Microsoft DynamicsPartner Solution Case Study

Consulting Company Saves Thousands of Dollars, Still Boosts Service Quality

OverviewCountry or Region: United StatesIndustry: Professional services

Customer ProfileMicrosoft® Gold Certified Partner TGO Consulting Inc. provides professional services for Microsoft Dynamics® GP and Microsoft Dynamics CRM to TGO clients in Canada and the United States.

Business SituationTGO Consulting had been struggling with its staffing model for consultants and was trying to find the right balance between staffing for peaks in business and cost-efficiencies.

SolutionTo provide the highest levels of customer service and maintain a cost-effective staffing model, TGO Consulting provides Microsoft Dynamics Partner Technical Services to its clients.

Benefits Reassigned resources, saved U.S.

$26,400 in hardware Improved services response time,

increased client trust Poised to compete, positioned for

growth Developed a collaborative

relationship

“[Microsoft Dynamics] Partner Technical Services delivers cost efficiencies for both resources and hardware for TGO Consulting.”

Blair Hicken, Vice President of Technology and Strategic Solutions, TGO Consulting Inc.

A Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner, TGO Consulting Inc. serves enterprise customers located in Canada and the United States. As a large part of its business, TGO Consulting provides professional services for Microsoft Dynamics® GP and Microsoft Dynamics CRM. But the consulting company was struggling to find the balance between maintaining cost-efficient staffing and supporting irregular peaks in customers’ service needs. In teaming with Microsoft Dynamics to provide Partner Technical Services to its clients, the consulting company has saved U.S.$26,400 in hardware costs and reassigned staff. Now, TGO Consulting can meet its customer expectations for response time and has gained an increased level of client trust. Backed by a strong relationship with Microsoft, TGO Consulting is further positioned to grow and compete.

SituationTGO Consulting Inc. is based in Toronto, Canada, and sells its consulting services primarily in Toronto and Ottawa, but also in the United States and worldwide. TGO Consulting focuses on not-for-profit and membership associations, as well as entertainment, financial, construction and waste management companies, and clients from the distribution and technology industries.

Having implemented financial solutions since 1988, TGO Consulting joined the Microsoft® Partner Program in 1993. As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and certified training center, TGO Consulting participates in a number of Microsoft Partner Program competencies: Business Process and Integration Solutions, Learning Solutions, Networking Infrastructure, and Microsoft Dynamics® Business Management Solutions, including Microsoft Dynamics GP and Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

“We focus on large, complex customer businesses with complicated development needs or large-scale data projects involving Microsoft Dynamics GP and Microsoft Dynamics CRM,” says Blair Hicken, Vice President of Technology and Strategic Solutions for TGO Consulting.

TGO also sells five of its own solutions. PUSH is TGO’s advanced e-mail marketing add-on to extend Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and TGO Connect is a performance and functionally add-on for the Microsoft Dynamics GP Developers Toolkit. Other add-ons include Auto Post, Auto Aging and Auto Reconcile for

Microsoft Dynamics GP. “We’ve developed a number of tools to help our own clients with implementations, and now we have other partners and customers who use our tools as well,” adds Hicken.

TGO’s more than 50 professionals are experts in delivering customer service. In fact, professional services generates 65 to 70 percent of the company’s revenue and is one of its key differentiators. The consulting company provides consultation, implementation, development, training, and support services.

“We want to offer solid, professional services to support the solutions that we sell. Microsoft Dynamics offerings are strong, and we complement them with a strong implementation team,” says Hicken. “We’re fortunate to have found senior professionals who have all been involved with large-scale implementations. These professionals use their expertise to help clients implement their new solutions smoothly and easily.”

However, TGO was struggling with staffing its customer service organization appropriately. Although the company had a staff of five who worked on client upgrades, TGO also performed data upgrades and migrations in-house and, therefore, maintained five servers for this purpose. “TGO had five persons dedicated to client upgrade, and five high-end servers the company had purchased internally to do actual data upgrades,” says Hicken. “We were staffed for our peak implementations, but this

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didn’t make the most business sense as far as cost-effectiveness was concerned.”

SolutionTGO started providing Microsoft Dynamics Partner Technical Services to its clients in 2002 to extend additional resources to its own professional services team. Partner Technical Services encompasses a variety of support services and products, ranging from reporting, upgrade, and migration services, to testing, integrations, and advisory services. With Partner Technical Services, the partner company also gains access to technical team members from Microsoft Dynamics to help with strategy and execution.

“While some client projects are ongoing, others have a clear beginning and end, such as a data upgrade. We were scaling up our resources for data upgrades because we performed them in-house, but this didn’t make sense for us from a cost perspective,” says Hicken.

With Partner Technical Services, TGO can provide an exceptional level of customer service and scale up with Microsoft resources just for a particular time period. Hicken adds, “Partnering with Microsoft to utilize its resources only makes our team more effective and more valuable for the customer.”

TGO uses the following Partner Technical Services.

Upgrade ServicesTGO uses Upgrade Services about 25 times a year. The process begins when a consultant at TGO contacts a Partner

Services Executive at Microsoft for help defining the scope of an upgrade for a client. TGO provides client information, such as how large its data set is and the number of companies involved. Microsoft then provides a guaranteed quote, in both turnaround time and dollars, for the scope of the project.

“We ship the client’s data to our colleagues at Microsoft, and Microsoft performs the actual data upgrade and ships the new data back to us,” says Hicken.

Migration ServicesMigration Services are similar to Upgrade Services and often happen concurrently. This service may be used when a TGO client is running an older version of Microsoft Dynamics GP that does not use Microsoft SQL Server® as its business database, but uses an outmoded, non-supported database. When a client uses a competing product and wants to migrate historical data into Microsoft Dynamics GP, the Microsoft Dynamics team helps TGO by migrating that data, completing an upgrade, and sending the data back to TGO in the new format. TGO delivers the now-upgraded data to the client.

“The migration services help clients who can’t interrupt their business flow to perform migrations and upgrades,” says Hicken. “Clients don’t have to worry about application downtime, and we deliver the data back to them in the format they need.”

Customizations and Database Management Services

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“By using Partner Technical Services, we can meet customer requests and perform upgrades in a weekend. We can also perform more upgrades in one weekend than if we were to use just our own resources.”

Blair Hicken, Vice President of Technology and Strategic Solutions,

TGO Consulting

TGO taps into Microsoft expertise when it wants additional resources to complete a customization, such as adding functionality to a solution. For example, a client may want to add required fields into the Sales Order Entry window in Microsoft Dynamics GP. To help the client do this, TGO contacts Microsoft Dynamics Partner Technical Services, and the Microsoft Dynamics team performs the service and ships the data or the customization back to TGO for delivery to the client. The Microsoft Dynamics team typically handles customization and database management services as a remote service, but if customer data needs to be transferred, partners can use the Microsoft secure File Transfer Protocol site.

“With customizations and data imports, some clients know Microsoft is involved, and, for others, clients just want to make sure that they receive the appropriate solution in a timely manner,” says Hicken. “TGO promises delivery on time and on budget and uses Microsoft resources in order to make that happen.” Professional Services Tools LibraryMicrosoft developed its own set of tools, called Professional Services Tools Library—for client project needs. The Professional Services Tools Library is a collection of Microsoft Dynamics GP add-ons that help clients make data changes quickly and easily, saving customers time that they might otherwise spend making manual changes to ensure data integrity. TGO sells the Professional Services Tools Library to its clients; some clients purchase individual tools, some purchase a three-pack of

tools, and others purchase the entire tool library, depending on need.

One of TGO’s clients uses the Professional Services Tools Library to void and check historical documents within Microsoft Dynamics GP. This allows the client to use Microsoft Dynamics GP as effectively and efficiently as possible.

BenefitsBy selling Microsoft Dynamics Partner Technical Services, TGO Consulting has seen enormous benefits, from improved services response time and better client trust, to cost savings of U.S.$26,400 in services hardware. TGO Consulting also gained efficiencies in staffing, and strengthened its relationship with Microsoft. Because of Partner Technical Services, TGO is now ready to grow and compete.

“TGO Consulting can offer a guaranteed response and turnaround time, and this is something that allows us to take on more business,” says Hicken.

Reassigned Resources, Saved U.S.$26,400 in HardwareWhereas in its previous business environment, TGO Consulting had five people dedicated to technical services upgrades, now it needs only two. In the past, TGO Consulting spent U.S.$26,400 in hardware costs simply to maintain its service computers for four years. Now the company doesn’t spend any money on services hardware. “Partner Technical Services delivers cost efficiencies for both resources and hardware for TGO Consulting,” says Hicken.

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Improved Services Response Time, Increased Client Trust“By using Partner Technical Services, we can meet customer requests and perform upgrades in a weekend,” says Hicken. “We can also perform more upgrades in one weekend than if we were to use just our own resources.”

Efficient weekend upgrades and migrations are critical for many clients, and with the help of Partner Technical Services, TGO can meet this service-response-time demand.

TGO Consulting knows Microsoft will help fix any issues quickly and easily, with guaranteed estimates for cost and turnaround time to help satisfy client needs. TGO clients can have more confidence and trust that service delivery will be on time and on budget. “There is never a concern from our clients that a data migration or Microsoft Dynamics GP upgrade will slip,” says Hicken. “With the help of Microsoft, we’re always able to get the job done.”

Developed a Collaborative Relationship with MicrosoftNow, when a TGO consultant is looking for ideas on how to solve an issue, a Microsoft team member from Partner Technical Services is available and ready to brainstorm and share knowledge. “TGO Consulting provides knowledge about our clients, and Microsoft shares about its hundreds of clients who have done something similar—and the two come up with possible solutions,” says Hicken.

Hicken also says TGO Consulting was part of the original team who worked with Microsoft in developing the Microsoft Dynamics Partner Technical Services process.

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“TGO Consulting can offer a guaranteed response and turnaround time, and this is something that allows us to take on more business.”

Blair Hicken, Vice President of Technology and Strategic Solutions, TGO

Consulting

“The process is smooth—we have a project manager at TGO Consulting who works with a Microsoft Dynamics Partner Technical Services team member to define the scope of a client project and complete the service,” says Hicken. “TGO enters the information into the project plan and finds a date that will work for the customer. Partner Technical Services truly is an extension of our professional services group.”

To find out more about the Partner Technical Services for customers, call (701) 281-7676, send an e-mail message to MBSProfessionalServices@Microsoft.com or visit Microsoft PartnerSource online.Microsoft DynamicsMicrosoft Dynamics is a line of integrated, adaptable business management solutions that enables you and your people to make business decisions with greater confidence. Microsoft Dynamics works like familiar Microsoft software such as Microsoft Office, which means less of a learning curve for your people, so they can get up and running quickly and focus on what’s most important. And because it is from Microsoft, it easily works with the systems that your company already has implemented. By automating and streamlining financial, customer relationship, and supply chain processes, Microsoft Dynamics brings together people, processes, and technologies,

increasing the productivity and effectiveness of your business, and helping you drive business success.  For more information about Microsoft Dynamics, go to:www.microsoft.com/dynamics

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For More InformationFor more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:www.microsoft.com

For more information about TGO Consulting products and services, call (905) 470-6830 or visit the Web site at: www.tgo.ca

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Document published August 2009

Software and Services Microsoft Dynamics−Microsoft Dynamics CRM−Microsoft Dynamics GP

Services−Microsoft Partner Program−Partner Technical Services−Professional Services Tools Library