Solutions Partner for Business Applications
Appropriate roles: Global admin, Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program partner admin
As a Solutions Partner for Business Applications, you've demonstrated your broad capability to deliver solutions with Dynamics 365 and Power Platform.
To attain a solutions partner designation, you need to:
- Earn a minimum of 70 points out of 100 points possible.
- Earn at least one point in each of the following three categories and five subcategories:
- Performance
- Net customer adds: 15 points
- Skilling:
- Intermediate certifications: 20 points
- Advanced certifications: 15 points
- Customer success:
- Usage growth: 30 points
- Deployments: 20 points
- Performance
Your partner capability score is calculated from data that is already recorded in Partner Center.
You can track your progress towards attaining a Solutions Partner for Business Applications designation using the information in this article.
Classification
Business applications recognize your organization as a partner who works in Enterprise or Small and Medium Business (SMB). Your organization is measured against different thresholds, depending on which of those classifications you are in, as you earn points in the Performance and Customer success categories.
A partner is classified as Enterprise, if Partner has five or more unique workloads contributing more than $5,000 in revenue for each customer Tenant in both current month-1 and current month-13.
A partner is classified as SMB, if Partner has four or less unique workloads contributing more than $5,000 in revenue for each customer Tenant in both current month-1 and current month-13
Partner capability score for Business Applications
The Business applications partner capability score has five metrics. The sections that follow explain the detailed requirements in each of these metrics.
Performance category
The performance category is a measure of your organization's ability to increase the customer base that is using Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power platform products.
Net customer adds is the metric in the Performance category.
Net customer adds metric
Net customer adds for Business applications is the number of eligible workloads added to the customer base during the last 12 months.
This metric uses the revenue contribution by your organization on our workloads.
Calculating Net customer adds
The calculation for Net customer adds is:
(total qualifying workloads with active subscriptions > 1500 USD latest month) – (Total qualifying workloads with active subscriptions > 1500 USD 12 months ago)
Eligible customers
Enterprise:
This is number of unique workloads rolled up at customer tenant level and contributing at least $1,500 revenue in a given month for specific Partner association types
SMB:
This is number of unique workloads rolled up at customer tenant level and contributing at least $250 revenue in a given month for specific Partner association types
Eligible workloads
Eligible workloads include AI Builder, Business Central, CE Bundle, Commerce, Customer Insights, Customer Service, F&O Bundle, Field Service, Finance, HR (Human Resources), Intelligent Order Management, Mixed Reality, Omni Channel, Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, Power Pages, Power Virtual Agent, Project Operations, Sales, Supply Chain, Non-workload specific (F&O), and Non-workload specific (This is the category for all miscellaneous workloads).
Note
The Workloads differ between Performance and Customer success categories. The Eligible workloads list is growing. Check frequently to ensure you that have the latest information.
Thresholds to earn maximum points
This table shows the number of net customer adds required to earn maximum points for Enterprise and SMB.
| Classification | Net customer adds required to earn maximum points |
|---|---|
| Enterprise | 5 |
| SMB | 5 |
Scoring
Each qualifying net customer add is worth three points, to a maximum of 15 points for five net additional customers.
Eligible association types
- Net customers are added across all sales channels including Enterprise Agreement (EA), Cloud Solution Provider (CSP), and Web Direct.
- Eligible attributions for Microsoft Dynamics 365 include Claiming Partner of Record (CPOR) RevRec, CPOR OSA, CPOR RevRec Performance, CSP Tiers 1 and 2, and Digital Partner of Record (DPOR).
- Eligible attributions for Power Platform include CPOR RevRec, CPOR OSA, CPOR RevRec Performance, CSP Tiers 1 and 2, and Digital Partner of Record (DPOR).
Multiple partners can get credit and points for adding new workloads for the same customer in the same time period.
Skilling category
The skilling category measures the capability and skills acquired by a partner organization as the number of certified people in that organization.
There are two Business applications metrics in the skilling category: intermediate certifications and advanced certifications.
Intermediate certifications metric
To score points for the Intermediate certifications metric, members of your organization can apply any of the following certifications.
Each certified member is counted only once, regardless of the number of certifications they complete.
Eligible intermediate certifications
- Microsoft Certified: Dynamics 365 Finance Functional Consultant Associate
- Microsoft Certified: Dynamics 365: Finance and Operations Apps Developer Associate
- Microsoft Certified: Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management Functional Consultant Associate
- Microsoft Certified: Dynamics 365 Customer Service Functional Consultant Associate
- Microsoft Certified: Dynamics 365 Sales Functional Consultant Associate
- Microsoft Certified: Dynamics 365 Field Service Functional Consultant Associate
- Microsoft Certified: Dynamics 365 Business Central Functional Consultant Associate
- Microsoft Certified: Dynamics 365 Customer Insights (Journeys) Functional Consultant Associate
- Microsoft Certified: Power BI Data Analyst Associate
- Microsoft Certified: Power Platform Functional Consultant Associate
- Microsoft Certified: Power Platform Developer Associate
- Microsoft Certified: Dynamics 365 Customer Insights (Data) Specialty
- Microsoft Certified: Azure Enterprise Data Analyst Associate*
- Microsoft Certified: Power Automate RPA Developer Associate
*This certification is retired on April 30, 2024. It will remain eligible for partner capability score points through April 2025
Thresholds to earn maximum points
This table shows the number of certified people required to earn the maximum number of points in the Intermediate certifications metric.
| Classification | Certified people required to achieve maximum points |
|---|---|
| Enterprise | 20 |
| SMB | 5 |
Scoring
- Enterprise: Each qualifying certified person is worth one point.
- SMB: Each qualifying certified person is worth four points.
You can earn a maximum of 20 points.
Important consideration(s):
- Each certified individual will be counted once for this metric, even if the certified individual completes multiple certifications.
- Advanced certifications can be earned by the same individual, or different individuals, than the Intermediate certifications.
- Some of these certifications might have prerequisites listed on the certification website (select the individual certification link). Those prerequisites must be completed for an individual to complete certification.
Advanced certifications metric
To score points for the advanced certifications metric, members of your organization must obtain any of the eligible advanced certifications.
Each certified person counts as one point, regardless of the number of certifications they complete.
Eligible advanced certifications
- Microsoft Certified: Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management Functional Consultant Expert
- Microsoft Certified: Dynamics 365: Finance and Operations Apps Solution Architect Expert
- Microsoft Certified: Power Platform Solution Architect Expert
- Microsoft Certified: Dynamics 365 Business Central Developer Associate
Thresholds for maximum points
This table lists the number of certified people required to earn the maximum 15 points in this metric.
| Classification | Certified people required to achieve maximum points |
|---|---|
| Enterprise | 7 |
| SMB | 2 |
Scoring
- Enterprise: Each qualifying certified person is worth 2.14 points, up to a maximum of 15 points obtained from seven certified people.
- SMB: Each qualifying certified person is worth 7.5 points, up to a maximum of 15 points obtained from two certified people.
Important consideration(s):
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 link). Those prerequisites must be completed for an individual to complete certification.
Customer success category
The customer success category measures your ability to enable growth in the use of Microsoft products, or in the expansion of Microsoft's services and workloads utilized by customers.
There are two metrics in this category: Usage growth and Deployments.
Note
In Business applications, customer success points are awarded based on monthly consumption instead of monthly active users (MAU).
Monthly consumption is the monthly number of active users or the monthly active capacity times the consumption rate.
Monthly consumption value
For Business applications, varied workloads have varied usage units: monthly active users, profiles, and so on.
To enable measurement and assessment of success across all these workloads, the monthly consumption value is defined as:
Monthly consumption = (monthly active users or capacity) * consumption rate
See the following table for the current rate card.
Monthly consumption value is used instead of monthly active users (MAU) to include capacity-based workloads (such as Customer Insights) and to include a workload-based weighting using the consumption rate. This rate addresses the differences in expected workload deployment sizes. The calculation ensures that partners of all workloads can reach the point requirements without including a workload-specific threshold.
Note
This isn't a dollar amount, but a weighted calculation based on active customer usage.
Monthly consumption value is calculated at the end of every month.
| Workload | Rate | Usage unit |
|---|---|---|
| Business Central | 1000 | MAU |
| Core HR | 1000 | MAU |
| Common data service (Customer Engagement)* | 200 | MAU |
| Customer Insights | 0.2 | Profiles |
| Finance & Operations* | 100 | MAU |
| Guides | 1000 | MAU |
| Portals | 100 | MAU |
| Power Apps | 200 | MAU |
| Power Automate | 200 | MAU |
| Power BI | 200 | MAU |
| Remote Assist | 1000 | MAU |
| Retail | 100 | MAU |
| Talent Attract | 1000 | MAU |
| Talent Onboard | 1000 | MAU |
* Customer Engagement workload includes usage from Sales, Sales Insights, Customer Service, and Field Service
* Finance & Operations workload includes usage from Finance and Project Operations.
For example:
A Business Central deployment of 10 MAU one month would be 10,000 MCV, given the rate of 1,000.
A Customer Insights deployment with 50,000 profiles would be 10,000 MCV, given the rate of 0.2.
Together, these two customers in a customer base would count as 20,000 MCV for the month.
(10 Business Central MAU * 1000 ) + (50,000 Customer Insights profiles * 0.2) = 20,000 MCV across the customer base
Note
This rate card is subject to change. Refer back to this section for the latest rates.
Usage growth metric
The customer success usage growth metric measures your ability to grow usage and consumption of qualifying products. You earn points in this metric for the growth shown in the monthly consumption value across all of your qualifying customers and workloads.
Prerequisites
- Enterprise: To be eligible for any points in this category, you must have a baseline consumption value of 50,000 last year (12 months ago).
- SMB: To be eligible for any points in this category, you must have a baseline consumption value of 25,000 last year (12 months ago).
Calculation
(Eligible usage last month) – (Eligible usage same month last year) / (Eligible usage same month last year) X 100
Eligible usage
This is total monthly consumption value (MCV) in a given month across entire customer base from eligible workloads for specific Partner association types.
Eligible workloads
Eligible workloads include Business Central, Common data service (Customer Engagement), Core HR, Customer Insights Partner, Finance & Operations, Guides, Portals, Power App, Power Automate, Power BI, Remote Assist, Retail, Talent Attract, and Talent Onboard.
All paid customer subscriptions of the eligible workloads are considered for this metric.
Note
The workloads differ between Performance and Customer success categories. The eligible workloads lists are growing. check these frequently to ensure that you have current information.
Eligible association types
- Eligible attributions for Microsoft Dynamics 365 (except Customer Insights) include CPOR OSU, CSP Tier 1, CSP Tier 2, Digital Partner of Record (DPOR)
- Eligible attribution for Power Platform & Customer Insights include Partner Admin Link (PAL)
Thresholds to earn maximum points
| Classification | Usage growth to achieve maximum points |
|---|---|
| Enterprise | 30% |
| SMB | 30% |
Scoring
Each 1% of growth contributes to one point (maximum of 30 points).
Deployments metric
The deployments metric is a measure of your ability to grow the deployments of qualifying products. You earn points for this metric based on the growth in deployments of eligible workloads with a minimum monthly usage level.
Calculation
(Eligible deployments last month) - (Eligible deployments same month last year)
Eligible deployments
Enterprise
This is number of unique workloads rolled up at customer tenant level and contributing at least 10,000 monthly consumption value (MCV) for specific Partner association types.
SMB
This is number of unique workloads rolled up at customer tenant level and contributing at least 5,000 monthly consumption value (MCV) for specific Partner association types.
Eligible workloads
Eligible workloads include Business Central, Core HR, Common data service (Customer Engagement), Customer Insights Partner, Finance & Operations, Guides, Portals, Power App, Power Automate, Power BI, Remote Assist, Retail, Talent Attract, and Talent Onboard.
Note
The eligible workloads lists are growing. Consult them frequently to ensure that you have current information.
Eligible association types
- Eligible attributions for Microsoft Dynamics 365 (except Customer Insights) include CPOR OSU, CSP Tier 1, CSP Tier 2, Digital Partner of Record (DPOR)
- Eligible attribution for Power Platform & Customer Insights include Partner Admin Link (PAL)
Thresholds to earn maximum points
To maximize the number of points in this metric, you should target the following number of net new deployments.
| Classification | Deployments to achieve maximum points |
|---|---|
| Enterprise | Five eligible deployments |
| SMB | Five eligible deployments |
Scoring
Each qualifying deployment gives you four points, to a maximum of 20 points for five deployments.
Data freshness
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.