Accelerating growth with the Microsoft commercial marketplace
After spending a couple of decades in technology go-to-market, I think it’s pretty safe to say the way products are purchased and “sold” is broken.
In fact, the pandemic actually proved it.
Cloud Marketplaces have proven to be a key step in the B2B buying and selling evolution.
Suddenly, gone were the days of the “six-legged” sales call with an account executive, a sales engineer, and a regional director / vice president. Gone were the days of the classic proof of concept. Don’t forget–fancy dinners and 18 holes on the course–yep, those were gone too. Yet, software companies flourished, innovation flourished, and ISVs continued to deliver great customer outcomes.
It’s not that we all pivoted overnight. Over the past 5-10 years, many advancements positioned the industry to not only to survive, but to thrive in uncertain times. For example, Cloud Marketplaces, consumption pricing, product led growth, and more have all supported the way buyers want to discover, explore, try, and even purchase solutions without the vendor interaction that was previously deemed as necessary.
Tackle has been leading the charge when it comes to getting ISVs listed, transacting, and scaling on the Cloud Marketplaces, but we’re about to do even more. I am thrilled to share that today, at Microsoft Inspire 2022, we announced a strategic partnership between Microsoft and Tackle to accelerate ISV success with Microsoft commercial marketplace.
Cloud Marketplaces have proven to be a key step in the B2B buying and selling evolution. Buyers are finding easier, more streamlined journeys that replicate the B2C experiences of their day-to-day lives. This desire for better experiences has landed buyers in Cloud Marketplaces for software purchases that leverage their committed cloud spend, accelerate time to value, and simplify procurement. (More on that in our State of Cloud Marketplaces Report.)
More and more, Microsoft customers want to buy on the commercial marketplace to streamline procurement, simplify contracting, eliminate additional vendor onboarding, and draw down against their Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC). To do that effectively and at scale, software buyers want to be able to select from a big catalog of solutions, and ideally one that includes the strategic suppliers they depend on today.
We have partnered with Microsoft since 2019 and with the evolution of our relationship, Tackle and Microsoft will help reduce the friction to starting and growing a Cloud go-to-market motion and a Marketplace sales channel for software sellers. Through technology innovation, business programs, financial support, and the strength of the global Microsoft ecosystem, we are excited to partner on delivering an amazing experience for sellers and buyers.
83% of buyers say they are “likely or very likely” to purchase via the Cloud Marketplaces. — Tackle’s State of Cloud Marketplaces Report
Tackle’s no code platform for Microsoft commercial marketplace allows sellers to launch, immediately sell, and grow with tools to manage a scaling Cloud Marketplace business. Our partnership opens new opportunities for ISVs and reduces financial and resource constraints, the highest barriers to getting started. We’ll work with Microsoft to make listing solutions on the commercial marketplace even easier and more automated so we can help everybody list without disrupting engineering teams and product roadmaps.
We have a strong “build with” motion with Microsoft, leveraging Microsoft APIs to develop enhanced capabilities for commercial marketplace and bring a better experience to life for all sellers through our platform. For example, Tackle and Microsoft are co-innovating on seller workflows to allow for programmatic delivery of private offers (think negotiated deal for a specific customer) to the Marketplace via Tackle, unlocking seamless scale for high-volume sellers. In fact, we have opened an Early Access Program for Tackle Offers to enable commercial marketplace publishers to streamline their direct selling motion through marketplace transactions and fulfillment.
Another aspect of our partnership I’m particularly excited about is that Microsoft and Tackle will also team up to build programs to open economic access for diverse founders including Microsoft’s longstanding commitment to Women In Cloud (WIC).
As a member of WIC and frequent speaker at their events, and as a board member to Girls In Tech, I am personally very passionate about closing the gender gap in tech. Each year the stats are roughly the same, very little (sub 5%) VC funding goes to women-founded businesses. What an amazing opportunity we have to leverage the power of the commercial marketplace to provide access to Microsoft’s worldwide customers, 90,000 solution partners, and a global salesforce of 15,000.
At Tackle, we know that Microsoft commercial marketplace is becoming an increasingly popular destination for buyers. We are thrilled to announce our strategic partnership with Microsoft and to fuel growth for software sellers.
