The news is in, Microsoft has announced changes in its Partner Network Program, with the retirement of silver and gold competencies and the introduction of solution area criteria. Named as the “Microsoft Cloud Partner Program,” the program was developed to reflect the evolution of customer demands in an ever-changing marketplace and deliver successful customer outcomes.
This is the biggest change to Microsoft’s partner program since 2009 when it replaced the earlier Microsoft Partner Program with the current Microsoft Partner Network. Since its launch, Microsoft implemented various changes to their Partner Program which impacts what partners need to achieve to be recognized in the network, this includes Gold and Silver Competencies which have been the long-standing qualifying criteria.
Mint Group is excited and geared to evolve with tech giant Microsoft, as we work toward achieving our mission to create tomorrow by inspiring our employees, clients, partners, and communities through innovative technology solutions.
To replace the Gold and Silver Competency program, Microsoft will be recognizing partners across six solution areas, according to their achievement in each pillar with regards to performance, skills (intermediate & advanced certifications), Customer Success, and Usage (Digital enablement of deployed customer solutions). A scoring system is utilized to track achievement and complemented with a scoring simulator, providing MCCP Partners with various scenarios to plan attainment.
Solution Partner Designations
“I am happy to confirm that Mint Group has already achieved five of the six Solution Partner Designations and will be working toward the sixth attainment in the coming months, with the assistance of our clients, partners, and SuperMinties.”
- Data & AI (Azure)
- Infrastructure (Azure)
- Digital & App Innovation (Azure)
- Business Applications
- Modern Work
- Security
How Mint Can Help You in Your Journey
As a Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) with expertise across all 3 Microsoft Clouds – Azure, Dynamics 365, and Microsoft 365, we craft solutions to help improve customer experience, increase agility, improve operational efficiency, and accelerate the digital transformation journey with AI and cognitive services for businesses and government institutions globally. Our industry expertise adds a further layer of differentiation and provides our clients and partners with solutions to satisfy the demands for industry solutions.
What does this mean for your business?
Working with a solution area or industry specialist partner means you can accelerate your business through intelligent customer service delivery, value for money, and enabling scale to meet your business and customer needs.
Microsoft’s NCE
As part of the changes to the Microsoft Partner Landscape, the New Commerce Experience (NCE) model was also announced earlier this year. NCE for Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Windows 365, and Power Platform subscriptions is the latest in the evolution of Microsoft’s CSP program. It provides the opportunity to simplify and manage subscriptions, billing, licensing, and payments.
The New Commerce Experience makes it easier to transact with Microsoft, as well as accelerates the growth of business and the ability to drive cloud adoption for customers. It delivers a consistent, simplified licensing, and flexible purchase experience for customers and partners.
We now move into the new phase of NCE, whereby clients not yet on NCE, will only be able to amend licensing on the legacy subscription model till 30 June 2022, whereafter clients will not be able to purchase outside of NCE.
Please keep an eye out for communications in this regard from Mint Group as we look to assist partners and clients on this journey to a simplified procurement model.
Cloud For All
At Mint we know that our culture and values drive our delivery and our client satisfaction. As a committed Microsoft Partner, we look forward to the new journey and working together to achieve more with Microsoft.
