#47 – Success Recruiting Software Companies to the Cloud

I was pleased to have Warren Wilbe, who leads Microsoft’s U.S. efforts recruiting Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) join my podcast to discuss Microsoft's efforts to recruit software companies to its Azure Cloud. Warren's team of Partner Business Managers work with key ISVs across the United States as part of Microsoft's One Commercial Partner organization, or OCP.

In this episode Warren* and I discuss his teams focus, how he gauges success, how partners can engage with he and the team, and what makes a great partner.

If you are an ISV that is a Microsoft Partner or want to learn how to become one - you will find this episode of particular interest.

Books Warren has  read or gifted often - Phule's Company - Robert Asprin. 
How to reach Warren - [email protected]

*About Warren - Prior to joining Microsoft, Warren spent 18 years working as a technical leader and architect across the U.S. and Canada with various ISVs, primarily software companies focused on providing ERP Solutions.

Warren lives in Colorado Springs with his wife and five children. When he isn’t enjoying time with his family or exploring technology, you’ll probably find him reading science fiction/fantasy or cruising on one of his motorcycles.

You can listen to the podcast or view the trascript below. You can also find Ultimate Guide to Partnering on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, Google Play, Player FM, other Android podcast players.

As with each of my interview and articles, I appreciate your feedback. You can reach out to me on Linked In, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram or on email at [email protected]. You can also review this podcast by going to iTunes and searching “Ultimate Guide to Partnering” and clicking on the album art and hitting the rating link. This helps others find the podcast.

This episode of the podcast is sponsored by Cloud Wave Partners.

TRANSCRIPT OF THE INTERVIEW

Warren. Welcome to the podcast.

Warren Wilbee:              Hey Vince. Thanks for having me on.

Vince:                               It is great to have you on. You lead a team focused on helping independent software vendors, ISV's, and are very focused on recruiting great companies to the Microsoft as your platform. I'm excited to have you join today to tell our listeners about your business, what you look for in great partnerships, what you're seeing happening in this age of rapid change, and your career journey.

Warren Wilbee:              I look forward to the discussion.

Vince:                               Can you spend a few minutes explaining your role in the Microsoft OCP organization and where your organization is focused?

Warren Wilbee:              OCP, let's decode that to begin with. OCP stands for One Commercial Partner. It was an organization that was created this last summer when several different organizations that all had been focusing on different partner types and sometimes often quite frankly, a little bit of overlap, came together to present a cleaner face to our partner community and to help us serve them better. My part of that very important organization is to focus on independent software vendors. My team focuses on recruiting new software companies to the Microsoft platform and also we have a large swath of partners that we have dealt with over the years that we still provide service.

Vince:                               You work with some organizations that are new to the cloud or new to Microsoft. How do you gauge success with your partners?

Warren Wilbee:              My organization exists to make our partners successful. When we start working with a partner, one of the things that we like to do with them is to help understand their vision, their mission, where they're at and where they're going and redefine success largely on how we help them meet those objectives using our platform. The thing is that we hold ourselves accountable to internally our twofold, we hold ourself accountable for the number of n...