by Janet Kahr Senior Partner Portfolio Recruiter | The Microsoft Azure Partner Community is led by National Partner Technology Strategists from the Microsoft US Partner Team. Partner Community activities include blog posts, discussions on Yammer, newsletters, and community calls. |
This is part 3 in our Azure Partner Community blog series about adding Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online to your practice. Read part 1 and read part 2.
How to get started with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online in your Azure practice
If you’ve made the decision to add Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online to your Microsoft Azure practice, this post will provide you with the guidance you need to take the next step and get started.
The US Dynamics CRM Online Partner Portfolio Recruitment team (Dynamics PPR) is your first connection to start your planning. Each Recruiter is geographically based, and has an Operations resource that is dedicated to helping partners through the onboarding process.
Azure partners typically have a line of business focus or custom application development focus in their CRM Online practices, as opposed to a more traditional Sales Force Automation focus. The Dynamics PPR team can discuss with you how to extend your business to include a Dynamics CRM Online practice that will drive great customer experiences. We refer to these areas of focus—line of business and custom application development—as xRM focused Dynamics CRM practices.
Once you are connected with the Dynamics PPR team, your Recruiter and the Operations resource will work with you and your team to go through the operations onboarding process. We use a variety of tools and phone-based meetings to help you complete the steps.
In addition to the operational considerations of starting your CRM Online practice, your Recruiter will schedule regular calls that will help you:
- Develop the CRM Online portion of your cloud business plans
- Review your go-to-market strategy
- Enable field engagement when appropriate
- Strategize on sales cycles
- Initiate partner to partner connections
- Inform and remind you of key events and CRM /xRM announcements and news
- Share best practices from successful Dynamics CRM Online partners
An example of partner-to-partner connections is making you aware of Dynamics CRM Online ISVs that have developed solutions that consume Azure but do not resell Dynamics CRM Online. These ISV solutions offer growth opportunities for your Microsoft CRM practice.
Also part of each Recruiter’s virtual team are Dynamics CRM Online Solution Architects, who can offer technical guidance about how Azure and CRM Online can work together in various scenarios. A significant area of opportunity for Azure partners is enterprise deployments of Dynamics CRM on Azure, as those often require an internal or external facing portal of some form. CRM Online and xRM solutions can utilize a variety of Azure features, like Compute, Websites, Storage, Database, and others. CRM Online also uses Azure Active Directory. Azure AD Premium provides tools for enterprise CRM deployment such as Self Service Password tools, Multi-Factor Authentication, Active Directory Write-Back, and 99.9% SLA. The team and tools are in place to help you ramp quickly and incorporate Microsoft CRM Online and xRM into your Microsoft Azure Cloud Practice.
| For more about xRM, download the presentation from our Azure Partners Yammer group. |  |
Connect with the Dynamics PPR team today
To connect with the Dynamics PPR team, email nominatepartner@microsoft.com. A Dynamics Partner Portfolio Recruiter will respond and follow up with you to discuss your interests as well as provide further details about becoming a successful Dynamics CRM Online partner.
 | In the Microsoft Azure Partner Community blog series and call for May, we’ll help you learn more about CRM Online and understand why you should consider investing in adding it to your Azure practice. Register for the May 21 community call. Our next blog post in this series will talk about the vision for CRM Online with Azure. |
CRM Online partner resources
- Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online on the partner portal
- Partnership journey with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online
- Cloud SureStep for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online
- Microsoft Dynamics Cloud Partner Profitability Guide
- Internal use rights guide for Microsoft Dynamics CRM and CRM Online
- Recommended training for Sales, Marketing, and Technical roles
- Modern Biz | Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online marketing campaign
CRM Online product information
- Test Drive Microsoft Dynamics CRM
- Product release information for Spring 2015
- Microsoft Dynamics CRM pricing and licensing