Marketplace trainings and events calendar (updated 03/31/26)
-Welcome to our calendar for accessing upcoming Marketplace trainings and events, along with links to recent resources. This page is a go-to resource for discovering training sessions and events designed specifically for software development companies related to Microsoft Marketplace. Whether you’re building innovative solutions or publishing to the commercial marketplace, you’ll find content to help you stay ahead in today’s fast-moving tech landscape. We’ve organized dedicated areas for partners and customers, making it easy to find sessions most relevant to your needs. Some events are upcoming, while others are past recordings that remain valuable for learning and growth. This page is updated frequently with new opportunities. Be sure to subscribe for notifications; instructions are provided at the bottom of this post. Explore the upcoming AI events below, revisit past sessions, and feel free to comment with any questions. ****Sessions updated as of 03/31/2026**** Partner and Channel Partner sessions Upcoming sessions Date Time Area Title Description Link 04/02/26 8:30 AM PDT Partner Session Why Azure belongs in your multicloud strategy Tune in to hear WeTransact share when and why Azure should be part of your strategy. Find out how to replicate solutions for Azure. Hear why Marketplace-aligned companies are able to move quickly using Microsoft tools, funding, and incentives. Why Azure belongs in your multicloud strategy - Microsoft Marketplace Community 04/15/26 8:30 AM PDT Office Hours Marketplace Office Hours for Partners Tune in for updates, insights, and live Q&A to help you sell through Microsoft Marketplace. Topic TBD. April 2026 Office Hours 4/28/26 8:30 AM PDT Partner Session Maximize selling with Microsoft and Marketplace ROI Join us as WorkSpan shares real workflows used by partners who have closed over $5B in co-sell revenue with Microsoft. Learn best practices for navigating selling end-to-end with Microsoft. Maximize selling with Microsoft and Marketplace ROI - Microsoft Marketplace Community 05/20/26 8:30 AM PDT Office Hours Marketplace Office Hours for Partners Tune in for updates, insights, and live Q&A to help you sell through Microsoft Marketplace. Topic TBD. May 2026 Office Hours 06/17/26 8:30 AM PDT Office Hours Marketplace Office Hours for Partners Tune in for updates, insights, and live Q&A to help you sell through Microsoft Marketplace. Topic TBD. June 2026 Office Hours Recent Recorded Sessions Date Area Title Description Link 03/24/26 Partner Session Best practices for scaling Marketplace channel-led sales Join guest speaker team from Tackle as they walk through opportunities to scale partner driven revenue. Hear how to activate channel opportunities using multiparty private offers and learn when to leverage resale-enabled offers to expand partner reach. View the recording 03/18/26 Office Hours (Partner) Build, publish, and optimize Marketplace offers with App Advisor Learn what App Advisor is, how it works, and how it can help partners accelerate Marketplace offer creation. Live demo walk through; validating value to publishing and optimizing your listing. View the recording 03/11/26 Partner Session AI-powered automation for Marketplace private offers and IP co-sell Learn from guest speaker Jon Yoo, Suger, how software development companies can use AI-powered automation to simplify buying through Microsoft Marketplace, streamline private offers, and optimize co-selling opportunities. View the recording 02/25/26 Partner Session Inside Azure IP co-sell: What high-performing software developers do differently Get an inside look at the signals Microsoft uses to evaluate Marketplace and Azure IP co-sell readiness with insights from Barbara Treviño of Labra. Learn what top software companies do differently to accelerate approvals and boost GTM impact. View the recording 02/18/26 Office Hours (Partner) How to build a Microsoft Marketplace channel practice Building a successful Marketplace practice takes the right people, process, and strategy working together. Learn how top performing partners organize their teams across alliances, operations and leadership View the recording 1/21/26 Office Hours (Partner) Microsoft Partner Center reporting Get to know the Partner Center Insights and Earnings workspaces. Walk through Earnings, Customer, Order, Usage and Revenue reports. View the recording 12/18/25 Office Hours (Partner) Introducing resale enabled offers Explore resale enabled offers through Microsoft Marketplace. View recording 12/04/25 Partner Session AI-powered acceleration: scale faster on Microsoft Marketplace Go beyond listing basics and explore how Microsoft Marketplace can act as a strategic revenue engine. View recording 11/04/25 Partner Session How to structure your Microsoft Partner Center account for long-term success Learn best practices for setting up your Partner Center account for operational and marketplace success. View recording 08/28/25 Office Hours (Partner) Certified software designations: FY26 benefits updates Overview of certified software designations and FY26 benefit updates. View recording Customer sessions Upcoming sessions Date Time Area Title Description Link 04/29/26 8:30 AM PDT Office Hours (Customer) Using Microsoft Marketplace to optimize Azure spend For organizations with an Azure cloud commitment Microsoft Marketplace can be a powerful tool for optimizing how the spend is used. Explore how your organization can leverage its Azure commitment to support software investments through Microsoft Marketplace. Using Microsoft Marketplace to optimize Azure spend - Microsoft Marketplace Community 05/27/26 8:30 AM PDT Office Hours (Customer) Marketplace Office Hours for Customers Tune in for updates, insights, and live Q&A to help use Microsoft Marketplace. Topic TBD. May 2026 Customer Office Hour 06/24/26 9:30 AM PDT Office Hours (Customer) Marketplace Office Hours for Customers Tune in for updates, insights, and live Q&A to help use Microsoft Marketplace. Topic TBD. June 2026 Customer Office Hour Recorded sessions Date Area Title Description Link 03/25/26 Office Hours (Customer) Charting your AI strategy for manufacturing with Marketplace Build, buy, or blend? Gain the insights you need as a manufacturer to scale AI apps and agents across the factory floor using Microsoft Marketplace. Hear about practical manufacturing scenarios View the recording 02/25/26 Office Hours (Customer) Accelerate AI adoption through Microsoft Marketplace Explore practical AI use cases available through Microsoft Marketplace - from prebuilt AI apps and agents to AI-powered solutions that simplify deployment. View the recording 01/28/26 Office Hours (Customer) Optimize cloud cost and performance Learn proven strategies to accelerate time-to-value for cloud and AI investments using Microsoft Marketplace. View the recording 12/11/25 Office Hours (Customer) Chart your AI app and agent strategy Insights into build, buy, or blend approaches for AI apps and agents using Microsoft Marketplace. View recording 07/30/25 Office Hours (Customer) FinOps and the Microsoft Marketplace Learn how Microsoft Marketplace supports FinOps practitioners and accelerates AI transformation. View recording Subscribe to this post If you're not already a Tech Community member, create an account at techcommunity.microsoft.com. Select Subscribe from the three‑dot menu in the upper‑right corner of this post. Under Notification Settings, choose to be notified of edits and comments, and select whether you'd like updates immediately, daily, or weekly (weekly recommended). You can also subscribe to the entire Marketplace Community via the Marketplace Community homepage. ``Reshaping enterprise go-to-market with Microsoft Marketplace and ecosystem partnerships
As the pace of enterprise transformation accelerates, we’re seeing a fundamental shift in how organizations go to market—and it’s being powered by ecosystems, not silos. Partner1 recently hosted two industry events where we explored how Microsoft Marketplace is becoming a central engine for this change, helping partners unlock new routes to growth while making it easier for customers to discover, buy, and deploy innovative solutions. From AI-driven offerings to multiparty private offers and deeper channel integrations, Marketplace is redefining how partnerships come together to deliver end-to-end value. It’s not just about listing solutions—it’s about creating scalable, repeatable growth through a connected ecosystem that meets customers where and how they want to buy. If you’re thinking about how to evolve your go-to-market strategy, scale with partners, or tap into new revenue opportunities, this is a conversation you won’t want to miss. Read the full article to see how Marketplace and ecosystem partnerships are reshaping enterprise go-to-market—and what it means for your business. How Microsoft Marketplace and ecosystem partnerships are reshaping enterprise go-to-market | Microsoft Community HubHow Microsoft Marketplace and ecosystem partnerships are reshaping enterprise go-to-market
Author Juhi Saha is CEO at Partner1, a two-time Inc. Power Partner Award winner and an official Microsoft Partner Led Network. Partner1 helps B2B software and services companies maximize the value of their partner ecosystems and transform partnerships into scalable profit engines. Specializing in channel development and strategic alliances, Partner1 empowers organizations to unlock their partnership potential through expert guidance, partnership program design, and actionable growth strategies. By focusing on partner-driven growth, Partner1 helps businesses, from startups to scale-ups, maximize revenue, accelerate market expansion, and build a lasting competitive advantage. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Key takeaways from recent NYC founder and investor events “It’s no longer the era of go fast. It’s the era of go faster.” That sentiment, shared by an investor during one of our recent New York City gatherings, captures a broader shift underway in how startups are expected to scale. Speed is no longer just a function of product development or hiring. It is increasingly a function of how effectively companies leverage platforms, ecosystems, and commercial infrastructure that already exist. Over the past several weeks, Partner1 hosted two curated events bringing together founders, investors, and ecosystem leaders to explore how startups are accessing enterprise customers and accelerating growth through partnerships. The conversations centered on a practical question that continues to surface across early-stage and growth-stage companies: how do startups break into enterprise and scale in a market defined by AI, platforms, and increasingly complex buying environments? What emerged from these discussions is a clear pattern: the traditional model of building a product, hiring a sales team, and scaling through direct enterprise relationships is being supplemented, and in many cases replaced, by ecosystem-led growth. Partnerships are no longer a downstream channel decision. They are becoming a primary system through which companies access customers, accelerate revenue, and compete. Across both sessions, with perspectives from leaders at Microsoft, NVIDIA, Plug and Play Tech Center, and investors including Trajectory Ventures, several consistent themes emerged around how this shift is playing out in practice. Marketplace is becoming the default commercial infrastructure Evaluate your Marketplace readiness- understand how Microsoft Marketplace supports discovery, procurement, and scalable growth, and were your solution fits today. One of the most concrete shifts discussed was the role of Marketplace as the commercial backbone for modern software transactions. Marketplace is no longer positioned as an optional distribution channel. It is increasingly how Microsoft goes to market with software companies of all sizes, and how customers expect to discover, evaluate, and procure solutions. This shift is being driven by practical realities. Enterprise procurement has historically been one of the most significant sources of friction in software sales. Vendor onboarding, legal negotiations, billing complexity, and fragmented purchasing processes extend deal cycles and introduce risk. Marketplace addresses these issues directly by standardizing terms, consolidating billing, and pre-vetting vendors through the publisher agreement. These are not cosmetic improvements. They materially change how quickly transactions can occur. During the discussions, the Marketplace opportunity was reinforced with both data and real examples. Marketplace is enabling larger deals, faster sales cycles, and measurable revenue growth for companies that treat it as a core go-to-market motion and speakers shared examples from companies like Neo4j, Pangaea Data and ShookIoT. The examples shared ranged from small, niche startups closing their largest deals through Marketplace to companies significantly expanding their customer base by leveraging Microsoft’s commercial infrastructure. What stands out is that these outcomes are not isolated. They are becoming repeatable. As customer awareness of Marketplace increases, it is increasingly seen as the fastest path to the right solution, regardless of who built it. Several startups shared how their deals languished in procurement and were excited to hear from other companies in attendance around how they successfully used Marketplace to speed up procurement. Rethinking scale: why “Microsoft is too big” is the wrong assumption A recurring concern from founders was whether they are too early or too small to meaningfully engage with Microsoft. This perception is common, but it does not reflect how the ecosystem is evolving. The perspective shared by Microsoft leaders was clear. AI-native startups are not peripheral to the ecosystem. They are central to it. Supporting startups is not about proximity to large partners. It is about helping early-stage companies build faster, reduce risk, and reach enterprise customers sooner. This dynamic was described as a balance. Startups bring speed, specialization, and differentiated AI use cases. Microsoft brings global reach, enterprise relationships, and a mature commercial engine. When aligned, that combination becomes a multiplier. Multiple conversations touched on how Marketplace is where this alignment materializes. It serves as the convergence point between innovation and demand. Whether a company is early-stage or scaling, it provides a consistent path to reach customers and transact at enterprise scale. The implication is direct. Companies should not wait to be “big enough.” They should start early with Microsoft Marketplace and design for this motion from the beginning. The results will be reduced friction and enable them to reach enterprise customers faster. Co-sell is evolving from access to alignment Many founders approach partnerships with a familiar question: how do we get Microsoft sellers to pay attention to us? That framing is increasingly misaligned with how the system actually works. The more scalable model described in the sessions is based on alignment rather than attention. Becoming co-sell eligible is important, particularly as solutions begin to align with Azure consumption and commercial priorities. However, co-sell eligibility is a starting point. It allows a solution to be recognized within Microsoft’s system and to count toward seller objectives. The more important shift is where growth actually comes from. The fastest growing motion is not seller-led. It is partner-to-partner. System integrators and channel partners already have established customer relationships. They are the ones driving adoption at scale. Microsoft’s investment in channel-led growth reflects this, with partner-led motions representing one of the highest growth vectors. The takeaway for founders is practical: instead of asking how to get seller attention, the better question is how to become easy for partners to sell. Alignment to platform, customer need, and partner incentives drives outcomes more reliably than individual relationships. Partnerships are not a channel. They are a go-to-market system One of the most consistent misconceptions observed across attendees was treating partnerships as a secondary channel, but insights from the panelists as well as conversations during networking sessions highlighted how partnerships function as an integrated system that shapes how companies build, sell, and scale. Marketplace, co-sell eligibility, and partner-to-partner relationships are interconnected. Product decisions influence how easily a solution can be transacted. Marketplace presence influences discovery and procurement. Partner relationships determine how widely a solution can be distributed. This system view is especially important in AI. As solutions become more complex, both buyers and sellers are optimizing for simplicity and speed. Centralized platforms and ecosystems provide a way to meet those requirements. Companies that treat partnerships as a system create compounding advantages. Those that treat them as an add-on often struggle to gain traction, even with strong products. Expanding beyond enterprise: a multi-segment opportunity While many startups initially focus on landing large enterprise customers, the opportunity within the Microsoft ecosystem is broader. Microsoft’s reach extends across enterprise, mid-market, and SMB segments. With the rise of AI and agent-based solutions, there is increasing focus on embedding applications into environments where customers already operate, such as Microsoft 365, and leveraging channel partners to scale distribution. This creates a unified go-to-market path that spans multiple segments. Startups can reach enterprise customers while also expanding into mid-market and SMB through the same ecosystem infrastructure. Channel partners play a critical role in this expansion. They provide access, distribution, and scale that would be difficult to replicate through direct sales alone. For startups, this represents a meaningful opportunity to grow faster and more efficiently across segments. Investor perspective: partnerships as a signal of maturity From an investor standpoint, partnerships are increasingly a signal of go-to-market maturity. The ability to leverage platforms, align with ecosystem dynamics, and accelerate revenue through structured partnerships is becoming a differentiator. Going back to the investor’s comment that “It’s no longer the era of go fast. It’s the era of go faster. I am going to ask all my portfolio companies about their marketplace strategy.” - this reflects a broader shift in evaluation criteria. Marketplace and ecosystem alignment are not viewed as optional enhancements. They are becoming central to how companies compress time to revenue and scale efficiently. When evaluating companies with similar technical capabilities, investors are looking closely at how founders approach distribution. Companies with a clear strategy for leveraging ecosystems and Marketplace are often better positioned to scale with less friction and more capital efficiency. A practical starting point The guidance shared across both events was consistent and actionable. Start early. Do not wait for a specific stage to engage with the ecosystem. Build on the platform with clear, differentiated use cases that solve real customer problems. Treat Marketplace as a core go-to-market motion. This includes investing in strong listings, clear pricing, and a working knowledge of Marketplace capabilities such as private offers and partner-led transactions. Design for partner-to-partner distribution. Ensure that your solution is easy for others to position, sell, and deploy within existing customer environments. At a fundamental level, the objective is to reduce friction. Companies that are easy to buy, easy to deploy, and easy for partners to sell are the ones that scale most effectively. Enterprise growth is no longer driven solely by direct sales execution. It is increasingly shaped by how well a company integrates into an ecosystem that already has distribution, demand, and commercial infrastructure. For startups building in AI and enterprise software, the question is no longer whether to engage with platforms like Microsoft. It is how early and how intentionally they design for it. The companies that do this well are not simply participating in the ecosystem. They are using it to accelerate outcomes that would be difficult to achieve on their own. Live in NYC on April 21st: Hear from Redis, Datadog, Eden and Microsoft on how strategic Marketplace partnerships are built and scaled in practice Strategic partnerships across hyperscalers, database providers, observability platforms, and application ecosystems are no longer abstract concepts, but important GTM relationships. As customers' infrastructure becomes more complex, they require solutions that are interoperable, scalable, and easy to implement. With the rise of AI, marketplaces have become critical enablers of technology adoption. With each product offering a wide range of integrations, it's the first-party relationships between providers that set these solutions apart, delivering best-in-class support for customers' infrastructure. Partnerships, like those between Microsoft, Datadog, Eden, and Redis, accelerate and derisk enterprise cloud transformations, with the Microsoft Marketplace playing a central role in how services are delivered and scaled. Eden's migration platform, Exodus, enables zero-downtime database migrations, while Datadog is deeply integrated to ensure that these autonomous migrations are fully observed. Azure Managed Redis is a first-party Azure service that is becoming foundational for customers optimizing their data infrastructure for modern and agentic AI workloads. Eden and Datadog's autonomous migration service for Azure Managed Redis is now available on Microsoft Marketplace, making it easy for enterprises to get the most out of new Redis products. As enterprises make this shift, a broader pattern is emerging in which marketplaces are not just procurement vehicles but also enablers of ecosystem execution, particularly in the context of AI. Many AI initiatives fall short not because of model capability, but because underlying infrastructure and data environments are not properly optimized. Migrations, when executed well, become an opportunity to modernize architecture, improve performance, and prepare for scalable AI and agent deployments. Through coordinated partnerships across Microsoft, Eden, Datadog, and Redis, companies are aligning product, sales, and delivery into a unified operating model that accelerates time to value and reduces risk for enterprise customers. This is all before discussing AI as an autonomous agent for deploying new infrastructure via marketplaces. If you want to understand how these partnership models are being built in practice, and how to use marketplaces and ecosystem alignment to unlock growth and AI readiness in your own organization, this event will provide a direct view into how leading companies are executing today. Sign up here and follow for more events with partners for partners by Partner1 and Microsoft. Resources Marketplace readiness assessment Learn more about Microsoft Marketplace: Microsoft Marketplace overview - Marketplace customer documentation | Microsoft Learn Explore Microsoft Marketplace Microsoft Marketplace | cloud solutions, AI apps, and agents Join Microsoft Marketplace community: Microsoft Marketplace community | Microsoft Community Hub🎥 Product Champions Welcome Call – Recording
Thank you to everyone who joined our Product Champions Welcome Call! If you weren’t able to attend live — or would like to revisit the discussion — the call recording is now available and has been added here to the Knowledge Base for easy reference. In this session, we covered: An overview of the Product Champions Program How to get started and progress through the program Rewards, recognition, and what’s coming next Ways to stay connected and engaged with the community Helpful links and resources: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/microsoft-support-community/ Product Champions FAQ: https://aka.ms/PCPFAQ Tech Community Hub: https://aka.ms/TechCommunityPCP Welcome Call resource: https://aka.ms/ProductChampionsWelcome Sign‑up form: https://aka.ms/AAzhkru We’ll continue to use this space to share recordings, resources, and updates to support you throughout your Product Champions journey. If you have topics you’d like us to cover in future calls, feel free to reply in the comments — your feedback helps shape upcoming sessions. Thanks for being part of the Product Champions community! 💙 Link for recordingEvent Recap - Experts Live US - New York City
On October 10 2025, Microsoft’s Times Square office hosted Experts Live US in New York City, bringing together IT pros, developers, and community leaders for a full day of insights on Microsoft technologies, AI, and modern workplace strategies. Registered: 178 In attendance: 126 A great start for a brand-new event, first time in the US! Adam Harmetz’s Keynote: The Future of Content Management with AI Adam Harmetz, VP of PM for Collaborative Apps & Platforms at Microsoft, opened the event with a visionary keynote on modernizing SharePoint and driving the next decade of content management innovation through AI and agents. His session highlighted how Copilot and intelligent automation will transform collaboration, making enterprise content smarter and more adaptive to user needs. Adam summarized Microsoft 365 & Copilot's major AI news from the past 60 days - 6 major things you need to know that Microsoft announced and made available in preview or GA. "We are moving faster than ever in the AI build out, partnering with frontier firms to show what's possible as we help orgs of all sizes stay on the forefront of AI. And as I talked about in the keynote, our research shows employees at these frontier firms are significantly more likely to say their orgs are thriving (71% to 31%). I know the pace of change is intimidating - but the payoff is worth it and we are here to help. So try out our latest innovations in Copilot, create an agent or use one of our new ones - and give us feedback. We're listening." – Adam on LinkedIN Panel Discussion: Rising Together—Allyship, Acceleration & Women Who Lead Tech Forward In a time where AI and cybersecurity evolve at breakneck speed, we cannot afford to leave talent behind. This panel explored the critical role of allyship and inclusive leadership in shaping the future of tech. Led by inspiring women in AI and security, the conversation went beyond technical frontiers to examine the structures and support systems that helped them thrive. The data tells the story: women now make up around 28% of the tech workforce, but representation in AI (22%) and cybersecurity (24%) remains far from equal. The stakes are high—studies show diverse teams detect threats 30% faster and build more ethical AI models. This wasn’t just a diversity talk; it was a strategy session. Attendees learned how allies in leadership, policy, and peer networks are accelerating change, and walked away with actionable steps to amplify underrepresented voices and redesign hiring and mentoring structures for the future we want to build. Celebrating three years of CommunityDays.org This year also marked the three-year anniversary of CommunityDays.org, a global platform born from the SharePoint Saturday movement. CommunityDays.org empowers volunteer organizers to host free technical training events worldwide, spanning Microsoft 365, Power Platform, Azure, and more. Its growth reflects the enduring spirit of community-driven learning and collaboration in the Microsoft ecosystem. We posted a longer for article on the Microsoft Tech Community to celebrate. The local volunteer event producers A huge thank you to the incredible team who made Experts Live NYC possible: Anna Bordioug, Dr. Booma Poolan Marikannan, Femke Cornelissen, Jason Rivera, Justine Wolters, Manpreet Singh, Melissa Ballesteros, Micah Heaton, Morten Knudsen, Raae Wolfram, Samir Makwana, Thomas Daly. Gratitude to sponsors Many Microsoft partners are the local, national and worldwide sponsors that help these events year after year - they pay for the food and fun prizes at many of these community events. Join the best community in tech Our CommunityDays events are always looking for speakers, and they’re a fantastic way to hone your speaking skills, get feedback directly from customers, partners, and Microsoft MVPs—and connect into The Best Community in Tech. Find upcoming events at: Community Days | Homepage About Experts Live USA Each year, Experts Live USA organizes a one-day event attended by IT Pros and Developers who come to deepen their knowledge of Microsoft technologies. National and international community experts bring attendees fully up to speed on the latest Microsoft technologies—all in a single day. Over the years, well-known speakers and MVPs have become closely associated with Experts Live. Held on four continents, more than 12 international Experts Live events take place annually, reaching over 5,000 people. Thousands more benefit from our knowledge through Experts Live Café, TV, Radio, and social media. Driven by a vision to empower the IT community worldwide, we continuously expand our reach by adding new Microsoft tech conferences in different continents, countries, and regions. And soon, the Experts Live experience will be spreading across the USA too. Experts Live US supports STEM Kids NYC, helping them bring technical classes, materials, and support to kids in the New York City area. The volunteer team gave the non-profit a check for $2000.00. WOOTWOOT!From AI assistant to autonomous defense: Microsoft Security Copilot and agents in action
Cybersecurity teams are facing unprecedented pressure—from alert fatigue and skills shortages to increasingly sophisticated, AI‑driven attacks. Microsoft Security Copilot helps address these challenges by combining generative AI with deep security expertise and rich organizational context. Now, with the introduction of Security Copilot agents, security teams can take the next step toward more scalable, efficient defense. In this session, you’ll learn how Microsoft Security Copilot supports security teams in investigating incidents, hunting threats, and strengthening security posture at machine speed. We’ll also explore how Security Copilot agents enable human‑supervised, autonomous automation across key Microsoft Security solutions, including Microsoft Defender, Entra, Intune, and Purview. You’ll also see how this innovation connects to Microsoft Marketplace, which provides the underlying publishing, commerce, and billing infrastructure for partner solutions. Customers discover, procure, and deploy these solutions through the Microsoft Security Store—a security‑optimized storefront purpose‑built for extending Microsoft Security Copilot. Learn how marketplace‑published offerings and partner integrations available in Security Store help organizations tailor Security Copilot to their environment, accelerate time to value, and operationalize AI‑driven security at scale. Learn more and register: From AI Assistant to Autonomous Defense: Microsoft Security Copilot & Agents in ActionCustomer office hours: Chart your AI strategy for manufacturing with Microsoft Marketplace
Join the upcoming customer office hours session on March 25 | 9:30 AM PDT to explore how manufacturers can scale AI apps and agents across the factory floor using Microsoft Marketplace. Go beyond AI theory and dive into practical scenarios—from connecting IoT and enterprise systems to enabling analytics, digital twins, and AI agents. Learn how to make informed build, buy, or blend decisions, turn unstructured plant data into actionable insights, and move from pilot to production faster—all while balancing governance and architectural trade‑offs. Bring your questions and engage directly during this interactive session. Learn more on how to attend this webinar: Charting your AI strategy for manufacturing with Marketplace - Microsoft Marketplace CommunityCertified Software Designations: FY26 Benefits Updates
If you are a software development company selling through the Microsoft commercial marketplace, don’t miss this office hours session. Learn how to stand out to Microsoft customers and sellers -- and unlock the top-tier of benefits available to software development company partners. Walk away with a better understanding of: Certified software designation: What it is and why it matters FY26 updates: New benefits and incentives for designated partners Getting started: Steps to begin your designation journey Where can I access the deck? Click here to download the slides presented in this session of Office Hours. When is the next Office Hours session? Bookmark the Marketplace Community for announcements about upcoming Office Hours events.Product Champions Program: Welcome Call
Join us for a welcome call to walk through the Product Champions Program and answer any questions you may have. This session is designed for all new and recently onboarded Product Champions who want a clearer understanding of the program, available resources, and how to get started. Agenda: • Program overview • Walkthrough of key resources • What to expect as a Product Champion • Live Q&A 📅 Date: March 30, 2026 ⏰ Time: 9:00–10:00 AM PST 📍 Location: Microsoft Teams 🔗 Join the meeting: Product Champions Program – Welcome & Q&A | Meeting-Join | Microsoft Teams We hope to see you there!Microsoft Marketplace Partner Digest
March marks a strong quarter of momentum across the Microsoft Marketplace ecosystem, with partners scaling their businesses while delivering high quality customer experiences—directly, through the channel, and alongside Microsoft. From monetizing AI innovation to streamlining post purchase workflows and co-selling motions, partners continue to turn Marketplace readiness into real, repeatable growth. This month’s digest highlights the insights, updates, and opportunities helping software companies meet customers where and how they choose to buy. Articles worth reading As more partners race to build AI apps and agents, the real differentiator is turning that innovation into recurring revenue through scalable sales motions. Microsoft’s Brady Bumgarner shares how App Advisor helps teams think about monetization well before they publish an offer, empowering partners to launch with confidence and scale faster. 🚀 Learn more about AI app and agent monetization Brady also breaks down how combining Marketplace transactable offers with Azure IP co-sell readiness turns co-selling into a true growth engine. More partners are leveraging the insights and guidance available through App Advisor to build repeatable co-selling muscle memory. 🔄️See how co-selling with Microsoft can accelerate your business growth As customers move to AI‑first architectures, cloud cost optimization is becoming a core decision lens—not just an operational concern. In this post, Justin Royal explores how customers are rethinking cost, performance, and governance as continuous disciplines. For sellers, this has clear implications: customers increasingly expect flexibility in how solutions scale, perform, and are paid for, and those expectations should shape how software companies build, package, and position offers on Marketplace. 💸 Explore how customers are optimizing cloud spend as AI adoption scales Accelerate your Marketplace growth by delivering a seamless customer experience after the click. Marketplace Fulfillment APIs automate activation, entitlement, and subscription management so you can reduce friction, speed time‑to‑value, and scale globally with confidence. Explore how these APIs—and new Microsoft reference code—help product teams integrate faster and support every customer at every stage. 🔍 Discover how Marketplace Fulfillment APIs streamline and automate critical post purchase workflows Marketplace updates Dragon Copilot solutions in Microsoft Marketplace On March 5, we announced preview of Dragon Copilot solutions for Microsoft Marketplace. This enables software companies to build and sell AI apps and agents that integrate with Dragon Copilot, while allowing customers to discover and purchase solutions that work with their existing Microsoft investments. Software companies can build and publish their solutions using one of three offer types: Dragon Copilot Physician Apps and Agents (in preview now) Dragon Copilot Clinical App Connectors (coming soon) Dragon Copilot Radiology Apps and Agents (coming soon) Dragon Copilot is built for care teams including physicians, nurses, and radiologists and is already operating with more than 100,000 clinicians relying on it daily to support care for millions of patients each month. Steps you can take to get started: Read through our documentation on how extensions for Dragon Copilot work and how to build your own Check out the sample repo with sample code, and more Contact dragon_extensions@microsoft.com to inquire about joining preview 🐉 Learn how Dragon Copilot solutions are modernizing Healthcare Recent events How to build a Microsoft Marketplace channel practice In his recent webinar, Darren Sharpe highlights how partners are increasingly building their channel businesses with Microsoft Marketplace at the core—using it as a channel-led, Marketplace delivered growth engine. As buying shifts toward lineofbusiness leaders and decentralized procurement, Marketplace brings together discovery, governance, and enterprise purchasing in one place. Darren shares how partners that align sales, alliances, and operations around Marketplace are better positioned to drive repeatable growth, meeting customers where and how they choose to buy. 🎥 Watch on demand Inside Azure IP co-sell: What high-performing software companies do differently Get an insider’s view of what truly moves the needle for Microsoft Marketplace and Microsoft Azure IP co-sell success. Guest speaker Barbara Treviño breaks down the signals Microsoft prioritizes when assessing submission strength—helping software development companies understand what great looks like across architecture, messaging, evidence, and sequencing. You’ll learn why high performing software development companies approach readiness differently, and how that difference translates directly into smoother approvals and stronger GTM impact. 🎥 Watch on demand AI-powered automation for Marketplace private offers and IP co-sell Learn how software development companies can use AI-powered automation to simplify buying through Microsoft Marketplace, streamline Microsoft Marketplace private offers, and maximize the effectiveness of co-selling opportunities. Join Jon Yoo, Co-Founder & CEO at Suger, as he explores how reducing operational friction in Partner Center can help you accelerate deal velocity, improve collaboration with Microsoft sellers, and drive Azure adoption. 🎥 Watch on demand 📅 Coming up Partner office hour Build, publish, and optimize Marketplace offers with App Advisor Wednesday, Mar 18, 2026, 8:30 AM PDT Tune in for live demos and proven best practices on using App Advisor, Microsoft’s guided experience for Microsoft Marketplace success! Learn what App Advisor is, how it works, and how it can help partners accelerate Marketplace offer creation. Walk through key stages of the experience from validating value to publishing and optimizing your listing. ➡️ Get the meeting details Customer office hours Charting your AI strategy for manufacturing with Marketplace Wednesday, Mar 25, 2026, 9:30 AM PDT Build, buy, or blend? Gain the insights you need as a manufacturer to scale AI apps and agents across the factory floor using Microsoft Marketplace. We’ll go beyond AI theory and focus on practical manufacturing scenarios—connecting factory equipment, IoT, and enterprise systems into a unified foundation that enables analytics, digital twins, and AI agents. ➡️ Get the meeting details In-person events Channel Partners Conference & Expo 2026 Microsoft Marketplace is sponsoring Channel Partners Conference & Expo 2026 in Las Vegas, with interactive sessions, booth conversations, and private meetings focused on helping channel partners understand how Marketplace can simplify software purchasing for their customers. Partners can expect to learn how the expansive catalogue of products and services available from thousands of software companies delivered through channel-led sales capabilities are Marketplace enabled and accelerate AI‑ and cloud‑led sales through Marketplace. 📆 April 13-16, 2026 📍The Venetian Resort, Las Vegas ➡️ See the details and learn how to register Microsoft AI Tour Our series continues, coming to more cities around the globe. Bringing in‑person opportunities for partners to connect with Microsoft experts, explore innovation and get inspired. ➡️ Find your city and register
