For Microsoft partners to conclude an agreement with a prospective client is a time-consuming and laborious process. The creation of a comprehensive catalogue of products and establishing the prices for every product and selling, providing and billing them all by hand require time and are susceptible to errors. In addition, manually integrating updates and changes that Microsoft continually introduces to various products consumes a substantial amount of time, which could be better spent developing stronger relationships with clients or expanding the business.
Partner organizations can automate the process of making changes and have a catalog that is up-to-date – with all the latest features by setting up an automated subscription and billing management system that is built upon Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 CRM platform. Keep reading to learn more about the problems that impact the ecosystem of partners and how an integrated CRM solution can assist you in resolving the issues.
Problems within Microsoft’s partner ecosystem Microsoft partner ecosystem
For Microsoft partners managing subscriptions and billing is always a primary issue. Many products are available on the market at present and Microsoft introduces new products constantly. For customers to keep track of all the new products released and the changes they bring is an enormous task.
Being aware of every change Microsoft creates is a challenge as partners provide users with a range in Microsoft items and services with value. It requires time, effort and money to track each variation, make needed price adjustments, or to incorporate the latest updates. In addition, there are changes that need to be made to the catalogue of products or the changes that need to be made to bundles of products in order to keep up with most recent trends, updates and new developments.
The advantages of a full CRM-based system
Partners that work with many Microsoft products are constantly searching ways to streamline and standardize the services they offer their customers. These partners can easily roll out updates and incorporate new features in their product catalogs and access all the information required to create value through the implementation of an integrated solution based using CRM’s platform.
1. Improve visibility solution is easy to gain a bird’s-eye view of what products are being sold currently and at what cost, as the majority of the partner companies focus on services and products. The catalog of products is able to be integrated into the CRM system to ensure partners also have access to an exhaustive overview of the products and offer an overview of the most popular products, the most recent products that customers are looking for as well as ones that need to be improved.
2. Eliminate the silos of data and systems: A CRM-based integrated system is an excellent way to eliminate the silos of data and systems. A single platform can aid in bringing information from across the company which allows partners to construct an accurate view of their portfolio of products and services and get deeper insights into their services and products. This is better than keeping details about different products in multiple systems.
3. Connecting different departments and teams: an integrated solution can aid in the integration of different departments and teams. As a unit that includes all functions of the corporate such as sales, marketing as well as finance and accounting can review the most current information regarding the most current Microsoft changes, which will increase the company’s flexibility and agility and make choices that will result in improved customer experience.
4. Accelerate decision-making Partner who have an integrated platform can better assess all product lines in making their decisions instead of solely focusing on earnings. They can select which items to sell at what price and which value-added services they want to provide for the best satisfaction and conversion as well as a minimum of loss of revenue, based on when modifications and revisions are made.
5. Automate the production of catalogs of products: Partners can automate the creation of catalogues for their products using an integrated CRM-based system on their own, rather than manually updating their product range. All updates are done completely automatically, which significantly minimizes the chance of billing and subscription errors. Partners can create bundles and offers accordingly while they can improve their cross-sell and upsell strategies.
The business relationship for Microsoft partners is centered around the products and services they offer. But staying up to date with the ever-growing number of services and adjustments is not an easy job. Fortunately, an integrated CRM-based solution can help you put together the numerous pieces. Automating the process of integrating changes and updates Work 365’s automatic billing system allows Microsoft partners to efficiently manage their portfolio of products.
