2020 has shown that no company is completely resilient. But those who can adapt quickly emerge stronger from challenging situations. Continuous development is essential. The cloud plays the central role here.

The year 2020 brought profound changes, years of digital transformation happened in just a few months. Gregor Primus, responsible for channel sales at Microsoft, talks about digitization in times of change, the Join Us! and why the partnership with Microsoft in the cloud business right now offers unlimited possibilities.

We are all currently experiencing profound changes, years of digital transformation took place in just a few months. What lessons did you learn from 2020?

2020 taught us that no company is completely resilient. But those who can adapt quickly will recover faster and emerge stronger from challenging situations. The ability to continuously develop is essential. This applies to customers as well as to IT service providers. We see one of the main factors in providing our customers with the best possible support in promoting our unique partner ecosystem in a targeted manner. Ultimately, these challenges bring gigantic opportunities. The cloud plays the central role .

Why does it make sense to enter into a cloud partnership with Microsoft right now?

The future of our partners and customers lies in the cloud. At Microsoft, we live the cloud and drive technological development. In the past year alone, the Microsoft cloud grew by 36 percent. The market potential in Germany is still immense. With our cloud and its possibilities in the areas of infrastructure and services, productivity and business applications, our partners can provide their customers with the right solution for their requirements – now and in the future.

Partners play an essential role in our business model. Regardless of whether it is sales, consulting, development or implementation: You are the link to our customers. We are currently seeing an increase in partners who recognize the opportunities of the cloud and are expanding their business with us. We support every company that drives innovation and is interested in a partnership with us. Even an existing cooperation with other cloud providers does not stand in the way.

How can you imagine a partnership with Microsoft?

We support partners in all matters and to the extent they want – be it as a self-service model or as an individual strategic partnership. We rely on a “360-degree approach”: starting with the development of technical and sales knowledge through joint marketing and strategies to technical and sales support in projects.

We continuously invest in the growth and success of our partners. We are interested in long-term partnerships and cooperation. This also includes connecting partners with one another. In view of the incredible diversity and know-how of our more than 30,000 partners in Germany, there is enormous potential for synergies and innovation here. All of this ultimately benefits the customer.

How do you see the future for Microsoft partners?

Right now is an exciting time to enter into a partnership with us. It is our goal to work together with our partners to make our customers successful with tailor-made solutions. Incidentally, this includes not only our own products, but also increasingly solutions from existing and new ISVs. Our next development and logical consequence of digitization is the Commercial Marketplace. It offers an easy way to scale partner solutions and to sell managed services and SaaS applications. Customers can then use our Microsoft Commerce platform to decide for themselves where they get which products and services from. In the end, you don’t get a piece of work, but a single, coordinated package. Of course we take our partners with us on the trip.

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