What happens when your Partner of Record gets acquired? Do you need to start all over…….
The Dynamics channel keeps consolidating, and in my opinion, most people are watching the wrong thing.
Every few weeks another implementation partner gets bought. Innovia absorbed two industry players earlier this year, while PE money keeps pouring into the channel, an example being Bain into Sikich, roll-up after roll-up.
All of the headlines seem to focus on the just the businesses changing hands themselves and not the implications they bring to their customers.
Here’s what actually matters when your partner changes hands. The name on the invoice or letterhead is the least important part. The real story, in my opinion, are the Architects and Lead Consultants who know your company’s infrastructure and it’s business applications, your revenue recognition, your security model, your chart of accounts, etc.
The day one of these deals closes, those key people become two things at once: a retention risk for the new owner, and a flight risk for you at the end customer.
As somebody that recruits senior level talent all day, every day for Partners, from Partners, I can tell you that 1 of the leading factors that keeps your veteran Architects and Sr. Functional Consultants at certain Partners for years is a sense of loyalty to the company itself, and to it’s leadership team.
Once a company comes in and acquires a Partner, the loyalty to the firm is gone instantly, and in alot of cases, the same is true to senior leadership as executive leadership often changes hands. Even if not, there is often-times a feeling of mis-trust from the employee body since they were not privy to the monumental change in the company taking place.
With new ownership comes their own “way of doing things” including compensation structure, new bonus plans, utilization targets, etc. that often-times lead to an overall state of anxiety and “willingness to look around”.
So the question isn’t whether the work continues, the project has already kicked off or is about to.
Your focus should be who is actually going to be doing the work now. Really, this should be your question anyway. Is the polished veteran walking you through the demo or kicking off the project and leading the initial stages going to be with you when things get a bit dicey when integration issues flare up or the go-live runs amok?
Ask these questions of your Partners now. This should always be done, but it is increasingly even more important as this merger and acquisition activity continues to heat up in both the Microsoft Dynamics and NetSuite partner communities.
If I sign now, who will be actually performing the work and working with us throughout the project? Inquiring minds want to know……
Every few weeks another implementation partner gets bought. Innovia absorbed two industry players earlier this year, while PE money keeps pouring into the channel, an example being Bain into Sikich, roll-up after roll-up.
All of the headlines seem to focus on the just the businesses changing hands themselves and not the implications they bring to their customers.
Here’s what actually matters when your partner changes hands. The name on the invoice or letterhead is the least important part. The real story, in my opinion, are the Architects and Lead Consultants who know your company’s infrastructure and it’s business applications, your revenue recognition, your security model, your chart of accounts, etc.
The day one of these deals closes, those key people become two things at once: a retention risk for the new owner, and a flight risk for you at the end customer.
As somebody that recruits senior level talent all day, every day for Partners, from Partners, I can tell you that 1 of the leading factors that keeps your veteran Architects and Sr. Functional Consultants at certain Partners for years is a sense of loyalty to the company itself, and to it’s leadership team.
Once a company comes in and acquires a Partner, the loyalty to the firm is gone instantly, and in alot of cases, the same is true to senior leadership as executive leadership often changes hands. Even if not, there is often-times a feeling of mis-trust from the employee body since they were not privy to the monumental change in the company taking place.
With new ownership comes their own “way of doing things” including compensation structure, new bonus plans, utilization targets, etc. that often-times lead to an overall state of anxiety and “willingness to look around”.
So the question isn’t whether the work continues, the project has already kicked off or is about to.
Your focus should be who is actually going to be doing the work now. Really, this should be your question anyway. Is the polished veteran walking you through the demo or kicking off the project and leading the initial stages going to be with you when things get a bit dicey when integration issues flare up or the go-live runs amok?
Ask these questions of your Partners now. This should always be done, but it is increasingly even more important as this merger and acquisition activity continues to heat up in both the Microsoft Dynamics and NetSuite partner communities.
If I sign now, who will be actually performing the work and working with us throughout the project? Inquiring minds want to know……