Here's the thing, most partners don't see coming.
You think the partner journey is about climbing tiers,
silver to gold, gold to something shinier.
That used to be how it worked,
and most people still think that way,
but the program doesn't work like that anymore.
The real question is, what each badge actually
unlocks for your business.
You see a designation and you want it,
Microsoft announces a new program
and you rush to enroll.
But nobody stops to ask,
what does this actually do for my business?
Here's the gap you need to understand.
The program changed completely in 2022,
silver and gold are gone.
The Microsoft Cloud Partner Program launched in October 2022,
then rebranded to the AI Cloud Partner Program in July 2023.
But most partners are still operating like it's 2021,
thinking in terms of old competencies and old benefits,
and that's costing them real money.
So here's what we're covering today.
The partner journey has three distinct layers,
not a ladder with rungs, but three layers,
membership, solutions, partner designation, and specialization.
Each layer unlocks something different
and most partners never get past layer one.
Stick with this.
It changes how you think about your partnership with Microsoft.
Why the program changed and why it matters?
Silver and gold are officially gone.
The last renewals hit January 2025.
If you're still running on legacy silver or gold benefits,
your incentives run through September 2025,
and then that's it, no more renewals, no more extensions.
The old program is done, Microsoft killed it
because the old model measured the wrong thing.
Silver and gold were about inputs.
How many search your team holds, how many exams they passed,
how many competencies you stacked.
It was a checkbox game.
You could load up on certifications,
never deliver a thing, and still call yourself a gold partner.
The new model measures outputs.
Not what your team knows, but what your customers actually do.
How much of the Microsoft cloud are they consuming?
Are they using what you sold them?
Are they growing?
That's what matters now.
Microsoft retired the Microsoft Partner Network in October 2022,
launching the Microsoft Cloud Partner Program,
then rebranded to the AI Cloud Partner Program in July 2023.
The name changed, but the direction stayed the same.
Everything now points to customer outcomes.
Why does this shift matter to you?
The rules for getting recognized change completely.
You can't coast on old certifications,
you can't rest on deals you close three years ago.
The program is designed to measure
what you're doing right now with real customers
in the Microsoft Cloud.
If you're not driving consumption, you're not progressing.
So what does the new journey actually look like?
It starts with the layer most partners skip past too fast.
The membership layer, where most partners start install.
Membership is the entry point.
You go to partner.
Microsoft.com, fill out a form, get an MPN ID,
and that's it.
You're a Microsoft partner with access to marketing resources
and Microsoft learn but not much else.
You're in the system, but you're not really doing anything yet.
From there, Microsoft offers three paid membership bundles
starting at about $3.50 a year for Partner Launch, $925 for Partner Success Core,
and $4,125 for Partner Success Expanded.
Each one unlocks more product benefits.
Launch gives you starter Azure credits and small license bundles.
Enough to poke around, build a demo environment,
maybe train a couple people.
Core bumps that up to roughly $2,400 in Azure credits per year,
plus 15 user grounds for things like Microsoft 365 Business Premium,
Dynamics 365 Defender and Entra ID.
It's a solid package for a small team.
Expanded provides significantly higher quantities across the board
with more Azure credits, more user licenses,
and more sandbox environments.
It's the bundle that starts to look like
what old silver partners used to get.
But here's the problem.
Most partners stop here buying the cheapest bundle and calling it a day.
They never move past membership,
and membership alone doesn't unlock the real economics,
no backend incentives, no co-op funding, no MDF.
You're getting product benefits,
but you're not getting paid for the business you're bringing to Microsoft.
To get to the real money, you need to move to the next layer,
the solutions partner designation.
What a solutions partner designation actually requires.
So what does it take to get a solutions partner designation?
It all comes down to one number, your partner capability score.
You need 70 points out of 100,
with at least one point in every single symmetric.
You can't have a zero anywhere.
Score 90 points total, but have a zero in one category.
You don't qualify, that's the rule.
Your score comes from three categories.
Performance, worth 20 points, measuring net customer ads.
Are you bringing new customers into the Microsoft ecosystem?
Skilling worth 25 points based on your team's intermediate
and advanced certifications.
And customer success worth 55 points, more than half your entire score.
Customer success breaks into two pieces,
usage growth, which tracks whether your existing customers are using
more of the Microsoft cloud than last year,
and deployments, which measures whether you're landing new workloads with active use,
meaning more than 40% of licenses are actually being used.
That 40% threshold is the shelf way killer.
Microsoft doesn't want you selling licenses that sit in a drawer.
They want you driving real consumption.
This is the biggest shift from silver and gold.
In the old program, you could load up on certifications, stack competencies,
and never worry about whether your customers actually use the products.
You could be a gold partner with 135 people and zero customer adoption.
That doesn't work anymore.
You can't ignore usage growth and expect to hold a designation.
The cost to hold a solutions partner designation is $4,730 per year per designation.
Two designations cost 9,160, three cost 14,090.
It adds up, but the incentives you unlock at this layer
more than cover the cost if you're driving real business.
Here's how the timing works.
If you're not yet enrolled in a solution area,
your qualification window is the current month plus the previous five full months,
a rolling six month window.
If you're already enrolled, your window is your anniversary date plus a 30 day renewal window.
Once you qualify and purchase, the designation is valid for 13 months,
including that one month renewal window.
So you've got about a year before you need to re-qualify.
The designation you pursue depends on which solution area fits your business.
So let's look at what those areas actually are.
The six solution areas and the consolidation coming.
Here's the thing about the six designations.
Today you've got six solutions partner designations.
Business applications, data and AI, digital and app innovation,
infrastructure, security and modern work.
Three of those are Azure aligned, meaning data and AI, digital and app innovation
and infrastructure all tied directly to Azure workloads.
The other three are non-Azure business applications maps to Dynamics 365,
modern work maps to Microsoft 365 and security sits across both.
Now here's something coming that most partners don't know about.
In FY26, Microsoft is consolidating from six solution areas down to three commercial solution areas.
They haven't published the exact new names yet, but the direction is clear.
Fewer, broader areas that align to customer demand.
The idea is to make it easier for you to match your capabilities to what the market actually wants.
For most partners, the smart play is to start with modern work.
You're already selling Microsoft 365 and you already have customers using Exchange Teams SharePoint.
The path to a modern work designation is the shortest because you're already doing the work
and just need to formalize it.
From there, pick one second designation.
If you're strong in Azure, go with infrastructure or data and AI.
If you're seeing demand around security, go with security,
instead of chasing all six at once, pick two, get good at them and build from there.
Once you know which designation to pursue,
the next question is what it actually unlocks for you?
What solutions partner unlocks?
Benefits and incentives.
So you've done the work, hit the 70 point threshold and bought the designation.
Let's look at what you actually get.
First, the big one.
Solutions partner turns on backend incentives,
which are residual payments from Microsoft on top of what you make from licensing.
On eligible workloads, you typically get 4% to 20% backend incentives,
depending on what you're selling, which program is active.
This is not margin.
Margin is the discount you get from your distributor when you buy a license.
While backend incentives come from Microsoft directly,
based on what your customers consume, then there are the product benefits.
If you hold a modern work or security designation,
you get 100 Microsoft 365 E3 or E5 licenses to run your own business,
plus somewhere between $500 and $1,000 per month in Azure credits,
depending on the designation.
You also get 50 hours of technical pre-sales and deployment support.
That means when you're in a complex deal,
you can bring in Microsoft architects to help design the solution.
That alone is worth more than the cost of the designation.
You also get access to go-to-market resources like
Cossal eligibility, partner badging and marketplace listing.
These are the things that make you visible to Microsoft's own sales teams.
Without a designation, you're invisible to them,
but with one, you show up in their systems.
And there's the internal use rights piece,
and you can run your own business on Microsoft's stack at a fraction of the cost.
And that's not a small thing.
If you're a 50 person firm, having 103 E3 licenses covers your entire staff,
your Azure credits cover your dev and test environments,
and your dynamic sandboxes let you build practice demos.
You're essentially running your business on Microsoft's time.
Now here's the catch.
Backend incentives accrue in six months increments,
and how you get paid depends on volume.
For earnings under $10,000 per period,
Microsoft just cuts you a check every six months,
simple and straightforward, no strings attached.
For earnings over $10,000, it splits.
60% comes as a check, and 40% goes into a co-op bucket,
which is market development funds.
You have six months to spend that money on approved activities
like marketing events, digital campaigns, certifications,
ignite tickets and hotel and travel for Microsoft led events.
If you don't spend it, Microsoft takes it back.
Most partners have MDF sitting in that bucket right now,
and don't even know it.
There's a link in Partner Center under co-op management that shows your balance.
If you've never clicked it, go check because you might be leaving money on the table.
But the real money, the kind that changes your business,
doesn't start until you move to the next layer.
Specializations where the economics change.
Specializations sit on top of your solutions partner designation.
They approve of deep expertise in a specific scenario,
not broad capability but auditable,
verifiable depths that Microsoft or a third party validates.
This isn't a check box exercise.
The requirements are different from designations.
Designations are self-reported through your partner capability score.
Specializations, those get audited,
you need to show real customer deployments,
real consumption, real outcomes, how many can you stack?
For Azure, data and AI, digital and app innovation infrastructure,
you can count up to five for extra benefits per solution area.
For business applications, modern work and security,
the cap is three per area.
So you can't just collect them all.
You have to be strategic about which ones you pursue.
Advanced specialization is the top tier.
That's where Microsoft allocates the real resources,
deployment funds, assessment money, bounties.
These are not small numbers.
Here's the math that matters.
On a $100,000 Azure deal,
a solutions partner might earn about $21,000 in first year incentives.
That's back end incentives on the consumption
plus whatever programs they're enrolled in.
Decent, right?
An advanced specialized partner on the same deal
can earn up to $81,000 in the first year.
The difference is $60,000 on a single deal.
That's not a rounding error.
It's the difference between a good year and a great year.
Where does that extra money come from?
Deployment funds that pay you to do the migration?
Assessment fees that pay you to evaluate the customer's environment.
Bounties that pay you for net new workloads
all stacked on top of the back end incentives you're already earning.
That math is why every partner we work with gets pushed towards specialization.
The designation gets you in the game.
The specialization lets you win it.
The real economics, co-op, MDF, and what you're leaving on the table.
Let's get specific about how co-op actually works
because this is where most partners leave money on the table
without realizing it.
Here's the mechanics.
Back end incentives accrue in six month increments.
Microsoft tracks everything you earn across your eligible workloads
at the end of each six month period they look at your total.
If you're under $10,000 they cut you a check.
Straight payment, no MDF bucket, no co-op to manage.
You get the cash you move on.
If you're over 10,000 it splits.
60% comes as a check.
That's the deposit from Microsoft that shows up in your bank account with no explanation.
The other 40% goes into your MDF bucket, market development funds,
and you have six months to spend it.
What can you spend it on?
Marketing events, digital campaigns, certifications for your team,
ignite tickets, hotel and travel for Microsoft lead events,
pretty broad list.
Microsoft wants you using this money to drive more business,
not just pocketing it.
Here's what happens if you don't spend it.
Microsoft takes it back.
End of story.
You lose that money that was sitting in your bucket,
earmarked for your business.
Gone.
And Microsoft keeps it.
Now here's the part that surprises most partners.
Most of you have MDF sitting in that bucket right now
and you don't even know it.
There's a page and partner center under co-op management that shows your balance.
It's one of those links buried deep enough that most people never find it.
But it's there.
And the money is real.
This is cash that funds your go-to-market without touching your P&L.
You can run a marketing campaign,
send your team to ignite, pay for certifications,
all on Microsoft's dime.
But only if you know it's there and only if you spend it before the clock runs out.
So how do you actually build a plan to move through these layers
and make sure you're not leaving money behind?
Building your journey roadmap.
Where to start?
Start by logging into partner center
and pulling up your current partner capability score.
That's your baseline and you can't plan a route
if you don't know where you're standing.
See where you're strong and where you're weak.
If your customer success score is dragging,
that's the place to invest first.
Now pick one solution area to pursue.
Modern work is the easiest entry point
because you're already selling Microsoft 365
and your customers are already using exchange,
teams and SharePoint.
The path to a modern work designation is the shortest
because you're already doing the work.
You just need to formalize it.
Here's the shift most people miss.
Customer success is worth 55 points,
which is more than half of your total score.
So focus on usage growth and deployments
instead of spending all your energy chasing new logos.
Get your existing customers actually consuming what they've bought.
That alone will move your score more than anything else.
Once you hold the designation,
enroll in MCI engagements.
That's where you see what programs you're actually eligible for.
Microsoft has dozens of incentive programs
running at any given time.
Deployment funds, assessment offers, bounties,
but you have to enroll.
They don't just show up.
Then start targeting your first specialization.
Look at the requirements and build a six month plan
around what customer deployments you need,
what consumption targets hit,
and what certifications your team has to earn.
Map it out and start working toward it.
The partners who win are the ones who build a system,
not the ones who chase every new program.
You don't need to enroll in everything.
You need a repeatable process.
Sign one person in your org to own MCI engagements.
They track renewals, check for eligible programs,
and make sure you're not leaving money on the table.
One person, that's all it takes.
The one thing that separates partners
who scale from partners who store.
So here's where we land.
The partner journey is three layers, not a ladder.
Membership, Solutions Partner Designation, and Specialization.
Each layer unlocks something different,
and most partners stop at layer 102
and wonder why their incentives don't grow.
The difference between a Solutions Partner
and an Advanced Specialized Partner on a single deal
can be $60,000.
That's not a small gap.
That's the difference between a good year and a great year.
And it's sitting there for the partners who do the work.
Here's your homework.
This week, log into Partner Center,
check your partner capability score
and look at your MDF balance under co-op management.
If you're over $10,000 in earnings,
you have co-op dollars sitting there.
Spend them before Microsoft takes them back.
Start with the first layer we covered.
Membership, if you're not even there yet, that's where you begin.
If you are, move to the next layer.
Pick one solution area, build your score,
get the designation, and then start targeting your first specialization.
And if you want the full breakdown
of how to plan your specialization path,
that's the next video.
We'll walk through the specific requirements,
the timelines and the strategy
for picking the right specialization for your business.