“D+A brought a deep understanding of Microsoft field roles and partner communities along with experience with Microsoft processes, systems, and programs. This made all the difference in ensuring that my project ‘landed’ correctly in the field.”

—Operations Effectiveness Manager, Microsoft

“D+A is easy to work with, and has top notch people that create state-of-the-art training solutions. D+A worked well with our specific product knowledge and with our subject matter experts.”

—Senior Project Manager, Microsoft

“We’ve never had business scorecard target audits with this level of depth and richness at this point in the process. We’ve never been able to get updates to the reports on the timeline planned for these. I’m pretty stoked about the results.”

—Director, Microsoft

what we've done
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Optimizing a business scorecard planning

business goals

A multi-national client conducted annual scorecard planning where the process was not clearly documented or followed. With personnel turnover, it was difficult to improve the process year over year (YoY).

solution

Daves+Associates designed a structured process to identify tasks, deliverables, dependencies, roles and responsibilities, tools and techniques, and timelines for each phase. To support the process, we created a SharePoint site aligned to the phases of the process to enable the v-team to view key contacts and access meeting presentations, relevant field and corporate communications and documentation, and more. This SharePoint site was used by every corporate organization with a customer-facing role to generate scorecards and targets across the entire business.

impact

The engagement resulted in a more efficient process in which team members were better aligned and connected to all other groups. The team acknowledged YoY improvement in achieving deadlines, improved quality of metric definitions, and reduced time spent by the v-team in building out their scorecard.

Comprehensive retail sales curriculum helps launch a new product

business goals

A large multi-national client wanted a curriculum model for their retail sales professionals to support a new product launch. They wanted to incorporate a motivational model that rewarded learners based on their demonstrated knowledge and skills, and use a variety of instructional strategies and media to promote retention and transfer of skills back to the job.

solution

Daves+Associates designed and developed a curriculum that included online training and instructor-led workshops that supported demonstration, practice, role plays, and coaching. The curriculum also included online assessments, printed job aids, and mobile modules that were used in the retail store as a reminder of key selling points. The curriculum focused not only on the sales audience, but on their management to reinforce and coach skill sets. A reward point model was put in place to recognize achievement.

impact

This curriculum was able to reach a larger audience more quickly than instructional methods they had used in the past. The audience was trained prior to product availability, ensuring a strong launch effort.

Certifying business partners through a comprehensive accreditation program

business goals

A world-wide technology corporation wanted an accreditation program that identified and rewarded qualified partners who could sell one or more of the client’s solutions to customers.

solution

Daves+Associates began this project designing a sales competency framework, a guide for the development of sales and marketing assessments, and QA checklists used by test writers and Subject Matter Expert reviewers. This multi-year effort also included communication collateral, management process documents, reports, and an award framework. Assessments were localized into six additional languages and we managed that process, end to end. To manage the volume of assessments, we developed a relational database used to create online courses and aid in publishing efforts.

impact

Within this framework, our team oversaw the development of over 50 assessments that were ultimately taken by more than 10,000 individuals over several years to build out and skill-up our client’s partner network.

Arming our client’s sales force with the right tools at the right time

business goals

The client wanted to give their sales force access to the right resources and tools when they were needed.

solution

Daves+Associates designed and developed online job aids that enabled the sales force to deepen their product and services expertise, recognize opportunities, create a pipeline, and close sales faster. The deliverables were done in the context of sales scenarios and described how each solution could solve real-world challenges and reveal opportunities to initiate customer conversations.

impact

Ultimately, these tools helped to drive the client’s value-added services’ sales, and help the client reach a broader sales audience, recognize opportunities faster, and build a stronger pipeline.

Orchestrating communications across a division with numerous workflows

business goals

The client had no centralized process for intake and management of a large volume of internal and partner communications. This volume of work across multiple teams was handled in email and text messages, making it difficult to prioritize requests and track their status.

solution

Daves+Associates designed a work flow tracking tool that accepted requests, enabled management to sort and prioritize requests, and tracked status and blockers. This tool is now the primary work intake tool across a set of teams.

impact

This tool has created major efficiencies across teams. Within the first nine months of use, close to 800 separate projects were managed within the tool. Moreover, the tool continues to generate insights that help improve work flows and inform priorities.

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business goals

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solution

impact

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business goals

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solution

impact

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business goals

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solution

impact

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business goals

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solution

impact

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what we've done
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