Friday, December 5, 2014
Microsoft has announced a powerful promotion: The more you integrate your NAV SaaS customers with Microsoft Azure and Office 365, the less you pay for Microsoft Dynamics NAV licenses. It is a nice addition to the overall NAV on Azure in O365 offering that will help Partners to add new customers that are looking for Cloud or subscription-based ERP.
In this post, you will learn what Cloud ERP means for Customers, why we as Microsoft Partners have more chances to win new customers compared with other Cloud players and how we need to align our offerings to tell a compelling Cloud story.
Why Customers Prefer Subscription-Based ERP?
Small and medium-sized businesses are no longer interested in heavily customized, expensive ERP systems, they want out-of-the-box, economy and ready-to-use ERP. Many are even willing to adapt their expectations and needs to fit these ready-based ERP solutions. However, in exchange for this flexibility they expect low start-up and ongoing maintenance costs. Read more to find out why for these customers, less is more.
During the last three to five years, partners have sensed a significant shift in customer software buying behavior that has favored subscription pricing (e.g. all-services included in a per-user-per-month price). Why do customers suddenly prefer subscription services and pricing? Many customers believe it will provide a more reliable total cost of ownership as well as the fastest ROI.
This shift in behavior has also been brought on by external factors as well. The recent economic crisis has forced customers to preserve their capital, making software subscriptions a very attractive option as it lowers the cost of entry to operate an enterprise solution. Customers can now run an ERP system with minimal upfront investment, which is very important for SMBs.
Add New Customers with NAV on Azure in O365 on Subscription
At 1ClickFactory, we believe that Dynamics NAV on subscription, integrated with Microsoft Azure and O365, provides Microsoft Partners with more opportunities to attract new customers that are looking for Cloud or subscription-based ERP. The Dynamics NAV subscription-based ERP has unique advantages when compared to other Cloud ERP solutions on the market, including:
- NAV on subscription, integrated with Microsoft Azure and O365, delivers an inexpensive point of entry with per-user-per-month pricing as well as the flexibility to grow with customers’ businesses.
- Microsoft is a trusted ERP solution provider with millions of customers worldwide.
- Many organizations have already adopted Office 365. Tight Dynamics NAV and Office 365 integration will become a greater advantage and upselling opportunity for Microsoft Partners.
- Microsoft Azure is very secure, reliable platform.
- Azure pricing is competitively aggressive and will become more affordable moving forward.
- Dynamics NAV is consistently enhanced and improved, such as NAV 2015, is very appealing.
However, to maximize results, partners need to align their full offerings by packaging all associated services (e.g. IP, upgrades and support services) in to all-inclusive services for a per-user-per-month price model to be able to sell it as true Cloud ERP offering. This model will help Partners add customers more quickly and in higher volumes than ever before.
How can you build an all-services for a per-user-per-month price offering for customers? If we take a very simplified approach, a monthly subscription-based partner proposal to a customer would consist of the following components:
All-in-One:
Dynamics NAV on subscription + Industry solution + Future upgrades + Support Services = $X monthly fee
You may wonder whether it is possible to fix upgrades or support services to a per-user-per-month billing model offer. Yes you can. There are already good examples of Microsoft Partners offering future upgrades as subscription, also per-user-per-month based support services.
To conclude, we as Microsoft Partners have more advantages than ever to attract new customers that are looking for subscription or Cloud-based ERP. No other software provider has combined so many strong assets for such a compelling Cloud story as Microsoft and Microsoft Dynamics Partners. Let’s leverage it.