Sweet Success: Insights from Suresh Ramani on Mastering Partnerships and Building Your Brand
Welcome to the IAMCP Profiles in 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. 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.
Anthony Carrano: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. We'll hear their stories, learn from their experiences, and discover the best practices and strategies they use to increase customer loyalty and grow revenue. 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.
Anthony Carrano: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. Thank you for listening, and now let's get started with today's episode.
Anthony Carrano:Hi everyone, so in today's episode we had a few technical issues, so audio isn't where we'd like it to be, but I think the content is really valuable, so I wanted to share it with you all anyway. I'm really grateful for our guest and our conversation, and excited to share it with you. And now today's episode.
Anthony Carrano:Before we dive into our interview, let me ask you a few questions. How are you positioning yourself as a partner in the Microsoft community? Another way to think about is, like, if you were to ask a 100 partners about your brand, what would they say? As a Microsoft partner and member of the IAMCP, how do you find and develop partner relationships that'll help you grow your business?
Anthony Carrano:Finding the right partner can be challenging, but can also be very rewarding. In fact, according to a channel partner profitability study, Microsoft partners derive margins 19% higher than the next closest competitor. That's a huge difference, and it shows the power of partnering. So how do you leverage the Microsoft Partner Network and IAMCP to support your partnerships? And how do you ensure success for your customer?
Anthony Carrano:These are some of the questions we'll explore in this podcast with the help of our guest, a recent P2P award winner who is also an expert in partnering. 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 Suresh Ramani, the CEO of TechGyan, a 3 time Microsoft worldwide partner of the year award winner and preferred, you know, Microsoft partner with expertise in social mobility analytics and cloud computing technologies. Let's hear what he has to say.
Anthony Carrano:Welcome, Suresh, to the podcast today. Thank you for joining us.
Suresh Ramani:Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Anthony Carrano:Excellent. Well, why don't you start off and tell us a little bit about yourself and your role in the company?
Suresh Ramani:Absolutely. So my name is Suresh Ramani. I'm the founder, CEO of TechGyan. TechGyan is actually in Sanskrit, you know, language Sanskrit. Gyan means knowledge.
Suresh Ramani:So, essentially, gyan is a play with knowledge of technology. Founded the company in 2001. So, in 2000 so we went on pretty okay like a normal systems integrator. 2007, I was nominated by Microsoft as a partner area lead. That was a community that started in, you know, in 2007.
Suresh Ramani:So I was the only pal from Asia. And that was my first experience of WPC. Back then, it was not inspired. It was WPC, one of my partner. It was in Denver.
Suresh Ramani:So I, Denver was my first WPC. And incidentally, 2007, same year, we won our 1st partner of the year also. So that was a very special year. 2008, I attended my second WPC. Right?
Suresh Ramani:And, that was again because I was a pal there also. In 2009, I was nominated as a MVP, Microsoft MVP for small business server. So that's a small background of our company. Yeah. Are there any specific things which you want me to talk about?
Anthony Carrano:Yeah. Well, I love the fact that talking with the founders. So why did you start the company?
Suresh Ramani:I was working in a couple of companies and, most of them were, like, you know, these hardware kind of thing. You're offering PCs and printers and laptops. I was I feel that is not the way you do solutions for your customers. Okay? If I were to just dunk the iron, that's not the way things will work.
Suresh Ramani:And somehow, I was always fascinated by Microsoft. I tell you that. I remember when Windows 95 was launched, I was so so excited that, whenever I was working, I, you know, kind of used to call customers and show them that. So I felt that there is some magic about solutions solutions in Microsoft, specifically. Okay.
Suresh Ramani:So I said I need to go in that direction. That's kind of the thought which made me go into, starting my own. Yeah.
Anthony Carrano:Oh, that's that's fantastic. And I know, I mean, you've had just a lot of success. I know in addition to I know you are the 3 time Microsoft worldwide, you know, partner of the year award winner. But also, you know, congratulations because I know here just recently, you were the from the solution the P2P award, for the solution providers, you were the APAC winner, but you're also a globalist, a global finalist, you know, for that IAMCP P2P two award. So congratulations.
Suresh Ramani:Thank you. And, this is actually the 3rd global award which we are getting from IAMCP. So that's it's
Anthony Carrano:Oh, wow. Okay.
Suresh Ramani:Yeah.
Suresh Ramani:Yeah. We we love that fact. Absolutely. And, more than anything else, what award awards what they really do is that they tell you that, okay, you are on right track. Right?
Anthony Carrano:Mhmm.
Suresh Ramani:And whenever I do my blog post or whatever about the awards, my blog post always ends with the the core awards, you get more responsibility. That's Spiderman kind of a thing. You know?
Anthony Carrano:Mhmm.
Suresh Ramani:So that's how it is. So, essentially, awards keep telling you you are doing good stuff, which people are liking, and, you need to kind of now commit to their expectations, which are which have gone higher. That's what we thought.
Anthony Carrano:Well, I know we're looking forward to getting into that story, you know, here, here in a minute. But before we do, you know, because I know we've you shared a little bit about your company, but tell us, you know, when when did you join the IAMCP?
Suresh Ramani:Oh, so I should say I no. I didn't join IAMCP. I started IAMCP. Okay. So let me let me tell you how it happened.
Suresh Ramani:2008, I went to my I did my second WPC. Right? And back then, you know, when the WPCs, IAMCP members used to have these stalls, you know, these egg works essentially. So I kind of went there and the people said, okay. This is a community.
Suresh Ramani:It does a, b, c, d, e. Then you asked my background. They they realized that I'm a I was I won my award last year in. Now and I was also a partner with the lead for Asia. They said, since you are already doing community work, would you want to consider, you know, starting, an IAMCP chapter in India?
Suresh Ramani:Because they want to start something there. I said, give me some details. Let me, figure out what I need to do. So 2008, when I came back, I I was thinking about it, what I need to do.
Suresh Ramani:And I felt, yes, there is something which we can do. A community can be very useful. Right? And that was a time in 2009, I also was awarded as a MVP. Microsoft MVP for small business server.
Suresh Ramani:So I said now MVP also is community. Right? At the end of the day, MVP is what? Because of your technical experience. It's for the community work you do.
Suresh Ramani:So get this I'll talk to society. Let me start this. I started the community chapter in Mumbai in 2009, and that's how the the whole thing started. Initially, it was very, very tough because the concept of partnering, concept of P2P concept of community, totally lacking in India. So it was tough.
Suresh Ramani:But one thing I was very clear, I will keep doing events, keep doing events, keep doing events. So I went on doing events probably 8, 10 wins a year. And slowly, the community went on building. So in 2018, 19, we felt that we were ready to form a legal body. So we formed a legal body in 2019.
Suresh Ramani:And once the legal body was formed, we we formed the all Indian legal body thinking of the first annual event in Mumbai. So it was a one day event.
Anthony Carrano:Wow.
Suresh Ramani:Yes. And we were so, so, so afraid because they booked a Fisa hotel and they said, looks like they will pull money from our pocket.
Suresh Ramani:We don't know what's gonna happen. People come, not come. We said we should get at least 50 partners. If we if we get 50 partners, we will be on the right track. We closed at 90 partners.
Anthony Carrano:Wow. Wow.
Suresh Ramani:We stopped sponsorships 1 month before the event. We said, sorry. We're all done.
Suresh Ramani:We don't have we don't have booths to offer. So but yeah. Absolutely.
Anthony Carrano:That's a great problem to have.
Suresh Ramani:Yeah. But it's a wonderful problem to have. Let me tell you it's such a wonderful problem to have. And that's when we said, I think the time has come.
Suresh Ramani:We need to now just focus on making it bigger. Just when you're thinking of making it bigger, 2019 December, we had an event. In 2020 March, confirmed COVID came. Right? So if the, you know, it it changed and dynamics everything.
Suresh Ramani:However, we somehow managed to go through the COVID, and 2023, we gained our second event where 110 partners came for 2 days 2 days. And in 2,024, we had our big 3 day event where 120 partners landed up.
Anthony Carrano:Wow. That's fantastic.
Suresh Ramani:And when I'm saying 3 days, you can understand we had it in Goa.
Suresh Ramani:Goa is a very happening place in India. Lot of beaches there. So we had a beach party, music, dance. It's like fun stuff. Right?
Suresh Ramani:Okay? Absolute fun stuff. And, you know what? The main thing why we feel there is this need for the community and the need for such an annual event is because now you don't have those inspires. We used to have inspired events where partners would go, connect with each other, and connect with Microsoft.
Suresh Ramani:With that going on to picture, I think IAMCP events and events especially are a great, great, great place. So our pitches experience inspire at 20% of the cost. Very simple. Right? So that's how it is.
Suresh Ramani:I'm very deep into the community. And currently, I'm also, the founding president for IAMCP of the Asia Pacific. So I'm trying to build chapters in Australia, New Zealand, in Greater China. And hopefully, we should have a very vibrant community like India and other parts of Asia Pacific also.
Anthony Carrano:That's great. Thank you for sharing that. So also, you know, you mentioned beach parties and whatnot. Tell us a little bit. I, you know, I know you're holding out on us. Your background with music. I hear that there's a band out there possibly.
Suresh Ramani:So, you know, we've only lived once. I think some more people have said that. Right? So we should have multiple facets to work personality. So one is I'm very passionate about Microsoft.
Suresh Ramani:I I don't work in this field because I needed money to work, but it's because I know Microsoft. I I know Microsoft technology. So I'm very passionate about that. So that's my passion number 1. My passion number 2 is music.
Suresh Ramani:Okay. So I listen to music. I sing. I'm part of a band music band in, in a in my city. We do 2 public shows where we have 600, 700 people coming in and, you know, clapping and shouting and dancing.
Suresh Ramani:So it's good fun. It's all good fun. So that's my another passion. And, of course, my third passion is not really a great passion for many of my friends. I'm very passionate about desserts.
Suresh Ramani:I love eating desserts. I love experimenting with various desserts from various cities and countries and cuisines. So that's something that I'm passionate about.
Anthony Carrano:Alright. Well, let me add because, you know, I'm Italian American. So are cannolis on your top ten list for desserts?
Suresh Ramani:Absolutely. Absolutely.
Anthony Carrano:Of course. Right? Who doesn't like a cannoli?
Rudy Rodriguez:Well, and gelato.
Rudy Rodriguez:And gelato. Don't forget the gelato.
Anthony Carrano:Don't forget gelato. That's right. Well, I really appreciate it. Well, it sounds like, Suresh, we could probably have a whole another episode talking about all kinds of fun stuff. But, you know, back to back to, Profiles in Partnership.
Anthony Carrano:Absolutely. Tell us, you know, about with, you know, about with that, you know, TechGyan. What are the company's areas of specialization?
Suresh Ramani:So we have been always, big on modern work. The reason is modern work actually is productivity. So, you know, our, we are we are we are very passionate about productivity, about the processes which can help productivity. So, you know, Google is being behind this, you know, this whole cloud behind, Microsoft's small business server that was, hot product which had exchange. It had SharePoint.
Suresh Ramani:So that was essentially a productive piece. Right? So from those in itself, modern work has been a big area for us. So that's been a major strength. In 2018, Microsoft moved into security.
Suresh Ramani:You know, this they launched Microsoft 365, which is actually nothing but Office 365 going on with security. For us, it's all very simple. We don't do too much strategization. We don't we just look at where Microsoft is going, and we just follow them. So we said, okay.
Suresh Ramani:Microsoft is getting to security. We are going to security. So we started our security practice. In 2020, we started our Azure practice. So, currently, we have these three areas.
Suresh Ramani:So we are an SMB focus, you know, small and midsize businesses is our forte. And we have 3 service brands. We have one brand which is called Branded Teamwork 365, which is productivity brand. So under that, we offer a lot of productivity services. We have secure IT 365, which is security and compliance brand.
Suresh Ramani:And throughout is data center 365 where we talk of data center modernization and data center transformation. So, you know, we do these 3, brands. And under these 3 brands, we've got various packages, you know, for various things. Like, you know, we we'll have things like intranet. We'll have a document management system.
Suresh Ramani:We'll have copilot service. Various things, essentially. So, essentially, SMB focused customers are SMB. Brands are industry brands from the product or vendor perspective. We are big on Microsoft 365 Cloud and Azure Cloud.
Suresh Ramani:These are the 2 things that we do.
Rudy Rodriguez:Alright. Well, that's that's great to know, Suresh. So let's get down to the story that that got you this award. Can you tell us a little bit about the client that you worked with? You don't have to give us their name or or you know But if you would share the size of that company, the industry that we're in, the all the technologies that you were implementing, and more importantly, the challenges that your client was facing. We'd like to hear about that.
Suresh Ramani:Absolutely. Absolutely. So this client is one of the largest conglomerates of India, moving among the top 10 conglomerates. They have multiple businesses. So for this particular case, they were doing a, you know, demerger and merger activity and setting up a a greenfield media setup media.
Suresh Ramani:Essentially, media setup. Right? So when they were doing that, they needed few things to be done. They they were hosted somewhere in a tenant. They wanted a tenant to tenant migration to happen for Microsoft 365.
Suresh Ramani:That was one you have when they wanted with all the needs and documents being moved from one tenant to the other. Then they wanted to set up a greenfield active directory setup. Okay? With multiple technology like VMW, Nutanix, Venus Server, all that involved multiple servers. Now here, the customer CIO had got a very strong reference of our company in the local CIU community.
Suresh Ramani:So, you know, what happens is there's a India India, you know, the WhatsApp country, I should say. WhatsApp is very popular here. So there are these lot of communities which are there all over. So one of these communities is the CIO community of Western India. So he must have floated in that, okay.
Suresh Ramani:I'm looking for doing x y z. So please suggest some partners. Now whenever Microsoft comes into picture in Western India, our company is normally there because, you know, we we have a good brand recall for Microsoft technologies in Western India. So he got a good reference from us for us. He reached out to me, and he basically discussed his requirements.
Suresh Ramani:And he stated clearly that he's also not very he's also reasonably in the company. So he would like to work with our company because of the strong reference, and he wants a complete project to be done by us. So, you know, essentially, this was the basic requirement which was there from the customer side. So what I'm talking so the question was about the project. This is a project.
Suresh Ramani:We want to, talk about the partnering later or now, whatever. So choice is yours.
Rudy Rodriguez:No. Let's talk about partnering. Let's, you know talk about the partner that you had and what what they were required to do and why you chose them.
Suresh Ramani:So very clearly, as I mentioned, there were 2 requirements. Customer wanted a complete, tenant to tenant migration for email and complete document migration. Right? That's our strength. I mean, we we do it.
Suresh Ramani:So we know how it is to be done. But the customer also wanted activity 7, 8, any servers, you know, VMware, Nutanix, all that kind of stuff. We have moved out of that area many years back. We no longer do on prem work. We don't ever do that.
Suresh Ramani:Right? So we told the customer, listen. Let me do that first project for you, and then I will recommend you some partners. You talk to them and get your work done. You say, no.
Suresh Ramani:You are going to be booked very clearly. It's not either or you to be booked. And I would not want you to give up just for this because we will do a lot of work in future. But I want you to do then I said, listen. I do know this.
Suresh Ramani:He said, listen. Can you take project management responsibility? I want to want to bill me. Very simple. Because I want your company to be accountable that, yes, I'm billing you.
Suresh Ramani:So I'm guaranteeing things will happen. So, you know, that was a big responsibility. That's where we reached out to this partner, Orient is the name of the company, Orient Technologies. They do a lot of work in on prem stuff. We are a very, reputed systems integrator.
Suresh Ramani:And we've done projects before. Both of us are part of IAMCP local chapter. Both are Mumbai based. So, you know, I'm based on the Mumbai city of Mumbai. That partner also is going to have an office in Mumbai.
Suresh Ramani:So we spoke to each other, and the require and the agreement is very simple. Once we have finished with our tenant to tenant migration, we will make the project plan. We will do project management, and the folks from Orient will do the actual execution of the on prem stuff, which is, you know, the AD and the RedX server and all that kind of stuff, which is something which we won't do. So that was a basic idea. And based on that thought process, we got going on that.
Suresh Ramani:And that's how the whole thing happened. The partnering happened.
Rudy Rodriguez:Okay. How long did this project take?
Suresh Ramani:One thing about these large conglomerates, they always look at the estimate of the time which we suggest. And we say yes. Now you do it in 20% of that time. That's how they work essentially. Okay.
Suresh Ramani:So same thing happened here. Tenant to tenant migration, I told them with it take around 35 days. You know, I worked 15 days starting today.
Suresh Ramani:Okay. You finish that anyhow. I mean, our team actually was doing the work and doing the migrations at 2 AM, 3 AM at night. But he oh, it's okay. Not a problem.
Suresh Ramani:I mean, another requirement. We finished that, and then they really work. We say, it is very complex. It's gonna take at least 10 weeks. He said, no.
Suresh Ramani:I've got exactly 32 days. That's how they work. So, again, pressure, unnecessary undue pressure, we call it. So we had to put in more people, get the work done, project management was done. And so, essentially, around 15, 20 days for tenant to tenant migration and 4 to 5 weeks for the AD project.
Suresh Ramani:That's how it is.
Rudy Rodriguez:Clients like that are fun. You just brought back a a lot of horrible memories for me. It's where I worked on a project where we had to migrate 50,000 people, and they gave us 60 days to do it.
Suresh Ramani:That's awesome.
Rudy Rodriguez:That was it. And we got it done. It's hard work. It's hard work. So kudos to your team. Kudos to your team.
Rudy Rodriguez:So you said you worked with this partner. You knew them through IAMCP. What criteria did you have for choosing a partner like this?
Suresh Ramani:I think the most important thing is there should be a culture match. First, we should look whether, you know, our cultures are compatible. That's that's very important. Now for cultures to match, you obviously need to know the people concerned. So that's where IAMCP played a big value because we used to have our meetings and because we would, you know, the the founders of those companies would sometimes come for the meetings.
Suresh Ramani:We got to know each other, and we spoke to each other, and we felt we were comfortable with each other. I mean, I think that's very important. So, that's something which we we believe that first, build relationships, then build business. That's that's how the sequencing needs to happen, really speaking. So we had a healthy relationship with the founders.
Suresh Ramani:I personally, you know, was trained in them because of IAMCP. And, then we've done one of those small projects in the past also. This is not the first project I did with them. We've done couple of projects with them in the past on the concept of very straightforward. Cloud part, we are good.
Suresh Ramani:On prem part, we prefer to avoid. So whenever on prem part comes into picture, we look at partners who have the requisite technical strength ability and, you know, the mind should be in sync. Our mind should be in sync, essentially. So that's how we go to them, and, we execute the project. That's how it is.
Rudy Rodriguez:Very good. Very good. You know, I I always appreciate, you know, building those trust relationships with partners. That's so important. And IAMCP is very, very good at that and and teaching people how to build those trust relationships.
Suresh Ramani:Absolutely.
Anthony Carrano:This has triggered several questions. I mean, let me just piggyback on, like, the last point you mentioned about it's really important that, you know, from our minds be in sync. What are some, practical steps you would say to, like, to ensure being the minds being in sync? Because I thought I really like how you worded that.
Suresh Ramani:So what happens is that, when when you say the minds in sync that first of all, if there is a reputation, we all have built certain reputations. You know, so reputation counts, number 1. Number 2, when you interact with the senior management of different companies, that's the time also you get to know whether, you know, they are thinking in a certain wavelength or not. That is another important thing. While all this is great, we always insist that there should be a proper NDA in place and proper NOU in place. That is something we don't compromise.
Suresh Ramani:The NDA, the NOU, we will not use it. We'll probably keep it, you know, signed and keep it at a corner. But I obviously, that's an important aspect.
Anthony Carrano:Mhmm.
Suresh Ramani:So we should have that in place.
Suresh Ramani:Not only that, and then you should see within this complimentary stuff which you can do. See, for us, we don't do on framework at all. And there will be projects which will come which will need some on prem work to be done. In such a case, there's a clear complementary stuff in services which we are offering essentially.
Suresh Ramani:I think that's that's something which is also an important aspect. So, you know, it's a combination of these 4, 5 things, really speaking. Absolutely.
Anthony Carrano:Mhmm.
Suresh Ramani:And, you know, it's the the reason why because some partners take a shortcut. They try to, you know, should I say rob, you know, it's a strong word. It's the hand that lays a golden egg Right? That's a story we are talking about here.
Suresh Ramani:Right? If the relation is good, the hen will keep giving you one golden egg every day. If you cut it once, you lose all the eggs forever. That's the basic idea which we're talking about here.
Anthony Carrano:Mhmm. And I wanna I kinda wanna unpack this site this a little bit further, just because you you've talked a lot about the importance of relationships and reputation and how, you know, especially, you know, with the position that that you guys are in where you're working, you know, what I heard is you tend to work with, you know, some of the larger, you know, enterprise, you know, type, you know, customers. But also, that whenever there's a lot of some opportunities there in India, like, my you and Microsoft do a lot of work together. And so how is so the so this is kind of a a 2 part hitting on the hitting on the same thing. The first part is because I know that the opportunity came to you, from us from the company CIO, from the client.
Anthony Carrano:Excuse me. The, you know, CIO got a strong reference from the CIO community that, you know, TechGyan is a highly capable partner for Microsoft Technology. So what are, so the first part is what are some, tips and things that you would recommend to other partners out there to how do you ensure to position yourself to have that same type of reputation, you know, in in their respective CIO communities to get more business?
Suresh Ramani:So, first of all, you don't go out of the way to build reputation with CIO community. That's very important. Right? You have to just focus on ensuring that you deliver high quality work. You know, I know partners who, you know, take CIOs for the day and all that.
Suresh Ramani:I have never done that. Believe me. I have never ever done that. Not even to start? No.
Suresh Ramani:I mean, I I do what the fun fun fun stuff. It's a let me dial this a little bit. I post COVID, I stopped to going to office. I started working from home and all that. So one of the new customers, we did a lot of work together.
Suresh Ramani:We during COVID, he came to me and we started working. Today we are doing a lot of work for them in Azure, in Microsoft 365, and Security. So once he said, he said, Suresh, at least once come to my office. Let us meet once. I said, okay.
Suresh Ramani:No. No. No. No. No.
Suresh Ramani:I'll come. It's not that I don't meet. I'll definitely come. So I went there. He took me around to his office.
Suresh Ramani:He says, see. He never goes, but he's come to meet us. And he introduced me to everybody. And then I said, shall I go? He said, no.
Suresh Ramani:Wait for half an hour. I said, okay. I do not I didn't want him to feel bad. We did. He said, okay.
Suresh Ramani:Now can you do me a favor, Suresh? Just call up your home and tell them that you are having dinner outside. So then we went for dinner. I said, okay. Now when when the check came, I said I need to pay.
Suresh Ramani:He said, no way I'm gonna pay. You have come to my office. You don't go. I know you don't go.
Suresh Ramani:You've come to my office. You have been nice enough, and you've been doing such great work for us. So how can you I allow you to pay? I mean, that was I said, I keep hearing that partners have to always always with their customers. This is the first time I a customer is insisting that he'll not allow me to pay.
Suresh Ramani:That's okay. Yeah. These things happen. So they're very interesting. They're very interesting.
Suresh Ramani:So coming to your point to your question again, I think we should identify instead of you be trying to be jack of all. We need to identify our niche areas and be brilliant in those areas. That's really important. Many many partners I know, not just in India.
Suresh Ramani:I know some of my friends in advanced markets like US also. They do everything. You know? They are not a very large company. Maybe 20 people or 10 people or even 5 people.
Suresh Ramani:But they do hardware. They do a router. They do a firewall. They do Cisco. They do Google G Suite.
Suresh Ramani:They'll do x, y, zed. Fine. If you're doing that, then please be sure that you do that very well.
Anthony Carrano:Mhmm. Mhmm.
Suresh Ramani:What I mean to say is that you then ensure that you give great price and great, coordination with the vendors for support. You'll be very clear about that. Mhmm. In our case, we must we are super clear. We are a Microsoft focused partner, number 1.
Suresh Ramani:Within the Microsoft ecosystem also, we only look at productivity, security, and Azure infra. We don't even look at, you know, something like Azure data. As you know, Azure has got 3, 4 areas. Right? 1 is data and AI.
Suresh Ramani:We don't look into that. We just look at we are obsessed with Azure infrastructure. We are obsessed with productivity. So, you know, M365 productivity, we are bold. And we are absolutely clear on security.
Suresh Ramani:When I say security, again, I'm talking of M365 security. We don't get into security, multiple vendors, you know, going to Palo Alto and this and that. Nothing. No. No.
Suresh Ramani:No. I don't understand anything. Talk to me, Microsoft, and I'll help you. The minute somebody says, okay. What about Business Central implementation?
Suresh Ramani:I see, hey, listen. Business central, I can give you licenses. But for deployment, I will connect you to business central partners because I don't do ERP. I don't do CRM.
Anthony Carrano:Mhmm. Mhmm.
Rudy Rodriguez:So we have kind of maintained our focus in few areas. And in those few areas, we always try to be brilliant. That's very important. And while you have to be trying to be brilliant all the time, you have to ensure that you keep building your brand.
Anthony Carrano:Mhmm.
Suresh Ramani:The brand branding needs to be there, which is where, you know, the awards of my IAMCP become very, very useful. The Microsoft mobile awards become very, very useful. Then the presence on social media, whether it's LinkedIn or YouTube. Again, that become very, very useful. So we are very conscious about our brand.
Suresh Ramani:And I'm personally I'm personally involved with the marketing in our company.
Anthony Carrano:Mhmm. Mhmm.
Suresh Ramani:You know? Because most of us, you know, what we feel marketing is not a great thing to do essentially. Therefore, many partners, IT partners, I don't believe, we have they say, oh, marketing. Who wants to do marketing? Well, marketing is your brand.
Suresh Ramani:If you have a strong brand, you can attract business. And today, we all know the days of you going out out for a business, it doesn't work. Today, customers do what they want. They search you.
Suresh Ramani:You're there and winner, and then they come to you. So you need to ensure that you have a very strong brand.
Anthony Carrano:That's very important. Yes and amen, especially as Rudy and I are partners in a marketing agency. So, I'm gonna quote you here on out to everybody I talk to. Suresh says
Rudy Rodriguez:Can we use your name on our website?
Suresh Ramani:Yes. I mean, I'm telling you, it's a it's a very sad fact. It's a very sad fact. And I have spoken to many large partners. They have no idea about what is it Microsoft, BMC and PMC.
Suresh Ramani:Microsoft has got tons and tons of high quality resources on marketing, and 99% partners do the know where they exist.
Anthony Carrano:Yep. Yep. You know, you talked about, so I I do I'm gonna get to the second part of my the the part 2 of my question, but I wanna you said something when you're talking about with marketing and social media and YouTube. Now I know, you know, you've got quite an extensive, you know, or a pretty significant YouTube channel. Can you share with our our audience a little bit about that?
Suresh Ramani:Absolutely. So, you know, the YouTube channel, I started focusing a lot when Microsoft Cloud came into picture. Right? And before that licensing, you know, as we all know, Microsoft does such a wonderful job of licensing that very few people will understand it. Right?
Suresh Ramani:That's how it is. You know? It's so complicated. So I I I developed video licensing, Microsoft licensing, because it was becoming very tough for us, my team and me to keep explaining to everybody what is this MULP, what is this paper licensing, what is this, this, that, we. So I I kind of came out with that video.
Suresh Ramani:It became very popular. And what we became very popular for me and my team, it was very simple. Anybody asking a question on licensing, they would just send them the YouTube link. That was how it was. And that's when I felt and realized the power of videos.
Suresh Ramani:So when we, you know, we came out with the video after some time on Microsoft Exchange online, for example. Right? That video has got 55,000 plus views.
Anthony Carrano:Wow. Okay. Wow.
Suresh Ramani:I mean, it just is, you know, absolutely super, super, super popular. And then because we were competing with Google Google Apps, you know, in our space, Microsoft Office versus that. So I I developed a nice, cheeky video on Office CC versus Google Apps. Again, like, 35, 40000 views on that. And the fun part is the comments.
Suresh Ramani:So the comments are lot of Google fans, you know, moving me away. And before me trying to defend myself, Microsoft fans supporting me said, no, he's right. Why say he's absolutely right? I said, okay. Good fun.
Suresh Ramani:So it was all good fun. And so my idea was that if I develop a video and my videos, I try to put it in this simple language because I I have this very strong opinion that Microsoft, unfortunately, the language they use in videos or in the documentation is quite complex. Okay? And, my, I I keep joking with my friends in Mac. I said, I'm not surprised that your videos are so complicated because if you are going to pay somebody $40,000 for a video, they will produce something complicated.
Suresh Ramani:They will produce something simple. You'll ask them, oh, why are you how can you do some simple video like this? I keep talking to them for that. So I have whenever something new is there, I will come out with the video, publish it. And the idea is whenever a customer query comes in, there has to be standard response.
Suresh Ramani:If I'm giving a response, if my team, experienced person is giving a response, if a fresh train is giving a response, the response should be standard. And how it can be standard if the communication which we are sharing is standard, which means a blog with, you know, some nice 2, 3 paragraphs and with a video insert. So that's basically my strategy. My whole thought thinking is drive people to either my website or to my YouTube channel, basically.
Anthony Carrano:Mhmm. Mhmm. And we'll have for those who are listening, we'll have the link to that YouTube channel in in our show notes. So I appreciate you sharing that.
Anthony Carrano:Absolutely.
Anthony Carrano:I'd like to kinda like the part 2 because, you know, we talked a lot about, you know, reputation and relationships, you know, and you you answered the question about, you know, having that reputation in the CIO community. I kinda wanna maybe shift it to part 2 is rep you know, having that, reputation in the eyes of Microsoft, you know, as they're looking to you know, as you're, you know, working with partners, you know, on on opportunities. Is there anything in addition to the three things that you shared in those three points, you know, obviously identifying, you know, the areas that you can be brilliant at, right, is number 1. Number 2, when you after you've identified those areas, you know, and and that you can be and be brilliant at, you know, focus on delivering high quality value. And number 3 was, you know, just a conversation we just had about, you know, having quality, you know, branding and, you know, that's involving, like, your messaging, your content, you know, etcetera.
Anthony Carrano:Is there anything in addition to those three things that you would recommend to partner say, okay. You've you once you've done these three things, you know, to continue that to position yourself to be, you know, as a as an attractive, you know, partner for, you know, Microsoft to collaborate on, what what are some advices, advice that that you have for them?
Suresh Ramani:One, very important thing which many, many, many partners miss out is alignment with Microsoft strategies. You know what? The funny thing is, I keep getting calls from partners in India saying that, what do what incentive do I get for this? What do incentive do I get for that? What program is available?
Suresh Ramani:I said, listen. You go to partner center. Spend time there. Understand what is available. Unfortunately, partners want to be busy with transactions.
Suresh Ramani:Okay. Whether the meeting has got delivered or not, whether the billing has happened or not, collection. But they have no idea about the Microsoft Partner Program. It is see, I I I only can talk about Microsoft because I only work with Microsoft. Right?
Suresh Ramani:And with Microsoft, if you want to succeed, it's super important for you to align your companies with the Microsoft priorities for the year. Make use of the go to market programs which they have. Figure out which areas you will focus on. There is so many resources and so much money they have on the table, which is doing waste because partners are not utilizing it.
Anthony Carrano:That can be an podcast episode in of itself. And this is your your your dispensing, you know, gold here. I really appreciate it. Like I tell you, if we can maybe get back to the story, and so, you know, as you I mean, you talked about, obviously, you know, a lot of the successes, you know, you outlined the importance of, you know, you talked about, you know, culture match, you know, being in sync, you know, having the proper MOUs and NDAs, and even and you've got, you know, all this stuff in place. Did you guys have any, you know, challenges during the engagement?
Anthony Carrano:And if so, how did you all work together to overcome it?
Suresh Ramani:Well, are we talking about challenges in this specific case, partly case, or in general?
Anthony Carrano:Just well, let's maybe if you have something about this specific engagement in which, then because you won the award for, that would be ideal. But if you if you have something else maybe you wanna share, you know, outside of that that I'll kinda defer to you on that.
Suresh Ramani:Fun fact. This project was very complex. Right? I mentioned about Guterres. I mentioned about Redis.
Suresh Ramani:I mentioned about AD. Very, very complex and extremely tight timelines. Considering all that, surprisingly, there were no challenges, major challenges. Very surprisingly.
Suresh Ramani:Absolutely no major challenges because of certain basics being followed, you know, properly. Right? The idea was I'm a big fan of, SOWs. Right? I'm I'm I'm I'm a big fan that, okay, your scope of work needs to be very, very, very, very clear unless and then the customer has signed off and verified and accepted the SOW with, you know, the RACI matrix very clearly specified, you know, that who's gonna do what, who's gonna be responsible.
Suresh Ramani:Take time there. Take time there. If you take time there, the future is going to be less index for you. Pretty simple. But, unfortunately, what we as partners do, as soon as we get a PO, we want the money to come fast, and we want the only way to get the money fast.
Suresh Ramani:Start delivering fast. My dear friends, you are not delivering an IBM server where we know that it's a box which is delivered and you will pay. You are delivering services. And services, by the way, definition are very, very open ended. You need to define define define the scope of work in very clear cut terms.
Suresh Ramani:Spend time in that area, and then the subsequent things become very easy.
Anthony Carrano:That's powerful. That is powerful. Rudy, did you, did you have a question? I know you were talking earlier about with, some of the partner experience.
Rudy Rodriguez:Yeah. Yeah. So, Suresh, I really I like that last answer because having been in the business for over 30 years, I live that every day. And that one thing about planning and communications, planning and communications, so important in in partnering success because you set the proper expectations. So that's great and wonderful.
Rudy Rodriguez:So going back to this particular story, you know, you said you worked this was a large conglomerate. Did this increase the customers? I know they were probably very satisfied with the work you did because they gave you very intense timelines to achieve, and you got that work done. Did it help them increase their revenue at all? And did you measure any of those?
Rudy Rodriguez:You know, any what were the KPIs that you measured?
Suresh Ramani:So, the moment it's a it was a greenfield project. Right? So being a greenfield project, that means, they were really, setting up their new 90th the first time. That's how it was, essentially. That's how it worked.
Suresh Ramani:See, the group was a conglomerate, but this particular division was a new division for that group. That's how it works essentially. Okay. So I from the revenue perspective, I don't think it would be possible for us to measure the revenue perspective because amount of money that they were spending on resources which were, like, kind of outsourced or whatever, you know, without the where the where it was, like, the feedback which I got from the CRO was that in 18 months, they record everything. Everything, essentially.
Suresh Ramani:Everything. You know? That that's a kind of 18 months ROI kind of a thing they said. So that was one area. But more than that, I think it was more of the mindset of the CEO.
Suresh Ramani:He even knew he was new to the firm. So he had his own worries that, you know, we should we should not fail. Right? So what is happening here is that, he he played safe by selecting releasing the particular order on our company because, you know, I've got strong references. So if something goes wrong, I can always gain the partner because I selected a good partner.
Suresh Ramani:You know, I want a new partner. The fact that we delivered, we delivered and delivered on time on extremely tight deadlines. All that mattered a lot essentially. All that mattered a lot. And one thing which I'll just mention very interesting here, customer also wanted to purchase licenses from me.
Suresh Ramani:Okay. He said, you'll give me licenses. You'll give me services. You'll give me everything. Unfortunately, in India, we have this trend.
Suresh Ramani:I am I don't know about the average geographies. In India, there is a big chunk of partners who kind of undercut license prices. You know, it's like they offer at below cost. That's how it is. We have no idea.
Suresh Ramani:So this gentleman also had the same issue. He got the price of licenses, which was, like, 15% below my cost. I said, I'm not interested. He said no no no no I won't know everything. I totally miss it.
Suresh Ramani:I can understand that there are 2 elements. 1 is the license supply. 2nd is a tenant to tenant migration. 3rd is a in the infrastructure setup. I said license selling is license selling.
Suresh Ramani:If there is a partner who's giving you at 15% low cost, take it from you. I will do the implementation for you. How you will change the whole project for you? We do not change the project for you. He got convinced.
Suresh Ramani:So he got a good deal from that partner. He got it at a very good price. I got my price for services. Believe me, I did not negotiate much. I said, you wanna do business with TechGyan
Suresh Ramani:You wanna do business with Suresh Ramani, then you have to pay the price. You are new. You can't have apple to apple. In license, I can understand. It's an, you know, license is a license is a license.
Suresh Ramani:So there's not much which can change. But you can't say a service is a service and service. If you're saying service is a service, then go to that partners who will make cheap licenses. You see no social services joking. I'll go and purchase the licenses from there, but I'm not competing for services.
Suresh Ramani:So that's very interesting. He got a good deal on licenses. He got a good service on deployment of M365 as well as kimmy. So all in all, his stock within the company rules substantially. We have to look at see, we we we have to think of that also.
Suresh Ramani:Did I make him look good? That's important. I should make my customer's ID look good in front of the management. So I think that was the biggest takeaway from this project. I made it look very good.
Rudy Rodriguez:Well, that that is an excellent, you know, business principle to follow all the time. Our job is to make our clients look good and and demonstrate our expertise because that helps grow your brand, and that helps grow your business tremendously. So I appreciate the advice that you're giving there. So in in trying to, you know, closing, you know, this has been an excellent, interview, and I really appreciate everything you've shared with us today. So, you know, you work with a lot of IAMCP customers I mean, IAMCP members, and you work with a lot of different customers.
Rudy Rodriguez:What advice would you give to to the our members, IAMCP members, and other companies in regards to to partnering? You know, what you you've you've demonstrated an awful lot, but do you have any other advice that you would give them?
Suresh Ramani:So some of the advice which I'll give would be it's already available with IAMCP, but they will use it. So let me just, state those. First is I'm saying that partnering needs to be strategic and not tactical. It's not daily based. That's important.
Suresh Ramani:You have to identify the set of partners with whom you work and design. For example, as I mentioned, I mentioned about this particular partner whom I work with because I don't do on prem stuff. So if any outstanding work comes in, which is critical, I'm gonna work with a partner like him. Similarly, there are partners in our, country in especially Mumbai who come to me for Microsoft. They say, I don't understand Microsoft.
Suresh Ramani:I will send licenses and give my money. Google my email. So this is it has to be strategy. One moment. The guidance surprisingly, the guidance for this is already available on our IAMCP website.
Suresh Ramani:It's called p2pmaturitymodel.com. I'm sure, you know, if partners into a simple service, we'll go there and they'll they'll see that there are, you know, 4 partnering types. Like, basic, reactive, proactive, dynamic. It's so beautifully mentioned with NDA samples, immune samples, and basic what you do, how kind what kind of planning you need to do. All that is wonderfully mentioned.
Suresh Ramani:So if at all somebody wants to start off systematically, please go to IAMCP website and Google up the maturity, you know, the playbook and start looking at it. That's one one important, message I want to give. Second is understand what is a kind of part. Who are you? For example, a partner like us need a specialist.
Suresh Ramani:We for us what is good, it's good to be focused on a very key technology stack. We don't want to do everything for everybody. We are hugely focused on modern work and security around Microsoft platforms. That's that's our focus area. These are the things we don't know.
Suresh Ramani:If you ask me, does Trend Micro solution do x y z? I said, besides the spelling of Trend Micro, I don't know anything about it. Very simple. That's it. I don't know.
Suresh Ramani:I only know Microsoft. Talk to me about Microsoft. So we are a specialist. So either you have to be a specialist or you have to be a generalist. I mean, you know, that's the kind of stuff you should be.
Suresh Ramani:And we should be in touch with a specialist like us should be in touch with, you know, a system integrator who has multiple vendors and multiple stuff for everybody. Essentially, that's how it should be. And you need to align with the right kind of partners. And your plan should be on a conservative level, 25% of my target is 20. My per target, this is 30% of my revenue should come by a partner.
Suresh Ramani:20%. Okay? Yeah. And when I say 30%, doesn't mean that people should come to me for partnering. It means I can also go and execute some projects through partners.
Suresh Ramani:So the total of giving and taking should consider around 30% of my revenue. It's it's micro see, technology is in ocean. And within this huge ocean, Microsoft is by itself in ocean. So much Microsoft is doing. We are small guys.
Suresh Ramani:We are so small. We, you know, with our limited resources, we can't do everything we're doing. We have to identify what we are good at. And once you're good at, if you're a specialist, then you need to work with journalists. If you're a journalist, you need to have a kind of an eyesore now.
Suresh Ramani:You you build up a, you know, kind of a strategy group of generalist specialists so that as a group, you offer a end to end solution to your customers where every person in the group is getting something, you know, special. That's the whole idea. So combination of 2 things. A, go to partner in a maturity playbook. Lot of great stuff there.
Suresh Ramani:Great. Absolutely great stuff there. Mind doing stuff there, including MOUs and movies. Go through it. Make your plans.
Suresh Ramani:Then decide what you are, which game you're gonna play. Align with the Microsoft priority, like Microsoft is listing 5 priorities for F125. Align with the or 2 of them, and then go really deep into those if you're a specialist. I mean, those are some of the things which I would like to, you know, suggest.
Rudy Rodriguez:Well, that that is excellent, excellent advice. So I've I've gotta, like, close off the interview with one really important question. It's some deals with specialization. What advice do you give partners about the best desserts to eat? Oh.
Rudy Rodriguez:I know this is your area of specialty.
Suresh Ramani:So Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. I'm I'm I'm I'm a I'm a solution partner distinguishing desserts. Yeah.
Suresh Ramani:Absolutely. Okay. I'm a advanced specialization. I've been advanced specialization in desserts. Okay.
Suresh Ramani:One thing is very clear. We have to understand it's not just human beings who are sensitive. In my opinion, and I've got very strong reasons to say so, More than human beings, chocolates are very sensitive. So never ever distinguish between dark chocolate and light chocolate and light chocolate. Please love chocolates equally.
Suresh Ramani:Number 1. Number 2, experiment with the desserts different desserts from different places. Believe me, it's, I mean, I'll I'll give my story. Last year when I was in Seattle, a friend of mine had just told me that there is this, you know, excellent stuff that you get here. You go there.
Suresh Ramani:I traveled all the way, and I had gelatoos in Seattle. And it was mind blowing. So learn to explore. It's so important that you should learn to explore and be open about it. Because deserts also have feelings.
Suresh Ramani:So never ever say I hate this desert. Never ever do that. Please. It's just totally wrong. I I get it really hurts me when somebody says I hate this dessert.
Suresh Ramani:You know, it's it's not just correct. Absolutely.
Rudy Rodriguez:I love your passion about desserts. I love your passion about desserts. And I'll send you a a a text or I'll send you a message, for my daughter sent me some excellent chocolates from a new chocolatier in the Netherlands. So they were the most wonderful things I've ever eaten. So I'll have to send you that link as well.
Suresh Ramani:Absolutely.
Rudy Rodriguez:Thank you so very much. I really appreciate this. This has been a most excellent, excellent interview. And and, you know, you espouse a lot of the principles that we talk about at IAMCP and and the passion that you bring to it because that is the right way to do business. So thank you so very much.
Suresh Ramani:Pleasure. Pleasure. Absolutely. Wonderful interacting with all of you.
Anthony Carrano:Absolutely. Yeah. This was and I I just to echo, you know, Rudy, really appreciate. This was fantastic, very insightful on across many fronts.
Anthony Carrano:Where can folks go to find out, you know, more and and connect with you?
Suresh Ramani:So couple of ways, LinkedIn is one beautiful place where, you know, I I I I keep interacting a lot with my friends on LinkedIn. Then, of course, as I said, YouTube is one channel where you can be in touch with me on YouTube. Absolutely. Right? Leave your comments on my videos.
Suresh Ramani:Tell me whether I should make some different video which is of, of interest. And I also have my my I should not say I. Our company has got some workshops on Microsoft AppSource. Right? We've got workshops which are being published on AppSource.
Suresh Ramani:We've got a Copilot workshop. We do a lot of workshops on Copilot. We got there again, you know, Microsoft is spending a lot of resources on Copilot, but customers are very confused, essentially. I mean, that's that's my my feeling. So we designed a nice one hour workshops on AI and Copilot.
Suresh Ramani:I I love doing that for my customers. I love doing that and telling them the real value of AI. So we've got Copilot workshop. We've got productivity workshop, and we've got a security workshop on AppSource. So that's some another place where you can, you know, check it out.
Suresh Ramani:And all in all, the, customers just come to me. They say, hey. My license are lying. I know 10% annuals in community. I see his productivity is an area which I love, and I would love to do, do a workshop for you.
Suresh Ramani:So, I mean, that's that's what some of the reason which you have to interact. And of course if you're a music buff, send me a message. I'll give you a YouTube link of my music YouTube channel. I don't mix it with technology. Okay.
Suresh Ramani:Technology is different. YouTube is different. And if you love desserts follow me on Instagram because Instagram my Instagram is all about dessert videos and pictures. It's all about.
Anthony Carrano:Yeah. Well, that's fantastic. So we will have in the show notes, for those listening with the LinkedIn website. Definitely, the sounds like there's 2 YouTube channels, the dessert Instagram as well as the workshops, that are located in App Store. So we'll have all those links, there in our show notes.
Anthony Carrano:Suresh, thank you once again. This was fantastic. You have a great rest of the day.
Suresh Ramani:Absolutely. Yeah. And tomorrow, as I said, I'm off to Seattle, so we'll be there for next week. Yeah.
Rudy Rodriguez:Safe travels. Safe travels.
Suresh Ramani:Thank you.
Anthony Carrano:Well, that was a great episode. I really appreciate a lot of the insights and just the, some of the perspective and that just some of the history that Suresh shared with us. Yeah. I don't know about you, but I took away so many things from today's episode. You know, in particular, one of the things that really resonated with me, Rudy, was just when, you know, asked the question about how do you, you know, go about establishing your brand as a go to, resource, you know, for partners and Microsoft.
Anthony Carrano:And he really hit on just the importance of building and maintaining a rep his reputation, especially amongst, like, CIOs. And there were 4 things that he identified that I just kinda, you know, shared here, you know, as we recap this, you know, the first being just the importance of identifying the key areas and to, you know, be brilliant, you know, in these areas. Thought that was really solid. The second thing where he said, you know, as you as you build on that, just the importance of focusing on delivering high quality work time in and time again. Number 3, just the importance of branding.
Anthony Carrano:You know, whether it's you know, and especially where where, you know, Suresh really emphasized the importance of branding through social proofs and third party credibility builders, like, you know, different awards, credentials, but then also internal things like some of the thought leadership and content marketing, that they do. And the 4th, and this is, you know, might be last but definitely not least, just the importance of, you know, for partners to align themselves with, you know, the Microsoft, strategies and taking advantage of the many available programs, you know, that Microsoft has to offer. So I I thought that was really, really insightful. How about yourself?
Rudy Rodriguez:Well, you know, I thought it was a great conversation with Suresh. I've worked with him many years ago when we were first trying to bring the India chapter into the IAMCP and started working with him back then. And I recognize the quality of of his work at his perseverance, in in a project because that was a a pretty comprehensive and difficult project that we had to go through because of all the legal requirements in India. But one of the things that that struck me was all those things that you just mentioned, which is what makes a really high quality partner, period, is is delivering high quality work and aligning yourself with Microsoft. And when you're a member of the IAMCP, and this is something that we we've stressed for 30 years now, is you if you work through the IAMCP, you will build long term trust relationships that will help you in your business.
Rudy Rodriguez:And one of the things that we did there is, you know, the IAMCP worked with IDC and Microsoft to develop the partner maturity model. And those of us who have been in the channel a long time follow that very, very carefully because that gives you the guidance to on how to become a good partner, how to build the trust relationships, how to leverage all the resources that Microsoft brings to bear to to their partner channel. And if you follow that, then you're going to meet people like yourself, and you develop into a really good partner. And you you start working with a close circle of partners, and that's one thing Suresh also mentioned was he works only with IAMCP Partners, and they have to follow the partner maturity model. And again, those are the things that is always stressed at IAMCP.
Rudy Rodriguez:So I really appreciated those comments, because not not everyone in the association follows those. But if you do, you will be very long term successful.
Anthony Carrano:No. That's really good. And just hearing you when you shared about, like, with the, you know, the p to p maturity model, it reminded me of actually a couple other things that he said, like, in towards the end when you asked the question about, you know, well, what advice would you give to partners? And one of those things was definitely, you know, that guidance you get on IAMCP through that P2P maturity model. But the other two things, just to kinda piggyback on what you just shared was, just how and he mentioned this a few times.
Anthony Carrano:I really dislike this phrase that partnering needs to be strategic, not merely just, you know, tactical. I thought that was really key, you know, especially with, you know, going back to the earlier points about, you know, building your brand, how you wanna position yourself as a go to, you know, partner. And then the the other the second thing would be just to understand what kind of partner you are and what kind of partner you want so you can then align with the right partner. And, you know, as he touched off, you know, that point, he said the reason why that's important because, you know, as you're growing your business, you wanna try and get to where, you know, 20% of your revenues are coming from, you know, partners. So I thought that was really, really good.
Rudy Rodriguez:Yeah. That was just excellent advice from Suresh. It really was. Well, that concludes our episode for today. So we wanna thank you for joining us on this episode of IAMCP Profiles in Partnership powered by Dunamis Marketing.
Rudy Rodriguez: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. 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, resources, and opportunities 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. 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, visit their website at www.iamcp.org.
