The annual Microsoft Inspire partner conference is essential for Microsoft partners seeking to align with Microsoft priorities, programs and incentives. Following are top takeaways to consider as you tune your alliance for Microsoft fiscal year 2022.
Marketplace fees dropped to 3%. This is positioned as a reduction from 20% (10% for Azure IP co-sell solutions). With that said, 3% undercuts rates from other cloud marketplaces. When you compare with the services and cost of consumer credit card processing, it is a great deal.
AppSource picks up transacting capabilities (supporting credit cards and invoicing). This opens up marketplace purchasing for line of business applications.
Reduced marketplace channel conflict. This fall, Microsoft will add the ability to share margin with channel partners when transacting through marketplaces. This will address the channel conflict concern ISVs have had. In addition, access to 90K CSP partners is an attractive partner recruit opportunity for ISVs.
Business Applications ISV Connect fees drop and the program gets simpler. ISV Connect cost has been a challenge for ISVs since it was introduced. The program has been simplified to 1 tier instead of invitation-only 20% and standard 10% tier fees, and the fee is now 3%. This is reasonable for ISVs that run in Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 tenant.
Microsoft internal co-sell incentives improve. Co-sell credit isn’t as skewed toward SaaS solutions and the deal sizing structure doesn’t drive Microsoft sellers to focus just on jumbo partner deals.
Industry organizations remain intact and Industry Priority Scenarios are updated for FY22. Get on board the co-sell planning train - ask your PDM for access to industry and regional partner kickoff events happening this summer.
You can find product updates and other Inspire announcements at the Inspire Book of News.
I found the Cloud PC (portable Windows OS across devices) and Teams improvements most interesting. It is also good to track Microsoft Industry Clouds evolution.
Last but not least, congratulations to the Microsoft US Partner Award winners!