Until recently, Microsoft’s channel-facing organization had been relatively stable for years. Lately, the channel has seen major changes to Microsoft’s partnering model, creating hurdles for some partners, but these changes have been necessary for Microsoft to keep pace with competitors and meet new market demands. As the push to be at the leading edge of 3rd platform technology, DX and remain relevant becomes more competitive, Microsoft is refocusing more resources than ever around its cloud solutions. Recent changes like the announcement of the One Commercial Partner Program have reshaped the Microsoft Partner Channel, especially in the Dynamics space. Checkout our whitepaper “Demystifying Microsoft’s Cloud Service Provider Program for Dynamics Partners” to learn how CSP can enable partners to move to modern with minimal shock to their business.
Dynamics Channel Changes
Just as the development teams and product groups out of Redmond were consolidated under the leadership of people grounded in cloud, the partner teams have been similarly reorganized. Since the launch of the One Commercial Partner program last year, the channel has experienced:
- The Elimination of a separate Dynamics field organization
- The early retirement of many long-time Dynamics leaders
- And the former Cloud/Platform leadership put in charge of the entire SMB space
Microsoft has been reorganized around supporting the One Commercial Partner model and partners who want to continue working with Microsoft and capture new revenue in this time of booming opportunity will need to be able to sell and support Microsoft cloud infrastructure as well as productivity and business solutions.
Leveraging the Cloud Service Provider Program
The Cloud Service Porvider (CSP) program helps cloud and traditional vendors to adapt to a recurring revenue model at their own pace to sell and support Microsoft cloud with minimal shock to their businesses.
Making Margins Work in the Cloud
With shrinking margins and service revenue opportunities, cloud economics requires providers to deliver a greater share of customer IT portfolio, selling more subscriptions across their client base in order to stay profitable. To drive reasonable margins and deliver a better customer experience, partners can bundle solutions to create customer value, simplify pricing models and drive down internal costs.
New Challenges
Microsoft is significantly upping the requirements for the competencies associated with Dynamics 365 with the introduction the Cloud Business Applications competency for partners that specialize in deploying and managing Dynamics 365 solutions. This new competency combines the traditional Dynamics CRM and ERP apps into one competency and significantly increases the number of technicians that need to pass the certifications.