Getting started
In recent conversations with Microsofts Cloud Enablement Desk, I got notified that from October 2022 on the Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) competences will disappear with their respected MAPS, Silver and Gold statuses. Not to worry, something new will come back for it, which will be more focused on Solution Areas.
Also if you renew before October 2022, you will keep your current MPN statuses and benefits, provided that nothing has changed in either you customer base, certified employees or consumption/revenue for the next year, but after that year you will be required to meet all the new requirements to stay a Microsoft Partner within one of the Solution Areas.
Let's have a look at what everything will look like from October!
Old vs New
If we look at how the current competences are constructed we will get the following list in which a partner can achieve the Silver or Gold status:
App and Infrastructure
- Application Development
- App Integration
- Cloud Platform
- DevOps
- Datacenter
Business Applications
- Cloud Business Applications
- Enterprise Resource Planning
- Project and Portfolio
Data and AI
- Data Analytics
- Data Platform
Modern Workplace and Security
- Collaboration and Content
- Communications
- Cloud Productivity
- Enterprise Mobility Management
- Messaging
- Security
- Small and Mid-market Solutions
- Windows and Devices
In the new world, it will be as followed:
While a lot of the names remain the same or are split into separate categories now, there will no longer be any competences to achieve per category, only the whole Solution Area itself, switching to a Solution Partner model instead of a speciality per category.
Within each of these 6 Solution Areas, a partner can achieve 100 points. Seventy points are needed to earn the Solution Partner status and unlock its benefits. NOTE: Whether the benefits and pricing will stay the same is currently unclear to me, I'll update this if more has been learned.
Let's dive deeper into the point system and see what will need to be done!
Solution Areas
When you visit the Partner Center you will find the overview of all the new Solution Areas under the Membership category and then under the Solutions partner option.
Each of the Solution Areas will look the same. In this example I'll be showing the Infrastructure (Azure) area.
When visiting one of these Solution Areas you'll be greeted with an overview with 3 measurements to achieve the 100 points in. These measurements are:
- Performance
- Skilling (Certifications)
- Customer Success
NOTE: The amount of points per measurement will differ per Solution Area.
Performance
If we look at the Performance measurement in more detail we will see that 30 points can be obtained for the Infrastructure Solution Area. These 30 points can be obtained by 3 customers (10 points each), if these 3 customers have a monthly Azure consumption of about $500,-. It will not matter from which Azure services the consumption will come; every service is eligible.
Skilling
Within Skilling for the Infrastructure Solution Area we can achieve 40 points: 20 points per level of skilling (intermediate and Advanced).
To start with the Intermediate skilling measurement you will need to have 2 individuals who hold a valid Azure Administration Associate certification. After that, you unlock 4 points per individual who has a valid Azure Network Engineer Associate, Azure Stack Hub Operator Associate or Windows Server Hybrid Administrator Associate certification.
This means you could be done with the same 2 individuals who own multiple of these certifications or multiple individuals who own a single one of the required certifications.
If we look at the Advanced skilling measurement you will need to have 2 individuals who hold a valid Azure Solutions Architect Expert Certification. After which you unlock 4 points per individual who has a valid Azure Virtual Desktop Specialty or Azure for SAP workloads Specialty certification.
Here, it will also mean that the same 2 individuals can contribute to it, but you will need a third individual for the last 4 points.
Customer Success
Customer Success measurement is all about your deployments at customers and the new services they've started using. For the Infrastructure Solution Area, we can achieve 30 points, 10 points for Deployments, and 20 points for Usage Growth.
Deployments will be measured per customer: you can achieve 2 points per customer deployment. This will mean you can achieve the full 10 points with 5 customers.
Looking at the Usage Growth, you will need a 20% growth per year in total usage, allocated to you as Partner. Per 1% growth you can achieve 1 point until you reach the full 20 points.
When 70/100 points are achieved you will receive the specific Solution Partner Badge, which replaces the Silver and Gold logos of the current competences.
For all the other Solution Areas, check out the Partner center. This change will eliminate a lot of partners from the MPN program who do not meet the new requirements of 70 points, as well as affecting larger partners, who might not specialize in a certain solution area but did get the competences due to certifications or otherwise.
What's next?
Tonight is the third Dutch MCT Community Event which I host, and for now I would say: come back next week and stay tuned!