Microsoft Office 365
Partner Solution Case Study
Nintex Sees Market Expand with Office 365;
Expects to Boost Already-High Activation Rates
Partner: Nintex
Website: www.nintex.com
Partner Size: 200-300 employees
Country or Region: United States
Industry: Technology
Partner Profile
Nintex’s platform of software and cloud
services enables organizations to quickly
and easily automate everyday business
processes. Nintex is used by more than
5,000 public and private organizations,
including many Fortune 500, in 90
countries around the globe.
Software and Services
 Microsoft Office 365
 Nintex Workflow and Nintex Forms for
Office 365
“With Office 365, Nintex is faster for our customers to
deploy, easier and more cost-effective for them to use,
and opens new markets and new revenues for us.”
Joshua Waldo, VP, Channels & Strategy, NINTEX
Situation
When you’re a large ISV for Microsoft
SharePoint Server, and SharePoint moves to
the cloud, what do you do? That was the
position in which Nintex found itself when
Microsoft launched Office 365, and it didn’t
take long for the company to adopt the cloud
as its own strategic destination.
While Nintex saw huge opportunity in Office
365, it realized that its business model and
channels were built around the on-premises
market. Nintex had to reconsider its
commission structure for systems integration
partners to spur their success in the cloud.
In addition, it was faced with the challenge of
sustaining high activation rates in the cloud,
since the success of usage-based cloud
subscription models depend on maximum
activation.
How the Hybrid Model Works
That model gives the company’s existing
customers maximum flexibility to migrate to
the cloud at their own pace, rather than
being constrained or penalized by licensing
fees.
Under the hybrid model, customers can
acquire cloud subscriptions for an
incremental percentage over their onpremises licenses.
Hybrid Model Scenarios
The hybrid licenses cover a range of
scenarios, including
1.)
On-premises portals with some new or
migrated content in the cloud.
2.)
Cloud-based portals—e.g. extranets—
with some content kept on-premises or
in line-of-business systems, or cloudonly apps (e.g., Yammer, OneDrive)
integrated with on-premises or LOB
content.
3.)
Portals including content outside of
SharePoint, or all content in the cloud
with a customized user experience
hosted in SharePoint Server onpremises.
Solution
For more information about Microsoft
Partner success with Office 365, please
visit:
https://mspartner.microsoft.com/en/us/pa
ges/solutions/office365-profitabilityevidence.aspx
In contrast to the per-server licensing model
for its on-premises product, Nintex created a
usage-based subscription model for its
Nintex for Office 365 SaaS service. And
because many customers have hybrid onpremises/cloud environments, Nintex also
offers its cloud service as part of a hybrid
licensing model.
New Ways for Partners to Sell
In addition, Nintex's partners can continue
with a familiar, project-based approach,
providing high-value consulting to their
customers, while also generating a recurring
revenue stream from the resale of Microsoft
and Nintex cloud products. The table below
shows the mix of products and services in a
typical hybrid cloud deal, together with
available partner margins.
Partners have the opportunity to sell more
with a “land-and-expand” strategy. They can
generate incremental revenues by up-selling
and cross-selling prebuilt and repeatable
solutions.
As more workflow opportunities are identified
for ongoing customer engagements, partners
drive profit through service expansion and
recurring monthly services as they develop and
maintain these additional workflows. Other
partner benefits include lower cost of sale,
higher consultant utilization, and ultimately,
greater customer satisfaction.
Average Hybrid Cloud Deal
Component
 Nintex Workflow
for Office 365
 Nintex Forms for
Office 365
 Nintex Workflow
for SharePoint
 Nintex Forms for
SharePoint
 Nintex Mobile
Office 365
Deployment/EA
Partner
professional
services
% of
total
deal
15%
Available
Partner
Margin
30%
Driving High Activation Rates Even Higher
Nintex has always helped drive consumption
of Microsoft Office. And Nintex activation
rates have always been high because
customers typically don’t buy Nintex licenses
without having a specific idea of how those
licenses will be used.
Customers typically buy workflow through a
partner who is designing and deploying a
custom business process solution that
includes workflow—or, they buy the licenses
directly to design and deploy a custom
workflow solution on their own.
But to drive activation rates even higher,
Nintex is developing extensive go-to-market
materials for its SI partners, including a
workflow “cookbook” with an inventory of
workflows with broad market application,
prebuilt business cases, and implementation
guidance.
Benefits
 Nintex’s fastest-growing product
offering ever, with over 100% YoY
growth rate. Nintex sees major
momentum for Office 365 in 2015; expects
business for its own, related offerings to
ramp up dramatically.
 Leads to more robust and predictable
revenue growth with annual recurring
revenue share more than 50% of total
revenue.
 Expands market for workflow by
10%
75%
23%
(Advisor
deployment
fee)
45%
(estimated
gross
margin)
eliminating traditional barriers (e.g.,
hardware costs, server licensing), making
workflow more affordable.
 “Lights up” new scenarios by giving
customers the opportunity to diversify
workflow solutions on-premises, in the
cloud, cross-platform, and accessible via
mobile.
This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS
SUMMARY.
Document published June 2015
 Helps build effective, profitable partner
channel. Each dollar of Nintex product
sales generates an additional $6 in services
revenue for SI/NSI partners. Nintex is
broadening its footprint as more partners
develop repeatable solutions, generating
greater recurring revenue with less effort.