Event Preview: Biz Apps Partner Summit aims to build Microsoft connections to the channel

When a Microsoft Business Applications partner earns a spot on a Partner Advisory Council (PAC) or earns Inner Circle status, their team gets the latest updates directly from the source: Microsoft product and channel leaders who sharing official plans, priorities, and incentives for the current year and beyond. 

But these programs only include a tiny fraction of the thousands of Microsoft partners currently selling Dynamics 365, Power Platform, and related solutions and services. For the rest of the channel, tracking and understanding Microsoft’s plans remains a challenge. The Biz Apps Partner Summit on July 24 and 25, organized by Dynamics Communities, aims to bring a broader partner audience into the fold on Microsoft programs and priorities.

“Microsoft does incredible work for its elite groups such as the Inner Circle and PAC, but there is a vast segment of partners left feeling disconnected and unsupported,” according to Joe Corigliano, EVP for Global Partners at Ciellos. “These partners often reside in the unmanaged pool, lacking direct connections to Microsoft’s field, engineering, and partner teams.”

The event is for both Managed and Unmanaged partners and will cover all three segments that partners address: SMB, SMC, and Enterprise, Corigliano told MSDW. The event has also been designed to be inclusive and relevant for all Biz App partners across Dynamics 365 Business Central, Finance and Operations apps, and Customer Experience, as well as Power Platform.

The idea for the Biz Apps Partner Summit began with conversations between Corigliano, Dynamics Communities CEO John Siefert, and Terry Petrzelka, chairman at SignUp Software, in early 2023. Their initial effort took shape as a partner-focused pre-conference at Summit North America 2023 that consisted of an afternoon’s worth of presentations from a range of Microsoft sales and channel representatives. While Microsoft had limited personnel available for that event, the demand from partners was clear, Corigliano says. That event sold out in weeks.

The journey to a full-fledged conference gained momentum when the team discovered through their conversations with Microsoft representatives that July could be an optimal time to bring partners and Microsoft together. With the fiscal year starting on July 1, Microsoft teams will have refreshed plans and programs ready to show to their partners. And with calendars easing after the end of the quarter, more key personnel became available to attend and brief partners on information that had been embargoed until the start of the new fiscal year.

The event promises a 24-hour immersion starting at 1 PM on July 24th and ending at 1 PM on the 25th. The agenda includes evening networking opportunities and sessions focused on topics like go-to-market strategies, solution plays, and new and updated partner programs from Microsoft. 

The philosophy of the event is simple, says Siefert: "Easy is way better than hard.” That means the event will be streamlined, without many complications for attendees to worry about as they take in the experience. “The context is partner first and how partners can succeed,” he added.

As a new entry in the Dynamics Communities event calendar, Biz Apps Partner Summit comes before August’s Copilot Digital Summit 2024 and October’s Summit North America 2024.