Summary of Microsoft Initiatives for Partners

The Microsoft Partner Program (MSPP) provides a core set of requirements and benefits for partners, and Microsoft has also created many other initiatives for partners. Some of these initiatives require that a company already be part of the MSPP; others are available for companies that aren’t.

Making a complete list of the benefits inside and out of the program is difficult: Microsoft is still rolling out many of them and replacing or updating others. This chapter describes most of the services provided by the MSPP, and some offered by other parts of Microsoft, using a framework by which Microsoft organizes the partner program. This framework includes the following phases: planning and recruiting partners, enabling partners, creating demand for partner products and services, selling Microsoft products through partners (and partner products through Microsoft), servicing partners, and retaining partners.

(For a list of the programs that are specifically part of the MSPP, see the illustration “MSPP Initiatives“. Other partner-related programs can be found by going to Microsoft’s partner Web site and related Web pages, listed in the chapter “Resources“.)