Bruce Ward

Results-driven presales professional with 25+ years experience in advising customers on digital transformation. Proven track record of leading successful marketing campaigns that drive brand awareness, increase lead generation, and boost revenue. Passionate about creating positive customer experiences and moving customers along the solution journey.

Microsoft New Commerce Experience (NCE) - combined a deep understanding of Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program with strong solution sales to jump-start recurring revenue based on annual licensing commitments. Year 1: $3M. Year 2: $6M. Maximized resulting margins through distributor negotiations, as well as positioning security and higher productivity products such as Teams Phone, Copilot, and PowerBI. 3-year effort has resulted in a run rate of $9M annual revenue with 21.5 points margin inclusive of rebates.

Presales - through initiative and self-learning, developed a deep conceptual understanding of hundreds of technical industry solutions from high tier vendors such as Microsoft, Cisco, VMware, Veeam, HPE, Citrix and dozens of others. Generated, influenced, or architected an estimated 20% ($3M annually) of all professional service opportunities annually for over a decade. Selected by Microsoft then badged as the nation's first virtual technical solution professional (VTSP) based on presales expertise (Microsoft project CAPRI). Also selected to be one of handful of Midwest partners certified in presales delivery at renowned Microsoft Training Center (MTC)

Digital Transformation - Oversaw marketing efforts to transition organization from locally known "word-of-mouth" to nation-wide "digitally relevant". This multi-year effort required engaging content (800+ blogs, infographics, videos), formalized campaigns, social media, customer offers, messaging, events, case studies, newsletters, chatbots, and website additions…all delivered as part of a cost-effective 360-degree strategy. Metrics established and monitored led to impressive results: SEO (1st page ranking on 30+ industry-relevant phrases), reach (24K+ page hits with growing time/page), increased event attendance and lead generation/conversion (10+ MQL per month).