Sweet Success: Insights from Suresh Ramani on Mastering Partnerships and Building Your Brand

Episode Transcript
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Anthony Carrano (00:05):
Welcome to the IAMCP Profiles in Partnership.
The podcast that showcases howMicrosoft partners, and IAMCP
members, boost their business bycollaborating with other members
and partners. I'm your co-hostAnthony Carrano. 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 connectwith other partners locally and
globally, and access exclusiveresources and opportunities.
Whether you're looking for newcustomers, new markets, or new
solutions, IAMCP can help youachieve your goals. We'll hear

(00:49):
their stories, learn from theirexperiences, and discover the
best practices and strategiesthey use to increase 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.
If you do, please subscribe,rate and review us on your

(01:10):
favorite podcast platform. Anddon't forget to follow us on
social media and connect with uson our website,
www.profilesinpartnership.com,where you can find more
information, resources andopportunities to partner for
success. Thank you forlistening, and now let's get
started with today's episode.
Hi everyone, so in today'sepisode we had a few technical

(01:31):
issues, so audio isn't wherewe'd like it to be, but I think
the content is really valuable,so I wanted to share it with you
all anyway. I'm really gratefulfor our guest and our
conversation, and excited toshare it with you. And now
today's episode.
Before we dive into ourinterview, let me ask you a few
questions. How are youpositioning yourself as a

(01:52):
partner in the Microsoftcommunity? Another way to think
about is, like, if you were toask a 100 partners about your
brand, what would they say? As aMicrosoft partner and member of
the IAMCP, how do you find anddevelop partner relationships
that'll help you grow yourbusiness?
Finding the right partner can bechallenging, but can also be
very rewarding. In fact,according to a channel partner

(02:15):
profitability study, Microsoftpartners derive margins 19%
higher than the next closestcompetitor. That's a huge
difference, and it shows thepower 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 of the questionswe'll explore in this podcast

(02:37):
with the help of our guest, arecent P2P award winner who is
also an expert in partnering.He'll share stories, challenges,
and successes and give youpractical tips and advice on how
to partner for success. Are youready to join us on this
journey? Then stay tuned becausewe have a great show for you
today. Our guest is SureshRamani, the CEO of TechGyan, a 3

(02:59):
time Microsoft worldwide partnerof the year award winner and
preferred, you know, Microsoftpartner with expertise in social
mobility analytics and cloudcomputing technologies. Let's
hear what he has to say.
Welcome, Suresh, to the podcasttoday. Thank you for joining us.

Suresh Ramani (03:17):
Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Excellent. Well, why don't you start off
and tell us a little bit aboutyourself and your role in the
company?

Absolutely. So my name is Suresh Ramani. I'm the
founder, CEO of TechGyan.TechGyan is actually in
Sanskrit, you know, languageSanskrit. Gyan means knowledge.
So, essentially, gyan is a playwith knowledge of technology.
Founded the company in 2001. So,in 2000 so we went on pretty

(03:50):
okay like a normal systemsintegrator. 2007, I was
nominated by Microsoft as apartner area lead. That was a
community that started in, youknow, in 2007.
So I was the only pal from Asia.And that was my first experience
of WPC. Back then, it was notinspired. It was WPC, one of my

(04:12):
partner. It was in Denver.
So I, Denver was my first WPC.And incidentally, 2007, same
year, we won our 1st partner ofthe year also. So that was a
very special year. 2008, Iattended my second WPC. Right?

(04:34):
And, that was again because Iwas a pal there also. In 2009, I
was nominated as a MVP,Microsoft MVP for small business
server. So that's a smallbackground of our company. Yeah.
Are there any specific thingswhich you want me to talk about?

Yeah. Well, I love the fact that talking with
the founders. So why did youstart the company?

I was working in a couple of companies and, most
of them were, like, you know,these hardware kind of thing.
You're offering PCs and printersand laptops. I was I feel that
is not the way you do solutionsfor your customers. Okay? If I
were to just dunk the iron,that's not the way things will

(05:17):
work.
And somehow, I was alwaysfascinated by Microsoft. I tell
you that. I remember whenWindows 95 was launched, I was
so so excited that, whenever Iwas working, I, you know, kind
of used to call customers andshow them that. So I felt that
there is some magic aboutsolutions solutions in

(05:41):
Microsoft, specifically. Okay.
So I said I need to go in thatdirection. That's kind of the
thought which made me go into,starting my own. Yeah.

Oh, that's that's fantastic. And I know, I
mean, you've had just a lot ofsuccess. I know in addition to I
know you are the 3 timeMicrosoft worldwide, you know,
partner of the year awardwinner. But also, you know,
congratulations because I knowhere just recently, you were the
from the solution the P2P award,for the solution providers, you

(06:11):
were the APAC winner, but you'realso a globalist, a global
finalist, you know, for thatIAMCP P2P two award. So
congratulations.

Thank you. And, this is actually the 3rd global
award which we are getting fromIAMCP. So that's it's

Oh, wow. Okay.

Yeah.
Yeah. We we love that fact.Absolutely. And, more than
anything else, what award awardswhat they really do is that they
tell you that, okay, you are onright track. Right?

Mhmm.

And whenever I do my blog post or whatever about
the awards, my blog post alwaysends with the the core awards,
you get more responsibility.That's Spiderman kind of a
thing. You know?

Mhmm.

So that's how it is. So, essentially, awards keep
telling you you are doing goodstuff, which people are liking,
and, you need to kind of nowcommit to their expectations,
which are which have gonehigher. That's what we thought.

Well, I know we're looking forward to getting
into that story, you know, here,here in a minute. But before we
do, you know, because I knowwe've you shared a little bit
about your company, but tell us,you know, when when did you join
the IAMCP?

Oh, so I should say I no. I didn't join IAMCP. I
started IAMCP. Okay. So let melet me tell you how it happened.
2008, I went to my I did mysecond WPC. Right? And back
then, you know, when the WPCs,IAMCP members used to have these

(07:42):
stalls, you know, these eggworks essentially. So I kind of
went there and the people said,okay. This is a community.
It does a, b, c, d, e. Then youasked my background. They they
realized that I'm a I was I wonmy award last year in. Now and I
was also a partner with the leadfor Asia. They said, since you

(08:06):
are already doing communitywork, would you want to
consider, you know, starting, anIAMCP chapter in India?
Because they want to startsomething there. I said, give me
some details. Let me, figure outwhat I need to do. So 2008, when
I came back, I I was thinkingabout it, what I need to do.
And I felt, yes, there issomething which we can do. A

(08:29):
community can be very useful.Right? And that was a time in
2009, I also was awarded as aMVP. Microsoft MVP for small
business server.
So I said now MVP also iscommunity. Right? At the end of
the day, MVP is what? Because ofyour technical experience. It's
for the community work you do.
So get this I'll talk tosociety. Let me start this. I

(08:52):
started the community chapter inMumbai in 2009, and that's how
the the whole thing started.Initially, it was very, very
tough because the concept ofpartnering, concept of P2P
concept of community, totallylacking in India. So it was
tough.

(09:13):
But one thing I was very clear,I will keep doing events, keep
doing events, keep doing events.So I went on doing events
probably 8, 10 wins a year. Andslowly, the community went on
building. So in 2018, 19, wefelt that we were ready to form
a legal body. So we formed alegal body in 2019.

(09:36):
And once the legal body wasformed, we we formed the all
Indian legal body thinking ofthe first annual event in
Mumbai. So it was a one dayevent.

Wow.

Yes. And we were so, so, so afraid because they
booked a Fisa hotel and theysaid, looks like they will pull
money from our pocket.
We don't know what's gonnahappen. People come, not come.
We said we should get at least50 partners. If we if we get 50
partners, we will be on theright track. We closed at 90
partners.

Wow. Wow.

We stopped sponsorships 1 month before the
event. We said, sorry. We're alldone.
We don't have we don't havebooths to offer. So but yeah.
Absolutely.

That's a great problem to have.

Yeah. But it's a wonderful problem to have. Let
me tell you it's such awonderful problem to have. And
that's when we said, I think thetime has come.
We need to now just focus onmaking it bigger. Just when
you're thinking of making itbigger, 2019 December, we had an
event. In 2020 March, confirmedCOVID came. Right? So if the,

(10:45):
you know, it it changed anddynamics everything.
However, we somehow managed togo through the COVID, and 2023,
we gained our second event where110 partners came for 2 days 2
days. And in 2,024, we had ourbig 3 day event where 120

(11:06):
partners landed up.

Wow. That's fantastic.

And when I'm saying 3 days, you can
understand we had it in Goa.
Goa is a very happening place inIndia. Lot of beaches there. So
we had a beach party, music,dance. It's like fun stuff.
Right?
Okay? Absolute fun stuff. And,you know what? The main thing
why we feel there is this needfor the community and the need

(11:30):
for such an annual event isbecause now you don't have those
inspires. We used to haveinspired events where partners
would go, connect with eachother, and connect with
Microsoft.
With that going on to picture, Ithink IAMCP events and events
especially are a great, great,great place. So our pitches

(11:51):
experience inspire at 20% of thecost. Very simple. Right? So
that's how it is.
I'm very deep into thecommunity. And currently, I'm
also, the founding president forIAMCP of the Asia Pacific. So
I'm trying to build chapters inAustralia, New Zealand, in
Greater China. And hopefully, weshould have a very vibrant

(12:13):
community like India and otherparts of Asia Pacific also.

That's great. Thank you for sharing that. So
also, you know, you mentionedbeach parties and whatnot. Tell
us a little bit. I, you know, Iknow you're holding out on us.
Your background with music. Ihear that there's a band out
there possibly.

So, you know, we've only lived once. I think
some more people have said that.Right? So we should have
multiple facets to workpersonality. So one is I'm very
passionate about Microsoft.
I I don't work in this fieldbecause I needed money to work,

(12:54):
but it's because I knowMicrosoft. I I know Microsoft
technology. So I'm verypassionate about that. So that's
my passion number 1. My passionnumber 2 is music.
Okay. So I listen to music. Ising. I'm part of a band music
band in, in a in my city. We do2 public shows where we have

(13:17):
600, 700 people coming in and,you know, clapping and shouting
and dancing.
So it's good fun. It's all goodfun. So that's my another
passion. And, of course, mythird passion is not really a
great passion for many of myfriends. I'm very passionate
about desserts.

(13:37):
I love eating desserts. I loveexperimenting with various
desserts from various cities andcountries and cuisines. So
that's something that I'mpassionate about.

Alright. Well, let me add because, you know,
I'm Italian American. So arecannolis on your top ten list
for desserts?

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Of course. Right? Who doesn't like a
cannoli?

Rudy Rodriguez (13:58):
Well, and gelato.
And gelato. Don'tforget the gelato.

Don't forget gelato. That's right. Well, I
really appreciate it. Well, itsounds like, Suresh, we could
probably have a whole anotherepisode talking about all kinds
of fun stuff. But, you know,back to back to, Profiles in
Partnership.
Absolutely. Tell us, you know,about with, you know, about with
that, you know, TechGyan. Whatare the company's areas of

(14:23):
specialization?

So we have been always, big on modern work. The
reason is modern work actuallyis productivity. So, you know,
our, we are we are we are verypassionate about productivity,
about the processes which canhelp productivity. So, you know,
Google is being behind this, youknow, this whole cloud behind,
Microsoft's small businessserver that was, hot product

(14:48):
which had exchange. It hadSharePoint.
So that was essentially aproductive piece. Right? So from
those in itself, modern work hasbeen a big area for us. So
that's been a major strength. In2018, Microsoft moved into
security.
You know, this they launchedMicrosoft 365, which is actually

(15:10):
nothing but Office 365 going onwith security. For us, it's all
very simple. We don't do toomuch strategization. We don't we
just look at where Microsoft isgoing, and we just follow them.
So we said, okay.
Microsoft is getting tosecurity. We are going to
security. So we started oursecurity practice. In 2020, we

(15:30):
started our Azure practice. So,currently, we have these three
areas.
So we are an SMB focus, youknow, small and midsize
businesses is our forte. And wehave 3 service brands. We have
one brand which is calledBranded Teamwork 365, which is
productivity brand. So underthat, we offer a lot of

(15:52):
productivity services. We havesecure IT 365, which is security
and compliance brand.
And throughout is data center365 where we talk of data center
modernization and data centertransformation. So, you know, we
do these 3, brands. And underthese 3 brands, we've got
various packages, you know, forvarious things. Like, you know,

(16:13):
we we'll have things likeintranet. We'll have a document
management system.
We'll have copilot service.Various things, essentially. So,
essentially, SMB focusedcustomers are SMB. Brands are
industry brands from the productor vendor perspective. We are
big on Microsoft 365 Cloud andAzure Cloud.

(16:36):
These are the 2 things that wedo.

Alright. Well, that's that's great to know,
Suresh. So let's get down to thestory that that got you this
award. Can you tell us a littlebit about the client that you
worked with? You don't have togive us their name or or you
know But if you would share thesize of that company, the
industry that we're in, the allthe technologies that you were

(16:58):
implementing, and moreimportantly, the challenges that
your client was facing. We'dlike to hear about that.

Absolutely. Absolutely. So this client is
one of the largest conglomeratesof India, moving among the top
10 conglomerates. They havemultiple businesses. So for this
particular case, they were doinga, you know, demerger and merger
activity and setting up a agreenfield media setup media.

(17:28):
Essentially, media setup. Right?So when they were doing that,
they needed few things to bedone. They they were hosted
somewhere in a tenant. Theywanted a tenant to tenant
migration to happen forMicrosoft 365.
That was one you have when theywanted with all the needs and
documents being moved from onetenant to the other. Then they

(17:49):
wanted to set up a greenfieldactive directory setup. Okay?
With multiple technology likeVMW, Nutanix, Venus Server, all
that involved multiple servers.Now here, the customer CIO had
got a very strong reference ofour company in the local CIU

(18:11):
community.
So, you know, what happens isthere's a India India, you know,
the WhatsApp country, I shouldsay. WhatsApp is very popular
here. So there are these lot ofcommunities which are there all
over. So one of thesecommunities is the CIO community
of Western India. So he musthave floated in that, okay.
I'm looking for doing x y z. Soplease suggest some partners.

(18:34):
Now whenever Microsoft comesinto picture in Western India,
our company is normally therebecause, you know, we we have a
good brand recall for Microsofttechnologies in Western India.
So he got a good reference fromus for us. He reached out to me,
and he basically discussed hisrequirements.

(18:54):
And he stated clearly that he'salso not very he's also
reasonably in the company. So hewould like to work with our
company because of the strongreference, and he wants a
complete project to be done byus. So, you know, essentially,
this was the basic requirementwhich was there from the
customer side. So what I'mtalking so the question was

(19:17):
about the project. This is aproject.
We want to, talk about thepartnering later or now,
whatever. So choice is yours.

No. Let's talk about partnering. Let's, you
know talk about the partner thatyou had and what what they were
required to do and why you chosethem.

So very clearly, as I mentioned, there were 2
requirements. Customer wanted acomplete, tenant to tenant
migration for email and completedocument migration. Right?
That's our strength. I mean, wewe do it.
So we know how it is to be done.But the customer also wanted

(19:55):
activity 7, 8, any servers, youknow, VMware, Nutanix, all that
kind of stuff. We have moved outof that area many years back. We
no longer do on prem work. Wedon't ever do that.
Right? So we told the customer,listen. Let me do that first
project for you, and then I willrecommend you some partners. You

(20:18):
talk to them and get your workdone. You say, no.
You are going to be booked veryclearly. It's not either or you
to be booked. And I would notwant you to give up just for
this because we will do a lot ofwork in future. But I want you
to do then I said, listen. I doknow this.

(20:39):
He said, listen. Can you takeproject management
responsibility? I want to wantto bill me. Very simple. Because
I want your company to beaccountable that, yes, I'm
billing you.
So I'm guaranteeing things willhappen. So, you know, that was a
big responsibility. That's wherewe reached out to this partner,
Orient is the name of thecompany, Orient Technologies.

(21:00):
They do a lot of work in on premstuff. We are a very, reputed
systems integrator.
And we've done projects before.Both of us are part of IAMCP
local chapter. Both are Mumbaibased. So, you know, I'm based
on the Mumbai city of Mumbai.That partner also is going to
have an office in Mumbai.
So we spoke to each other, andthe require and the agreement is

(21:24):
very simple. Once we havefinished with our tenant to
tenant migration, we will makethe project plan. We will do
project management, and thefolks from Orient will do the
actual execution of the on premstuff, which is, you know, the
AD and the RedX server and allthat kind of stuff, which is
something which we won't do. Sothat was a basic idea. And based

(21:50):
on that thought process, we gotgoing on that.
And that's how the whole thinghappened. The partnering
happened.

Okay. How long did this project take?

One thing about these large conglomerates, they
always look at the estimate ofthe time which we suggest. And
we say yes. Now you do it in 20%of that time. That's how they
work essentially. Okay.
So same thing happened here.Tenant to tenant migration, I
told them with it take around 35days. You know, I worked 15 days

(22:22):
starting today.
Okay. You finish that anyhow. Imean, our team actually was
doing the work and doing themigrations at 2 AM, 3 AM at
night. But he oh, it's okay. Nota problem.
I mean, another requirement. Wefinished that, and then they
really work. We say, it is verycomplex. It's gonna take at

(22:42):
least 10 weeks. He said, no.
I've got exactly 32 days. That'show they work. So, again,
pressure, unnecessary unduepressure, we call it. So we had
to put in more people, get thework done, project management
was done. And so, essentially,around 15, 20 days for tenant to

(23:07):
tenant migration and 4 to 5weeks for the AD project.
That's how it is.

Clients like that are fun. You just brought
back a a lot of horriblememories for me. It's where I
worked on a project where we hadto migrate 50,000 people, and
they gave us 60 days to do it.

That's awesome.

That was it. And we got it done. It's hard work.
It's hard work. So kudos to yourteam. Kudos to your team.
So you said you worked with thispartner. You knew them through
IAMCP. What criteria did youhave for choosing a partner like
this?

I think the most important thing is there should
be a culture match. First, weshould look whether, you know,
our cultures are compatible.That's that's very important.
Now for cultures to match, youobviously need to know the
people concerned. So that'swhere IAMCP played a big value
because we used to have ourmeetings and because we would,

(24:02):
you know, the the founders ofthose companies would sometimes
come for the meetings.
We got to know each other, andwe spoke to each other, and we
felt we were comfortable witheach other. I mean, I think
that's very important. So,that's something which we we
believe that first, buildrelationships, then build
business. That's that's how thesequencing needs to happen,

(24:24):
really speaking. So we had ahealthy relationship with the
founders.
I personally, you know, wastrained in them because of
IAMCP. And, then we've done oneof those small projects in the
past also. This is not the firstproject I did with them. We've
done couple of projects withthem in the past on the concept
of very straightforward. Cloudpart, we are good.

(24:46):
On prem part, we prefer toavoid. So whenever on prem part
comes into picture, we look atpartners who have the requisite
technical strength ability and,you know, the mind should be in
sync. Our mind should be insync, essentially. So that's how
we go to them, and, we executethe project. That's how it is.

Very good. Very good. You know, I I always
appreciate, you know, buildingthose trust relationships with
partners. That's so important.And IAMCP is very, very good at
that and and teaching people howto build those trust
relationships.

Absolutely.

This has triggered several questions. I
mean, let me just piggyback on,like, the last point you
mentioned about it's reallyimportant that, you know, from
our minds be in sync. What aresome, practical steps you would
say to, like, to ensure beingthe minds being in sync? Because
I thought I really like how youworded that.

So what happens is that, when when you say the
minds in sync that first of all,if there is a reputation, we all
have built certain reputations.You know, so reputation counts,
number 1. Number 2, when youinteract with the senior
management of differentcompanies, that's the time also
you get to know whether, youknow, they are thinking in a

(26:05):
certain wavelength or not. Thatis another important thing.
While all this is great, wealways insist that there should
be a proper NDA in place andproper NOU in

(26:29):
The NDA, the NOU, we will notuse it. We'll probably keep it,
you know, signed and keep it ata corner. But I obviously,
that's an important aspect.

Mhmm.

So we should have that in place.
Not only that, and then youshould see within this
complimentary stuff which youcan do. See, for us, we don't do
on framework at all. And therewill be projects which will come
which will need some on premwork to be done. In such a case,

(27:01):
there's a clear complementarystuff in services which we are
offering essentially.
I think that's that's somethingwhich is also an important
aspect. So, you know, it's acombination of these 4, 5
things, really speaking.Absolutely.

Mhmm.

And, you know, it's the the reason why because
some partners take a shortcut.They try to, you know, should I
say rob, you know, it'sa strong word. It's the hand
that lays a golden egg Right?That's a story we are talking

(27:33):
about here.
Right? If the relation is good,the hen will keep giving you one
golden egg every day. If you cutit once, you lose all the eggs
forever. That's the basic ideawhich we're talking about here.

Mhmm. And I wanna I kinda wanna unpack this
site this a little bit further,just because you you've talked a
lot about the importance ofrelationships and reputation and
how, you know, especially, youknow, with the position that
that you guys are in whereyou're working, you know, what I
heard is you tend to work with,you know, some of the larger,
you know, enterprise, you know,type, you know, customers. But

(28:07):
also, that whenever there's alot of some opportunities there
in India, like, my you andMicrosoft do a lot of work
together. And so how is so theso this is kind of a a 2 part
hitting on the hitting on thesame thing. The first part is
because I know that theopportunity came to you, from us

(28:28):
from the company CIO, from theclient.
Excuse me. The, you know, CIOgot a strong reference from the
CIO community that, you know,TechGyan is a highly capable
partner for MicrosoftTechnology. So what are, so the
first part is what are some,tips and things that you would
recommend to other partners outthere to how do you ensure to

(28:50):
position yourself to have thatsame type of reputation, you
know, in in their respective CIOcommunities to get more
business?

So, first of all, you don't go out of the way to
build reputation with CIOcommunity. That's very
important. Right? You have tojust focus on ensuring that you
deliver high quality work. Youknow, I know partners who, you
know, take CIOs for the day andall that.

(29:19):
I have never done that. Believeme. I have never ever done that.
Not even to start? No.
I mean, I I do what the fun funfun stuff. It's a let me dial
this a little bit. I post COVID,I stopped to going to office. I
started working from home andall that. So one of the new
customers, we did a lot of worktogether.

(29:41):
We during COVID, he came to meand we started working. Today we
are doing a lot of work for themin Azure, in Microsoft 365, and
Security. So once he said, hesaid, Suresh, at least once come
to my office. Let us meet once.I said, okay.
No. No. No. No. No.
I'll come. It's not that I don'tmeet. I'll definitely come. So I

(30:03):
went there. He took me around tohis office.
He says, see. He never goes, buthe's come to meet us. And he
introduced me to everybody. Andthen I said, shall I go? He
said, no.
Wait for half an hour. I said,okay. I do not I didn't want him
to feel bad. We did. He said,okay.
Now can you do me a favor,Suresh? Just call up your home

(30:23):
and tell them that you arehaving dinner outside. So then
we went for dinner. I said,okay. Now when when the check
came, I said I need to pay.
He said, no way I'm gonna pay.You have come to my office. You

(30:45):
don't go. I know you don't go.
You've come to my office. Youhave been nice enough, and
you've been doing such greatwork for us. So how can you I
allow you to pay? I mean, thatwas I said, I keep hearing that
partners have to always alwayswith their customers. This is

(31:05):
the first time I a customer isinsisting that he'll not allow
me to pay.
That's okay. Yeah. These thingshappen. So they're very
interesting. They're veryinteresting.
So coming to your point to yourquestion again, I think we
should identify instead of yoube trying to be jack of all. We
need to identify our niche areasand be brilliant in those areas.

(31:31):
That's really important. Manymany partners I know, not just
in India.
I know some of my friends inadvanced markets like US also.
They do everything. You know?They are not a very large
company. Maybe 20 people or 10people or even 5 people.
But they do hardware. They do arouter. They do a firewall. They

(31:54):
do Cisco. They do Google GSuite.
They'll do x, y, zed. Fine. Ifyou're doing that, then please
be sure that you do that verywell.

Mhmm. Mhmm.

What I mean to say is that you then ensure that
you give great price and great,coordination with the vendors
for support. You'll be veryclear about that. Mhmm. In our
case, we must we are superclear. We are a Microsoft
focused partner, number 1.
Within the Microsoft ecosystemalso, we only look at
productivity, security, andAzure infra. We don't even look

(32:28):
at, you know, something likeAzure data. As you know, Azure
has got 3, 4 areas. Right? 1 isdata and AI.
We don't look into that. We justlook at we are obsessed with
Azure infrastructure. We areobsessed with productivity. So,
you know, M365 productivity, weare bold. And we are absolutely
clear on security.

(32:48):
When I say security, again, I'mtalking of M365 security. We
don't get into security,multiple vendors, you know,
going to Palo Alto and this andthat. Nothing. No. No.
No. I don't understand anything.Talk to me, Microsoft, and I'll
help you. The minute somebodysays, okay. What about Business
Central implementation?
I see, hey, listen. Businesscentral, I can give you

(33:11):
licenses. But for deployment, Iwill connect you to business
central partners because I don'tdo ERP. I don't do CRM.

Mhmm. Mhmm.

So we have kind of maintained our focus in few
areas. And in those few areas,we always try to be brilliant.
That's very important. And whileyou have to be trying to be
brilliant all the time, you haveto ensure that you keep building
your brand.

Mhmm.

The brand branding needs to be there,
which is where, you know, theawards of my IAMCP become very,
very useful. The Microsoftmobile awards become very, very
useful. Then the presence onsocial media, whether it's
LinkedIn or YouTube. Again, thatbecome very, very useful. So we
are very conscious about ourbrand.

(33:58):
And I'm personally I'mpersonally involved with the
marketing in our company.

Mhmm. Mhmm.

You know? Because most of us, you know, what we
feel marketing is not a greatthing to do essentially.
Therefore, many partners, ITpartners, I don't believe, we
have they say, oh, marketing.Who wants to do marketing? Well,
marketing is your brand.
If you have a strong brand, youcan attract business. And today,

(34:26):
we all know the days of yougoing out out for a business, it
doesn't work. Today, customersdo what they want. They search
you.
You're there and winner, andthen they come to you. So you
need to ensure that you have avery strong brand.

That's very important. Yes and amen,
especially as Rudy and I arepartners in a marketing agency.
So, I'm gonna quote you here onout to everybody I talk to.
Suresh says

Can we use your name on our website?

Yes. I mean, I'm telling you, it's a it's a very
sad fact. It's a very sad fact.And I have spoken to many large
partners. They have no ideaabout what is it Microsoft, BMC
and PMC.
Microsoft has got tons and tonsof high quality resources on

(35:20):
marketing, and 99% partners dothe know where they exist.

Yep. Yep. You know, you talked about, so I I
do I'm gonna get to the secondpart of my the the part 2 of my
question, but I wanna you saidsomething when you're talking
about with marketing and socialmedia and YouTube. Now I know,
you know, you've got quite anextensive, you know, or a pretty
significant YouTube channel. Canyou share with our our audience

(35:48):
a little bit about that?

Absolutely. So, you know, the YouTube channel, I
started focusing a lot whenMicrosoft Cloud came into
picture. Right? And before thatlicensing, you know, as we all
know, Microsoft does such awonderful job of licensing that
very few people will understandit. Right?

(36:10):
That's how it is. You know? It'sso complicated. So I I I
developed video licensing,Microsoft licensing, because it
was becoming very tough for us,my team and me to keep
explaining to everybody what isthis MULP, what is this paper
licensing, what is this, this,that, we. So I I kind of came

(36:33):
out with that video.
It became very popular. And whatwe became very popular for me
and my team, it was very simple.Anybody asking a question on
licensing, they would just sendthem the YouTube link. That was
how it was. And that's when Ifelt and realized the power of
videos.

(36:53):
So when we, you know, we cameout with the video after some
time on Microsoft Exchangeonline, for example. Right? That
video has got 55,000 plus views.

Wow. Okay. Wow.

I mean, it just is, you know, absolutely super,
super, super popular. And thenbecause we were competing with
Google Google Apps, you know, inour space, Microsoft Office
versus that. So I I developed anice, cheeky video on Office CC
versus Google Apps. Again, like,35, 40000 views on that. And the

(37:34):
fun part is the comments.
So the comments are lot ofGoogle fans, you know, moving me
away. And before me trying todefend myself, Microsoft fans
supporting me said, no, he'sright. Why say he's absolutely
right? I said, okay. Good fun.
So it was all good fun. And somy idea was that if I develop a

(37:58):
video and my videos, I try toput it in this simple language
because I I have this verystrong opinion that Microsoft,
unfortunately, the language theyuse in videos or in the
documentation is quite complex.Okay? And, my, I I keep joking

(38:19):
with my friends in Mac. I said,I'm not surprised that your
videos are so complicatedbecause if you are going to pay
somebody $40,000 for a video,they will produce something
complicated.
They will produce somethingsimple. You'll ask them, oh, why
are you how can you do somesimple video like this? I keep
talking to them for that. So Ihave whenever something new is

(38:41):
there, I will come out with thevideo, publish it. And the idea
is whenever a customer querycomes in, there has to be
standard response.
If I'm giving a response, if myteam, experienced person is
giving a response, if a freshtrain is giving a response, the
response should be standard. Andhow it can be standard if the

(39:03):
communication which we aresharing is standard, which means
a blog with, you know, some nice2, 3 paragraphs and with a video
insert. So that's basically mystrategy. My whole thought
thinking is drive people toeither my website or to my
YouTube channel, basically.

Mhmm. Mhmm. And we'll have for those who are
listening, we'll have the linkto that YouTube channel in in
our show notes. So I appreciateyou sharing that.
Absolutely.
I'd like to kinda like the part2 because, you know, we talked a
lot about, you know, reputationand relationships, you know, and
you you answered the questionabout, you know, having that
reputation in the CIO community.I kinda wanna maybe shift it to

(39:47):
part 2 is rep you know, havingthat, reputation in the eyes of
Microsoft, you know, as they'relooking to you know, as you're,
you know, working with partners,you know, on on opportunities.
Is there anything in addition tothe three things that you shared
in those three points, you know,obviously identifying, you know,
the areas that you can bebrilliant at, right, is number

(40:08):
1. Number 2, when you afteryou've identified those areas,
you know, and and that you canbe and be brilliant at, you
know, focus on delivering highquality value. And number 3 was,
you know, just a conversation wejust had about, you know, having
quality, you know, branding and,you know, that's involving,
like, your messaging, yourcontent, you know, etcetera.

(40:29):
Is there anything in addition tothose three things that you
would recommend to partner say,okay. You've you once you've
done these three things, youknow, to continue that to
position yourself to be, youknow, as a as an attractive, you
know, partner for, you know,Microsoft to collaborate on,
what what are some advices,advice that that you have for
them?

One, very important thing which many,
many, many partners miss out isalignment with Microsoft
strategies. You know what? Thefunny thing is, I keep getting
calls from partners in Indiasaying that, what do what

(41:11):
incentive do I get for this?What do incentive do I get for
that? What program is available?
I said, listen. You go topartner center. Spend time
there. Understand what isavailable. Unfortunately,
partners want to be busy withtransactions.
Okay. Whether the meeting hasgot delivered or not, whether

(41:32):
the billing has happened or not,collection. But they have no
idea about the Microsoft PartnerProgram. It is see, I I I only
can talk about Microsoft becauseI only work with Microsoft.
Right?
And with Microsoft, if you wantto succeed, it's super important
for you to align your companieswith the Microsoft priorities

(41:58):
for the year. Make use of the goto market programs which they
have. Figure out which areas youwill focus on. There is so many
resources and so much money theyhave on the table, which is
doing waste because partners arenot utilizing it.

That can be an podcast episode in of itself.
And this is your your yourdispensing, you know, gold here.
I really appreciate it. Like Itell you, if we can maybe get
back to the story, and so, youknow, as you I mean, you talked
about, obviously, you know, alot of the successes, you know,

(42:40):
you outlined the importance of,you know, you talked about, you
know, culture match, you know,being in sync, you know, having
the proper MOUs and NDAs, andeven and you've got, you know,
all this stuff in place. Did youguys have any, you know,
challenges during theengagement?
And if so, how did you all worktogether to overcome it?

Well, are we talking about challenges in this
specific case, partly case, orin general?

Just well, let's maybe if you have
something about this specificengagement in which, then
because you won the award for,that would be ideal. But if you
if you have something else maybeyou wanna share, you know,
outside of that that I'll kindadefer to you on that.

Fun fact. This project was very complex. Right?
I mentioned about Guterres. Imentioned about Redis.
I mentioned about AD. Very, verycomplex and extremely tight
timelines. Considering all that,surprisingly, there were no
challenges, major challenges.Very surprisingly.

(43:49):
Absolutely no major challengesbecause of certain basics being
followed, you know, properly.Right? The idea was I'm a big
fan of, SOWs. Right? I'm I'm I'mI'm a big fan that, okay, your
scope of work needs to be very,very, very, very clear unless

(44:10):
and then the customer has signedoff and verified and accepted
the SOW with, you know, the RACImatrix very clearly specified,
you know, that who's gonna dowhat, who's gonna be
responsible.
Take time there. Take timethere. If you take time there,
the future is going to be lessindex for you. Pretty simple.

(44:33):
But, unfortunately, what we aspartners do, as soon as we get a
PO, we want the money to comefast, and we want the only way
to get the money fast.
Start delivering fast. My dearfriends, you are not delivering
an IBM server where we know thatit's a box which is delivered
and you will pay. You aredelivering services. And

(44:55):
services, by the way, definitionare very, very open ended. You
need to define define define thescope of work in very clear cut
terms.
Spend time in that area, andthen the subsequent things
become very easy.

That's powerful. That is powerful.
Rudy, did you, did you have aquestion? I know you were
talking earlier about with, someof the partner experience.

Yeah. Yeah. So, Suresh, I really I like that
last answer because having beenin the business for over 30
years, I live that every day.And that one thing about
planning and communications,planning and communications, so
important in in partneringsuccess because you set the
proper expectations. So that'sgreat and wonderful.
So going back to this particularstory, you know, you said you

(45:46):
worked this was a largeconglomerate. Did this increase
the customers? I know they wereprobably very satisfied with the
work you did because they gaveyou very intense timelines to
achieve, and you got that workdone. Did it help them increase
their revenue at all? And didyou measure any of those?
You know, any what were the KPIsthat you measured?

So, the moment it's a it was a greenfield
project. Right? So being agreenfield project, that means,
they were really, setting uptheir new 90th the first time.
That's how it was, essentially.That's how it worked.
See, the group was aconglomerate, but this
particular division was a newdivision for that group. That's

(46:28):
how it works essentially. Okay.So I from the revenue
perspective, I don't think itwould be possible for us to
measure the revenue perspectivebecause amount of money that
they were spending on resourceswhich were, like, kind of
outsourced or whatever, youknow, without the where the

(46:52):
where it was, like, the feedbackwhich I got from the CRO was
that in 18 months, they recordeverything. Everything,
essentially.
Everything. You know? Thatthat's a kind of 18 months ROI
kind of a thing they said. Sothat was one area. But more than
that, I think it was more of themindset of the CEO.
He even knew he was new to thefirm. So he had his own worries

(47:14):
that, you know, we should weshould not fail. Right? So what
is happening here is that, he heplayed safe by selecting
releasing the particular orderon our company because, you
know, I've got strongreferences. So if something goes
wrong, I can always gain thepartner because I selected a

(47:35):
good partner.
You know, I want a new partner.The fact that we delivered, we
delivered and delivered on timeon extremely tight deadlines.
All that mattered a lotessentially. All that mattered a
lot. And one thing which I'lljust mention very interesting
here, customer also wanted topurchase licenses from me.

(47:56):
Okay. He said, you'll give melicenses. You'll give me
services. You'll give meeverything. Unfortunately, in
India, we have this trend.
I am I don't know about theaverage geographies. In India,
there is a big chunk of partnerswho kind of undercut license
prices. You know, it's like theyoffer at below cost. That's how

(48:16):
it is. We have no idea.
So this gentleman also had thesame issue. He got the price of
licenses, which was, like, 15%below my cost. I said, I'm not
interested. He said no no no noI won't know everything. I
totally miss it.
I can understand that there are2 elements. 1 is the license

(48:38):
supply. 2nd is a tenant totenant migration. 3rd is a in
the infrastructure setup. I saidlicense selling is license
selling.
If there is a partner who'sgiving you at 15% low cost, take
it from you. I will do theimplementation for you. How you
will change the whole projectfor you? We do not change the

(49:00):
project for you. He gotconvinced.
So he got a good deal from thatpartner. He got it at a very
good price. I got my price forservices. Believe me, I did not
negotiate much. I said, youwanna do business with TechGyan
You wanna do business withSuresh Ramani, then you have to

(49:20):
pay the price. You are new. Youcan't have apple to apple. In
license, I can understand. It'san, you know, license is a
license is a license.
So there's not much which canchange. But you can't say a
service is a service andservice. If you're saying
service is a service, then go tothat partners who will make
cheap licenses. You see nosocial services joking. I'll go

(49:43):
and purchase the licenses fromthere, but I'm not competing for
services.
So that's very interesting. Hegot a good deal on licenses. He
got a good service on deploymentof M365 as well as kimmy. So all
in all, his stock within thecompany rules substantially. We
have to look at see, we we wehave to think of that also.

(50:04):
Did I make him look good? That'simportant. I should make my
customer's ID look good in frontof the management. So I think
that was the biggest takeawayfrom this project. I made it
look very good.

Well, that that is an excellent, you know,
business principle to follow allthe time. Our job is to make our
clients look good and anddemonstrate our expertise
because that helps grow yourbrand, and that helps grow your
business tremendously. So Iappreciate the advice that
you're giving there. So in intrying to, you know, closing,
you know, this has been anexcellent, interview, and I

(50:41):
really appreciate everythingyou've shared with us today. So,
you know, you work with a lot ofIAMCP customers I mean, IAMCP
members, and you work with a lotof different customers.
What advice would you give to tothe our members, IAMCP members,
and other companies in regardsto to partnering? You know, what

(51:03):
you you've you've demonstratedan awful lot, but do you have
any other advice that you wouldgive them?

So some of the advice which I'll give would be
it's already available withIAMCP, but they will use it. So
let me just, state those. Firstis I'm saying that partnering
needs to be strategic and nottactical. It's not daily based.
That's important.
You have to identify the set ofpartners with whom you work and

(51:32):
design. For example, as Imentioned, I mentioned about
this particular partner whom Iwork with because I don't do on
prem stuff. So if anyoutstanding work comes in, which
is critical, I'm gonna work witha partner like him. Similarly,
there are partners in our,country in especially Mumbai who
come to me for Microsoft. Theysay, I don't understand

(51:55):
Microsoft.
I will send licenses and give mymoney. Google my email. So this
is it has to be strategy. Onemoment. The guidance
surprisingly, the guidance forthis is already available on our
IAMCP website.
It's calledp2pmaturitymodel.com. I'm sure,

(52:16):
you know, if partners into asimple service, we'll go there
and they'll they'll see thatthere are, you know, 4
partnering types. Like, basic,reactive, proactive, dynamic.
It's so beautifully mentionedwith NDA samples, immune
samples, and basic what you do,how kind what kind of planning

(52:37):
you need to do. All that iswonderfully mentioned.
So if at all somebody wants tostart off systematically, please
go to IAMCP website and Googleup the maturity, you know, the
playbook and start looking atit. That's one one important,
message I want to give. Secondis understand what is a kind of
part. Who are you? For example,a partner like us need a

(53:02):
specialist.
We for us what is good, it'sgood to be focused on a very key
technology stack. We don't wantto do everything for everybody.
We are hugely focused on modernwork and security around
Microsoft platforms. That'sthat's our focus area. These are
the things we don't know.

(53:22):
If you ask me, does Trend Microsolution do x y z? I said,
besides the spelling of TrendMicro, I don't know anything
about it. Very simple. That'sit. I don't know.
I only know Microsoft. Talk tome about Microsoft. So we are a
specialist. So either you haveto be a specialist or you have

(53:43):
to be a generalist. I mean, youknow, that's the kind of stuff
you should be.
And we should be in touch with aspecialist like us should be in
touch with, you know, a systemintegrator who has multiple
vendors and multiple stuff foreverybody. Essentially, that's
how it should be. And you needto align with the right kind of

(54:05):
partners. And your plan shouldbe on a conservative level, 25%
of my target is 20. My pertarget, this is 30% of my
revenue should come by apartner.
20%. Okay? Yeah. And when I say30%, doesn't mean that people

(54:25):
should come to me forpartnering. It means I can also
go and execute some projectsthrough partners.
So the total of giving andtaking should consider around
30% of my revenue. It's it'smicro see, technology is in
ocean. And within this hugeocean, Microsoft is by itself in
ocean. So much Microsoft isdoing. We are small guys.

(54:49):
We are so small. We, you know,with our limited resources, we
can't do everything we're doing.We have to identify what we are
good at. And once you're goodat, if you're a specialist, then
you need to work withjournalists. If you're a
journalist, you need to have akind of an eyesore now.

(55:11):
You you build up a, you know,kind of a strategy group of
generalist specialists so thatas a group, you offer a end to
end solution to your customerswhere every person in the group
is getting something, you know,special. That's the whole idea.
So combination of 2 things. A,go to partner in a maturity

(55:32):
playbook. Lot of great stuffthere.
Great. Absolutely great stuffthere. Mind doing stuff there,
including MOUs and movies. Gothrough it. Make your plans.
Then decide what you are, whichgame you're gonna play. Align
with the Microsoft priority,like Microsoft is listing 5
priorities for F125. Align withthe or 2 of them, and then go

(55:55):
really deep into those if you'rea specialist. I mean, those are
some of the things which I wouldlike to, you know, suggest.

Well, that that is excellent, excellent advice.
So I've I've gotta, like, closeoff the interview with one
really important question. It'ssome deals with specialization.
What advice do you give partnersabout the best desserts to eat?
Oh.
I know this is your area ofspecialty.

So Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. I'm I'm I'm I'm a
I'm a solution partnerdistinguishing desserts. Yeah.
Absolutely. Okay. I'm a advancedspecialization. I've been
advanced specialization indesserts. Okay.
One thing is very clear. We haveto understand it's not just
human beings who are sensitive.In my opinion, and I've got very

(56:45):
strong reasons to say so, Morethan human beings, chocolates
are very sensitive. So neverever distinguish between dark
chocolate and light chocolateand light chocolate. Please love
chocolates equally.
Number 1. Number 2, experimentwith the desserts different

(57:06):
desserts from different places.Believe me, it's, I mean, I'll
I'll give my story. Last yearwhen I was in Seattle, a friend
of mine had just told me thatthere is this, you know,
excellent stuff that you gethere. You go there.
I traveled all the way, and Ihad gelatoos in Seattle. And it

(57:29):
was mind blowing. So learn toexplore. It's so important that
you should learn to explore andbe open about it. Because
deserts also have feelings.
So never ever say I hate thisdesert. Never ever do that.
Please. It's just totally wrong.I I get it really hurts me when

(57:51):
somebody says I hate thisdessert.
You know, it's it's not justcorrect. Absolutely.

I love your passion about desserts. I love
your passion about desserts. AndI'll send you a a a text or I'll
send you a message, for mydaughter sent me some excellent
chocolates from a newchocolatier in the Netherlands.
So they were the most wonderfulthings I've ever eaten. So I'll
have to send you that link aswell.

Absolutely.

Thank you so very much. I really appreciate
this. This has been a mostexcellent, excellent interview.
And and, you know, you espouse alot of the principles that we
talk about at IAMCP and and thepassion that you bring to it
because that is the right way todo business. So thank you so
very much.

Pleasure. Pleasure. Absolutely. Wonderful
interacting with all of you.

Absolutely. Yeah. This was and I I just to
echo, you know, Rudy, reallyappreciate. This was fantastic,
very insightful on across manyfronts.
Where can folks go to find out,you know, more and and connect
with you?

So couple of ways, LinkedIn is one beautiful
place where, you know, I I I Ikeep interacting a lot with my
friends on LinkedIn. Then, ofcourse, as I said, YouTube is
one channel where you can be intouch with me on YouTube.
Absolutely. Right? Leave yourcomments on my videos.
Tell me whether I should makesome different video which is

(59:13):
of, of interest. And I also havemy my I should not say I. Our
company has got some workshopson Microsoft AppSource. Right?
We've got workshops which arebeing published on AppSource.
We've got a Copilot workshop. Wedo a lot of workshops on
Copilot. We got there again, youknow, Microsoft is spending a

(59:37):
lot of resources on Copilot, butcustomers are very confused,
essentially. I mean, that'sthat's my my feeling. So we
designed a nice one hourworkshops on AI and Copilot.
I I love doing that for mycustomers. I love doing that and
telling them the real value ofAI. So we've got Copilot
workshop. We've got productivityworkshop, and we've got a

(01:00:01):
security workshop on AppSource.So that's some another place
where you can, you know, checkit out.
And all in all, the, customersjust come to me. They say, hey.
My license are lying. I know 10%annuals in community. I see his
productivity is an area which Ilove, and I would love to do, do

(01:00:23):
a workshop for you.
So, I mean, that's that's whatsome of the reason which you
have to interact. And of courseif you're a music buff, send me
a message. I'll give you aYouTube link of my music YouTube
channel. I don't mix it withtechnology. Okay.
Technology is different. YouTubeis different. And if you love
desserts follow me on Instagrambecause Instagram my Instagram

(01:00:49):
is all about dessert videos andpictures. It's all about.

Anthony Carrano (01:00:54):
Yeah. Well, that's fantastic. So we will
have in the show notes, forthose listening with the
LinkedIn website. Definitely,the sounds like there's 2
YouTube channels, the dessertInstagram as well as the
workshops, that are located inApp Store. So we'll have all
those links, there in our shownotes.
Suresh, thank you once again.This was fantastic. You have a

(01:01:17):
great rest of the day.

Suresh Ramani (01:01:19):
Absolutely. Yeah. And tomorrow, as I said, I'm off
to Seattle, so we'll be therefor next week. Yeah.

Rudy Rodriguez (01:01:26):
Safe travels. Safe travels.

Suresh Ramani (01:01:28):
Thank you.

Well, that was a great episode. I really
appreciate a lot of the insightsand just the, some of the
perspective and that just someof the history that Suresh
shared with us. Yeah. I don'tknow about you, but I took away
so many things from today'sepisode. You know, in
particular, one of the thingsthat really resonated with me,
Rudy, was just when, you know,asked the question about how do

(01:01:54):
you, you know, go aboutestablishing your brand as a go
to, resource, you know, forpartners and Microsoft.
And he really hit on just theimportance of building and
maintaining a rep hisreputation, especially amongst,
like, CIOs. And there were 4things that he identified that I
just kinda, you know, sharedhere, you know, as we recap

(01:02:15):
this, you know, the first beingjust the importance of
identifying the key areas andto, you know, be brilliant, you
know, in these areas. Thoughtthat was really solid. The
second thing where he said, youknow, as you as you build on
that, just the importance offocusing on delivering high
quality work time in and timeagain. Number 3, just the

(01:02:38):
importance of branding.
You know, whether it's you know,and especially where where, you
know, Suresh really emphasizedthe importance of branding
through social proofs and thirdparty credibility builders,
like, you know, differentawards, credentials, but then
also internal things like someof the thought leadership and
content marketing, that they do.And the 4th, and this is, you

(01:02:59):
know, might be last butdefinitely not least, just the
importance of, you know, forpartners to align themselves
with, you know, the Microsoft,strategies and taking advantage
of the many available programs,you know, that Microsoft has to
offer. So I I thought that wasreally, really insightful. How
about yourself?

Well, you know, I thought it was a great
conversation with Suresh. I'veworked with him many years ago
when we were first trying tobring the India chapter into the
IAMCP and started working withhim back then. And I recognize
the quality of of his work athis perseverance, in in a
project because that was a apretty comprehensive and
difficult project that we had togo through because of all the

(01:03:44):
legal requirements in India. Butone of the things that that
struck me was all those thingsthat you just mentioned, which
is what makes a really highquality partner, period, is is
delivering high quality work andaligning yourself with
Microsoft. And when you're amember of the IAMCP, and this is
something that we we've stressedfor 30 years now, is you if you

(01:04:09):
work through the IAMCP, you willbuild long term trust
relationships that will help youin your business.
And one of the things that wedid there is, you know, the
IAMCP worked with IDC andMicrosoft to develop the partner
maturity model. And those of uswho have been in the channel a
long time follow that very, verycarefully because that gives you

(01:04:33):
the guidance to on how to becomea good partner, how to build the
trust relationships, how toleverage all the resources that
Microsoft brings to bear to totheir partner channel. And if
you follow that, then you'regoing to meet people like
yourself, and you develop into areally good partner. And you you

(01:04:56):
start working with a closecircle of partners, and that's
one thing Suresh also mentionedwas he works only with IAMCP
Partners, and they have tofollow the partner maturity
model. And again, those are thethings that is always stressed
at IAMCP.
So I really appreciated thosecomments, because not not
everyone in the associationfollows those. But if you do,

(01:05:19):
you will be very long termsuccessful.

No. That's really good. And just hearing
you when you shared about, like,with the, you know, the p to p
maturity model, it reminded meof actually a couple other
things that he said, like, intowards the end when you asked
the question about, you know,well, what advice would you give
to partners? And one of thosethings was definitely, you know,
that guidance you get on IAMCPthrough that P2P maturity model.

(01:05:41):
But the other two things, justto kinda piggyback on what you
just shared was, just how and hementioned this a few times.
I really dislike this phrasethat partnering needs to be
strategic, not merely just, youknow, tactical. I thought that
was really key, you know,especially with, you know, going
back to the earlier pointsabout, you know, building your
brand, how you wanna positionyourself as a go to, you know,

(01:06:02):
partner. And then the the otherthe second thing would be just
to understand what kind ofpartner you are and what kind of
partner you want so you can thenalign with the right partner.
And, you know, as he touchedoff, you know, that point, he
said the reason why that'simportant because, you know, as
you're growing your business,you wanna try and get to where,

(01:06:23):
you know, 20% of your revenuesare coming from, you know,
partners. So I thought that wasreally, really good.

Yeah. That was just excellent advice from
Suresh. It really was. Well,that concludes our episode for
today. So we wanna thank you forjoining us on this episode of
IAMCP Profiles in Partnershippowered by Dunamis Marketing.
We hope you enjoyed this podcastand find it useful and
inspiring. If you did, pleasesubscribe, rate, and review us

(01:06:52):
on your favorite podcastplatform. And don't forget to
follow us on social media andconnect with us on our website,
www.iamcp.org, where you canfind more information,
resources, and opportunities topartner for success. One of the
best ways to partner for successis to join IAMCP, a community of

(01:07:13):
Microsoft partners who help eachother grow and thrive. IAMCP
members can find and connectwith other partners locally and
globally and access exclusiveresources and opportunities.
Whether you're looking for newcustomers, new markets, or new
solutions, IAMCP can help youachieve your goals. To learn
more, visit their website atwww.iamcp.org.

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