Define the Strategy, part 3

Secure Remote Work Practice Development Playbook

Product Licensing and Strategy Options
There are multiple options to purchase Microsoft Services depending on customer needs

Microsoft Cloud Expand revenue opportunities and deliver innovative solutions to customers
Solution Provider using Microsoft’s comprehensive cloud portfolio and third-party solutions from
Program the Microsoft Commercial Marketplace.
Microsoft Services The SPLA is for service providers and independent software vendors who want
Provider Licensing to license the latest eligible Microsoft software products to provide software
Agreement (SPLA) services and hosted applications to their customers.
This licensing program makes it easier for ISVs to deliver business solutions by
Microsoft ISV Royalty
allowing them to integrate Microsoft products into other applications and then
Licensing Program
distribute the unified solution to customers.
This option offers the best value to organizations with 500 or more users or
Enterprise agreements devices that want a manageable volume licensing program that gives them the
flexibility to buy cloud services and software licenses under one agreement.

Microsoft Products and This is a transactional licensing agreement for commercial, government, and
Services Agreement academic organizations with 250 or more users/devices.

The Microsoft Licensing site provides information on all programs.

Calculate Azure Practice Costs
Use the Azure Pricing Calculator to estimate costs, build an estimate online and then export it to Excel for further refinement
and analysis. The tool provides the retail rates (also known as the pay-as-you-go option) for Azure services, so treat it like the
high end of any consumption estimate.

Discounts and Credits Cost management

• Graduated Pricing: Services like Azure Blob Cost Management, licensed by Cloudyn, a Microsoft
storage have tiered pricing based upon the subsidiary, helps make the most of Azure and other
volume used. clouds by providing the tools to monitor, allocate, and
• Company Agreement: By making a three-year optimize cloud costs and accelerate future investment
monetary commitment, Azure services are with confidence.
available at a discount off retail rates • Monitor and visualize cloud usage and costs
• Azure Credits: Partners with the Cloud Platform • Gain rich operational and financial insights
competency can receive Azure credits as a part • Improve organizational accountability
of their benefit. • Optimize cloud efficiency
Also check out the Windows Virtual Desktop Pricing
Calculator.
Define a Pricing Strategy
Pricing is very dependent upon the types of solutions being offered, and standard pricing practices are still
evolving. Both flat rate and consumption- or subscription-based pricing models are the most typical.

Project services Managed services Intellectual property

Project services are often billed Customers are increasingly The most common approach to
using the time and materials searching for and demanding obtaining an income stream
methodology and based on fixed additional strategic support based on intellectual property is
hourly pricing of resources. services that are consumed on a by providing a subscription fee
subscription basis. They want to service to access the benefits of a
ensure their business application solution. The subscription can be
solutions will continue to deliver charged on a per-user, per-app,
the value and performance that per-request, or some type of flat
compelled them to implement subscription fee.
them in the first place.

For more detail on pricing strategies, see the Pricing Guide: https://partner.microsoft.com/solutions/build-a-practice.
Maintaining the Solution
In addition to providing customer support, maintenance and on-going feature requests can become
a lucrative part of a practice.

Before any effort with • Recurring maintenance fee: In this approach, a maintenance contract is
the customer begins, written to provide up to a certain number of hours of maintenance for a
include a maintenance recurring price. For example, it might cost the customer $4,000 per month for
contract, which defines up to 40 hours of maintenance each month. This maintenance would be used
how issues discovered to address either break/fix issues or could be applied to new feature
within the application requests.
get fixed and how the • Time and materials fee: Alternately, the customer could have the option of
application is kept up to paying for break/fix and new feature work on a time and materials basis.
date. This creates new projects for each set of new work items which are billed
There are two accordingly. Another approach to a time and materials fee could also be a
approaches a “block of time” retainer approach, where a company purchases a set number
maintenance contract of hours to utilize on an “as needed” basis.
can take:
Customer Support Importance
Customer Feedback Formalization
Pre-Sales, Post-Sales, and Support
Define the technical effort required before the sale, after the sale, and in support of the sale

Pre-sales Post sales Support

• Discuss customer requirements and • Address follow-on concerns about • Define the customer support
address their objections the technology or implementation program and processes.
• Develop technical pitch decks • Provide training to increase • Define the support model
• Provide assessments to determine awareness of the solution that will • Provision the support
workload readiness to move to be implemented infrastructure
cloud services • Deliver a customized technical • Define and implement the
• Deliver a technical demo to inspire demo to better understand the escalation process
confidence by demonstrating customer’s needs before moving on
• Select and enable the support
feasibility to the next phase of the project
options for Azure
• Become a delivery partner, invite • Following up with the customer to
customers to workshops such as ensure implementation is on track
Secure Work from Anywhere and and meeting expectations
Azure Immersion Workshop for
Windows Virtual Desktop
Top Lead Generation Methods
Agile as a Pre-sales Tool
For secure remote work projects, agile methodologies are not only a means for executing project delivery, but
also a pre-sales tool. Consider taking the following approach.
• Qualify the customer to ensure there is budget, interest, and involvement of the appropriate stakeholders.
• For qualified customers, consider performing rapid prototype envisioning with the customer to show what the results
could be.
• Leverage short sprints during prototype development by implementing the minimal set of requirements that will help
clarify the vision with the customer, collecting feedback from the customer and refining the prototype.
• The tangible outcome of a prototype or proof-of-concept demonstrates an understanding of their requirements.
• The ability to quickly deliver tangible results builds trust in the ability to execute.
• The process of iterating on the prototype with the customer is a great way for the customer to experience what it
would be like to work on the larger project.
• Once a customer has the sense of a tangible, working prototype in hand, it becomes more difficult for them to select
competitors who have only provided written proposals.
Sales Compensation Planning
Sales compensation is a challenge for all partners. Microsoft research revealed three core principles of sales
compensation.

Level of incentive vs Simple enough to be

Rewarding sales action
required selling effort understood and drive actions
Reward an array of sales activities, not Consider the effort put in when Do not overly complicate the sales
just the final close. The reward does setting up a compensation model. actions required for compensation.
not have to be big, but there must be Reward the right behavior that gets Drive the behavior that leads to
something to reward the right the result. Do not over-compensate closing business. Reward that
behavior that will lead to the for routine activities that require less behavior and get sales reps to see it
final sale. effort and expertise. Always consider through.
how much of the sales process can be
done by lower-level sales staff versus
the sales executive.
Sales Compensation Variables
When deciding how to calculate the compensation for the sales incentives, consider the variables
that help describe the magnitude of the benefit to the customer and the effort required to close the sale.
Examples include:

Expected duration Expected number of units Feature options

How long is the contract for? How much of the service is Some features are more
Longer contracts are more purchased? Higher quantity profitable to the company than
lucrative to the company and purchases deliver more value to others. Consider incentivizing
should have higher valued the company and should have the higher profit margin features
incentives. higher valued incentives. with higher valued incentives to
drive sales.
Positioning the Offer via Incentives
Depending on the maturity of the practice, it may require different incentives to encourage the sale.
This table illustrates a decision-making process to fine tune incentives based on how the offer’s incentives
compete with those of other companies.

1 2 3
The new offer directly competes The offer complements existing The new offer addresses new
with existing solutions: solutions to the same customers: customers:
• Sell through existing sales • Sell through extended sales • Sell through extended sales
force • Double book compensation • Specific compensation to
• Increase level of (1/3 to existing sales force, 2/3 extended sales team
compensation vs. to extended sales)
compensation on existing
offerings
Define the Strategy, part 3
Secure Remote Work Practice Development Playbook