RCP 350 Spotlight: Queue Associates

Visitors to the Queue Associates Web site are immediately greeted with the declaration that it is "a global Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and leading Microsoft Dynamics 365 consultancy, in business for three decades."

No mistaking its commitment to Microsoft technologies.

When asked why he thought RCP listed it in the RCP 350 for top U.S. Microsoft partners in 2021, Founder and Managing Director Jeff Goldstein replies, "I would think for two reasons. Number one, last year we had a record year, despite the pandemic. Number two, we moved a lot of our clients to the cloud, so we did a lot of business transformation, moving existing clients from on-premises applications into the Microsoft cloud."

Goldstein, who served as president of the U.S. board of the International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners (IAMCP), proudly points out that Queue is the Largest Microsoft Dynamics partner in the New York metro area supporting customers worldwide. The company has offices in New York, Atlanta, Phoenix, London, Hong Kong and Osnabrück, Germany.

Reflecting further on the impact of the COVID pandemic, Goldstein points out, "When you're in front of a client, it's much easier to interview them, identify the requirements, do a whiteboard session, do the training. When you're doing it remotely, it's more difficult keeping the customer's attention."

On the other hand, he feels working from home has literally forced his people to be far more efficient than ever. "If a consultant had to take the train into New York to visit clients, they could only visit perhaps two clients a day. If they're lucky they'd really only get in four to six hours worth of work. Now sitting at home in front of their computer, they can easily schedule 10 one-hour sessions. And everybody is so very attentive for that one-hour meeting, they're not late, always on time. And then when the meeting is over, the meeting is over. The boundaries are very, very, very clear, in terms of what the time constraints are for a meeting. It has actually forced more structure. Our people are more efficient, because they can serve more clients in a day. There's no wasted time.

"What this pandemic has done is that all of our prospects who were on the fence about the cloud, the pandemic pushed them over the fence, and made it a must. When people come to our Web site, and they call us, they already know what they want. They say, 'I want Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Essentials, Teams seats, and they know the prices.' When they come, they're already sold. It's just a matter of why should they work with Queue as opposed to somebody else."

As for the bet-the-business commitment to Microsoft, Goldstein credits Microsoft's scale and stability as one of the biggest companies in the world. "Microsoft generates a lot of opportunities for us. People used to say, 'Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM,' right? Well, now, it's the same way with Microsoft. People go out and say, 'Listen, I selected Microsoft. That's the best. It's the gold standard. So Microsoft is the new IBM, nobody ever got fired for buying Microsoft.'"

At the same time, it can be tough for a partner to navigate an organization as huge as Microsoft. Goldstein finds advantages in being selected as a managed partner.

"My perception of Microsoft is going to be only as good as the guy I deal with every day, right? If I work well with the guy and the guy takes care of us, I love Microsoft. If the guy doesn't take care of us, blows us off, then I don't like Microsoft. That's what it comes down to. I'm not working with Satya Nadella. I deal with one guy who manages 20 partners. When I have a problem, I call him and he takes care of my problem. And that's why I love Microsoft," Goldstein says. "Basically, people partner with people."

Posted by Howard M. Cohen on May 20, 2021