'We've been a partner-first company from the beginning' - Microsoft's new partner boss outlines her priorities

Dezen stepped into the role last week and made her Microsoft debut at the company’s annual global partner event

Microsoft's newly appointed chief partner officer (CPO) Nicole Dezen made her first appearance to partners during Microsoft Inspire 2022.

She was appointed CPO last week following the departure of its former channel chief Rodney Clark.

Dezen told viewers what is most top of mind for her in fiscal 2023 will be continuing to deliver impact to its partners in three unique ways.

"First, by delivering cloud innovation," she said.

"Through the Microsoft Cloud, we provide the most comprehensive end-to-end tech stack with lasting impact for our partners in support of their customers' digital transformation.

"Second, enabling go-to-market scale. With the unique Microsoft go-to-market approach partners can quickly scale with Microsoft 35,000 plus global sellers and through our commercial marketplace that connects millions of customers around the world.

"And finally offering differentiation.

"Microsoft provides trusted partnership, technical extensibility, a secure foundation and the broadest business model for partners to build differentiated solutions to support customers.

"I am so ready for FY23 and really excited to be accelerating the business with our partners."

Microsoft's partner business

Dezen also shared with viewers how she has seen the relationship between Microsoft and its partners evolve over the years.

"From the beginning, Microsoft has been a partner first company," she said.

"And as Microsoft's portfolio has grown, we've really increased our focus to best ensure that our partners can access all of the innovation we create through our R&D investments as well as to deliver their own services and solutions on top of that innovation.

"Our priority with partners is to ensure that they can build profitable, durable businesses on our platform, and that the combination of our investments in R&D and go-to-market are unique differentiators for our partners.

"Finally, customer need is at the core of the work that we do with our partners. This ensures that the solutions that we build, market and sell together are serving customer needs in a way that no one else in the industry can. And we do this across all of our solution areas and all customer industries."