Partner ecosystem key for Microsoft’s commercial revenue
Microsoft’s One Commercial Partner model was announced by CEO Nadella
Technology giant Microsoft has been working closely with its partners including start-ups and traditional service providers to drive digital transformation. In 2017, Microsoft’s One Commercial Partner (OCP) model was announced by CEO Satya Nadella. Rajiv Sodhi, Chief Operating Officer, Microsoft India speaks on how Microsoft is driving partner momentum and cloud growth in India through its OCP model. Edited excerpts:
What is the value proposition of the OCP model?
Microsoft is a big corporation. It was becoming a very complex to work with our partners. And so two and a half years back we brought all our different teams that were working with partners into one organisation, which we now call as One Commercial Partner (OCP).
We do three different activities: we build solutions with partners, help them go to market and the third which is probably the most important part is sell where the customer, the partner and Microsoft all work together. So the OCP model then works very beautifully, because you’re working right from the entire lifecycle, starting from building the solution, planning how it gets taken to the market, and then actually selling it, which then results in revenue.
In fact, our partner ecosystem is helping generate 95% of Microsoft’s commercial revenues. We have more than 9,500 partners currently in India, out of which more than 3,300 are cloud-enabled.
What do you think of the Indian start up ecosystem?
I think we all know, it’s a very vibrant ecosystem. In terms of facts, it’s the third largest ecosystem of startups in the world.
According to conservative estimates there are anywhere between 35,000-45,000 startups in the country. And if you look at just the VC funding that’s coming into the country, it’s just gone through a massive curve. I think the other thing is while the initial wave may have been led by business to consumer (B2C), we are seeing a very big business to business (B2B) momentum now and that’s where our sweet spot is.
The question, though, is how do startups succeed?
I think if you look at any startup, broadly, they have to have access to technology because if they don’t have access to tech, their basic value proposition is not there, right. And then they should have access to market. The Microsoft OCP model, or the startup model actually works on both these fronts. So from an access to technology perspective, we do a lot of evangelism, a lot of outreach and provide access to our basic cloud platform, so that startups can build their product on top of it.
The second part then is access to market. Let’s say you’re a startup and you’ve created a product for your customer, let’s say, banks.
The Microsoft Cloud is the number one cloud in the country where nine out of 10 banks are actually using Microsoft Cloud. So I have the ability to now take these startups (who on their own may have difficulty reaching that HDFC or ICICI), but with Microsoft, they can absolutely do that. So that’s how we give them access to market. Microsoft is committed to the growth of SMBS in India as well as the entrepreneurship potential of start-ups in the country.
Any examples?
We have the example of Inmobi, a global provider of enterprise platforms for marketers, who moved to Microsoft Azure as its preferred cloud provider, and are a global go to market partner with us which means we’ve helped them connected into America, get them connected into APAC, the UK, into Australia. The companies work in close cooperation on the go-to-market approach, offering these integrated advertising and marketing solutions to Microsoft’s global enterprise client base.
What is the future roadmap for your partner ecosystem in 2020?
This is a journey and we continue to build, go to market and sell. What we are also looking at is making our partners successful in enterprise, because enterprise customers are looking at a lot of technology to power their business. We are looking at government because that’s a very big type of customer – the public sector and the SMBS. So actually, if you look at the three big sections of the Indian economy, whether it is commercial enterprises, public sector enterprises, or even the vast SMB market, we see partners playing a big role and so these motions will definitely continue. And our focus on technology continues, whether it is Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Internet of Things or cyber security, are the favourites where we are building or investing capability.
What role can the government play in boosting startups?
First of all, the government is a big enabling pillar for the startup ecosystem. If you ask me right now, a lot of impetus is needed in the MSME sector.
Historically, that’s the part of the economy that has not adopted technology. And I think government comes out with a lot of programmes and incentives for SMES to come and adopt technology. So that’s one big factor that we work with the government closely to actually meet with that. Second, is their own policies like GST, that’s a massive enabler of digitization. They actually run a lot of these solutions on the Azure platform, which is enabling millions of SMES to come on the GST platform. So I think these are areas where we work closely with the government.