And I knowRudy's got some great questions,
as we wanna kinda dig into that.Before we do, maybe can you
share with us a little bit, youknow, about Mint's areas of
specialization?
Ronelle Naidoo (07:17):
Awesome. Yeah. Sure. So Mint specializes in,
like, several key areas. Right?
So we do a lot with digitaltransformation. So we really
help organizations navigate thistransition through their digital
solutions and looking atinnovation within the sectors
that I mentioned. We spend a lotof time on cloud solutions. So,
(07:40):
like, solutioning, offeringsolutions that are able to scale
and optimize the operations. Wedo a lot of business
intelligence with our clients.
We have tools that really helpmake data driven decisions. So
we spend a lot of time on thatanalytics and the reporting with
the clients. And, we do ITconsulting. We do some custom
(08:03):
software development. Mint is aMicrosoft partner.
You know, we, we only our foundour only partner that we work
with is Microsoft. And, from afrom from a platform
perspective, We currently hold13 Microsoft specializations.
Anthony Carrano (08:21):
Wow.
Ronelle Naidoo (08:21):
And we are busy with another 4 in the pipeline.
So we're really focused onMicrosoft. And this really
allows us as Mint to support ourclients across various sectors,
you know, and, just helping themachieve their business
objectives effectively in theMicrosoft ecosystem.
Anthony Carrano (08:40):
Wow. Thank you for sharing. That's that's
fantastic.
Rudy Rodriguez (08:43):
Okay. Well, let's get down to the story. Can
you tell us a little bit about,the partner that you worked
with, the company or ororganization that you also
worked with? You know, you don'thave to give us, the names of
the client, but, it would niceto know who the partner was. And
then, the the technology thatyou implemented and any
(09:04):
challenges that you may havefaced in in this project.
Ronelle Naidoo (09:07):
Awesome. So as I mentioned, Edmond, we're deeply
passionate about health care,and especially in South Africa.
You know? So that sector facesso many challenges. So with one
one significant issue beingspace in hospitals, and an
effective records management.
You know? So we worked veryclosely with the department, for
(09:31):
health care, and just tounderstand the foundation of
these challenges, would whichultimately came down to data.
And where is it stored? How isit utilized? And the space that
this data actually occupies.
And as the saying goes, you getout what you put in. So proper
data management is crucial infor improving health care
(09:54):
outcomes. Outcomes. And I thinkthat's really where the entire
story started. We then exploredsolutions that leveraged,
DocuAir as well as MicrosoftAzure to look at how do we
e-digitize smartly andintelligently making data
available that could be used,for citizens and for patients,
(10:15):
and for the records.
You know? So this approach notonly looked at how did we
streamline records management,but also, you know, the
intelligent data around us. Ithink that was the most exciting
thing about this project was theart of the possible from what's
next, you know, like theintegrations thereafter and
thinking about the otherpartners we're going to be
(10:36):
working with that we could bringinto the solution once we get
this foundation in. So it wasn'tlike the story is over now that
we've done this. You know?
There's just so many morebuilding blocks on there. And,
really, by digitizing thesepatient records, we looked at,
you know, how can we, improve,efficiency, health care
(10:57):
professions can quickly get topeople. So there was just so
much about this. We had to bringpeople together because we
couldn't do this in onus meant.So we really looked at how did
we work with Microsoft becauseMicrosoft's amazing and Azure is
amazing and it has so muchpotential.
And we really looked at how dowe harness this, the analytics
in there, and we looked at themachine learning. And, and and
(11:21):
we really got into the insightsof patient care and and just the
overall health care experienceon this here. So we worked a lot
with Microsoft, with DocuWare,and then we got into who do we
work with from a partner side ofthings that could enhance this
and help us. You know? So thatMint is really good at the
(11:42):
things that I mentioned before.
But, you know, health care andthe data and the in-depth
details, we don't have all thatdetails. So how do we find
partners that really has, moredetails in health care and can
share that knowledge, has thesame values as us, and wants the
(12:02):
same outcome on in health careto create this amazing solution
that's going to not only creategreat patient care, but help our
health care professionals andjust South Africa as a whole
when it comes to looking atpublic health care. So I think
(12:23):
that's really the the gist ofwhat the how the solution came
on, some of the challenges thatthey were facing, and then and
how we looked at the fact thatwe could not do this alone. We
had to partner in order for usto be successful. It would have
been great to say, just have ourname on that, but that really
wasn't gonna give us the endstory that we're wanting.
Rudy Rodriguez (12:46):
Have you been able to leverage that into
getting, maybe delivering otherhealth care solutions for
private industry?
Ronelle Naidoo (12:53):
Yeah. So we do we've done quite a bit for
private health care and youknow? But for public health
care, the challenges areslightly different. So we've now
taken what this when, I mean,when we actually closed this,
and we've already multiplied it.And it's now in other regions
and other areas.
And just seeing this come alivejust makes me so excited,
(13:15):
because it really is going togive, like I said, the citizens.
And it makes you happy to wakeup in the morning to think that
this is the legacy that youwanna leave behind.
Rudy Rodriguez (13:26):
How long did it take your team to craft the
solution?
Ronelle Naidoo (13:29):
We were working on it for about to be I know
you're gonna laugh at this, butbelieve it or not, it wasn't
even, like, 4 months.
Rudy Rodriguez (13:37):
Okay.
Ronelle Naidoo (13:37):
I know. I mean, I remember the first clinical
cloud solution we looked at. Ittook us 2 years, and it was not
as half as complex as those 2years to look at that.
And then when we looked at thise-digitization, it was, like, 4
months, and it was like it justmoved at such a rapid pace. And
I think that showed how urgentof a need this was. And I think
(14:01):
those products are actually thebest projects. You know? Those
ones that you, like, go in andyou're like, oh my god.
But did we check this and did wecheck that? And it's such a
learning curve, and I think theexciting part is learning about
this together as partners, youknow, and making sure that we
make the mistakes together, butwe learn from them, and we pick
up the pieces. I think that'sreally important.
Rudy Rodriguez (14:23):
But, you know, you mentioned that you you knew
you couldn't do it all byyourselves. What was your
criteria in selecting a partnerto help you with the solution?
Ronelle Naidoo (14:32):
So Mint is, you know, I I spoke about, I think,
our mission statements aboutcreating tomorrow. And one of
the things that we we realizedwhen it was, I think, 2019 and
COVID was there, we were westill needed to sell. Right? And
we were like, how do we sellwhen we are locked down at home?
And we were like, partners.
You know? People buy frompeople. It's always about
(14:55):
relationships. So we created aprogram that's called the Ubuntu
Empowerment Program. And thisprogram is really where we grow
and we upscale smaller Microsoftpartners.
And we all know that Microsoft'swill can be quite daunting with
all their acronyms, and and youget these smaller partners that
wanna come in. So we've got,like, over 13 partners in the
(15:16):
program that we work with. Weonboarded them, and we, work
with them on projects so thatthey can gain their own
experiences. We allow them. Wehelp them with their
certifications, and we helpthem.
So they are partners that havetheir own solutions, and, they
form part of that. So whenselecting a partner for this
particular solution, weconsidered, like, several key
(15:37):
factors. And the main thing wastheir expertise and experience
when it came through toe-digitization records as well
as health care technology. Wealso looked at their needs for
innovative solutions. What couldthey bring from from that side
of things when it came toaligning to our vision and
mission was very important, andtheir need to also transform,
(15:59):
health care.
Compatibility, you know, it'sessential that the partner was
compatible with what we wantedto do. So a lot of times, you
you find someone and you wannapartner with them and and you
wanna go in A and they wanna goin B. And then you you've gotta
end it there. You know? So itwas really important to make
sure that that compatibility wasthere and the collaboration.
(16:21):
You know? And, all thesepartners that I mentioned are
all in our IAMC program. We workwith them. We upscale them. So
they don't just work with us.
They work and they have accessto some of our other partners.
So the partner that we workwith, we actually worked with 3
partners on this because we itwas such we were like, sharing
is caring. So and everybody wassuper excited. The support and
(16:43):
the collaboration that we gotfrom these partners was, you
know, I can just say thereputation and reliability from
them is something that I thatreally stood out through this
whole thing. And, yeah, thesepartners are really committed to
health care, and they reallywanted to address these
challenges that they faced inthese sectors, and that's really
(17:05):
how we went about choosing us.
And I must say to you, you know,it just happened. You know, we
have all these partners. Itwasn't like we had to go digging
for them. It was like it wasjust on the surface and
everything just it was justmeant to be.
Rudy Rodriguez (17:21):
Well, it sounds like you have a very vibrant
partner program. That's reallygood. How do you ensure that
partners stay in their own swimlanes while working on a
project?
Ronelle Naidoo (17:30):
I mean, it's I think, you know, I think having
clear communication. The onething that we have always said
is we are not scared to behonest with each other. When we
start a project and setting outboundaries, setting out roles
and responsibilities, and makingsure that you know where you
(17:53):
need to be accountable is veryimportant. You know? I always
love this thing, and I say whenwe start a project, I'll be
like, "Guys, we do thingsdifferently."
That's our motto on it. We dothings differently. Forget about
your previous experiences withother partners. Forget about
what you went through last weekwhen you didn't get what you
want. We are here now, and weare doing things differently.
(18:16):
So let's look at thisdifferently. And I think that's
really important. Listen. We'reall human. We have failed in
this project many a times, butwe got up and we found a way.
And, you know, it was about thefact that, again, we had the
same output that we wanted. Soit was easier for us to stay in
our lanes. And when you kindaventure out, it will be like,
(18:40):
"Hey. Move back. I think you'removing slightly to left on that
one."
You know? So it was it's quiteeasier to work with once you set
your rules and and and way ofwork right in the front or in
the start of.
Rudy Rodriguez (18:57):
Well, that's a great story. Thank you for
sharing. Anthony, I know youhave some more questions.
Anthony Carrano (19:01):
Yeah. Absolutely. And so, you know, so
you've got, I love how, youknow, you talked about how, you
know, we're just setting theexpectations, making sure things
are clear on the roles, youknow, and responsibilities, but
also, you know, with, like, thepoints of accountability. And
even, you know, with all of thatin mind, right, and would did
you guys, you know, have anychallenges during the
(19:23):
engagement? And if so, like,what were they, and how did you
work together to overcome it?
Ronelle Naidoo (19:27):
I believe every challenge is an opportunity for
us to do better. And we callthis a factory as a service. You
know? So in order for us to dothe digitization, you've got to
do people. Right?
And what we what we did was weworked with the department to
say, how do we create jobopportunities while we're doing
this? Because a lot of peoplefeel that, oh, as soon as you
(19:49):
digitize up, it's AI. I'm losingmy job. I don't have a job
anymore. Everything's going tobe done by computers and robots.
So we were really excited thatwe could have a project where we
could empower young people,hiring youth and teaching them.
So through this project and partof what our partners had to do
(20:09):
was we needed to go through and,we needed to find youth and
people. And these are peoplethat have never been exposed to
corporate before. So can youimagine the different problems
and, you know, that that wasactually the biggest problem
that we faced. But, really, whenwe got together and we we made
them understand, and then werealized that, you know, we've
(20:30):
gotta do the cha cha.
You gotta take a few steps backbefore you take a few steps
forward. And that's really whatwe did with it. So I think the
biggest problem we had here wasthe solution was so, it was
designed really amazingly. Theteam that did it, the
architects, and I must say theydid such a great job at making
sure that they'd look ateverything. However, one of the
(20:53):
biggest challenges that we facedwas people.
And I think people, we are sounpredictable at any time. So
you cannot say that if Ahappens, then you're gonna do B.
And if B happens, you know soyou can't really do that. So I
think one of the biggestchallenges that we needed to
face as partners was how do wecome together to have a 100
youth that we're busy workingwith to enable them and to say
(21:16):
to them, you know, that they'venever worked before. And you've
gotta now go back to them tounderstand and put yourself in
their shoes.
And I must say, we've hadamazing partners that they
actually helped us. And as youknow, they they're quite smaller
than us, but I believe that youyou know, learning is something
that you do every day, and youcan learn from a 6 year old. You
(21:39):
can learn from an 8 year old. SoI think through this entire
project, we really learned fromeach others as as partners. And,
also, in to be honest with you,in public health care, there's
many unknowns.
You know? So working with apartner that understands that,
you know, from from fromconnectivity to, I mean, you
(21:59):
know South Africa and some ofthe the the the challenges that
we face. One of the biggestthings is we work in an agile
way. And I think that really aswe uncovered problems, we kinda
just pushed back on those bumpsand took them and then kinda
overcome them, and we justneeded to we knew the outcome
and the output that we needed toget to. So whatever challenges
(22:21):
we faced, we just took them headon, and and it's really a
learning curve so that when wego into the next projects, we
know exactly how to do it.
And it's great, I think, for usto and these partners are now
onboarding partners on theirprojects to do things. So it's
it's just this kinda bringing onand sharing, and and it doesn't
(22:42):
just stick with 1 individualpartner. So if I have to expand
this, I'm not just gonna do itwith a partner that I did, and
they are comfortable with that.And I think that that's great to
to be able to allow for othersto grow and for others to for
their businesses. You know?
Because it's important for us todo that. I think if anything in
(23:05):
in today's day and age, it's youwanna be successful, but you
want everybody to be successful.And you wanna smile and you
wanna laugh and you, you know, Ithink that's quite important in
one of the challenges that we wekinda overcome.
Anthony Carrano (23:21):
Well, you you emphasized learning, and I I
love that. So I have actuallyit's, it's a two part question,
right, based on, like, learning.The first one is, what did what
did you or your team, we canexpand it, learn that enabled,
like, from this from this, youknow, partnering experience,
(23:41):
what did you all learn thatenables, you know, your
organization meant to improve atorganizationally going forward?
Ronelle Naidoo (23:48):
Yes. I think, you know, we we always kinda
wanna do things. At Mint, we wehave amazing people. We have
some of the best people in theindustry, and I'm gonna say that
there. And I think when thatcomes through, sometimes we just
have these ideas in our head.
So it will be like the client isgonna say, "Oh, I want, you
(24:11):
know, I want a car." And we'llbe like, "Oh my god. We need to
give them a Ferrari." And thenand they actually just wanted a
Toyota. So one of the learningsthat we've actually taken was to
listen more and to understandmore. And, also, sometimes it's
okay to just do the basics andlater on to expand. That was
really one of the biggestlearnings. It's that it's okay
(24:33):
for us because we always justwanna just you know, we wanna do
everything that's just like,wow.
And sometimes it's okay for usto just do the basics. And I
think that was a really biglearning. I know it sounds
simple, but trust me, whenyou're so used to that, it's
it's it's a big learning to takeas a team.
Anthony Carrano (24:51):
Mhmm.
Well, especially too, I think,just to make sure you do the
basics exceptionally well.Right? World class. And then, I
mean, just and, unfortunately,just, you know you know, doing
that, exceptionally well worldclass can be so rare nowadays.
Right?
And that's the unfortunate partbecause that that really should
be the norm. You know? But yeah.No.
Ronelle Naidoo (25:13):
That's a that's a really good point. People are
also so scared of being wrong orscared of failing. And I think
one of the things is, especiallywhen you're dealing with health
care, you know, it's like you'vegot all this pressure because
it's, you know, you've got itit's but it's okay. And I think
that's also something that nomatter you know, in any
(25:34):
partnership that you go in, it'slike, we've gotta make this work
and we've gotta do this and theywon't wanna do with us. And it's
it's honestly okay.
It's honestly okay to failtogether, to learn together. And
I think once you get that right,it's really a recipe for
success.
Anthony Carrano (25:51):
Mhmm. Mhmm. And the the second part so first one
was, you know, what did, youknow, the team, you know, learn
to help enable, you know, Mintto improve? The second part of
that question is, what did y'alllearn and, you know, from this
partnership to help you improvepartnering in the future?
Ronelle Naidoo (26:10):
Partnering is it it, can be daunting at times.
You know? I think once yourealize that the the pie is big
and everyone can have a slice,sky's on the limits. So I think
one of the things that I'verealized in partnering or in
this discussions is that whenyou are priming as a partner and
(26:31):
you are seen as a bigger partnerand you're working with a
smaller partner, is for you tounderstand how they're feeling.
And sometimes making all thedecisions was one of the one of
the learnings I took wasallowing the partner to make the
decisions.
And even if I didn't agree withit, let them go through the
(26:51):
process to understand, you know,why I may have felt that this
didn't work so that they canlearn for their own businesses.
So I think not making all thedecisions in the partnership or
making it because that's not apartnership. You know? And I
think that's sometimes when youare just you you need this end
goal and you just wanna run andyou sometimes leave people
(27:12):
behind. So in a partnership, youalways have to remember that
slow down and make sure thateverybody's coming with you.
And Mint is really good at that,and I think that's some of the
things that I've taken alearning from. I mean, we spoke
about Carl earlier. He's ourgroup CEO, and, you know, he
does that all the time. I thinkreally means partnership and how
(27:33):
we partnership has reallyevolved from what he looks at
it. And and it's really thatlearning around partnering means
taking everybody along no matterwho it is and no matter what
time of it and what deadline weneed to make to not leave
anybody behind so that everyonehas that feeling of success at
(27:53):
the end.
Anthony Carrano (27:54):
Yeah. So, Ronelle, you said something
really interesting, not to,like, put you on the spot, but
I'm really curious when youtalked about as a larger partner
not making all those decisions,but slowing down so you can
allow them to kinda process, youknow, your your partners to to,
you know, to make the decisions.What and it doesn't have to be
specific to, like, this, partnerstory if you can I mean, if you
(28:17):
wanna answer it, you know, like,in this specific situation or if
you wanna take, you know, alarger view and just answer it
generally, what kind ofdecisions are you referring to?
Like, allow like, you know, asthe lead partner, but allowing
the other partners just to makethose decisions. Can you can you
unpack that a little bit?
Ronelle Naidoo (28:34):
So I think when you're priming in a and I think
in the industries that we're in,you know, we always have
partners that we work with, andwe wanna give them opportunities
to work with us. But we alsotend to make all the decisions.
And that would be from this fromthe scope to the deliverables,
to the people, to the whether itbe, you know, like, the targets
(28:55):
or the, you know, those type ofthings. And that's what I mean
is allowing each to say, youknow, what do you think if we
kinda allow people to scan20,000 a day versus 10,000 a day
instead of saying, guys, Iexpect us to scan 20,000 a day.
You know?
So it's those type of, give meyour advice or give me your
opinion on this because then itmakes you part of it and not
(29:18):
that you're just delivering onit. Because then you you feel
like you included in it. Sothose are the type of decisions.
And to be honest with you, ifyou're partnering with me on a
deal, you should be in it fromyou know, you shouldn't just be
worried about, oh, this is justmy piece. I'm not worried about
what's happening on there.
So then once you're sharingeverything with them, they
(29:38):
become part of it, and and Ithink that's important. So it's
like sometimes you'll be like,oh, this is just your piece. You
only worry about this. Don'tworry about this piece. I'll
take care of it.
But rather saying, this is theproject as a whole. This is
what's going on in this area.This is what's happening in
marketing. This is what'shappening, from a governance
perspective. And, you know,partner, you need to to
(30:02):
obviously focus on this area.
But just so that you know, theseare what's happening in the
other areas as well. So I thinkthose are definitely some of the
learnings that we took into thesecond project, which worked
better than just saying, youknow, and it sometimes I think
it was more of us not wanting togive the partner more, like,
things to worry about becauseit's like you want them to worry
(30:24):
about their little baby. Justjust do that piece. But I think
it also kind of puts them in theback foot on not having the full
idea on what's happening.
Anthony Carrano (30:33):
Mhmm. That's awesome. Thank you.
Rudy Rodriguez (30:35):
You know, Ronelle, one of the things that
I've enjoyed about the thisconversation is, your
organization really, practicesthe empowerment of partnership,
and and those are principlesthat are core to the IAMCP. You
know, that's the first thing ispartnering. It's it's in it's in
the in the name of theorganization. So it's really
(30:56):
empowering, and it's veryforward thinking of your
organization to be practicingthat because you do empower the
channel, and it helps you growas a business.
And and a lot of people don'trealize that. So and being
mentors to people is also veryimportant. And I and I picked
that up from your from theconversation. So in all this
partnering experience, this, howare you leveraging that? You
(31:19):
know, I know you probablyincreased your customer
satisfaction tremendously.
You know, then how are you inall these learnings, how are you
using this to help increase yourown company's revenue and your
partner's revenue? Now how doyou incorporate that into your
sales and marketing processesand things like that?
Ronelle Naidoo (31:37):
Yeah. So, I mean, government is, we work
quite closely with with them.And in this project, for
example, is committed toempowering smaller businesses
and making, making initiativeslike this, valuable for them and
for us as Mint. So I think forme, when we looked at revenue
and we looked at growth, yes, wealways wanna make sure that we
(31:59):
create tomorrow. That's what weneed to do.
But we need to create tomorrowwith making sure that we also,
as a business, make revenue andhave our partners make revenue.
You know? So I think in thesolutions that we create, we
make sure that it is profitablefor the partners to make sure
that they can continue to growand eager, to to satisfy their
(32:21):
business needs as well. So Idefinitely can say that most of
the engagements we work withwith our partners, we cost them
and we work with them and we getinsights to them. So there's a
lot of stuff that we work inwith our marketing teams and
Microsoft.
We spend a lot of time withMicrosoft to get their
investments back into us becausewe're putting so much far into
(32:43):
Microsoft and making sure thatthe end customers are using
their their products. So for usas well, Microsoft need to give
back so that we can make sure wecan do more. Because a lot of
the time, we get rebates or weget whatever it may be. We don't
keep that as a month. We takethat, and we reinvest it back
into the client because wealways know that that investment
(33:07):
is going to get us a biggeropportunity.
So I think that is something wealso work with our partners on.
It will be like, don't take thisinto your bottom line, reinvest
it back. The clients are gonnasee the the investment, and then
they're going to go and take thebigger ones for you. And that's
worked really well. Now I'mgiving you all my trade secrets
now, you see.
So but I think that's that'sworked really well for us, you
(33:31):
know, it's reinvesting back. Andthen the clients see the growth
because for me, it's alwaysabout making sure we deliver.
Quality and delivery isabsolutely one of the two things
that are our massive values atMint. And I think when we
deliver and we show quality, therevenue and the satisfaction
from our clients just flows in.
Rudy Rodriguez (33:53):
Well, I wanna thank you for all your trade
secrets, and you even answeredmy next question ahead of time.
So I love it. Because, you know,the one question I really wanted
to ask you. So you've learned anawful lot from doing this, and
that's that's that's kudos toyour organization for practicing
this. I've lived thoseprinciples myself for for over
(34:13):
30 years, so I understand whereyou're coming from.
So the other thing is, do youhave any other advice that you
would give to partners, Youknow, give companies like yours
advice on, you know, how to bestmaximize the partnering process.
Ronelle Naidoo (34:28):
Definitely. I think I said this before, and it
can be daunting to partner.Because I think even as a kid,
sharing is very hard. You know?And what what do they always go
back to say?
What does Barney say? Sharing iscaring. So I think even when you
look at partnering, it's aboutunderstanding that once you know
(34:48):
that this opportunity and theindustry is big enough for
everybody, because I think weall talk about, oh, we're going
through this and we're goingthrough that and the industry is
so tough. But it really is onceyou look at the opportunity, I
feel like okay. So my advice topartners that wanna wanna look
at partnering and startpartnering to prioritize a few
(35:11):
things.
And the first thing is the mostimportant thing in any
partnership is shared values andvision. You know, you have to
have a shared value and visionas partners, and your companies
need to have or or foster thesimilar collaboration and mutual
understanding. Right? Andcommunication. You need to have
a clear communication aspartners.
(35:33):
Be transparent, you know, fromthe outset. Expectations build
trust. And I think that's soimportant. And also define roles
and responsibilities as you workthrough these partnerships so
that everyone clearlyunderstands their roles and
responsibilities in thispartnership so that no one's
(35:53):
expecting one to do the otherand me to do the next, you know.
And focus on mutual benefit.
Partnership means equal. Lookfor partnerships that offer both
value for both parties. It mustbe a win win approach. It cannot
be where one wins and the otherone doesn't. That's not
sustainable.
(36:14):
And also invest in relationshipbuilding. Sometimes a partner
may be stronger than the otherbut you see the vision and the
mission. Invest in thatrelationship with that partner
for the long run because it willbe an amazing collaboration. And
be open to innovation, you know,be open to innovation as a
(36:35):
partnership to kind of leadbreakthroughs and benefits for
both organizations, you know.And and the one important thing
in partnerships, we always dothis now, is measure the
success.
So when you start something,say, okay. These are how we're
gonna, at the end, evaluate ourmetrics, and this is what the
partnership needs to be. And atthe end, measure it. That's the
(36:59):
only way for you to know if itis going to be successful. And I
think if you can follow a few ofthese things, it'll definitely
cultivate strong partnerships.
It'll drive growth, and it willdefinitely, for a business,
deliver meaningful results. I Iam 100% sure that that would
(37:19):
would come through from it.
Rudy Rodriguez (37:21):
We definitely wanna thank you for those words
of wisdom.
So we got your trade secrets,words of wisdom, and some
actually partnering advice. Sothank you.
Anthony Carrano (37:31):
Well, I I was gonna say, Ronelle, I'm, like,
taking notes. I'm, like, thatyou should take let's take that
last answer there. Let's packagethat into a master class. That
was awesome.
Ronelle Naidoo (37:43):
That's what happens when you get someone
that's so passionate about it.I'm so passionate about it.
Anthony Carrano (37:48):
That was fantastic. Really a thank you.
That was that was fantastic. Soas we wrap up, how can how can
folks, you know, find out moreabout Mint and, you know,
connect with you, connect withMint?
Ronelle Naidoo (38:02):
Oh, that'll be great. I mean, we would love to
look at other partnershipsacross. We've got really a a
massive geo expansion into theUAE, into us, into, you know,
the UK. Our team's just growingthere. So if you go on through
to our Mint website, you canalso catch us catch me on my
(38:22):
LinkedIn, pop me a message.
Would really love to connect andsee how we can work together,
partner together, and, look atsome of the the solutioning into
different areas and maybe alsojust get insights from others. I
would love to hear fromeveryone.
Anthony Carrano (38:38):
Excellent. We'll have, the links to the
website and the various LinkedInpages in the show notes for
people, you know, who'd wannafind out more and connect. So,
we'll definitely be sure to youfolks wanna check that out for
sure. Ronelle, thank you. Thishas been a wonderful, wonderful,
you know, interview.
Appreciate all of your time.Enjoy the rest of your day.
Ronelle Naidoo (39:00):
Thank you again for having me. It's been great.
Anthony Carrano (39:05):
Wow. That was a great episode. I really
appreciate Ronelle's perspectiveand her time and things that she
shared, you know, on today'sinterview. I took away several
things. Rudy, what were somethings that stood out to you?
Rudy Rodriguez (39:17):
Well, you know, I'm in total agreement with you.
That was an excellent interviewbecause Ronelle really iterated
a lot of the core concepts thatwe teach about partnership at
IAMCP. And the one thing Ireally appreciated that she
mentioned was how they mentortheir partners to teach them the
processes of partnering and andthe core principles. And so they
(39:40):
can do a much better job fortheir clients and and in the
partnering process. And the factthat they use, that partnering
is a core a core businessprocess for them is really,
really key because that teachespartners that you can't do all
the work yourself and you needto rely on partners sometimes.
(40:02):
The technology world is so bigand we have to specialize in key
areas. And the fact that theirbusiness process is they know
they can't do everything. Sothey have a select group of
partners that they work withalready, and then they mentor
them to become better partners.And I thought that was an
excellent, business process thatthat organization follows, and
(40:24):
and kudos to the Mint group fordoing that.
Anthony Carrano (40:26):
Yeah. No. That was that was really solid. I
know, one of the things thatreally resonated with me in
addition to that was she she,you know, shared this phrase
about, you know, expectationsbuild trust and just the
importance on, you know,building that trust so you have
not only strong partnerships,but a platform, if you will, to
grow revenue. And then how shefurther expanded upon that on
(40:49):
things that you can do that youshould prioritize in order to,
to be able to deliver on that.
She shared there were 7 keythings I took away. The first
being, you know, having, youknow, shared values and vision.
2nd, you know, fostering, youknow, communication and
collaboration, for transparencyand accountability. Number 3,
making sure there's clearlydefined roles and
(41:11):
responsibilities. This number 4was I thought was an excellent
point, focusing on mutualbenefit and the point that, you
know, if it's a partnership, itdoes have to create value for
both parties.
It's something that sounds soobvious, but unfortunately gets,
lost, you know, far too often,than it really should be. Number
(41:34):
5, investing in relationshipbuilding. Number 6, being open
to innovation. Right? You know,to create, you know, unique
breakthroughs and benefits fornot only the customer, but then
also the partners.
And, number 7, just theimportance on measuring the
success. I mean, I just thoughtthat was almost like that could
have been packaged and deliveredas a master class, you know, in,
(41:58):
your partnering priorities.
Rudy Rodriguez (42:00):
Yeah. Absolutely. I was smiling
throughout the throughout theinterview, because those are the
things that we've worked on atIAMCP for a long time in
teaching people how to partner.And the fact that she she talked
about measuring the results forboth sides, that you have to be
able to grow your businessthrough partnering. And that's
(42:20):
that's a key principle for them.
The other thing about settingthe values and the expectations,
because we talked about that inyour interview. How do you teach
partners to stay in their ownswim lanes? And that's the tough
thing for partners tounderstand. And a lot of times
when we we work with partners onprojects, we we sometimes focus
on the minutiae too much anddon't look at the big picture.
(42:43):
And she did an excellent job ofpresenting the big picture and
how their organization followsthose principles.
So I was very, very, happy andsmiling throughout the whole
thing because, for those peoplewho take our our partnering
classes at at IAMCP, you learnthese very things in that class.
And the fact this organizationdid it organically is even
(43:06):
better. It's even better. Kudosto the Mint group.
Anthony Carrano (43:09):
Yeah. And, you know, and on that note, I know I
was just thinking when you weresharing earlier just how what
really stood out, how, you know,they mentor their partners, but
also, you know, in it not onlyjust in, you know, part of your
processes and, like, bestpractices, but when she also
talked about how just theimportance of re if you receive
funding, you know, fromMicrosoft, just the importance
(43:30):
of reinvesting that funding backinto the client, right, to
create, you know, great customerexperience so they can in turn
further grow and develop theaccount. I thought that was just
a just a good point. You know?As a as a practical matter of
things that they can do inhelping partners, you know, by
and large just to grow theiroverall business.
(43:51):
So thank you for joining us onthis episode of IAMCP profiles
and partnership powered by Wehope you enjoyed this podcast
and find it useful andinspiring. If you did, please
subscribe, rate, and review uson your favorite podcast
platform. One of the best waysto partner for success is to
join IAMCP, a community ofMicrosoft partners who help each
(44:11):
other grow and thrive. IAMCPmembers can find and connect
with other partners locally andglobally and access exclusive
resources and opportunities.Whether you're looking for new
customers, new markets, or newsolutions, IAMCP can help you
achieve your goals.
To learn more, visit the websiteat www.iamcp.org.
Welcome to the IAMCP profiles and partnership,
a podcast that showcases howMicrosoft partners and IAMCP
members boost their business bycollaborating with other members
and partners. I'm your co-host,Anthony Carrano In each episode,
I'll be talking to some of themost innovative and successful
partners in the Microsoftecosystem. The International
(00:26):
Association of Microsoft ChannelPartners, otherwise known as
IAMCP, is a community ofMicrosoft partners who help each
other grow and thrive. Memberscan finally connect with other
partners locally and globallyand access exclusive resources
and opportunities.
Whether you're looking for newcustomers, new markets, or new
solutions, IAMCP can help youachieve your goals. We'll hear
(00:48):
their stories, learn from theirexperiences, and discover the
best practices and strategiesthey use to create customer
loyalty and grow revenue.Whether you're a new partner or
an established one, you'll findvaluable insights and
inspiration in this podcast. Wehope you enjoy this podcast and
find it useful and inspiring. Ifyou do, please subscribe, rate,
and review us on your favoritepodcast platform.
And don't forget to follow us onsocial media and connect with us
(01:09):
on our website,www.profilesinpartnership.com,
where you can find moreinformation, resources, and
opportunities to partner forsuccess. Thank you for
listening. Now let's get startedwith today's episode. But before
we dive into our interview, letme ask you a question. As a
(01:32):
Microsoft partner and member ofthe IAMCP, how do you find and
develop partner relationshipsthat'll help you grow your
business?
Finding the right partner can bechallenging, but it can also be
rewarding. In fact, according toa recent study by IBC, Microsoft
partners who collaborate withother partners generate 2 and a
half times more revenue growththan those who don't. That's a
(01:52):
huge difference, and it showsthe power of partnering. So how
do you leverage the Microsoftpartner network and IAMCP to
support your partnerships, andhow do you ensure success for
your customer? These are some ofthe questions we'll explore in
this podcast with the help ofour guest, a recent P2P award
nominee who is also an expert inpartnering.
She'll share stories,challenges, and successes, and
(02:15):
give you practical tips andadvice on how to partner for
success. Are you ready to joinus on this journey? Then stay
tuned because we have a greatshow for you today. Our guest is
Ronelle Naidoo, the chief salesofficer at The Mint Group, a
preferred Microsoft CloudSolutions provider with
expertise in implementingMicrosoft Business Solutions
Technologies. The Mint Group hasachieved amazing results, such
(02:38):
as the one on the story thatyou're about to hear in their
partnership with 3 differentpartners to implement a solution
on Microsoft Azure and PowerPlatform in order to develop a
data management system thatsignificantly reduced response
time and improved the accuracyof information during civil
unrest and natural disaster.
(02:59):
Let's hear what she has to say.Welcome, Ronelle, to the podcast
today. Really appreciate youjoining us.
Ronelle Naidoo (03:06):
Thanks for having me, Anthony.
Anthony Carrano (03:09):
Excellent. Well, why don't we start off and
tell us a little little bitabout yourself and your role in
the company?
Ronelle Naidoo (03:15):
Yeah. My name is Ronelle Naidoo, and I'm
currently the chief salesofficer at Mint Group. I focus
on the transformational dealswith my extended sales team. We
focus on areas from financialservices to government to health
care and education. My rolereally involves driving,
(03:35):
initiatives of supporting ourclients in achieving their goals
as they navigate digitaltransformation in this new era.
I'm also a mother of 2 amazingboys who keep me on my toes,
and, they keep me with thelatest trends and latest lingo.
I've been at Mint for over 7years now. And previous to that,
(03:57):
I was at Microsoft also around 7years. So it's really been
incredible to witness thecompany grow from strength to
strength, and really driven bythe core values of this company
and the mission of creatingtomorrow.
Anthony Carrano (04:09):
That's fantastic. And when did you
join, the IAMCP?
Ronelle Naidoo (04:14):
So Mint has been part of the IAMCP for many
years. Though the South Africanchapter, I think it closed for a
while. And during that time, theMint team, we worked very
closely with the EMEA chapter.And then about 2 years ago, we
helped relaunch the IAMCP SouthAfrican chapter here in South
(04:36):
Africa again. And Mint reallyhas been played an instrumental
role in that growth.
And I'm really super excited tobe part of this journey. And and
as we've just grown now, youknow, I see this chapter in
South Africa just continue togrow, and it's really exciting
to be part of it. But, yeah,really 2 years now that I'm
being part of this.
Anthony Carrano (04:58):
Okay. Okay. Now so in addition to being, you
know, a a tech exec and a, youknow, a very involved mother, I
hear that you're a boxer. Is isthat true?
Ronelle Naidoo (05:09):
I wouldn't say a professional boxer. I wish I
would.
Anthony Carrano (05:12):
Not yet. Not yet.
Ronelle Naidoo (05:13):
Not yet. Not yet. But definitely, I I have
found my calling. I always laughand say that you know what? If
sales is not gonna work out forme, I'm going into boxing.
I absolutely love it. I thinkit's such an underrated sport.
So, yes, I actually started inthe beginning of 2024 and, just
fool around with ladies. It's ina all ladies gym, but it's
(05:36):
really it's so exciting.
Anthony Carrano (05:39):
Now I have to ask, and and we are gonna get to
the partner story, so Iappreciate you kinda flowing
with me on this. What what gotyou into that?
Ronelle Naidoo (05:48):
So, you know, I think being in the industry that
we're in, and we tend to havethis discipline and this
commitment of just focusing onwork and focusing on being
certain, you know, certain goalsettings that you need to do
that you forget about yourself.And one of my friends actually
approached me last year, andthey're like, bro, what do you
do? You know? What do you do foryourself? And and I didn't have
(06:11):
anything.
And I was actually on TikTok,believe it or not.
And it came up with this misfit,and there was these ladies, and
they were boxing. I was like,this looks cool, and I signed
up. And it was really about me,you know, finding this mental
toughness of doing somethingthat had more resilience for
myself and just to push throughand and it really just made me
(06:35):
find a place that I belonged forthat 1 hour where you could just
lose yourself. So it was really,really just about being present
and just thinking differentlyand building my own self
confidence, and it was amazingthat I could find this in a
little gym with, other ladiesjust having some fun. So, yeah,
it was just about findingsomething special for myself to
(06:57):
do.
Anthony Carrano (06:57):
That's fantastic. Well, I really
appreciate you sharing that withus. And, we're looking forward
to getting into, you know, yourpartner's story, which was
really amazing. And I knowRudy's got some great questions,
as we wanna kinda dig into that.Before we do, maybe can you
share with us a little bit, youknow, about Mint's areas of
specialization?
Ronelle Naidoo (07:17):
Awesome. Yeah. Sure. So Mint specializes in,
like, several key areas. Right?
So we do a lot with digitaltransformation. So we really
help organizations navigate thistransition through their digital
solutions and looking atinnovation within the sectors
that I mentioned. We spend a lotof time on cloud solutions. So,
(07:40):
like, solutioning, offeringsolutions that are able to scale
and optimize the operations. Wedo a lot of business
intelligence with our clients.
We have tools that really helpmake data driven decisions. So
we spend a lot of time on thatanalytics and the reporting with
the clients. And, we do ITconsulting. We do some custom
(08:03):
software development. Mint is aMicrosoft partner.
You know, we, we only our foundour only partner that we work
with is Microsoft. And, from afrom from a platform
perspective, We currently hold13 Microsoft specializations.
Anthony Carrano (08:21):
Wow.
Ronelle Naidoo (08:21):
And we are busy with another 4 in the pipeline.
So we're really focused onMicrosoft. And this really
allows us as Mint to support ourclients across various sectors,
you know, and, just helping themachieve their business
objectives effectively in theMicrosoft ecosystem.
Anthony Carrano (08:40):
Wow. Thank you for sharing. That's that's
fantastic.
Rudy Rodriguez (08:43):
Okay. Well, let's get down to the story. Can
you tell us a little bit about,the partner that you worked
with, the company or ororganization that you also
worked with? You know, you don'thave to give us, the names of
the client, but, it would niceto know who the partner was. And
then, the the technology thatyou implemented and any
(09:04):
challenges that you may havefaced in in this project.
Ronelle Naidoo (09:07):
Awesome. So as I mentioned, Edmond, we're deeply
passionate about health care,and especially in South Africa.
You know? So that sector facesso many challenges. So with one
one significant issue beingspace in hospitals, and an
effective records management.
You know? So we worked veryclosely with the department, for
(09:31):
health care, and just tounderstand the foundation of
these challenges, would whichultimately came down to data.
And where is it stored? How isit utilized? And the space that
this data actually occupies.
And as the saying goes, you getout what you put in. So proper
data management is crucial infor improving health care
(09:54):
outcomes. Outcomes. And I thinkthat's really where the entire
story started. We then exploredsolutions that leveraged,
DocuAir as well as MicrosoftAzure to look at how do we
e-digitize smartly andintelligently making data
available that could be used,for citizens and for patients,
(10:15):
and for the records.
You know? So this approach notonly looked at how did we
streamline records management,but also, you know, the
intelligent data around us. Ithink that was the most exciting
thing about this project was theart of the possible from what's
next, you know, like theintegrations thereafter and
thinking about the otherpartners we're going to be
(10:36):
working with that we could bringinto the solution once we get
this foundation in. So it wasn'tlike the story is over now that
we've done this. You know?
There's just so many morebuilding blocks on there. And,
really, by digitizing thesepatient records, we looked at,
you know, how can we, improve,efficiency, health care
(10:57):
professions can quickly get topeople. So there was just so
much about this. We had to bringpeople together because we
couldn't do this in onus meant.So we really looked at how did
we work with Microsoft becauseMicrosoft's amazing and Azure is
amazing and it has so muchpotential.
And we really looked at how dowe harness this, the analytics
in there, and we looked at themachine learning. And, and and
(11:21):
we really got into the insightsof patient care and and just the
overall health care experienceon this here. So we worked a lot
with Microsoft, with DocuWare,and then we got into who do we
work with from a partner side ofthings that could enhance this
and help us. You know? So thatMint is really good at the
(11:42):
things that I mentioned before.
But, you know, health care andthe data and the in-depth
details, we don't have all thatdetails. So how do we find
partners that really has, moredetails in health care and can
share that knowledge, has thesame values as us, and wants the
(12:02):
same outcome on in health careto create this amazing solution
that's going to not only creategreat patient care, but help our
health care professionals andjust South Africa as a whole
when it comes to looking atpublic health care. So I think
(12:23):
that's really the the gist ofwhat the how the solution came
on, some of the challenges thatthey were facing, and then and
how we looked at the fact thatwe could not do this alone. We
had to partner in order for usto be successful. It would have
been great to say, just have ourname on that, but that really
wasn't gonna give us the endstory that we're wanting.
Rudy Rodriguez (12:46):
Have you been able to leverage that into
getting, maybe delivering otherhealth care solutions for
private industry?
Ronelle Naidoo (12:53):
Yeah. So we do we've done quite a bit for
private health care and youknow? But for public health
care, the challenges areslightly different. So we've now
taken what this when, I mean,when we actually closed this,
and we've already multiplied it.And it's now in other regions
and other areas.
And just seeing this come alivejust makes me so excited,
(13:15):
because it really is going togive, like I said, the citizens.
And it makes you happy to wakeup in the morning to think that
this is the legacy that youwanna leave behind.
Rudy Rodriguez (13:26):
How long did it take your team to craft the
solution?
Ronelle Naidoo (13:29):
We were working on it for about to be I know
you're gonna laugh at this, butbelieve it or not, it wasn't
even, like, 4 months.
Rudy Rodriguez (13:37):
Okay.
Ronelle Naidoo (13:37):
I know. I mean, I remember the first clinical
cloud solution we looked at. Ittook us 2 years, and it was not
as half as complex as those 2years to look at that.
And then when we looked at thise-digitization, it was, like, 4
months, and it was like it justmoved at such a rapid pace. And
I think that showed how urgentof a need this was. And I think
(14:01):
those products are actually thebest projects. You know? Those
ones that you, like, go in andyou're like, oh my god.
But did we check this and did wecheck that? And it's such a
learning curve, and I think theexciting part is learning about
this together as partners, youknow, and making sure that we
make the mistakes together, butwe learn from them, and we pick
up the pieces. I think that'sreally important.
Rudy Rodriguez (14:23):
But, you know, you mentioned that you you knew
you couldn't do it all byyourselves. What was your
criteria in selecting a partnerto help you with the solution?
Ronelle Naidoo (14:32):
So Mint is, you know, I I spoke about, I think,
our mission statements aboutcreating tomorrow. And one of
the things that we we realizedwhen it was, I think, 2019 and
COVID was there, we were westill needed to sell. Right? And
we were like, how do we sellwhen we are locked down at home?
And we were like, partners.
You know? People buy frompeople. It's always about
(14:55):
relationships. So we created aprogram that's called the Ubuntu
Empowerment Program. And thisprogram is really where we grow
and we upscale smaller Microsoftpartners.
And we all know that Microsoft'swill can be quite daunting with
all their acronyms, and and youget these smaller partners that
wanna come in. So we've got,like, over 13 partners in the
(15:16):
program that we work with. Weonboarded them, and we, work
with them on projects so thatthey can gain their own
experiences. We allow them. Wehelp them with their
certifications, and we helpthem.
So they are partners that havetheir own solutions, and, they
form part of that. So whenselecting a partner for this
particular solution, weconsidered, like, several key
(15:37):
factors. And the main thing wastheir expertise and experience
when it came through toe-digitization records as well
as health care technology. Wealso looked at their needs for
innovative solutions. What couldthey bring from from that side
of things when it came toaligning to our vision and
mission was very important, andtheir need to also transform,
(15:59):
health care.
Compatibility, you know, it'sessential that the partner was
compatible with what we wantedto do. So a lot of times, you
you find someone and you wannapartner with them and and you
wanna go in A and they wanna goin B. And then you you've gotta
end it there. You know? So itwas really important to make
sure that that compatibility wasthere and the collaboration.
(16:21):
You know? And, all thesepartners that I mentioned are
all in our IAMC program. We workwith them. We upscale them. So
they don't just work with us.
They work and they have accessto some of our other partners.
So the partner that we workwith, we actually worked with 3
partners on this because we itwas such we were like, sharing
is caring. So and everybody wassuper excited. The support and
(16:43):
the collaboration that we gotfrom these partners was, you
know, I can just say thereputation and reliability from
them is something that I thatreally stood out through this
whole thing. And, yeah, thesepartners are really committed to
health care, and they reallywanted to address these
challenges that they faced inthese sectors, and that's really
(17:05):
how we went about choosing us.
And I must say to you, you know,it just happened. You know, we
have all these partners. Itwasn't like we had to go digging
for them. It was like it wasjust on the surface and
everything just it was justmeant to be.
Rudy Rodriguez (17:21):
Well, it sounds like you have a very vibrant
partner program. That's reallygood. How do you ensure that
partners stay in their own swimlanes while working on a
project?
Ronelle Naidoo (17:30):
I mean, it's I think, you know, I think having
clear communication. The onething that we have always said
is we are not scared to behonest with each other. When we
start a project and setting outboundaries, setting out roles
and responsibilities, and makingsure that you know where you
(17:53):
need to be accountable is veryimportant. You know? I always
love this thing, and I say whenwe start a project, I'll be
like, "Guys, we do thingsdifferently."
That's our motto on it. We dothings differently. Forget about
your previous experiences withother partners. Forget about
what you went through last weekwhen you didn't get what you
want. We are here now, and weare doing things differently.
(18:16):
So let's look at thisdifferently. And I think that's
really important. Listen. We'reall human. We have failed in
this project many a times, butwe got up and we found a way.
And, you know, it was about thefact that, again, we had the
same output that we wanted. Soit was easier for us to stay in
our lanes. And when you kindaventure out, it will be like,
(18:40):
"Hey. Move back. I think you'removing slightly to left on that
one."
You know? So it was it's quiteeasier to work with once you set
your rules and and and way ofwork right in the front or in
the start of.
Rudy Rodriguez (18:57):
Well, that's a great story. Thank you for
sharing. Anthony, I know youhave some more questions.
Anthony Carrano (19:01):
Yeah. Absolutely. And so, you know, so
you've got, I love how, youknow, you talked about how, you
know, we're just setting theexpectations, making sure things
are clear on the roles, youknow, and responsibilities, but
also, you know, with, like, thepoints of accountability. And
even, you know, with all of thatin mind, right, and would did
you guys, you know, have anychallenges during the
(19:23):
engagement? And if so, like,what were they, and how did you
work together to overcome it?
Ronelle Naidoo (19:27):
I believe every challenge is an opportunity for
us to do better. And we callthis a factory as a service. You
know? So in order for us to dothe digitization, you've got to
do people. Right?
And what we what we did was weworked with the department to
say, how do we create jobopportunities while we're doing
this? Because a lot of peoplefeel that, oh, as soon as you
(19:49):
digitize up, it's AI. I'm losingmy job. I don't have a job
anymore. Everything's going tobe done by computers and robots.
So we were really excited thatwe could have a project where we
could empower young people,hiring youth and teaching them.
So through this project and partof what our partners had to do
(20:09):
was we needed to go through and,we needed to find youth and
people. And these are peoplethat have never been exposed to
corporate before. So can youimagine the different problems
and, you know, that that wasactually the biggest problem
that we faced. But, really, whenwe got together and we we made
them understand, and then werealized that, you know, we've
(20:30):
gotta do the cha cha.
You gotta take a few steps backbefore you take a few steps
forward. And that's really whatwe did with it. So I think the
biggest problem we had here wasthe solution was so, it was
designed really amazingly. Theteam that did it, the
architects, and I must say theydid such a great job at making
sure that they'd look ateverything. However, one of the
(20:53):
biggest challenges that we facedwas people.
And I think people, we are sounpredictable at any time. So
you cannot say that if Ahappens, then you're gonna do B.
And if B happens, you know soyou can't really do that. So I
think one of the biggestchallenges that we needed to
face as partners was how do wecome together to have a 100
youth that we're busy workingwith to enable them and to say
(21:16):
to them, you know, that they'venever worked before. And you've
gotta now go back to them tounderstand and put yourself in
their shoes.
And I must say, we've hadamazing partners that they
actually helped us. And as youknow, they they're quite smaller
than us, but I believe that youyou know, learning is something
that you do every day, and youcan learn from a 6 year old. You
(21:39):
can learn from an 8 year old. SoI think through this entire
project, we really learned fromeach others as as partners. And,
also, in to be honest with you,in public health care, there's
many unknowns.
You know? So working with apartner that understands that,
you know, from from fromconnectivity to, I mean, you
(21:59):
know South Africa and some ofthe the the the challenges that
we face. One of the biggestthings is we work in an agile
way. And I think that really aswe uncovered problems, we kinda
just pushed back on those bumpsand took them and then kinda
overcome them, and we justneeded to we knew the outcome
and the output that we needed toget to. So whatever challenges
(22:21):
we faced, we just took them headon, and and it's really a
learning curve so that when wego into the next projects, we
know exactly how to do it.
And it's great, I think, for usto and these partners are now
onboarding partners on theirprojects to do things. So it's
it's just this kinda bringing onand sharing, and and it doesn't
(22:42):
just stick with 1 individualpartner. So if I have to expand
this, I'm not just gonna do itwith a partner that I did, and
they are comfortable with that.And I think that that's great to
to be able to allow for othersto grow and for others to for
their businesses. You know?
Because it's important for us todo that. I think if anything in
(23:05):
in today's day and age, it's youwanna be successful, but you
want everybody to be successful.And you wanna smile and you
wanna laugh and you, you know, Ithink that's quite important in
one of the challenges that we wekinda overcome.
Anthony Carrano (23:21):
Well, you you emphasized learning, and I I
love that. So I have actuallyit's, it's a two part question,
right, based on, like, learning.The first one is, what did what
did you or your team, we canexpand it, learn that enabled,
like, from this from this, youknow, partnering experience,
(23:41):
what did you all learn thatenables, you know, your
organization meant to improve atorganizationally going forward?
Ronelle Naidoo (23:48):
Yes. I think, you know, we we always kinda
wanna do things. At Mint, we wehave amazing people. We have
some of the best people in theindustry, and I'm gonna say that
there. And I think when thatcomes through, sometimes we just
have these ideas in our head.
So it will be like the client isgonna say, "Oh, I want, you
(24:11):
know, I want a car." And we'llbe like, "Oh my god. We need to
give them a Ferrari." And thenand they actually just wanted a
Toyota. So one of the learningsthat we've actually taken was to
listen more and to understandmore. And, also, sometimes it's
okay to just do the basics andlater on to expand. That was
really one of the biggestlearnings. It's that it's okay
(24:33):
for us because we always justwanna just you know, we wanna do
everything that's just like,wow.
And sometimes it's okay for usto just do the basics. And I
think that was a really biglearning. I know it sounds
simple, but trust me, whenyou're so used to that, it's
it's it's a big learning to takeas a team.
Anthony Carrano (24:51):
Mhmm.
Well, especially too, I think,just to make sure you do the
basics exceptionally well.Right? World class. And then, I
mean, just and, unfortunately,just, you know you know, doing
that, exceptionally well worldclass can be so rare nowadays.
Right?
And that's the unfortunate partbecause that that really should
be the norm. You know? But yeah.No.
Ronelle Naidoo (25:13):
That's a that's a really good point. People are
also so scared of being wrong orscared of failing. And I think
one of the things is, especiallywhen you're dealing with health
care, you know, it's like you'vegot all this pressure because
it's, you know, you've got itit's but it's okay. And I think
that's also something that nomatter you know, in any
(25:34):
partnership that you go in, it'slike, we've gotta make this work
and we've gotta do this and theywon't wanna do with us. And it's
it's honestly okay.
It's honestly okay to failtogether, to learn together. And
I think once you get that right,it's really a recipe for
success.
Anthony Carrano (25:51):
Mhmm. Mhmm. And the the second part so first one
was, you know, what did, youknow, the team, you know, learn
to help enable, you know, Mintto improve? The second part of
that question is, what did y'alllearn and, you know, from this
partnership to help you improvepartnering in the future?
Ronelle Naidoo (26:10):
Partnering is it it, can be daunting at times.
You know? I think once yourealize that the the pie is big
and everyone can have a slice,sky's on the limits. So I think
one of the things that I'verealized in partnering or in
this discussions is that whenyou are priming as a partner and
(26:31):
you are seen as a bigger partnerand you're working with a
smaller partner, is for you tounderstand how they're feeling.
And sometimes making all thedecisions was one of the one of
the learnings I took wasallowing the partner to make the
decisions.
And even if I didn't agree withit, let them go through the
(26:51):
process to understand, you know,why I may have felt that this
didn't work so that they canlearn for their own businesses.
So I think not making all thedecisions in the partnership or
making it because that's not apartnership. You know? And I
think that's sometimes when youare just you you need this end
goal and you just wanna run andyou sometimes leave people
(27:12):
behind. So in a partnership, youalways have to remember that
slow down and make sure thateverybody's coming with you.
And Mint is really good at that,and I think that's some of the
things that I've taken alearning from. I mean, we spoke
about Carl earlier. He's ourgroup CEO, and, you know, he
does that all the time. I thinkreally means partnership and how
(27:33):
we partnership has reallyevolved from what he looks at
it. And and it's really thatlearning around partnering means
taking everybody along no matterwho it is and no matter what
time of it and what deadline weneed to make to not leave
anybody behind so that everyonehas that feeling of success at
(27:53):
the end.
Anthony Carrano (27:54):
Yeah. So, Ronelle, you said something
really interesting, not to,like, put you on the spot, but
I'm really curious when youtalked about as a larger partner
not making all those decisions,but slowing down so you can
allow them to kinda process, youknow, your your partners to to,
you know, to make the decisions.What and it doesn't have to be
specific to, like, this, partnerstory if you can I mean, if you
(28:17):
wanna answer it, you know, like,in this specific situation or if
you wanna take, you know, alarger view and just answer it
generally, what kind ofdecisions are you referring to?
Like, allow like, you know, asthe lead partner, but allowing
the other partners just to makethose decisions. Can you can you
unpack that a little bit?
Ronelle Naidoo (28:34):
So I think when you're priming in a and I think
in the industries that we're in,you know, we always have
partners that we work with, andwe wanna give them opportunities
to work with us. But we alsotend to make all the decisions.
And that would be from this fromthe scope to the deliverables,
to the people, to the whether itbe, you know, like, the targets
(28:55):
or the, you know, those type ofthings. And that's what I mean
is allowing each to say, youknow, what do you think if we
kinda allow people to scan20,000 a day versus 10,000 a day
instead of saying, guys, Iexpect us to scan 20,000 a day.
You know?
So it's those type of, give meyour advice or give me your
opinion on this because then itmakes you part of it and not
(29:18):
that you're just delivering onit. Because then you you feel
like you included in it. Sothose are the type of decisions.
And to be honest with you, ifyou're partnering with me on a
deal, you should be in it fromyou know, you shouldn't just be
worried about, oh, this is justmy piece. I'm not worried about
what's happening on there.
So then once you're sharingeverything with them, they
(29:38):
become part of it, and and Ithink that's important. So it's
like sometimes you'll be like,oh, this is just your piece. You
only worry about this. Don'tworry about this piece. I'll
take care of it.
But rather saying, this is theproject as a whole. This is
what's going on in this area.This is what's happening in
marketing. This is what'shappening, from a governance
perspective. And, you know,partner, you need to to
(30:02):
obviously focus on this area.
But just so that you know, theseare what's happening in the
other areas as well. So I thinkthose are definitely some of the
learnings that we took into thesecond project, which worked
better than just saying, youknow, and it sometimes I think
it was more of us not wanting togive the partner more, like,
things to worry about becauseit's like you want them to worry
(30:24):
about their little baby. Justjust do that piece. But I think
it also kind of puts them in theback foot on not having the full
idea on what's happening.
Anthony Carrano (30:33):
Mhmm. That's awesome. Thank you.
Rudy Rodriguez (30:35):
You know, Ronelle, one of the things that
I've enjoyed about the thisconversation is, your
organization really, practicesthe empowerment of partnership,
and and those are principlesthat are core to the IAMCP. You
know, that's the first thing ispartnering. It's it's in it's in
the in the name of theorganization. So it's really
(30:56):
empowering, and it's veryforward thinking of your
organization to be practicingthat because you do empower the
channel, and it helps you growas a business.
And and a lot of people don'trealize that. So and being
mentors to people is also veryimportant. And I and I picked
that up from your from theconversation. So in all this
partnering experience, this, howare you leveraging that? You
(31:19):
know, I know you probablyincreased your customer
satisfaction tremendously.
You know, then how are you inall these learnings, how are you
using this to help increase yourown company's revenue and your
partner's revenue? Now how doyou incorporate that into your
sales and marketing processesand things like that?
Ronelle Naidoo (31:37):
Yeah. So, I mean, government is, we work
quite closely with with them.And in this project, for
example, is committed toempowering smaller businesses
and making, making initiativeslike this, valuable for them and
for us as Mint. So I think forme, when we looked at revenue
and we looked at growth, yes, wealways wanna make sure that we
(31:59):
create tomorrow. That's what weneed to do.
But we need to create tomorrowwith making sure that we also,
as a business, make revenue andhave our partners make revenue.
You know? So I think in thesolutions that we create, we
make sure that it is profitablefor the partners to make sure
that they can continue to growand eager, to to satisfy their
(32:21):
business needs as well. So Idefinitely can say that most of
the engagements we work withwith our partners, we cost them
and we work with them and we getinsights to them. So there's a
lot of stuff that we work inwith our marketing teams and
Microsoft.
We spend a lot of time withMicrosoft to get their
investments back into us becausewe're putting so much far into
(32:43):
Microsoft and making sure thatthe end customers are using
their their products. So for usas well, Microsoft need to give
back so that we can make sure wecan do more. Because a lot of
the time, we get rebates or weget whatever it may be. We don't
keep that as a month. We takethat, and we reinvest it back
into the client because wealways know that that investment
(33:07):
is going to get us a biggeropportunity.
So I think that is something wealso work with our partners on.
It will be like, don't take thisinto your bottom line, reinvest
it back. The clients are gonnasee the the investment, and then
they're going to go and take thebigger ones for you. And that's
worked really well. Now I'mgiving you all my trade secrets
now, you see.
So but I think that's that'sworked really well for us, you
(33:31):
know, it's reinvesting back. Andthen the clients see the growth
because for me, it's alwaysabout making sure we deliver.
Quality and delivery isabsolutely one of the two things
that are our massive values atMint. And I think when we
deliver and we show quality, therevenue and the satisfaction
from our clients just flows in.
Rudy Rodriguez (33:53):
Well, I wanna thank you for all your trade
secrets, and you even answeredmy next question ahead of time.
So I love it. Because, you know,the one question I really wanted
to ask you. So you've learned anawful lot from doing this, and
that's that's that's kudos toyour organization for practicing
this. I've lived thoseprinciples myself for for over
(34:13):
30 years, so I understand whereyou're coming from.
So the other thing is, do youhave any other advice that you
would give to partners, Youknow, give companies like yours
advice on, you know, how to bestmaximize the partnering process.
Ronelle Naidoo (34:28):
Definitely. I think I said this before, and it
can be daunting to partner.Because I think even as a kid,
sharing is very hard. You know?And what what do they always go
back to say?
What does Barney say? Sharing iscaring. So I think even when you
look at partnering, it's aboutunderstanding that once you know
(34:48):
that this opportunity and theindustry is big enough for
everybody, because I think weall talk about, oh, we're going
through this and we're goingthrough that and the industry is
so tough. But it really is onceyou look at the opportunity, I
feel like okay. So my advice topartners that wanna wanna look
at partnering and startpartnering to prioritize a few
(35:11):
things.
And the first thing is the mostimportant thing in any
partnership is shared values andvision. You know, you have to
have a shared value and visionas partners, and your companies
need to have or or foster thesimilar collaboration and mutual
understanding. Right? Andcommunication. You need to have
a clear communication aspartners.
(35:33):
Be transparent, you know, fromthe outset. Expectations build
trust. And I think that's soimportant. And also define roles
and responsibilities as you workthrough these partnerships so
that everyone clearlyunderstands their roles and
responsibilities in thispartnership so that no one's
(35:53):
expecting one to do the otherand me to do the next, you know.
And focus on mutual benefit.
Partnership means equal. Lookfor partnerships that offer both
value for both parties. It mustbe a win win approach. It cannot
be where one wins and the otherone doesn't. That's not
sustainable.
(36:14):
And also invest in relationshipbuilding. Sometimes a partner
may be stronger than the otherbut you see the vision and the
mission. Invest in thatrelationship with that partner
for the long run because it willbe an amazing collaboration. And
be open to innovation, you know,be open to innovation as a
(36:35):
partnership to kind of leadbreakthroughs and benefits for
both organizations, you know.And and the one important thing
in partnerships, we always dothis now, is measure the
success.
So when you start something,say, okay. These are how we're
gonna, at the end, evaluate ourmetrics, and this is what the
partnership needs to be. And atthe end, measure it. That's the
(36:59):
only way for you to know if itis going to be successful. And I
think if you can follow a few ofthese things, it'll definitely
cultivate strong partnerships.
It'll drive growth, and it willdefinitely, for a business,
deliver meaningful results. I Iam 100% sure that that would
(37:19):
would come through from it.
Rudy Rodriguez (37:21):
We definitely wanna thank you for those words
of wisdom.
So we got your trade secrets,words of wisdom, and some
actually partnering advice. Sothank you.
Anthony Carrano (37:31):
Well, I I was gonna say, Ronelle, I'm, like,
taking notes. I'm, like, thatyou should take let's take that
last answer there. Let's packagethat into a master class. That
was awesome.
Ronelle Naidoo (37:43):
That's what happens when you get someone
that's so passionate about it.I'm so passionate about it.
Anthony Carrano (37:48):
That was fantastic. Really a thank you.
That was that was fantastic. Soas we wrap up, how can how can
folks, you know, find out moreabout Mint and, you know,
connect with you, connect withMint?
Ronelle Naidoo (38:02):
Oh, that'll be great. I mean, we would love to
look at other partnershipsacross. We've got really a a
massive geo expansion into theUAE, into us, into, you know,
the UK. Our team's just growingthere. So if you go on through
to our Mint website, you canalso catch us catch me on my
(38:22):
LinkedIn, pop me a message.
Would really love to connect andsee how we can work together,
partner together, and, look atsome of the the solutioning into
different areas and maybe alsojust get insights from others. I
would love to hear fromeveryone.
Anthony Carrano (38:38):
Excellent. We'll have, the links to the
website and the various LinkedInpages in the show notes for
people, you know, who'd wannafind out more and connect. So,
we'll definitely be sure to youfolks wanna check that out for
sure. Ronelle, thank you. Thishas been a wonderful, wonderful,
you know, interview.
Appreciate all of your time.Enjoy the rest of your day.
Ronelle Naidoo (39:00):
Thank you again for having me. It's been great.
Anthony Carrano (39:05):
Wow. That was a great episode. I really
appreciate Ronelle's perspectiveand her time and things that she
shared, you know, on today'sinterview. I took away several
things. Rudy, what were somethings that stood out to you?
Rudy Rodriguez (39:17):
Well, you know, I'm in total agreement with you.
That was an excellent interviewbecause Ronelle really iterated
a lot of the core concepts thatwe teach about partnership at
IAMCP. And the one thing Ireally appreciated that she
mentioned was how they mentortheir partners to teach them the
processes of partnering and andthe core principles. And so they
(39:40):
can do a much better job fortheir clients and and in the
partnering process. And the factthat they use, that partnering
is a core a core businessprocess for them is really,
really key because that teachespartners that you can't do all
the work yourself and you needto rely on partners sometimes.
(40:02):
The technology world is so bigand we have to specialize in key
areas. And the fact that theirbusiness process is they know
they can't do everything. Sothey have a select group of
partners that they work withalready, and then they mentor
them to become better partners.And I thought that was an
excellent, business process thatthat organization follows, and
(40:24):
and kudos to the Mint group fordoing that.
Anthony Carrano (40:26):
Yeah. No. That was that was really solid. I
know, one of the things thatreally resonated with me in
addition to that was she she,you know, shared this phrase
about, you know, expectationsbuild trust and just the
importance on, you know,building that trust so you have
not only strong partnerships,but a platform, if you will, to
grow revenue. And then how shefurther expanded upon that on
(40:49):
things that you can do that youshould prioritize in order to,
to be able to deliver on that.
She shared there were 7 keythings I took away. The first
being, you know, having, youknow, shared values and vision.
2nd, you know, fostering, youknow, communication and
collaboration, for transparencyand accountability. Number 3,
making sure there's clearlydefined roles and
(41:11):
responsibilities. This number 4was I thought was an excellent
point, focusing on mutualbenefit and the point that, you
know, if it's a partnership, itdoes have to create value for
both parties.
It's something that sounds soobvious, but unfortunately gets,
lost, you know, far too often,than it really should be. Number
(41:34):
5, investing in relationshipbuilding. Number 6, being open
to innovation. Right? You know,to create, you know, unique
breakthroughs and benefits fornot only the customer, but then
also the partners.
And, number 7, just theimportance on measuring the
success. I mean, I just thoughtthat was almost like that could
have been packaged and deliveredas a master class, you know, in,
(41:58):
your partnering priorities.
Rudy Rodriguez (42:00):
Yeah. Absolutely. I was smiling
throughout the throughout theinterview, because those are the
things that we've worked on atIAMCP for a long time in
teaching people how to partner.And the fact that she she talked
about measuring the results forboth sides, that you have to be
able to grow your businessthrough partnering. And that's
(42:20):
that's a key principle for them.
The other thing about settingthe values and the expectations,
because we talked about that inyour interview. How do you teach
partners to stay in their ownswim lanes? And that's the tough
thing for partners tounderstand. And a lot of times
when we we work with partners onprojects, we we sometimes focus
on the minutiae too much anddon't look at the big picture.
(42:43):
And she did an excellent job ofpresenting the big picture and
how their organization followsthose principles.
So I was very, very, happy andsmiling throughout the whole
thing because, for those peoplewho take our our partnering
classes at at IAMCP, you learnthese very things in that class.
And the fact this organizationdid it organically is even
(43:06):
better. It's even better. Kudosto the Mint group.
Anthony Carrano (43:09):
Yeah. And, you know, and on that note, I know I
was just thinking when you weresharing earlier just how what
really stood out, how, you know,they mentor their partners, but
also, you know, in it not onlyjust in, you know, part of your
processes and, like, bestpractices, but when she also
talked about how just theimportance of re if you receive
funding, you know, fromMicrosoft, just the importance
(43:30):
of reinvesting that funding backinto the client, right, to
create, you know, great customerexperience so they can in turn
further grow and develop theaccount. I thought that was just
a just a good point. You know?As a as a practical matter of
things that they can do inhelping partners, you know, by
and large just to grow theiroverall business.
(43:51):
So thank you for joining us onthis episode of IAMCP profiles
and partnership powered by Wehope you enjoyed this podcast
and find it useful andinspiring. If you did, please
subscribe, rate, and review uson your favorite podcast
platform. One of the best waysto partner for success is to
join IAMCP, a community ofMicrosoft partners who help each
(44:11):
other grow and thrive. IAMCPmembers can find and connect
with other partners locally andglobally and access exclusive
resources and opportunities.Whether you're looking for new
customers, new markets, or newsolutions, IAMCP can help you
achieve your goals.
To learn more, visit the websiteat www.iamcp.org.
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