'Impossible' and 'biased'? A month after the Microsoft Cloud Partner Programme changes, partners share if their views have altered
The October revamp was billed as the biggest change to the Microsoft channel in a decade. Now the dust has settled, CRN spoke with SoftwareONE, Westcon-Comstor and more to hear their views
Microsoft's cloud partners continue to get candid about the vendor's highly disputed partner programme changes which came into effect last month.
The giant switched up the former Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) with a shiny new name - the Microsoft Cloud Partner Program (MCCP) - binning Silver and Gold-level certification badges along the way.
Partners must now contend with six new solution areas - data and AI (Azure); infrastructure (Azure); digital and app innovation (Azure); business applications; modern work; and security - as well as a partner capability score (PCS).
The PCS stands out as one of the more controversial changes as partners must now earn 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".
A month on from the changes becoming reality, CRN caught up with a few European and UK-based partners to hear how they're getting on.
Gordon Davey, general manager - Azure Cloud Services, SoftwareONE
"The change from Microsoft Partner Network to the Microsoft Cloud Partner Program reflects Microsoft's mission to ensure that its partners can provide customers with a first-class service.
"As SoftwareONE is Microsoft's biggest channel partner globally and the biggest partner of Microsoft's cloud platform Azure, we will hold multiple competencies and specialisations. The new partner program will better allow the customer to choose the partner that best fits their specific requirements.
"We believe the new Microsoft Partner Program puts customers first. As a company committed to consistently raising the bar in terms of our certifications and competencies, we are supportive of the changes.
"As the world is increasingly moving towards the cloud, and the technologies involved progress along with this change, it makes sense that the partner programs develop along with it.
"The Partner Capability Score offers the customer a reliable metric in choosing the right cloud service provider to best fit their needs. Ultimately, it's about giving customers the transparency they need when deciding on the right cloud partner.
"With these updates, Microsoft's emphasis on cloud capabilities reveals the direction the industry is moving, and as a Microsoft partner, this is very exciting.
"For many partners [the changes] will have little to no impact but for those partners who don't meet the score required based on their performance, certifications and growth/number of solution deployments, they will have some work to do.
"But this is no bad thing. The Microsoft Partner Network was introduced in 2009, and recently it has become clear that it needed a transformation. There are over 400,000 MS partners globally and MPN did not provide clear enough designations or differentiations.
"Without clarity about which partners had the right skills and capabilities to serve their business, customers were left to search through thousands of partners themselves with not enough support.
"Add to this, the Gold and Silver accreditations under MPN had become too commonplace, and so offered little guidance."
[Click through to hear the views from Westcon-Comstor, Vuzion and Bytes...]
'Impossible' and 'biased'? A month after the Microsoft Cloud Partner Programme changes, partners share if their views have altered
The October revamp was billed as the biggest change to the Microsoft channel in a decade. Now the dust has settled, CRN spoke with SoftwareONE, Westcon-Comstor and more to hear their views
Michael Frisby, senior vice president cloud services, Vuzion
"As an Indirect Provider, the new MCPP solution area designations are not designed for our partner type, so for us we are waiting for Microsoft to launch an update that is explicitly targeted at our business.
"The launch of MCPP has had a big impact on our business though in terms of the support and readiness programs we have put in place to help our resellers get ready for the new program.
"One particular area we have focused on is partner education, and we have redesigned the Vuzion EDGE portfolio of training to align with the new Solution Area designations to make it easier for partners to achieve the required points for skills within the new Capability Score model.
"For me Microsoft have done a much better job of introducing the new MCPP than NCE per Seat, which was the other big change this year from Microsoft.
"An area where we still see a lot of questions is around the transition of benefits from the previous Silver & Gold competencies across to Solution Areas, and for how long Microsoft will keep benefits in place for partners that do not switch over.
"Attaining even just one Solution Area designation will be hard for many of the smaller resellers and so doing so will provide improved differentiation and recognition for the particular skills and values they bring for customers.
"The MCPP is an evolution of MPN and is more aligned to the solutions that Microsoft and we as the channel are delivering for customers. As a business we certainly have asked Microsoft to help provide more differentiation opportunities for resellers, which allow them to showcase their talents and in raising the bar, with the new Solution Area designations this has been achieved."
'Impossible' and 'biased'? A month after the Microsoft Cloud Partner Programme changes, partners share if their views have altered
The October revamp was billed as the biggest change to the Microsoft channel in a decade. Now the dust has settled, CRN spoke with SoftwareONE, Westcon-Comstor and more to hear their views
Bart Scheffer, EMEA marketing director cloud & collaboration, Westcon-Comstor
"As an Indirect CSP Provider we always keep our certifications status relevant to Microsoft products and solutions. The previous program (MPN) was in place for quite a time. As the economy is shifting more and more to cloud and subscription service models, this is a logical step into further specialisation.
"These changes are positive for the partner ecosystem, Microsoft spent a lot of effort in communicating these changes and the reasons why. The market is evolving, so in the channel we need to change with it.
"The skills requirement to achieve the partner designation - although it's created some difficulty in securing the designation, the result will open partners up to more ways in which they can diversify their offerings.
"Though there are mixed feelings in the channel - smaller partners feel hard done by as the achievement appears to be more difficult while larger partners have accepted the changes as it allows the partners to differentiate themselves.
"Partners that are struggling should look to the channel to see what support they can receive to get the most out of the program.
"We wouldn't say that Microsoft is being biased towards new sales, we find the emphasis is more on customer retention and adoption, which is going to be key to partner success and growth. The focus has been largely on new sales in the past, but we already experienced a shift of focus towards usage and adoption which is becoming key in the cloud & subscription environment."
'Impossible' and 'biased'? A month after the Microsoft Cloud Partner Programme changes, partners share if their views have altered
The October revamp was billed as the biggest change to the Microsoft channel in a decade. Now the dust has settled, CRN spoke with SoftwareONE, Westcon-Comstor and more to hear their views
Jack Watson, managing director, Bytes Software Services
"The answer for us as Bytes is this is just an evolution, an expected evolution of what Microsoft has been talking about for quite some time.
"It doesn't come as a surprise, we were well prepared for it.
"We're a scale partner with Microsoft. We're really agile. We've got fantastic relationships within Microsoft but also within our mutual customer base.
"We're prepared, we're already on a journey, we've been successful in communicating, adding value to the Microsoft Cloud conversation and we're continuing to develop and invest in the skills of our people, the certifications of our people, and the technical specialisation of our teams as well.
"So this just accelerates what we're already doing and I think it's a positive thing. The wind is blowing the right way and it's a tailwind, not a headwind.
"I think it's fair to say that when Microsoft looks to implement change, they can't satisfy everybody and they have a really diverse partner community.
"So I do empathise with the challenges of the smaller partners who would have been hugely concerned with what benefits they get. So the internal use rights they get for licences, if they were to be removed it will be an enormous cost.
"Microsoft said they're going to allow people to continue to receive those internal use rights as part of their product benefit of being a partner. And that's a really good thing and a really good example where by Microsoft to listen to those concerns that certain partners have.
"One key change is the six solution areas which are aligned to how Microsoft go to market, and they want the partner community to align with them.
"I think what those solution areas are make a lot of sense and those are areas where Bytes are really strong and they're also areas where we see a lot of growth in terms of the business that we do with public sector, corporate organisations in the UK.
"The partner capability score, I think is also quite an interesting way for Microsoft to assess their partner community and have a look at what's the gap and how can we continue to progress your technical capability."