Madrona Solutions Helps Microsoft Launch New Sales Portal

Overview

Microsoft manages many strategies to promote business products worldwide.  Throughout the US, the Local Engagement Team (LET) utilizes strategically placed Business Development Managers (BDMs) to manage approximately 20,000 “unmanaged” Microsoft Partners.  Their goal is to encourage this large unmanaged group to host events and marketing activities spotlighting Microsoft products. 

As expectations for the BDM increase year over year, the desire for a more scalable foundation was desired.  Partners needed a wider range of support from basic Newsletters and email content, to Event resources, to basic business development needs.  BDM focus was getting pulled away from Business Development and Partner involvement, and replaced with low value tasks.

LET identified the strategic need for a “LET Desk” offering an Assembly Line style service, with low human interaction based on a scalable streamlined process.  Their solution was an external facing web portal where Partners could request to be contacted for general questions or register Events for resources.  This web request along with data dynamically pulled from a Partner database would load into Dynamic CRM kicking off a scalable chain of events.

Quickly the scope and complexity of the project grew, so LET reached out to Madrona Solutions to provide project management assistance. 

Madrona Solutions Engages

Madrona consultants worked directly with the client team to re-establish project controls, without impacting ongoing progress. While managing the day-to-day project tactics, Madrona Solutions established a strategic roadmap to help define objectives and deliverables for future phases.   These efforts help eliminate portfolio project risk by controlling scope creep and producing rational delivery schedules.  Madrona consultants excelled in dealing with cross-functional teams, aggressive schedules, and complex technology interactions. 

Clear Results

Madrona proved its value in effectively bridging the gap between people and complex technology projects -after 3 months on the job, the project phase 1 successfully launched on time and on budget. Low-value tasks are now automated through self-service features designed in the Portal.  Partners enjoy a consolidated more efficient experience, and quicker turn-around on requests. Sales management is realizing tangible business value as BDMs are free of task work and now have more time to focus on expanding their Partner reach. 

Solution: Project Management

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