Recent Discussions
REGISTER: Nonprofit & Education Partners Webinar - Jan 26th
Nonprofit & Education Partners — Don’t Miss These Microsoft Elevate Webinars! We’re hosting two upcoming Microsoft Elevate sessions to help you stay aligned, informed, and ready for Q3. 🔹 JANUARY WEBINAR | Microsoft Elevate (Nonprofit + Education) Partner Community Call Get the latest Microsoft product updates, Elevate Education announcements, and clear guidance to strengthen your Q3 customer conversations. 👉 Register When: January 26, 2026 Time: 4:00 PM CET ✔️ Why join. Get aligned on what matters most for Q3—fast. ✔️ What you’ll gain. Key Microsoft product updates you need to know Clear guidance on how updates map to the Elevate customer segment Latest Elevate Education announcements and positioning tips ✔️ How it helps. Stronger customer conversations, clearer messaging, and better outcomes. 🔹 FEBRUARY WEBINAR | Microsoft Elevate Security Updates: What’s New for Nonprofit & Education Learn what’s new in Microsoft security, hear directly from Elevate’s Worldwide Security Lead, and gain practical insights from a security-focused Microsoft Partner. 👉 Register | Elevate Security Updates When: February 24, 2026 Time: 4:00 PM CET ✔️ Why join. Security continues to be a top priority for nonprofit and education customers. ✔️ What you’ll gain. What’s new in Microsoft security features, programs, and opportunities Expert guidance from Elevate’s Worldwide Security Lead Practical insights from a Microsoft Partner specializing in security ✔️ How it helps. Confidence in positioning security solutions and addressing real customer needs.
Do benefits of different partner programs add up?
Situation I hope my question is located correctly in this community. If not: Please inform me so! We are a small SMB company developing cloud-based software. We bought the Partner Success Core Benefits which grants us 2.400 $ worth of Azure bulk credits and 15 Microsoft 365 Business Premium licenses per year. Goal Our company is working on the qualification for the Solutions Partner "Data & AI" (SMB) status. We plan to buy the respective Solutions Partner designation which will buy us 6.000 $ worth of Azure bulk credits and 100 Microsoft 365 E3 licenses per year. Question Will the benefits of the Partner Success Core Benefits and the Solutions Partner "Data & AI" add up? Example: Partner program Azure bulk credits Microsoft 365 licenses Partner Success Core Benefits 2.400 $ Azure bulk credits 15 (Business Premium) Solutions Partner "Data & AI" 6.000 $ Azure bulk credits 100 (E3) Total (?) 8.400 $ Azure bulk credits? 115 Microsoft 365 licenses? When we qualify for the Solutions Partner "Data & AI" designation, we probably will still be eligible for the Partner Success Core Benefits. There will at least be an overlapping time period where the Partner Success Core Benefits has not yet ended but the Solutions partner designation already has started. In this overlapping period: Do those benefits then add up? Can we use up ALL Azure credits? Or will the benefits be restricted to the higher benefits? Will we then get a refund for the Partner Success Core Benefits Could please someone enlighten us on this issue (and perhaps provide us with a link)? Best regards JP
Number of technical support cases for Partner support
Hi everyone, Has anyone noticed that the ASfP (Advanced Support for Partners) included technical support incidents is reduced to around 20–30 cases this year? Many of our past tickets were not partner troubleshooting issues, but Microsoft backend-required requests (e.g., Azure quota increases for high-demand SKUs/regions) where CSP partners must open a support case for approval. Some tickets even take Microsoft internal team months to check and still no solution found. Curious if others see the same and whether Microsoft should separate backend-required requests from actual technical support incidents. Thanks!Unlock new revenue streams with Microsoft Marketplace
Learn how software providers are accelerating revenue and expanding global reach through Microsoft Marketplace. Explore strategies like co-sell with Microsoft sellers, resale-enabled offers for channel partners, and streamlined procurement that meets evolving buyer expectations. Discover why Marketplace is more than a transaction portal—it’s a growth engine for AI-driven solutions and partner-led success. Read more: Unlocking scalable growth through Microsoft Marketplace | Microsoft Community Hub2026 Is different—Are you ready to win?
2026 Is different—Are you ready to win? 2026 isn’t just another year—it’s a turning point. Cloud go-to-market strategies are being rewritten in real time by AI, marketplaces, co-sell, and ecosystem-led growth. The hard truth? If your strategy isn’t fully aligned this year, you’re going to feel it. That’s why Ultimate Partner is kicking off the year with a must-attend free livestream designed to give you clarity and actionable steps—not theory. On January 13 | 11:00–12:30 pm ET, Vince Menzione, CEO of Ultimate Partner will join two industry leaders for an inside look at what’s next: Jay McBain, Chief Analyst at Omdia, will share his predictions for 2026 and beyond. Cyril Belikoff, VP of Commercial Cloud & AI Marketing at Microsoft, will reveal exciting changes at Microsoft and how to align your GTM strategy for success. This is your chance to ask the tough questions during a LIVE Q&A and walk away with insights you can put into action immediately. ______________________________________________________ 📅 January 13 | 11:00–12:30 pm ET 🎥 Livestream: “Winning in 2026 and Beyond” 👉 Register for FREE: HEREJoin the Fabric Partner Community for this Week's Fabric Engineering Connection calls!
🚀 Happy New Year to all the amazing Microsoft partners I've had the privilege to work with during 2025. I'm excited to announce the first presenters of 2026 for this week's Fabric Engineering Connection calls! Join us Wednesday, January 7, from 8–9 am PT (Americas & EMEA) and Thursday, January 8, from 1–2 am UTC (APAC) for insightful sessions from Yaron Canari and Benny Austin This week’s focuses: 🎯 Americas & EMEA: Discover, Manage and Govern Fabric Data with OneLake Catalog 🎯 APAC: Updates and Enhancements made to the Fabric Accelerator This is your opportunity to learn more, ask questions, and provide feedback. To participate in the call, you must be a member of the Fabric Partner Community Teams channel. To join, complete the participation form at https://aka.ms/JoinFabricPartnerCommunity. We look forward to seeing you at the calls!
Tech Talks presents: From Prompts to Python: Code Interpreter in Microsoft Copilot Studio
Join us on Thursday, January 8th at 8am PT as Scott Durow, Senior Cloud Advocate, Microsoft presents 'From Prompts to Python: Code Interpreter in Microsoft Copilot Studio'. Step beyond natural-language prompts and explore how the Code Interpreter unlocks deterministic, Python-driven logic inside Copilot Studio. This session walks through how agents can generate and execute Python code in a secure sandbox to create reliable outputs such as charts, enriched Excel or PDF files, and Dataverse insights. You’ll see how to enable the feature at the environment, agent, and prompt levels, and how to analyse and visualise data using both design-time instructions and Python generated on the fly by your agents. We’ll look at prompt-design best practices, key considerations, and how to make the most of the Python output inside your agent workflows. We hope to see you there! Call to Action: Click on the link to save the calendar invite: https://aka.ms/TechTalksInvite View past recordings (sign in required): https://aka.ms/TechTalksRecordingNEW RESOURCE RELEASE: Unified Analytics for Data-Driven Innovation Campaign-in-a-Box resources
The NEW Unified Analytics for Data-Driven Innovation Campaign-in-a-Box assets just dropped and are already gaining traction. Microsoft Elevate just released these ready-to-use assets to help spark smarter conversations, show real-world impact, and move faster with nonprofit customers—no heavy lift required. These assets are: 👉 Built for storytelling 👉 Designed for engagement 👉 Powered by data-driven impact From First Touch to Impact: Using Unified Analytics Campaign Assets The following assets are intentionally designed to work together as a simple, end-to-end engagement flow. By moving from awareness to registration, reinforcing value, and enabling deeper education, partners can confidently guide nonprofit organizations toward meaningful, data-driven outcomes. ✨ Email Template | Unified Analytics for Data-Driven Innovation Purpose: Kick off awareness and outreach. Use this template to introduce the unified analytics story, spark interest, and invite nonprofit customers into the conversation. ✨ Registration Template | Unified Analytics for Data-Driven Innovation Purpose: Drive event or engagement sign-ups. This template supports webinars, workshops, or briefings by capturing interest and converting it into registered participation. ✨ One-Pager Template | Unify Your Data Platform to Accelerate Nonprofit Impact Purpose: Reinforce value and clarity. Use this concise asset during or after engagement to clearly explain the benefits of unifying data platforms and accelerating mission impact. ✨ E-Book Template | Unified Analytics for Data-Driven Innovation Purpose: Deepen understanding and influence decisions. This long-form asset supports follow-up conversations, enabling nonprofits to explore the strategy, use cases, and long-term value of unified analytics. Jump in, activate, and stay ahead of the curve. Remember: These resources and more can be found on the Nonprofit Partner Readiness site under the Solution play readiness materials section. Select the Cloud & AI Platform tab, then select Unify you data platform to explore resources.NEW RESOURCE RELEASE: Industry Solution Kits (ISK) now available!
Great news, Microsoft Nonprofit Partners! Microsoft Elevate is excited to share three new powerful ISK resources to help you spark smarter conversations and accelerate impact with nonprofit customers: ✨ Copilot and Agents at Work for Nonprofits. Show how AI can reduce burnout, automate admin work, and empower staff to focus on mission-critical outcomes. 👉 ISK - Copilot and Agents at Work ✨ Innovate with Azure AI Apps and Agents. Help nonprofits build, scale, and govern custom AI solutions that expand reach, improve services, and drive measurable impact. 👉 ISK | Innovate with Azure AI Apps & Agents ✨ Unify Your Data Platform. Guide organizations in breaking down data silos, modernizing infrastructure, and unlocking real-time insights with Microsoft Fabric and Azure. 👉ISK | Unify Your Data Platform These assets are designed for partner-led storytelling, customer-ready conversations, and real-world mission outcomes—whether you’re enabling productivity with Copilot, building custom AI agents, or modernizing data foundations. 🚀 Dive in, start the conversation, and help your nonprofit turn this AI moment into a mission moment! Reminder: These resources and more can be found on the Nonprofit Partner Readiness site under the Solution play readiness materials section. Select a tab to explore resources.NEW RESOURCE RELEASE: Drive Mission Impact with Secure AI Productivity
Nonprofit Partners — this is a big one! The Secure AI Productivity Solutions Nonprofit Partner pitch deck is now available, and it’s a powerful conversation starter to help your nonprofit customers move from AI curiosity to confident secure adoption! 🔥 Pitch deck | Drive success with secure AI productivity solutions ✨ Why this deck matters Nonprofits are facing rising costs, staffing shortages, burnout, and growing security risks — all while being asked to do more for their communities. This deck equips you with a clear, mission-aligned story showing how Microsoft 365 + Copilot + Security work together to empower staff and volunteers without compromising trust or compliance How to leverage this resource with your nonprofit customers: 👉 Lead with mission impact. Use the opening slides to reframe AI as a mission accelerator — freeing staff from manual work, improving donor engagement, and expanding services to more communities. 👉 Address real nonprofit challenges head-on The deck includes compelling data on staffing gaps, burnout, rising operating costs, and increased security incidents — perfect for opening strategic conversations with nonprofit leaders. 👉 Demonstrate secure, responsible AI adoption Walk customers through how Copilot works inside Microsoft 365, backed by Zero Trust security with Entra, Defender, Intune, and Purview — helping them become AI-ready without risking donor or beneficiary data. 👉 Make it real with personas & use cases Bring the story to life using the Zane (program manager) and Jenna (volunteer) scenarios. These are ideal for workshops, executive briefings, and volunteer enablement discussions — and can be easily customized to your own offerings. 👉 Build confidence with proof points Leverage the nonprofit success stories (Children International, McKnight Foundation, British Heart Foundation, and more) to show measurable productivity gains, time savings, and stronger mission outcomes. 👉 End with clear next steps Use the final slides to guide customers toward AI readiness assessments, nonprofit scenario libraries, and Copilot prompt resources — turning inspiration into action. 🌟 Bottom line: This deck helps you shift conversations from “Should we use AI?” to “How do we securely scale our mission with AI?” — positioning you as a trusted advisor, not just a technology provider. 👇 How are you planning to use it? 1:1 customer conversations? Executive briefings? Volunteer enablement workshops? Webinars or lunch-and-learns? Share your ideas below — let’s learn from each other and help nonprofits unlock the full power of secure AI productivity! 💙 Remember: These resources and more can be found on the Nonprofit Partner Readiness site under the Solution play readiness materials section. Select the AI Business Solutions tab, then select Secure AI Productivity to explore resources.Microsoft Marketplace projected to be $300B partner revenue opportunity by 2030
Microsoft Marketplace is projected to be a $300B partner revenue opportunity by 2030, according to a commissioned study by Omdia. For partners who sell through Marketplace, the study found: • 88% see revenue growth • 75% close sales faster • 69% get larger deals Read the full report here to learn how Marketplace will drive opportunities for both software companies and channel partners in the coming years.Microsoft Marketplace offer live? Make it shine. 🌟
App Advisorgives you the fastest path from listing to momentum: clear steps to optimize, promote, and convert on Microsoft Marketplace. Get the practical, step‑by‑step guidance in our new post - then open App Advisor to put it into action. 🔗 Learn more here.REGISTER: Elevate Innovation Partner Connection Calls
The Elevate Innovation Partner Connection Calls are designed to support partners working with Nonprofit data solutions in Microsoft Fabric. These office hours will run January through March and are intended to help partners successfully bring the Public Preview to nonprofit customers through shared guidance, real-world learnings, and direct engagement with the Elevate Innovation team. Register to be added to the Microsoft Teams experience and choose the session that works best for your region. We look forward to connecting and learning together. Typical Agenda Documentation & Readiness Updates (5 minutes) Overview of recent updates to documentation, solution artifacts, and key lessons learned to support partner readiness. Partner Q&A (40 minutes) Open forum for nonprofit partners to ask questions, clarify guidance, and discuss real-world scenarios with the team. Partner Observations & Feedback (10 minutes) Time for partners to share insights, challenges, and feedback to help inform ongoing improvements and future updates. Upcoming Elevate Innovation Partner Connection Calls January 8, 2026 U.S.: 8:00 AM PT / 10:00 AM CT / 11:00 AM ET GMT: 4:00 PM January 15, 2026 Asia (SGT / HKT): 2:00 PM Australia (AEDT): 5:00 PM January 22, 2026 U.S.: 7:00 AM PT / 9:00 AM CT / 10:00 AM ET GMT: 3:00 PM All sessions will be held via Microsoft Teams. Please register to receive the calendar invitation and access details.Boosting cloud and AI ROI: The power of Microsoft Marketplace
Maximizing return on investment in cloud and AI requires more than technology—it demands smarter procurement and streamlined deployment. This article explains how Microsoft Marketplace helps organizations accelerate adoption, reduce costs, and unlock innovation. Learn how Marketplace simplifies purchasing, enables flexible billing, and provides access to thousands of solutions that drive measurable business outcomes. Read the full article hereKey AI announcements for software developers from Microsoft Ignite 2025
At Microsoft Ignite 2025, Microsoft unveiled a series of AI innovations that signal a significant evolution in how software developers build, deploy, and scale intelligent solutions. Central to these announcements is Microsoft Foundry, a unified platform designed to simplify the development, orchestration, and governance of AI agents across Microsoft’s cloud and application ecosystem. The announcements also introduced Foundry IQ, enabling secure, compliant access to enterprise data for AI agents, along with a new Foundry Control Plane that provides centralized visibility and operational control. Together, these capabilities help reduce complexity while supporting enterprise-grade security, compliance, and scalability requirements. Additional highlights include expanded model choice and flexibility through enhanced Model Router support and deeper integration of third-party models, as well as new capabilities that allow developers to publish and distribute AI agents directly into Microsoft 365 and Teams, creating powerful new go-to-market opportunities. Read the full article to learn more about these Microsoft Ignite announcements, what they mean for software developers, and how to take advantage of Microsoft’s rapidly evolving AI and Marketplace ecosystem.Unlocking growth: The channel-led Marketplace opportunity
The Microsoft Marketplace is creating new ways for partners to scale and grow. This article explores how channel-led strategies can accelerate customer acquisition, expand reach, and drive revenue through marketplace transactions. Learn why embracing marketplace collaboration is critical for future success and how partners can leverage these opportunities to deliver greater value. Unlocking growth: the channel-led Marketplace opportunity | Microsoft Community Hub
Getting Started with OpenAI Whisper on Azure
In March of 2024 OpenAI Whisper for Azure became generally available, you can read the announcement here. From the documentation, “The Whisper model is a speech to text model from OpenAI that you can use to transcribe(and translate) audio files. The model is trained on a large dataset of English audio and text. The model is optimized for transcribing audio files that contain speech in English. The model can also be used to transcribe audio files that contain speech in other languages. The output of the model is English text.” At this time, translation from 57 Languages is supported. I wanted to spend this time to cover a few topics to help you make sense of the two flavors that will be available to you, Azure AI Speech Service, and Azure OpenAI Service. To get started, there is a table in the documentation referenced above to give you the use cases for Whisper for Azure vs. Azure AI Speech Model. There is a matrix at the following link to provide a recommended supportability matrix to give you an idea when to choose each service. I will call out from the documentation that there are limitations to the Azure Open AI Whisper model; Whisper Model via Azure OpenAI Service might be best for: Quickly transcribing audio files one at a time Translate audio from other languages into English Provide a prompt to the model to guide the output Supported file formats: mp3, mp4, mpweg, mpga, m4a, wav, and webm Whisper Model via Azure AI Speech might be best for: Transcribing files larger than 25MB (up to 1GB). The file size limit for the Azure OpenAI Whisper model is 25 MB. Transcribing large batches of audio files Diarization to distinguish between the different speakers participating in the conversation. The Speech service provides information about which speaker was speaking a particular part of transcribed speech. The Whisper model via Azure OpenAI doesn't support diarization. Word-level timestamps Supported file formats: mp3, wav, and ogg Customization of the Whisper base model to improve accuracy for your scenario (coming soon) Getting started with a Python Sample for OpenAI Whisper on Azure We do have a sample doc for this, however as many data scientist know, packages move fast and change often. As of this writing, the following code sample works with the OpenAI package > 1. Also, the api_version is correct as of this writing, I will keep this blog updated with any necessary changes for future versions. I will collect some samples and publish them to a GitHub repository and link them here in the near future. In the meantime, read the prerequisites here and get started. You will need an Azure subscription, access to the Azure OpenAI Service in your subscription, and add a Whisper model deployment. I will not comment on the region availability as it is constantly expanding, but you can keep an eye on this page to keep up with region availability. Once you have your deployment created, you will need to copy the URL endpoint and one of the two Open AI Keys from Azure OpenAI under the resource management section of your Azure OpenAI resource. This code sample will read in an audio file from local disk. A variety of audio samples can be found here in the Azure Speech SDK github repo. The result you get from one of the samples will look something like this; Translation(text='As soon as the test is completed, which is displayed successfully by the status change, you will receive a VIN number for both models in your test. Click on the test name to show the page with the test details. This detail page lists all statements in your data set and shows the recognition results of the two models next to the transcription from the transmitted data set. For a simpler examination of the opposite, you can activate or deactivate various error types such as additions, deletions and substitutions.') Using Azure AI Services Speech The alternative option is to use Azure OpenAI Whisper model in the Azure AI Speech Service. The Azure AI Speech Service offers a lot of capability, captioning, audio content creation, transcription, as well as real-time speech to text and text to speech. If you have been using the Azure AI Speech Service, you likely have much of the code written to take advantage of the Azure OpenAI Whisper model. There is a migration guide to move you from REST API v3.1 to Version 3.2 which supports the Whisper model. You should provide multiple files per request or point to an Azure Blob Storage container with the audio files to transcribe. The batch transcription service can handle a large number of submitted transcriptions. The service transcribes the files concurrently, which reduces the turnaround time. If you are using this as part of a batch transcription process, you can find the documentation here. The most important note about making sure you are using the Whisper model is to make sure you set the model version to 3.2, but keep in mind region availability which is linked here. I hope this article has helped you determine which service is right for you. Keep in mind, all Azure AI services are fast moving, so keep an eye on the docs linked in this post as well as the constantly expanding Microsoft learn site.Azure monthly newsletters are now on the Partner News blog!
Go to our Partner news blog and click the tag "Azure News" to catch up on all our past monthly Azure newsletters. You can click the follow button in the top right corner to receive notifications of when the next newsletter is released. This ensures you will never miss out on updates again! Come on in and join the conversation! -jillCommunicating the value of Microsoft Marketplace
Helping customers understand the true value of Microsoft Marketplace is key to driving adoption and success. This recent article shares practical approaches for framing conversations around business outcomes, cost optimization, and innovation. Learn how to position Marketplace as a strategic enabler, highlight its role in accelerating procurement, and demonstrate measurable impact for your customers. How we talk about the value of Microsoft Marketplace with customers | Microsoft Community Hub
Events
Tune in for a closer look at Microsoft Marketplace reporting in the Microsoft Partner Center. Get to know the Insights and Earnings workspaces. Explore which roles have permission to access reporting...
Online
Tune in for updates, insights, and live Q&A to help you sell through the Microsoft Marketplace. Learn how to bring your innovations to businesses, organizations, and government agencies around the wo...
Online
Recent Blogs
- Publishing your app or agent to Microsoft Marketplace is the first critical step to reaching customers, unlocking benefits, and monetizing your solution. But choosing the right marketplace offer type...Jan 09, 2026
- 1 MIN READThe Courseware Title Plan is your central reference for current ILT course offerings.Jan 09, 2026
