Earlier this year, we released a new set of partner profitability resources, adding to and complementing those that we have provided to Microsoft partners over the past few years. Our latest wave of information and resources helps you understand how IT spending is changing and what customers are looking for in a partner as they evaluate and spend on third platform technologies (cloud, mobile, big data, and social). This was a much-discussed topic at WPC in July. You can watch profitability-related sessions on-demand—see our list and links at the bottom of this post.
Public IT cloud services spending reached US$47.4 billion in 2013 and is expected reach over US$127 billion by 2018, according to a recent IDC study. This same IDC research shows that cloud-oriented partners have 1.5 times higher gross-profit percentages and 1.6 times the recurring revenue as a portion of total revenue than other partners. Learn more
(See the full infographic from IDC)
Profitability resources guide
| Getting started | Get a third-party perspective about the IT market and spending and the importance of partners to customers in this blog post by Darren Bibby, VP of Channels and Alliances Research at IDC Learn more about the considerations for building a successful, profitable cloud practice Read the Cloud Profitability blog series, which provides you with expert advice and guidance for building a successful cloud business |
| Prepare your business | Sign up for an assessment of how your business operates and receive prescriptive guidance about the investments to make for sustained profitability with the cloud |
| Overview of resources and opportunities | |
| Customer solution scenarios and financial models | Review and learn about solution scenarios and financial models that will help you identify new opportunities for profitability |
| Connect, engage, and stay informed | Join the Microsoft US Partner Community on Twitter, Facebook, and Yammer and read our community blogs to stay informed We offer product-oriented partner communities led by our US Partner Technology Strategists
If your company serves SMB customers, connect with the US SMB team |
| Build cloud knowledge and skills across your organization |
Sales training
Technical training
Resources for consultants |
| Sell what you know: use Microsoft Cloud to run your business | Internal use benefits for Microsoft Azure, Office 365, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, and Windows 10 (upgrade only) are available to partners with an Action Pack subscription or competency
SkyKick Migration Suite offer for partners |
| Market and sell your Microsoft Cloud-based solutions | Utilize marketing and sales messaging and materials from our partner marketing websites
Utilize Microsoft Pinpoint to showcase your solutions to thousands of customers and connect with new prospects Utilize compete resources to differentiate yourself from the competition |
| Demonstrate your cloud expertise through sales and customer adoption | Earn cloud performance competencies for your expertise in selling and driving adoption of Microsoft Azure, Office 365, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online
Customer cloud adoption resources |
| Cloud partner incentives and investments | Review the Partner Incentives Portfolio for the Enterprise, SMB, Cloud Services, and Devices categories |
| Get support for Microsoft Cloud |
Support offerings through Partner Technical Services |
WPC 2015 sessions on demand
The links below are to videos of WPC 2015 sessions about partner profitability. For additional conference resources, sign in to Connect and select Sessions > WPC 2015 Session Resources
- Learn what successful cloud partners know about building a profitable cloud business with Microsoft
- What every project and managed services business should know about optimizing profitability in the cloud
- Learn how to increase profitability by building intellectual property (IP) into your business model
- Building a financially sound cloud business and creating shareholder value
- #winningloadsofnewcloudcustomers