Core benefits and requirements
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Core benefits and requirements

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​Maximize your membership. According to IDC1, partners receive approximately US$320,000 in value from Microsoft Partner Network benefits. As a Microsoft partner, you can review your benefits statement to plan how to build your business more effectively, generate demand, increase sales, and retain customers. Available to active partners only.
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When you join the Microsoft Partner Network, you receive a set of core benefits that can help you save time and money while you strengthen your capabilities, better serve customers, and build connections to reach your full business potential.

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Benefits and requirements by membership

Core benefits are the set of benefits provided to all partners each time they enroll or renew their memberships in the Microsoft Partner Network.

Each membership opportunity offers a different level of access to these core benefits. Core benefits are open to all partners within a qualifying membership, are available in most regions of the world, and are provided in a minimum of 11 languages.

Membership opportunities have an individual set of core requirements designed to closely align with customer needs. For each opportunity, your company must fulfill these minimum requirements.

Cloud is our core

By partnering with Microsoft, you can make money selling industry-leading cloud solutions, and your success will not only grow your business but unlock additional support, benefits, and incentives. Partners now have a path to qualify for three new competencies for Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft Azure through proven cloud performance.

Explore the cloud performance path
 
  • 1IDC, “The Business Value of the Microsoft Partner Network Core Benefits.” Mira Perry, Steven White, July 2012
  • 2Benefits are provided per partner organization for one year of membership and are renewed annually, when you renew your membership in the Microsoft Partner Network.
  • 3Available in Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland, UK, and US.
  • 4Small Business competency members have access to up to 15 licenses for each product (on-premises). Most products have up to 10 client access licenses (CALs), and server products have one license. If you have met the requirements for the Small and Midmarket Cloud Solutions competency, you receive 25 licenses, plus an additional 10 licenses.
  • 53 Visual Studio Professional licenses (latest version; licensed per user) are available to you through MSDN for your Microsoft Action Pack subscription.
  • 6To qualify for the no-charge Technical Presales Assistance offering, you must provide the customer name and details of the project. The US$3,000 revenue minimum does not apply to deals made for cloud services or free software like Windows Internet Explorer. For smaller deals, you can also use your partner advisory hours to access this benefit.
  • 7Partners are allocated partner advisory hours that they can use as currency for Technical Enablement, and Technical Presales and Advisory Services. For partners with silver or gold competencies, partner advisory hours are not deducted for presales services used with deals worth US$3,000 or more.
  • 8Online response times vary between four hours and two days, depending on membership opportunity. Visit the Partner Support Community for details. Critical incidents are defined strictly as severe customer issues that immediately impede the operation of a customer’s business (such as when a server is down). Business-critical phone support is not available for partners with only the Silver Small Business competency.
  • 9Performance competencies include data platform, small and midmarket cloud solutions, and cloud productivity.
  • 10Hybrid competencies include Application Development, Collaboration and Content, Communication, Data Platform, Datacenter, Devices and Deployment, Messaging, Midmarket Solution Provider, Project and Portfolio Management.
  • 11Partners must meet additional eligibility requirements for solution and licensing incentives, including enrollment in specific competencies.
  • 12Fees vary by geography. In the case of the Competency membership, partners must pay the silver competency fee or gold competency fee one time, per year—no matter how many competencies they have attained. If a partner attains a gold competency after first attaining a silver competency, then the partner pays only the difference between the two membership fees, unless the partner is within the 90-day renewal period, in which case the full gold competency membership fee is due.
  • 13Partners may use customer references from silver competencies toward gold competencies.
  • 13Requirements vary by competency. Business assessments not required for the three performance based competencies.
  • 14Partners must agree to meet a minimum Microsoft-related revenue commitment that is determined based on the partner’s region and the competency the partner organization is working to attain. Both transacted revenue and influenced revenue count toward this commitment.
  • 15Requirements vary by competency. There are fewer technical credentials required for the three performance based competencies. If you sell commercially available applications based on Microsoft technologies, you may qualify through an application track that may have a different set of requirements.