AXUG Partner Council Mission

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 17:14:00 GMT

Over the last year I have been working with Andy Hafer from AXUG and Pete Pallazolo from ICS RFSmart (as well as many from the partner community) around the creation of an AXUG Partner Council to work with the AXUG membership community. I have included the charter below. The goal of the council is to create a voice for the partner community with the AXUG community that will allow a dialogue for best ways to get information to the group while honoring and protecting the autonomy they desire. In addition, we can be an additional voice to Microsoft on behalf of the group. As a by-product we as a partner ecosystem may find better ways to collaborate and work, and compete, more effectively and efficiently. The early meetings have been positive and we look forward to more dialogue and structure for the council.

Mission

To promote, enable and maintain an active and constructive communication ecosystem among Dynamics AX partners, AXUG and its AX User Community, and Microsoft.

Objectives

To establish and maintain an open forum for Dynamics AX partners in order to:
- learn about other AX partners, their offerings and areas of special competence
- improve the collaboration among AX partners (“co-opetition”) for the purpose of delivering greater value and satisfaction to AX customers
- discuss and address partner-wide issues and concerns
- continually enhance the collective reputation of the AX partner community
- create a unified voice for the AX partner community.

Represent the collective community of AX partners to AXUG Leadership and their Dynamics AX Membership/User Community:
- serve as an advisory group to the overall AXUG Leadership (BOD)
- identify topics and support areas that could be of interest to the AXUG User Community
- look for new ways to deliver partner information to AX customers in a manner consistent with AXUG’s “users first” approach
- provide a deeper, broader view into the offerings and value of the AX partner community
- help AXUG improve penetration into the less visible AX user-companies as a means to grow the AXUG membership.

Serve as an efficient, collective advocacy voice to Microsoft regarding:
- AX partner community offerings
- AX product recommendations and suggestions
- market intelligence from customer engagements and field observations
- partner program features, benefits and offerings.

Membership Requirement

All Dynamics AX Services-Based and ISV partners that are active as AXUG Partners are eligible and encouraged to participate.

Leadership Committee Structure

AXUG’s Executive Director Andy Hafer or his designee from Dynamic Communities, Inc.

Co-chairmen featuring a representative from an AX Services-Based firm and another from an AX-specific ISV Solution provider. This will ensure that the objectives of both types of AX partners—and their respective needs—are being well served. The Co-Chairs will jointly lead the group with AXUG’s Executive Director and represent the group to AXUG and Microsoft.

Three Directors whose responsibilities will be to:
- Direct the efforts to recruit AX partners and lead/manage communications so that Objective #1 is met.
- Direct the efforts to collect and organize ideas, information and input to be presented to AXUG BOD for the purpose of accomplishing Objective #2.
- Direct the efforts to collect and organize ideas, information and input to be presented to Microsoft for the purpose of accomplishing Objective #3. This will include identifying the people within Microsoft to whom our input should be shared.
- Each Director will recruit/appoint sub-committee members to help them achieve their goals.
- Members whose responsibility will be to actively participate, in a collaborative and constructive manner, to helping the Committee achieve its collective objectives.

The formation of this partner council’s importance can be seen in a recent conversation between MSDynamicsWorld.com and Hal Howard from Microsoft. Here are a few excerpts from that interview that show the AXUG importance to Microsoft.

Microsoft Officials at AXUG Summit 2008 Say They Expect AX “6” to Be Heavily Influenced By User Group

Now that Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, sometimes referred to as AX 5, has been fully launched, and Microsoft has reached the 10,000 customer milestone for AX products, company officials have begun looking ahead to AX "6".

"This group is an amazing source of input for us," Hal Howard, General Manager of ERP R&D, told the assembled membership gathered in Las Vegas for AXUG Summit 2008.

He credited AXUG input with helping establish the AX "6" goals of providing "world class financial management" and "business process excellence" to meet the demands of globalization, consolidation of organizations across countries, and changing tax reporting for various legal entities as well as across multiple business units.

Industry-specific solutions for professional services, retail, process manufacturing, discrete manufacturing, wholesale distribution are already available for AX 2009, with more partner offerings being certified for each vertical. Solutions for the public sector and lean manufacturing are also planned, although dates were not discussed.

It appears there were no surprises for the Microsoft officials on this trip to Las Vegas - with the growth of the user groups and the increasingly normalized communication channels that have formed through past events like Convergence 2007 and 2008, the voice of the users, at least those who choose to be heard, is now yielding results that leaves enough customers satisfied to keep their collective voice at a dull roar.

WPC in Review

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 18:21:00 GMT

Why go to Houston in July you ask, because Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference was held there. Why else would you go visit a place only rivaled by the sun for extreme heat. Before I offend I must say the city hosted us well for several days.

Some WPC Statistics

Established:	2003
Partners in Attendance:	7,500
Microsoft Employees in Attendance:	2,500
Countries Represented:	145
Training Sessions:	225
Exhibitors:	145
Sponsors:	64
Number of Partners in the Microsoft Partner Program:	40,000
Number of Partners Affiliated with Microsoft:	640,000
Number of Partner Companies in the World:	1.4 million
Number of Individuals Associated with those Companies:	10 million
Percentage of Microsoft Revenue Stemming from Partners:	95%

The conference was filled with keynotes, sessions, training, exhibits, and social activities. An exciting note was the constant and positive Dynamics focus and business solutions in general. CRM lead the way with the strongest buzz and success stories, but followed closely by a building Dynamics AX story.

A few interesting keynote observations

Microsoft COO Kevin Turner gave his annual closing speech at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference. While he provided mostly a roundup of announcements from throughout the week, he did have a big piece of news. Turner announced a $600 million increase in the Microsoft investment in its channel. The latest figure I'd heard was $2 billion. But Turner said Microsoft invested $2.3 billion in fiscal year 2008 (which ended in June), and will invest $2.9 billion in FY09. For those of you keeping score, that's a 26 percent bump.

Back when Microsoft put $2 billion into the channel, nobody else in the industry was close, as far as we know. This increase makes that gap even bigger. Meanwhile, the company will invest $7 billion again in research and development for FY09, Turner said.

New channel head Doug Kennedy sees the potential in Microsoft Dynamics. He also knows that Redmond needs to work on its approach to the enterprise software product line. The long-time Oracle veteran signed on in March and is now vice president of Microsoft Dynamics Partners. He's got a vision to fine-tune -- there's no overhaul needed – to help the Dynamics suite continue to eat away at the market share of SAP as well as that of Kennedy's former employer. Kennedy is excited about Microsoft's plan to differentiate channel members in the partner program with good-better-best competency designations.

The location for next year's Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference is set. Allison Watson, corporate vice president for the Worldwide Partner Group, said the show will be held in New Orleans in July 2009. It will mark a return to the Big Easy, which was the location of the first Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in October 2003.

Watson took a few minutes in her keynote Wednesday morning to note the five-year anniversary of the Microsoft Partner Program, and said, "It's time to evolve together to the next step."

I look forward to the next step.

Chris Zimmerman

AXUG Partner Council Mission

WPC in Review