How to Build and Leverage Successful Partnerships as an IAMCP Member with Conor Doyle

Episode Transcript
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Anthony Carrano (00:05):
Welcome to the IAMCP profiles and partnership,
the podcast that showcases howMicrosoft partners and IAMCP
members boost their business bycollaborating with other members
and partners. I'm your co host,Anthony Carrano, and in each
episode, I'll be talking to someof the most innovative and
successful partners in theMicrosoft ecosystem. The
International Association ofMicrosoft Channel Partners,

(00:28):
otherwise known as IAMCP, is acommunity of Microsoft partners
who help each other grow andthrive. Members can find and
connect with other partnerslocally and globally and access
exclusive resources andopportunities. Whether you're
looking for new customers, newmarkets, or new solutions, IMCP
can help you achieve your goals.
We'll hear their stories, learnfrom their experiences, and

(00:51):
discover the best practices andstrategies they use to increase
customer loyalty and growrevenues. Whether you're a new
partner or an established one,you'll find valuable insights
and inspiration in this podcast.We hope you enjoy this podcast
and find it useful andinspiring. If you do, please
subscribe, rate, and review uson your favorite podcast
platform. And don't forget tofollow us on social media and

(01:12):
connect with us on our website,www.profilesinpartnership.com,
where you can find moreinformation, resources, and
opportunities to partner forsuccess.
Thank you for listening, and nowlet's get started with today's
episode. Before we dive into ourinterview, let me ask you a
question. How do you leverageyour membership in the IAMCP to

(01:34):
find and develop partnerrelationships that'll help you
grow your business? Finding theright partner can be
challenging, but it can also berewarding. In fact, according to
a recent study by IDC, Microsoftpartners who collaborate with
other partners generate almost 2and a half times more revenue
growth than those who don't.
That's a huge difference, and itshows the power of partnering.

(01:56):
So how do you find your idealpartner? How do you build trust
and alignment? And how do youensure success for your
customer? These are some of thequestions we'll explore in this
podcast with the help of ourguest, a recent global and EMEA
p 2p award winner who is also anexpert in partnering.
He'll share stories, challenges,and successes, and give you
practical tips and advice on howto partner for success. Are you

(02:20):
ready to join us on thisjourney? Then stay tuned because
we have a great show for youtoday. Our guest is Connor
Doyle, the VP of sales at DQGlobal, an award winning data
quality management Microsoftpartner with expertise in data
migrations and integrations,Dynamics 365, and data
cleansing. DQ Global hasachieved amazing results such as

(02:42):
the one in the story you'reabout to hear in their
partnership with Mercury,providers of a recruitment and
staffing CRM powered by theMicrosoft Power platform.
Let's hear what he has to say.I'd like to welcome Conor Doyle,
VP of sales with DQ Global.Conor, welcome. Tell us
a little bit about yourself.

Conor Doyle (03:02):
Perfect. Yeah. Thanks, for the invite. Really
appreciate it. So, yeah, I Ijoined DQ, you know, 5 years ago
now, more in a businessdevelopment role.
And and over that period, youknow, have worn many hats as you
do in a a smaller, you know,SMC, ISV. And, yeah, I'm now,
heading up the sales functionhere at at DQ Global. A little

(03:26):
bit different from the originalworld, which was mechanical
engineering, and obviouslyworking in a in a computer, or a
software business.

Mhmm.

But, yeah, absolutely love it. And, every
day is a a different day. Soyeah. Fantastic.

Excellent. Excellent. And how long have you
been with the company?

So, yeah, I've been with the company for 5 years. It
was actually founded, many moonsago, back, about 25 years ago
now. Originally started off inthe CRM implementation space
before the giants of, dare I saySalesforce and Dynamics were
around. But focused now on thecontent rather than the

(04:08):
container. So ensuring that thedata within these business
applications was fit for use andwas going to support those
businesses because you can havea great container, but it's only
as good as what you put in it.
You know, we've we've heardgarbage in, garbage out. We've
heard you know, it's only asgood as the fuel that's in it,
which I'm sure we'll we'll covera little bit more. But, yeah,

(04:28):
really focusing on the the dataside and the quality of that
data, is what DQ Global isabout. It's, data quality, not
Dairy Queens, if anyone wants toget there.

Excellent. Excellent. And when did you join
IMCP?

Yeah. So we I looked back at the, data. I
needed to check this out. Weactually joined back, dare I
say, in March 2020. And we'lltalk about that as a positive
time for joining the IMCP inthis, in this light.
So, yeah, it was, you know, 4years ago now. And, yes, it's
gone uber quickly.

Excellent. And I do have, I know, Rudy, we're
gonna get into some, parts of,you know, the story. So when the
company started off as DQ,Global, was was that the
intention was data quality? Hasit always been about a focus on
And I love that line, the thecontent, not the container. Is
that was was that, like, part ofthe origin story?

Yeah. So we were actually or not myself
personally, but the founder ofthe business, Martin Doyle, who
happens to be my father. He whenthey were implementing CRM
systems, people were asking,could you shoehorn this data
that is in Excel, that is inSQL, that is in my brain? I'll

(05:50):
put it down and please could youshoehorn it into the system,
which means that you've gotTony, Anthony, you know, Rudy
spelled in multiple differentforms, all coming into the
database, which createsduplicate records. They were
asking, can you format theseaddresses?
Can you see if these peoplehave, you know, died, passed
away? Can I contact thesepeople? So that's what really

(06:13):
started the d q story out ofclients asking us, hey. Could
you do x, y, and zed? So it'salways been very client driven
and and the challenges thatpeople are facing in the the
real world around, managingtheir data, which is not an easy
task.

So I know, you guys won, by the way, you know,
congratulations again that, forwinning on the the globe both
the global and the EMEA, p to paward winner. I know there's
some things I would wanna reallylearn more about, like, that
story and that experience. Ithink, Rudy, you and I, when we
were chatting, you you've gotsome questions for, Connor?

Rudy Rodriguez (06:51):
Yeah. Absolutely. And pleasure to meet
you, Conor. Can you tell us inthis story, you worked with a
partner named Mercury. Right?
And can you tell us a little bitabout, who the client was? You
don't have to give us a name, orbut can you tell us a little bit
about the size of the company,the industry, the technology
that was involved, and and thechallenges that they were facing

(07:11):
that created this, this winningstory?

Yeah. Sure. So yeah. So for anyone who's not
familiar with Mercury, they area a partner that have taken
Dynamics 365 sales and and builta verticalized solution for
recruitment. So they areleveraging all the the fantastic
bits of that Microsoft areinvesting in, and have taken
that to the recruitment marketand really accelerated the a

(07:40):
market that's probably quitelaggard in terms of technology
or not not specialist.
They're very good with people.So, yeah, so we we worked with,
a recruitment client that wereusing d 365, for sales,
fundamentally, and they hadabout 1500 users in the
recruitment space. And in, youknow, the the the challenge that

(08:04):
the client was facing was thatthe data was not supporting
their business processes. So Ikinda touched on that. But if I
go into a little bit moredetail, they, they actually back
in, in 2022, the businessrealized that data was a was a
challenge for this recruitment,client.

(08:25):
And they said, right, what weneed to do is highlight, the
challenge and the users need togo and they actually need to
highlight all these duplicaterecords and actually go and
merge them. Now this client has6,000,000 records, so that's not
a small task. What happened waspeople were going, okay. We got
Tony and Anthony as duplicaterecords. Well, the business did

(08:47):
not predict was no one had mergerights.
So what happened was all ofthose, merge, requests had to go
to a support desk because theyhad merge rights. And what did
that mean? Merge tickets went up4 fold and overloaded the
support desk. So that wasactually the byproduct. What

(09:08):
happened was the the businessemphasized again to say, hey,
this data quality thing isreally important.
You know, it's coming from thetop down because they realized
that the decisions they weremaking just weren't supported on
on high quality data. Andactually got to the point where
just the support desk gotoverwhelmed, and they needed to
make a decision whether theywere going to implement

(09:29):
technology or hire more people.And what they ended up doing,
and and this is where therelationship with Mercury comes
in, was us working together toput a a technology in place
rather than just hiring morepeople on the support desk to
use tickets and and do a very,mundane, laborious job. So

(09:50):
hopefully, that paints a littlebit of a picture as to how
Mercury and I came together andthe the challenge that the the
client was facing.

Did you beat Mercury through the IAMCP?

We did indeed. Yeah. So we met them at the,
there's a fantastic event heldwith, with Paul Solski, is it? I
I believe. Mhmm.
Yes. And he he held the, webinarwhere, partners were invited to
ISVs or MSPs, and they were ableto, come on and do a 5 minute

(10:21):
pitch. Who are you? What's yourvalue proposition? Who are the
clients you're looking for?
What problem do you solve? And,you know, what what does a
partnership look like? And Ithought that was fantastic
because he could basically comein and say, right, let's curtail
this to 5 minutes because we allwe all the biggest advocates of
our our own products andservices, but 5 minutes, and

(10:43):
then we're on to the nextpartner. And it really gave an
opportunity, for ISVs andpartners to say, this is who
we're looking for. And it's it'sone of 2 ways.
It's, oh my god, this is amissing service that we need to
fill, or we've already got thatcovered or it's not a problem
for us. And it's, kind of aspeed dating. No. It's not for

(11:04):
me. I qualify out early.
So So I thought that was afantastic event that was being
hosted, by Paul. And it just sohappened that Mercury, were also
on that event. And we heard ofthem before, but it kind of it
sparked. It was a real catalystfor us to then start having some
deeper conversations as theyknew that, this client that they

(11:25):
had were going through similarchallenges as well as other
clients.

So how long did it take you to build that trust
relationship with Mercury?

I think we we kind of we talk about this a lot
with, with partnerships.Partners, it feels like a
flywheel. You know, it's quiteslow to get going. Once they do
get going, it's a fantasticrelationship. You gotta build
that trust.
You gotta build, that workingrelationship. So I'd be lying if
I said it was overnight. But Ithink, you know, meeting in

(11:58):
person, they're based in Londonand and Birmingham, able to go
and meet them in their officesafter we were introduced, on the
the, speed dating, I'm callingit, with Paul, was a was a
fantastic way to build thatrelationship. And I'd say, you
know, 2, 3 years on, it's stilla relationship that is

(12:18):
continuing to build. They'reinviting us to events.
We were recently speaking aboutunlocking AI and how important
data is in unlocking people's AIjourney. So it started, it's
very infancy with one client andhas now rolled out to, you know,
15 plus clients of theirs thatwe have helped. And I'd say that

(12:38):
partnership is growing as as arelationship, which is which is
great to see. So a hard one toanswer. It's continually
growing, and flourishing.

Oh, no. That's that's an excellent IAMCP story,
sir. It it's always good whenyou meet people and and, you
know, continuing to work at thenetworking that takes place
through the organization and howyou build those trust
relationships with partners. Sothank you. That's a great story.

So I was just, I was just gonna add to that as
well is the fantastic job thatthe IME do hosting events. You
know, it's okay. We metvirtually there in the UK
chapter. There are, you know,evening meets. There are, events
that get run run alongside theUK, chapters.
So you guys do a great job atfacilitating partners coming

(13:26):
together even when they do have,those existing relationships and
and helping them to flourish.

That's fantastic. Yeah. I've got
several questions just aboutaround with data, and you, I was
gonna ask you about AI, and soyou you opened up that door,
Conor. So, but before I do, Ilove, you know, just, you know,
I I was jotting down. We talkedabout it's like, you know, a
flywheel to build trust in thoseworking relationships.

(13:52):
What's up? Maybe 2, maybe 3things that you would get you
know, advice that you wouldgive, you know, any partner to
kinda, you know, swing thatflywheel and building that trust
in those working relationships.

This the $1,000,000 question, I think.

That's it. Right?

To a to a lot of, businesses. Again, something
I've I've hopefully kind ofpicked up on over the past few
years. I wouldn't say we'rewe're experts. We're we're
trying our very best. Someoneonce told me that the best thing
you can do is take your ownshoes off before you try and get
in someone else's shoes.

(14:28):
It's all well saying we have thebest, you know, data quality
solutions for x, y, and zed.But, you know, you gotta look at
what does the partner world looklike? What are they juggling?
You know, there's 50,000,000other ISVs knocking on the door
and trying to broadcast onwhat's in it for me, for the

(14:50):
partner. You know, what's in itfor the partner?
What's in it for the end client?And if you can get in those
shoes and take yours off first,I think you have a much chance
at actually, building thatrelationship and rapport. And I
think it's timing. I thinkthere's a huge element of
timing. Not every solution isgoing to be perfect for every

(15:11):
client, but I think you willeventually build a a
relationship where the righttime will come up with the right
solution, and you'll servicethat client.
And I think that's havingsomething in your toolbox when
the right client comes along.

Well, especially it says it sounds
like because you you're involvedin a lot of different, events
and, you know, as you say, youknow, the partner speed dating.
And I recall, like, it's it's,and I'm sure I'd be curious to
get your your thoughts on thisstatement. One of the things
that I've learned is when folksare when you're kinda new to
that, people tend to kinda gointo those things for, you know,

(15:50):
what can I get versus what can Igive? And I know for me
personally, that was kind of areal turning point in how I you
know, years ago and how Iapproached these events, and I
know the the success kinda wentup a lot more with the latter
than with the former. Whatwhat's kind of your thoughts on
that?

Completely agree. I think, you know, there's a few
pillars. Hopefully, you wannabuild, well, you obviously wanna
build trust. You wanna be, youknow, reliable as a partner. You
wanna be credible.
And, you know, you've gottabuild that over time. That
doesn't just come by pinging anemail saying, hey. We can solve
this problem. You know? Mhmm.

(16:29):
It is multiple events. It's,it's meeting people. It's
saying, hey. We're there if youwanna bounce ideas off of us.
You know, it's okay that it'snot a super qualified
opportunity.
You know, if we can help you outor, you know, it will it will
help us out in in the long run.And I believe, you know, that
karma will will come backaround, eventually.

That's it.

Even if it's, you know, a year, 2 years, 10 years
down the line because I've seenit, with people, the founder
that I was talking about stillgets calls from 15 years, you
know, 15 years late. I met youat an event. Are you still in
the data space? And he goes, Isure am. So Here.

Let me talk. Let let me have you talk to,
talk to my son, Conor, here.Right? Yeah.

Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. So, yeah, I hope
hopefully, that's the same. And,yeah, is is is there anything
that you've seen maybe that thatmaybe I've missed?
So golden nuggets for anyonewho's listening?

I think for and I definitely wanna get you know,
Rudy, you you've gonna have alot of perspective on this. And
like I said, for me, it was justmore of, you know, it's it's
anytime you go in, you know,whether it's a a customer
engagement, a networking event,etcetera, within a mindset of
how can I serve you? Right? Soit's that idea of what can I
what can I, give rather than getper se? Because, you know, to

(17:52):
piggyback on your point is, youknow, in that giving, it's you
know, to use an agriculturalmetaphor, you're you're I'm I'm
sowing, you know, I'm plantingseed.
Right? That at some day isgonna, you know, reap a harvest,
you know you know, 10, 20, 30fold, you know, down the line,
versus if I go in trying to whatcan I get out of this? That's a

(18:13):
turn off for a lot of people.Right? They they kinda gives
them that, you know, ickyfeeling.
And, you know, it just comes offas very, you know, selfish and
it so it's a turn off. So goingwith that that ladder. Rudy, how
about you? I mean, that's agreat question.

Yeah. Well, I think, you know, one thing that
I've learned, you know, havingbeen in the IT business for over
30 years is you can learn anawful lot from different
partners, and you have to golearn what their business is
like, because there's so manydifferent areas, like you talked
about being in CRM. Your dad'sstarting out in CRM world.

(18:49):
That's a totally different worldthan application development, or
some of the things that I usedto do for, you know, you're
gonna laugh at some of thesethings, but we did work for the
Department of Defense. So how doyou communicate tank systems on
the battlefield and things likethat?
There's so many different thingsthat you can do, and you have to
learn what those partners'challenges are. There's

(19:10):
technology and peoplechallenges, and and how do you
solve those? And then, how doesthat that partner put the
customer first, because that'swhat always comes in, you know,
what's makes both partiessuccessful. So depending on
which area of the businessyou're in, you can learn an
awful lot from the partner, Andthen you can learn from them,

(19:32):
and they go, now, how do I fitin? And for both sides.
For both sides. And you buildlong lasting relationships. So I
know when we started chapters25, 30 years ago, throughout
IAMCP, I'm still friends withsome of those people. We still
do share leads together, and andwe talk on a regular basis. So

(19:53):
it's about building a strongtrust and learning relationship
with people.

Mhmm. Yeah. I completely agree. And and it's
you've actually really justreminded me something, some or
something someone told me, inthe past few years. I I asked
them and they've been in thechannel for a very long time.
I said, with these partners, youknow, how are you building
relationships? Who are youspeaking to? Said I'm speaking
to everyone. I'm speaking tocustomer success, solution

(20:21):
architect, partner manager, theowner of the business, and, you
know, trying to get a feel forhow that, organization operates.
And they did a a fantasticthing.
If they're listening, they'llthey'll know who they are. They
said, I go and I go and work intheir offices. I go and travel.
I sit there. I have lunch withthem, and then I know how they
operate.
And when, you know, I speak tothem or call, you built that

(20:44):
rapport, trust, credibility. AndI thought that was a fantastic
way, which is just expands onyour point there, Rudy.

Absolutely. I know one of the things I did
early on, and and you mayrecognize this little, computer
manufacturer here in Austin,Texas, but landing the contract
with Dell. When we first landedwith them, first first thing I
asked of Michael was, can I geta desk in your in your offices?

Yeah. He

goes and he asked me if he could charge me
rent. And so and I said, no, butlet's talk a discount, and we'll
work about the work on that. Butthat was the one thing that my
organization did. We got a desk.We got a desk in the operation,
and we got to learn more aboutthem and how we could help them.
So there's things that you cando just wanting to learn, about

(21:34):
their business.

100%. 100%.

Now I know there's I've got several
questions, you know, about data,data quality, AI I'm gonna get
to. But as we're talking about,like, you know, we're talking
about a lot of the the positive,you know, you know, how to you
know, building thosepartnerships, there's,
developing that relationship. Dohave a question for you, Connor.
And and and so going back to,like, this particular

(21:58):
engagement, this you know, like,with Mercury, you've got a great
relationship with them. But didyou have any challenges during
the engagement?
And if so, like, you know, canwhat what can you share about
that? And more importantly, howdid you, like, work together to
overcome those challenges?

Yeah. I think with with any partnership, I think
there's there are always goingto be challenges, hurdles. I
think there's always gonna befinding your feet as well. You
know? We're just talking aboutit there about, you know, how
does the company operate.
And that could be from how theyintroduce you to a client. You

(22:39):
know? That could be how do youcontract. Do you contract with a
partner? Do you contract withthe end user?
There's always finding yourfeet, and I think the main thing
there is around thecommunication method, and
building that relationship. Ifyou have that open dialogue and
the partner truly knows you havethe client's best interest at

(23:01):
heart, then I think you're onlyin for a successful,
partnership. Yeah. There'sthere's, you know, minutia
challenges, that you face on adaily basis, and you'll continue
to to do so as people change inpartners, as people change in d
q global. You know, you're gonnarestart a relationship, or how
is it working?
But I I think my advice at theback of that would be, you know,

(23:25):
continue to to work on ittogether and and build that
relationship and have the endclient at front of mind all of
the all of the time. And I thinkMercury are fantastic at that.
And that's why we we hopefullyhave a a a great relationship,
and so and and have a successfulrelationship.

That's awesome. You know, I I wanted to kinda
ask the questions going back toabout some things about data. So
you really kinda piqued myinterest there. Can you talk a
little bit, about the thebecause, obviously, you know,
with with all that's happeningwith AI and its reliance and
upon our data and the ergo then,like, the importance of data
quality. And you had mentionedyou talked about the AI journey.

(24:08):
I'm gonna leave it very open.Maybe talk a little bit about
that.

Okay. We'll see where we end up. So yeah. So I
guess just to to kind of paint alittle bit of a picture as to to
where we're at in AI and anddata. And, again, I I can speak
on Mercury because they've they,held a fantastic event about
unlocking AI.

(24:33):
The 3 three main pillars that wework in, dqglobal, we help
organizations who areoverwhelmed when it comes to
migrating, integrating, orreplicating their data. So
that's kind of one part isgetting their data to d 365,
getting their data to the cloud,getting their data somewhere

(24:54):
that is accessible via AI and issafe, secure, etcetera, which is
gonna be a huge other podcast toto talk about. So we won't go
there today. The second elementis once it is there, and let's
say it's in Dynamics 365 or theMicrosoft Business Application
World, we ensure that the data,the content within the container

(25:18):
of d 365 is fit for use. So wecreate make sure that there are
no duplicate records, that thedata is cleansed and up to date,
etcetera, etcetera.
So we've got it there. It's nowclean, in d 365. Now dare I say,
some organizations don't runeverything in Microsoft. They

(25:39):
may even run-in CRM platform.They may run there's, you know,
100 of thousands out there.
So when data is not in theMicrosoft world, you still gotta
cleanse it. You still gotta moveit. So we're now looking outside
the Microsoft world, and thismight be from an Excel
spreadsheet to a SQL database tosome, you know, Microsoft
storage, or AWS storage. Sothey're the kind of three

(26:04):
elements we're working on. Andwhen you're looking at, you
know, readying yourself for AI,you gotta look across those
those three elements as well asall other host of things.
Now Mercury, invited us to speakin an event, just over kind of 4
to 6 weeks ago. And it was allabout unlocking AI and

(26:26):
demystifying AI. Because I thinka lot of people are are scared
around the the, the topic. Or Iwouldn't say scared. There's
just kind of an unknown unknown.
And there's this thing calledthe Johari window. I don't know
if you've ever heard of it, but,maybe people look it up. It is
about that window of I don'tknow what I'm letting myself
into. And I think AI is hugelyone of those things. So Mercury

(26:49):
was doing a drastic job ontrying to demystify that.
And they talked about 6different elements, and I'll see
if I can remember them. If not,I'll, put a link in. Number 1
was purpose. Why are you doingthis as an organization? Why are
you leveraging AI?
You know, what's the businessdriver? So they said, make sure

(27:09):
you get that straight before youeven embark on this journey. And
I thought that was a fantasticway to to get everyone on board.
The second one was gonna beplatform. What platform are you
going to put your data in?
Is it gonna be Mercury? Is itgonna be whatever platform in
order to actually startleveraging AI? Again, a

(27:30):
fantastic element, there to tobe looking at. And Microsoft
being, you know, one of theleaders in that space. The third
part and what we started tospeak on was data.
How are you gonna get your datafoundations so that your AI is
going to work? And, again, I'llI kinda keep it brief because I
know we got, limited time, butwe talk about the leaning tower

(27:53):
of data. Okay. What happens whenthose foundations start to turn
while the top of the tower is,you know, a 1000000 miles off?
You could use the analogy aroundgolf as well.
You know, what and off, at thedriver face. I'm in the rough or
the other fairway or I'm notfinding my ball. So what you're

(28:14):
trying to do is build, thesefoundation solid so that when
you have data up to information,up to decisions and wisdom, you
need to build that so that it'sactually, you know, gonna be a a
solid foundation. So they werethe the kind of first three
elements, and then we started tomove into the governance world.
We started to talk aboutadoption.

(28:36):
And there was one other element,as, you know, left my brain now.
But they put a fantasticplaybook together on who we need
to go about this AI journey,data being one of those,
components that I've alreadyspoken on on its importance.

No. That's excellent. And do they have, do
you know if they have a aplaybook that's out, like, on
their website that folks candownload?

What I'll do is I'll reach out to them. I think
there is a, I saw somethingtoday, actually. It was on, they
read up a a kind of a blog or a,you know, notes of the day. And
I can link you to that. And andYeah.

And we could put that link in put that link
in the show notes. Absolutely.

And I think that goes for recruitment, but it
could be applied across anyindustry. These are all things
that we need to be considering,not just the recruitment.

What what would you say is and, you know, and,
obviously, you guys haveextensive work, you know, you
know, in this space, you know,run with with data. What are
some things for folks and this Iknow it's getting a little off
from the partner story, but Ijust think this is, you know, so
appropriate. Red flags that yousee that, you know, or maybe

(29:49):
some common, you know, red flagsthat folks encounter, you know,
with their data when whenthey're, you know, either
looking to migrate or integrate.

That's yeah. You you you could be opening up a
can of worms there, Anthony.Let's go there. Let's go there.
So I think, yeah, one of thesome of the biggest, red flags
for me is a lot of people knowwhere they wanna get to.
I wanna get to the cloud. Iwanna get to AI. I wanna get to

(30:20):
copilot. They know the the enddestination.

Mhmm.

But they don't know where they are at this moment in
time. So I use the analogy inLondon. I wanna get to
Buckingham Palace. But if Idon't know where I am in London,
I cannot plot the tube route,the bus route, the walking route
to get to Buckingham Palace. SoI think people stopping and

(30:47):
considering especially theirdata because I think a lot of
people think data migration,data integration, cleansing, and
and everything will just besorted if we go to a new system.
And I saw that 70% ofimplementations failed due to
poor quality data. Wow. So, youknow, there's I think if people
can stop, assess where they are,assess the journey that they

(31:10):
need to take in dare I sayinvest in the data? If we look
at the disproportion, betweeninvestment in CRM and app
application versus data, I thinkthe numbers would be huge. Mhmm.
I think, really, the value, dareI say, is in the data, not
necessarily the application.People can take the data and

(31:33):
they can rebuild rebuild theapplication, but the data cannot
be rebuilt. So I think your yourgold mine is in the data, not
necessarily the application.

That's fantastic. That's excellent. I
really appreciate sharing that.And I know we'll talk a little
bit later about, you know, wherepeople can go to find out, you
know, more information, youknow, about DQ Global and, you
know, other type of, you know,services that you can help them.
So I really appreciate yousharing that.

(32:04):
Going back to, the, with thepartnering, based on your
partner experience, how did didyou see like, did this
engagement, like, in or I knowit increased customer
satisfaction. And maybe how didit increase customer
satisfaction?

Yeah. I think it it was something that the business
was struggling with for a longtime, and I think they didn't
necessarily have the correcttools in place. So I think if
you look at just IT alone, theywere happy that they now have a
solution to this problem that wethey were facing. Mhmm. But if
we dive down a little bit deeperto the people, the consultants

(32:42):
who are actually using thesystem, the 1500 people, they
now had data that they couldtrust.
And I think trust underpins datathe data world, really. You
wanna go into that system andsay, I trust that that person
works there, that that companystill exists, that that company
is unique.

Mhmm.

And I think you then drive the correct behaviors
in the organization. So out theback of working with this
business, they had 6,000,000records in the system. We
actually we've moved more than600,000 duplicates at this point
in time. Wow. So we've strippedout the dead wood in their
database that was just exactlythe same.

(33:24):
You know, we've taken 5,000,000telephone numbers and emails,
and we've validated them,formatted them so that now
they're fit for use by theconsultants. So now when a
consultant logs into the systemand they do a search for a
candidate, they're only finding1 Anthony or 1 Rudy. So suddenly
the trust level's gone up.They're not complaining to

(33:46):
colleagues going, hey. This datais rubbish.
I'm just gonna go off toLinkedIn. And quite
interestingly to kind of capthis off and and round it up,
the business, we've been workingwith them now for the past 3 3
years and, you know, hopefullymoving forward, they've actually
implemented a data qualityscorecard. And again, it goes

(34:08):
back to the point I was sayingabout not knowing where you are.
You know, if you can startscoring your data, the records
in the system, you can you canstart to see where the data
pitfalls are, and you can startto then actually engineer
processes to improve the qualityof that data or actually remove
it if it's not there. So theynow have quantitative, figures,

(34:32):
and they can say our dataquality, our database health is
increasing.
It's decreasing in this sectorby this user, by this country.
And they have this most amazingPower BI dashboard, that they
have, you know, a great insightinto the health of the the data
in the system. And that's afantastic way to get buy in from

(34:53):
the consultants and buy in fromlead senior leadership as well.

Nice. Nice. So what did you learn from this
partnership? Like, specificallyto help you improve on
partnering in the future. And Iknow and and just to kinda press
you a little bit because I knowI mean, we've shared a lot about
some really good principles andthings, but, and practices,
which has been really fantastic,but specifically from just this

(35:22):
just this recent, engagement.

I I would I would emphasize, kinda what Rudy and I
were speaking about there is,you know, that desk that you got
Rudy, in in client that you'reworking with. I think there's
nothing that can be in personmeeting. So I think what's made
this relate yes. There's, yes,there's a client need, but the

(35:48):
that's only one side of theelement, one side of the the
puzzle. The other side isactually building that
relationship with the client.
So I'd say what has made this sosuccessful is going to the
offices. You know, if I'mvisiting clients, you know, the
guys, Mercury have said, dropinto the office. There's a desk
there if you need to take acall. And, you know, go out for

(36:10):
lunch, go out for a drink afterwork. And and I think that has
allowed to meet other people inMercury and and really allow
them as well to understand whatwe do so that they can introduce
us to their clients that havethat need.
So I think it's really thatspider's web, within the
partner. And I know thatprobably emphasizes a point that

(36:30):
I've already gone over, butMhmm. I think it's critical to
success.

Well, excellent. Well, this is this
has been fantastic. Reallyappreciate, your time, Connor.
And, I know a lot of excellent,you know, insights about
partnership, building thoserelationships to help grow, with
growing your firm. We also got achance to touch on a little bit
about data quality and, yourcompany's, know, digital gold.

(36:57):
So I appreciate you sharing, youknow, some of those, tidbits
there. How, you know, how howcan people find out more about
you?

I mean, a 100%, reach out through through
LinkedIn. More than happy tomeet people at events, or drop
me a message. Yeah, completelyopen in that sense. We'll be
over in the US at a a a fewevents, so so look out for that
or, yeah, share share details.We've got, you know, obviously,
on our website.

(37:25):
Feel free to get in touch. We'rewe're more than happy to have an
open and and honestconversation. And, yeah, we're
always here to, to talk and andshare ideas.

Excellent. And for those that wanna reach out
and connect with you, well, I'llhave your LinkedIn profile and
your company, web address in theshow notes. And so, for people
who wanna reach out to Conor andlearn more about what they're
doing and how they can help, youknow, working with DQ Global.
Those will be in the show notes.So, Conor, once again, thank

(37:55):
you.
Appreciate you, and, have agreat day.

Thank you so much, and I appreciate you, everything
you do for the, IAMCP and andbringing us partners together,
whether that be ISV, VAR, m MSP,and Microsoft. So really
appreciate it and, all the workover the years.

Well, that was fantastic. I really appreciate,
you know, Conor, for coming onand sharing all of his really
good insights. I tell you, Ilearned a lot, especially, you
know, he's talking about asidefrom, like, the AI and data
quality. I really appreciated,when he was talking about some
best practices, you know, indeveloping and maintaining, you
know, partners. I know, Rudy,there was, like, 3 things that

(38:38):
that stood out to me.
You know, he just talked aboutthe importance of establishing
your communication, you know,method and then maintaining that
and having a good rhythm, youknow, with your open dialogue.
But then how at the you know, hejust emphasized how important in
the midst of all that, how it'sjust it's important to always
keep the client front andcenter, and that it's not about

(39:00):
you, but it's about, you know,working together to create, you
know, the most the greatestpossible value, you know, for
the customers. And so I really,really appreciated that. How
about you? What did you takeaway from today's episode?

Well, I I really appreciated some comments that
Conor made at the beginning ofof the interview, where he
discussed about getting involvedin the IAMCP and meeting
partners through that. Sosometimes you can, attend you
know, IAMCP offers a variety ofdifferent types of events, and

(39:35):
he talked about those. And theone where he got involved in was
actually something, through thepartner opportunity groups that
we offer. And then it was kindof like a speed dating. So he
had to get his pitch down verygood, say, at 5 minutes to get
his pitch across.
And from that, he not only, wasable to identify the the

(39:58):
capabilities of his company, buthe was able to learn more about
a potential customer as well ora partner. And then they ended
up getting together. And fromthere, they built that trust
relationship, which took sometime, and he mentioned that, but
it took some time. So I think hedemonstrated the value of how
you get involved in some ofthese networking events that's

(40:21):
run that are run by the IMCP.And there, you can learn more
about another partner'sbusiness, how they do business,
and then you can then discusswith them how you 2 of you can
work together to help solvecustomer customer challenges and
and and business challenges thatthat can turn into revenue and

(40:43):
customer satisfaction and justgood business for you.
And I really appreciated that.

Yeah. That that actually reminds me of, one of
the other points that hementioned about, you know, when
it's it's really important,with, you know, building those
partnerships to build trust andworking on those relationships.
And he talked a lot about, youknow, the importance of this
line was, you know, about takingoff your own shoes before trying
to get into somebody else's andjust the importance of, you

(41:11):
know, both empathy, but also,you know, getting, you know, a
right perspective. And as you'reengaging in IAMCP and, you know,
with with these events, youknow, building these kind of
relationships. And I know, Rudy,I mean, you've got extensive
experience, you know, not onlyjust in IAMCP, you know, but in,
you know, just, you know,partnering in general.

(41:31):
What, what were your thoughts onthat and maybe some, you know,
some things that you can share?

Well, Conor reminded me. He he said it a
little differently from the wayI used to say it. I used to call
it, you have to understand theperson on the other side of the
desk. And and and understandingthat And in fact, that was
actually a program that we ranhere in in the Austin chapter
many years ago, understandingthe other side the person on the
other side of the desk. And andthat's about learning about

(42:00):
people, taking the time tounderstand what what, their
goals are, what their what theirnot only their goals, but their
working methods and how they goabout achieving those and how
they work with customers toachieve those.
And I think that's a big part ofof networking and partnering is
you have to learn get to learnmore about the the personal

(42:22):
relationships that you canbuild. And I think that's that's
one great takeaway for all ofus.

Man, that's great, Rudy. Thank you. Really
appreciate you sharing that.

Well, I really wanna thank everyone who joined
us on this episode of IAMCPprofiles in partnership powered
by DuNamis Marketing. We hopeyou enjoyed this podcast and you
find it useful and inspiring. Ifyou did, please subscribe, rate,
and review us on your favoritepodcast platform. And don't
forget to follow us on socialmedia and connect with us on our

(42:53):
website, www.iamcp.org, whereyou can find more information
and resources and opportunitieson how to partner for success.
One of the best ways to partnerfor success is to join IAMCP, a
community of Microsoft partnerswho help each other grow and
thrive.
IAMCP members can find andconnect with other partners

(43:16):
locally and globally and accessexclusive resources and
opportunities. Whether you'relooking for new customers, new
markets, or new solutions, IAMCPcan help you achieve your goals.
To learn more, visit the web theIAMCP website. And thank you for
listening to our podcast.

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