Microsoft's AI Cloud Partner Program: A New Way to Empower Partners

Although Microsoft launched its Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program (MAICPP) last year, we're finding that many partners, including companies that have long-standing relationships with Microsoft, are still discovering the importance and benefits of joining.

The MAICPP is not just another way to sell your solutions and services. It's a next-generation program designed to help partners better understand the opportunities and challenges of the cloud so they can deliver more value to customers using Microsoft AI and Microsoft Cloud, regardless of the partner's business model or growth stage. It also introduces new metrics and the fundamental concept of “designations” that partners should understand for their business growth.

The following provides a high-level overview of the MAICPP and what you should consider for your business.

Driving partner profitability

The MAICPP is Microsoft's push to drive partner profitability through two distinct motions.

First, the MAICPP provides investment opportunities that partner organizations can leverage at any stage of maturity and business model, from startups and ISVs to service providers and device manufacturers.

Second, it gives partners a clear outline and path for progressing towards greater profitability with technical consultations, providing direction on skill pathways, and tools for creating and marketing new solutions built on Microsoft Cloud and Microsoft AI.

A significant change prior to the introduction of the MAICPP was the retirement of Gold and Silver Competencies. In their place, the MAICPP provides “levels” that partners achieve.

These start with the most basic - Membership - which is open to all channel partners. From there they progress through partner success; the attainment of “designations” based on partner capability scores; and finally, “specializations” that include expert offerings that are achieved through technical certifications and attestations. Methodical scoring helps partners track their achievements in these areas. Let's take a quick look at these, since they are critical for partners.

Designations, specializations, and scoring

Designations allow partners to distinguish themselves with specific badging that helps customers find and engage with them faster and easier. The Solutions Partner designations include:

• Business Applications
• Data & AI (Azure)
• Digital and App Innovation (Azure)
• Infrastructure (Azure)
• Modern Work
• Security

Designations are the prerequisites for building specializations. This chart shows the specialization areas covered within each designation:

There are multiple benefits associated with the specializations. For a comprehensive, downloadable FAQ, go this Microsoft Partner page.

To ensure partners stay on track, Microsoft has implemented a Partner Capability Scoring system that includes metrics around Skilling (certifications acquired); Performance (ability to expand both Microsoft's and the partner's customer base); and Customer Success (ability to expand customer consumption of Microsoft's services and workloads). The combination of these scores leads to aggregate a Partner Capability Score of 0 to 100 that can be tracked through Microsoft Partner Center. Partners must maintain a minimum score of 70 to remain in the program.

Aligning with the Microsoft Customer Engagement Model

To bolster success via the MAICPP, Microsoft aligns businesses with the Microsoft Customer Engagement Methodology (MCEM) for Partners. The MCEM provides baseline guidance for partners on working with and delivering innovative solutions to customers by placing the customer at the heart of every deal. It also connects partners with a broader ecosystem of stakeholders, including Microsoft sales and support teams.

With the MAICPP, partners can leverage new ways to deliver innovation and value to customers with commercial growth models and subscription services. Going through the details of the program will help you understand the not-trivial challenges of operating a business with cloud services, including customer churn, so you can create and sustain valuable solutions and services for your customers.

For more information on understanding the Solutions Partner designation program and how it can benefit your organization, contact ISSI. We are uniquely positioned to guide you through the transformation journey to align it to your business so you can take advantage of its full potential. For more information, contact us at: sales@issi-inc.com.