Forum Discussion
Eligible Workload Requirement of for Partner Solutions
"Why don't these smaller business workloads count?"
I think there's only one answer and it's rather simple; because Microsoft doesn't want to.
Sounds a bit harsh, but I think Microsoft is not interested anymore in the partners that do business with customers that small. Customers that small are often supported by partners of similar size, which is just not interesting enough for Microsoft.
Furthermore you could argue that attaining a Solution Partner status means you'll need to have a strong end-to-end proposition towards your customers (this is something different from the legacy Silver competency which you could attain by selling just 5 licenses a year). Supporting your customers on every level, maintaining, innovating and growing your customers' business is key with being a Solution Partner. Partners that small often aren't able to do so. Thus Microsoft cuts off the bottom of their partner community by implementing a threshold...
But this is just my two cents on it 
MartijnElfersYou're are probably correct, I suspect new program is designed to reduce the number Smaller Microsoft Partners in the eco-system. Smaller Microsoft Partners have spent years migrating SMB businesses to Azure and Office 365 so Microsoft probably do not require smaller partners anymore. We where a Gold Partner before the changes in October, now we can't qualify to figure!
