Microsoft State of the Channel: Positive co-sell progress, but trillions in digital transformation value still to come

Microsoft's new leader of One Commercial Partner (OCP), Gavriella Schuster, delivered a Microsoft State of the Channel briefing today and noted the positive results so far around partner co-selling efforts.

OCP focuses on three areas in which Microsoft interacts with its partners - "build with," "go-to-market" and "sell with" - and Schuster focused upon the co-sell success. Since Inspire 2017, Microsoft has invested $250 million in incentives for its internal sales force to drive more sales and revenue together with partners; its enterprise sellers are now paid 10 percent of a partner's annual contract value, which has proved a powerful driver. Some stats Schuster offers:

• Since July 2017 and with 500 partners, the co-sell pilot has generated $6 billion in partner pipeline and $1+ billion in partner revenue
• Co-sell project size was on average nearly six times larger
• Co-sell deals closed nearly three times faster
• More than 9,000 partners have become co-sell ready since Inspire, which is a 543 percent increase since then (and rising)

But is co-sell solely an Azure consumption driver? That question was raised during the Q&A session. Schuster advised that the co-sell motion encompasses Insights, the Modern Workplace service and Dynamics services offerings; but, "seller incentives are specifically focused on those applications that drive the Azure platform embedded in the apps themselves." So - yes, co-sell is tied to Azure consumption, if not synonymous with it.

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