1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction................................................................................................................................................. 04

Acknowledgements................................................................................................................................................... 04

Updates and Book Support.....................................................................................................................................04

We Want to Hear from You..................................................................................................................................... 04

Case Study: How ACTS Secured a Million-dollar Deal Leveraging a

Business Outcome Approach and Azure Technologies..................................................................... 05

About ACT Solutions (ACTS)...................................................................................................................................05

Customer Landscape................................................................................................................................................. 05

Challenges................................................................................................................................................................... 05

How Did ACTS Go About it ....................................................................................................................................06

ACTS Architected a Cloud Solution to Achieve Their Vision............................................................................ 06

Making It Happen with the Customer ..................................................................................................................07

Collaborating with Microsoft Teams...................................................................................................................... 08

Outcome for ACTS ................................................................................................................................................... 08

Cloud Opportunity..................................................................................................................................... 09

More Reasons Why You Should Not Give Cloud Opportunity a Miss ......................................................... 10

Why Partner with Microsoft to Build Your Cloud Practice?.............................................................. 11

Why Adopt the As-A-Service Model?.................................................................................................... 13

What It Means to Be a Cloud-ready Business?.................................................................................... 14

Challenges That Cloud Solution Providers (CSP) Face....................................................................... 15

Your Cloud Journey Map.......................................................................................................................... 16

Assess Your Cloud Readiness................................................................................................................... 17

Monetizing Your Cloud Practice.............................................................................................................. 18

Calculate Your Monthly Recurring Revenue......................................................................................... 23

Cloud Action Plan....................................................................................................................................... 25

2
Establish Your Cloud Vision Statement..................................................................................................................26

Define Your Company’s Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) Goals................................................................ 27

Understand Your Customer Profile........................................................................................................................28

Draft Your Cloud Solution Bundle.......................................................................................................................... 29

Sign up for Cloud CSP Offering.............................................................................................................................. 30

Identify Your Cloud Competency...........................................................................................................................31

100-Day Cloud Transformation Journey of 3S Global Business Solutions.................................... 32

Step 1: Assessment [Day 1]....................................................................................................................................... 32

Step 2: Action Plan [Day 5]...................................................................................................................................... 34

Step 3: Cloud Business Model [Day 15]................................................................................................................. 35

Step 4: Define Customer List, Solution [Day 30]................................................................................................. 36

Step 5: Pitching to Customers [Day 45]................................................................................................................. 40

Step 6: Join CSP Program [Day 90]........................................................................................................................42

Step 7: Cloud Competency [Day 100 – You Made It!]....................................................................................... 43

Templates and Tools.................................................................................................................................. 44

Case Studies................................................................................................................................................. 45

How-To Articles........................................................................................................................................... 45

About the Authors...................................................................................................................................... 46

3
INTRODUCTION
This ebook was written for small to medium sized IT providers and entrepreneurs who want
to take advantage of incredible customer opportunities in the cloud and who view cloud
computing as a primary disruptive force in their business to go head-to-head with bigger, more
established competitors. This ebook cuts through the noise and the ‘information overload’ that
surrounds the subject of cloud transformation and presents a clear, concise and compelling
action plan to transform your business into a cloud-ready enterprise. If you’re ready to do the
work, success is there for the taking.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
There are many contributors who provided valuable insights that shaped the resources in this
book. A special thanks to many partners such as James Farhat, Dan Langille, Mark Furr, Dan
Gordon, Nyasha Tunduwani, Jasson Walker, Debbie Tran, Sujit Ghosh, Nikhil Balagopalan, Ram
Dutt, Jeff Shuey, Kiran Modak, Jacquie Touma, Anita Campbell, Stana Steen, Jeanne Kirby, Vinay
Kumar, Girish KN, Ted Green, and many Microsoft employees such as Sharon Lee, Hao Tang,
Pam Salzer, Todd Nelmes, Jen Dawson, Kay Warren, Shawna Flemming for creating the SMB
cloud-ready blueprint.

UPDATES AND BOOK SUPPORT

We’ve made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this book and its companion content. You
can access updates to this book with the latest content at https://partner.microsoft.com/en-us/
cloud-solution-provider

If you need additional support, email to us at meylah@meylah.com

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU

Please download the book and share your feedback here: http://cloudincentives.com/

We know you’re busy, so we’ve kept it short with just a few questions. (No personal information
will be requested.) Thanks in advance for your input!

STAY IN TOUCH
Let’s keep the conversation going with a hashtag #MnDollarCloud on social media.

4
 HOW ACTS SECURED A MILLION-
DOLLAR DEAL LEVERAGING A
BUSINESS OUTCOME APPROACH
AND AZURE TECHNOLOGIES?

About ACT Solutions (ACTS)

ACTS is a nationally-managed Microsoft partner headquartered in Florida, USA. They are an

ISV and technology solution provider having over 15 years of software development and
management expertise. They hold multiple Microsoft technology competencies and are a Gold
Competency Partner

Customer Landscape

A large transportation/logistics company contacted ACTS to explore solutions to help them

achieve the following goals:

Operational Efficiencies: The company was spending significant dollars in maintaining their
infrastructure and were asked to identify operational efficiencies across-the-board by their
management team. In addition, the company had heard that they could reduce ongoing
operational costs by going to cloud and they wanted to explore options to achieve their goals.

Product Innovation: Customer analytics were not traditionally provided to their partners, and
there was a desire to increase their competitive advantage by giving strategic insights and
benchmarking tools that help everyone achieve their goals. This created the need for more
transparency and better tools for running their business.

Lifetime Value: The company strives to add significant value to their customer base. They
wanted to identify customer value points through their data to ensure the right programs get
the right investments to create long-term satisfied customers.

Challenges

On-Premises Legacy Problem: It had an existing on-premises IT infrastructure which was

inflexible, making it harder to make quick changes to its business model to cater to mobile
customers.

Data Intelligence Platform: Existing business intelligence and data visualization platforms
were inadequate to draw deeper insights from the growing amount of dynamic data they
produced every day.

5
 The Winning Approach

Analysis
Based on the business analysis, ACTS understood that the transportation company was using
legacy SharePoint and web-based technologies to engage customers. ACTS studied different
business situations with the customer and identified potential solutions. They encapsulated good
value propositions that could be built with better business insights and predictive capabilities from
Microsoft on the Azure platform, leveraging aspects of the Cortana Intelligent Suite.

Proof of Concept in less than 4 weeks

ACTS put together a working POC (Proof of Concept) with integrated customer feedback in less
than 60 hours. This provided the needed insights to help the customer identify the right value for
the products where they should increase their investment.

The Customer was very happy with the Proof of

Concept results and asked them to provide a
complete proposal for Cloud Transformation

ACTS Architected a Cloud Solution to Achieve their Vision

Started with enabling Business Intelligence and insights to identify value offering and
provided relevant insights to the leadership team to jumpstart product innovation.

Proposed to the leadership team to invest in cloud transformation program. ACTS identified
5 core ideas to invest in the Cloud First program:

Product Data and Business Machine Ongoing Managed

Migrations
Innovation Intelligence Learning Services

6
In their million-dollar proposal, they put together
a comprehensive solution map that focused on the
following areas:

Rapid Product Migration of BI and Insights

Change Innovation Servers to Drive Solutions using
Management Environment Innovation and Power BI/Power
on Azure Data Insights BI Embedded

Managed
Managing
Services for
Production Hosting
Managing
Environments
Cloud Solutions

Making It Happen with the Customer

The customer did not understand the business opportunity that would come with migrating
to Azure. Thus, there was resistance from the leadership team to cloud transition and IT
staffers were insecure as they felt their jobs were at risk.

The IT leadership was weary of the possible downtime, security, and privacy issues and ACTS
addressed these concerns.

ACTS made the leadership team understand that the transition didn’t just offer a technology
feature set but an opportunity to save a tremendous amount of cost and to earn more
revenue.

ACTS also talked to the IT team, assuring them that it was an opportunity to enhance their
skillsets with in-demand technologies and not to see it as a job risk.

ACTS created TCO spreadsheets, an executive PowerPoint deck, and came up with the best
message for the customer to take all roles into consideration during the decision-making phase.

They made the customer feel comfortable with the speed and agility of the cloud solutions
on offer.

7
 Collaborating with Microsoft Teams

Invited the
Microsoft
leadership folks
Leveraged to connect with
Advanced their company
Partner Advisory leadership team
services to discuss security,
privacy, and
downtime related
to Azure

Established
Secured BIF funds ongoing
to cover the Used IUR benefits checkpoints to
Proof of Concept to setup Power BI explore new
overhead costs environment technologies to
drive technology
innovations

Outcome for ACTS

Won over 1 million dollars of business in the form of monthly recurring revenue with
Azure and Power BI solutions and ongoing maintenance/services

Acquired a long-term customer

Created a blueprint for a predictable revenue model for future client engagements

8
 CLOUD
OPPORTUNITY

IDC recently predicted that the greater cloud market including SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, professional
and managed services around cloud technology (public and private), and supporting software,
hardware, etc. will exceed $500 Billion by 2020.

Public cloud spending will reach $141 Billion by 2019. This number is growing at approximately
20% annually, which represents 6X IT spending growth overall!

These industry trends indicate a huge opportunity for our partner ecosystem. The ebook is
designed to help you, the IT providers, with a cloud-ready framework to assist you to go after
the cloud opportunity by partnering with Microsoft.

Cloud Partners are more profitable, grow faster, and have more recurring revenue. An IDC study
showed cloud partners (>50% cloud revenue) have 2X the growth and 1.5X the gross profit of
their less-cloudy peers.

Why consider adding a cloud practice to your current portfolio of business

and why you cannot afford to miss it?
The cloud is the new way of doing business. Cloud computing is powering the next
generation of technology solutions delivery and implementation and is gaining momentum
across the globe.

The evolution of computing is rapidly evolving, and customers are seeking cloud solutions to
drive the next wave of digital transformation. This is putting a lot of pressure on IT providers
to transform their business models to serve the customer on cloud.

Mainframe
Minicomputer Client Server
Web
Cloud

1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

9
 More Reasons Why You Should Not Give Cloud Opportunity a Miss
TECHNOLOGY
IMPLEMENTATION
OPPORTUNITIES
60% of small and medium
businesses in the US do not have
resources to implement new
technologies and applications.
For the service providers, this is a
great opportunity to fill the gap.
GROWING POOL OF
CLOUD OPERATIONAL
BUSINESSES
78% of US SMBs are expected
to be fully cloud-operational
by 2020. Currently, only 37%
have moved to the cloud. The
growing numbers clearly imply a
significant market opportunity.
10
SINGLE SOURCE
FOR SERVICES
56% of the businesses are
looking for a single source for
their IT needs, and most of them
want a mix of applications and
infrastructure sources. Services on
the cloud enable service providers
to be versatile, and to act as a
single source for varied services,
without additional overheads.
CLOUD ADOPTERS WILL
TREBLE IN THE NEAR FUTURE
According to Microsoft Research,
small companies – those employing
two to ten employees – who use
paid cloud services will grow three
times in the near future.
Clearly, these numbers validate
the growing significance of
cloud technology for the IT
services space.
 WHY PARTNER WITH MICROSOFT TO
BUILD YOUR CLOUD PRACTICE?

Microsoft’s role is to serve as an integration point for IT providers – a technology stack that
providers can build on to configure solutions to problems their customers have. In some cases,
it means a mix of on-premises and some cloud components, all in the cloud, or a hybrid of
Microsoft products and other technologies.

Here are the Top 5 Reasons to Partner with Microsoft to Build

Your Cloud Practice

Profitability
Cloud partners attach more value to Microsoft Cloud Solutions to drive profitability. The
average reseller partner today sells $4.14 of their offerings for every $1 of Microsoft Cloud
Solutions they sell or influence the sale of. When you start selling cloud solutions, this value
bumps up to $5.87 (>50% cloud revenue).

Cloud partners attach more value to

Microsoft Cloud Solutions

11
 Cloud-ready Assistance and Resources
To win a cloud-ready business, business decision makers have to invest in building a cloud
business model. Microsoft caters to this audience by providing the assistance, resources,
and access to incentives to win customers quickly. This ebook is an outcome of all the
learnings from the IT providers who went through the cloud-ready program to build
million-dollar businesses by leveraging Microsoft Cloud Technologies.

Cloud Solution Provider Program

Partners who are part of this program identify themselves formally in this space. If you have
made an investment to become cloud-ready, Microsoft knows who you are and can help
put you in front of customers so that when they are looking for solutions in your area of
expertise, you show up inside the referral engine to bring you access to your customers.

Cloud Migration and Licensing Administration Support

Microsoft assists partners to migrate their customers to the cloud by providing technical
and licensing assistance. Technical assistance comes in the form of architecture support,
migration strategies, identifying the right tech roles and more.

When it comes to license management, being part of the Cloud Solution Provider
program removes all the hurdles around building licensing administration, tracking and
utilization, and having a partner needing to manage that out of the realm. This helps the
partner focus on the solutions they are building for their clients while Microsoft handles
licensing-related tasks.

Proof of Concept (POC) Incentives

Microsoft is heavily investing in POC incentives to help partners acquire customers easily.
The incentives range from building an Azure practice, building a cloud IP solution or building
a hybrid cloud practice. Once partners are engaged, they have access to loads of resources.

12
 WHY ADOPT
THE AS-A-SERVICE MODEL?

In the past, companies were required to buy, build, support and maintain their IT infrastructures,
despite exponential costs year over year. Now, PaaS, IaaS and SaaS models offer better
alternatives. Companies can plug in and subscribe to services built on shared platforms that are
accessible via the Internet and are hosted in the cloud environment. SaaS model has flourished
in the last few years because the solutions cater to all sizes and types of businesses and they are
easy to adopt.

So, Why Should You Consider Building an As-A-Service Model

for Your IT Company?

Higher Adoption by Your Customers

The cloud applications are available from any computer or any device – anytime, anywhere.
This helps customers assess if the solution is right for their business with a quick POC.

New Recurring Revenues

Moving customers to cloud applications helps you build a recurring business model that in
turn helps you build a sustainable service for your customers.

Makes Your Business Competitive

Cloud applications allow you to generate revenues through subscription models, earn
margins through third-party providers, and offer managed services. By coming to these
business models, you provide a sticky cloud offering that customers love, making it harder for
them to leave you.

Painless Upgrades
As an IT provider working with cloud vendors, you don’t have to worry about ongoing
upgrades to your cloud applications. The cloud vendors ensure that the technology is
maintained and uptime is over 99.98%.

Lower Initial Investments

To build a cloud practice, you need access to the technologies to train your staff. With
cloud solutions, you don’t have to invest enormous amount of dollars to learn and develop
practice-related services.

13
 WHAT IT MEANS TO BE
A CLOUD-READY BUSINESS?

It means that your business can attract new customers and generate recurring revenue by offering
solutions and services that scale easily to meet customer demands. Cloud-ready partners create and
sell more packaged offerings and services with partner solutions included in their customer solutions.

Cloud-readiness brings a lot of benefits to you as a business. Being cloud-ready expands your
capabilities and helps you serve your customers better, and you can clearly see your success in
the marketplace. Let’s take a look at how being cloud-ready helps you in the marketplace:

Generate new customers and

recurring revenue

Stay ahead of the curve

Quickly identify areas
and offer solutions that
for cloud investments Being Cloud-ready meet demand and scale
Helps You to: easily

Strategically invest time and resources to

build a cloud practice

Read what cloud practitioners such as Jewelcode Corporation, Wilson Shaw IT and
Atlastek have to say about the benefits of being cloud-ready:

It means that we can

”
provide solutions that
our clients are asking
for with mobility and
security for our HIPAA
protected data.
– Jewelcode
Stay ahead of the curve
and offer solutions
” ”
It means one is able to
sell cloud services and
that meet demand and support it whether it’s
scale easily. outsourced or in-house.
– Wilson Shaw, IT – Atlastek

14
 CHALLENGES THAT
CLOUD PARTNERS FACE

A cloud partner is an intermediate entity who purchases cloud services with the intention of reselling
them to the customer rather than using them for personal needs.

To Become a Cloud Partner, There are Many Challenges

Talent Needs to Change to Address New Demands for Customers

Customers are expecting cloud resellers to be able to transfer their data and applications to a
cloud platform and then keep that platform available at all times with the right sizing, scaling, and
management. This expectation requires cloud solution provider resellers to gain new talent on
their team.

Cloud Services Shake Up Traditional Revenue Models

Cloud partners are having difficulty with estimating total cloud opportunity and also figuring
MRR opportunity with cloud solutions. Licensing skills for estimating computing power for
different-sized customers and applications is difficult.

Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) Licensing Model

Cloud partners have difficulty understanding the licensing, billing, provisioning and reporting
model. They are not able to understand the end-to-end journey of the customers and the things
they have to track in the backend of each system.

Cloud Transformation Journey Map

Traditional IT companies have a difficult time understanding their journey path to the cloud,
hence struggling to attract the right talent, investments, and customers. The journey path requires
investment in changing their business model, business operations, and customer acquisition
techniques which can be time-consuming and expensive if not done thoughtfully.

Compliance and Legal Issues for Cloud Partners

Another challenge facing cloud partners is in the form of legal issues surrounding a cloud service
partnership. Customers may have regulatory and compliance requirements, such as e-discovery,
with certain time requirements after the services contract.

15
 YOUR
CLOUD JOURNEY MAP

The cloud transformation journey map consists of 7 core steps. By following the journey map and
putting together an action plan you can achieve cloud transformation in 100 days or less. Companies
who have gone through this proven model have significantly increased their revenues, added new
headcount and new customers.

CLOUD TRANSFORMATION JOURNEY MAP

Application & Services
Packaging and Development
Identify, package, and or build cloud-
based product integrations, applications
and managed services
Go-To-Market

5 6
Build go to market channels for
Cloud Profitability promoting and distributing cloud
Planning applications, and managed services
(Marketplaces, Partners etc..)
Take the profitability
assessment to identify business Cloud Business
models for building or scaling a Readiness
cloud practice Assessment & 100-
Day Action Plan Customer Support

1 2 Take Cloud Business

Readiness Assessment to
7 Establish 24x7 support function
to manage provisioning, billing,
understand areas to invest invoicing and activations
resources and budget.
Activate your 100-day
action plan to win cloud
customers

I Want to Build 3 4 I Am A Cloud-

My Cloud- Ready Business
Ready Business Business Strategy Cloud Solution
Develop a business Identification, Selection,
strategy and change plan and Management
for building or scaling Establish product management
your cloud practice on the functions for developing a cloud
Microsoft Stake practice

16
 ASSESS YOUR
CLOUD READINESS

To assess your cloud readiness, start with a 15-minute assessment that provides you with a cloud-
ready report card. This assessment will help you identify areas to invest resources and budget, and
leverage the 100-day action plan to start winning your cloud customers. Take the cloud-ready
assessment at aka.ms/iamCloudready

17
 MONETIZING
YOUR CLOUD PRACTICE

Building a repeatable and sustainable cloud business model requires you to do experiments and
make iterations until you are satisfied with the right model, determine the right approach for your
business and the different models that are available to you.

Cloud business model also needs to incorporate the level of sophistication of the services offered.
There are three levels of sophistication. We recommend each IT provider to operate at the
Accelerator level to realize decently monthly recurring revenues and profitability for your business.

Cloud Revenue Can Vary Based on the Level of Sophistication

of the Services Offered. Here’s How:

Advanced

Resell MS Cloud Stack/Wide

Range of Partner Applications

Accelerator
Automations

Resell Microsoft Cloud Stack Customer Support

+ Partner Applications
Custom IP
Basic
Integration Services

Business Process Automation

Resell Microsoft Cloud Stack
Customer Readiness and
Training
Migration Services

Business Intelligence

Ongoing Maintenance

18
 As You Build Your Cloud Business Model, There are Four Primary
Ways to Make Money in the Cloud – Ideally, You’ll Choose to
Incorporate a Mix of These in Your Business Model

Proof of Concept (POC): In this new cloud world, cloud managed services providers need
to pitch a POC. A POC validates a potential solution, helps you pivot your process before you
implement at scale, and is a useful way to engage prospective customers.

Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR): With the cloud, you can now use a software
subscription model that enables you to offer services and maintenance year-round, reducing
customer churn.

Monthly recurring margins (reselling): You can make money by reselling Microsoft Cloud
and partner cloud products. To resell Microsoft Cloud products, you need to become a cloud
reseller by joining the Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider program.

Upsell via projects and custom engagements: This is an area where many partners already
have a great deal of experience. With the cloud, you have even more ways to provide custom,
high-margin solutions.

Using the Business Model Canvas and Revenue Idea templates will help you adapt the
options in a way that’s best suited to your organizational goals.

Use the Business Model Canvas Template Available in the

Templates Section

Who is your customer and what channel will you use to reach them?

What’s the value you’ll provide with your solution offerings?

What activities and resources will you use to help customers realize your value proposition?

Who are the partners you’ll work with to deploy your solution?

What costs will you incur for customer acquisition and solution deployment?

Which revenue stream will you use?

19
Example of a completed template

Business Model – Example (Contoso)

Key Partners Key Activities Value Proposition Customer Customer Segments
Relationship
Ingram Micro – Tier2 Business Continuity On Prem Business 1:1 With Customer SMB Customers
CSP (Azure/Office/ Management Continuity Directly – Healthcare (30
EMS/Intune) Employees and Up)
Micro via Partner Vendor Cloud and Startups Interested
Program Relationships and Traditional Vendor in App Hosting and
Management Management Device Management
Services (10
Employees and
Higher)
Connectwise Outsourced Business
Distribution
Mobile Device Productivity and
Channels
Management Collaboration via
(Public Sector) Cloud Workflows
Datto – for On Prem Modern Mobile Indirect: Microsoft
Business Continuity Ready Infrastructure Store, Microsoft,
(XP/exchange/on Industry events,
Prem Services to Disti Channels
Azure/Office365/
EMS/Intune
IOT – Cloud and Direct: Digital
Key Resources Mobile Device Marketing, Referral
Management Marketing
Services
Cloud Architects Cloud App Hosting
and Management
Cloud Workflow
Configuration Experts
On Prem Help Desk
Sales & Marketing
Cost Structures Revenue Streams
1. Labor 1. MRR – 2K to 8K Per Customer
2. Cloud Tools POC – 1K to 3K Per Customer
3. Marketing Margins – 4% to 10% Per Month Per User

4. Hardware/Software Project Based

Mobile and LAN Network Configuration –

Advisory Services

20
Next, use the Revenue Ideas Template to brainstorm all the revenue ideas for establishing your
cloud business.

Start with your POC ideas, trying to hit recommended pricing parameters. Set clear goals and
timing expectations so you can exit cleanly from the pilot.

Identify all the monthly recurring revenue (MRR) opportunities for implementing your
solution. Consider the resources that you’ll need to service a customer on an on-going basis
to help set prices.

When you consider reseller margins, you’ll want to be sure you can track your reseller
regularly for visibility into consumption and costs.

Finally, note down the new projects and custom engagement types you can offer.

21
Here’s an example of a completed template:

Business Model – Revenue Model (Contoso)

POC Ideas MRR Ideas (Ongoing Margins/Subscriptions Project Based
(2K to 20K) Monthly Maintenance) (5% to 20 per Month (Scope Based)
– 2K to 10 K per Month per customer)
per Customer

Cloud Network Cloud App Hosting and Microsoft Cloud Stake: Mobile Ready Mobile
Assessment & Management Office 365, Azure, Device Management
Recommendation Maderia, EMS, Intune

Web & App Assessment IOT – Device Quickbooks App Migration to Cloud
Management and
Ongoing Maintenance

Vendor Assessment and Vendor Management for Datto Integrated IOT on Azure
Recommendation Cloud Product and Other
Products
Quality & Productivity Connectwise Exchange to Office 365
Workflow Assessment Migration
and Recommendation

Cloud Technology Productivity and Cloud Breakfix

Adoption Planning – Collaboration: Top 5
Strategic Session Healthcare Workflows

Invoice Management Business Continuity Advisory Service

Assessment &
Recommendation Cloud Adoption Training
Services

Customer Value Proposition Revenue Streams

IOT Value Props: Connected Devices & Patients IOT Cloud Bundle: Dell+Azure+Intune+EMS+Partner App

Smart Workflows for Productivity Modern Cloud Infrastructure + Office365

Hybrid Vendor Management (Cloud and Other) Cloud App Hosting Bundle – Azure + EMS

Mobile Ready Networks with Less Cyber Threats Workflow Bundle – Invoice Mgmt – Office365, Quick-
books

Easy Migration to Modern Cloud Infrastructure Mobile and LAN Network Configuration – Advisory Services

Make it a priority to complete your cloud business model and identify your business opportunities
to win new cloud deals.

22
 CALCULATE YOUR MONTHLY
RECURRING REVENUE

Now, we hope you can see that migrating your business to the cloud is a tempting proposition
due to the recurring and predictable revenue model it promises. While the cloud can be a
money-spinner, it can be overwhelming for technology decision makers to decide how to work
with the business model to meet your revenue targets.

For example, technology business decision makers may think in the following way:

We need to grow our company by 10%. Can we do it

by selling cloud services?

We just got a cloud request. How should we price

the proposal to be profitable?

So, is there a way to ease the technology decision maker’s job of meeting revenue targets?
What if there is a recipe for a business to follow to arrive at your desired cloud revenue goal?

In other words, it helps

It enables a business CLOUD MONTHLY you plan your transactions
decision maker to work RECURRING based on a revenue target,
backward from a revenue REVENUE
and plan your business
target and figure out what CALCULATOR
levers based on that
works the best for you.
revenue.

23
 Define the cloud solution that you want to
1 sell to your customer.

Identify proof of concept (POC) pricing for

How to use the Cloud
2 your cloud services. This is a fixed price.
MRR Calculator to
define your cloud Identify the cloud vendor products that you will
opportunity: 3 include in your cloud offering. This will also help
define the costs for the customer to access the
cloud solutions. Then, identify your margins.

Define your managed services. In this step,

4 identify the number of resources you may need
and what their going rate in the market is.
Put them together to arrive at the total cloud
opportunity for your business.

Use the Cloud MRR Calculator to arrive at a revenue model for your managed services’ business.

24
 CLOUD
ACTION PLAN

Establish your
cloud vision Define your
statement company’s
monthly recurring
revenue (MRR)
goals

Identify cloud
competency to
attain With the Cloud
Action Plan Understand your
customer profile

Sign up for cloud

CSP indirect
provider of choice
Draft your cloud
solution bundle

These six steps will set the foundation for your journey, and help you focus on the key elements
for your success. We will go through each step and let you know what worked for businesses like
yours in their journey to the cloud.

25
 Establish Your Cloud Vision Statement

Establish your
cloud vision Define your
statement company’s
monthly recurring
revenue (MRR)
goals

Identify cloud
competency to Clearly define out what you want to
attain Cloud
Action Plan
achieve as a cloud partner and set a
Understand your
customer profile timeframe.

Sign Up for cloud

CSP provider of
choice
Draft your cloud
solution bundle

Here is a simple example:

Vision Template
Become a cloud partner for “Solution Name” which creates an
average of $X in MRR by end of 2017

26
 Define Your Company’s Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) Goals

Establish your
cloud vision Define your
statement company’s
monthly recurring
revenue (MRR)
goals

Identify cloud
competency to Anticipating cloud revenue would be a
attain Cloud
Action Plan great way to identify the right products
Understand your
customer profile and services that you can provide to your
customers.
Sign Up for cloud
CSP provider of
choice
Draft your cloud
solution bundle

Use the Cloud MRR Calculator to work backwards from the revenue target to figure out the
right combination of the revenue to be earned from POC, reselling, and managed services.

Focus on 1-month, 3-month, 6-month, and 12-month goals. It helps you optimize your
business operations while serving the cloud customers.

Take things one step at a time, don’t be overwhelmed. Start with getting your first customer
in the first month, and build from there.

27
 Understand Your Customer Profile

Establish your
cloud vision Define your
statement company’s When understanding your customer, you need
monthly recurring
revenue (MRR) to look for five core areas. Take your time and
goals
complete your due diligence to put an audience
Identify cloud
profile together. This is where you really learn
competency to about your customers’ goals, values, challenges,
attain Cloud
Action Plan
pain points and objections. Try to profile at
Understand your
customer profile least 10 to build an accurate profile.

Here is a template that you can use. It is simple

Sign Up for cloud
CSP provider of and can help you document your customer
choice
Draft your cloud profile easily.
solution bundle

• Age
• Gender
Objections &
Goals and • Marital Status
Roles in Sales
Values
Process • Location (Residence)
• Age of Children
• Occupation
• Job Title

Challenges • Annual Income

Source of
and Pain • Level of Education
Information
Points
• Affiliations
• Others

28
 Draft Your Solution Offer Bundle

Establish your
cloud vision Define your
statement company’s
monthly recurring
revenue (MRR)
goals

Identify cloud Once you understand your customer

competency to
attain Cloud profile, determine the cloud services
Action Plan Understand your that can create a complete offering. To
customer profile
accomplish that goal, you need to:

Sign Up for cloud

CSP provider of
choice
Draft your cloud
solution bundle

Identify which product you’re going to resell

Determine the partner services and complementary services you’re going to add

Define the ongoing maintenance, hosting, and subscription services you can provide.
This creates the MRR component of your cloud offering

Example: Azure App Dev As-A-Service

Identify Microsoft Cloud Stack: Azure & Power BI

Identify other complementary products you are comfortable to sell and implement: Power BI
and Meylah’s Commerce Engine (our IP)

What do customers call you today for? Architect cloud app commerce solutions, build
dashboards, and assessment, cloud support and dashboards

What challenges are you addressing for your customers? Save money, faster innovation,
customer satisfaction, data driven execution, strategy development

Create a cloud solution: Turnkey Azure app development as-a-service in 8 to 10 weeks

29
 Sign Up for the Cloud Solution Provider Offering

Establish your
cloud vision Define your
statement company’s
monthly recurring
revenue (MRR)
goals CSP (Cloud Solution Provider) program is a
Microsoft licensing option where the customer
Identify cloud pays as they consume cloud services. As a
competency to
attain Cloud partner, it becomes very easy to show how
Action Plan Understand your the technology will be purchased and how
customer profile
customers need to pay. The sales cycle becomes
shorter. As a partner, you get the commission on
Sign Up for cloud the consumption of the cloud services.
CSP provider of
choice
Draft your cloud
solution bundle

As an indirect partner, you would work closely with your distributor, who provides CSP offerings
for Office, Azure, Dynamics, and EMS.

To have an effective conversation about CSP with your distributor, invest time in getting a
demo from them to understand the process of cloud provisioning, billing, and reporting. Try
to keep conversations focused on the execution of CSP so you won’t stumble when a customer
implementation comes around.

30
 Identify Your Cloud Competency

Establish your
cloud vision Define your
statement company’s
monthly recurring
revenue (MRR)
goals
Earning a Microsoft cloud competency is
Identify cloud how Microsoft recognizes partners who
competency to
attain Cloud are focused on Microsoft solutions, which
Action Plan Understand your in turn helps Microsoft invest in the right
customer profile
target partners to help them acquire
customers and drive consumption.
Sign Up for cloud
CSP provider of
choice
Draft your cloud
solution bundle

Benefits of Earning a Microsoft Cloud Competency

Earning a competency is a proven way to show customers your expertise in your chosen
solution area (Office 365, Azure, EMS, or Dynamics 365).

Each competency has its own set of requirements and benefits that support your ability to build
a cloud or hybrid cloud business in a specific area.

Visit partner.microsoft.com/solutions/Cloud-is-our-core to review competency options and set

your direction.

31
 100-DAY CLOUD TRANSFORMATION
JOURNEY OF 3S GLOBAL
BUSINESS SOLUTIONS
The Step by Step Journey of 3S Global Business Solutions
Which Transitioned From a Staffing Company to Cloud Practice in
100 Days

We broke down each step with Sujit Ghosh, CEO of 3S Global Business Solutions, who just went
through his own cloud transformation. Who better to learn from than someone who just did it –
right?

Sujit closely worked with Chaitra Vedullapalli (one of the co-authors of this ebook), who has
a proven track record of enabling global cloud transformations and architecting innovative
business models. Here’s how the step-by-step plan typically looks like in a real-world scenario,
and how Sujit went through the journey.

Step 1: Assessment [Day 1]

Let’s start with the Cloud Business Assessment to properly identify and understand which
specific areas to invest in. This sort of analysis yields the following piece of information about
your company:

How ready is the business right now to join the Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) Program?

List changes needed in your business to be able to join the CSP Program

Understand how your business can grow with Microsoft Cloud Products and Solutions

Recognize new revenue streams once successful cloud transformation takes place

32
How did Sujit utilize the cloud-ready analyzer?

“The first thing was going to the Cloud-Ready Analyzer. It was quite simple to complete the analyzer.
The analyzer takes a holistic approach to assess and help your business become a Cloud-Ready
Business.

This analyzer helped us to:

Understand how ready our business was to join the Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (CSP)
Program

Identified priorities to join the CSP Program

Invest time and resources strategically

Grow our business and reach new customers with Microsoft Cloud Products and Solutions

Identify and build new revenue streams”

33
 Step 2: Action Plan [Day 5]

From here, we move on to putting this newly-gained information to practice by essentially

creating an action plan.

List out monthly recurring revenue (MRR) goals – largely based on the new revenue
streams identified during assessment.

Keep in mind, there are four areas of monetization in the cloud, with MRR being one such
outlet. MRR includes both IP subscriptions (ISV/Startups) and ongoing maintenance (MSP/SI).

The others include: Proof of Concept (POC), Monthly Recurring Margins (reselling), and Upselling.

Understand & define customer profile – focusing on how this is any different from your prior,
pre-cloud transformation profile.

Define the cloud solution bundle.

Understand & identify proper cloud competency.

What did Sujit do following the assessment to prepare for the action plan?

“Once we completed the Cloud-Ready Analyzer, we were introduced to Chaitra Vedullapalli. She was
an excellent resource with whom we had one-on-one coaching. She did the handholding through
a well-defined process. It began with the Smartsheet, which is like a project plan online. This plan
explained the steps, and our responsibilities.”

34
 Step 3: Cloud Business Model [Day 15]

If there’s one step in this 100-day process that requires extra attention, it’s this business model
right here. After completing your cloud-ready self-assessment and defining your action plan, the
business model gets put into place – the more specific, the better.

The template we provide forces the business to start with the value proposition – what value are
you offering today versus what problems are you going to solve – followed by details on POC
ideas, MRR ideas, identifying key partners, distribution channels, and cloud solution bundles.

Notice what Sujit did when working on his company’s cloud business model. The key is to be
specific with numbers from the very beginning.

“During the coaching session with Chaitra, we defined our:

Target audience

Our value proposition — we were transitioning from a staffing company to an ISV

How much we wanted to earn per month”

Vision
Become a Cloud ISV for “Lead Automation Management
Solution for SMB Customers” which creates an average of
$10K MRR

Cloud Innovations

IT Staffing Company → Cloud Hybrid ISV

35
 Step 4: Define Customer List, Solution [Day 30]

Every company’s ideal cloud customer will be different – given the industry, size, technologies in
question, etc. But that doesn’t mean this isn’t something to properly identify, define and plan out.

These five traits are common for many cloud customers:

Looking for cloud solution

Currently incurring high infrastructure costs

Having new people in IT department, looking to change strategy/direction of environment

Recent struggles with lost data

Plans to build new applications for new opportunities

At least one of those traits will be present in your target customer list.

Simply start by describing your ideal customer. You can better situate your services to meet those
demands in the market.

The industry the customer belongs to

Size of company

Individuals at the company who have buying power

Challenges they have/will have

Associations/organizations they belong to

36
Remember, there is no way to successfully pitch to customers without first defining who and
what that is for you. The more detailed you’re able to be at this stage of the process, the more
attainable the results are down the road.

After defining the ideal customer, we move on to Cloud Solution & Incentives.

Solution Name

Value Proposition of Solution

Microsoft Products

Partner Products

Price to Offer Solution – POC, Managed Services, IP

Incentive Name

Incentive Description

Incentive Value Proposition

Incentive Offer Details

Expiration Date

Distribution Channels

Check out the detail in which Sujit set up his Cloud Business Model – from customers to solutions
to incentives; each portion is clearly stated.

37
 The Cloud Business Model Canvas – 3S Global
Business Solutions
Key Partners Key Activities Value Proposition Customer Customer Segments
Relationship

Ingram Micro Develop IP Automated Lead Direct Sales Force, SMB – 5 to 10

Processing System Professional employees
(Cloud App on services
Azure)
IAMCP Establish Niche Recruitment System Via Partner Channel
Professional Services (Cloud app on Such as IAMCP
to deploy IP Azure)
Microsoft Turnkey Activation Networking
Distribution
Services Solution (Linkedin
Channels
for SMB)
Direct
Custom dev &
Via IAMCP
extension
Via Disti
Key Resources

Cloud Architect
Professional services
Sales and Channel
Development
Customer Support
Cost Structures Revenue Streams
IP Development (Cloud Infrastructure) POC & Custom Projects
Professional services resources IP Subscriptions revenue
Sales and Marketing MRR

Margins – Azure, Windows 365

38
Name of the product: “3S LEADRESPONSE” SOLUTION (Lead Automation Management
Solution for SMB Customers)

• Customer is a Microsoft Partner. Cannot fulfill the leads for reselling software. Budget
was 10K to 12K

• Any Microsoft Managed Partners who contact and manage leads to convert them to
become customer (Microsoft can utilize this application)

• This is not a CRM

• Automated first response to lead. Lead to Quality Prospect is higher!

• Cost – 10K ($25/hr) –Fully paid

• User license:

• Setup: How much time you need, what you need to setup your app

• How much time you need to allocated per customer to have a great customer

• Customer Support – 15%

• Technical Assistance – 10%

• Product Improvements – 40%

• Marketing & Communications – 10%

• Technology Upgrades – 10%

• Administrations – 5%

• Profit – 10%

• Pricing Ideas – $100/use, Setup costs, Upsell Opportunities

• POC – Setup + 5 free licenses for 90 days

• Turnkey sell – User Licensing + MRR opportunity (Support, Product update)

• Upsell Opportunities – Extension to your products

39
 Step 5: Pitching to Customers [Day 45]

Now that you’ve created the arsenal to attract your customers with, it’s time to pitch and
ultimately win customers.

As such, we’re careful here to be organized as well, following a pitch kit that’s guaranteed to drive
the conversation in the right direction:

Talking Points

Solution Sales Sheet

Demo

Pricing

Customer Testimonials, if possible

Channels

Once Sujit was at this step, all the arsenals were in place to close the deal.

“We had a demo with a leading Microsoft distributor and the response was very encouraging.
Also we got some ideas to tweak our product.”

New Way of License Buying Via Cache-L

Cache-L was designed to help Microsoft resellers of Open and cloud to provide the power of
shopping Microsoft products and their services in the hands of the customers.

Our solution is cloud-enabled so your customers can browse the product catalog, receive an
immediate quote and buy online using credit card and receive product licensing info from your
distributor in one seamless flow.

40
 Why Should You Consider Cache-L?

1. Provide 24X7 shopping experience

2. Reduce enquiry to delivery processing time by 50%
3. Increase productivity of sales people on high quality activities with customers
4. Integrate with your CRM activities
5. Empower customers to get quotes
6. Update your product information online, anytime anywhere

41
 Step 6: Join CSP Program [Day 90]

While this portion of the process is being handled well before Day 90 – in terms of preparation –
now is really when you’re able to select and apply for the right competency.

Really, though, this has already been a point of discussion since Day 1. The cloud competency is
selected based on your product expertise – whether it be Office 365, Azure, Dynamics CRM or
Enterprise Mobility.

Each such competency has different levels of requirements based on the following factors:

Talent Readiness

Product Consumption

Customer Acquisition

Think about it like this – there are over 650,000 total partners out there heading into 2017. Less
than 1 percent of that 650,000 have achieved Managed Partner Status.

Sujit knows, from experience, that it often takes climbing on someone’s shoulders to reach the
top. This is a team effort and his company, 3S Global, is that much better because of the guidance.

“In my opinion this is one of the best programs available by Microsoft where there is a coach
handholding through the Cloud-Ready journey. It is extremely effective and felt tailor-made for my
company.”

42
 Step 7: Cloud Competency [Day 100 – You Made It!]

“Chaitra and her team created a powerful market place where we can showcase our products to market. I
thought this is extremely beneficial as we do not know how to take our product to the market.”

https://cloudincentive.meylah.com/

After Reaching Cloud Competency… What’s Next?

Upon successfully reaching Step 7, Sujit and his company had one thing left to do: go out and
get deals!

While they’re still dealing with the original client’s app development guidelines before moving full-
force to the marketing phase, the initial estimate from Sujit is three-to-five opportunities to kick
off Q2 in 2017.

“Because we were properly mentored earlier in process to source for customers and leads during
the transformation, selling once in marketing phase becomes a lot less stressful. The entire set-up
with Chaitra’s team was almost a ‘Dummies’ guide to cloud transformation for me, simplifying what
I thought could be a nightmare.”

43
 TOOLS AND
TEMPLATES

Use the following templates and resources to help you build your cloud business!

Cloud Ready Analyzer

Get your free cloud ready report card.

START NOW

Cloud MRR Calculator

Estimate your cloud revenues by playing with different levers.

START NOW

100 Days to Cloud

Download the bundle containing checklists and planning templates. It is free for this ebook
readers. Use the free code MSFTCLOUD.

DOWNLOAD NOW

44
CASE STUDIES
IT Company’s Cloud-ready Transition Tied to Client Needs, Technology Trends

Navigating the Storm: 100 Days to Cloud with Microsoft Partner Network

IT Consultant Focuses on Desire, Data, Diversity in Providing Cloud-Based Services to Small Biz

IT Company Builds Software Platform for Cloud-ready Companies and Those That Aren’t

IT Company Becomes Cloud-Ready Service Provider Thanks to Daughter’s Insistence

HOW TO ARTICLES
I’m Ready to Offer Cloud as a Service, How Do I Assemble My Dream Team?

I Have a Customer Who Wants the Cloud, How Do I Write My First Proposal?

I’m Ready to Make Cloud Part of My Offerings To Customers; What Do I Do Next?

I Hear My Customers Talking About Cloud, How Do I Deliver and Make Money?

45
ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Chaitra is currently the CMO of Meylah. Chaitra is a co-architect of

Ignite Washington, a city-by-city digital readiness initiative to foster
local economic development. Chaitra has a proven track record
of enabling global Cloud transformations, architecting innovative
business models and leading communities with excellence. She
is recognized as Top 100 Small business influencer, winner of
Washington SBA Advocate Award and holds a patent in Web
Methods. She was a Senior Director of WW Sales and Marketing
Chaitra
Communications, where she led social enterprise implementations
Vedullapalli
and shaped Microsoft Customer and Partner Self Service Experience,
which impacted over 10M Customers and 1M Partners. Chaitra has
also served as Director of Licensing and PartnerNetwork at Oracle
where her projects drove licensing simplification and enabled state-of-
the-art innovations in the Partner Self Service Experience.

Karen is currently a Marketing Director at Microsoft Partner

Network. Karen leads the strategy for how Microsoft drives
communications and marketing engagement for an ecosystem of
over 350k partners in the Microsoft global partner network. Karen
has held multiple marketing roles over her last 17 years at Microsoft
including work in global technical readiness, volume licensing
programs, sales excellence, audience and channel marketing. Karen
is an integral member of IgniteWA community and fostering SMB
Karen Fassio
transformation in Cloud.

46