Microsoft & 9 Spokes celebrate co-sell success with BNZ
Microsoft and 9 Spokes have signed off their first Microsoft One Commercial Partner co-sell success, after snapping up Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) as their first contract.
9 Spokes, a provider of cloud software primarily designed for SMBs, enables businesses to gain a comprehensive overview of their business through s single smart dashboard.
As part of the contract, BNZ is now delivering the 9 Spokes platform to its SMB customers.
Already the software is achieving strong growth in its first month of launch. Named BNZ My Business Live, the bank reports 'excellent initial user traction' with adoption rates tracking well.
Microsoft One commercial director Sarah Bowden says it's fantastic to see 9 Spokes and BNZ achieving.
"It really highlights the power of Microsoft's Partner Network, enabling our partners to take their IP and sell with our field account teams both locally and globally," says Bowden.
"9 Spokes is a great example of an IP co-sell partner that is driving business growth through new partner to partner motions, enabling SMBs to operate more effectively and efficiently.
According to 9 Spokes, the key to early success is all down to effective collaboration and strong go-to-market activation between 9 Spokes and BNZ.
Both 9 Spokes and BNZ have been very happy with progress since the 9 Spokes SMB platform went live with BNZ last month," explains 9 Spokes CEO Adrian Grant.
"User adoption, engagement and feedback has been very pleasing and are well ahead of any first-month metrics seen to date on a 9 Spokes white label deployment.
He adds that when 9 Spokes announced its co-sell status with Microsoft, the company focused on how it had established relationships with banking clients across New Zealand, Australia, Europe, and Asia Pacific.
"We also said that we would move quickly with Microsoft to capitalise on the partnership. We're delighted to recognise the BNZ contract as the first success under our co-selling arrangement with Microsoft and look forward to announcing future contracts as a result of our deepening relationship.
As part of the One Commercial Partner program, Microsoft incentivises its sales teams to co-sell the 9 Spokes platform into key global banking communities.
The model is designed to help approved partners like 9 Spokes enter new markets, and scale quickly, by tapping into the deep customer relationships and technical expertise of Microsoft's enterprise sales teams around the world.
Grant says 9 Spokes' relationship with Microsoft is more than just co-selling, it's also about enabling technologies. "We look forward to announcing deeper technology collaborations in due course.
9 Spokes is provided under a direct model to small businesses and as a white labelled platform allowing key Banking Partners to offer 9 Spokes to their SME customers under their own brand.
