Microsoft Partners Caught Off Guard by New Program, Scoring Requirements
Partners say Microsoft’s new scoring requirements give them little time to make critical decisions.
March 22, 2022
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Microsoft launched a dashboard in its Partner Center portal that lets partners determine their scores in the six categories. Among several longtime Microsoft partners interviewed by Channel Futures, none scored above 70 in all six.
Besides the new scoring requirements, partners are concerned about the short timetable they to join the new program. By Oct. 1, partners must either sign up for the new Microsoft Cloud Partner Program or renew their legacy MPN partnerships for one more year. But those wanting to capitalize on the new designations will have to move quickly.
“It’s doable but it will be challenging,” said Peter Fidler, president and founding partner of WCA Technologies, a New York-based MSP. “We’re just going to have to be focused and not wait until Oct. 1. I’d say the planning needs to start now. We need to assign it out with short-term goals. Because if you give this to somebody and say, ‘You need to do this,’ and you don’t give them a path to do whatever that is, it just becomes intimidating. So, we we’ll need to break it down into little chunks, so for our people, and think about it strategically.”
Thinking strategically takes into consideration the investment required in certifying and readying the right people.
“Because we’re also in the middle of the ‘Great Resignation,’ we don’t want to commit to somebody who will all of a sudden they leave on Oct. 1,” Fidler said.
Fidler also lamented that meeting the certifications this year also is disruptive from a budgeting perspective. WCA completes its annual strategic planning with its employees by January of each year.
“Now we’re going to have to redo that if we want to fit this in,” he said.
Fidler said there are still numerous unknowns in what those costs will amount to.
“I really need to see is how they’re going to roll this out, how they’re going to support the partner community, what that investment is in terms of education, the cost of these exams — and there are the opportunity costs,” Fidler said. “Because if you tell somebody that they could take a day or two off, or a month or a week or whatever the time frame is, they’re not doing client work. So it gets to be expensive. We’ll have to see how we balance that out and take care of our existing clients and be a viable business.”
Many partners, even tier one Microsoft CSPs, will have to choose among the six solution categories to double down on. For example, True IT, a Fargo, North Dakota-based MSP, has a large Microsoft 365 and Dynamics practice.
“The categories we are most focused on are modern work and business applications,” said True IT CEO Zac Paulson.
“The one that’s an up-in-the-air question for me is the Azure one,” Paulson added. “We do a decent amount of Azure, but I don’t yet know that we do a large enough Azure to try for that specialization. I would like to have that specialization. But I don’t know that I have the ability to focus on all three specializations.”
Indeed, gaining certifications in all six categories could be limited to those with significant resources. Gordon McKenna, public cloud CTO at Ensono, the Illinois-based multinational MSP, used the dashboard to check his scores.
Ensono scored 100 in the Azure Infrastructure, Azure Digital & App Innovation, and Business Applications categories. In Azure Data and AI, Ensono’s score was 80.
“That tells me we’re doing the right things in those practices,” McKenna said.
However, Modern Work and Security are two categories Ensono would have to invest to score above 70, according to McKenna. Ensono’s Modern Work score is 55 and Security is 30. “I have a modern workplace practice. I will probably lean in and spend more time on that modern workplace practice,” he said.
Other partners have long specialized in one or two areas and don’t have issues with the new program. Nor do they object to the fact that Microsoft uses telemetry it gathers to determine partner capability scores.
“I think it makes it equitable,” said Jeffrey Goldstein, managing director of Queue Associates, a New York-based Microsoft Dynamics partner. “It’s not arbitrary in terms of how they rank a partner. Everybody’s judged by the same criteria and there’s no bias in the in the scoring.”
Others were more skeptical about the scoring.
“I don’t always trust Microsoft’s logic for how those scores and other things are developed,” True IT’s Paulson said.
Nevertheless, Paulson said he has been hoping Microsoft would move to a model like this.
“I think it’ll be a good move for partners that have a lot of specialties,” Paulson said. “In our case with our Dynamics specialty, it’s nice to be able to highlight that, because just saying you’re a Microsoft gold partner doesn’t really distinguish in the marketplace, what your true specialties are.”
Industry analyst Anurag Agrawal, founder of Techaisle, said the new program is more customer-focused.
“The program, when implemented correctly, with the right partner business velocity enablers, will enable both customer and partner success,” Agrawal said.
The six new categories make sense, according to Agrawal, because they “mimic how customers buy and address their business pain points with technology solutions.”
Agrawal added that it’s not surprising that partners will find Microsoft’s new program disruptive.
“Many partners will be unhappy, but change is a constant within the partner programs,” he said. “Partners have to change for a post-transactional market. They have to move from product-focused discrete sales and fee-for-service advisers to solve customer problems to delivering customer success by focusing on business outcomes, as-a-service delivery models, and shared risk partnerships.”
Industry analyst Anurag Agrawal, founder of Techaisle, said the new program is more customer-focused.
“The program, when implemented correctly, with the right partner business velocity enablers, will enable both customer and partner success,” Agrawal said.
The six new categories make sense, according to Agrawal, because they “mimic how customers buy and address their business pain points with technology solutions.”
Agrawal added that it’s not surprising that partners will find Microsoft’s new program disruptive.
“Many partners will be unhappy, but change is a constant within the partner programs,” he said. “Partners have to change for a post-transactional market. They have to move from product-focused discrete sales and fee-for-service advisers to solve customer problems to delivering customer success by focusing on business outcomes, as-a-service delivery models, and shared risk partnerships.”
Most Microsoft partners were aware that changes to the MPN program were inevitable at some point. But many were caught off guard last week by the wholesale changes announced by Microsoft.
Some welcome the replacement of MPN, and Microsoft gold and silver status with the new Expert and Solution partner designations. Others fear that the changes will force them to specialize in fewer Microsoft solution categories. Many are concerned because of the partner capability score (PCS) requirements associated with the new Microsoft Cloud Partner Program.
The new program requires partners to achieve a PCS of 70 out of 100 in each of six solution categories. Microsoft has broken out all its products and offerings into those six categories. Among them are Azure Data & AI, Azure Infrastructure, Azure Digital & App Innovation, Business Applications, Modern Work and Security.
Tough Choices
These new guidelines could force many partners to make some difficult choices. Current Microsoft gold partners must invest in multiple categories if they want to be considered solution partners in multiple areas. Many expect they’ll instead have to focus on fewer categories because of the investment in certifications and other requirements associated with achieving Microsoft’s new scoring. Those partners instead will have to specialize in fewer areas.
Microsoft’s Rodney Clark
But that is what Microsoft wants — for partners to specialize. Microsoft channel chief Rodney Clark described the scoring as “a robust, objective measurement of progress against a partner’s chosen solution areas.” Clark also described it as “a holistic framework for measuring partner performance, skilling and customer success.”
PSC scoring is based on four measurement areas associated with partners’ certifications, new customers, successful deployments and growth, Clark noted.
See our slideshow above for what Microsoft partners and analysts like and don’t like about this shake-up.
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