'We're moving away from how we've done business for the past 20 years' - Microsoft reveals updates to partner programme

Vendor launches Partner Centre to enable almost all partners to sell globally

Microsoft claims it has adopted a "new way" of doing business with its partners according to partner boss Gavriella Schuster as the vendor updates its partner programme.

During the vendor's annual State of the Partner ecosystem virtual briefing, Schuster (pictured above) announced a number of updates to the partner programme, vowing that it was cultivating a new model for how it does business with partners going forward.

"We are continuing to evolve the partner experience and how partners engage in their relationship with Microsoft," she stated during the event.

"We're really on the precipice of moving away from the way we've been doing business for the last 20 years to the way we're going to do business for the next 20 years."

One of these updates is the Partner Centre, which Schuster said would simplify how partners work with the tech titan, customers and other partners.

This is billed as "the final milestone" in a multi-year effort by Microsoft to build a platform that will allow nearly all channel capabilities to be delivered globally. Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) benefits will be visible in the Centre, as well as referrals, incentives and leads sent by the vendor. Cloud Solution Providers (CSP) and the Microsoft commercial marketplace are also integrated into the new platform.

Elsewhere, the CSP programme will be receiving further investment as part of the updates and the vendor has also made it easier for partners to sell solutions on its commercial marketplace.

Microsoft is also increasing its focus on co-selling with partners to SMBs, which will include targeted marketing investments in top SMB customers. Schuster said that partners have generated over $18bn through the Co-sell programme since 2017, adding that Microsoft has shared over three million leads with partners through its marketplace in the last six months alone.

"We are focused on the Co-sell programme being more intentional with the medium enterprise and small business segment," she stated.

"This is a huge growth opportunity for our partners, and we have some targeted marketing and investment strategies for our top SMB customers with our partners.

"We rely heavily and deeply on partners to help the customer understand the technology; build, integrate, manage and operate the technology into their environment, and so we have main touchpoints for partners in every single element of that sales cycle and the lifecycle."