Services co-sell overview
Appropriate roles: Referrals admin | Referrals user
Microsoft has a large ecosystem of partners who are skilled in helping our customers achieve their goals with Microsoft technologies. Services co-sell enables such skilled partners who attain Microsoft AI Cloud Partner program designations to unlock better outcomes by working with Microsoft sellers in a co-selling motion. Furthermore, such qualified Microsoft partners who have either Solutions partner designations, Specializations, or Azure Expert Managed Services Provider (MSP), can now co-sell with Microsoft sellers without having to publish a marketplace Consulting services offer.
Note
Opportunities that are part of Microsoft Commerce Incentive program (MCI) are tracked as co-sell opportunities. Learn more about MCI engagements.
Publish a business profile
We encourage our services partners to publish a business profile in the Referrals workspace. This profile showcases their capabilities and designation status to Microsoft Sellers appropriately in our internal tools as well on the marketplace listing. To learn more about how the recently modernized business profiles, see Create a business profile.
Note
A business profile admin role is necessary to create and update the business profile listing.
Create a services co-sell opportunity
Partners can now create a Services co-sell opportunity in the Referrals workspace in Partner center and request help from the Microsoft Sales team. A typical services co-sell opportunity includes a Partner role field that indicates what role the partner would like to play in the deal such as Presales envisioning, Migration, and so on.
The following roles are applicable for Services co-sell deals:
- Presales envisioning
- Solution design
- Proof of concept
- Business strategy
- Deployment services
- Adoption and change management
- Transaction
- Managed services
In addition to specifying their role, a Services partner must also indicate the appropriate customer objective - the Solution area and Solution play for the opportunity - to help us direct the opportunity to the appropriate seller in the Microsoft Sales team. This additional information also helps the Microsoft seller understand the customer needs in familiar terminology to make the partner and seller interactions seamless. Partners can optionally add their consulting services offer/solution to the opportunity, but it's no longer required to actively co-sell with Microsoft.
The following table shows the values for Solution Areas and Solution Plays for FY 25.
| Solution Area | Solution Play |
|---|---|
| Business Applications | Accelerate Revenue Generation |
| Business Applications | AI Powered Business with Copilot |
| Business Applications | Connected Sales and Marketing |
| Business Applications | Drive Business Transformation with Copilot |
| Business Applications | Enable a Resilient and Sustainable Supply Chain |
| Business Applications | Innovate with AI in Low Code |
| Business Applications | Modernize ERP |
| Business Applications | Modernize Service |
| Business Applications | Modernize the Service Experience |
| Business Applications | Optimize Finance and Supply Chain |
| Business Applications | Scale Business Operations |
| Data and AI | Advance Sustainability with an Intelligent Data Platform |
| Data and AI | Build and Modernize AI Apps |
| Data and AI | Data Security |
| Data and AI | Enable Unified Data Governance |
| Data and AI | Innovate with AI and Cloud Scale Databases in Every App |
| Data and AI | Innovate with Azure AI Platform |
| Data and AI | Migrate and Modernize Your Data Estate |
| Data and AI | Migrate and Secure Windows Server SQL and Linux Estate |
| Data and AI | Migrate Oracle |
| Data and AI | Unify Your Intelligent Data and Analytics Platform |
| Digital and Application Innovation | Accelerate Developer Productivity |
| Digital and Application Innovation | Accelerate Innovation with Integration Services |
| Digital and Application Innovation | Accelerate Innovation with Low Code |
| Digital and Application Innovation | Build and Modernize AI Apps |
| Digital and Application Innovation | Build your Games in the Cloud with Azure |
| Digital and Application Innovation | Enable Developer Productivity and Accelerate Delivery |
| Digital and Application Innovation | Innovate and Scale with Cloud Native Apps |
| Digital and Application Innovation | Migrate Enterprise Apps |
| Digital and Application Innovation | Modernize Enterprise Applications |
| Infrastructure | Enable Customer Success |
| Infrastructure | Innovate Across Hybrid and Edge with Arc and IoT |
| Infrastructure | Innovate with Azure AI Platform |
| Infrastructure | Innovate with HPC |
| Infrastructure | MACC Accelerate Growth with Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitments |
| Infrastructure | Migrate and Modernize your Infrastructure and Workloads |
| Infrastructure | Migrate and Secure Windows Server SQL and Linux Estate |
| Infrastructure | Migrate Linux Estate |
| Infrastructure | Migrate Oracle |
| Infrastructure | Migrate SAP |
| Infrastructure | Modernize SAP on the Microsoft Cloud |
| Infrastructure | Modernize your Workloads with Azure at any Scale with HPC plus AI |
| Infrastructure | Modernizing Mainframe |
| Infrastructure | Protect your Data and Ensure Business Resiliency with BCDR |
| Modern Work | AI Powered Business with Copilot |
| Modern Work | Cloud Endpoints |
| Modern Work | Collaborative Apps |
| Modern Work | Converged Communications |
| Modern Work | Converged Communications Teams Phone |
| Modern Work | Converged Communications Teams Rooms |
| Modern Work | Data Security |
| Modern Work | Digital Workforce |
| Modern Work | Drive Business Transformation with Copilot |
| Modern Work | Employee Experience |
| Modern Work | Frontline Workers |
| Modern Work | Modernize with Surface |
| Modern Work | NextGen Windows Experiences |
| Modern Work | Refresh your Devices |
| Modern Work | Secure Productivity |
| Security | Advanced Identity |
| Security | Copilot for Security |
| Security | Data Governance |
| Security | Data Security |
| Security | Defend Against Threats with SIEM Plus XDR |
| Security | Migrate and Secure Windows Server SQL and Linux Estate |
| Security | Mitigate Compliance and Privacy Risks |
| Security | Modern Sec Ops |
| Security | Multi Cloud Security |
| Security | Protect and Govern Sensitive Data |
| Security | Secure Identities and Access |
| Security | Secure Multi Cloud Environments |
| Security | Secure Productivity |
| Security | Threat protection |
| Unified Support | Accelerate AI innovation for Digital Natives with Unified |
| Unified Support | Build a Strong Foundation with Unified |
| Unified Support | Drive Cloud Success with Enhanced Solutions |
| Unified Support | Scale Unified through Partner |
Receive a services co-sell opportunity
Microsoft sellers can now send co-sell opportunities to Services partners who attain Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program designations, Specializations, or Azure Expert MSP. Microsoft sellers evaluate these partners for co-selling based on the partner's business profile that is published in Partner center. These opportunities shared by Microsoft sellers are available in the Inbound tab in the Co-sell opportunities page.
Specifically, the field is introduced in the services co-sell opportunity: Partner role, to help partners qualify such opportunities. A Partner role is the role that a services partner can play in the opportunity based on their endorsements, such as migration. Services co-sell opportunities also have Solution area and Solution play fields indicate the customer's needs. This additional information helps partners understand the opportunities and deliver the best outcome for the customer.
Note
Partner Program field is retired and there is no impact on referrals.