Our customers are constantly building on the experiences of the past year and embracing the new opportunities of digital transformation. As their partners, we get to evolve alongside them and lead them in exciting new directions. Over the past three months, Microsoft has launched new campaigns, resources, and trainings to support you as you guide customers into the future — we’ve rounded up some of the most essential ones here:
Doing more with less: Based on what they are hearing from the industry,the economy, and their employees, many organizations are expecting to have to do more with less in the coming year. This doesn’t mean working harder or longer, it means applying technology to better amplify existing efforts. Partners will play a crucial role in helping customers achieve more innovation, more agility, and more resilience with less — less time, less cost, and less complexity — across solution areas:
- Azure: The Azure marketing team has created two campaign-in-a-box kits for services and ISV partners to market the benefits of "do more with less" with customers.
- Modern Work: Microsoft 365represents a major opportunity to help customers modernize their business, strengthen their security infrastructure, and work more efficiently. The new Do More with Less Campaign for SMBs brings together resources to help accelerate new customer acquisition and upsell by offering Microsoft 365 as a complete solution package.
- Business Applications: Many partners are finding success using Dynamics 365 and Power Platform to help customers build resilience amid market uncertainty. We’ve compiled some of our most useful content for Business Applications on the Partner Hub, designed for solutions that optimize operations, drive efficiency, and generate savings.
New investments in ISV: During November’s first ever Marketplace Summit, we discussed the ways we’re energizing growth in the ISV ecosystem. Attendees received a holistic overview of commercial marketplace opportunities, and now anyone can catch up on the news they missed with on-demand content at marketplacesummit.microsoft.com.
One of the summit’s major topics was ISV Success, now in public preview. Through ISV Success, partners can build across the Microsoft Cloud and access specially designed benefits like cloud credits, software licenses, developer tooling with GitHub and Visual Studio, and other technical and business resources.
Revisit Microsoft Ignite: Another valuable event for partners, Microsoft Ignite brought technology leaders and practitioners together under the shared theme of “Do more with less with the Microsoft Cloud.” We announced more than 100 services and updates for partners to seize this opportunity; check out the Partner blog for a roundup of the top stories.
Azure savings plan for compute: We’ve introduced a flexible pricing model for select compute services that unlocks savings of up to 65 percent off on pay-as-you-go prices. When you commit to a fixed hourly amount for a one or three-year term, you’ll start optimizing savings automatically. Learn more and receive a personalized plan recommendation today.
Empower communities with #BuildFor2030: Through the Microsoft #BuildFor2030 Initiative, partners drive innovation in pursuit of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Check out featured partner solutions and discover how to get involved.
Trust Code for Partners: Our customers trust us to conduct business ethically and with integrity. Remember to complete this two-part training to familiarize yourself with Microsoft's expectations of our partners’ conduct and learn how to build a trustworthy reputation.
Microsoft Catalyst Partner Training: Organizations are eager for a partner to help them digitally transform and achieve their most ambitious goals. We’ve designed the Microsoft Catalyst Partner Training with this purpose in mind. Bringing together Microsoft Dynamics 365, Power Platform and the Microsoft Cloud, this interactive program will prepare you to engage customers and move conversations toward the most impactful changes.
Know your small and medium-sized business (SMB) customers: To help you better understand your SMB customers (or prepare to engage this market segment) we recently completed the SMB Voice and Attitudes to Technology Study, bringing together insights from 3,000 businesses in 10 countries around the world. Heather Gordon, Worldwide Small & Medium Business Segment Leader, delved into the findings in a six-part series on the Partner blog.
Partner Center Technical Corner: This recurring series on the Partner blog features the most up-to-date information on Partner Center releases. Visit the November edition to review recent releases, what’s coming soon, and the impact they may have on your organization.
New “Infra & Database Migration to Azure” specialization: As of January 9, 2023, the new Infra and Database Migration to Microsoft Azure specialization combined and replaced the Windows Server and SQL Server Migration to Microsoft Azure specialization and the Linux and Open-Source Database Migration to Microsoft Azure specialization.
This change is driven by a desire to align with customer expectations and accommodate the natural overlap between the capabilities validated in the two aforementioned specializations. The new Infra and Database Migration to Microsoft Azure specialization simplifies the validation of core infrastructure migration expertise for customers. Learn more about this specialization and what it means for partners with active enrollments.
Azure Migration and Modernization Program Partner-Led update: Take advantage of the three new additions in this Partner-led program to simplify and accelerate your customers’ cloud journey. Move forward confidently with a proven approach, expert help, and cost-effective offers to help fund and accelerate customer projects. New additions include SMB customers, support for SAP Rise, and larger project size support.
For further detail and additional announcements, be sure to visit the Microsoft Learn hub. As we enter the second half of the fiscal year, we’re committed to helping you grow and scale through more investments like these. Thank you for your ongoing partnership!