Microsoft Project Server 2010Partner Solution Case Study

British Software Consultancy Uses Project Management Competency to Build Business

OverviewCountry or Region: United KingdomIndustry: Professional services—IT services

Partner ProfileContent and Code is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner specializing in collaboration. Based in London,, it has 115 employees and in 2010 had revenues of £10 million (U.S.$16 million).

Business SituationThe company wanted to build on its expertise in SharePoint technology to expand its business and gain additional revenues by offering more services to existing clients.

SolutionContent and Code demonstrated its enterprise project management capabilities by attaining the Gold Project and Portfolio Management competency in the Microsoft Partner Network.

Benefits Increases sales to existing clients Creates more value for customers Wins new business Earns bigger profits

“We’ve used the Gold competency in Project and Portfolio Management to build a very valuable business, approaching 10 percent of our revenue, from a practice that’s less than two years old.”

Tim Wallis, Cofounder and CEO, Content and Code

Content and Code, a UK software consultancy experienced in Microsoft SharePoint technology, wanted to expand its business. Content and Code decided to pursue a Gold Project and Portfolio Management competency from the Microsoft Partner Network. Content and Code is using its new enterprise project management capabilities to sell more services to existing clients, helping those clients achieve greater success. Content and Code is also winning new clients, including some that go on to contract for additional SharePoint engagements. The firm’s project management engagements are more profitable because targeting existing clients is less expensive and less competitive than seeking to acquire new ones. The result is that Content and Code has quickly increased its project management business to £750,000 (U.S.$1.2 million), which approaches 10 percent of the company’s revenues.

SituationContent and Code is a software consultancy specializing in helping organizations improve their collaborative capabilities. Headquartered in London, England, the company has 115 employees, and its 2010 revenues were £10 million (U.S.$16 million).

Founded in 2001, Content and Code has been a Microsoft Certified Partner since 2003 and a Gold Certified Partner since 2005. “Microsoft technology has really been key for us,” says Tim Wallis, Co-founder and CEO of Content and Code. “Once we decided to focus on Microsoft SharePoint technology, we achieved 100 percent year-on-year growth for many years.” In July 2010, Content and Code was recognized as the Microsoft U.K. Partner of the Year. In July 2011 it was one of two finalists for the Microsoft Worldwide Partner of the Year in Enterprise Content Management, an award it also won in 2010.

For the last several years, the company has been aware of additional business opportunities related to project management. Wallis says, “In 2003, we even did a couple of engagements involving Microsoft Office Project Server 2003—but we didn’t adopt it as a business focus or practice.”

However, in November 2008, Content and Code leadership sat down to ponder the most effective way to pursue continued growth. “We could have tried to break into a new market, selling to new customers, but that’s risky,” Wallis says. “We realized that talking to our existing customers about additional services was a safer strategy to expand our business.”

Content and Code needed a way to increase the value it could provide to customers through additional services that would build on its SharePoint expertise.SolutionIn January 2009, Content and Code decided to expand its service offerings to include project management solutions. “Microsoft project management software, even in earlier versions such as Office Project Server 2003 and Office Project Server 2007, has used many of the same methods as SharePoint technology to manage risks and issues and to associate notes and documents,” says Wallis. (This similarity increased dramatically with Microsoft Project Server 2010, which builds directly on the business collaboration platform of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, a product Content and Code knew inside-and-out.) “So it was a logical progression. We essentially already had half the skill set because Project Server relies on SharePoint as its foundation. And many of our employees were very interested in expanding into this area.”

One key step in building the company’s expertise was to implement the solution internally. “We used Project Server 2007 to run all of our own projects,” Wallis says. “We spent six to twelve months getting up to speed, so that we can tell clients, ‘This is how we run our business, and we think you can run your business this way too.’” The internal work involved developing and refining business processes in enterprise project management. For example, Content and Code needed to map decision areas and refine its implementation of the software to meet its business objectives. When Project Server 2010, Microsoft Project Professional 2010, and SharePoint

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Server 2010 became available, the company upgraded.

Another key step was to hire a project management lead and provide training for employees to become qualified in the solution area and the technology. “We had a very talented SharePoint consultant with skills in the business processes of project management, especially the Agile and PRINCE2 methodologies,” says Wallis. “We sent him to Australia to be trained on Project Server 2010 and formally hired him.”

An essential role of the project management lead is to understand the project management methodologies used in the market that Content and Code serves. “We see Project Server 2010 as only one component of a successful delivery,” says Carl Dalton, Enterprise Project Management Practice Lead at Content and Code. “We also help clients integrate their project management environment into Project Server 2010 through provision of document templates, workflows, process guidance, and insightful business information and transitional support activities. This is where we see our position in the marketplace as unique, because we understand how collaborative working though SharePoint solutions can add value to an organization, and we see no reason why Project teams can’t see the same benefits.”

In August 2010, Content and Code began pursuing Microsoft Gold certification in the Project and Portfolio Management competency of the revamped Microsoft Partner Network. It worked with Microsoft to develop a Partner Solution Plan detailing

how the two companies would work together. “Microsoft gave us lots of good advice, asking all the right questions we needed to think about,” Wallis says. “Microsoft also gave great off-the-record advice, helping us choose battles that we could win rather than competing with other partners for the same piece of work.”

Content and Code achieved the competency in May 2011. “The new Microsoft Partner Network makes a lot of sense to clients once you explain it to them,” Wallis says. “When certification applied to the company as a whole, you couldn’t tell if a Gold Certified Partner was good at networking or security or building websites. But now we use our competencies to show clients, ‘Here is what we’re really good at!’ Our having one or more competencies gives a richer, more specific guarantee to the client.”

BenefitsContent and Code is using its Gold Project and Portfolio Management competency to sell more services to existing clients, creating value for its customers. It is also winning new business and increasing its profits and revenues.

Increases Sales to Existing ClientsWith its new Gold Project and Portfolio Management competency, Content and Code is increasing the scope of work it does for existing clients. Content and Code has had eight project management engagements since achieving the competency. Six of those eight have been with existing clients. Wallis says, “Rather than investing in expensive marketing campaigns, we’re leveraging our existing client base, the trust and goodwill we have

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built up. Once we have delivered a SharePoint project, the Project conversion is a natural next step.”

For example, Content and Code had worked on SharePoint engagements with Shop Direct, an online retailer and home-shopping company. “We just started talking to our contacts at Shop Direct about how we had achieved this new Gold competency in Project and Portfolio Management,” says Wallis, “and because they loved our work, they said, ‘Let’s do it.’ They already had a project management proposal on the table, with several other suppliers short-listed, but we won that work because of our previous relationship.”

Similarly, Diamond Light Source, a scientific research facility, expanded to project management after successful SharePoint engagements. Maura Launchbury, Programme Manager at Diamond Light Source, says, “Project team members are now able to raise risks independently as they occur and can buy into project ownership more effectively. Plus, because the data is live and constantly updated, reports from senior management are generated with the click of a button.” The project saved Diamond Light Source four days per month on reporting, while improving the accuracy of the reported data.

Creates More Value for CustomersThanks to its increased capabilities, Content and Code can create more value for its clients. “What’s wonderful about Project Server 2010 is that you can put together a compelling and logical business case for clients, showing gains in efficiency and risk management,” says Wallis. “You can ask

clients if they know how much they’re spending, what their people are doing, if they’ve allocated the right people to the right jobs—and they can’t answer those questions. So they quickly realize the need.”

For example, in the case of Shop Direct, Wallis says, “If we hadn’t developed the competency in Project and Portfolio Management, not only would we not have gotten these revenues—we also would not have had this opportunity to help this customer even more. We’re taking a greater wallet share and also effectively becoming a more trusted advisor, helping our customer in more ways than one.”

Wins New BusinessFor Content and Code, achieving the Gold competency in Project and Portfolio Management has led to new clients, in addition to expanding work for existing clients.

Wallis says, “Enstar Group and NG Bailey have been brand-new clients for us, where our first engagement has involved project management. At Enstar, after we did £100,000 (U.S.$160,000) of project management work, we started a SharePoint engagement. Without the competency in Project and Portfolio Management, we might never have had the opportunity to win the SharePoint piece.”

Increases ProfitsNot only is Content and Code getting more work, but that work is also more profitable. “Because our focus with the competency in Project and Portfolio Management is on selling to existing clients, we have a low cost of sales,” Wallis says. “A lower cost of

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“What’s wonderful about Project Server 2010 is that you can put together a compelling and logical business case for clients, showing gains in efficiency and risk management.”

Tim Wallis, Cofounder and CEO, Content and Code

client acquisition makes engagements more profitable.”

The low cost of sales comes in part because Content and Code does not need to engage in as many competitive proposals. “Often, we’re helping companies identify the need for project management, and then we fill that need, which means that we’re not openly competing with companies that have experience with Project Server 2010,” Wallis says.

Furthermore, billing rates can be slightly higher. “Implementing project management solutions is a slightly more specialized skill than straight SharePoint work,” Wallis says. “So when you have the Gold competency in Project and Portfolio Management, you provide greater value to the enterprise.” Finally, these engagements can easily become ongoing work and offer greater opportunities for attached services, where a Content and Code employee works onsite for several years. “Project management often requires quite a lot of training and cultural change,” Wallis says.

Builds Revenues All the new work has expanded Content and Code revenues. “We’ve used the Gold competency in Project and Portfolio Management to build a very valuable business, approaching 10 percent of our revenue, from a practice that’s less than two years old,” says Wallis.

Indeed, the competency has helped Content and Code get an early jump in the

developing UK enterprise project management marketplace. Wallis says, “The market for specialized Project Server 2010 partners is quite fragmented. But it’s growing, and we hope to be among the leaders for many years to come.”

Microsoft Project Server 2010Microsoft Project Server 2010 brings together the business collaboration platform services of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 with structured execution capabilities to provide flexible work management solutions. Project Server 2010 unifies project and portfolio management to help organizations align resources and investments with business priorities, gain control across all types of work, and visualize performance through powerful dashboards.

For more information about Microsoft Project Server 2010, go to:www.microsoft.com/project/2010

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For More InformationFor more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers in the United States and Canada who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:www.microsoft.com

For more information about Content and Code products and services, call 020 7101 0930 or visit the website at: www.contentandcode.com

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Document published June 2011

Software and Services Microsoft Server Product Portfolio− Microsoft Project Server 2010− Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010

Microsoft Project Professional 2010