Microsoft Axes Pinpoint: Partners React with Surprise, Disappointment, Ambivalence

Recently, Microsoft deep-sixed its Pinpoint online partner directory, replacing it with its new "referral engine," or Find a Partner section of its Partner Center. The change rolled out just before the company's Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) 2016 in July.

Microsoft promised in a report from CRN Australia that the new referral engine will be better than Pinpoint at connecting partners with customers and that the new system is connected with its web properties and marketplaces.

However, there has been little fanfare around the end of Pinpoint. And that has left ISV partners in the Dynamics ERP and CRM space confused about how Microsoft handled this change.

It appears that at least one specific mention of the end of Pinpoint was made at WPC in the session Dynamics ISVs Are the Key For Microsoft Success In Industry Sales. There, Kati Hvidtfeldt, Microsoft's senior director for Dynamics ISVs, stated that Pinpoint had been retired and ISVs could now publish their apps to AppSource and the Azure Marketplace.

Although Microsoft declined to comment further about the end of Pinpoint for this article, the company told ChannelWeb the following:

Microsoft will make the transition as easy as possible, including importing partner profile information into the Partner [Center], and will continue to refer partner solutions to customers seeking technology solutions during the transition.

A Microsoft spokesperson also ...