Picking a Partner 11\23\2009

Microsoft makes the software, but channel partners sell and service it. Picking the right partner is critical for any Microsoft customer. Here's how to make the right choice.

Matching customers and partners is not a one-sided process. While customers are responsible for doing due diligence on partners, partners also have certain expectations of the companies they're hoping to serve.

Perhaps the most important attribute partners are looking for is cooperation from a customer's IT department. Outside vendors can look like threats to IT professionals' jobs, especially at the outset of a relationship. Mutual trust is important if a project is going to succeed, says Lior Blik, CEO of New York-based Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Network Infrastructure Technologies Inc., also known as NITConnect. Those relationships can take time to develop, he says.

"A lot of the time, [IT people] are the people who are hiring us," Blik says. "[After] the first few months, we have a place. It makes their life easier. It's a matter of testing the water, but in the long term they use us a tool to implement solutions quickly."

Executive communication is also very important, he says. C-level executives need to be part of the project-planning process at an early stage in order to avoid conflict and confusion down the road. "The communication between the financial person and the person who's responsible for technology is very important," Blik says. "If they're both at the table when we go in, that's where we want to be."

Dwight Nishida, president of Honolulu-based Microsoft Gold Certified Partner High Performance Systems Inc., agrees. "I want to know the people who are going to make the decisions-the stakeholder," he says. "We need to talk to the owner and make sure they're comfortable with us. They need to take ownership of the solution."

For Chris Spears, owner of Atlanta-based Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Arke Systems, openness is critical. "What I'm really looking for in clients are ones that are willing to open up," Spears says. "If they're just coming at you saying, 'We know we have this problem; this is exactly what it is, and there's only one way to fix it,' that really doesn't do us any good. They've got to be willing to talk to us, to let that partner behind the covers of what's really going wrong before any partner's going to be able to find a cost-effective, good solution for the problem."

-L.P