Copaco Cloud - Get more out of your Microsoft Partner Programme

How to get more out of your Microsoft Partner Programme   

Many partners unknowingly leave money that they are entitled to from their Microsoft partnership. These rewards can amount to thousands of euros per year. Nice pocket money right? In this blog, I, Dirk Cortenbach, Product Manager within the Cloud team, will tell you more about the Microsoft Partner Programme and my experience with partners on this subject. 

The Microsoft Cloud Partner Programme    

Last year, Microsoft completely overhauled its Partner Programme, rebranding the Microsoft Partner Network as the Microsoft Cloud Partner Programme. The Silver and Gold competencies disappeared and were replaced by so-called Solutions Partner designations. In addition, partners must achieve a minimum number of points to (continue to) enjoy the associated benefits such as internal licences and the extra revenue. 

The points to be achieved by a Microsoft partner relate to three components:   

• New clients 
• Obtaining the right Microsoft certifications 
• Ensuring that customers grow in the use of key applications within a Microsoft 365 suite. 

In practice    

Apart from the new partner programme, in practice I have already spoken to many partners on this topic, where I see the following challenges passing by: 

• Partners have been paying a competency for some time, but have never activated the incentive programmes 
• Partners think they are receiving a reward, but have forgotten to renew their competency 

• A (former) colleague would track this, but no action was taken on it 
• Marketing money expired because no claims were made. 

Many partners are not sufficiently aware of partnership opportunities. As a result, they miss out on revenue to which they are entitled with their status, which is a shame.

What I generally hear is that the Microsoft Partner Centre, the portal where all benefits can be found, is visited once a year to renew competence and internal licences. Among other things, activating the incentive programmes, where rewards of sometimes thousands of euros can be earned, is regularly forgotten. 

 

This is how you receive extra income 

When you sell Microsoft NCE subscriptions as a partner, you will be rewarded by Microsoft. The more subscriptions you sell, the higher your reward. Sounds logical, but besides that, it also depends on the type of cloud services.

Microsoft meanwhile expects partners to be upselling to the Modern Workplace, adding Security solutions or selling Power Platform, for example. In that case, the reward from Microsoft is higher than if your customers buy regular Exchange Online or Microsoft 365 Business Basic or Standard subscriptions from you.

Microsoft Rebate Optimisation programme 

Besides the fact that not all benefits are used optimally, there are also many questions about the new partner programme. Many partners are currently still using their "old" Silver or Gold competence, or legacy benefits, and they must now start focusing on the aforementioned components. Suddenly, there are a number of points in the Partner Centre and this raises quite a few questions.  

 

To help you as a partner, we set up our Microsoft Rebate Optimisation programme early last year. With this we give you insight into the opportunities that a Microsoft partnership offers you, help you with challenges and ensure that you get the most out of this partnership and your rebates. After all, there is more to it than in-house licences and incentives. We would like to help you with the new Microsoft Cloud Partner Programme and tell you more about the different components and what to look out for.   

 

If you would like more information on this, please let me know. 
And is the above information perhaps recognisable and or can I help you with something? Let me know via cloud.belgium@copaco.com or call 040 2 306 340.