Lessons on AI, Productization, and Community: Lessons from IAMCP Leaders
Welcome back to the IAMCP Profiles and Partnership podcast and part two of our landmark episode, where we dive deep into the connections, lessons, and growth stories within the Microsoft partner community. I'm your host, Anthony Carrano, and I'm thrilled to be joined again today by two incredible voices in the ecosystem, Eddie Bader and Rudy Rodriguez. If you missed part one, make sure to check it out for stories of trust and collaboration. Today, we're leaping into the future, examining the seismic shifts in the Microsoft ecosystem, from mergers and acquisitions to the rise of AI, productization, and the evolving role of partners. Eddie, Rudy and I will share lessons learned, actionable insights and predictions for what's next.
Anthony Carrano:Let's dive in.
Eddie Bader:I'm gonna take a hard right turn on you guys and just tell you I love Home Depot. And you're probably like, where did that come from? And the the reason I said that because I like tools. And I go in there, I look at tools, and I like because they have a tool for, you know, all these things, very specific purpose. You gotta do your very general purpose like a hammer or screwdriver to, hey, this is the tool that you need to unscrew the, you know, the valve in in the shower in the wall.
Eddie Bader:Right? Without this, you can't get it. Right? And I just think that's awesome. I wanna buy them all even though I have no use for them. And, eventually, I'm gonna end up like this little mad scientist that somebody says, oh, I need this. And I go away for ten minutes and I come back. Oh, here's the tool. Take this and use it. You're you're good.
Eddie Bader:But with all that said, even the even an organization with the sharpest focus, they need the right tools. And we know that leads us to the conversation around AI automation, data driven decision making. And I kinda wanted to talk more about that and how partners are are turning to technology or turning technology into tangible business outcomes.
Rudy Rodriguez:Well, that's a really interesting topic because it's it's fraught with peril. If I could do it was it was interesting when you talk about, you know, a AI and data aren't tools. You know? They become the backbones of how partners are gonna build their value propositions. And and people the partners who are going to become the winners in this industry are people who combine innovation with governance, customer success metrics, measurable ROI.
Rudy Rodriguez:So one of the things we wanna talk about is is can you share any perspectives about the anticipated impact of Microsoft Copilot and AI tools on partner offerings? Because those that's you know, we you know, even Microsoft's calling us, you know, frontier partners now. We're at the start of a revolution or start of a new frontier. So what what do you think is going to happen to to the partner channel? What's the impact of AI?
Eddie Bader:Well, the the easiest thing is that, you know, AI is the thread that's gonna be sewn into every piece of fabric there is. When you look at the way the Microsoft AI cloud partner program is going to evolve, I'm I'm gonna make a prediction here. It's not a very bold prediction, but it hasn't been announced yet. But when we look at you know, they condensed from six six solution designations down to three. They're in the process of doing that.
Eddie Bader:It's it's very it's you know, we're just an announcement away from having an AI component built into the achievement of those solution designations. Right? It's like I said, it's gonna be the the common thread in every fabric. And I think those who lean forward, lean into that frontier mindset, use it internally. Right?
Eddie Bader:It's it's going to be part of of everything we do, like it or not. But I think we should like it. We should be building solutions around it. We should be using it to its its take full advantage of what it can do for us. There's some things that we can benefit from from automation, and I and I don't look at this as necessarily replacing people.
Eddie Bader:I think it's replacing some things that maybe people don't have to do themselves, right, which allows them to focus on higher level efforts. Right? So let's say if if we were to categorize this as traditional categorization tier one, two, tier three, Right? Tier three being this special the special need in in terms of the most technical person. If you can, like, take a layer out out of that, let's say that that tier one out of the the equation with the implementation of AI, it allows you to skill skill up your team and have a bunch of tier twos and tier threes, whatever that whatever that means in your context.
Eddie Bader:But I think it allows you to do more in-depth work, more critical thinking type of work, and, you know, and I can go on. But I do think this is gonna be something that we build on. And even though some of our customers and clients may not feel like they're ready for this, it's coming. And so whether whether they want it or not, it's coming. And I think we have to be that innovative bridge to to the use of this new technology.
Eddie Bader:Right? And and really help them understand how it can be a benefit to them and and how they're gonna use it to grow and thrive and and things of that nature. But I don't know if that totally answers your question, but I do think if you don't adopt it and if you don't adopt it now, that everything's changing so quickly, you're gonna be behind and you may not be able to catch up if if you're not adopting now. In six months, we're gonna be having a very different conversation around this already.
Anthony Carrano:Yeah. I don't know if I don't really feel qualified to be able to talk about predictions, I will say, like, me, it's been fun to, as I've observed, obviously, you know, as Microsoft's incorporating, you know, you know, Copilot and AI into into everything. What's been an interesting thing as I've been learning and now, Rudy, don't ask me a follow-up question on this. Okay. Because you'll get that deer in the headlights here.
Anthony Carrano:But it's what's been interesting as I've just kind of been listening to some of our guests and even in working with some clients, just the just the not only just the importance, but how much of a gap there is in, AI governance. That part is, I just, I don't know. I just cause, and I guess maybe just, you know, being the marketer guy like, oh, you see the new tool, let's start using it. Okay. How's all this stuff can create cool stuff and increase productivity and, you know, get better results and dah dah dah dah.
Anthony Carrano:But then not realizing especially like some of the bigger, you know, companies how how much governance, right, which isn't, know, the cool sexy thing as like, you know, the shiny tool to use, but it's so critical and just been hearing our guests like talk about it. And there was a there was a quote from Matt at Rencore in our latest episode, and I thought this was just a great line. He said automate the boring, govern the critical. AI without governance is just chaos at scale. And I just that's just so well put.
Anthony Carrano:And so anyway, that's just kind of been one of those things that's not, it's not really a prediction. There's just kind of an interesting thing as I've, know, just been learning or observing and learning as a as we've been kind of talking with these folks.
Rudy Rodriguez:Yeah. So I to take AI and break it up just a little bit because there's generative AI like chat GPT, and then there's agentic AI. And so two very different things. I'm gonna throw a curveball at you. You may not have read this article, but MIT put out a study that 95% of generative AI implementations fail. 95%. And and so I think there's a real opportunity there for partners in in that if you understand, and I'll put it into the context because I I have a friend who's a CTO at a at a big organization here in Austin. And, they implemented both GPT and Copilot at the same time. Ready for this? 92,000 users.
Rudy Rodriguez:Oops. Forgot to secure the organization. So ended up costing a CIO his job because it was chaotic. Right? Even though his edict was, we're not doing this yet. We're not doing this yet. But departments went and did it on their own. So have you run into rogue organizations that are doing some of this? And this is why these things fail. We know why they fail.
Rudy Rodriguez:Right? You you must secure your environment first, and governance is a key piece of it. But there's an opportunity there for partners, on generative AI, which a lot of our partners will operate on. But then we're having more and more partners who are trying to become specialists in agentic AI. So can you share a little bit about that as to, what are the human skills that partners have to double down on to stay relevant in both those areas?
Eddie Bader:Yeah. Those are great questions. And I want to go back to something I am going to attribute to Satya, and I'm pretty sure he's the one that said it. But he said it's it's Copilot for a reason because it works with you. It's not autopilot. Right? Autopilot will be something different where it works on its own. And we will have some things that are getting close to autopilot, but let's talk about the Copilot and Agentic AI. I think I'm fascinated by agentic AI. I'm working on agents myself right now.
Eddie Bader:There is I I think it's under maybe it's not, but in my opinion, I feel like your skills in prompting are are very important. Right? Your prompts have a tremendous impact on the end result whether it's even if you're just asking it to come up with some copy for you or, you know, put together some kind of framework or whatever or even when you're creating agents, it's really based on on how you set this up. You know? What's your tone? Is it friendly? Is it informative? Is it, you know, this is the way I want you to respond to to queries. This is the way, you know, you should be answering. This is the format.
Eddie Bader:Don't use any information outside of what I give you. Okay. It's okay to go to these sites. That skill is developed over time. You know, I I don't know anybody who's produced anything really worthwhile that did it from one one prompt. Right? It's a it's an iterative process and understanding how that works. So I think that is is a key component is that I do think well, I know right now there are actually courses in AI prompting. Right? So that is a skill set to have.
Eddie Bader:I also think that just the integration of AI into some of our other, what we would consider more commonplace technologies, right, how does AI work with you know, Azure or some other foundational elements that we use every day? How can that enhance? Right? There's the Copilot piece, obviously, but when we build these agents and they're purpose built, how do we get more from the same tools that we've been using for years? Right?
Eddie Bader:And I think that goes back to that whole innovator concept is the people who are really thinking about that, who are really diving in, who are creating like sandboxes and just playing around and seeing what they can develop. I think they're gonna be, you know, on the leading edge of developing what we see, you know, in in three to six months and and even, you know, a year from now. So I would say that things that people should focus on is their working skills and their sandbox skills. Take time to play because this is definitely, in my opinion, this is definitely a technology where you have to play around with it, see what you get. And the fact that you can can come in today, ask, you know, prompt it a certain way, and then tomorrow you can come in and prompt it the same way and get two different results.
Eddie Bader:That's you know, there's there's continuity things. And and and the other thing that you touched on, which is hugely important, is the big opportunity in this space is all the data governance and locking down environments and making sure that you put all those things in place and and make you prepare an environment to to adopt AI. I think that's gonna be that's already at the front of the list, and and those skills are gonna be super important.
Anthony Carrano:Rudy, I'd like to chime in on this one too, when you were asking that question, was thinking about, you know, we talked about like the, the human skill side of it. And I was, you know, as you guys know, I mean, I've, you know, I've coached, you know, competitive basketball for a while and something it reminded me of something I would tell my players is be fast, but not in a hurry. And just the importance of just when you're doing this, be intentional, You know, be, you know, go for it. But be methodical. Don't just be haphazard.
Anthony Carrano:And, so, you know, that's I think that's part of like, you know, be intentional when you're doing it. I think, you know, part of it also is stay curious, keep learning, you know, set up, you know, experiments where, you know, it's so key in certain situations where it's okay to fail. And, and to keep growing. And I think part of that is like, I guess the, the, the last thing would be is just to be patient, you know, don't try and get it all done. Like, you know, just that whole, you know, I want to be in a hurry, you know, be fast, be intentional, but not in a hurry, you know, kind of like more of a, as a quality, a human quality approach to it.
Rudy Rodriguez:So let me ask a question about where, you know, value creation, through AI is gonna be hugely important. So how how does a partner educate himself, or how does how does a partner work with their client to truly understand what their stakeholders' motivations are? What you know, how how they do they truly understand what the business processes look like? And then do they have a way to improve those processes? Because that's where AI is really gonna bring tremendous value in being doing that.
Rudy Rodriguez:And and there's several examples of products that are already out there that are doing that. We've got a client who has built agents to monitor, Microsoft Sentinel. And what it does, it is constant because they manage large enterprise security operations. It is constantly searching for anomalies taking place in a secure security environment and is able to do that and immediately mitigate the risk if they see an anomaly. And then depending on the severity of the anomaly, it notifies people and they can actually intervene and kill it or sequester it some form or fashion.
Rudy Rodriguez:So where where does you know, because that's that's something that partners don't always understand the business processes. I was in application development where world, and you understand a lot about business processes doing that. And and, how how does a partner gain some of those skills, and how can IAMCP help them with some of those things?
Eddie Bader:I think it's it's a very relevant question. And I do think that it's one of those skill sets that, I don't know, it's a bold statement, but I don't think that'll ever go away. Right? Really being able to have a business conversation, understand where an organization is, where they wanna be, what they're struggling with. And really, I don't know about your experiences, but I've often found that organizations feel like there's some technology silver bullet that's gonna solve all their problems, and I don't know that that exists.
Eddie Bader:Oftentimes, it's adjustments in their people, processes, and technology that are required to make that turn that organization around or or make them more profitable. Being that that human interaction, that discussion is super important. I think you can how you gain those skills, I think you gain it by doing it. I think there's a certain level of compassion and patience that are required to listen to people, to understand and then being able to filter what they're saying with what's really going on and in terms of how IMCP can help I think we have some really great examples of people and organizations who do this every day right and when you build those partnerships and you share stories like we share on the podcast, but when you share your own stories and say, Hey, you know what? I know you're an MSP. I'm an MSP.
Eddie Bader:You know, maybe the mindset is we're competitors, but there's an opportunity to collaborate here. This is how this is one of the problems I'm having. How do you handle that in in your everyday life? Right?
Eddie Bader:How do you how do you have this type of conversation with a client? How do you get them to share what's important? What's on their roadmap? What they're struggling with? What's you know, and really identify those those problems to solve.
Eddie Bader:And and we have partnering sessions. Right? Paul leads these partnering sessions once a month, and it's really strategic about how to identify good partners but there's also some really great nuggets in there about how to have conversations how to position solutions all those all those interactions I I think they help. And I don't think I've nailed the answer on this on this particular one precisely, but I will say that that when you talked about skills, I think this skill of being able to communicate with the client and being able to draw information out from them and understand what they're they're struggling with is is super impactful. Some people do it through QBRs, quarterly business reviews.
Eddie Bader:Some people do it in other ways. I've had relationships with clients that they just call me up because we have that kind of relationship where they I don't know what to do about this. Can you take a look at this for me? This is a problem for us. It has nothing to do with with the scope of work that I that we have in place, but they've reached out because they trust me.
Eddie Bader:Right? And and a lot of it goes back to that that trust. So I don't know if that's a great answer to your question, but I do think that it is a skill. It needs to be nurtured, and the more you do it, the better you get at it. And I don't think that's going away anytime soon even with even with as good as AI may be and you know in the in the future I still think there's the human element that it can't be replaced.
Rudy Rodriguez:Yeah. I'm gonna circle back to the trusted adviser role that we talked a lot about early on. If you're a trusted adviser, then you as a trusted adviser can guide people towards the technology. Point out, this is a technology that can help you with this opportunity. Let the client make the decision as well.
Rudy Rodriguez:It's a joint decision, but you you can spot the opportunity of what you can help them with. This is a technology that's gonna guide you there, and that will grow your business relationship with your client infinitely instead of trying to tell them AI will cure everything because it just won't.
Eddie Bader:People like options. Right?
Rudy Rodriguez:No. I I think the options are very important for any client in that they have to understand what the opportunities are. And that's as a IT technologist, that's our job is to, hey, there's an opportunity here. Here's how we can take advantage of this, grow revenue, mitigate risk, you know, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. This is where we can help you.
Rudy Rodriguez:And and then you do that, and you can demonstrate what your expertise is to drive that as well because that's true value creation right there. Okay. Let's talk a little bit about governance. So have you had much experience in in the era in this new era of AI in how you govern AI? And what are the challenges that you're seeing there? Cause there's just a massive amount of data coming through. Right?
Eddie Bader:Yeah. I've heard the horror stories. And obviously, AI in an environment starts exposing a lot of data to to everyone, especially data that you don't want to share, like maybe salary information or, you know, trade secrets, IP. I know one thing is that I would never implement an AI solution without going through the rigorous governance component of it, And I would tell you right now that I wouldn't do that myself. I there's a few partners that I know within the community that specialize in governance, I would reach out to them first to help us secure the environment.
Eddie Bader:And once we've secured the environment and put all the the appropriate guardrails and boundaries in place, then we could start talking about implementation. And the other thing is I would also not try to implement 92,000 users all at the same time.
Eddie Bader:You know that story. It's it's just that's like, when you said that, I'd like, oh my goodness. I I don't even know how they would even think about approaching that. So, yeah, not a lot of firsthand experience setting up those environments because I would I would ask a partner to come in and do that for me. But but it is important.
Eddie Bader:I have seen it go awry. I will say that even within IAMCP and and working within our own tenant, we're we're very mindful of, trying to make sure that we're not exposing information or not putting something in our tenant that's going to expose our members to anything that they wouldn't want to be exposed to. And we have to keep privacy policies GDPR, Californian Privacy Act in mind. There's a lot of factors and for somebody who doesn't do it all the time this is a wonderful case study for partnership because those folks who specialize in this they're up to date, they know where the pitfalls are, they've dealt with them, and they will ask questions that you didn't even think to ask to begin with. That's kind of my take on that or at least my experience to date.
Rudy Rodriguez:So I'm gonna jump ahead a little bit because we've been on on for quite a while today, and and I think it's been a really valuable conversation. Let's talk about partner led innovation. You know, we we deal with a variety of different types of partners out in the marketplace. Where do you see the biggest opportunity for innovation in the Microsoft ecosystem in the next year or two?
Eddie Bader:I'll be honest, we've had this conversation for a little while now. I think productization is gonna be key moving forward. IP development and and really understanding what that means. Right? Being a service company and being product company can be very two very different animals, but understanding what part of your services are actually a product, you know, that recurring thing that you do all the time, what can be made into a quote unquote widget that can be utilized by anybody at anytime, anywhere?
Eddie Bader:I think more focus on that is gonna be key. I know Microsoft is making a big push for for partners to be in the marketplace. There's a lot involved in that and I think partners need to think about that carefully in terms of it's a good fit for us. If we go in the marketplace, how do we make sure that widget just doesn't sit on the shelf with every other widget that's out there, right? There's a lot to it.
Eddie Bader:I think that you and Anthony in particular, being on the marketing side, you kind of understand what it takes to really put a product, you know, go from design innovation and having it on the shelf to actual people buying it, right? And there's a lot of things going on there, but I would see that innovation is 100% going to have some component of AI built into it. But I do think that moving forward we are going to do a few things. We're going to have to think about productization. We're going to have to think about verticalization.
Eddie Bader:Right? The more that you specialize in, this goes back to the conversations we had earlier in in in this conversation, your specialty along with your innovation is gonna lead to some IP that sets you apart in the marketplace. I think those are going to be key focuses for all partners. And each partner is going to have to understand how they approach that as some may be ready to do it now, some may not. But it is something that I would encourage every partner to consider. Even if they don't end up doing it, they should think about it.
Anthony Carrano:I was just going to piggyback on that about all those things that Eddie just mentioned and just encourage listeners to really lean in on pairing that with like that deep industry, you know, expertise with their proprietary IP, because then the more you know, you know, about your customer and find those just those those unique needs for that industry. If you can be positioned to serve those, you in essence then are are are you're not gonna really have the competition, know, that you would if you're, you know, providing, you know, like a general, you know, widget, you know, that can apply to everybody. But if you can get really specific and create those series of very specific industry resources and tools, that would be something I would like I I would wanna see.
Rudy Rodriguez:I think the productization becomes very important because Anthony, as you know, we always talk about customers who don't understand what offer they need to make to their customers. And one of the things that we've seen the evolution of of business is you have to make it easier for the customer to understand what it is you do, how you do it, and what price you're doing it at, and how you can compartmentalize that because, you know, one of the one of the biggest sales phrases that will kill a sale faster than anything is, you know, when a customer asks you, how do you do this and how much is it gonna cost? And you answer, well, depends. That just kills everything right then and there. You have to be clear about your offer and what you're doing.
Rudy Rodriguez:And a lot of partners don't realize that they can compartmentalize that and say, this takes this long and this does it. And that's something that I've seen changes in the marketplace where people are just saying, hey. This implementation is x amount of dollars. That's it. That's it. And they've gone through the effort to to identify that IP that's required to do an expert implementation. And I think that's really important.
Eddie Bader:I'm gonna add to that and just say that and and please correct me if if you feel I'm off base here, but buyer personas are changing. Right? If you generationally, we are moving from a few generations who are used to this the standardized sale process. Right? Let's have a meeting.
Eddie Bader:Let's talk about SOW. Let's let's scope this out. Here's project plus 20% for every you know that sales cycle is long and it can be tedious at times and when we see this the new generations come into the ecosystem they're researching everything on their own If they see something and they can buy it they're gonna potentially just buy it right off the shelves. So even something as simple as do you have a shopping cart on your website where people can buy your services or your product? Can they buy it easily?
Eddie Bader:And I think we've put a lot of barriers in front of the purchasing process and I would like to see more partners make it very easy to consume their product. To your point Anthony or I mean, really be very confident in what they're providing. We've seen huge success with folks that have just a flat fee for this particular implementation. Because they know how to do it, they've done it hundreds of times or thousands of times and they've got it dialed in. So I would just say that that's another key thing to to think about is that buyer personas are changing. Not everybody wants to be in a conversation with you. They just wanna buy it. So take as many obstacles out of that buying process as possible.
Rudy Rodriguez:Okay. Got one other question, you know, because we get this, from from IAMCP members all all the time. But how can partners align with Microsoft's broader mission? And is that best for their business?
Anthony Carrano:I got a short answer for this one, Eddie. One, join IMCP. Two-
Eddie Bader:That's a great answer.
Anthony Carrano:That's it. Go to the meetings and join the programs. Three, read your bits and bytes, right? And if you don't know what that is, you got to join a chapter and show up. But in all seriousness, just, you know, especially for the unmanaged partners is you got to sign up and get involved.
Anthony Carrano:I don't know Eddie you got something you want to expound on that?
Eddie Bader:Yeah, I'll just try and make this quick. I think as an organization we've done a lot of good work in providing content that's relevant and trying to help partners understand the relevant aspects of being a Microsoft partner. So we have sessions on partnering, we have sessions on sales and marketing, we have sessions on partner enablement, really trying to help partners focus in on the things that are going to drive their business forward. So there's that component of it. But it also comes down to execution.
Eddie Bader:And I think being a Microsoft partner, you know, it's like drinking from a fire hose, right? And not everything that is out there is something that an organization should be involved in. So to Ruth's point, you have to really take some time and be strategic with what you decide to go after understand why you're going after it what you're what you expect the benefits to be and then and then just dedicate it if you're going go get a solution designation then just be singularly focused because you can make it happen. If that's not in the cards for you, don't do it because somebody else is telling you. Do it because it's gonna benefit your business.
Eddie Bader:Right? And every each organization has to make that decision upon themselves. But the INSP is a great place to talk to the people who are doing it, talk to people who have made the same decision you're making, and so the people who haven't made the same decision. And also content, we've got a lot of great people and organizations in the community with a lot of knowledge who are willing to share that and I think that's huge benefit of being part of this global community.
Rudy Rodriguez:Well, we're almost through for the day, but I do wanna ask you, you know, in what one way could IAMCP or could the partner community evolve to better support growth and and collaboration?
Anthony Carrano:Are you, thinking, like, from our perspective or from the perspective of from the, from the episodes?
Rudy Rodriguez:From a membership perspective, what could IAMCP do? You know, because there's there's a lot of challenges in in the marketplace. So in the previous question, you know, we asked, you know, what you can do. And you do have to learn what Microsoft's mission is. You have do have to learn what you can apply to your business that's gonna be relevant to your business to help you grow your business.
Rudy Rodriguez:So whether it's licensing or the technical implementations or application development, whatever your services are, you have to do that. But in the partner community, you know, we have organizations like the IAMCP. What can they do better to support the growth and collaboration?
Anthony Carrano:I don't know. I don't know how this would be done, but just in hearing some of the stories of, especially with the international, like for those that are, let's say, if you're here in The States and you're wanting to do stuff overseas or, you know, your overseas partners doing stuff, it'd be there might some of this might already be in existence, but just more of the international collaboration, right? I mean, because I know a lot of the stories, you know, that then they tend to be the collaboration tends to be within region. You know, I don't know, where you know, like I would think about like, so if I've let's say if I'm a I'm a US based partner and I have a client here in The States, but they're wanting to break into, let's say, an overseas market, right? You know, how are those are there the relationships in play?
Anthony Carrano:You know, I don't know if there's an opportunity for how, you know, IMCP can maybe help facilitate some of those type of international type of am I making sense guys? I know I'm kind of mumbling here or rambling a little bit, but I was just thinking about because I know, you know, because a lot of the stories we've done, it's been collaboration within region, but what about, you know, collaboration across region for the betterment of, you know, the customer and what are maybe the mechanisms in place to help facilitate those type of international relationship building. Does that make sense?
Eddie Bader:It does. And we do address that in the partnering series that we have. We talk about geo expansion into other regions outside of your native region. I think partner opportunity groups, which meet once a month, are also a great way for you to connect with partners outside of your region or even your country and really understand what's going on in other markets. Quite often, not exclusively, but quite often we find that a lot of companies are trying to land in The US.
Eddie Bader:Right? So we we have an opportunity to facilitate some of those engagements. But I will also say that there are a couple of other things going on. We have business circles in EMEA, solution circles in APAC, and those are where, similar organizations come together, maybe it's MSPs, maybe it's Dynamics Partners. They come together, they talk about everything.
Eddie Bader:And it's not just on the Microsoft side, it's just the business side. Like, hey, I'm getting these margins. You're getting those margins. How can I get those margins? Right?
Eddie Bader:You're doing better than I am. What is it that you're doing? And it's really like a business conversation as opposed to just a solution or a Microsoft conversation. I think those are very helpful. But there's a lot of of content and I will say I will highlight a couple of collaborations that I know of is that IAMCP Spain has worked with IAMCP LatAm because they share a common language of Spanish, obviously.
Eddie Bader:Right? We've had partners go from LatAm over to Spain and vice versa. And because they share a common language, they found a common thread for them to connect on, you know? And then as a result, they are starting to do business in those areas, LatAm and Spain and Spain and LatAm. And I think that's a wonderful example of how IAMCP can facilitate those cross border collaborations.
Eddie Bader:We we need to be doing more of it and we are trying to do so but anytime that you can sit on a sit on a call or, you know, hang out in a different group. I think that's a huge opportunity, and and some of that's in place already. And sometimes you just have to find it on the the calendar and say, oh, I wanna be a part of that because I'm gonna be connected to a whole new group of people. More of that, doing more of that, doing more of right now we're in the process of we talked about that Seattle Solutions Group. We are purposely doing activations throughout the community and getting multiple chapters into a room and saying, hey.
Eddie Bader:This is how we this is how it was set up. Let's set it up in your chapter. Let's set it up in your region. And then, ultimately, I'd like to see it happen where we have a solutions group that is a global solutions group, partners from many different regions involved and I think that's where we're headed. But I think there's a ton of opportunity and we just not got to nail it down.
Eddie Bader:And then finally, and this is a little peek into the future, we are looking at a legitimate purpose built partnering platform that we hope to implement here within the next few months and that will also help connect partners together a little bit more easily and with much more relevance.
Rudy Rodriguez:Great answer. Great answer there. And and, you know, I think the answer is IMCP is doing a lot, doing an awful lot. And and what partners can do, they should attend their local chapter meetings and learn more and also, view the website because there's a lot of information on the website and then use the connection tool in the website to connect with other partners. That's a great way to do it.
Rudy Rodriguez:So I've got one last question, for the day, and this is also, you know, continuing again along the lines of community and collaboration. If you could give one piece of advice to a new partner entering the Microsoft ecosystem, what would that be?
Eddie Bader:Well, it's a good one. Alright. I'll give you two answers. First one is if you're a new partner and you're and you become an IAMCP member, I would say volunteer. Get involved in some activity, whether you become a chair of a committee or eventually you want to be part of a leadership team.
Eddie Bader:The more you get involved, the more people see you. Shows your commitment to something outside of just your organization. Think it's a great way to get connected to people. If you're new into the ecosystem, I would say connect with as many partners and attend as many Microsoft led events as you can and obviously community events as you can and really understand who you are as an organization, what things you're going to adopt in terms of, yes, I'm going go after solution information, I'm going go after certain things, but really define who you are, what your superpower is, and be able to share that in a very concise message. You know, we talked about that elevator pitch, but really have it dialed in because it doesn't matter who you talk to, whether it's Microsoft and their partner or a client, the more the easier it is for you to convey that message, the more success you're gonna have long term.
Eddie Bader:That's my opinion. Because people know what you do, who you do it for, and how you do it. If you can answer those questions in ten, fifteen seconds, you really have your stuff dialed in, I think.
Anthony Carrano:No. That that's really good. I I mean, I agree with everything you just said. I think the thing I would just add add to that, and this is especially, you know, since we've got technologists, right, that are they're part of the community is that trust compounds faster than technology. And, just keep that in mind that, you know, partners who invest in credibility and transparency, you're gonna see faster results.
Anthony Carrano:So, like, in addition to the things, you know, a that you were talking about, would just, you know, I mean, is is the key part of what what makes this whole thing go. And it's kind of I remember when we first started oh, gosh. It's been a few years now when we first started talking about, like, the IMC brand and how's, you know that that you know it that brand you know represents something it's that has that same effect that you know like an AARP you know brand represents for trust right or whatever you know the brand of trust represent you know it's why people want to look to you know, IAMCP you know, IAMCP members to help them with their end to end, you know, solution, you know, finding those, you know, trusted experts. It's why, you know, thinking about, like, on the m and a, you know, side of it, why these Microsoft companies that have the reoccurring revenue and the IP, but they're Microsoft, you know, partner, part of IAMCP, there's there's some higher valuations there. There's there's trust that's, you know, involved.
Anthony Carrano:So anyway, I would just encourage people just to kinda keep that in mind.
Eddie Bader:And one thing we didn't talk about, but is is very relevant is the transfer of trust, the concept of transfer of trust. And where that comes into play is if if I introduce you to somebody let's say Anthony you're my client and I introduce you to another partner yeah we have a trust relationship that's automatically transferred to this other person that I just introduced you to it's not a cold call. It's not even slightly lukewarm. It's a, Hey, if Eddie is saying you're good, then I'm taking his word. So for me to refer somebody, I'm gonna make sure that I'm not gonna refer just anybody to you.
Eddie Bader:Right? And I'm not saying this applies not just to me, but to all of us. Right? If we have a relationship and then we bring somebody else in, there's that you're led into the quote unquote inner circle, right? And that doorway is gated and locked. And so for you to have access, one, you have to earn access to it. And two, it's a very, very powerful thing that this community offers is the transfer of trust and it can't be overlooked in terms of its value.
Anthony Carrano:Sounds good. Sounds good. Well, Eddie, this was fun. Really enjoyed having you on. I know we're looking forward to the next twenty five. So you know, I'll sit when I say I'll see you next year. I'm just talking about here on the podcast. And I appreciate you, man. Take care.
Eddie Bader:Thanks. You too. Take care.
Anthony Carrano:And that's a wrap on our two part anniversary special. We've explored not only the foundations of successful partnerships, but also the exciting trends shaping the Microsoft partner community, AI, product innovation, and new opportunities for growth and collaboration, with expert insights and fresh stories, as well as reflection from our guests shared experiences and partner collaborations from around the world. 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, 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:To learn more, visit the website at www.imcp.org. Thank you for being part of our community for tuning in through an entire year of podcasting. Don't forget to follow, rate and share. Your support fuels the journey ahead. Until next time, keep connecting, learning and growing.
