Customer Satisfaction Focus for Partners

In the transition from the Microsoft Partner Program to the Microsoft Partner Network (MPN), Microsoft is requiring top partners to conduct customer satisfaction surveys in order to qualify for similar placement in the new program. Microsoft says the surveys will provide customers with better information about partner qualifications, but partners are concerned about deadlines and paperwork for customers.

Finding the Best Partners

An explicit goal of the MPN is to make it more challenging for partners to reach the highest tier, currently called Gold Certified Partners, which now has about 17,000 members. (In the MPN, the highest tier will be called “Advanced Competency.”)

Partners have multiple ways to earn Partner Points to reach that tier, not all of them based on their performance in actual customer engagements or their technical abilities.

Many partners have called for a higher threshold for the highest tier, on the grounds that with so many Gold Certified partners the label loses its significance and highly qualified partners have difficulty differentiating themselves. Fewer partners at the top tier also gives Microsoft the ability to invest more in its best partners—in business incentive funds, market development funds, free software, joint engagements, and other benefits—and less on partners who are less committed or capable.