Micro Force Extends its Bench and Closes Multi-Million Dollar Deals with Stratos Cloud Alliance

By joining Stratos Cloud Alliance, Micro Force has been able to extend its bench and land larger deals. Learn more about our partnership now!

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Table of Content

    Partner Overview

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    Also known as “the ERP doctors,” Microsoft partner Micro Force focuses on improving and lifting companies to the next level with their ERP use. To do this, Micro Force conducts periodic user activity sessions to evaluate how employees are using the system. They then suggest process improvements that help teams do things better and faster. They also keep clients up to date on any new functionality so they can leverage the investment made in their Microsoft system.

    The Challenge

    A long-term Great Plains partner, Micro Force began selling Microsoft Dynamics when Microsoft acquired Great Plains in 2001. The company was a managed partner with Microsoft until it joined Microsoft’s affliate program in 2013. A member of the Microsoft Partner Network in New York City, Micro Force began partnering with Stratos Cloud Alliance at its inception.

    “We’ve been managed by Microsoft account reps, and then another partner, but our current Partner Account Manager, (PAM), with Stratos, Valerie Borak, is the best we’ve ever had,” says Jim McCann, sales director, president, and partner at Micro Force. “We really appreciate Val’s support—it has been a wonderful experience. A PAM helps with opportunities, that’s understood, but Val is a person we can go to for anything. She’s like a traffic cop. There are a lot of smart people at Stratos who help us manage the beast called Microsoft. By partnering with Stratos, we save a ton of time so that we can offer the best service possible for our clients,” continues McCann.

    Unlimited Bench

    Micro Force has always focused on Microsoft Dynamics GP but added NAV and BC to its product offerings in 2016. “Stratos allows us to give unlimited bench to our clients and support a multitude of offerings that we couldn’t without them,” says McCann. “We have leaned on help from Stratos for BC implementations and have never had a failed implementation in 15 years, which is saying something,” continues McCann. “We are working on a multi-million-dollar Dynamics 365 BC opportunity now which has  passed the first stage. We wouldn’t have gotten involved in the opportunity without our partnership with Stratos,” continues McCann.

    Micro Force’s clients are mostly in the midmarket, with an industry focus on distribution and not-for-profit. “BI and Power Platform are the magic behind our entire Microsoft offering,” says McCann. “It empowers clients’ IT teams not to depend on providers to provide data. It’s a big competitive advantage for us, and we leaned heavily on Stratos to help us get going on Power Platform,” continue McCann. “Stratos has allows us to provide additional ERP offerings and build teams to get us kickstarted on expertise.”

    Multi-million Dollar Deals

    Micro force partners chatting

    Micro Force recently closed a deal for an account which was on a legacy system for 25-plus years. They were looking for a state-of-the-art solution for HR, Payroll and Accounting. “It was only because we were working with the Stratos team and specifically the Power Platform offering that allowed us to win this deal,” says McCann. “The client has an offshore resource and an extensive IT team that embraced Power Platform to enhance the BC implementation and allows us to rewrite 300 legacy applications into the latest technology. Thanks to Stratos, we won this multi-million-dollar deal,” continues McCann.

    McCann comments on how Stratos helps Micro Force compete against NetSuite, Salesforce, and others. “We were a 30-person firm, and now we are a 430-person firm with resources from Stratos,” says McCann. “NetSuite and Salesforce have high-priced sales reps who help win client deals and are so aggressive with their pricing. Microsoft pricing is competitive to start with, and Stratos not only helps us sell the value of the solution, but they have 4,000 satisfied customers. No matter what the opportunity is, they have industry references,” continues McCann.

    Stratos HUB

    Micro Force uses the Stratos HUB to place orders on behalf of its clients. “We have a team member who places orders all of the time through the HUB, and we’ve found it to be more than sufficient,” says McCann. “We identified an issue with reconciling orders on the HUB, and within 30 days, Stratos had fixed the problem and delivered a new offering to reconcile orders, and now it’s magic,” says McCann.

    When Microsoft released its New Commerce Experience, (NCE), it was challenging for many partners to adopt. “I’m the President of one of the chapters of the International Association of Microsoft Partners, and NCE is an area of concern for most partners,” says McCann. “Stratos is a leader in helping us navigate what NCE is about and how it impacts our customers, as well as informing us what to do now versus later,” says McCann.

    $200k Savings in One Year with Stratos

    Micro Force has had better luck getting answers and support from Stratos than directly from Microsoft. “When we talk about Stratos, we first talk about our PAM, Val, who I think walks on water, but the management team has been great, too,” says McCann. “We had a business issue that Jeff Edwards helped us with a couple of years ago. Microsoft changed how they wanted us to transact Dynamics GP renewals within our large client base, which would impact our profitability. We reached out to Microsoft, and it fell on deaf ears. Stratos and Jeff Edwards addressed this issue, saving us $200,000 in one fiscal year. It was above and beyond what a typical partner would do,” continues McCann.

    “Microsoft Dynamics BC is a fast-growing product, and Stratos has been a wonderful resource to partner with to help us achieve our very aggressive goals,” concludes McCann.

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