Making the Grade

Microsoft launched a dashboard in its Partner Center portal that lets partners determine their scores in the six categories. Among several longtime Microsoft partners interviewed by Channel Futures, none scored above 70 in all six.

Besides the new scoring requirements, partners are concerned about the short timetable they to join the new program. By Oct. 1, partners must either sign up for the new Microsoft Cloud Partner Program or renew their legacy MPN partnerships for one more year. But those wanting to capitalize on the new designations will have to move quickly.

“It’s doable but it will be challenging,” said Peter Fidler, president and founding partner of WCA Technologies, a New York-based MSP. “We’re just going to have to be focused and not wait until Oct. 1. I’d say the planning needs to start now. We need to assign it out with short-term goals. Because if you give this to somebody and say, ‘You need to do this,’ and you don’t give them a path to do whatever that is, it just becomes intimidating. So, we we’ll need to break it down into little chunks, so for our people, and think about it strategically.”

Thinking strategically takes into consideration the investment required in certifying and readying the right people.

“Because we’re also in the middle of the ‘Great Resignation,’ we don’t want to commit to somebody who will all of a sudden they leave on Oct. 1,” Fidler said.