Forum Discussion
Is there any roadmap to be ESI partners with Microsoft?
Enterprise Skills Initiative (ESI) is an excellent Microsoft program that helps organizations accelerate skilling through benefits such as certification exam discounts, instructor-led training, learning resources, and more. Has anyone successfully enrolled their organization in ESI? I'd appreciate any guidance, best practices, or a roadmap for getting a company onboarded.
4 Replies
The Enterprise Skills Initiative (ESI) can be a great program if your organization qualifies, but enrollment is typically initiated through your Microsoft account team rather than through a public application process.
From what I've seen, the general path is:
- Contact your organization's Microsoft Account Manager, Customer Success Account Manager (CSAM), or Microsoft partner to determine whether your company is eligible.
- Eligibility is usually based on your organization's Microsoft relationship (such as Enterprise Agreement or other qualifying commercial agreements), so not every customer can enroll.
- Once approved, Microsoft works with your organization to enable ESI benefits and provide access to the learning portal, certification discounts, instructor-led training, and other available resources.
- It's worth identifying an internal ESI administrator or learning coordinator early on to help manage user onboarding and communicate available benefits.
If your organization doesn't currently have a Microsoft account representative, opening a support request through your Microsoft licensing or sales contact is a good place to start—they can connect you with the appropriate team.
I'd also be interested to hear from anyone who has recently onboarded to ESI, especially if the eligibility requirements or enrollment process have changed over the past year.
ESI is invite only, your organization needs to be large enough to be considered.
Hi Michael
Thank you for your response!
By way of introduction, I'm Geetanjali, Director Partner Sales & Alliances at Quadrant Technologies.
We're already investing significantly in Microsoft skilling—we have 300+ Microsoft Fabric-certified professionals, are a Microsoft Fabric Featured Partner, and are planning to upskill 500+ employees only in Fabric (plus other Microsoft capabilities).
You mentioned that organizations typically need to be "large enough" to qualify for ESI. Could you help me understand what that means in practice?
-Is there a minimum employee count or Microsoft skilling threshold?
-Are there specific eligibility criteria or partner requirements?
-Is there a Microsoft team or program owner we should engage to explore our eligibility?
We'd love to understand the roadmap and prepare ourselves if there are prerequisites. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.
Generally, these conversations happen during EA negotiation so if you are at that stage, consult your account team.
