Sub-Zero Group, Inc., based in Madison, Wis., and maker of the Sub-Zero, Wolf, and Cove family of brands, had accumulated a disparate collection of tools over time to facilitate orders for its network of dealers and distributors. This collection included multiple portals for sales and service, custom apps, and a sequence of time-consuming manual processes.
The legacy patchwork, 20 years old, made support and modifications increasingly difficult. Sub-Zero leaders wanted to elevate the external partner experience to current enterprise standards.
“We knew that to engage our partners with the same polished feel our consumers get, and we needed modern architecture we could scale and support,” said Scott Grosse, IT Manager at Sub-Zero Group. “That meant simplifying to a few key tech stacks and taking advantage of native capability instead of rebuilding everything custom.”
At the same time, Sub-Zero was rolling out a new ERP solution for distributor e-commerce, thereby heightening the need for a seamless and secure platform for partners to conduct business.
Pains & Gains
Pains
- The legacy service and sales portals were hard to support
- Manual retail handoffs caused funnel friction
- Fragmented tools and custom code prevented scalability
Gains
- Single partner portal on Power Pages with single sign-on
- Showroom to dealer handoffs tracked, alerted, and tied to orders
- Data-driven territory management drives improved partner performance
Ambition: One front door for sales, service, and marketing partners
Sub-Zero envisioned a centralized business portal — a single point of entry with role-based access — that unifies sales, marketing, service, and operational data, thereby improving the experiences of dealers and distributors. The portal was delivered through phased Dynamics 365 releases, which provided lower risk and faster value.
“The power of Microsoft’s platform for us is our ability to share Dataverse data across CRM and Power Pages,” Grosse said. “Internal users get one screen inside Dynamics; external partners get one screen on the website. It’s a seamless, shared process we’ve never been able to do, and now we can keep building on it.”
Action: Dynamics 365 + Power Pages
New Dynamic designed and built the portal using Microsoft Power Pages. Leveraging the natural integration with Dynamics 365 / Dataverse and integrating the portal with Sub-Zero’s new ERP system and identity management for single sign-on were key. This also helped ensure a smooth cutover, which was crucial to maintaining commerce and cash flow.
“We had to keep the legacy portal alive while turning on the new CRM solution,” Grosse said. “New Dynamic went back, rewrote code, and integrated the old .NET app into Dynamics so we had no downtime. That really proved they didn’t just know Dynamics, they knew database work, Azure integration, and sound overall partner portal architecture.”
Knowledge and execution were critical, but culture and communication were also significant factors, according to Grosse.
“Culturally and technically, New Dynamic was the right fit for us,” Grosse said. “We needed a partner that would plug into our agile process, scope with a deep understanding of data and application cohesion, and act like an extension of our team. New Dynamic did exactly that.”
As Technical Lead for Sub-Zero’s CRM team, Brian Hale oversees a group of developers and analysts responsible for maintaining and enhancing CRM systems, coordinating across IT and business stakeholders to ensure projects deliver long-term value.
His role on the partner portal initiative was to align priorities, prevent bottlenecks, and anticipate future needs. Hale credited New Dynamic’s cross-industry perspective and critical thinking with helping Sub-Zero avoid short-term fixes and make smarter long-term choices.
“Diversity of thought is incredibly valuable,” Hale said. “New Dynamic brought ideas from different industries that helped us step back and ask, ‘What’s the smartest way to solve this—not just for now, but for the future?’ They’ve been true thought partners, bringing creativity, transparency, and a breadth of experience that really sets them apart from others.”
Grosse agreed that the New Dynamic team stood out for its expertise across Dynamics and Azure; provided excellent documentation (technical design docs, data dictionaries, integration workflow maps, internal wikis); and delivered consultative guidance that truly fits the needs and functions.
Outcomes: Closing retail handoff leakage
Because Sub-Zero doesn’t sell direct, showrooms nurture consumers and then hand off warm opportunities to dealers. Previously, that handoff happened via email or phone, an obvious source of funnel leakage.
With the new portal built on Dynamics 365 and integrated with the ERP system, dealers can now view showroom handoffs, receive alerts, update status, and track gamified win/loss results.
“We can tie quote-to-order at the dealer level and initiate dealer reporting and auditing,” said Grosse. “It helps us close leakage, hold dealers accountable, and even reconfigure territories with real data instead of gut feel.”
Scalability has also been future-proofed. Sub-Zero interacts with 10,000 – 15,000 partners across sales, service, and marketing, and that audience is growing. Identity and role-based access, and the option to link to the ERP system, maintain a coherent user experience while accelerating service and delivery.
“Driven from a single sign-on, it feels like one experience even if a user navigates to other applications or ERP sites/pages,” Grosse said. “That was the mission, and we accomplished it.”
Sub-Zero is already seeing results: one secure, role-based entry point unifies partner and internal CRM processes; showroom-to-dealer handoffs are tracked and tied to SAP orders; and dealer performance is more visible than ever.
“We couldn’t ask for a better partner than New Dynamic,” Grosse said. “They fit our agile model, asked great questions, and kept us honest about when to go native vs. custom. From interim bridging to go-live, they helped us move fast without sacrificing architecture.”
“We finally have a cohesive, extensible way to serve partners and the internal teams who support them,” Grosse said. “And we’re already seeing the impact: better visibility, fewer leaks, and data that helps everyone perform better.”