Recent Discussions
Discover how flexible billing and multi-year terms drive bigger deals
Partners are increasingly using custom billing schedules and extended contract terms to secure larger, more strategic agreements in Microsoft Marketplace. These capabilities—available for both SaaS and VM offers—make transactions more personalized and enterprise-ready. Read the full article to learn how these features can help you close high-value deals.MCT New and Renewing MCTs - Update July 26
Updated July 26, 2025 As we step into FY26 on July 1st, 2025, I want to share some important updates regarding the MCT Program—especially for those planning to renew. New Fees Coming October 2025, no exact date and the cost will be shared at a later date. Starting July 1st, 2025, we will introduce: A renewal fee (ecommerce tool will be available in October 2025 for everyone to renew) A new MCT enrollment fee (ecommerce tool will be available in October 2025 for new MCTs) Our systems are currently being updated to support this change, with the new tool expected to launch in October 2025. More to come on costs. Pricing will be region supported. Session Requirement for Renewal Effective January 1st, 2026, MCTs will be required to complete six (6) sessions or six (6) days of training per calendar year to qualify for renewal. For clarity on what qualifies as a session, please refer to the attached PDF: Mandatory Use of MTM We will be enforcing stricter requirements for using Metrics That Matter (MTM) to log sessions with your Training Services Partner (TSP). Please coordinate with your TSPs to ensure MTM is being used correctly. What to Expect Next More details on program costs will be shared closer to the tool’s release. All MCTs that were MCTs before manual enrollment have been extended through January 1st, 2026, with full benefits. You’ll see this extension reflected in your profile in your MCT Trainer History NOT active certification. All current MCTs will be able to renew when the tool is available in October 2025 and the requirement to renew will be to have an active certification and have taught one class since your last renewal and pay the renewal fee (costs to come later). We will be checking that you have taught the one class using MTM. New MCTs will need ISC certificate, one role-based active certification and pay the MCT new enrollment fee. New MCT Enrollment Process | Microsoft Learn 🙏 Thank you for your continued support and patience as we enhance our systems. Here’s to a successful and impactful FY26!
🎉 Congratulations, Transparity! 2025 Microsoft Nonprofit Partner of the Year!
Please join Microsoft Elevate in celebrating Transparity on being named 2025 Nonprofit Partner of the Year! This recognition highlights Transparity’s outstanding commitment to empowering charities and NGOs with Microsoft Cloud innovation—advancing secure, data‑driven operations and accelerating mission impact with AI and modern work solutions. Our nonprofit partners are on the front lines of social impact. Transparity’s work exemplifies how deep technical expertise, customer obsession, and purposeful innovation can help organizations serve more people, more effectively. Keep the celebration going! 👏 Read the Partner Blog announcement of the 2025 winners & finalists and join the conversation: partner.microsoft.com blog Add your kudos on the Community Hub post: Microsoft Community Hub Drop your congratulations for Transparity below and share nonprofit success via your PSS/PDMs you’re seeing with Microsoft Cloud and AI! 💙Accelerated Payouts for Marketplace Transactions
In case you missed it - or in case you didn't miss it but disregarded it as too good to be true - Microsoft recently launched accelerated payouts for Marketplace transactions with MCA customers. It is true, and it most definitely is good. :-) And it's even more important now than ever as more and more customers are switched from EA to MCA. We recently did a transaction with an enterprise customer on an MCA: Marketplace transaction was done on 29 September, and we received our payout on 15 October - barely more than two weeks later! This is outstanding news for everyone, from sellers who want their commissions to the finance folks who want the cashflow. Read the full announcement here: Announcing accelerated payouts to Microsoft Marketplace partners with MCA customers | Microsoft Community Hub #MarketplaceChampions #Sponsored🎉 Congratulations to our three Nonprofit Partner of the Year Finalists! 🎉
We are thrilled to announce the three incredible finalists for the Nonprofit Partner of the Year Award: JourneyTeam, LLC — Recognized for measurable nonprofit impact with Microsoft Power Apps and a Copilot agent—helping a nonprofit modernize operations and cut costs by 54%, plus a sustained record of Dynamics 365 and AI-driven solutions for mission delivery. Wipfli LLP — Brought enterprise-grade depth to social impact work, earning all six Microsoft Solutions Partner designations for 2025 and building on a long nonprofit track record, including 2021 Nonprofit Partner of the Year and a 2024 Nonprofit POTYA finalist mention—demonstrating broad capability and sector expertise. Brightpoint Infotech — Demonstrated nonprofit specialization in Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit/Dynamics 365, showcased by NGO implementations (e.g., Zamzam Foundation on Business Central) and ecosystem partnerships (e.g., Sylogist for nonprofit ERP/CRM), helping NGOs modernize finance, grants, and donor operations. These organizations have demonstrated outstanding commitment to empowering nonprofits through innovative solutions, impactful services, and unwavering dedication to making a difference. Join us in congratulating these finalists! 👏 Read the full Partner Blog announcement of the 2025 winners & finalists and join the conversation: https://partner.microsoft.com Add your kudos on the Community Hub post: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com Keep the celebration going and drop a congratulations for these outstanding finalists below and share your nonprofit success via your PSS/PDMs you’re seeing with Microsoft Cloud and AI! 💙Applied Skills Missing in Training Report
As a Microsoft Solutions Partner (approx 400 employees) we are working on creating a dashboard for managers to see how we are faring from a skilling perspective. This also helps us in the tracking and working towards retaining our specializations and designations. So far we have used the Trainings Report derived from the downloads hub to feed our database with applicable certifications that are held by our employees. That database we then used to also report on our skilling requirements for the solution area's and the specializations. Recently Microsoft introduced new specializations (Copilot) and those specializations require Applied Skills to be held by employees. These applied skills do not show in the trainings report offered by Microsoft. (E.g. APL-4002: Prepare security and compliance to support Microsoft 365 Copilot,APL-7008: Create agents in Microsoft Copilot Studio or DW-101: Copilot for Microsoft 365 Deployment Workshop ) As such we're wondering whether Microsoft is working on including these applied skills in the trainings reporting?
Grow your SaaS business with Microsoft Marketplace: Proven strategies
Explore how to expand your reach and simplify transactions by publishing your SaaS solution on Microsoft Marketplace. This step-by-step guide explains how to list your offering, optimize for visibility, and leverage marketplace tools to drive growth and scale efficiently. Read the full article Boost SaaS revenue with Microsoft Marketplace: A step-by-step guide | Microsoft Community Hub
Time tracking woven into Microsoft 365, simple, secure, and proven
From Web to Teams, Outlook, and now M365 Copilot, Klynke time tracking is fully woven into the Microsoft 365 fabric. For partners, this isn’t just another feature. It’s a value-added service you can recommend, bundle, or build into your existing offerings. The payoff: clients stay inside the tools they already know and trust, while you strengthen your Microsoft 365 practice with a solution that’s proven, secure, and seamless. With a tried and tested approach, partners can confidently deliver integrated experiences that feel natural to end users. No extra training. No steep adoption curve. Microsoft even spotlighted this in the Tech Community interview Building Secure SaaS on Microsoft Cloud Let’s explore how integrated solutions like time tracking can open new doors for collaboration. If you’re building on Microsoft 365, we’d love to connect and share ways to create more value together.
Unable to pass Employment Verifcation step in Partner Center
Hello everyone, I am stuck at the Employment Verification step while trying to enroll in the Microsoft Partner Center. I have already submitted the required documents, including the domain invoice and the assignment letter, but Microsoft responded with: "Based on the information you have provided to date, we have determined that your organization does not currently meet the requirements to pass verification." This leaves me very confused, as the reply does not explain what exactly is missing or what additional documents are required. I have carefully checked the documentation, but there is no clear guidance. As a company focusing on IT security, this is extremely frustrating. We recently shifted from Linux to Windows development, and without a Microsoft Partner account we are unable to proceed with building kernel-level antivirus solutions for our users. This has a devastating impact on our business. Could anyone please share their experience or advise on what specific documents or requirements Microsoft usually expects in order to pass Employment Verification? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
No plans are available for the selected subscription
I've set up a SaaS offer in the Azure Marketplace and created a free plan for testing purposes. However, when attempting to subscribe to the offer, I encounter an issue: No plans are available for the selected subscription, despite configuring both yearly and monthly plans. Additionally, a paid plan has been configured. Please see the screenshot below for reference.Tech Talks presents: XIAD overview, updates, train the trainer events & Server logic in Power Pages
Join us on Thursday, November 13th at 8am PT as Nagesh Bhat, Senior Product Manager, Power Pages presents 'Server logic in Power Pages' and Alisha Dranitsaris, Partner Enablement Program Manager, Partner Success presents 'XIAD overview, recent updates, train the trainer events'. Makers can now securely execute JavaScript on the server, bringing extensibility directly into the site runtime. Since the logic runs on the server, it remains hidden from the browser and is protected by web roles and table permissions. Makers can add and manage this logic in Power Pages Studio, with authoring supported in Visual Studio Code, which provides IntelliSense and compile-time validation. The session also includes a walkthrough of Microsoft's XIAD program, recent updates to the program and a look at the Train the Trainer events. Be sure to join the session to see how you and your organization can get the most out of the program. 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/TechTalksRecordingMicrosoft 365 Developer Program Eligibility
I was excited to hear all of the buzz around the revamped M365 Dev Program and eligibility for MAICPP participants (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/developer-program/microsoft-365-developer-program) especially for the sandbox subscription benefit: Eligible MAICPP partner levels include: Azure Expert Managed Service Providers (MSP) Solutions Partners Specialization Partners Managed Partners Microsoft Action Pack Subscribers Partner Success Core Benefits Recipients Partner Success Expanded Benefits Recipients Partner Launch Benefits Recipients Legacy Gold/Silver Partners However, when I log into my dashboard (https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/profile), it says "you don't currently qualify for..." instead of the experience outlined in the help docs and announcements. Has anyone been able to provision a new M365 sandbox subscription with the new provisioning method? I have reached out to partner support, but they referred me to the dev program alias and nobody there has replied.Achievement codes not reflecting in Partner Centre
Hi, I held an AI-900 course in June, but the achievement code redemptions haven't appeared in Partner centre yet, so I was wondering if someone could help me check that everything is set up correctly? We had previously purchased the learning action pack, but completed the onboarding process in May (received onboarding email). I had previously (i.e. after we had purchased LAP but before the new onboarding) enrolled a class admin outlook account and could/can request achievement codes; this is set up against the same MPN ID so figured it would be OK to continue using it to create codes. Could see in the Xtremelabs classroom portal that multiple participants had redeemed the code, but nothing in Partner centre (last refresh states Aug 5th , course was held June 18th) Let me know if I should send over any details, MPN ID etc
Recent Blogs
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