General Consultant Discussion

Interesting post mostly because it is eerily similar to what is happening with Sage. Also I'm not of the belief that it's up to Microsoft and/or Sage (or any company) to keep their business model the same just so consultants can keep earning a living. It's up to consultants to change as well. http://www.forbes.com/sites/quickerbettertech/2013/09/09/to-all-microsoft-partners-are-you-panicking-too/

This is a pleasant reminder, the grass is not always greener. We have our challenges with Sage; they want to do more things direct, they want to reduced our margins, they drive us crazy, but they are still committed to a partner channel, at least more so than other vendors. We have heard from a number of prospective customers in the last few months that they want to look at Dynamics ERP, but Microsoft doesn't ever have anyone call them back. Glad at this point we choose to stick with Sage years ago when we were deciding to stay MAS 90 or Great Plains.

I know a MS partner that had a sold deal and MS wouldn't allow them to sell it because the prospect was ""too big"" for the partner in question. They handed it to another partner. Yikes.

Both suck. As a partner, and I know its hard to believe, but SAP hands down is the most partner friendly Imagine this: Margins that are as much based on your certifications and customer references as they are on sales volume?? A publisher who for no amount of money will directly support your client (or any client) A publisher who has a portal that actually works and works well A product built for ISV's, not one designed to compete with them Keeping 40% of the maintenance revenue at all margin levels A publisher who still generates and distributes leads (to those who produce anyway) A publisher who found out the cloud and SaaS isn't actually the 2nd coming and is circling back to put real investment into their premise solution A publisher who only develops and sells ONE product in your target market range and who doesn't tell prospects, you only should buy their shiny new toy (cough X3, cough Dynamics AX) A product with one installer works and is compliant in 28 countries and 43 languages. Imagine the opportunity as an ISV for that