News

Microsoft To Add ISV Designations to MCPP

• By Gladys Rama
• March 22, 2023

Microsoft's top partner executives detailed several changes it plans to make to the 6-month-old Microsoft Cloud Partner Program (MCPP).

The changes, announced during a "State of the Partner Ecosystem" briefing on Wednesday, include an expansion of the existing six Solution Partner designations in the MCPP to include designations specifically for ISV partners.

In a blog post, Microsoft Chief Partner Officer Nicole Dezen explained the ISV designations this way:

Designations for ISV solutions are aligned to how Microsoft goes to market and how customers are buying: by industry (e.g., finance, retail); by use cases across industries (e.g., security); and by specific imperatives of line-of-business leaders (e.g., marketing and sales). 

Microsoft aims to launch these designations sometime during its fiscal 2024, said head of partner go-to-market Julie Sanford, who spoke during the presentation alongside Dezen and Casey McGee, head of global ISV sales. 

A Microsoft FAQ of the new ISV designations is available here (PDF).

Also coming during Microsoft's FY24 are two new Solutions Partner designations for training services partners and support services partners. The former will "recognize a partner's capabilities aligned to performance, quality of training and a minimum of one solution area," Dezen said, while the latter will "build on the solution area designations and highlight a partner's breadth of and excellence in support capabilities."  

Changes are also coming to Microsoft's commercial marketplace, such as the ability to perform multiparty private offers in the Microsoft commercial marketplace. Expected to reach private preview this spring, multiparty private offers let partners "come together, create personalized offers with custom payouts and sell directly to Microsoft customers with simplified selling through the marketplace," Dezen said in the blog, adding: "For customers with a cloud consumption commitment, every dollar of the sale will count toward their commitment when they purchase solutions that are Azure IP co-sell eligible."

Microsoft also plans to let partners "transact containers and VM software reservations" via the marketplace this year. In addition, partners will be able to differentiate themselves based on their diversity and business values.    

Besides the changes to come, Microsoft's partner execs highlighted the four new specializations under the Business Applications designation that went live last week, bringing the total number of Business Applications specializations to 28. The four designations, per Dezen's blog, are as follows:

Finance: Designed for partners with demonstrated knowledge, substantive experience and documented success in Dynamics 365 Finance, and that innovate solutions across the financial spectrum. 

Sales: Available to partners with proven skills in customer experience (CX) transformation and supporting customers' growth. 

Service: Developed for partners with experience delivering personalized service, high-quality interactions and seamless, connected experiences at scale

Supply Chain: Open to partners with demonstrated knowledge, substantive experience and documented success in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, and that innovate solutions across the supply chain spectrum. 

Microsoft didn't provide precise launch dates for the changes it described on Wednesday, though the company will speak more about them during its Inspire partner conference, taking place virtually on July 18-19.