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Appropriate roles: Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program partner admin
A partner capability score is a composite score that quantifies the performance of a partner in three categories:
Partner capability scores are calculated from measurements of information that is already captured in Partner Center.
Each of these six solution areas has a maximum of 100 points across the three categories:
Each of the three categories, performance, skilling, and customer success, has metrics with various weights and thresholds. When you reach a metric's threshold, you receive the maximum weighted points for that metric. You get partial points for any progress on that metric.
Category | Performance | Max points | Skilling | Max points | Customer success | Max points |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Metrics | Net customer adds | xx | Intermediate certifications | xx | Usage growth | xx |
Advanced certifications | xx | Deployments | xx |
To qualify for a Solutions Partner designation, you must meet the following criteria:
All partners must qualify on at least one day in their qualification window in order to enroll or renew their Solutions Partner designations.
If the partner isn't enrolled in a given solution area:
The qualification eligibility window includes the current month and the previous five, full calendar months, and rolls forward each month. For example, if the partner isn't enrolled in Modern Work, and today is August 15, 2024, then in order to be eligible, they must have been qualified for at least one day between March 1, 2024 - August 15, 2024.
At the start of each month, the qualification window rolls forward one month to include the previous five full calendar months, plus the current month. For example, on August 1, 2024, the qualification window would be March 1, 2024 - August 1, 2024, and on August 31, 2024, the qualification window would be March 1, 2024 - August 31, 2024. On September 1, 2024, the qualification window would be April 1, 2024 - September 1, 2024, and on September 30, 2024, the qualification window would be April 1, 2024 - September 30, 2024.
Qualification window dates:
Current month | Qualification window |
---|---|
January | August - January |
February | September - February |
March | October - March |
April | November - April |
May | December - May |
June | January - June |
July | February - July |
August | March - August |
September | April - September |
October | May - October |
November | June - November |
December | July - December |
If the partner is enrolled in a given solution area:
The qualification eligibility window includes the month of the partner's anniversary date and the last five months. For example, if the partner is enrolled in Modern Work, and the Anniversary date is August 15, 2024, then the partner continues to be enrolled until August 15, 2024, even if their partner capability score decreases. The partner has to qualify on at least one day during the qualification window, which in this example is from March 1, 2024-August 31, 2024.
The qualification window also includes the partner's renewal window (30 days after the partner's anniversary date). If the partner qualifies at any time during the renewal window, the partner will be eligible to renew their current enrollment.
If the partner hasn't met the requirements on any day in the qualification window or renewal window, the partner will be ineligible to renew. If the partner meets the qualifications after the expiration of their renewal window, the partner will be able to re-enrol in the designation.
The Scoring history page displays the scores of the current month and the last five months.
Current Membership / purchase | Qualification criteria | Purchase scenario |
---|---|---|
Legacy Gold/Silver | If you aren't enrolled in any solution area, then you need to achieve Qualified status during the qualification eligibility window. | You don't need to purchase the Solutions Partner designation. Once you qualify for any solution area, you're automatically enrolled into the solution area. |
Solutions Partner | If you're enrolled in any solution area, then you continue to be in Enrolled status in that solution are until the Anniversary date. During the renewal window, you need to renew the solutions partner designation, for which you need to achieve Qualified status on at least one day during the qualification eligibility window. The qualification eligibility window includes the renewal month and the previous months. | You need to renew the Solutions Partner designation in the upcoming renewal window. |
Solutions Partner | If you're already enrolled in one solution area, and when you achieve qualified status in any other solution area during the qualification eligibility window, you're automatically enrolled in the other solution area. | You don't need to purchase a Solutions Partner designation because you're already a solutions partner. |
Not a Solutions Partner and not a legacy Gold / Silver partner | Once you achieve Qualified status in any solution area, on at least one day during the qualification eligibility window, then you're eligible to purchase a Solutions Partner designation. The qualification eligibility window includes the current month and the last the five months. | You need to purchase the solutions partner designation on the Membership offers page to get Enrolled in this solution area. |
Some solution areas have disparate partners with growth strategies and work with customers of different sizes. In two of those solution areas—Modern work and Business applications—we've created multiple tracks, and each track has different thresholds to attain points to qualify for a Solutions Partner designation.
There are two distinct attainment paths to earn a Solutions Partner designation in the Modern work and Business applications areas.
Each path has its own thresholds and qualifying criteria to earn points to qualify for a Solutions Partner designation.
In Modern Work Solutions area, we evaluate you on both paths. We then choose the highest of the two partner capability scores towards qualifying for the designation. In Business Applications Solutions area, your organization is automatically categorized into one of the two tracks, depending on the number and the size of customers you tend to serve.
A partner capability score is a composite score that quantifies the performance of a partner in the categories of performance, skilling, and customer growth.
The performance category measures the ability of partners to expand both your and Microsoft's customer base. Its primary metric is Net customer adds.
Net customer adds:
The skilling category measures capabilities and skills acquired as the number of people in a partner organization who are certified.
Specific certifications and courses are required in each of the six solution areas. Credits in the skilling category are based on the certifications earned by learners linked to your organization.
There are two metrics in the skilling category:
As solution areas evolve and change, required certifications are expected to change as well. For the latest required certifications, see the Partner Center pages for that solution area.
The customer success category measures your organization's ability to enable growth in the use of Microsoft products, or in the expansion of Microsoft's services and workloads used by customers.
The are two metrics in the customer success category, usage growth and deployments.
Sign in to Partner Center and select Membership.
If you don't see the Membership workspace, check your assigned roles in Partner Center. You must have the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program partner admin role to view the Membership workspace.
Select Solutions Partner > Overview. Here's what the status means for each solution area.
Select View details for any of the solution area cards on the page, or select any solution area of interest on the navigation menu.
The page that appears shows the details of your partner capability score for the solution area. If multiple tracks are available for the solution area, the page shows the score of the selected track. You can change the selected track by selecting the page title that also contains the name of the selected track.
After you select a track, multiple cards appear—one for each metric that makes up the partner capability score for that solution area. Each of these metric cards provides you with several details about the metric: the criteria, your score, and other details for the metric. To view an example of these details, see the following figure.
Selecting View Details, you can also download the data that contributes to the score calculation so that you can analyze and take appropriate actions to get qualified wherever the required score isn't met. For example:
The Recommendations section shows suggested actions to help you improve your score, or to help you avoid a reduction in your score.
Performance and Customer Success subcategories are typically refreshed by the 20th of every month. However, there might be more minor data refreshes throughout the month.
Skilling subcategories are typically refreshed within 10 days after certification is completed.
Events
19 Nov, 11 pm - 21 Nov, 11 pm
Discover the latest partner benefits with product enhancements to support AI practice growth at Microsoft Ignite online.
Register now