By Mike Stinogel, Director, US Partner Incentives Team
In the Microsoft partner program, one of the benefits that partners get by being the Digital Partner of Record, is the eligibility to participate in incentive programs. Incentives are rewards for Microsoft sales or post sales activities like usage of Office 365, consumption of Azure, etc. Requirements for incentive programs vary from program to program, and in this post, I talk about the Cloud Solution Provider incentive program.
Thousands of partners are now participating in the Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider program. The Cloud Solution Provider program (CSP) makes it easy to build a Managed Services business with recurring revenue streams. CSP is the future of the through-partner sales for Microsoft Cloud Solutions. With CSP, you own the end-to-end customer relationship, including billing and support.
- The partner controls the billing relationship with a customer and can send a bill directly to the customer without Microsoft involvement.
- The partner controls what is included in the bill beyond Microsoft services and can bundle together offerings from other vendors, their own services, and Microsoft Cloud offerings into a single invoice.
And, as of July 1, 2017, Microsoft has added a third point of control:
- The partner now controls their qualification for CSP incentives.
- Prior to July 1, partners were required to have account management relationship with Microsoft to qualify for CSP incentives – a designation that was not completely controlled by the partner
- As of July 1, partners only need to be an active MPN member and achieve one of eight competencies to qualify. The incentives for the current fiscal year include a base rate paid on every dollar of monthly billed revenue and rich accelerators focused on Microsoft strategic priorities.
- Once the partner qualifies for incentives by achieving one of eight competencies and begins transacting CSP, an incentives enrollment email will be sent to the administrator listed on the partner’s MPN profile. Make sure your profile is updated with the most current contact.
Earn one of eight competencies listed below to qualify for CSP incentives:
- Windows and Devices
- Enterprise Mobility Management
- Cloud Customer Relationship Management
- Cloud Productivity
- Data Analytics
- Cloud Platform
- Small and Midmarket Cloud Solutions
- Data Platform
Make sure you are not leaving money on the table and attain your competency today!
Resources
- More detail and overviews of all incentives are available here
- Information on the Cloud Solution Provider program and the value of the program to your business available here
- Engage in the US Partner Yammer community in the Partner Incentives & Investments group
- Listen to the MPN 101 community call about incentives and investments
MPN 101 Community