The recent Channel Partners Conference & Expo brought together thousands of channel leaders, technology providers, and ecosystem partners to explore what’s next for the channel—and how partners can accelerate growth in a market being rapidly reshaped by AI. With an audience deeply focused on differentiation, scale, and customer value, the conference highlighted how cloud, AI, and modern commerce models are redefining the partner opportunity.
Microsoft Marketplace participated as a Platinum sponsor, reflecting the central role the channel plays as customers move AI from experimentation into production. As partners guide strategy, deployment, and outcomes, Marketplace provides the commercial foundation—connecting partners, software companies, and customers through flexible, channel‑led sales models that scale.
Microsoft Marketplace gives enterprise and SMC customers a direct path to procure Devicie against their Microsoft commitments, while our channel-led sales motion extends our reach through the trusted partner relationships that help customers achieve better device management outcomes.
- Connor O’Reilly, Channel Sales Manager, Devicie
Scaling channel impact in an AI-first world
Kevin LeBlanc, General Manager for Microsoft Marketplace, led a keynote discussion, “Scaling Channel Impact in an AI‑First World with Microsoft Marketplace,” with industry analyst Robert DeMarzo. The discussion explored how AI is reshaping partner value, and why cloud marketplaces are increasingly central to that shift.
AI workloads are creating more complexity in cloud estates. This challenge is compounded by buyer personas that are becoming more AI‑forward and digital‑first. As a result, partners are being asked to move faster and sell more complex solutions that deliver differentiated outcomes.
Marketplace plays a key role by empowering partners to scale their impact without adding operational overhead. Marketplace is the scale engine for how Microsoft goes to market with the channel ecosystem. It opens new routes to market, streamlines transactions, and provides the operational infrastructure that allows partners to remain the frontline for their customers while accelerating deals.
The conversation reinforced a critical point for today’s channel: success in an AI‑first world requires combining technical differentiation with modern commerce models that align to how customers want to discover, buy, and deploy solutions.
Unlocking the channel opportunity through Microsoft Marketplace
Jason Rook, Senior Director for Marketplace Channel Sales, and David Salazar, Director for Marketplace Channel Strategy, went deeper on what this means in practice for channel partners in their session, “Unlock the Channel Opportunity Through Microsoft Marketplace.” The session walked through the concrete ways partners can use Marketplace to drive growth, whether by expanding into new markets, scaling relationships with software vendors, or attaching differentiated solutions to their existing offers.
A live interview with representatives from Microsoft partner Fortinet brought these concepts to life, highlighting real-world partner considerations around co‑selling, private offers, and building repeatable, channel‑led motions. The takeaway was clear: Marketplace enables channel‑led sales, empowering partners to package solutions, transact with confidence, and participate in larger, repeatable deals aligned to customer demand for cloud and AI solutions.
Fortinet has a 100% channel go-to-market strategy, and Microsoft Marketplace has become a true enabler for Fortinet to support this strategy. Through co-selling and private offers, we're helping our partners engage customers where they want to purchase, transact with confidence, and accelerate deals. It's not simply a software catalog—it's how we meet customer demand for Azure security at scale.
- Austin Woffington, Senior Director, Partner Practice Adoption US, Fortinet
In summary, Marketplace aligns to how customers want to buy and how partners want to sell. When we think about the channel-led sales opportunity, there are three routes to market with Marketplace:
- CSP private offers: A channel‑led sales model where a software company extends margin to a partner in the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program. That partner then bundles, prices, and sells the solution directly to their customers, on their tenant.
- Multiparty private offers: A Marketplace deal that empowers a software company and channel partner to jointly sell to a customer through Marketplace, with Microsoft handling billing while preserving the partner‑led relationship. This is currently available when selling to customers in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States, with more markets coming soon.
- Resale enabled offers: A model that allows software companies to authorize channel partners to sell their Marketplace offers on their behalf, enabling channel partners to lead sales in targeted markets without added operational complexity for the software company.
Five tips for channel success
To make the opportunity tangible, the theater session “5 Tips for Channel Success Through Microsoft Marketplace”––presented by Kristyn Maddox, Director for Marketplace Product Marketing––focused on actionable guidance partners can take back to their businesses.
These five tips include:
- Adopt Marketplace as a core go‑to‑market motion: Make Marketplace a foundational part of your go‑to‑market strategy to scale reach, simplify transactions, and align to how customers want to buy.
- Learn the channel‑led Marketplace opportunities: Understand the channel‑led sales models available through Marketplace so you can unlock new routes to market and partner‑driven growth.
- Understand when to use what: Choose the right Marketplace motion—resale enabled offers, multiparty private offers, or CSP private offers—based on your deal, customer, and partner model.
- Get bigger deals with co‑sell alignment to Marketplace: Align to Microsoft co‑sell with Marketplace transactions to make repeatable deals tied to customer cloud and AI priorities.
- Use the resources available to you: Leverage Marketplace programs, tooling, and partner resources to accelerate execution and reduce go‑to‑market friction.
The emphasis throughout the session was on choice and flexibility. Marketplace expands the channel’s paths to growth, offering scale without forcing a one‑size‑fits‑all approach:
"As our customers move AI from prototype to production, we increasingly prefer to sell through the channel because it enables us to combine our technology with the expertise and reach of trusted partners to deliver stronger business outcomes. Microsoft Marketplace has become a highly attractive and fast-growing transaction channel for us—streamlining procurement, helping customers leverage their MACC commitments, and accelerating deal velocity. With more than half of our business driven by SIs, consultancies, and resellers, the ability to support co-sell and reseller-enabled offers creates a true win-win-win for customers, partners, and ISVs alike."
- Juha Koivula, Head of Partnerships, Orchestry
What partners told us
Across sessions and conversations on the show floor, partners shared a common set of priorities: simplifying how they work with software vendors, meeting rising customer expectations for AI solutions, and finding scalable ways to grow revenue. Marketplace resonated as a platform that helps connect those dots, bringing together discovery, purchase, and partner‑led sales in one place.
Channel Partners Conference underscored that the partner ecosystem is entering a new phase —one where AI, cloud economics, and digital sales models intersect. For Microsoft, Marketplace is a foundational piece of enabling that future with, and for, the channel.
We’re grateful to everyone who joined our sessions, asked questions, and shared their perspectives. The conversations don’t end here—and we’re excited to keep working alongside partners to turn opportunity into impact, using Marketplace as our platform for partnership.
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