Challenge: Can Microsoft Dynamics partners meet market needs in 2018?

Microsoft and its Dynamics 365 partners around the world are not always moving at the same speed these days, and that's creating some tensions. One of the new and particularly urgent concerns for partners in Microsoft's business solutions space is how to prioritize the services and technology worthy of investment - what can they sell, how, and to whom - in the context of true digital transformation.

With the unforeseen birth of One Commercial Partner (OCP) in 2017, the new world of Dynamics 365 solutions may now feel to some partners like an existential threat to what had been a successful business model over the last two decades: selling and service CRM and ERP systems.

"When I think of channel and product changes, [the picture] is still coming together," says Joe Corigliano, an executive with the eXtreme365 conference series. His team's next event, eXtreme365 Dubrovnik in March, will serve as one of the first partner- and customer-facing events of the year.

"Partners are eager to be briefed on what is going on," on both the product and channel sides, he says. "The introduction of OCP has been so disruptive for Dynamics partners, and [it's] not just the sales and partner changes - we're only in year two of Dynamics 365, we have the Common Data Service evolving. Partners need to come to grips with Microsoft's paradigm shift in terms of what it's doing."

Why a digital transformation message still makes sense