Bekker's Blog

Blog archive

Microsoft Gets Surprise Appeal: Pitch MPN Competencies to Customers

It's not every day you get to put Microsoft on the spot in front of a live audience of a few hundred people. So when Andy Vabulas saw his chance to make a plug for an investment to benefit a lot of MPN competency partners like his own company, he took it.

Vabulas, CEO of IBIS Inc., was invited to appear on a Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference stage with Julie Bennani, the general manager of the Microsoft Partner Network, last week in Toronto.

Vabulas went through his scripted portion, discussing the multiple tens of thousands of dollars that multiple-Microsoft-award-winning IBIS has saved over the years through MPN benefits.

Bennani thanked Vabulas for his directness and constructive criticism over the years. With that opening, Vabulas piped right up. "I have an ask," he said.

"I wish that in the next year, that Microsoft would really take the competencies and drive them out to our customers so they really get to know what it means for us to invest, for us to have a gold competency, for us to have a silver competency, so it really lands out in the marketplace," Vabulas said, adding jokingly, "I have a dream, that that would happen."

Bennani appeared surprised by the timing of Vabulas' request, although not by the content of it. Many partners have asked for the same thing since Microsoft drastically raised the bar for silver and gold competencies in 2010 compared to the old requirements to be a Microsoft Certified or Gold Certified Partner. Bennani's colleagues on Microsoft global channel chief Jon Roskill's leadership team have said in the past they were considering customer-focused advertising campaigns to promote the value of competency partners.

Bennani pointed out that in addition to broad air cover advertising for Microsoft products, the field sellers are doing a much better job than in the past of making connections between customers and partners with competencies. "The alignment is fantastic," Bennani said.

At the same time, Bennani promised to escalate Vabulas' concern. "I will take [it up] with Mr. Roskill," she said.

Posted by Scott Bekker on July 19, 2012


Featured

  • Microsoft Appoints Althoff as New CEO for Commercial Business

    Microsoft CEO and chairman Satya Nadella on Wednesday announced the promotion of Judson Althoff to CEO of the company's commercial business, presenting the move as a response to the dramatic industrywide shifts caused by AI.

  • Broadcom Revamps VMware Partner Program Again

    Broadcom recently announced a significant update regarding its VMware Cloud Service Provider (VCSP) program, coinciding with the release of VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.0, a key component in Broadcom’s private cloud strategy.

  • Closeup of the new Copilot keyboard key

    Microsoft Updates Copilot To Add Context-Sensitive Agents to Teams, SharePoint

    Microsoft has rolled out a new public preview for collaborative "always on" agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot, bringing enhanced, context-aware tools into Teams channels, meetings, SharePoint sites, Planner workstreams and Viva Engage communities.

  • Windows 365 Cloud Apps Now Available for Public Preview

    Microsoft announced this week that Windows 365 Cloud Apps are now available for public preview. This aims to allow IT administrators to stream individual Windows applications from the cloud, removing the need to assign Cloud PCs to every user.