Training

Realising Platform Value
Participants: sales, presales, marketing and general management
Time: 2 Days

Realising Platform Value is a 2 day interactive workshop within which many internal Microsoft personnel have already participated.  It is designed to show participants how to articulate and sell the value of the Microsoft platform to customers which will help you form binding relationships with your customers, enhancing the value these customers can receive from their investment in the Microsoft platform and your Partner services.

Topics covered during the session will include:

• how to articulate the Microsoft platform value message
• how to document the customer’s “as is” IT environment, and to then document a “to be” environment built around the Microsoft platform
• Using the Microsoft Infrastructure Optimisation Models to establish long term relationships with customers
• how to generate genuine value for customers by focusing on fundamental issues – not symptoms – framing customer discussions in terms of business needs that IT can address
• how to use the platform value discussion to uncover and pre-qualify opportunities
• how to gain customer agreement to continue the journey with the appropriate Partner resources

The innovation, integration and simplicity of the Microsoft platform is a key point of differentiation – if you are able to stage “platform” rather than “point solution” discussions with customers, you will win more business and generate more opportunities, whilst at the same time improving customer satisfaction.

At the end of the workshop participants create a Personal Action Plan that includes appropriate next steps for pursuing the Microsoft Platform Value journey.

The overarching goal of the workshop is to enable people in Microsoft Partner organisations to:

• Communicate a coherent, comprehensive Microsoft value proposition that encompasses all the assets of Microsoft (technologies, people, and partners) in a united way — without artificial internal boundaries (such as branding or organizational structure).
• Begin a journey with customers, establishing Microsoft Partners as trusted advisors, helping customers meet their overall strategic goals and vision and realize the full value of the Microsoft platform.
• Establish long term relationships with customers using the Infrastructure Modeling (IO) frameworks

Specific Workshop training objectives include:

• Articulate the Microsoft Platform Value Message.
• Begin a journey with customers toward realizing the full value of the MS platform.
• Depict the customer’s “As Is” and “To Be” (Microsoft-enabled) IT environment.
• Explore likely areas of “unrealized potential” in the “As Is” IT environment.
• Explore how Microsoft’s integrated capabilities can provide added value.
• Generate value by focusing on fundamental issues, not symptoms, and framing customer discussions in terms of business needs IT can address.
• Use the platform value discussion to uncover and pre-qualify opportunities.
• Gain customer agreement to continue the journey with the appropriate Microsoft and partner resources, including the IO analysis tools.
• Develop a personal action plan.
• Assess own skills and identify relevant areas for personal development.
• Target next steps within accounts for customers to realize the full value of the Microsoft platform.

The session is designed for personnel within the Partner, responsible for business development. Pre-sales, solution architects/consultants and management personnel will also benefit greatly from attending.

This is not a technical workshop. There are thus no technical prerequisites for attending this course however participants would benefit from having a sound understanding of Microsoft product capabilities.

Topics include:
Day 1:

1. What is the Value of the Microsoft Platform?
1. Our customers’ IT environments and the overall MS platform architecture — how all the elements fits together to deliver a unique value proposition to our customers.
2. What's in Your Customers' IT Environment?
1. A Framework for Understanding an IT Environment
2. A Typical Environment with Point Solutions
3. A Seamless Computing Environment
3. When the Microsoft Platform Enables the Organization
1. Our Integrated Approach
2. The MS Platform and Business / People / Process / Management  &Base Services
3. Envisioning the Potential
4. How to Sell the Value of the Microsoft Platform
1. A structured approach for talking a customer on a journey from their “as is” environment to their “to be” environment.
5. A Journey to Realizing Potential
1. What Is the Platform Value Journey?
2. What Potential Did You Envision?
3. Ways to Begin the Journey
6. Unlocking Unrealized Potential
1. What Is Unrealized Potential?
2. Unrealized Potential in Your (Case Study) Account
7. An Approach to Platform Value Discussions
1. Overview of the Approach
2. Preparing for the Call — Key Questions to Focus the Discussion
3. Using Diagrams to Frame the Discussion

Day 2:

1. Walking the Talk!
1. Structured practice using “real world” case studies so people leave the course confident and ready to sell the value of the Microsoft platform. 
2. Your Customer's “As Is” and “To Be” Environments
1. Your Customer's “As Is” Environment (role play prep)
2. Your Customer's “To Be” Environment (role play prep)
3. Preparing for Your Call (role play prep)
3. Your Microsoft Platform Value Discussion (Role Plays)
4. Planning for Success
5. Recap of “lessons learned” from workshop
6. Self-assessment
7. Resources to Support Your Efforts
8. Personal Action Plan