From New Jersey to Milan: Navigating International Microsoft Partnerships
Welcome to the IAMCP Profiles and Partnership, the podcast that showcases how Microsoft partners and IAMCP members boost their business by collaborating with other members and partners. I'm your co-host Anthony Carrano, and in each episode I'll be talking to some of the most innovative and successful partners in the Microsoft ecosystem. The International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners, otherwise known as IAMCP, is a community of Microsoft partners who help each other grow and thrive. Members can find and connect with other partners locally and globally and access exclusive resources and opportunities. Whether you're looking for new customers, new markets, or new solutions, IAMCP can help you achieve your goals.
Anthony Carrano:We'll hear their stories, learn from their experiences, and discover the best practices and strategies they use to increase customer loyalty and grow revenues. Whether you're a new partner or an established one, you'll find valuable insights and inspiration in this podcast. We hope you enjoy this podcast and find it useful and inspiring. If you do, please subscribe, rate, and review us on your favorite podcast platform. And don't forget to follow us on social media and connect with us on our website, www.profilesandpartnership.com, where you can find more information, resources, and opportunities to partner for success. Thank you for listening. Now let's get started with today's episode.
Anthony Carrano:But before we dive into our interview, let me ask you. How do you deal with cultural and language differences in managing your international partnerships? And how are you investing in not only the relationship, but the skills and resources your partners and employees need to be successful?
Anthony Carrano:And what role does customer advocacy play in your business model and growth strategy? We dive into these questions and more as our guests discuss how being a Microsoft partner has contributed to building a robust partner relationships internationally and share examples of successful collaborations that have driven significant achievements. Are you ready to join us on this journey? Then stay tuned because we have a great show for you today. Our guests are Paymon Je and Dominick Zappia, the managing partners at Admiral Consulting Group, a tier one CSP specializing in Dynamics 365, Business Central, and the Power Platform. Let's hear what they have to say.
Anthony Carrano:Well, welcome Dominick and Paymon to the podcast today. Really appreciate you joining us.
Dominick Zappia:Oh, thanks for having us, Anthony.
Paymon Jelvani:Thank you. Thank you, Anthony.
Anthony Carrano:Excellent. Why don't we start off and one of you can go like, just tell us a little bit about yourself and your role in the company.
Paymon Jelvani:If you don't mind, Dominick, I'll jump in.
Dominick Zappia:Sure.
Paymon Jelvani:So, I'm a co founder of Admiral, Started the company in 2002, and I'm coming from the accounting background. I'm a retired CPA. I was a controller before I started the consulting and has been in consulting world, for about, twenty six years now.
Paymon Jelvani:And, the the part that is really, you know and and I'm leading the operating, operational side of the company. And, what really, drives my passion, is a human impact of our work. And I truly believe that, whatever that we do for our clients, ultimately has to enable them and improves their efficiencies and help the staff and teams that they have, so they can do their job better in a smarter and faster. That's really the human factor is very core to me regardless of the technology.
Anthony Carrano:Now I know, know, in addition to cofounding the company, I hear you you run New Jersey. Is that right?
Paymon Jelvani:Yeah. No. No. No. That's no. I am I'm involved with the local municipality. I'm currently deputy mayor in the town that I live, and, I've been in you know, doing a lot of community services. You know, I was on the board of it for ten years, board president, been a lot of on local boards, and, I like I like serving. To me, it's a it's it's a passion that I have regardless of what it is. I like to serve people. And that's I think that's in my DNA, and I enjoy it. And but some days, no. Some days, I said, what what the heck am I doing? But for the most part, it's very enjoyable.
Anthony Carrano:Oh, that's fantastic. That's fantastic. Dominick, how about yourself?
Dominick Zappia:Yeah. So I've been with Admiral for, gosh, about twenty five years. Twenty years now. I'm one of the partners here with Paymon. I'm responsible for sales and marketing in the organization.
Dominick Zappia:I've been in sales literally since the day I walked out of college over forty years ago, but I got into the technology space in the late nineties. And I've actually known Paymon for probably close to twenty five, thirty years now. And, know, as I said, I'm handling the sales and marketing on the team here and really love working with clients, helping them find improvement to their existing processes and making them more efficient as Peyman had said. So that's a little bit about about me.
Anthony Carrano:Now, I know we were talking here before the start of the interview. I guess you were a big radio guy there in New York,
Dominick Zappia:Well, wouldn't say I was a big radio guy. I did have an internship at a rock station in
Anthony Carrano:Okay.
Dominick Zappia:Manhattan, WPLJ. Got to meet some know, song folks who would come into the studio for interviews and things like that. But I was on my local college radio station, but nothing too exciting. It was basically announcing events happening around the campus and, sports and discourse and things of that nature. But I did have a dream of being a disc jockey, but it never really panned out.
Anthony Carrano:Okay. Okay. Well, maybe we'll have to explore that a little bit afterward.
Dominick Zappia:Yeah. I can start looking into that.
Anthony Carrano:That's great. Now, Paymon, you mentioned as being as a, you know, help found Admiral. What why did you start the company?
Paymon Jelvani:It was the the birth of that was the philosophy. I mean, I think that was if I sit back and look why we did it, there is a way of, back in the days when we were calling ourselves consultant. You know? I I didn't like that the company that I was in with everything was about clients were always about numbers, you know, who build more, who who generated more, and they didn't really care about what we do for the clients. And that was a fundamental philosophy change that I had, and and I I had to segregate myself.
Paymon Jelvani:So I I left and we started this and from the foundation because and the reason for that, actually, I was a client. I was when I was a controller, I was using the company that end up working for as a consultant, and I remember that we were just you know, it was a number, not necessarily. We're getting in build, and that philosophy kinda like that mindset settled with me that when we why do we do what we do and what is the bottom line? I mean, obviously, we are in the business of making money like anybody else. But is that it?
Paymon Jelvani:Or there's there's something else? And I I truly believe that at Admiral, every individual that, we have, all the team players and members, they have a common theme, and that is serving the client. Client always is a first. It's we we see us like a in a health care, it's like a nurse, you know, that the all they do with, you know, we deal with a lot of things that we don't like it. We don't, you know, agree with it, but ultimately comes down to is that going to benefit the client?
Paymon Jelvani:Is that going to is that going to serve them? What do we do to help them become better? What tools we're gonna provide to them? And regardless of the technology, I mean, technology moves. You know, what we talk about technology today, next year is gonna be obsolete.
Paymon Jelvani:But the human relationship doesn't get obsolete. When you build a partnership with the client and they become their adviser, it is a long, long relationship. Doesn't matter what happens. And we have clients that when my wife was pregnant twenty two years ago, they were my clients back then. We did it and we became kind of like a family. And they're still they're still our client. And so that's really what why we started Admiral.
Anthony Carrano:That's fantastic. Now tell us a little bit about Admiral's areas of specialization despite as it pertains especially to like the Microsoft technologies.
Dominick Zappia:Yeah. So, we're a Microsoft cloud tier one solution provider. I mean, we specialize in everything Microsoft. Our mainstay really is the business applications, which would include the Dynamics 365 Business Central. We also have legacy clients using older versions of Microsoft ERP products such as Dynamics SL and Dynamics GP, which those products are slowly retiring and people are beginning to migrate to Dynamics 365 Business Central.
Dominick Zappia:We also support the Microsoft Dynamics customer service and sales, which was formerly their CRM product, which is now have morphed into field service, professional services, marketing. So we have a pretty good stay with with that solution. We also do provide cloud hosting for our clients on the Azure platform. We also are very do a lot of work on the power on the power platform from from the workflow and power apps. And as well as have an MSP practice as well, providing managed services to many of our existing clients, as well as some clients who might not be using one of the Microsoft ERP products, but still use our managed services.
Anthony Carrano:That's excellent. Thank you.
Rudy Rodriguez:Okay. So gentlemen, interesting start to the company. Let's get into the showcase we're gonna talk about today. Can you tell us a little bit about the client? You don't have to give us a name. But can you share the size, the industry, the technology that was implemented and what challenges they were facing?
Dominick Zappia:Yeah, so we're working with a partner that was based in Milan, Italy. What how this all came about is we there's a lot of international deals that we work with partners in in Europe. And our most recent one was a client here in in New York City, an apparel company who sold sportswear, sports equipment, very focused on the boxing industry and I guess it's like MMA fighting, I think is what it's called. And, they were looking to get into the US market. And they're a very large company in Italy and throughout Europe.
Dominick Zappia:And, there was a partner that we have worked with in the past, again, based in Milan, Italy, who reached out to us and said, hey, we have a company here in Italy who's looking to expand into The US market and they're deploying Business Central here in Italy and we'd like to deploy it there in The US but need a local partner to help with that implementation. And that's really where it started. We had worked with this company on numerous occasions, many other deals. The first one being Maserati back, gosh, had to be, I I don't know, years ago. But we've built a relationship with this company and anytime they have a company Italy or in Europe that is looking to expand into The US market, they reach out to us and we work with them in conjunction to implement Business Central.
Rudy Rodriguez:Very cool. Any specific functions that that company does? I mean, besides Business Central?
Dominick Zappia:Yeah, they are mainly selling via e commerce today in The US. But as they continue to grow in The US, they're going to begin to distribute into retail stores, sports stores, I guess specialty stores that you know, serve that industry, if you will, the the sports, you know, sportswear, things like that. And, you know, so we're we're really just starting it up here in in The US. We really just finished up localizing everything for them here from a financial perspective because financials are much different here in The US than they are in Europe with regard to localization, things of that nature, which payment could expand on. But eventually, as they continue to grow, we're going to have you know, set up their operations with regards to warehouse management and, know, the whole supply chain.
Rudy Rodriguez:Since you work with business applications, you know, I know that there's a Business Central has very specific functions, there's a lot of ISVs that provide products that integrate with Business Central. What's your criteria for selecting a partner as a participant in any of the solutions that you're trying to provide to your customers?
Paymon Jelvani:So that's a very good question. And I think the main criteria for us is having an alignment with our philosophy of the way that we treat and serving our clients. And we find some ISVs are very they have very similar mindset, and it becomes a natural fit. Besides the tools that they have, obviously, the first the first initiation of reaching out to ISVs is a need for a particular gap filling for lack of the functionalities in Business Central. That's a beginning of it.
Paymon Jelvani:But then as we know that in the market, there are few few ISVs doing pretty much the same functionality. And but the criteria is really, you know, after the implementation is done, if anything happens, are they gonna pick up and answer the call that we have or the clients have? And are they gonna be there for for when the things are not going smoothly? And we cherry pick those ISVs and partners. And any of them that we have established a relationship, it's, as Dominick mentioned, that these are usually go for decade, you know, decades, and it it becomes a natural relationship among us.
Anthony Carrano:Yes. So, I would say there's- I really find it fascinating that you're working with an international company. Do you guys do a lot of business with international partners?
Dominick Zappia:We do actually. Actually, we do quite a bit with partners throughout Europe. You know, right now we're working on three deals. Want one of with a Italian partner, as I mentioned, and also
Anthony Carrano:Those are the best, right, Dominick?
Anthony Carrano:Yeah, fellow Paisano
Dominick Zappia:Of course. Of course.
Anthony Carrano:I mean, come on, you know.
Dominick Zappia:And we actually just finished up a deal with a Danish company that is the partners is a Danish based company and the client is here in New York City and in the logistics industry. And then we also were doing another one with the Denmark company that is also apparel that we finished up about a year ago. So it's yeah, we've done a number of them and I think the reason is we're pretty easy to work with. You know, here at Admiral, you know, we're not layers and layers of bureaucracy. So when people call us, we can be pretty agile and make a decision pretty quickly.
Dominick Zappia:You know, it's not 48 layers of I have to check with so and so. So, you know, I think, I think they like that. You know, you could, you could still call us here and, know, the chances of me picking up the phone are pretty good. Whether that's good, bad or indifferent, I just feel it's important to give the client, you know, to work with a partner who really has your same, it's the word I'm looking for, want to be, you know, their main focus is making sure the client is satisfied and make sure the client is properly treated. And that's really what we want to do.
Dominick Zappia:So we need to align on that end. Sometimes some of these partners, you know, may think a little differently than us and it's not a good fit.
Anthony Carrano:So how did you because it sounds like you guys do a lot of business with international partners who are looking for, you know, an expert here in The States, right, to work with, their US operations. How did you get into that? Was it strategic or was it by accident?
Dominick Zappia:No, it wasn't at all actually. Typically they find us, and I think once they find us, they realize that we are again, easy to work with and able to pretty quickly move and assist them again without having to go through a lot of bureaucracy. And then what happens is, one turns into two and turns into three. Most of these European companies, they have some US presence of some sort and they find us and then it just becomes repeat business. I think with this Italian company, it's probably like our fourth or fifth deal. Sometimes one partner will refer another partner as well, but they just reach out to us and you know, don't take four days to get back to them and things work.
Anthony Carrano:Now, what about, I think this, I don't know why I find that really just, you know, fascinating. I think maybe part of it's just because, you know, a lot of, like, the folks we talk with, they, you know, mainly are doing a lot of, you know, partner to partner, like, collaborations, you know, with fellow, like, US based companies. We might get we've done some interviews where maybe they've, like, know, fellow even European, you know, companies kinda working together. But this is this is unique in that it's, you know, European partner here with The US for, you know, a lot of business. What are what are some of the cultural challenges that you faced in in kind of or have you faced in working with your international partners?
Paymon Jelvani:Yeah, I think the I would say that the most challenging part is the language barrier because certain things, like in this particular example that Dominick was, sharing that, you know, when we talk about sales tax, for example, in US or 1099 and for them, besides the technical side of it, there were a lot of language barriers to like when we were talking about it, they couldn't understand the what I'm saying or what the client is saying, The U. S.-based client users were saying because of their language. But then that was the initial port. After that, then it pretty much became smooth. So I think that's one of the challenges.
Paymon Jelvani:The other challenge is could be potentially time difference, because by the time that, we kind of like get, you know, we are in East Coast. So by the time that we get into, doing work is kind of like toward the end of their day and something might happen at 03:00 our time that then we're not going to get any response back until if we need something until the next day. But that's I would say in the grand scheme of those are very minor aspect. And just going back, it's not always partners in Europe coming to us. We also have clients that they their headquarters in US and they have subsidiaries in Europe. And they those subsidiaries want to have local presence, put on the ground local. And we do partnership with it's a reciprocal of what we receive from partners. We also give those partners those opportunities to get involved and being our trusted advisor, if you will, for those subsidiaries and staff in those areas.
Dominick Zappia:That's a good point because right now to Paymon's point, we're working a deal. We have a client here in Connecticut that has an operation in Ireland. And we actually engage with a Dynamics partner in Ireland to assist them locally because sometimes, you know, they need local support. They need someone on-site. So, it does go, you know, it does go back and forth.
Anthony Carrano:So with doing a lot of, like, looking at those type of situations, so you have a, you know, what are some things that you look for in finding a partner that can provide maybe some of that local support for some of your contacts?
Dominick Zappia:I think, you know, again, think it's about the service, the quality of service, the responsiveness, and the fact that they always have the client's best interest in mind. I mean, listen, we're all in this to make a few bucks, but at the end of the day, if the client's not happy, then it's going be an issue and you're not going to get paid, you're not going to make any money. So, you know, it's being in alignment with that partner, you're knowing that they're open minded, flexible, and they're agile. So, you know, you kind of hit it off on the first call, you know, know whether or not it's going to work really within five minutes of the first call, in my opinion anyway.
Paymon Jelvani:It becomes a mutual relationship and understanding that if and knowing that if if the if the partner that we're going to do partnership with, if they're going to be successful, we're to be successful. Their their success is going to reflect us. And if we fail, our failure would reflect them. So it's a it's a very mutual relationship that we we both, you know, as partners, we both have same goal. And if if the goal gets aligned, as Dominick mentioned, you know, having the the respect for the clients need and having the quality, we are very into the quality.
Paymon Jelvani:If we can achieve that goal among the partners, the client is gonna be successful and everybody's gonna be happy at the end. And that doesn't mean that things are always gonna be perfect. Issues happen. Every implementation has its own challenges and ups and downs, but it's a end result that we need to achieve.
Anthony Carrano:Mhmm. I do have I I would like to ask, a piggyback question off a a statement that was made about you could usually tell within the first five minutes. What are some things and I'm asking especially for, like, our listeners, you know, to the you know, to this podcast, like, to help them if the you know, if it's something that they wanna embark on. What are some of the things that you're listening for in that first five minutes that says, okay, yeah, yay or nay?
Dominick Zappia:Yeah. I think if the conversation is more dictatorial where they're telling you exactly what they're going to do and we as a company don't really have any say in the matter, then you're probably not going to want to work with them. I mean, at the end of the day, they own the project, but if they're not willing to listen to our recommendations or our suggestions or what we think could benefit the client because we are based here in The US and know things they might not be aware of. If they're very adamant about not working together and basically we're just hired help, then, you know, we know it's not going to work. Goes back and forth.
Dominick Zappia:So they have to value our opinion. They have to value our recommendations. Now whether they take them or not is a different story, but knowing that they're listening and open minded to it to me is important. Sometimes clients also, I'm of the opinion if you bluntly screw with me once, then it's done. So there's not going be another deal.
Dominick Zappia:So you need to have the first deal to go successfully because if it doesn't, just too many times you try to dot every I and make sure it's just perfect, perfect. But sometimes, you're not going to know until you start working with a partner. But typically, like I said earlier, not to be contradictory, in that first five minutes, just tell if a person is open minded and they listen to you and aren't just talking over you, then then, you know, either they're workable. It's workable.
Anthony Carrano:Mhmm.
Paymon Jelvani:Yeah. The other thing is that, like, you could tell that is some some companies are very good good at, as we call it, good daters. You know, they're very flashy. They come very strong, you know, day one, hour one. But then you could tell that, are they really into just having a good presentation and show, but there's no depth and quality behind that show. And that it's I mean, we've been doing this for, you know, too long and just talking to someone, we can easily catch that that, yes, the person that is saying this, is that is that an honest statement or it's just reading off of the PowerPoint script.
Anthony Carrano:That's excellent.
Dominick Zappia:Yeah, because today you find it's more, it might be a generational thing too, but it's more today, sometimes when you're talking to people, they can't give you an answer. They have to go to somebody else to go to somebody else to go to somebody else. Sometimes and a client just likes to talk to somebody who just can give them the answer when they're on the phone with them. You're not going to know everything, but it's again, being repetitive, it's being redundant. It's not the type of thing where I got to check with 48 people to give you an answer.
Dominick Zappia:I can tell you within five seconds, yes or no. Maybe because I'm one of the partners in the company, but on the other hand, we allow our consultants, Paymon could speak to it, to make decisions as well. I mean, not necessarily monetary decisions about the company, but client based decisions based on what they think is best for the client.
Anthony Carrano:Rudy, if I may,I wanna, I know you've got a couple of questions here, but I'd like to ask a follow-up then on that is because so it's not so you've decentralized. So the decision making, you basically sense you give your consultants a lot of latitude with the decision making. How have you guys so it's gonna kinda be a multipart words like is, like, put in, like, but also culture that enables that to where you can be a relatively flat org that allows so in the name of providing speed and quality and responsiveness to people's needs. Maybe unpack that a little bit.
Paymon Jelvani:Yeah. I mean, if I may jump in. So we we are considered a flat organization for good and bad, and it is part of the culture. It's not a script of methodology per se, but it is it is part of the culture that, first of all, the team that we have are very, very solid and expert in the not only from the technology standpoint, but also from industry standpoint. So when they are interacting with the client and end user, for example, there's a decision about or or conversation about warehouse management, and we we have a consultant that, which I don't like the word of consultant, but let's just say for the lack of, you know, one of our, consultants is interacting with that end end user.
Paymon Jelvani:They can actually share a a depth of experience and expertise. So we allow them to do that because they are expert. If they are interacting with a client, they don't need to get permission from Dominick or Paymon, should they say this, should they say that. I mean, obviously, from the contractual agreements or monetary things, they know their level of boundaries, but they know that. I mean, we have first of all, majority of our employees are very seasoned senior.
Paymon Jelvani:They've been with the company some from the beginning of the inception of the company. So they know our mindset, and we hire those that actually follow the same, what I call it, our DNA. They are in the same DNA that we believe and we trust. We trust them. And and everybody makes mistake, truly believe that, but we help them.
Paymon Jelvani:I mentor our staff a lot, one on one mentorship with them. And they learned that, when they sit in the meeting and we conduct a meeting and I'm on it, they learned that how I present the company or the situation or how you're going to handle the situation. So it is being part of the culture of the company. There's no there's no SOP or instruction that you're going to do this, you're going to do that. And that's that that's what made us being successful.
Paymon Jelvani:I just disclose the key to our success, I guess. But so that that is really the key.
Anthony Carrano:Well, Paymon, don't worry about that because there's a lot of recipes out there, but it still takes a chef to put the meal together. So you'll be okay. You'll be alright. Rudy, I know you've got, some, some questions.
Rudy Rodriguez:Yeah, I've been I've been listening carefully. And so one of the things that that I noticed in this conversation was, you know, in building partnerships, those can be challenging at time and especially working with, international organizations. But it sounds like whether you've directly or indirectly have thought of rules of engagement, as to how you engage partners and how you work with them. So Dominick, you said, you can usually tell in five minutes. Do you coach your team along those rules of engagement, you know, as to how to work with not only work with customers as well as as partners? Because operationally, those can, you know, you deal with a product that is an integral part of a company's success in ERP. And so those rules of engagement become very important. Can you talk a little bit about, you know, how you deal with some of those issues?
Dominick Zappia:With so, Rudy, just so I'm understanding your question. So so with regards how we work with our client themselves?
Rudy Rodriguez:Yeah with your clients, as well as your partners, because there's, there's, you're engaging at two different levels at the customer level, as well as the partner level. And operationally, those become very important as to, you know, as how do you bring that together? So how do you, you know, do you coach your team along that as to how to deal with the partner as well as your clients and what what those engagement principles are?
Paymon Jelvani:Yeah. I think the one of one of the things that we do, we take the advocacy for our clients. So when you when you have that mindset that you're advocating for a client and you're dealing with the ISV that we built a partnership with, it's we we kind of like shortcut the relationship. Instead of having clients working with us and working with ISV, we work with ISV partner for the client. And the that relationship, it becomes very smooth right at the beginning.
Paymon Jelvani:We get tend to get them engaged in the early stage of the process. So our staff know that. They don't assume or guess that such such processes would be would be part of that solution. For example, we it's part of the partnership. When we when we build the partnership with ISVs, if they need help, they reach out to you to to us immediately.
Paymon Jelvani:If we need help, we reach out to them immediately and we get them engaged in that process. And I think the since we've doing that, we've done this so many times and we have a lot of partners that we do partnership with. You know, our staff are are they kind of like automatically they they learn that. Now, if you hire a new staff, that's a different conversation. We let them to shadow that and, you know, just kind of like walk with them, hand hold their hands and teach them how to interact with the partner because as you said, it's different.
Paymon Jelvani:You're dealing with someone who is paying your bill as a customer, as a client, and then you have someone that is actually interacting with you to serve that client. So it's a different relationship, and we don't see them as a outsider. I think the best way to say that the partners to us are not outsiders. Now there are different level of partners that we do have, you know, larger organizations might be different, but, you know, most of the partners that we deal with, they become kind of like part of the same. They get infused into our processes as well and work very nicely.
Paymon Jelvani:And we do actually have a particular one of our team members is dedicated to do advocacy for clients, which that kind of like allows us to bridge that gap.
Rudy Rodriguez:Well, you you brought up a very important term that's dear and dear to my heart than having run a couple of companies before. Customer advocacy. That's a hard thing to teach sometimes, because when you're a customer advocate, that leads to more customer satisfaction, and that helps you grow your business. So let's talk a little bit about, you know, in your partnering experience, you know, in all your engagements that you've done, how you've worked to to grow that customer satisfaction, which can ultimately lead to increasing your revenue as well. Because customers come back and you talked about customers staying with you and employees staying with you for the length of your company, and that's that's, very important.
Rudy Rodriguez:Can you talk a little bit about, you know, what you've done in that, in that realm, you know, in dealing with partners to help you grow your engagements?
Dominick Zappia:Yeah. I mean, from my end, know, people wanna work with people they like and respect. So I think treating the customer in a respectful way, listening to the customer, you know, a lot of time, from my experience, you know, implementers don't really put a lot of weight on what the customer says. They may not value what they're saying, which to me is not correct. Even if the customer is wrong or you don't believe what they're saying is correct, you still want to listen to them.
Dominick Zappia:You want to show them respect of, of, hey, I value what you're what you're saying, but have you thought about looking at it in this way or that way? So I think, you know, we we take a lot of rescues over every year because a lot of other we find at least anyway, some of the other partners just are not they're they're just not open minded and listening to what the what the client has to say. They think they're always right. And even if they are right, you don't want it to come out that way that's, you know, making the customer feel less that's saying what you were saying was, you know, not was completely incorrect and or wrong. So, you know, again, just getting back, you know, people wanna work with people they like.
Dominick Zappia:If if if you're working with someone who you just just know is not the the right person, the the relationship is not gonna, you know, it's not gonna grow.
Paymon Jelvani:Yeah. I think, Rudy, the other the other element to that is which we are it's one of our key recipes or core values is honesty. Our staff know that as well that we are human. We make mistake. We don't know everything.
Paymon Jelvani:There's a lot of things that, you know, especially with, like, you know, focusing on the application, particular application, the updates happen, you know, new technology gets introduced. We don't know everything of everything every day. So but if we are honest about it and if the client ask and we are not trying to fake it that we know what we're talking about while we don't know, I found that so many times that in the early stage of my when I started in consulting, I was honest about it. I told the client, I don't know this. And believe it or not, I gained more respect because they felt the honesty.
Paymon Jelvani:And I found it for them. I I'll be did a follow-up and find it. And I think the and the honesty goes both ways between partners, you know, we need to be honest with each other. We need to inform the partner the cases that might be problematic during the engagement with the particular client. So they are aware of that, being honest about each other.
Paymon Jelvani:I think that is really another key elements. And as long as we believe, in fact, that we're not robots, we are human, dealing with human, as Dominick mentioned, and and just have that always behind our mind that we are two two individuals are interacting with each other and just be honest and don't don't make things up. Don't fake it because that doesn't last long.
Rudy Rodriguez:No. You know, sincerity in business is in communication is so important. And you've brought up the under trying to understand, you know, a lot of times there's breakdowns in communications and trying to understand what a customer is telling you. That's very, very important. And whether it's a customer or a partner, it's very important in building that.
Rudy Rodriguez:So in this has been a very good conversation, gentlemen. In closing, what advice would you give companies like yours regarding partnering and how to be more successful in partnering?
Dominick Zappia:I have found that a lot of people who come to us may have gone to some maybe they went to somebody before to partner with and the other folks were, Hey, listen, we don't do that. We don't partner with other folks or it's just not something we do. And it's not something we did until the first one. And once we realized how successful it was, we said, Oh, let's keep doing this. So I think it's not being closed minded, being open minded is key to success.
Dominick Zappia:You know, there's that just again, just my motto is, you know, be open minded. You know, if someone calls you out of the blue and says, hey, you know, I'm thinking about this. Would you be interested in partnering? Or I have a customer, you know, would you be interested in doing this? At the end, you might not do it, but to me, five minutes of your time is always is worth it to to listen to what someone has to say unless it's, you know, something ridiculous, but but that's just my mindset on it anyway.
Dominick Zappia:Yeah.
Paymon Jelvani:I think from my, really, very good point, it is hard when you grow a company, especially organically like us, you cannot be everywhere all the time. You cannot have everything all the time. You rely on some other avenues that you could either expand your footprint, your service offering or whether that's a geographic location or technology wise. And the only way that you can do that is by partnering and having that kind of like a shared services concept, just having that mindset that and again, as long as you find the right partner that fits with your ecosystem in the organization, that is going to enable and opens many doors that you've never had it. And if you don't do it, to Dominick's point, you lose the opportunity.
Paymon Jelvani:And and again, it might not gonna work out. You don't know until you try it. I mean, we are in the business as a business entrepreneurs, you always take risks. And you have to take a risk in order to get a reward. And taking the risk of partnering with others is not always just, I want to make all the money myself, and I don't want to share that wealth is on anybody's.
Paymon Jelvani:There's plenty out there for everybody to be able to benefit from. And I think by partnering, you would expand your footprint geographically, you would expand your relationship. And also, you don't know what other things that you can learn from other partners. There might be something that they do better than we do. And by partnering, we learn about it, and we it helps us to grow as well, too.
Paymon Jelvani:So it's I would say that it's actually essential to look at partnership.
Dominick Zappia:I think that Paymon's point I mean, I think clients have more respect for you when you when you tell them, hey, listen, it's not our expertise, but I have a partner who who does this, and that's all they do all day. And I think the client has just so much more respect for you than trying to be a you know, for us to be the handyman and try to do everything. I think when you tell them, hey. Listen. I have another partner I work with closely who can do this other piece of the project.
Dominick Zappia:You know, they're very open minded to it. You know, years ago, I don't think that was as much the case, but I think today, all the the customers' most concern is that he's gonna be taken care of and how he gets there, he doesn't really care as long as he gets there.
Anthony Carrano:That's fantastic. Yeah. No. That's great. I love it too. I just especially, you know, we said the customer can, you know, figure out anyway, especially now with access to all the information really at their fingertips. You know? But being the fact that as a human that you can provide that definitely, I think, boost your credibility and validity in their minds. So that's that's awesome. Well, guys, I've really enjoyed talking with you.
Anthony Carrano:This this was a great, great show. So last question really is, you know, how can people find out more about you, and what are some of the best ways to connect?
Dominick Zappia:For myself, we do a lot of social media. We post on LinkedIn. My contact information's out there. Certainly, you can go to our website, admiralusa.com, find us there. Other than that, I'd say look me up in the phone book, but I don't think there's any more phone books.
Dominick Zappia:So, you know, I think going to our website or LinkedIn would be the easiest way.
Paymon Jelvani:Yeah. I mean, I'm I'm not on LinkedIn. I used to be very active, but after data breach, I end up closing my account. And but I joined attend a lot of conferences. So whether that is directions, build, Microsoft Ignite, you can connect with me personally in those conferences or just reach out to us in admiral-usa.com
Paymon Jelvani:We welcome welcome anything. And even if something that we can help you and doesn't necessarily monetary benefit us, we we are in this business of partnering and helping someone else that maybe there are beginner in this market and they're young young, not not necessarily from age standpoint, but young from the experience into the ecosystem, Microsoft partner ecosystem. I've had that discussion a lot. You know, I love I love having conversation and guide them and teach them and share with them the the hoops that we had to go through, the mistakes that we made, and, you know, if they can be better partner, that's that's fantastic, and we we love that.
Anthony Carrano:Excellent. Excellent. And I'll be sure just the links and things that were mentioned. Those will all be in the show notes. So once again, Dominick, Paymon, really appreciate you.
Anthony Carrano:Gentlemen, you have a great rest of the day.
Dominick Zappia:You too. Thank you so much for the opportunity.
Anthony Carrano:Well, that was a great episode. I really appreciate, the time that Paymon and Dominick spent with us and just giving us a lot of their perspective.
Rudy Rodriguez:Absolutely. That was a very enjoyable conversation with both those gentlemen.
Anthony Carrano:Yeah. I found it pretty fascinating too just how they were talking about, you know, a big you know, for many years, just the amount of business that they have with international partners who are headquartered overseas, but who have US operations and just the nature, you know, of the that partnership, you know, with those type of companies and just really how the importance of just being accessible, but also easy to work with and making sure that just transcends, you know, communications, you know, processes, you know, and culture. And so I really enjoyed, you know, their perspectives on that.
Rudy Rodriguez:Oh, absolutely. And, you know, the the one thing that it really picked up on it was, you know, when we were talking about how they partner and Paymon brought up the term customer advocacy, being an advocate for your customers. And and in this case, not only do you have the implementation partner that's a customer, but also the partner that brought them the business or with whom they're partnering with with as an ISV to implement their product. They're advocates on both sides. And one of those things that that you bring up is it's also a very big cultural issue within a company or a cultural process within their company.
Rudy Rodriguez:Because when you're a customer advocate, you have certain core principles that have to cut that come into play in being that customer advocate. And that's understanding, honesty, and trust. And that leads to success of your business. And I found that very, very one, I remembered, you know, how I used to run my companies. And we used to preach that all the time.
Rudy Rodriguez:And we always used to teach our people, we are all customer advocates. And I was really grateful to hear that, that somebody else is doing that as well. And it's really funny because Paymon's a former accountant, and being a last accountant myself, it's a it really brought forth because that's one of the things that we know when you start out as as an accountant is that you're a fiduciary for your customer. And again, you're a cust you're you're advocating for your customers' issues. And so I found that very, very helpful.
Rudy Rodriguez:And the fact that they continue to preach that, that's how you can run a very successful company. So I did appreciate that about them.
Anthony Carrano:Well, that makes sense because, you know, we're you know, we talked a lot about where just the importance of being both, you know, highly responsive, but also just, you know, the emphasis on honesty. Right? And in order to be able to have customer advocacy, you have to, you know, be, you know, very, you know, just very honest and transparent. And I think, you know, to the point you brought up about the the, you know, the accounting backgrounds, you know, how you know, that you you've gotta be very clear and and straight with that. So I'm sure that probably played into that.
Anthony Carrano:Is that what you've kinda found in your experience?
Rudy Rodriguez:Yeah. Very much so. Very much so. I think it, you know, when you go through through that training, you know, when you're in school and and when you go into business, you've got to be you know, you're dealing with the people's financials and or company's financials, and you've got to be very clear. You have to be you have to understand how all that gets built.
Rudy Rodriguez:You have to be able to communicate it. And when people ask you to do something you're not supposed to, you can't do that. You can't do that. You have to be very honest about it. And that's just very, very comes through very clear in that conversation.
Rudy Rodriguez:Very, very clear. And the fact that Paymon's now a deputy mayor, he's using those same principles in in how he manages his time as deputy mayor as well. So found that very, very helpful, very useful. So if you could relate to it, boy, it really rings home. It really rings home.
Rudy Rodriguez:And I think they're doing both gentlemen are doing an excellent job in in running that organization.
Anthony Carrano:Mhmm.
Rudy Rodriguez:Everyone, I want to thank you all for joining us on this episode of IAMCP Profiles in Partnership powered by Dunamis Marketing. We hope you enjoyed this podcast and find it useful and inspiring. If you did, please subscribe, rate, and review us on your favorite podcast platform. One of the best ways to partner for success is to join IAMCP, a community of Microsoft partners who help each other grow and thrive. IAMCP members can find and connect with other partners locally and globally and access exclusive resources and opportunities.
Rudy Rodriguez:Whether you're looking for new customers, new markets or new solutions, IAMCP can help you achieve your goals. To learn more, the website at www.iamcp.org.
