How to Build and Leverage Successful Partnerships as an IAMCP Member with Conor Doyle
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, IMCP 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.profilesinpartnership.com, where you can find more information, resources, and opportunities to partner for success.
Anthony Carrano:Thank you for listening, and now let's get started with today's episode. Before we dive into our interview, let me ask you a question. How do you leverage your membership in the IAMCP to find and develop partner relationships that'll help you grow your business? Finding the right partner can be challenging, but it can also be rewarding. In fact, according to a recent study by IDC, Microsoft partners who collaborate with other partners generate almost 2 and a half times more revenue growth than those who don't.
Anthony Carrano:That's a huge difference, and it shows the power of partnering. So how do you find your ideal partner? How do you build trust and alignment? And how do you ensure success for your customer? These are some of the questions we'll explore in this podcast with the help of our guest, a recent global and EMEA p 2p award winner who is also an expert in partnering.
Anthony Carrano:He'll share stories, challenges, and successes, and give you practical tips and advice on how to partner for success. Are you ready to join us on this journey? Then stay tuned because we have a great show for you today. Our guest is Connor Doyle, the VP of sales at DQ Global, an award winning data quality management Microsoft partner with expertise in data migrations and integrations, Dynamics 365, and data cleansing. DQ Global has achieved amazing results such as the one in the story you're about to hear in their partnership with Mercury, providers of a recruitment and staffing CRM powered by the Microsoft Power platform.
Anthony Carrano:Let's hear what he has to say. I'd like to welcome Conor Doyle, VP of sales with DQ Global. Conor, welcome. Tell us
Anthony Carrano:a little bit about yourself.
Conor Doyle:Perfect. Yeah. Thanks, for the invite. Really appreciate it. So, yeah, I I joined DQ, you know, 5 years ago now, more in a business development role.
Conor Doyle:And and over that period, you know, have worn many hats as you do in a a smaller, you know, SMC, ISV. And, yeah, I'm now, heading up the sales function here at at DQ Global. A little bit different from the original world, which was mechanical engineering, and obviously working in a in a computer, or a software business.
Anthony Carrano:Mhmm.
Conor Doyle:But, yeah, absolutely love it. And, every day is a a different day. So yeah. Fantastic.
Anthony Carrano:Excellent. Excellent. And how long have you been with the company?
Conor Doyle:So, yeah, I've been with the company for 5 years. It was actually founded, many moons ago, back, about 25 years ago now. Originally started off in the CRM implementation space before the giants of, dare I say Salesforce and Dynamics were around. But focused now on the content rather than the container. So ensuring that the data within these business applications was fit for use and was going to support those businesses because you can have a great container, but it's only as good as what you put in it.
Conor Doyle:You know, we've we've heard garbage in, garbage out. We've heard you know, it's only as good as the fuel that's in it, which I'm sure we'll we'll cover a little bit more. But, yeah, really focusing on the the data side and the quality of that data, is what DQ Global is about. It's, data quality, not Dairy Queens, if anyone wants to get there.
Anthony Carrano:Excellent. Excellent. And when did you join IMCP?
Conor Doyle:Yeah. So we I looked back at the, data. I needed to check this out. We actually joined back, dare I say, in March 2020. And we'll talk about that as a positive time for joining the IMCP in this, in this light.
Conor Doyle:So, yeah, it was, you know, 4 years ago now. And, yes, it's gone uber quickly.
Anthony Carrano:Excellent. And I do have, I know, Rudy, we're gonna get into some, parts of, you know, the story. So when the company started off as DQ, Global, was was that the intention was data quality? Has it always been about a focus on And I love that line, the the content, not the container. Is that was was that, like, part of the origin story?
Conor Doyle:Yeah. So we were actually or not myself personally, but the founder of the business, Martin Doyle, who happens to be my father. He when they were implementing CRM systems, people were asking, could you shoehorn this data that is in Excel, that is in SQL, that is in my brain? I'll put it down and please could you shoehorn it into the system, which means that you've got Tony, Anthony, you know, Rudy spelled in multiple different forms, all coming into the database, which creates duplicate records. They were asking, can you format these addresses?
Conor Doyle:Can you see if these people have, you know, died, passed away? Can I contact these people? So that's what really started the d q story out of clients asking us, hey. Could you do x, y, and zed? So it's always been very client driven and and the challenges that people are facing in the the real world around, managing their data, which is not an easy task.
Anthony Carrano:So I know, you guys won, by the way, you know, congratulations again that, for winning on the the globe both the global and the EMEA, p to p award winner. I know there's some things I would wanna really learn more about, like, that story and that experience. I think, Rudy, you and I, when we were chatting, you you've got some questions for, Connor?
Rudy Rodriguez:Yeah. Absolutely. And pleasure to meet you, Conor. Can you tell us in this story, you worked with a partner named Mercury. Right?
Rudy Rodriguez:And can you tell us a little bit about, who the client was? You don't have to give us a name, or but can you tell us a little bit about the size of the company, the industry, the technology that was involved, and and the challenges that they were facing that created this, this winning story?
Conor Doyle:Yeah. Sure. So yeah. So for anyone who's not familiar with Mercury, they are a a partner that have taken Dynamics 365 sales and and built a verticalized solution for recruitment. So they are leveraging all the the fantastic bits of that Microsoft are investing in, and have taken that to the recruitment market and really accelerated the a market that's probably quite laggard in terms of technology or not not specialist.
Conor Doyle:They're very good with people. So, yeah, so we we worked with, a recruitment client that were using d 365, for sales, fundamentally, and they had about 1500 users in the recruitment space. And in, you know, the the the challenge that the client was facing was that the data was not supporting their business processes. So I kinda touched on that. But if I go into a little bit more detail, they, they actually back in, in 2022, the business realized that data was a was a challenge for this recruitment, client.
Conor Doyle:And they said, right, what we need to do is highlight, the challenge and the users need to go and they actually need to highlight all these duplicate records and actually go and merge them. Now this client has 6,000,000 records, so that's not a small task. What happened was people were going, okay. We got Tony and Anthony as duplicate records. Well, the business did not predict was no one had merge rights.
Conor Doyle:So what happened was all of those, merge, requests had to go to a support desk because they had merge rights. And what did that mean? Merge tickets went up 4 fold and overloaded the support desk. So that was actually the byproduct. What happened was the the business emphasized again to say, hey, this data quality thing is really important.
Conor Doyle:You know, it's coming from the top down because they realized that the decisions they were making just weren't supported on on high quality data. And actually got to the point where just the support desk got overwhelmed, and they needed to make a decision whether they were going to implement technology or hire more people. And what they ended up doing, and and this is where the relationship with Mercury comes in, was us working together to put a a technology in place rather than just hiring more people on the support desk to use tickets and and do a very, mundane, laborious job. So hopefully, that paints a little bit of a picture as to how Mercury and I came together and the the challenge that the the client was facing.
Rudy Rodriguez:Did you beat Mercury through the IAMCP?
Conor Doyle:We did indeed. Yeah. So we met them at the, there's a fantastic event held with, with Paul Solski, is it? I I believe. Mhmm.
Conor Doyle:Yes. And he he held the, webinar where, partners were invited to ISVs or MSPs, and they were able to, come on and do a 5 minute pitch. Who are you? What's your value proposition? Who are the clients you're looking for?
Conor Doyle:What problem do you solve? And, you know, what what does a partnership look like? And I thought that was fantastic because he could basically come in and say, right, let's curtail this to 5 minutes because we all we all the biggest advocates of our our own products and services, but 5 minutes, and then we're on to the next partner. And it really gave an opportunity, for ISVs and partners to say, this is who we're looking for. And it's it's one of 2 ways.
Conor Doyle:It's, oh my god, this is a missing service that we need to fill, or we've already got that covered or it's not a problem for us. And it's, kind of a speed dating. No. It's not for me. I qualify out early.
Conor Doyle:So So I thought that was a fantastic event that was being hosted, by Paul. And it just so happened that Mercury, were also on that event. And we heard of them before, but it kind of it sparked. It was a real catalyst for us to then start having some deeper conversations as they knew that, this client that they had were going through similar challenges as well as other clients.
Rudy Rodriguez:So how long did it take you to build that trust relationship with Mercury?
Conor Doyle:I think we we kind of we talk about this a lot with, with partnerships. Partners, it feels like a flywheel. You know, it's quite slow to get going. Once they do get going, it's a fantastic relationship. You gotta build that trust.
Conor Doyle:You gotta build, that working relationship. So I'd be lying if I said it was overnight. But I think, you know, meeting in person, they're based in London and and Birmingham, able to go and meet them in their offices after we were introduced, on the the, speed dating, I'm calling it, with Paul, was a was a fantastic way to build that relationship. And I'd say, you know, 2, 3 years on, it's still a relationship that is continuing to build. They're inviting us to events.
Conor Doyle:We were recently speaking about unlocking AI and how important data is in unlocking people's AI journey. So it started, it's very infancy with one client and has now rolled out to, you know, 15 plus clients of theirs that we have helped. And I'd say that partnership is growing as as a relationship, which is which is great to see. So a hard one to answer. It's continually growing, and flourishing.
Rudy Rodriguez:Oh, no. That's that's an excellent IAMCP story, sir. It it's always good when you meet people and and, you know, continuing to work at the networking that takes place through the organization and how you build those trust relationships with partners. So thank you. That's a great story.
Conor Doyle:So I was just, I was just gonna add to that as well is the fantastic job that the IME do hosting events. You know, it's okay. We met virtually there in the UK chapter. There are, you know, evening meets. There are, events that get run run alongside the UK, chapters.
Conor Doyle:So you guys do a great job at facilitating partners coming together even when they do have, those existing relationships and and helping them to flourish.
Anthony Carrano:That's fantastic. Yeah. I've got several questions just about around with data, and you, I was gonna ask you about AI, and so you you opened up that door, Conor. So, but before I do, I love, you know, just, you know, I I was jotting down. We talked about it's like, you know, a flywheel to build trust in those working relationships.
Anthony Carrano:What's up? Maybe 2, maybe 3 things that you would get you know, advice that you would give, you know, any partner to kinda, you know, swing that flywheel and building that trust in those working relationships.
Conor Doyle:This the $1,000,000 question, I think.
Anthony Carrano:That's it. Right?
Conor Doyle:To a to a lot of, businesses. Again, something I've I've hopefully kind of picked up on over the past few years. I wouldn't say we're we're experts. We're we're trying our very best. Someone once told me that the best thing you can do is take your own shoes off before you try and get in someone else's shoes.
Conor Doyle:It's all well saying we have the best, you know, data quality solutions for x, y, and zed. But, you know, you gotta look at what does the partner world look like? What are they juggling? You know, there's 50,000,000 other ISVs knocking on the door and trying to broadcast on what's in it for me, for the partner. You know, what's in it for the partner?
Conor Doyle:What's in it for the end client? And if you can get in those shoes and take yours off first, I think you have a much chance at actually, building that relationship and rapport. And I think it's timing. I think there's a huge element of timing. Not every solution is going to be perfect for every client, but I think you will eventually build a a relationship where the right time will come up with the right solution, and you'll service that client.
Conor Doyle:And I think that's having something in your toolbox when the right client comes along.
Anthony Carrano:Well, especially it says it sounds like because you you're involved in a lot of different, events and, you know, as you say, you know, the partner speed dating. And I recall, like, it's it's, and I'm sure I'd be curious to get your your thoughts on this statement. One of the things that I've learned is when folks are when you're kinda new to that, people tend to kinda go into those things for, you know, what can I get versus what can I give? And I know for me personally, that was kind of a real turning point in how I you know, years ago and how I approached these events, and I know the the success kinda went up a lot more with the latter than with the former. What what's kind of your thoughts on that?
Conor Doyle:Completely agree. I think, you know, there's a few pillars. Hopefully, you wanna build, well, you obviously wanna build trust. You wanna be, you know, reliable as a partner. You wanna be credible.
Conor Doyle:And, you know, you've gotta build that over time. That doesn't just come by pinging an email saying, hey. We can solve this problem. You know? Mhmm.
Conor Doyle:It is multiple events. It's, it's meeting people. It's saying, hey. We're there if you wanna bounce ideas off of us. You know, it's okay that it's not a super qualified opportunity.
Conor Doyle:You know, if we can help you out or, you know, it will it will help us out in in the long run. And I believe, you know, that karma will will come back around, eventually.
Anthony Carrano:That's it.
Conor Doyle:Even if it's, you know, a year, 2 years, 10 years down the line because I've seen it, with people, the founder that I was talking about still gets calls from 15 years, you know, 15 years late. I met you at an event. Are you still in the data space? And he goes, I sure am. So Here.
Anthony Carrano:Let me talk. Let let me have you talk to, talk to my son, Conor, here. Right? Yeah.
Conor Doyle:Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. So, yeah, I hope hopefully, that's the same. And, yeah, is is is there anything that you've seen maybe that that maybe I've missed?
Conor Doyle:So golden nuggets for anyone who's listening?
Anthony Carrano:I think for and I definitely wanna get you know, Rudy, you you've gonna have a lot of perspective on this. And like I said, for me, it was just more of, you know, it's it's anytime you go in, you know, whether it's a a customer engagement, a networking event, etcetera, within a mindset of how can I serve you? Right? So it's that idea of what can I what can I, give rather than get per se? Because, you know, to piggyback on your point is, you know, in that giving, it's you know, to use an agricultural metaphor, you're you're I'm I'm sowing, you know, I'm planting seed.
Anthony Carrano:Right? That at some day is gonna, you know, reap a harvest, you know you know, 10, 20, 30 fold, you know, down the line, versus if I go in trying to what can I get out of this? That's a turn off for a lot of people. Right? They they kinda gives them that, you know, icky feeling.
Anthony Carrano:And, you know, it just comes off as very, you know, selfish and it so it's a turn off. So going with that that ladder. Rudy, how about you? I mean, that's a great question.
Rudy Rodriguez:Yeah. Well, I think, you know, one thing that I've learned, you know, having been in the IT business for over 30 years is you can learn an awful lot from different partners, and you have to go learn what their business is like, because there's so many different areas, like you talked about being in CRM. Your dad's starting out in CRM world. That's a totally different world than application development, or some of the things that I used to do for, you know, you're gonna laugh at some of these things, but we did work for the Department of Defense. So how do you communicate tank systems on the battlefield and things like that?
Rudy Rodriguez:There's so many different things that you can do, and you have to learn what those partners' challenges are. There's technology and people challenges, and and how do you solve those? And then, how does that that partner put the customer first, because that's what always comes in, you know, what's makes both parties successful. So depending on which area of the business you're in, you can learn an awful lot from the partner, And then you can learn from them, and they go, now, how do I fit in? And for both sides.
Rudy Rodriguez:For both sides. And you build long lasting relationships. So I know when we started chapters 25, 30 years ago, throughout IAMCP, I'm still friends with some of those people. We still do share leads together, and and we talk on a regular basis. So it's about building a strong trust and learning relationship with people.
Conor Doyle:Mhmm. Yeah. I completely agree. And and it's you've actually really just reminded me something, some or something someone told me, in the past few years. I I asked them and they've been in the channel for a very long time.
Conor Doyle:I said, with these partners, you know, how are you building relationships? Who are you speaking to? Said I'm speaking to everyone. I'm speaking to customer success, solution architect, partner manager, the owner of the business, and, you know, trying to get a feel for how that, organization operates. And they did a a fantastic thing.
Conor Doyle:If they're listening, they'll they'll know who they are. They said, I go and I go and work in their offices. I go and travel. I sit there. I have lunch with them, and then I know how they operate.
Conor Doyle:And when, you know, I speak to them or call, you built that rapport, trust, credibility. And I thought that was a fantastic way, which is just expands on your point there, Rudy.
Rudy Rodriguez:Absolutely. I know one of the things I did early on, and and you may recognize this little, computer manufacturer here in Austin, Texas, but landing the contract with Dell. When we first landed with them, first first thing I asked of Michael was, can I get a desk in your in your offices?
Conor Doyle:Yeah. He
Rudy Rodriguez:goes and he asked me if he could charge me rent. And so and I said, no, but let's talk a discount, and we'll work about the work on that. But that was the one thing that my organization did. We got a desk. We got a desk in the operation, and we got to learn more about them and how we could help them.
Rudy Rodriguez:So there's things that you can do just wanting to learn, about their business.
Conor Doyle:100%. 100%.
Anthony Carrano:Now I know there's I've got several questions, you know, about data, data quality, AI I'm gonna get to. But as we're talking about, like, you know, we're talking about a lot of the the positive, you know, you know, how to you know, building those partnerships, there's, developing that relationship. Do have a question for you, Connor. And and and so going back to, like, this particular engagement, this you know, like, with Mercury, you've got a great relationship with them. But did you have any challenges during the engagement?
Anthony Carrano:And if so, like, you know, can what what can you share about that? And more importantly, how did you, like, work together to overcome those challenges?
Conor Doyle:Yeah. I think with with any partnership, I think there's there are always going to be challenges, hurdles. I think there's always gonna be finding your feet as well. You know? We're just talking about it there about, you know, how does the company operate.
Conor Doyle:And that could be from how they introduce you to a client. You know? That could be how do you contract. Do you contract with a partner? Do you contract with the end user?
Conor Doyle:There's always finding your feet, and I think the main thing there is around the communication method, and building that relationship. If you have that open dialogue and the partner truly knows you have the client's best interest at heart, then I think you're only in for a successful, partnership. Yeah. There's there's, you know, minutia challenges, that you face on a daily basis, and you'll continue to to do so as people change in partners, as people change in d q global. You know, you're gonna restart a relationship, or how is it working?
Conor Doyle:But I I think my advice at the back of that would be, you know, continue to to work on it together and and build that relationship and have the end client at front of mind all of the all of the time. And I think Mercury are fantastic at that. And that's why we we hopefully have a a a great relationship, and so and and have a successful relationship.
Anthony Carrano:That's awesome. You know, I I wanted to kinda ask the questions going back to about some things about data. So you really kinda piqued my interest there. Can you talk a little bit, about the the because, obviously, you know, with with all that's happening with AI and its reliance and upon our data and the ergo then, like, the importance of data quality. And you had mentioned you talked about the AI journey.
Anthony Carrano:I'm gonna leave it very open. Maybe talk a little bit about that.
Conor Doyle:Okay. We'll see where we end up. So yeah. So I guess just to to kind of paint a little bit of a picture as to to where we're at in AI and and data. And, again, I I can speak on Mercury because they've they, held a fantastic event about unlocking AI.
Conor Doyle:The 3 three main pillars that we work in, dqglobal, we help organizations who are overwhelmed when it comes to migrating, integrating, or replicating their data. So that's kind of one part is getting their data to d 365, getting their data to the cloud, getting their data somewhere that is accessible via AI and is safe, secure, etcetera, which is gonna be a huge other podcast to to talk about. So we won't go there today. The second element is once it is there, and let's say it's in Dynamics 365 or the Microsoft Business Application World, we ensure that the data, the content within the container of d 365 is fit for use. So we create make sure that there are no duplicate records, that the data is cleansed and up to date, etcetera, etcetera.
Conor Doyle:So we've got it there. It's now clean, in d 365. Now dare I say, some organizations don't run everything in Microsoft. They may even run-in CRM platform. They may run there's, you know, 100 of thousands out there.
Conor Doyle:So when data is not in the Microsoft world, you still gotta cleanse it. You still gotta move it. So we're now looking outside the Microsoft world, and this might be from an Excel spreadsheet to a SQL database to some, you know, Microsoft storage, or AWS storage. So they're the kind of three elements we're working on. And when you're looking at, you know, readying yourself for AI, you gotta look across those those three elements as well as all other host of things.
Conor Doyle:Now Mercury, invited us to speak in an event, just over kind of 4 to 6 weeks ago. And it was all about unlocking AI and demystifying AI. Because I think a lot of people are are scared around the the, the topic. Or I wouldn't say scared. There's just kind of an unknown unknown.
Conor Doyle:And there's this thing called the Johari window. I don't know if you've ever heard of it, but, maybe people look it up. It is about that window of I don't know what I'm letting myself into. And I think AI is hugely one of those things. So Mercury was doing a drastic job on trying to demystify that.
Conor Doyle:And they talked about 6 different elements, and I'll see if I can remember them. If not, I'll, put a link in. Number 1 was purpose. Why are you doing this as an organization? Why are you leveraging AI?
Conor Doyle:You know, what's the business driver? So they said, make sure you get that straight before you even embark on this journey. And I thought that was a fantastic way to to get everyone on board. The second one was gonna be platform. What platform are you going to put your data in?
Conor Doyle:Is it gonna be Mercury? Is it gonna be whatever platform in order to actually start leveraging AI? Again, a fantastic element, there to to be looking at. And Microsoft being, you know, one of the leaders in that space. The third part and what we started to speak on was data.
Conor Doyle:How are you gonna get your data foundations so that your AI is going to work? And, again, I'll I kinda keep it brief because I know we got, limited time, but we talk about the leaning tower of data. Okay. What happens when those foundations start to turn while the top of the tower is, you know, a 1000000 miles off? You could use the analogy around golf as well.
Conor Doyle:You know, what and off, at the driver face. I'm in the rough or the other fairway or I'm not finding my ball. So what you're trying to do is build, these foundation solid so that when you have data up to information, up to decisions and wisdom, you need to build that so that it's actually, you know, gonna be a a solid foundation. So they were the the kind of first three elements, and then we started to move into the governance world. We started to talk about adoption.
Conor Doyle:And there was one other element, as, you know, left my brain now. But they put a fantastic playbook together on who we need to go about this AI journey, data being one of those, components that I've already spoken on on its importance.
Anthony Carrano:No. That's excellent. And do they have, do you know if they have a a playbook that's out, like, on their website that folks can download?
Conor Doyle:What I'll do is I'll reach out to them. I think there is a, I saw something today, actually. It was on, they read up a a kind of a blog or a, you know, notes of the day. And I can link you to that. And and Yeah.
Anthony Carrano:And we could put that link in put that link in the show notes. Absolutely.
Conor Doyle:And I think that goes for recruitment, but it could be applied across any industry. These are all things that we need to be considering, not just the recruitment.
Anthony Carrano:What what would you say is and, you know, and, obviously, you guys have extensive work, you know, you know, in this space, you know, run with with data. What are some things for folks and this I know it's getting a little off from the partner story, but I just think this is, you know, so appropriate. Red flags that you see that, you know, or maybe some common, you know, red flags that folks encounter, you know, with their data when when they're, you know, either looking to migrate or integrate.
Conor Doyle:That's yeah. You you you could be opening up a can of worms there, Anthony. Let's go there. Let's go there. So I think, yeah, one of the some of the biggest, red flags for me is a lot of people know where they wanna get to.
Conor Doyle:I wanna get to the cloud. I wanna get to AI. I wanna get to copilot. They know the the end destination.
Anthony Carrano:Mhmm.
Conor Doyle:But they don't know where they are at this moment in time. So I use the analogy in London. I wanna get to Buckingham Palace. But if I don't know where I am in London, I cannot plot the tube route, the bus route, the walking route to get to Buckingham Palace. So I think people stopping and considering especially their data because I think a lot of people think data migration, data integration, cleansing, and and everything will just be sorted if we go to a new system.
Conor Doyle:And I saw that 70% of implementations failed due to poor quality data. Wow. So, you know, there's I think if people can stop, assess where they are, assess the journey that they need to take in dare I say invest in the data? If we look at the disproportion, between investment in CRM and app application versus data, I think the numbers would be huge. Mhmm.
Conor Doyle:I think, really, the value, dare I say, is in the data, not necessarily the application. People can take the data and they can rebuild rebuild the application, but the data cannot be rebuilt. So I think your your gold mine is in the data, not necessarily the application.
Anthony Carrano:That's fantastic. That's excellent. I really appreciate sharing that. And I know we'll talk a little bit later about, you know, where people can go to find out, you know, more information, you know, about DQ Global and, you know, other type of, you know, services that you can help them. So I really appreciate you sharing that.
Anthony Carrano:Going back to, the, with the partnering, based on your partner experience, how did did you see like, did this engagement, like, in or I know it increased customer satisfaction. And maybe how did it increase customer satisfaction?
Conor Doyle:Yeah. I think it it was something that the business was struggling with for a long time, and I think they didn't necessarily have the correct tools in place. So I think if you look at just IT alone, they were happy that they now have a solution to this problem that we they were facing. Mhmm. But if we dive down a little bit deeper to the people, the consultants who are actually using the system, the 1500 people, they now had data that they could trust.
Conor Doyle:And I think trust underpins data the data world, really. You wanna go into that system and say, I trust that that person works there, that that company still exists, that that company is unique.
Rudy Rodriguez:Mhmm.
Conor Doyle:And I think you then drive the correct behaviors in the organization. So out the back of working with this business, they had 6,000,000 records in the system. We actually we've moved more than 600,000 duplicates at this point in time. Wow. So we've stripped out the dead wood in their database that was just exactly the same.
Conor Doyle:You know, we've taken 5,000,000 telephone numbers and emails, and we've validated them, formatted them so that now they're fit for use by the consultants. So now when a consultant logs into the system and they do a search for a candidate, they're only finding 1 Anthony or 1 Rudy. So suddenly the trust level's gone up. They're not complaining to colleagues going, hey. This data is rubbish.
Conor Doyle:I'm just gonna go off to LinkedIn. And quite interestingly to kind of cap this off and and round it up, the business, we've been working with them now for the past 3 3 years and, you know, hopefully moving forward, they've actually implemented a data quality scorecard. And again, it goes back to the point I was saying about not knowing where you are. You know, if you can start scoring your data, the records in the system, you can you can start to see where the data pitfalls are, and you can start to then actually engineer processes to improve the quality of that data or actually remove it if it's not there. So they now have quantitative, figures, and they can say our data quality, our database health is increasing.
Conor Doyle:It's decreasing in this sector by this user, by this country. And they have this most amazing Power BI dashboard, that they have, you know, a great insight into the health of the the data in the system. And that's a fantastic way to get buy in from the consultants and buy in from lead senior leadership as well.
Anthony Carrano:Nice. Nice. So what did you learn from this partnership? Like, specifically to help you improve on partnering in the future. And I know and and just to kinda press you a little bit because I know I mean, we've shared a lot about some really good principles and things, but, and practices, which has been really fantastic, but specifically from just this just this recent, engagement.
Conor Doyle:I I would I would emphasize, kinda what Rudy and I were speaking about there is, you know, that desk that you got Rudy, in in client that you're working with. I think there's nothing that can be in person meeting. So I think what's made this relate yes. There's, yes, there's a client need, but the that's only one side of the element, one side of the the puzzle. The other side is actually building that relationship with the client.
Conor Doyle:So I'd say what has made this so successful is going to the offices. You know, if I'm visiting clients, you know, the guys, Mercury have said, drop into the office. There's a desk there if you need to take a call. And, you know, go out for lunch, go out for a drink after work. And and I think that has allowed to meet other people in Mercury and and really allow them as well to understand what we do so that they can introduce us to their clients that have that need.
Conor Doyle:So I think it's really that spider's web, within the partner. And I know that probably emphasizes a point that I've already gone over, but Mhmm. I think it's critical to success.
Anthony Carrano:Well, excellent. Well, this is this has been fantastic. Really appreciate, your time, Connor. And, I know a lot of excellent, you know, insights about partnership, building those relationships to help grow, with growing your firm. We also got a chance to touch on a little bit about data quality and, your company's, know, digital gold.
Anthony Carrano:So I appreciate you sharing, you know, some of those, tidbits there. How, you know, how how can people find out more about you?
Conor Doyle:I mean, a 100%, reach out through through LinkedIn. More than happy to meet people at events, or drop me a message. Yeah, completely open in that sense. We'll be over in the US at a a a few events, so so look out for that or, yeah, share share details. We've got, you know, obviously, on our website.
Conor Doyle:Feel free to get in touch. We're we're more than happy to have an open and and honest conversation. And, yeah, we're always here to, to talk and and share ideas.
Anthony Carrano:Excellent. And for those that wanna reach out and connect with you, well, I'll have your LinkedIn profile and your company, web address in the show notes. And so, for people who wanna reach out to Conor and learn more about what they're doing and how they can help, you know, working with DQ Global. Those will be in the show notes. So, Conor, once again, thank you.
Anthony Carrano:Appreciate you, and, have a great day.
Conor Doyle:Thank you so much, and I appreciate you, everything you do for the, IAMCP and and bringing us partners together, whether that be ISV, VAR, m MSP, and Microsoft. So really appreciate it and, all the work over the years.
Anthony Carrano:Well, that was fantastic. I really appreciate, you know, Conor, for coming on and sharing all of his really good insights. I tell you, I learned a lot, especially, you know, he's talking about aside from, like, the AI and data quality. I really appreciated, when he was talking about some best practices, you know, in developing and maintaining, you know, partners. I know, Rudy, there was, like, 3 things that that stood out to me.
Anthony Carrano:You know, he just talked about the importance of establishing your communication, you know, method and then maintaining that and having a good rhythm, you know, with your open dialogue. But then how at the you know, he just emphasized how important in the midst of all that, how it's just it's important to always keep the client front and center, and that it's not about you, but it's about, you know, working together to create, you know, the most the greatest possible value, you know, for the customers. And so I really, really appreciated that. How about you? What did you take away from today's episode?
Rudy Rodriguez:Well, I I really appreciated some comments that Conor made at the beginning of of the interview, where he discussed about getting involved in the IAMCP and meeting partners through that. So sometimes you can, attend you know, IAMCP offers a variety of different types of events, and he talked about those. And the one where he got involved in was actually something, through the partner opportunity groups that we offer. And then it was kind of like a speed dating. So he had to get his pitch down very good, say, at 5 minutes to get his pitch across.
Rudy Rodriguez:And from that, he not only, was able to identify the the capabilities of his company, but he was able to learn more about a potential customer as well or a partner. And then they ended up getting together. And from there, they built that trust relationship, which took some time, and he mentioned that, but it took some time. So I think he demonstrated the value of how you get involved in some of these networking events that's run that are run by the IMCP. And there, you can learn more about another partner's business, how they do business, and then you can then discuss with them how you 2 of you can work together to help solve customer customer challenges and and and business challenges that that can turn into revenue and customer satisfaction and just good business for you.
Rudy Rodriguez:And I really appreciated that.
Anthony Carrano:Yeah. That that actually reminds me of, one of the other points that he mentioned about, you know, when it's it's really important, with, you know, building those partnerships to build trust and working on those relationships. And he talked a lot about, you know, the importance of this line was, you know, about taking off your own shoes before trying to get into somebody else's and just the importance of, you know, both empathy, but also, you know, getting, you know, a right perspective. And as you're engaging in IAMCP and, you know, with with these events, you know, building these kind of relationships. And I know, Rudy, I mean, you've got extensive experience, you know, not only just in IAMCP, you know, but in, you know, just, you know, partnering in general.
Anthony Carrano:What, what were your thoughts on that and maybe some, you know, some things that you can share?
Rudy Rodriguez:Well, Conor reminded me. He he said it a little differently from the way I used to say it. I used to call it, you have to understand the person on the other side of the desk. And and and understanding that And in fact, that was actually a program that we ran here in in the Austin chapter many years ago, understanding the other side the person on the other side of the desk. And and that's about learning about people, taking the time to understand what what, their goals are, what their what their not only their goals, but their working methods and how they go about achieving those and how they work with customers to achieve those.
Rudy Rodriguez:And I think that's a big part of of networking and partnering is you have to learn get to learn more about the the personal relationships that you can build. And I think that's that's one great takeaway for all of us.
Anthony Carrano:Man, that's great, Rudy. Thank you. Really appreciate you sharing that.
Rudy Rodriguez:Well, I really wanna thank everyone who joined us on this episode of IAMCP profiles in partnership powered by DuNamis Marketing. We hope you enjoyed this podcast and you find it useful and inspiring. If you did, 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.iamcp.org, where you can find more information and resources and opportunities on how to partner for success. 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.
Rudy Rodriguez:IAMCP 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. To learn more, visit the web the IAMCP website. And thank you for listening to our podcast.
