Solutions Partner for Modern Work

Appropriate roles: Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program partner admin

A Solutions Partner for Modern work demonstrates a broad capability to help customers boost their productivity and make the shift to hybrid work using Microsoft 365.

To earn this designation, your partner capability score must meet the qualification requirements for this area. You need a minimum of 70 points out of a possible 100 to attain a solutions partner designation.

The score is measured in three categories - partner performance, skilling, and customer success. Your partner capability score calculates from data that is already recorded in Partner Center.

You must attain at least one point in each of the following individual metrics and at least 70 total points.

  • Performance - Net customer adds
  • Skilling - Intermediate certifications
  • Skilling - Advanced certifications
  • Customer success - Usage growth
  • Customer success - Deployments

You can track your progress towards attaining the Solutions Partner for Modern work designation in Partner Center.

Start here

  1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Membership > Solutions Partner > Overview. You need the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program partner admin role to view the Membership workspace.
  2. Open the Modern Work details and review your Enterprise and SMB scores. Check all five individual metrics, not just the total score.
  3. Review the eligible customer associations, workloads, and paid-seat requirements for each metric in this article.
  4. Link your Microsoft Learn profile and Skilling Hub account so that eligible learning achievements can contribute to your organization's skilling score.
  5. If a customer or score is missing, follow Troubleshoot missing customers and scores before creating a support request.
  6. When you're qualified, review enrollment and renewal status, purchase the designation, and review the benefits.

Two attainment paths: Enterprise and small and medium business

Microsoft offers two distinct paths for achieving the Solutions Partner for Modern Work designation: the Enterprise path and the Small and Medium Business (SMB) path, each with its own set of criteria. This dual-path approach lets partners select the path that aligns with their customer focus, whether it be SMB or Enterprise customers.

Microsoft evaluates partners on both paths and selects the highest score from either path. Microsoft selects the highest score at the solution area level, rather than at the individual metric level, to determine qualification. This process helps to ensure that partners can use the path that best suits their business strategy.

You can't combine the best individual metric scores from the Enterprise and SMB paths to create a qualifying score.

Performance category

The Performance category is a measure of your organization's ability to increase the customer base using Microsoft products for Modern work and productivity.

There's one metric in the Performance category:

The Net customer adds Enterprise path criteria and SMB path criteria are different. The details are explained in the following sections.

Performance: Net customer adds metric

The Net customer adds metric for Modern Work is the change in the number of qualifying customer tenants over the trailing 12-month period. A customer tenant must meet the applicable workload, paid-seat, and association requirements to contribute to the count.

Scoring:

Enterprise track: Each net new customer added contributes to four points, for up to a maximum of 20 points, from five customers.

SMB track: Each net new customer added contributes two points, for up to a maximum of 20 points, from 10 customers.

Calculation:

Net customer adds = [Total qualifying current customer tenants] - [Total qualifying customers tenants 12 months ago]

Compare the latest available reporting month with the corresponding month 12 months earlier, not with the previous month. Adding customers doesn't necessarily increase the net value: customers that no longer qualify can offset new qualifying customers.

The following illustrative examples show the raw Net customer adds value, not the points awarded:

Current qualifying tenants Qualifying tenants in the corresponding month last year Net customer adds
12 10 2
10 10 0
8 10 -2

For a positive net value of two qualifying customers, the SMB scoring rate produces four points and the Enterprise scoring rate produces eight points, subject to the 20-point maximum.

Eligible customer tenants:

Enterprise track: Each customer tenant that has at least one workload with paid licenses greater than 300 is counted as an eligible tenant.

SMB Track: Each customer tenant that has least one workload with paid licenses between 11 to 300 is counted as an eligible tenant. A customer tenant promoted to Enterprise remains eligible for SMB if it was classified as SMB in the previous year

The paid-seat requirement applies to at least one eligible workload within a customer tenant. Don't add unrelated workloads or seats from different customer tenants together to meet that requirement. A product or subscription name alone doesn't establish metric eligibility; check the eligible workload and its paid seats.

Note

The same tenant can participate in both the Enterprise and SMB tracks.

Eligible workloads:

The eligible workloads for both tracks include:

  • Exchange Online
  • Intune
  • M365 Copilot
  • Microsoft 365 Apps
  • Microsoft Entra ID P1
  • SharePoint Online
  • Teams
  • Teams Apps
  • Teams for Frontline Workers
  • Teams Meetings
  • Teams Phone
  • Teams Phone calling
  • Teams Phone Enabled Users
  • Teams Rooms Monthly Active Devices
  • Viva Connections
  • Viva Engage
  • Viva Goals
  • Viva Insights
  • Viva Learning
  • Viva Topics
  • Windows 365

Eligible association types:

Track Eligible association types
Enterprise Claiming Partner of Record (CPOR), Digital Partner of Record (DPOR)
SMB CPOR, Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) Tier 1 or Tier 2

Delegated administrative privileges (DAP) or granular delegated admin privileges (GDAP) provide administrative access. That access alone isn't one of the eligible associations listed in this table. A customer you can administer must still have an eligible association for the track and metric.

For CPOR, verify the customer, workload, partner location, and association status in Incentives > Customer claims. An approved association doesn't mean the same data is already available in the designation score. See Create customer associations with the Claiming Partner of Record model and Data freshness.

A customer can have multiple partners, but a Modern Work and Security Usage workload can be associated with only one partner through the CPOR claiming process. If a claim is rejected, review the reason and resolve the claim issue through the relevant Incentives support workflow rather than treating the rejected claim as a qualifying association.

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Skilling category

The skilling category measures your organization's skills and capabilities by using the number of persons who have an eligible certification.

Important

Retired certifications: If an eligible certification is earned before its retirement date, the certified individual continues to receive credit for that certification for one year after the certification's retirement date. During this period, the certification continues to count toward the applicable skilling requirements for Solutions Partner designations and Specializations.

  • Each person with an eligible certification can contribute to the applicable skilling metric. Multiple eligible credentials held by that person don't increase their count within the same metric.

  • There are two attainment paths: Small and medium business and Enterprise.

  • There are two metrics in this Skilling category : Intermediate and Advanced

  • To fulfill the requirement to have more than zero points in every metric, your organization must have at least one qualifying person with an intermediate certification, and the same person or a different person with an advanced certification.

Certified persons required to earn the maximum of 25 points in the Skilling category:

Path Intermediate certifications (10 points max) Advanced certifications (15 points max)
Enterprise Four certified persons Two certified persons
Small & Medium Business Two certified persons One certified person

Eligible Microsoft 365 certifications:

The eligible Microsoft 365 certifications include:

Retirement and legacy recognition:

Credential or assessment Metric Retirement date Published recognition through
Microsoft 365 Fundamentals Intermediate March 31, 2026 March 31, 2027
Microsoft 365 Certified: Administrator Expert Advanced November 30, 2026 November 30, 2027
Teams Meetings and Meeting Rooms Technical Assessment Advanced June 15, 2026 June 15, 2027

Apply the retirement-credit guidance to achievements earned before retirement. A retired credential's presence in this list doesn't mean that a new learner can still complete it. Check the credential or assessment's published availability when planning new learning.

Administrator Expert earned before November 30, 2026 remains eligible for partner capability score points through November 30, 2027.

An announced successor isn't automatically eligible for the same designation metric or a related specialization. Use this article's eligible list and the applicable specialization requirements. If the published program information doesn't establish a future replacement mapping, request clarification rather than inferring it from an exam code or certification title.

Important considerations:

  • Each certified individual is counted once for this metric, even if the certified individual completes multiple certifications.
  • Intermediate certifications can be earned by the same individual, or different individuals, than the Advanced certifications.
  • Some of these certifications might have prerequisites listed on the certification website (select the individual certification links). Those prerequisites must be addressed in order for a person to complete certification.

Why isn't my employee counted in skilling?

Check these requirements separately:

  1. Awarded achievement: Verify the full credential or explicitly eligible assessment, not only a course or exam pass. For example, passing MS-102 alone doesn't establish that Administrator Expert is awarded; review the credential's current prerequisites.
  2. Correct profile and organization: Confirm that the employee linked the profile holding the achievement to the intended Partner Center organization.
  3. Source data and timing: Check association and report evidence and the synchronization guidance in the Learn profile linking FAQs.
  4. Metric eligibility and dates: Match the achievement to Intermediate or Advanced and review the retirement and recognition dates above.
  5. Unique individuals: Count each person once within the metric. The same person can contribute to both metrics when they hold eligible credentials for each, but two Advanced credentials held by that person don't count as two Advanced-certified people.

Skilling is only part of qualification. For example, a total of 85 points with zero Advanced Certification points doesn't meet the requirement to earn points in every required metric. Review qualification and renewal status separately.

If the counts still differ, reconcile the contributing learners with the score. Completing a course, linking a platform account, or reaching the Skilling maximum doesn't by itself meet every requirement for the designation.

Customer success category

The customer success category measures your ability to enable growth in using Microsoft products or expanding Microsoft's services and workloads that customers use.

There are two metrics in the Customer success category:

Customer success: Usage growth metric

This customer success metric measures your ability to grow the use and consumption of our qualifying products. You earn points for this metric based on the growth exhibited in the Usage growth across all your eligible customer tenants and workloads.

Calculation:

Usage growth = [Eligible Active users last month] - [Eligible Active users same month last year]

Eligible Active users:

The number of active users across all eligible customer tenants from all eligible workloads for specific partner association types.

Eligible customer tenants:

Enterprise track: Each customer tenant that has at least one workload with paid licenses greater than 300 is counted to be an eligible Tenant for the Enterprise track.

SMB track: Each customer tenant that has at least one workload with paid licenses between 11 to 300 is counted to be an eligible Tenant for the SMB track. A customer tenant promoted to Enterprise remains eligible for SMB if it was classified as SMB in the previous year.

Eligible workloads:

The eligible workloads for both tracks include:

  • Exchange Online

  • Intune

  • M365 Copilot

  • Microsoft 365 Apps

  • Microsoft Entra ID P1

  • SharePoint Online

  • Teams

  • Teams Apps

  • Teams for Frontline Workers

  • Teams Meetings

  • Teams Phone

  • Teams Phone calling

  • Teams Phone Enabled Users

  • Teams Premium

  • Teams Rooms Monthly Active Devices

  • Viva Connections

  • Viva Engage

  • Viva Goals

  • Viva Insights

  • Viva Learning

  • Viva Topics

  • Windows 365

Eligible associations:

Enterprise Track: Claiming Partner of Record (CPOR) & Digital Partner of Record (DPOR) are valid association types

SMB Track: Claiming Partner of Record (CPOR) &CSP (Tier 1 & Tier 2) are valid association types

Note

You can only receive points for usage growth from the time you claim or associate with a customer. You don't receive credit for Usage growth that existed before your association.

Thresholds to earn maximum points - Enterprise track:

In the Enterprise eligibility path, you get points for usage growth based on the association type. Two options are created: CPOR and DPOR. Each option has different thresholds. You get different points for each option based on your performance against those thresholds. Qualifying points for usage growth is the higher of the points obtained from the two options, CPOR and DPOR.

Option Threshold for maximum points
CPOR 1,000 Usage growth
DPOR 4,000 Usage growth

Scoring example:

Partial scoring is applied for any Usage growth, up to a maximum of 30 points, obtained from 1,000 Usage growth (for CPOR) OR 4,000 Usage growth (for DPOR), whichever is higher.

For example, if you have 2,000 Usage growth from DPOR associations over the past 12 months and 1,500 Usage growth from CPOR associations, the scoring for the Usage growth metric is:

DPOR based growth = 2,000 Usage growth DPOR based points = (actual growth / threshold growth level) * max points = 2,000/4,000 * 30 = 15

CPOR based growth = 1,500 Usage growth CPOR based points = (actual growth / threshold growth level) * max points = 1,500/1,000 * 30 = 45

Usage growth net score = 30 ~ higher of 15 and 45 from above, for up to a maximum of 30

Thresholds to earn maximum points - SMB track:

In the SMB eligibility path, you earn points for Usage growth based on the association type. Two options are created: CPOR and CSP. Each option has different thresholds. You get different points for each option based on your performance against those thresholds. Qualifying points for Usage growth is the higher of the points obtained from the two options, CPOR and CSP.

Option Threshold for max points
CPOR 500 monthly active users (MAU)
CSP 2,000 MAU

Scoring example:

Partial scoring is applied for any Usage growth, up to a maximum of 30 points, obtained from 500 Usage growth (CPOR) or 2,000 Usage growth (CSP), whichever is highest.

For example, if you have 1,000 Usage growth from CSP associations over the past 12 months and 1,000 Usage growth from CPOR associations, scoring is decided for usage growth metric as follows:

CSP based growth = 1,000 Usage growth CSP based points = (actual growth / threshold growth level) * max points = 1,000/2,000 * 30 = 15

CPOR based growth = 1,000 Usage growth CPOR based points = (actual growth / threshold growth level) * max points = 1,000/500 * 30 = 60

Usage growth score = 30 ~ higher of 15 and 60 from above, for up to a maximum of 30

Note

Targets differ for different association types for both SMB and Enterprise. You can earn points only for one association type per metric. If you have more than one association type, we award points based on the one that earns the most points.

Customer success: Deployments metric

This metric in the customer success category measures your ability to grow the deployments of our Microsoft 365 services. You earn points for this metric based on the growth in deployments of eligible workloads with a minimum monthly usage level.

Calculation:

Deployments = (Eligible deployments last month) - (Eligible deployments same month last year)

The preceding calculation excludes deployments that were claimed or associated within the last 12 months and were already greater than 40% at the time of claim or association.

Eligible Deployments:

Eligible deployments are unique eligible customer tenants that meet the 40% monthly active usage requirement for paid licenses in eligible workloads, for the applicable partner association type.

Paid available units (PAU) represent paid seats, and monthly active users (MAU) represent active usage. For an illustrative workload with 50 eligible paid seats and 20 monthly active users, the usage ratio is 20 / 50 * 100 = 40%. Meeting that usage ratio is only one check: the tenant must also meet the track, workload, association, and deployment calculation requirements.

Hours spent working with a customer or purchasing licenses don't replace the active-usage requirement. A tenant that meets the paid-seat criteria for Net customer adds doesn't automatically contribute to Deployments.

Eligible customer tenants:

Enterprise track: Each customer tenant having at least one workload with paid licenses greater than 300 is counted to be an eligible Tenant for Enterprise track.

SMB track: Each customer tenant having at least one workload with paid licenses between 11 to 300 is counted to be an eligible Tenant for SMB track. A customer tenant promoted to Enterprise remains eligible for SMB if it was classified as SMB in the previous year

Eligible workloads:

The eligible workloads for both tracks include:

  • Exchange Online

  • Intune

  • M365 Copilot

  • Microsoft 365 Apps

  • Microsoft Entra ID P1

  • SharePoint Online

  • Teams

  • Teams Apps

  • Teams for Frontline Workers

  • Teams Meetings

  • Teams Phone Teams Phone calling

  • Teams Phone Enabled Users

  • Teams Premium

  • Teams Rooms Monthly Active Devices

  • Viva Connections

  • Viva Engage

  • Viva Goals

  • Viva Insights

  • Viva Learning

  • Viva Topics

  • Windows 365

Eligible associations:

Enterprise Track: The Claiming Partner of Record (CPOR) & Digital Partner of Record (DPOR) are valid association types.

SMB Track: The Claiming Partner of Record (CPOR) &CSP (Tier 1 & Tier 2) are valid association types.

Threshold for maximum points - Enterprise track:

In the Enterprise eligibility path, you get points for deployments based on the association type. Two options are created: CPOR and DPOR. Each option has different thresholds. Based on your performance against those thresholds, you get different points for each option. Qualifying points for deployments is the higher of the points obtained from the two options, CPOR and DPOR.

Option Threshold for maximum points
CPOR Five net new deployments
DPOR 10 net new deployments

Scoring example:

  • Each new qualifying CPOR deployment gets five points OR each new qualifying DPOR deployment gets 2.5 points, whichever aggregates to higher points, for up to a maximum of 25 points.

For example, if you have four net new deployments from DPOR associations over the past 12 months and 3 from CPOR associations, the scoring is decided for deployments metric as follows:

DPOR based deployments = 4 DPOR based points = (actual deployments / threshold deployments level) * max points = 4/10 * 25 = 10 points

CPOR based deployments = 3 CPOR based points = (actual deployments / threshold deployments level) * max points = 3/5 * 25 = 15 points

**Deployments net score = 15** ~ higher of 15 and 10 from above, for up to a maximum of 25

Threshold for maximum points - SMB track:

In the SMB eligibility path, you get points for deployments based on the association type. Two options are created: CPOR and CSP. Each option has different thresholds. You get different points for each option based on your performance against those thresholds. Qualifying points for deployments is the higher of the points obtained from the two options, CPOR and CSP.

Option Threshold for max points
CPOR Five net new deployments
CSP 10 net new deployments

Scoring example:

  • Each new qualifying CPOR deployment gets five points OR each new qualifying CSP deployment gets 2.5 points, whichever aggregates to higher points, for up to a maximum of 25 points.

For example, if you have four net-new deployments from CSP associations over the past 12 months and 3 from CPOR associations, the scoring is decided for deployments metric as follows:

CSP based deployments = 4 CSP based points = (actual deployments / threshold deployments level) * max points = 4/10 * 25 = 10 points

CPOR based deployments = 3 CPOR based points = (actual deployments / threshold deployments level) * max points = 3/5 * 25 = 15 points

Deployments net score = 15 ~ higher of 15 and 10 from above, for up to a maximum of 25

Note

Targets differ for different association types for both SMB and Enterprise, and you can only earn points for one association type per metric.

If you have more than one association type, we award points based on the one that earns the most points.

Don't add the CPOR and CSP or DPOR points together. This association-level comparison for an individual metric is different from selecting the highest overall Enterprise or SMB pathway score.

Data freshness

Performance and Customer Success subcategories typically refresh by the 20th of every month. There might also be minor data refreshes throughout the month. Skilling subcategories typically refresh within 10 days after certification completes. For profile-linking timing, see Link your Microsoft Learn profile and Skilling Hub account.

Customer association, source-data availability, and score refresh are separate steps:

  1. The customer association is established or the relevant claim is approved.
  2. The association and eligible workload data become available in the source reports.
  3. The designation metrics reflect the data available for the reporting period when they refresh.

Check the reporting month available in Partner Center before comparing the score with a recently added customer. If the latest report covers a period before the association became effective, the report doesn't yet establish whether that new association will contribute to a later score.

The typical refresh schedule isn't a guarantee that every recently approved association appears on a particular date. If Partner Center displays a processing or delay notice, review the notice and the reporting month before treating an unchanged score as an eligibility failure.

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Troubleshoot missing customers and scores

Use these checks to distinguish an eligibility issue from missing or delayed data.

Check What to review Next action
Track and metric Enterprise or SMB; Net customer adds, Usage growth, or Deployments Apply the requirements for that track and metric, not another designation's rules.
Association CPOR/DPOR for Enterprise or CPOR/CSP for SMB Verify an eligible association. DAP/GDAP access alone doesn't establish eligibility.
Workload and paid seats Eligible workload and paid seats for the customer tenant Review the workload criteria; don't infer eligibility from a product name or combine unrelated seat counts.
Claim or relationship status Correct customer, workload, partner location, and active/approved association Resolve setup or rejected-claim issues before expecting that association to contribute.
Reporting period Latest reporting month and any processing/delay notice Compare the association date with the period available; review Data freshness.
Comparison baseline Current qualifying count and the corresponding month 12 months earlier Customers that no longer qualify can offset newly qualifying customers.

Download and reconcile the supporting data

  1. Open Membership > Solutions Partner > Overview, select Modern Work, and open the relevant metric details. Download the supporting data where available.

  2. Review the Customer Eligibility report for the affected customer and metric. Confirm the track, filters, and whether the reported conditions are met.

  3. For usage investigation, use the Download Reports hub in Insights and the Microsoft 365 usage report data definitions.

  4. Compare the same metric, association type, workload, track, and corresponding reporting months. Review these fields where available:

    Field Why it matters
    Month Identifies the reporting period, which can differ from the date you view the portal.
    CustomerTenantId and WorkloadName Identify the customer tenant and workload being investigated.
    PaidAvailableUnits and MonthlyActiveUsers Help check paid-seat and active-usage requirements.
    PartnerAttributionType Shows the recorded relationship; not every attribution in a general usage report is eligible for designation points.
    PGAPartnerID and PartnerID Help verify global and location account context.
    IsDuplicateRowForPGA Identifies duplicate attribution rows in the general usage report; don't count every row as a distinct qualifying customer.

The partner global account and partner location accounts serve different purposes. CSP and incentives associations use location accounts. Verify that the association belongs to the organization whose qualification you're reviewing.

A blank download isn't by itself proof that the customer count is zero. Check your role, filters, reporting period, and eligible associations. The general Microsoft 365 usage report helps investigate the underlying data, but its presence or row count alone doesn't establish a customer's designation eligibility.

Check deployment and usage-growth expectations

If a customer contributes to one metric but not another, review the requirements separately:

  • Net customer adds compares qualifying customer tenants with the corresponding month last year.
  • Usage growth compares eligible active users with the corresponding month last year. Usage before your association doesn't contribute to your usage growth.
  • Deployments applies the usage requirement, year-over-year calculation, and exclusion described in Deployments metric. A workload already above the usage threshold when associated can be excluded by that calculation.

Use the association-specific scoring examples in this article. Don't combine CPOR and CSP/DPOR scores or the best metrics from different pathways.

Check renewal status separately from current qualification

Being qualified today doesn't mean your renewal payment window is open. Review enrollment, qualification history, the qualification eligibility window, and renewal status in Partner Capability Score.

If Buy Now or Renew Now is disabled, follow Troubleshoot membership purchase. Before renewal, check all required metrics and the available reporting month rather than assuming a recent customer association has already changed your score.

Contact the right support team

If the checks don't explain the difference, follow Get help and contact support. Include the track, metric, reporting month, expected result, association status/date, relevant report extracts, and any processing notice. Include your renewal deadline if the issue is time-sensitive.

Use Membership for designation qualification or renewal questions, Insights for report-data questions, and Incentives for CPOR claim or incentive-payment questions. For CSP setup or Microsoft 365 administration, use the relevant workflow in Which support portal should I use?.

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