The new era of business is here as companies continue on their digital transformation journeys. To address the partner-centered $4.5 trillion transformation opportunity, Microsoft continues to evolve its partner program, the Microsoft Partner Network, to provide the resources you need to build and sustain a profitable cloud practice, connect with customers and prospects, and differentiate your business. In the US Partner Community, we’ll connect you to those resources, as well as to subject-matter experts from across the Microsoft US Partner Team.

At Microsoft Inspire 2017, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella laid out the path to enabling digital transformation through four solution areas. Judson Althoff, Microsoft Executive Vice President, Worldwide Commercial Business, focused the four pillars of digital transformation. Customer-focused, industry-focused, and partner-powered, these priorities provide a guideline for where you’ll see the US Partner Team align its people, programs, and investments.

• Watch the Vision Keynotes at Inspire 2017 about digital transformation

In this online guide, I’ll share what I think are the best links where you can stay informed and engage with the US Partner Community and Microsoft. Choose your favorite way (or ways) to get the news and information relevant to your business and areas of interest. In addition to this post, you can download our slide that lists and links to these resources.

Partner newsletter and training schedule

The US Partner Team works with other Microsoft US teams, with the product teams, and with our worldwide counterparts to identify, curate, and publish partner-related news and information. These two online publications are regularly updated to provide you with timely and actionable content:

• US partner news online – this weekly post brings together product and program announcements, new resources, and training opportunities, all with a partner focus. Subscribe to the US Partner Community blog by email or RSS feed
• Hot Sheet training schedule – this monthly post is updated frequently as we learn about new partner courses, webcasts, office hours, and community calls. You’ll get a 6- to 8-week outlook, so you can plan ahead.

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook

We provide timely updates about US partner-relevant news and information throughout the business day on Twitter and Facebook. We appreciate your likes, shares, and comments.

@msuspartner - The US Partner Community Twitter channel covers all partner-relevant topics

@mslearningcurve - The US Partner Enablement channel provides notifications about partner-related training courses, webcasts, and calls

Follow the US Partner Community page on Facebook

In addition to our primary social channels on Twitter and Facebook, we post community calls to YouTube for on-demand viewing, and continue discussions on Linkedin.

• US Partner Community YouTube channel
• Microsoft US Partner Community Linkedin Group

Practice-building technical communities

We’ve simplified the number of technically focused communities we offer to the US Partner Community that help you start, build, and extend your Microsoft practice. These communities are led by technical subject-matter experts, and activities for each include blog posts, community calls, and Yammer group discussions.

*If you haven’t joined the US Partner Yammer Community yet, please request an invite at https://aka.ms/uspyammer

The US Partner Community blog brings together all US Partner related articles, information, and training calendar in one place, and is yet another way for you to stay updated as a Microsoft US Partner.

Business-oriented communities

Join the US Partner Community Yammer network

With more than 16,000 Microsoft and partner members, our Yammer network offers all US partners an opportunity to get just-in-time news and information and connect with Microsoft and other partners. You are encouraged to like, comment, and ask questions in the community—both Microsoft and partner subject-matter experts are happy to share their knowledge. One-page guide

Step 1

Join Yammer at yammer.com, and activate your account. If your company uses Yammer internally, join that network first.

Step 2

Request an invitation to join the US Partner Community Yammer network at yammer.com/msuspartner.

• You must join this network with an email address from a corporate domain—public domains like Hotmail, Outlook.com, Gmail, Yahoo, Live.com, etc. will not be accepted
• Email addresses must be for individuals, not for entities or teams (e.g., “salesteam@partnername.com” will not be approved)
• We check for invitation requests to our community several times a day, and typically send invitations (by email) within a couple of hours on weekdays
• Accept the invitation by clicking through the link provided in the email, and you will be a member of the US Partner Community Yammer network

Step 3

Find, join, and participate in groups that match your areas of interest. In addition to the Yammer groups above for our practice-building and business-oriented communities, consider joining these groups:

• MPN 101
• Marketing SureStep
• Partner Incentives and Investments
• Training Recommendations
• Microsoft Inspire (previously WPC)