5 Ways To Build a Partner Business on Microsoft Teams

Over the years, it has been very lucrative for partners to look at where Microsoft is making investments and to make sure that their bets are aligned with Microsoft's.

The level of investment from Microsoft that goes into engineering, readiness, marketing and sales means that partners who make sure to align their businesses with those priorities have a lot of wind at their backs.

For those of us who attended Microsoft Inspire in Las Vegas this past July, there is no doubt that Microsoft Teams has grown in importance. Microsoft is betting hard on Teams and so should Microsoft partners.

Because Teams is already included with Office 365 and isn't available as a standalone product, you can't really become successful with Teams by reselling it. The opportunity is around adding apps that help companies become more efficient and that improve communication internally and with trusted parties.

There are an increasing number of ISVs that are building apps for Teams, and many of them will have a bright future as the market will grow fast. But Teams is also a great opportunity for custom development -- especially with a vertical twist.

Here's a list of five ways to build offerings with Teams beyond just license sales:

1. Implementing Teams
This is often pretty basic, but it is important to make it happen and to make sure that Teams has the right structure for your customer so that it becomes integrated in the business.

2. Reselling ISV Apps
This is an area with great traction right now, and we will see the number of apps multiply rapidly as more ISVs get involved. Your customers will need someone who knows what works best for them and knows how to implement.

3. Building Customer-Specific Apps that Integrate with Teams
Here's a useful link for how to start. I encourage you to especially look at how to add apps built with Microsoft's low-code platform, PowerApps.

Once you have built an app that works really well, you should consider if you can become an ISV and sell a generic version to other customers.

4. Consulting on How To Make Teams Support the Customer's Business Processes
This will require people with specific business vertical knowledge, and you are likely to be able to bill accordingly if you have the right people.

5. Training on Teams
Training services are always a great opportunity, but don't scare the customer and make it too complicated and expensive. Teams probably calls for less classic classroom training and more one-to-one coaching of super users.

Beyond these ideas, I strongly suggest that you start to use Teams internally. Make sure that you do for yourself what you suggest to your customers. It builds trust when you successfully support your own business with Teams, and it makes it much easier to sell to customers when you can talk about your own experiences. It's also an inexpensive way to educate your own people.

Good luck and please share your success stories!

Per Werngren is an RCP contributor who has held many roles at the worldwide level of the International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners (IAMCP), including chairman and president.

Posted by Per Werngren on August 12, 2019