*By Rodney Clark
The Microsoft Partner Network is made up of more than 400,000 global organizations and these partners are critical to how we deliver innovative products and services to customers around the world. This deep relationship with our partners spans more than 30 years, and in that time they have provided unique solutions across multiple industries, helping countless customers succeed in an ever-changing world. They have also played a key role in helping businesses adapt amid the pandemic. As things continue to change and evolve, we are committed to investing in and delivering what partners need to innovate, grow their business and deliver on the promise of digital transformation for customers across organizations and industries.
To continue to enable partners – and by extension their customers – to succeed, we are focused on three major areas of commitment:
- Strengthening our digital capability. We're providing well-defined guidelines and resources for our digital experiences so the partner can more easily navigate building solutions, go to market, and sell with Microsoft. By aligning partner experiences with the commercial marketplace, in Partner Center and the Microsoft Partner Network, we're making it easier for everyone to engage and collaborate.
- Deepening the technical capabilities of partners. Equipping partners to better meet customer needs, investing in and accelerating our joint capability. We're supporting partners on their readiness journeys, helping them gain advanced specializations and in-depth technical training in solution areas including business applications, Azure, and security, compliance, and identity. We specifically committed to a 250% year-over-year increase in spending in this area.
Simplifying engagement between Microsoft and our partners. We are sharing more opportunities and enhancing the commercial marketplace as well as Partner Center, making it easier for partners to engage with us and increase profitability. In July 2021, for example, we reduced our marketplace transaction fee from 20% to 3%. Through these reductions, partners can invest even more deeply in their own growth plans.
The next step
Today, as part of our investment in the cloud as a strategic lever for innovation and growth, and as a reflection of our ongoing commitment to partners, we announced that starting in October of this year, we will change the name of our program “Microsoft Partner Network" for “Microsoft Cloud Partner Program”.
This announcement is more than the naming change and reflects the continued improvement in transitioning business operations to the cloud and how Microsoft intends to support partners in the future. We align our partners' go-to-market moves with how customers shop today.
The Microsoft Cloud Partner Program is for all partners in our ecosystem, whether they build and sell services, software solutions, or devices, and focuses on proficiency in six solution areas aligned with the Microsoft Cloud:
Data and AI (Azure)
Infrastructure (Azure)
Digital and Application Innovation (Azure)
business apps
modern work
We are also evolving the way we categorize partner capability and measure success. To help customers better understand a partner's capabilities, we offer two levels of qualification:
- The solution partner level is a designation based on meeting specific requirements in what we call the partner capability score (see below) for each solution area.
- Specializations and specialized programs will give solution partners a way to differentiate their organizations and demonstrate deep technical knowledge and expertise in specific technical scenarios in each solution area.
These two designations clearly and immediately validate a partner's ability to meet customers' specific and evolving requirements, giving them an easier way to identify partners with the technical resources, knowledge and track record of delivering innovative solutions in specific areas. . They also provide a roadmap to help build partner capacity and guide the way we invest in partners.
Investing in partner growth and success requires robust and objective measurement of progress against the partner's chosen solution areas. As noted above, to quantify this progress, we developed the partner capability score, a holistic framework for measuring partner performance, skills, and customer success. The Partner Capacity Score evaluates a partner based on their certifications, added customers, successful deployments, and overall growth.
To earn a solutions partner designation, partners will need to achieve a partner capability score of at least 70 points (out of 100 available points) in the four measurement areas. Starting today, all partners can access their dashboard in Partner Center to see their progress towards a solution partner appointment.
Time to make the transition
We know that change can take time, so ahead of the launch of the Microsoft Cloud Partner Program, we will provide considerable support for our partners, plus enough time for them to adjust. The full timeline of changes can be found on this link.
Other than gaining access to the aforementioned dashboard, there are no immediate changes for partners. And prior to October 2022, there will be no impact on partners' business or program status – including anniversary dates – and no reduction in benefits.
In fact, we are investing more in our benefits program to ensure that every partner has a chance to participate in the opportunity to grow and accelerate. We are updating the benefits to ensure that:
Partners will be able to renew the benefits they are currently using, as well as take advantage of new benefit packages tailored to meet their unique needs based on their business focus.
- Partners will continue to receive internal use rights (IURs) licenses, including on-premises licenses, cloud service subscriptions, and Azure credits, although IURs are now called “Product Benefits”.
- No partner's incentive eligibility will change in the investment and incentive program year 2023, which runs from October 2022 to September 2023.
During this time, we will also continue to recognize the commitment and growth of partners with programmatic incentives as part of our Microsoft Business Incentives program.
Accelerating partner growth
Customer needs are constantly evolving, which is why we are announcing this evolution now and preparing for the changes it will bring.
We are excited to take the next step in the evolution of our ecosystem – putting customer value at the heart of our ongoing investment in partners. Visit the Microsoft Partner Site for more details on the announcement and what our partners and customers can expect.
*Rodney Clark – Corporate Vice President, Channel Sales, Microsoft
Notice: The opinion presented in this article is the responsibility of its author and not of ABES - Brazilian Association of Software Companies
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