Running an ISV Successfully with Alistair Dickinson

FULL SHOW NOTES
https://podcast.nz365guy.com/79

• Personal, career and business background 
• Current focus/projects as ISV 
• Thoughts on outsourced vs in-house staff business model, building a business in a remote island and regenerating the Isle of Wight 
• Journey to deciding the position that they’re going to take in the market 
• Thoughts on building what customers want 
• Dealing with struggles that ISVs have no control over 
• Most challenging aspects in the first 3 years of starting an ISV and having a bumpy start 
• Challenges they have had to solve and how the challenges have changed over time in relation to customer base 
• Marketing the benefits of their solution so that it attracted customers from around the world 
• Raising capital and how to go about it when scaling the business 
• Addressing market segmentation 
• Microsoft partnership – what it means, dealing with changes, etc. 
• Software publisher vs ISV 
• Advice to ISVs and how they should engage with Microsoft 
• Using the partner list and engaging with the Partner channel 

Books 

• The Essential Business Guide to GDPR: A business owner’s perspective to understanding & implementing GDPR
• The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social Media, Online Video, Mobile Applications, Blogs, Newsjacking, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly – 

Resources Mentioned  

• MyCRM
• Partner Network 

Microsoft 365 Copilot Adoption is a Microsoft Press book for leaders and consultants. It shows how to identify high-value use cases, set guardrails, enable champions, and measure impact, so Copilot sticks. Practical frameworks, checklists, and metrics you can use this month. Get the book: https://bit.ly/CopilotAdoption

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Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith