Updates to Microsoft Partner Network Push the Cloud

Updates to sales incentive programs with an emphasis on the cloud and expanded software use rights were announced at this year’s Worldwide Partner Conference. The new and updated incentive programs offer partners margins on sales of licenses for strategic products, even to professional services partners who normally do not collect a percentage of license sales. New Large Account Reseller (LAR) deal incentives for timely Enterprise Agreement (EA) renewals and annual payments will spur earlier engagements with customers. Understanding these new incentives will give customers context for why partners are making certain purchasing recommendations and guidance.

What Is the Microsoft Partner Network?

Microsoft relies heavily on a broad network of business partners to sell licenses for its products, and it created the Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) program to ensure that these partners are effectively meeting the needs of customers. The MPN establishes partner competencies and sales accreditations that can be achieved in the MPN with completion of coursework and testing, and by meeting revenue goals, and these rankings can lead to high partner status; from subscriber, member (both of which do not have revenue generation requirements to maintain), silver, to gold status. With higher rankings come benefits to the partner, such as free software and use of the Microsoft partner logos on marketing materials. Partner status rankings are intended to align with Microsoft’s revenue-generation goals and put fewer but larger partners at the top, making it easier for customers to identify the most skilled and experienced partners.