by Dann Anthony Maurno, Assistant Editor
There’s no “I” in “team,” but there’s a “U” in “unappreciated”, “unrecognized”, and “undervalued”, all of which can happen when multiple Microsoft partners cooperate on a single cloud-based solution.
In response to partner feedback, Microsoft is optimizing its Digital Partner of Record (DPOR) process and introducing different ways to measure and recognize the multiple partners on any single subscription. So describes Microsoft’s general manager, Worldwide Partner Group Gavriella Schuster in a blog post.
As Schuster describes:
[W]e know that both partners and customers benefit when multiple partners are associated with cloud subscriptions and delivering on their areas of strength and specialty. Because of this, we’re turning our attention to new ways we can recognize all partners driving customer usage of our cloud services, from “Sell and Deploy” to “Manage and Use.”
Improving the DPOR process
Digital Partner of Record (DPOR) has been the primary path for partners to earn cloud-based competencies and benefits, get visibility into their cloud business, and get information and insights to help optimize customers’ solutions and find additional opportunities to drive active usage.
Currently, when a customer designates a partner as the Digital Partner of Record on a cloud subscription, it allows Microsoft to:
- Pay that partner incentives based on the customer’s usage and consumption
- Measure the partner’s services capacity
- Track towards ultimately qualifying the partner for cloud-based competencies.
Also true, the DPOR gains insight into customers’ cloud service usage and consumption, and knows when customers are at risk of non-renewal. Microsoft will continue to pay qualifying partner incentives solely to the partner whom customers set as their Digital Partner of Record.
How do non-DPOR partners get credit (if not cash)?
Through an expanded review process, second, third, fourth partners (and beyond) will be recognized for their performance through accelerated progress towards Cloud Competency qualification. Before, only the DPOR received credit toward the competency.
For non-DPOR partners, data about their work from the following four sources will help them earn credit and qualify for the competency sooner:
- Microsoft Sales (for the transacting partner of Enterprise Agreements and Open licenses)
- Commerce Platform (for CSP subscriptions)
- FastTrack Onboarding Center
- Delegated Admin Privileges (per workload)
While Microsoft continues to pay incentives only to one partner per subscription for deployment and lifecycle-related work, the company says it will be looking at ways to recognize the other partners associated with a cloud subscription.
Microsoft will continue to defer to the DPOR when customers seek assistance, thus says Schuster, “If you want to be the first point of contact for your customers, the Digital Partner of Record moniker is the way to go.”
Microsoft’s bottom line: when multiple partners are involved in customers’ cloud subscriptions, everyone benefits.