Nimble, headquartered in Santa Monica, California, provides an intelligent and simple-to-use social sales and marketing customer relationship management (CRM) system for its customers.

Working with Microsoft, Nimble’s CRM solution integrates into the business applications and tools users already leverage daily, including Office 365, Teams, Edge, Power BI, and Dynamics 365 systems built using Azure.

Building a scalable solution

First launching in 2009 (pre-Azure and Microsoft Office 365), Nimble’s CRM app was first built on Amazon Web Services and sold through the Google Apps ecosystem. The solution was quickly embraced by small teams looking for an innovative CRM that could integrate into both their client and social networks. As those small teams began to flourish and expand into larger businesses, they realized that making the shift from Google’s G Suite (Google’s collection of office management applications) to Microsoft 365 was essential to accommodate their growth. Nimble knew to keep up with its growing base of customers, they needed to offer a solution that could scale along with them.

Nimble eventually switched to the Azure platform and engaged with the Microsoft channel partner community, which offered the technical and transactional support Nimble needed to make the transition and better serve its customers. By porting its CRM solution to Azure, Nimble was able to leverage the platform’s Common Data Services while integrating with solutions such as Power BI to add further value for their customers.

The move to Azure enabled Nimble to transform its simple CRM into a scalable team-management solution that worked seamlessly with the familiar Microsoft products that customers already knew. Following its move to Azure, Nimble also needed to align its sales and marketing strategies to match.
Rather than growing sales and support internally, Nimble chose to take advantage of the global reach of Microsoft to take their solution to market. In doing so, the Microsoft channel partner community became Nimble’s global team in the field.

Partnering for promotion

Nimble partnered with Microsoft GTM services and was able to quickly gain widespread adoption among distributors and partners in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Northern Europe, and South America. Using Nimble, these resellers were given another solution they could offer customers—one that eased customers into the value Dynamics 365 could offer.
In addition to fostering relationships with distribution partners and resellers, GTM Services helped Nimble develop co-marketing programs with its distribution partners and launch the Modern Workplace 365 Academy. This webinar series for cloud solution providers (CSPs) offers partners the opportunity to use Nimble in combination with Office 365 to develop new digital practices while bringing in modern sales and marketing practices.
GTM Services also helped Nimble develop the Modern Workplace 365 Project, a blog series, social conversation, and webinar series devoted to helping small business teams thrive in business environments driven by cloud, social, mobile, big data, and AI. The blog series offers a platform for industry leaders to share their perspectives with small businesses—with participants including Microsoft executives, channel partner leaders, CSPs, sales and marketing experts, leadership and customer experience experts, industry analysts, and the customers themselves.

Seeing improved results

Partnering with Microsoft and working with Microsoft partners has provided a massive boost to Nimble’s business. After moving to Azure and working with the Microsoft partner community, Nimble has seen its net-new accounts increase by 20 percent and has grown its average account size by 22 percent. Current clients have also recognized the benefits, as customer lifetime value has grown by 43 percent with retention rates improving by 25 percent.