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Requirements for becoming a Solutions Partner with certified software for a solution area

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Appropriate roles: Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program partner admin | Referrals admin | Co-sell Solutions admin

This section provides details about requirements to become a Solutions partner with certified software on a per-solution basis.

General eligibility requirements

  • Commercial marketplace readiness (for example, transactable and IP co-sell eligible, if applicable - see the note about exceptions): The Microsoft commercial marketplace is the essential platform for B2B transactions. Publishing and transacting through the marketplace helps you unlock growth and limitless innovation.
  • Interoperable with the Microsoft Cloud: Each solution is validated by a technical review before it becomes certified. By proving that your software solution is interoperable with the Microsoft Cloud, you’re making it easier for customers to identify the software that works seamlessly with the Microsoft workloads they already use.
  • Proven customer success: Your application is evaluated by its demonstrated track record of customer success, as measured by commercial performance and deployments, such as Marketplace Billed Sales (MBS) and other designation-relevant measures, as well as evidence of customer satisfaction, such as marketplace ratings or a minimum of two artifacts of evidence from customers.

Note

These exceptions are currently in place for the transactability of Modern Work and Business Applications solutions:

  • Modern Work: Microsoft 365 solutions need to be listed in the commercial marketplace but don't need to be transactable at this time due to marketplace transactability capabilities.
  • Business Applications: Dynamics 365 Business Central, Dataverse, and Power Apps offers need to be listed in the commercial marketplace and Business Applications IP co-sell eligible but don't need to be transactable at this time due to marketplace transactability capabilities.

Requirements for Azure

This table summarizes the conditions that must be met to become a Solutions Partner with certified software for Azure.

Category Metrics Learn more
Commercial marketplace Solutions must be Azure IP co-sell eligible. Co-sell requirements - Partner Center
Technical Solutions must pass a technical review audit that assesses the interoperability with Azure products, platforms, and services, with specific criteria according to the solution's integration scenarios:
  • Data
  • AI provider
  • Compute
  • Container
  • Integration (for example, connectors)
  • Control Plane
 Technical audit
Customer success Solutions and partners must satisfy the following criteria:
  • (Partner criteria): Commercial performance measured by the same criteria as the FY24 IP co-sell Top Tier marketplace performance criteria, namely that partners must meet one of the following criteria over a trailing 12-month period:
    • USD4 million marketplace billed sales (MBS) transactions
      OR
    • 12 net-new customer adds to the marketplace of greater than USD10,000 each.
      Where "Net-new" means net-new to the Microsoft commercial marketplace (not net-new to Microsoft) and/or net-new to the specific partner.
      OR
    • 30 marketplace transactions with eight unique customers.
      Must be at a minimum value of USD100
  • (Solution criteria): Customer satisfaction measured by one of the following criteria for the solution:
    • At least a 4.5 average commercial marketplace rating and with 15 or more ratings
      OR
    • Two artifacts of referenceable customer evidence (including, but not limited to, case studies), relevant to the product and solution area.
 Azure IP co-sell top-tier benefits - Partner Center

Requirements for Business Applications

To become a Solutions Partner with certified software for Business Applications, you must meet the conditions summarized in this table.

Category Metrics Learn More
Commercial marketplace Solutions must be Business Applications co-sell eligible.
Dynamics 365 Business Central and Dataverse and Power Apps offers don't need to be transactable at this time given commercial marketplace transactability capabilities.		 Co-sell requirements
Technical Solutions must pass a technical review audit that assesses the interoperability with Business Applications products, platforms, and services, with specific criteria to assess feature overlaps, operational excellence, data handling and more. Technical audit
Customer success Solutions and partners must satisfy the following criteria:
  • (Partner criteria): Commercial performance measured by partners meeting one of two specific thresholds over a trailing twelve-month period:
    • USD1 million marketplace billed sales (MBS) transactions over a trailing twelve-month period.
      OR
      • Business Applications ISV partner influenced revenue (PIR) of USD $4 million over a trailing twelve-month period. This metric captures your influence on qualified Business Applications customer deployments, including if you don't transact through the commercial marketplace. It's not available to be viewed in Partner Center, however, if you believe you meet the relevant criteria a review can be requested through bizappscert@microsoft.com.
    • We're evaluating other metrics that might be added in the future to capture non-transactable Business Applications offers.
    • (Solution criteria): Customer satisfaction measured by one of the following criteria for the solution:
      • At least a 4.5 average commercial marketplace rating and with 15 or more ratings
        • OR
      • Two artifacts of referenceable customer evidence (including, but not limited to, case studies), relevant to the product and solution area

Requirements for Modern Work

This table summarizes the conditions that must be met to become a Solutions Partner with certified software for Modern Work.

Category Metrics Learn More
Commercial marketplace Microsoft 365 solutions don't need to be transactable at this time given commercial marketplace transactability capabilities.
Technical Solutions must complete the Microsoft 365 App Compliance Program certification. Microsoft 365 App Compliance Program
Customer success Solutions and partners must satisfy the following criteria:
  • (Partner criteria): Commercial performance measured by one of the following criteria over a trailing twelve-month period:
    • Partners meeting USD100,000 marketplace billed sales (MBS) transactions
      OR
    • Solutions averaging 50,000 Teams Apps monthly active users (MAU)
  • (Solution criteria): Customer satisfaction measured by one of the following criteria for the solution:
    • At least a 4.5 average commercial marketplace rating and with 15 or more ratings
      OR
    • Two artifacts of referenceable customer evidence (including, but not limited to, case studies), relevant to the product and solution area
 Microsoft Teams app usage report

Requirements for Security

To become a Solutions Partner with certified software for Security, you must meet the conditions summarized in this table.

Category Metrics Learn More
Commercial marketplace Solutions must be Azure IP co-sell eligible. Co-sell requirements
Technical Solutions must pass a technical review according to the Security platform or product that they integrate with:
If the solution integrates with a Microsoft Security platform not listed, it might still be eligible for the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association (MISA), which covers a broader set of platforms. Follow the link in the Learn more column for more information.		 Review the Sentinel content and solutions documentation

https://aka.ms/MISA
Customer success Solutions and partners must satisfy the following criteria:
  • (Partner criteria): Commercial performance measured by the same criteria comprising the FY24 IP co-sell top tier marketplace performance criteria, namely that partners must meet one of the following criteria over a trailing twelve-month period:
    • USD $4 million marketplace billed sales (MBS) transactions
      OR
    • 12 net-new customer adds to the marketplace of greater than USD $10,000 each
      Where "Net-new" means net-new to the Microsoft commercial marketplace (not net-new to Microsoft) and/or net-new to the specific partner.
      OR
    • 30 marketplace transactions with eight unique customers.
      Must be at a minimum value of USD $100.
  • (Solution criteria): Customer satisfaction measured by one of the following criteria for the solution:
    • At least a 4.5 average commercial marketplace rating, and with 15 or more ratings
      OR
    • Two artifacts of referenceable customer evidence (including, but not limited to, case studies), relevant to the product and solution area

Also note that customer evidence specifically for the Security designation doesn't need to be publicly referenceable but might need to be validated by the customer.		 Azure IP co-sell top-tier benefits

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