During my entire tenure at Microsoft, the most difficult problem for young companies has been connecting to the Microsoft ecosystem - more specifically our global sales force. We see this year after year in satisfaction surveys our organization does with startups.
The problem is a really complex one. In multinational conglomerates like IBM and Microsoft, its quite the norm for organizations not to be talking to each other. In the case of Microsoft, there are two organizations startups will interact with in the process of trying to get to the enterprise market place: Developer and Platform Evangelism Organization (DPE) - (my parent organization chartered with technology adoption) and the Enterprise Partner Group (EPG) - our global sales organization that has folks working with enterprises of all sizes around the world.
Having worked in the ISV space at Microsoft over the last 5+ years - I became aware of all the major issues and gaps in the current Microsoft ISV infrastructure which pose a barrier for startups. My experience over the last several years in trying to help startups make the required connections for success has put me in a unique position of understanding exactly what needs to be fixed. This is the task I chose to undertake over the last 2 years in the Emerging Business team.
As you can imagine - the process has been a long one. The key has been to get both business units (DPE and EPG) to realize that they have a common goal even though their objectives are different. The DPE organization had to realize that all their technology adoption efforts is really aimed at getting successful ISV scenarios (which implies companies eventually successful in the marketplace). The EPG organization based on their goals are very tactical and were traditionally interested only in situations that could bring revenue NOW. However its to that organization's best interest to also have a longer term view and put in place a process to nurture the next generation companies.
With a little bit of tenacity, I've gotten both organizations to focus - the EPG organization now realizes the startup ecosystem is where future revenue opportunities are going to come from in the next 3-5 years; and our DPE organization has realized it must go through the motions on making sure it provides the necessary infrastructure to make sure startups get on the latest technology quickly and are set up for future success in the marketplace.
We now have a well baked program which should assist strategic ISVs have a more predictable path through the ecosystem. I have defined a three stage process for this to happen:
(1) Defining Opportunities for ISVs in the Enterprise - the EPG organization has been investing resources over the last couple of years to determine the highest value gaps and opportunities that exist across various enterprise sectors. Our organization has collaborated with EPG in compiling these into "Enteprise Opportunity Maps" which are publicly available to ISVs, entrepreneurs, VCs and startups. If you're an entrepreneur wondering what the next opportunities are in the enterprise, you should check out these maps. Our organization will be making these available in the coming weeks and months.
(2) Validation with our Global Sales Force - once a company has begun to get some wins in the Enterprise, its best at this stage to find out what else they need to do to enhance their value proposition on the Microsoft stack. Each go-to market (GTM) segment identified by our EPG organization have global owners. My organization has been working collaboratively with these global leaders to advise strategic companies how to enhance their value proposition to make our field force excited. In many instances, this involves further integrations of our latest technologies to enhance the product line and upgrading any legacy technologies to the latest.
(3) Building an Engagement Plan - If there is consensus that the ISV solution represents a significant opportunity, the Enterprise Partner Group with their heavy footprint in enterprises can be a great avenue for scale and can assist startups go to market faster. In this stage of the process ,my organization works with the startup to put together a comprehensive engagement plan comprising of three components:
- A Business Development component - where we assess key programs the startup must align with to get traction in the ecosystem with our sales force
- A Technology Alignment \Development Component - where we spell out key enhancements to improve the product line. The plan typically includes timelines for adopting key technologies to enhance the value proposition
- A Sales Activation Component - commitments from the Enterprise Partner Group to expose the ISV solution to the worldwide marketplace
If a compelling plan is put in place, our organization will nominate the startup into our Accelerator program, where they will receive resources (and sometimes funding) to fast track the execution.
During the course of this past fiscal year, I took a number of startups through this process and they are now well on their way to success in the ecosystem. I will profile some of these great companies in the next few blogs.