New Expectations: Microsoft Seeks Dynamics Resellers Who Can Accelerate Growth

In the last year or so, Microsoft has announced significant changes to its overall partner strategy, including the ways that partners are measured, compensated, trained, branded and promoted.

That means that there been changes to partner discounts and incentives under the "pay-for-performance" model as well as an increase of requirements and benefits for the Gold and Silver ERP competencies under MPN. The changes, which take effect January 1, 2012, send a clear message: Microsoft wants Dynamics VARs who can add more customers and accelerate growth.

For VARs who cannot manage such growth, reselling Dynamics will become a smaller, or vanishing, part of their businesses in the coming years.  The best margins will now be reserved for resellers who commit to getting on a path to tripling their new customer growth over the next three to four years. 

At a recent GP Partner Connections town hall meeting, Jeff Edwards, Microsoft's Director of Partner Strategy spoke to VARs and ISVs about the changes. 

"On average right now of all the partners that transact that's around five or six customer adds per year," said Jeff Edwards, Microsoft. "We'd like to get that between fifteen and twenty. Largely we want to take the partners that we have and triple the sizes of those firms."

In Microsoft's most recent earnings release, the company highlighted 17% revenue growth for the Dynamics product line in the first quarter of fiscal year 2012 compared to the year-ago quarter.