Why being part of the Microsoft’s President’s Club is a big deal

We are pleased to announce that Open Door Technology has been included in Microsoft’s 2015 President’s Club. This is an exciting time for us as this achievement is difficult to obtain and one that doesn’t happen every year. It is personally very pleasing to see our staff gain recognition for all of the hard work done throughout the year.

For those of who don’t know about Microsoft’s President’s Club, it is a program to recognize the highest performing Microsoft Dynamics partners who are acknowledged by Microsoft for exceptional levels of total revenue or customer adds while growing their revenue from year to year. It can be a tool for customers or business partners, existing or prospective, who are trying to determine the Microsoft Dynamics partner that best fits their needs. It is different and unrelated to Gold competency certifications available from Microsoft as each one has its own value and limitations.

President’s Club is a useful for being a rough indicator that a partner is committed to the Microsoft Dynamics product line and has experienced significant success in the last Microsoft fiscal year, which ends on June 30th. Traditionally, it has represented the top 5% or so of Microsoft Dynamics partners, so it is not a trivial achievement. What it doesn’t do is provide any guarantee of the quality of services or software provided to customers as there is no element of customer satisfaction other than presumably in the long-term a partner with low customer satisfaction is unlikely to be able to consistently achieve President’s Club status. It does require either a Silver or Gold certification in a particular competency such as ERM (Enterprise Resource Management), which does contain elements of both sales achievement and customer satisfaction. It is, however, achievable by a much higher percentage of the partners, at one point over 50% for Gold, which renders it less useful in identifying high achievers. President’s Club status can also be extremely difficult to achieve consistently as it requires an increase in sales each year. If the partner has an exceptional year or is caught in a struggling economy or industry, it is extremely unlikely they will make President’s Club in the succeeding year, which may be no fault of their own. Gold certification is generally easily attainable each year for qualified partners, regardless of the economy or sales cycles.

So if someone is looking for a high achieving Microsoft Dynamics partner with some guarantee of customer satisfaction, it is best to consider both President’s Club and a Gold certification in the required competency.

By Malcolm Roach, President of Open Door Technology