Former Microsoft executives have a very common story to tell. Most of them worked a long time at the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant to realize they reached a point in their careers that they needed to do something different and leave to form Internet start ups, or become the CEO of a smaller silicon valley high tech company or cash in their stock options and buy the Professional Bowlers Tour. The following is not one of those stories, says Jeff Sampson, the president, CEO and co-founder, of Kineticsware on the reason why he and fellow founder Richard Barnett left Microsoft late last year.
The two men believe there is a gap in the market Kineticsware can fill, which Microsoft and its Dynamics AX portfolio of products created.
Both Sampson and Barnett worked on Dynamics and Axapta as the global director of business and channel management and director of product marketing for the product line respectively.
According to Sampson, Microsoft treated it as an Internet start up and with that approach hired executives from start-ups, which Sampson and Barnett had experience in.
Sampson and Barnett started Kineticsware to help accelerate the adoption of Microsoft Dynamics, CRM and Axapta now AX. They believe the market for this product line will grow eight to ten times the market rate, but few outside the Microsoft ecosystem know about it.
The target area for Kineticsware are the more than 20,000 Microsoft partners around the world. Sampson said that all of these partners have several competencies and their own comfort zone.
“Microsoft needs to help in this white space to build a global software business with all the recently introduced functionality and do it in such as way as to grow the number of Microsoft certified professionals and increase that skill set,” Sampson said.
Kineticsware has already signed up two Canadian partners, Habanero and Sierra Systems. The company has a total of five partnerships and is looking to triple that by the end of the year before it focuses on the European market.
“With Habanero, you have a partner with a solution based on Sharepoint and they have improved the usability of the app. But, they are just getting started building a Microsoft Dynamics practice. They are stalled with the support they get from Microsoft. We work with these kinds of partners who have a different core competency and support them with demand generation, pre and post sales support, training and work with them on a repeatable business model,” Barnett said.
The gap Sampson and Barnett are trying to exploit starts where Microsoft, product overviews, support and marketing collateral end and where a partner gains knowledge of a particular industry.
Sampson said Kineticsware teaches a partner all about the apparel and textile industries for example. The offering drills down into supply portals, eCommerce portals, procurement and how to generate billable resources.
“If you were just certified by Microsoft to become a partner who would you call to get the knowledge of global field sales, demand generation, qualified professionals to deliver perfect customer services. These are all pangenetic questions. If you can’t answer these questions you do not have a business. But, even with this disconnect the business is growing at eight to ten times the market,” Sampson said.
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