Microsoft (MSFT) is hosting its annual Worldwide Partner Conference July 12-16 in Orlando, and the company has already begun previewing what attendees can expect. Hint: Remember the Mobile First, Cloud First mantra espoused by then-new CEO Satya Nadella? There’ll be more of that. But this year it’s an idea more mature and more grounded than last year.

And that’s good for partners, said Phil Sorgen, corporate vice president of the Worldwide Partner Group at Microsoft. In an interview with The VAR Guy, Sorgen said a noticeable change is occurring among the partner ranks.

“Two things are happening: status and a split occurring. Status is, we feel really good about our progress in that a number of partners are starting to participate in cloud-oriented business. There is a progression of why, how and how to turn that into a core business,” he said. “We are past the why, made a lot of progress on the how and now it’s about acceleration, which is key.

“In the split, we are seeing a category of partners emerge that are building first-party IP as a unique capability and differentiator and are learning how to monetize that,” he added. “They are accelerating to the cloud and world of services more rapidly and seeing greater success than the rest of the ecosystem.”

Much of partners’ success is due to Microsoft’s moves to enable partners that are more agile and quick in moving to new cloud- and mobile-focused business models, he said. And that includes ways to help them through the transition to a services-focused business.

“Partners know they have to transform but they still have to perform,” Sorgen said.

Beyond embracing the cloud first, mobile first philosophy, Microsoft is seeing its more successful partners diving deep into digital marketing. “And that’s not just SEO and SEM, it’s their digital profile and leveraging social,” Sorgen said. “How your digital profile extends your profile to new set of customers is important.”

Indeed, Microsoft has identified the traits of its more successful partners in a recently released white paper, which also lists a services-focused sales force and selling beyond its traditional borders as factors for success.

“… [Successful partners] were transforming their sales model to focus on their unique differentiation and driving to recurring revenues,” he said. “[They also recognize] cloud erases borders—many solution providers are local in nature. But cloud enables them to expand to the globe. Those that have taken advantage of porous borders are growing faster.”

Which circles back to the cloud first, mobile first business model.

“We continue to believe our success will be achieved through highly successful partner ecosystem to make cloud first, mobile first a reality. That’s where our focus is. The core focus at WPC is how to continue to help our channel make that transition,” Sorgen said.