Since October 2022, Microsoft has phased out its previous Microsoft Partner Network and replaced it with the Microsoft Cloud Partner Program. In the process, the previous Silver and Gold competencies were replaced by newly tailored ‘Solutions Designations’. As one of the first partners in Germany, we received the new competencies that are most important for our industry immediately with the start of the new program.
A completely new partner program
The introduction of the “Microsoft Cloud Partner Program” is the biggest change in the partner program in Microsoft’s entire history.
Probably the biggest change in the context of this realignment concerns the 19 specializations/competencies that partners were able to achieve in the previous program. These are no longer valid as of the beginning of October 2022, so partner companies are also no longer allowed to advertise with the associated silver and gold awards.
The previous competencies have been replaced by the following six “Solutions Partner Designations”. In the future, Microsoft partners will be able to achieve the following six competencies:
- Infrastructure (Solutions Partners with an Infrastructure (Azure) designation demonstrate a broad capability to help you accelerate migration of key infrastructure workloads to Microsoft Azure.)
- Data & AI (Solutions Partners for Data & AI (Azure) demonstrate a broad capability to help you manage your data across multiple systems to build analytics and AI solutions.)
- Digital & App Innovations (Solutions Partners for Digital & App Innovation (Azure) demonstrate a broad capability to help you build and modernize cloud-native apps and transform how you code, collaborate, and ship software.)
- Modern Work (Solutions Partners for Modern Work demonstrate a broad capability to help you boost your productivity and make the shift to hybrid work using Microsoft 365.)
- Security (Solutions Partners for Security demonstrate a broad capability to help you safeguard your entire organization by using integrated security, compliance, and identity solutions.)
- Business Applications (Solutions Partners for Business Applications demonstrate broad capability to deliver solutions with Dynamics 365 and Power Platform.)
In addition, partner companies can further differentiate their offerings with additional labels for “specializations” and “expert programs”.
“The six new solution partner competencies make our partners’ scope of services much more visible” said Edith Wittmann, channel chief at Microsoft Germany, in an initial interview with Channel Press. “Customers can now see at a glance where our partners’ strengths lie.”
From Gold to Solution Partner
Partners who achieve one or more of these new competencies will from now on be referred to as “Solution Partners”. To become a “Solution Partner”, partners must achieve at least 70 out of 100 points in at least one solution group in the so-called “Partner Capability Score”. Points are awarded per solution group for certifications, customers won, successful deployments and overall growth.
Accordingly, we are proud that GWS was one of the first partners in Germany to qualify for the new Microsoft Cloud Partner Program right from the start – with 86 out of a possible 100 points in the “Business Applications” Solutions Designation, which is the most important one for us and which is also covered by our recently acquired “Small and Midmarket Management” specialization. In addition, we were also able to achieve the “Digital & App Innovation” designation. As our customers, you can therefore continue to be sure that we stand for first-class Microsoft expertise.
We would like to thank all colleagues who participated in this renewed qualification!
Der Beitrag New Microsoft Cloud Partner Program: <br/>We are there from day one erschien zuerst auf GWS.
