MPN: Rolling in right

Microsoft
announced the revamped Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) in October
2010 and in the last couple of months, the company had seen a great
momentum with its partners to drive specialization and
differentiation through MPN competencies.

Vineet
Kshirsagar, director, partner strategy and programs, Microsoft India
says, “We have started integrating the network in our engagement
activities like for example Pinpoint Profiling, through partner
activities, partner incentives, etc. The feedback from the partners
have been positive, and going ahead, the task is to build a more
scalable business and the concept is 'win together' with our
partner ecosystem.”

MPN
EXPLAINED

A partner can
engage with MPN at various levels, and each level of engagement has
its own set of value offerings associated with it. The first and the
most basic level of engagement is being a network member. The second
level is that of different communities, which is as follows-Microsoft
Small Business Specialist, Microsoft WebsiteSpark, and Microsoft
BizSpark. Through these communities, the company offers its partners
a platform to make real-time connections, which will help them to
stimulate new ideas and build relationships. Kshirsagar adds, “These
communities have enabled our partners deliver impactful solutions,
establish strong network and win customer loyalty.”

Apart from
the above, there is a subscription model that include categories like
Microsoft Action Pack-Solution Provider, Microsoft Action
Pack-Development & Design, and Microsoft Cloud Essentials Pack.
Through these models partners have the option to improve and broaden
their skillsets. Furthermore, it enable solution providers,
developers and web designers to access software, development tools,
training, market visibility and support. “In addition, these
subscription are very competitively priced so that the partners are
encouraged to access these options without much financial stress,”
states Kshirsagar.

Under MPN,
the partners are also classified as per their competencies. Primarily
they are put under 2 sections-gold and silver. Gold category, also
known as Microsoft Partner Gold Business Intelligence, provides the
greatest level of marketplace differentiation for the partner as per
the company. A gold certified partner indicates that the partner has
achieved the deepest, most consistent, best-in-class capabilities and
is among the leaders within a specific Microsoft solution area.
While, silver category is also called Microsoft Partner Silver
Search, wherein this certification differentiates the partner in the
marketplace by clearly demonstrating highest level of proficiency and
expertise within a specific Microsoft solution area.

Elaborating
upon this, Kshirsagar says,“Microsoft Action Pack-Solution Provider
and Microsoft Action Pack-Development and Design are the 2
cost-effective, annual subscriptions that provide access to software,
technical support, training and sales and marketing tools. Currently,
we have more than 850 solution provider partners, and more than 550
development and design partners. Though the uptake has been balanced
previously, we now see a trend where 'development and design' is
growing at a higher rate.”

Post the
introduction of the changes in MPN, there was a possibility of
partners being demoted from gold to silver. Clearing all the doubts,
Kshirsagar says, “There is no question of demotion. The legacy MSPP
and the new MPN, are set on different models altogether. The gold
competency level is at a higher level and I would say a lot of
partners decided to get promoted and some chose so stay back at
silver.”

Suresh
Ramani, CEO, TechGyan said, “We are really proud to be a part of
the Microsoft Partner Network program. Over the last 12 months, the
new changes incorporated into the program has helped the partners to
be focused on some of the specialized technology fields. It ensures
partners focus on the technology so that customers can leverage their
expertise efficiently and effectively. We are focused on 5 different
technologies which include-cloud, active directory, virtualization,
MS—Exchange
and MS-Sharepoint. This further has helped us to groom our business
revenue on the Microsoft led revenue.

The revised
program is designed to equip the organizations in a way that they
deliver products and services through the Microsoft platform along
with the training, resources and support, which is in order to
provide their customers superior experience and outcome. As per the
revised structure of the program, partners are supposed to
successfully complete a set of tests to prove their level of
expertise over technology and submit customer references to earn a
Microsoft Gold Competency. Also, the vendor is organizing weekly
training programs (onsite and online) to educate its partners to
focus on the strengths and enhance their go-to-market strategy
skills.

ADDITIONAL
PERKS

The company
boasts that the MPN is a partner network and under this ambit the
company claims to provide a wide range of opportunities, support and
benefits to the partners; and depending on the engagement level of
the partner their access to these benefits varies. The benefits are
tailored to suit the partners' sales lifecycle, starting from the
planning stage to closing details and retaining the customer. Plan
(internally used software), enable (partner learning center, hands on
labs, web trainings etc), create demand (through partner marketing,
Microsoft Pinpoint ), sell (channel incentives), service (partner
technical services-Breakfix, business critical and technical
support) and retain (customer satisfaction index); MPN has it all.
Kshirsagar adds, “As per the survey report, MPN acts as a force
multiplier, and partners who leverage all these benefits from MPN,
experience a 28% growth in revenue per employee, and 68% growth in
deal size.”

FUTURE
AHEAD

Going ahead,
the company's new initiatives will be in line with strengthening
its partner's capacity and capability. This will align with the
emerging marketing opportunities and deeper and systematic partner
engagements with greater responsiveness to the market.