Accelerating PROS’ ability to reach customers
“Through partnering with Microsoft, we have identified millions of dollars in sales pipeline value and will continue to invest in the Microsoft relationship based on the strong internal rate of return,” said Jones, who also noted that engaging Microsoft co-selling resources has helped shorten PROS’ sales cycles. “Microsoft’s investment in co-marketing and co-selling has accelerated PROS’ ability to reach and inform prospective customers of the benefits of pricing optimization in the cloud.”
Jones also said participation in the Microsoft programs are proving to be well worth the effort. “PROS participates in dozens of Microsoft industry events and customer executive briefings, yielding hundreds of marketing leads each year,” he said. PROS also taps into marketing programs made available to Gold Partners with Microsoft, such as content syndication programs and online campaigns. “These marketing activities yield initial leads, which get winnowed down to qualified opportunities, and then mapped to Microsoft enterprise sales teams,” Jones said.
Increased efficiency, reduced operational costs
One joint engagement that PROS and Microsoft sales teams worked together on was for a multi-billion-dollar food production company who sought to improve their approach to providing customer pricing and quotes. Their existing process was time-intensive and inefficient, and resulted in margin leakage and missed opportunities. They wanted to transform their pricing capability by improving pricing analysis, optimization and administration.
PROS deployed PROS SellingPro Smart CPQ and PricingPro Guidance and Control, which are built on top of Microsoft Azure. This enabled the customer to maximize their margins on every deal, increase their selling and quoting efficiency, reduce their operational costs, and manage the financial risks associated with differing pricing strategies. The customer experienced immediate improvements and is on track to capture $20 million in incremental revenue in 2017.
Expanding into new divisions
By partnering with Microsoft, PROS was also able to expand more easily into other divisions of the customer’s business. Microsoft Azure was positioned as a strategic platform, and the PROS solutions were the first mission critical deployments for the customer on Azure. “Because of our partnership with Microsoft, PROS is able to access customer technical decision makers and better position pricing optimization in context of customers’ broader priorities,” Jones said.