Partnering for Success Insights from Imran Mahmood on Collaborative Growth

Welcome to the IAMCP Profiles and Partnership, the podcast that showcases how Microsoft partners and IAMCP members boost their business by collaborating with other members and partners. I'm your co host, Anthony Carrano. And in each episode, I'll be talking to some of the most innovative and successful partners in the Microsoft ecosystem. The International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners, otherwise known as IAMCP, is a community of Microsoft partners who help each other grow and thrive. Members can find and connect with other partners locally and globally and access exclusive resources and opportunities.

Anthony, thank you so much for inviting me in this podcast. I really appreciate that.

Excellent. Excellent. Why don't we start off? Why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and the role in the company?

Yeah. Sure. My name is, Imran Mahmood, and I'm the founder and CEO at KAISPE. As a serial entrepreneur, I have been involved in establishing a number of technology practices and taking them to the next level of growth. Personally, I'm a Microsoft guy, so I have a strong background working with different Microsoft teams, including, Microsoft Dynamics product development team, and then, you know, from sustained engineering to, global, consulting services team.

That's fantastic. And I know we're really looking forward to getting into hearing a little bit more about your P2P story. But I know you mentioned you joined IAMCP about 5 years ago. What, what prompted you to join, the organization and become a member?

Yeah. So, primarily, we are Microsoft shop, Anthony, and, what we were looking for is some platform where we can easily find other Microsoft partners. Right? Because, personally, my belief is, you know, you grow your business as you collaborate with other partners. And there are always some technology and skill set gaps.

Excellent. Excellent. We appreciate you sharing. Rudy?

So I read the story that you submitted. Very interesting story that you had. Can you tell us a little bit more about the client? You don't have to give us a name or the size or but we would like to hear what industry they're in and especially the technology that that you implemented and the challenges that that client was facing.

Sure. Sure. So our client, was actually a service organization, right, with 400 plus employees. And they were in professional service industries, and they were providing different services to their customers, including, advisory services, consulting, and support services. Right?

How did you meet this partner, and and what was your criteria for selecting a partner for a project like this?

Yeah. So it was, since an enterprise level document management solution. Right? And it also involved some complexity in terms of the volume of document. So, our criteria was not only to look for a partner who is well versed in Microsoft SharePoint, but also someone who is really good, has deep experience designing and delivering, an enterprise level document management solution, like the what our customer was expecting us to deliver.

So so, again, in selecting that partner, was the decision made on, besides skill sets on geography and their ability to service that customer? Can you tell us a little bit more about that?

Yeah. That's right, actually. So, you know, we we're looking for partner. We tried different, other sources as well. Definitely, IAMCP was our natural choice, to find such partner.

That's a great story. It's always good to hear. Warms my heart, is to hear the stories about IAMCP. I've been a member for 30 years now. So I really enjoy, when people partner and build successful solutions for for their clients. Exactly. Anthony?

No. That was great. What made you decide no. Let me ask this because, as, you know, obviously, you're a very successful, you know, ISV. Do you guys work exclusively with and through partners?

So we actually do both. So we do establish partnerships where we meet. Right? And, particularly in the Microsoft ecosystem, we establish a lot of partnerships, on different solutions and different services that we provide to our customers. And then we also do a lot of, consulting services on our own. And as a Microsoft ISV, we do a lot of product development. Right?

Yeah. I was just I was just curious when you, you had mentioned that, especially since for the last 5 years, and and the company is only 6 years old. So you've been pretty much actively, you you know, go working through partners for just the entire duration of of your company's existence. So that's that's fantastic. What do you look for in in partners? So aside from their, you know, members of IAMCP, what are the things that that factor into your decision criteria?

Yeah. I think, Anthony, that one of the the biggest factors really is the synergy. Right? So, you know, we have often found partners who are very good at the skills technology, who are very good at delivering the solutions. But when it comes to certain other nontechnical factors, for example, you know, timely communication, you know, for example, having, setting the right goals, among each other.

Yeah. Because definitely, if you have the wrong partner, it could be a disaster. Right?

I mean, it's a it's a honestly, I mean, we have we have certain, situations in past. We where we selected one partner, very good at technology, you know, we relied on them, but then the customer came to us that, okay, we are not getting, the right communication or the stakeholder communication, you know, from the from the other guys. So that's kind of, problem because, you know, when you when you select a partner, you, set certain boundaries and certain, SOPs. Right? And if the other partner is not following them and you are definitely then there is a misunderstanding already established.

Mhmm. Mhmm. And on that note and kinda now weaving back into the partner success story, that you were sharing a little bit earlier is, did you guys did you and your partner have any challenges, during that engagement? And if so, what were they, and how did you guys work together to overcome it?

Yeah. Of course, we faced some challenges. And at the very start of the project, right, of the collaboration, these were like including, communication and, setting the common goals, you know, like I previously mentioned. But, you know, in any P2P collaboration, like this, these 2 are very important areas that I would strongly suggest partners to, you know, get them get get themselves aligned. And oftentimes, you know, you see, things, for example, your communication style between both organizations, your organization culture.

And when you said frequency matching, you're talking about in terms of, as it pertains to communication and deliverables?

Exactly. Exactly. So, you know, once you decide a timeline with the customer and you rely, let's say, 70% on the delivery, on other partner, that's where the overall communication, you know, is is very important. Because, for example, if you are managing the project, all of the risk management, all of the change management that is coming from you and all you have already onboarded the other partner. But if they are not following, that risk management or issue management or change management, definitely your customer will get hurt, and and the entire project will be, will suffer.

Well, that's awesome. That's excellent. Excellent.

So, Imran, I'm gonna give you a chance at a shameless plug right now. If you what what is the name? It says as an ISV, what is the what is the product that you that your company promotes the most? And that that also led to this this type of solution so we can let our our our other partners know what you do?

Yeah. So as an ISV, we have been, working extensively on Microsoft Technologies. Right? So we extensively work on Microsoft Power Platform, and that's our expert area. And we have a number of, IPs already published on Microsoft AppSource and Azure Marketplace.

Right? How many listings do you have on AppSource?

So we have around, like, 20 plus, I would say, product listing there. And, these are, like, different horizontal solutions, some, specialized verticals for construction, for, service industries and couple of other industries as well.

Very good. Very good. So based on your partnering experience, did this engagement increase customer satisfaction, profitability? You know, can you tell us a little bit about that?

Yeah. Certainly. Certainly. This engagement actually, it it did not only increase the customer satisfaction, but also increased the revenue growth. And, by partnering with, with such a company that we found, through IAMCP, they have that they had expertise in Microsoft SharePoint.

So one of the one of the things you mentioned was that 70% of the delivery, was dependent on the partner. So based on that experience, what advice would you give to companies like yours regarding partnering?

Yeah. So I would strongly suggest other companies and partners out there, especially in the Microsoft ecosystem, to always be open for collaboration and partnering. Look for partners who can fill in your skill set gap. Look for partners who are really good in certain industry verticals where you are lacking, and always, you know, look for partners who are really good or kind of achieve the excellence in certain Microsoft technologies. Right? And and do not stop here. You know?

Anthony, do you have some more?

Yeah. No. That's that's great. Great advice. Appreciate you sharing that. Going back to just this experience and especially, you know, since you have, you know, so you know, years of experience in working, you know, with and through partners, what did you learn from this, most recent, you know, example, that enabled your organization to improve?

Yeah. Anthony, it's it's a great question, actually. You know? So we have years of experience, honestly, working with different partners, And these range from small partners to very large partners in the Microsoft eco ecosystem itself. I think it's a trust level, first of all. Right? It's a mutual trust that you need to achieve, first of all. And that you get achieved, is a two sided story. Right? So do not expect a lot from other partner because you are also another party in this collaboration.

Mhmm. Mhmm. That's that's excellent advice. We appreciate you sharing that. Well, Imran, this this has been really fantastic.

Yeah. Thank you, Anthony, for, bringing that up. I really I really appreciate that. So I was willing to talk about that honestly in this podcast. So KAISPE Academy is something that we have started as a CSR, community service initiative.

And what parts of either, like, the world do you guys mainly operate KAISPE Academy?

So we have started this in Pakistan, and, here we, you know, found found that it's it's, you know, it matches. It's, it's more a natural choice that we started here and then probably scale it to different parts other parts of the world. So definitely, we have plans. We have also we are also in discussion with Microsoft, especially if you are aware of Microsoft PowerUp program for Microsoft Power Platform that we are already delivering some workshops there. So we are in the discussion with Microsoft to maybe collaborate, and partner on that side as well.

Absolutely. And on that note, so if there's partners that are listening and they wanna get involved, they wanna support, they, you know, they wanna help, you know, with that with that mission and that effort of KAISPE Academy. What are ways that partners, can can get involved?

Yeah. Sure. So they can actually visit our website, which is kaispe.academy. They will they will find all the information, all the contact information. They can visit our LinkedIn page. It's a dedicated page for KAISPE Academy. There is a direct registration form that they can share with other candidates, in their professional network. And finally, they can directly reach out to me, as I'm directly leading this, CSR effort.

Okay. Excellent. Excellent. Well, really appreciate you sharing that. Thank you. You know, as we wrap up, so I know I wanna just leave with our listeners ways, that they can reach out and connect with you directly.

Yeah. So we have the corporate website, www.kaispe.com. That's the best way, to reach out to us. Then we have the LinkedIn page, and couple of other social media page. We have Twitter handle as well and Facebook page as well. So, definitely there are different ways to reach out to us. We have a email address that we typically give to our partners and customers. Super easy, info@kaispe.com. If they have any queries, if they need any support, any advice, they must feel free to reach out.

Excellent. Nice. And we'll have include all those links to the web page, LinkedIn, the email address, as well as the academy, and even some of the offers that you have in AppSource that folks can really benefit from. We'll have all those direct links in the show notes below, for easy access for our listeners. Once again, Imran, this was great. Thank you so much for your time, and enjoy the rest of your day.

Thank you, Anthony. Thank you, Rudy. It was really nice talking to you guys. I really enjoyed that. Thank you so much. Have a nice day.

Wow, Rudy. That was a really great episode. I really appreciate Imran for getting on and sharing. I know there were several key things that I took away, you know, from listening, and then just hearing him him share his story. I know specifically, you know, as a successful ISV, just, how he shared his rules of engagement, in working, you know, with partners, just the importance of, you know, the of several of the things that are nontechnical in nature.

Yeah. You know, kind of going along with, what you just mentioned. One of the one of the things that that I took away from this was, you know, the importance of partnering and how any type of partner, in this case, an an ISV brought to the table that brought a significant amount of work for their partners. So, an ISV is highly specialized in developing products and and bringing those to the marketplace. And they brought a partner.

You know, the other thing that I really enjoyed, that Imran shared about is just, you know, once again, as a, you know, as as an ISP, they've got a lot of technical, you know, expertise, you know, in these Microsoft technologies. But how they're utilizing that with, the KAISPE Academy and helping, you know, youth in, you know, skilling up basically in the Microsoft technologies. And I know he started that as a CSR, you know, initiative. It just, you know, using, you know, their expertise, their connections and experiences to provide technical education to those who, you know, don't necessarily have those kind of opportunities and access, but they're bringing that level of access and opportunity, you know, to these folks, so they can then, you know, help them and and really change then the trajectory of their lives. So I I was really inspired by that, and I really hope, you know, partners who are interested in similar such things look to reach out to Imran to help kind of accelerate, you know, and see how they can get involved in that mission.

Absolutely. It's a it's a very noble undertaking. And it's, again, one of the core principles of being a good partner is education. Education is very important, and that'll help you grow your your future work workforce as well, which we need to do. Alright.