The Value of Digital Ecosystems

Quick, name some of Microsoft’s biggest competitors. If you are like me, a few companies quickly come to mind. Now, name a few of Microsoft’s biggest partners. Same names? Crazy, isn’t it?

 Look at these recent headlines from TechCrunch, the New York Times, and Reuters:

“Microsoft and SAP Love Grows Stronger in the Cloud"

“Cortana, Open Alexa,’ Amazon Says. And Microsoft Agrees” 

“Adobe, Microsoft team up to share sales and marketing data”

This is our new world: we need to be ambidextrous to take full advantage of our market potential in the digital era. We will compete in one part of the business, partner with another. Building out a digital ecosystem flexes every muscle from strategy all the way to sales execution. As such, in the last six months Microsoft has announced several key partnerships: with Amazon to enable communication between Alexa and Cortana, with SAP to use and sell more of each other's cloud services, and with Adobe to jointly build and sell solutions to redefine the customer experience. The SAP partnership, for example, enables customers to run SAP/4HANA in a secure, managed cloud – an incredible opportunity for 7,000+ SAP/HANA customers looking to move to the cloud, leverage their investments in SAP and Microsoft, and have a joint roadmap from both companies to get there. 

Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, recently stated, “As technology transforms every business and every industry, organizations are looking for the right platforms and trusted partners to help accelerate their digital transformation.” These platforms and this ecosystem of trusted partners are the foundation of Microsoft’s digital transformation value proposition. Executives are opening up their back-office systems for digital delivery, shifting to the cloud, developing a digital workplace, and investing in IoT, blockchain, and machine learning. These same executives are looking to their existing technology providers to bring integrated solutions to help them solve hard business problems – simply put, no single technology provider will be able to deliver on the promise of digital transformation, so they require a true ecosystem to be successful. Our customers know that by shifting the application, infrastructure and platform integration to their technology partners, they can focus more time bringing unique value to their organization and their customers.

So, is it a new muscle to sell the value of the ecosystem? Not really. What's different now, in the digital era, is the pace of innovation and change. For the traditional seller, mastering a solution might yield a year or more of success in the field. Today, the ecosystem value proposition changes so quickly, that most sales plays require a refresh on a quarterly basis. That's a lot of homework if you're trying to sell everything yourself! On the other hand, if you have a trusted network of experts across the ecosystem, a strong operating model that allows for clear and frequent communication with your partners, and masterful choreography skills, you'll likely thrive in the new world of digital ecosystems. In this new age, your partners become your trusted sellers so you don't have to chase the change curve as much!

For the CIO, leveraging the digital ecosystem is now table stakes, which means the sales force of any tech company has to learn to harness the value of the digital ecosystem to deliver customer success. Keep your eye out for more Microsoft ecosystem headlines. We will continue to build this muscle across our sales force, hand in hand with our valued partners, to make sure we bring maximum value to our customers.