5 partners give their verdict as Microsoft Cloud Partner Program goes live

CRN sister title CPI has reached out to partners to get a snap verdict on the new Microsoft partner program shake-up now it has become reality as of October 3

This week the controversial changes to Microsoft's partner programme officially came into play for channel partners, a move which has been dubbed the biggest shake-up in the Microsoft partner ecosystem for over a decade.

The announcement of the new Microsoft Cloud Partner Program (MCPP) was met with backlash from the vendor's 400,000 partner roster who criticised the changes which include the Silver and Gold-level certification badges scrapped.

The rebranded programme, previously the Microsoft Partner Network (MPN), has also done away with how partners are categorised and measured.

Partners can now join two qualifying levels: "solutions partner" and "specialisations and expert programs".

To become a solutions partner, they will need to meet specific requirements in line with a new partner capability score (PCS) which measures partners' performance on a scale of 0-100 across the six solutions areas - data and AI (Azure); infrastructure (Azure); digital and app innovation (Azure); business applications; modern work; and security.

Partners will need to earn a PCS of at least 70 out of 100 points across the measurement areas in order to qualify as a solutions partner, a move which has been branded "impossible" and "biased".

Now the above changes have become official, CRN's sister publication Channel Partner Insight spoke with several Microsoft partners to hear how their standing with Microsoft has changed as the MCPP

Kelvin Kirby, CEO, Technology Associates Limited

"I speak to partners on a regular basis and I can tell you they're very unimpressed with the new programme.

"For example, you get scores in both, say the modern work category and there are two tracks in SMB, and enterprise. So you can score points in both SMB and enterprise but you don't get the total score.

"Although there are different clients in both of those tracks that you are getting points for, you have to only have customers in one or the other track that amount to 70 points in order to get your solution partner designation.

"There's a very long list of things that aren't working in the portal or haven't transitioned across and part of the reason for that is that you can't transition a partner programme in just six months - it's impossible.

"The other thing is most of the partners I've spoken to have spoken to their customers and they don't have a clue what business applications or modern work actually mean. Whereas some of the competency names that existed in the old programme were meaningful.

"We as a partner invested a lot of money in the last 18 months getting our people trained up in certain exams, and that was on the advice of Microsoft.

"And very nearly all of that, certainly 90 per cent of it, went out the window because none of that qualifies.

"None of those exams now apply in the new programme, and that is really disappointing.

"We've been waiting for a big announcement from Microsoft about the programme since Inspire and there was absolutely nothing.

"I've been in the IT business for 40 years. I have never seen a partner programme rolled out successfully in anything less than 18 months.

"I speak to other partners because I act in an advisory capacity on boards of a number of other IT companies, and we get the same kind of impression about Microsoft that they are almost trying to be dictatorial in the way that they are asking partners to manage their businesses. And that's not how a partnership should work, it should be a two way process.

"There is no doubt the MPN program needed an update. It did need a revival in terms of a review, but I think this has gone too far the other way by some considerable margin.

"I don't think that will go well for Microsoft's future with the channel program because they will lose a lot of partners."

Tim Hannibal, Chief Partner Officer, Transparity

"With the new solution partner designations Microsoft are raising the bar for partner certifications and ensuring the top partners can stand out.

"It's great to see us achieving 5 of the 6 at launch and it demonstrates our deep levels of technical capability, proven track record for delivering successful outcomes to customers and our commitment to partnership with Microsoft.

"I'm extremely proud of the whole organisation for helping us achieve yet another great milestone in our journey."

David Tulip, managing director, The Network Group

"I feel that Microsoft seems further removed from the coalface than they have ever been in my opinion.

"There are so many MSPs that have been promoting and deploying Microsoft solutions successfully for years and the changes will no doubt shake the tree and affect smaller partners.

"As a group we are of a size where our members are not the smallest partners and we are fortunate that the ethos of sharing sees our MSPs helping one another navigate the changes; I'm not so sure how easy that is for technology service providers at the smallest end of the scale or who are not part of some community.

"I think it was a little ill-timed, I had no real problem with NCE (although that has still been subject to some change of dates!), but for changes to the partner programme to follow so soon just smacked of a disappointing disconnect.

"We always welcome the raising of the bar and standards in the industry but it should not be at the expense of loyal Microsoft partners, there is a danger that this moves from competency to growth and sales - which of course are important.

"Where are all the new sales coming from, are we just reorganising deckchairs on the titanic? I do appreciate the intention is to grow the breadth of solutions in the customer and so it is about the service providers continuing to expand their knowledge and capabilities to better serve their customer base."

Melissa Rambridge, CEO, & Martin Byrne, CTO at Sweethaven Limited

"From an internal perspective, the new MCPP has some benefits that are welcomed.

"The change to solutions designations has given our teams new avenues for certification, and offers clear paths to navigate to achieve those designations. The internal use benefits available also appear to more closely reflect the needs of our business.

"In terms of unanswered questions, we're not entirely sure how the new partner programme will help from our current and prospective clients' perspective; the legacy partner levels of Silver and Gold gave our customers an idea of who they were dealing with and the level of experience and expertise they could rely on ‘at a glance'.

"There doesn't seem to be clarity on how recent changes help everyday organisations in locating a certified partner for their needs, as whilst industry designations will help with vertical alignment it isn't (yet) clear how they will easily demonstrate depth of knowledge and experience to the end user.

"Achieving the Gold Partner status five years ago was also a significant achievement for us and our teams that helped get us there, and whilst the new solutions designations offer different certification paths, we're also slightly rueful at losing what we had gained and do feel that goal posts have moved somewhat."

Logicalis

"Here at Logicalis we're hugely excited by the new MCPP.

"MCPP will create a new world where customers will easily be able to find the right partners to help them. They'll have clarity on the level of expertise every partner has in each cloud solution designation.

"The MPN was introduced in 2009, and it's fair to say it worked well for a decade. But over the last few years, it's become stale and unwieldy.

"The number of competencies has swollen to 19 and they don't match the way Microsoft Cloud is taken to market. This makes life hard for customers who need partners that can handle the integrated way Microsoft Cloud works.

"The most confusing aspect of MPN, however, was that the Silver and Gold accreditations in these 19 competencies had become too commonplace. This meant that customers had to search through thousands of MSPs to find the genuine experts in each area. It was very difficult to get any clarity on which partners had the deep expertise and scale to cope with their projects.

"The overall result was that MPN caused dissatisfaction for the customers and frustration for Microsoft, as they couldn't strategically steer the growth of Microsoft Cloud."