Development Center FAQ

A: Microsoft ISV Development Centers are independently owned and operated partner businesses. Microsoft has no financial investment or ownership in these companies. They are another type of Microsoft partner.

A: The Microsoft ISV Development Centers are independent businesses and your contract would be directly with them. Microsoft is not involved in these transactions or contracts.

A: Microsoft ISV Development Center candidates did come from a Microsoft Dynamics background and do focus heavily on Microsoft Dynamics. With the move from Dynamics on-premise solutions to Dynamics 365 cloud solutions, we are experiencing strong demand for additional technical bandwidth that can work with Dynamics partners to help them transition their businesses and customers to the cloud. This was a logical place for us to start. However, most Microsoft ISV Development Centers also offer technical guidance and development for other key Microsoft technologies including Azure Machine Learning, Cortana Analytics, Power Platform, Flow, IoT, O365, and Azure.

A: Yes, we will be working across our engineering teams to identify top-level candidates to offer highly specialized research and development (R&D) services around both existing and emerging Microsoft technologies (for example: big data, security, HoloLens, predictive analytics).

A: If a Microsoft customer approaches a Microsoft ISV Development Center directly, the customer will be asked who their Microsoft partner-of-record (POR) is, and either the Microsoft ISV Development Center or the customer will contact the POR. Microsoft ISV Development Centers do not want to be in competition with a POR. Rather, they would like to establish an ongoing working relationship with the partner to provide that partner with expanded technical service offerings and bandwidth.

A: Microsoft ISV Development Centers communicate freely with each other, allowing them to help and support one another. They may also share technical staff members to load balance and achieve higher staff utilization. The outcome is to create and build a vibrant community of Microsoft technical expertise.

A: All Microsoft ISV Development Center candidates are carefully identified, recruited, and vetted by Microsoft. Microsoft believes the best way to assure that a company is of high quality is to review their customer references and customer satisfaction. Vetting of candidates will be largely based on customer references. These references will be collected in a standard format provided by Microsoft to assure consistency and comparability from one candidate to another.

A: At the current time we do not plan to provide a certification or competency. However, we do plan to vet them, endorse them, and promote them with other partners and field sellers.

A: Yes, Microsoft will provide Level 400 support from the Microsoft Dynamics 365 R&D teams (Unified Operations, Customer Engagement, Power platform, and Scalable Business Management). The specific approaches may vary by product team but the expected services planned may include a combination of:

• Email support contact(s) to which Microsoft ISV Development Centers may send Level 400 R&D questions
• Invitations for Microsoft ISV Development Center personnel to attend special product/ISV workshops
• Inclusion of Microsoft ISV Development Center in early adopter and TAPs (Technology Adopter Programs)
• Regular communications from Microsoft on upcoming technical news, training, and new opportunities/promotions
• Regularly scheduled Skype calls between R&D teams and Microsoft ISV Development Centers

The goal is to keep Microsoft ISV Development Centers up to speed on all new Dynamics technologies, platforms, tools, and functionality roadmaps well in advance of public announcements or general availability so that they are trained and prepared in advance to assist partners and field sellers.

A: Microsoft ISV Development Centers will each provide a quarterly list of completed projects along with the customer's name, key contact, phone, and email address. Microsoft will conduct quarterly satisfaction surveys of partners/customers. Microsoft will use these survey results to identify issues that may need to be addressed with Microsoft ISV Development Centers.

A: Microsoft will conduct a variety of endorsement and promotional activities that may include:

• Announcement at key events (e.g., Inspire, Envision, TechReady) as they are approved and onboarded.
• Inclusion on key Microsoft websites (For example: AppSource, PartnerSource, MPN).
• Success stories created by Microsoft ISV Development Centers will be provided to partners and sellers.
• Opportunities to create/present R&D/technical topics requested by Microsoft. These presentations will be a combination of PowerPoint and demonstration, and will be recorded and made available for public viewing.
• Microsoft ISV Development Centers may be invited to be presenters at key Microsoft events (Inspire, TechReady, Tech Conference, Industry Summit).

A: The Microsoft ISV Development Center oversight team meets regularly to monitor Microsoft ISV Development Center progress and provide ideas for enhancing and expanding the global Microsoft ISV Development Center footprint. The oversight team includes participants from the Microsoft Business Applications R&D teams, corporate partner team, and ISV time zone teams. The makeup of this oversight team will change with changes to the Microsoft organizational structure. Actions may include:

• Monthly status reviews
• Monthly client list and project updates
• Monthly client prospect updates
• Review/interview of new Microsoft ISV Development Center candidates
• Planning meetings, workshops, offers

A: Microsoft ISV Development Centers will be aligned and introduced to MTC leaders based on common geographic coverage. This allows Microsoft ISV Development Centers and MTCs to work together on programs that leverage their mutual strengths. In some cases, a Microsoft ISV Development Center may choose to co-locate in an MTC office.