Clarity at every stage: App Advisor turns Marketplace complexity into action
For software development companies, the Microsoft Marketplace journey isn’t always linear. It’s a series of decisions: what to build, how to package it, how to publish, and how to sell it, each with real dependencies and real friction.Why some apps reach revenue faster than others—and how App Advisor helps close the gap
This is a series about how App Advisor can help software development companies streamline their build, publish, and growth through Marketplace; find the answers they need when they need them; and get curated, step-by-step guidance. App Advisor is the pinnacle of the demonstration of Microsoft’s commitment to the success of the software development company side of the partner ecosystem. – Dan L. The journey from product idea to commercial success can be slowed by fragmented guidance, disconnected processes, and uncertainty about what comes next. The result is familiar: delayed launches, avoidable rework, and revenue that arrives later than it should. But speed is important to help quickly translate an idea to a transactable offer, how efficiently that offer reaches customers, and how fast it begins generating revenue. That's exactly the challenge App Advisor was designed to solve. App Advisor helps companies shorten the gap between resources and action with: Deployable code templates to start developing in minutes, Actionable recommendations to use product-led build and growth benefits, Easy-to-use frameworks to streamline your development of AI or agentic solutions, Interactive wizards to help you choose your offer type, depending on how you want to sell, Personalized agentic listing recommendations that score and help you improve your Marketplace listing, And clear, curated ways to scale your sales with Microsoft using negotiated deals and co-sell. As Microsoft's self-service center of excellence for software development companies, App Advisor helps teams move from discovery to build, publish, and growth through a guided experience that reduces friction, accelerates execution, and shortens the path from idea to revenue. A single, curated path from build to sell App Advisor brings the full app journey together into one guided experience: Discover → Build → Publish → Grow Instead of searching for disconnected resources, teams can move through a structured workflow that sequences technical, commercial, and go-to-market decisions in the right order. App Advisor helps teams shift from fragmentation to guided execution, removing one of the most common barriers to speed: uncertainty. Accelerate the path from idea to revenue Speed in development creates the most value when it translates into speed in revenue. When teams align build, publishing, and sales motions from the beginning into a single workflow, they can reduce delays and accelerate outcomes across the entire commercialization journey: Faster development cycles through structured, stage-based guidance, Faster time from Marketplace publication to customer transactions, A shorter gap between product completion and first revenue. Rather than treating development and go-to-market as separate activities, App Advisor connects them. We’ve heard that development teams can spend cycles searching for code repos and sample solution architecture. In App Advisor, the Quick-Start Development Toolkit solves this problem with a few interactive questions, landing on development pattern with ready-to-deploy code, sample solution architecture, and pertinent SDKs and how-to resources. Clarity at every stage Clarity can save rework and avoid noise by aligning the work around goals shared across the team. App Advisor helps focus teams on the most important priorities, helping to clarify technical choices that translate into Marketplace success later. At every step, teams gain: A clear understanding of their current stage, Personalized next actions aligned to their product and goals, Focused tools, resources, and guidance to move forward with confidence. This approach reduces guesswork, improves decision-making, and helps teams maintain momentum throughout the Marketplace journey. For example, some teams get stuck trying to choose the right offer type for their solution. In App Advisor, you can answer a few questions about what you’re building, how you’re deploying, and how it integrates AI to receive curated guidance for offer types, pricing strategy, and how to monetize your offer. From information to action Teams building apps and agents don’t always have time to read documentation, understand best practices, determine what applies to their situation, and then translate those insights into action. App Advisor takes a different approach. Instead of simply providing information, it embeds actionable guidance and interactive tools directly into the experience, helping teams move from planning to execution without unnecessary context switching. The result is a fundamental shift from: Reading to doing, Best practices to executable actions, Manual navigation to guided execution. For resource-constrained teams, spend less time searching and more time doing. If your team wants to maximize sales with negotiated deals, you can go to that step in App Advisor to get a quick step-by-step resource for which deals are right for your offer and how to create them on a single page, Scale without adding complexity App Advisor is designed for speed and efficiency. As an always-on, self-service experience that delivers expert guidance without requiring consulting engagements, specialized resources, or access to exclusive programs, it helps teams move fast. A more scalable operating model allows teams to: Work on multiple products and lifecycle stages without adding headcount, Access guidance on demand rather than waiting for support, Standardize execution across business units and offerings. Combined with focused guidance to capture Microsoft Marketplace's access to enterprise buyers, co-sell opportunities, and global reach, App Advisor helps transform faster execution into scalable revenue growth. Built for how modern teams operate Most innovative companies are balancing multiple priorities: Building products while developing go-to-market strategies, Navigating a complex market without dedicated Microsoft expertise Scaling growth and revenue with limited time and resources App Advisor supports by guiding teams to the next most impactful step-based product development and business objectives, rather than requiring teams to master Microsoft programs, processes, and requirements before taking action. A unified motion: from idea to revenue The true value of App Advisor is the unified path from idea to revenue. By connecting product development, Marketplace readiness, and go-to-market execution into one continuous experience, App Advisor helps your team move from concept to meaningful business outcomes more efficiently and predictably: Faster time-to-market Reduced operational friction Higher-quality Marketplace offers Scalable revenue growth without added cost What comes next By connecting product development, Marketplace readiness, and go-to-market execution in a single experience, App Advisor can help you reduce friction, accelerate time-to-market, and create a more predictable path to revenue growth. If you're building apps or agents and looking to accelerate your path to revenue, App Advisor provides a guided, end-to-end approach that aligns build and go-to-market from day one. Ready for more? Use App Advisor to overcome friction,Accelerate your AI or agent build to sell on Marketplace with Quick-Start Development Toolkit
Want to skip right to coding in minutes? Start with the interactive wizard in App Advisor Building AI products quickly is becoming table stakes. Building them in a way that supports scalability, repeatability, and a path to commercialization is where software companies create advantage. The challenge now is reducing the time between identifying an opportunity and getting developers working inside a proven structure that supports real deployment outcomes. That’s where the AI, agentic, and Copilot branch of the Quick-Start Development Toolkit helps. Embedded directly within App Advisor, Quick-Start Development Toolkit helps software companies move from concept to implementation faster using guided development patterns, trusted architectures, deployable reference code, and practical resources designed to reduce friction across the development process. Build AI & agentic products faster without starting from scratch Development teams often know the customer scenario they want to solve. What slows momentum is deciding where to begin, selecting architecture patterns, and aligning implementation decisions across teams. The Quick-Start Development Toolkit helps remove that uncertainty. By answering a few focused questions about what you want to build, who it serves, and the products you’re building with, you’re matched with a development pattern designed to accelerate execution. Each development pattern includes: Self-serve, click-to-deploy reference code aligned to your scenario, Sample solution architecture to help visualize products and reduce guesswork, and Practical how-to resources and implementation guidance to overcome friction points, Everything is structured to support faster decision making and help teams move confidently into development. Accelerate development with purpose-built AI accelerators The AI and agent branch of Quick-Start Development Toolkit includes development accelerators designed around high-value scenarios, so your team can spend less time assembling foundations and more time building differentiated experiences. Each of these accelerators is built and fully maintained by Microsoft experts, so you can be confident your code template isn’t stale. Our most popular accelerators include: Multi-Agent Custom Automation Engine Accelerator: Delegate complex, repetitive tasks to AI agents that act on your behalf—executing work efficiently, reducing manual effort, and ensuring results align with your organization's standards. Conversation Knowledge Mining Accelerator: Improve contact center performance with AI-powered conversation intelligence—analyzing audio and text data on a large scale to show insights, improve service, and drive smarter decisions. Accelerate agentic applications for Unified Data Foundations (with Microsoft Fabric): Accelerate decision making at scale with secure, agentic AI built on a unified data foundation with two use cases for sales performance and customer insights. Each pattern includes common use cases, related resources, and pathways to adjacent scenarios so teams can continue progressing without losing momentum. The goal is to help your team move from experimentation to a product that can be packaged, deployed, and prepared for customers. You can see more of our accelerators here Coming this week: The Microsoft IQ solution accelerator leverages a shared intelligence layer to unify data, knowledge, and workflows, enabling AI-powered insights and coordinated actions for measurable business outcomes. Build with Microsoft Marketplace outcomes in mind Development choices shape commercial outcomes. Starting with trusted architecture and structured implementation guidance can help reduce redesign cycles later when preparing to package, publish, and scale. Quick-Start Development Toolkit helps software companies: Shorten time from idea to deployable AI product, Improve alignment across implementation decisions, Reduce development overhead through reusable foundations, and Create repeatable pathways toward publishing and selling. When development starts with clarity, commercialization becomes easier. Keep moving forward with App Advisor Quick-Start Development Toolkit is embedded within App Advisor because building is only one stage of the journey. App Advisor helps connect decisions across design, development, publishing, and growth so teams can continue moving forward with less context switching and more confidence. As your solution evolves, App Advisor provides curated, step-by-step guidance to help you prepare for Marketplace readiness and make the next decision faster. Ready to start? Explore Quick-Start Development Toolkit Start where you need help with App AdvisorImprove Marketplace outcomes with AI-powered listing recommendations in App Advisor
Over the past two decades working in the Microsoft partner ecosystem, I’ve seen how much effort it can take for small software development teams to navigate the path from building solutions to publishing to selling successfully enough to build a business around the products we work hard to build. What stands out to me now, however, is how much that experience has become more streamlined and actionable. App Advisor is one of the clearest demonstrations of Microsoft’s commitment to helping software development companies succeed, and in many ways, it represents the pinnacle of that evolution. Selling through Microsoft Marketplace has always been a high-impact growth channel for our team at Breakthru. But like many software companies, we’ve had to balance speed with precision—especially when it comes to optimizing listings that directly drive demand. With App Advisor—and now AI-powered Marketplace listing recommendations—we’re able to continuously improve how we show up in Marketplace without introducing risk or guesswork. We have more control and clarity than we have ever had before. Want to try the AI-recommendations for your listing? Go to aka.ms/ImproveMyListing Why App Advisor became a core part of how we operate I’ve been working in the Microsoft partner ecosystem for over 20 years. That’s a lot of technological changes. Over that time, however, Microsoft has never wavered from enabling partners with resources to build and grow. In fact, Microsoft has historically provided so much information, it was sometimes challenging to find the most relevant next step. After all, knowing what to do is one thing, knowing how to do it correctly and when is another. App Advisor closes that gap. It doesn’t just point you in the right direction. It meets you where you are and helps you get to where you need to go next. What makes App Advisor especially valuable for us is how practical and actionable it is. Instead of relying on external consultants or piecing together information across different resources, we can go directly to App Advisor and get clear, structured guidance. That saves time, reduces ambiguity, and helps us execute with more confidence across everything from publishing to sales motions. As it has evolved, it’s become more than a resource. It’s a system that helps you: Understand how to build, publish, and sell effectively Navigate Marketplace requirements without relying on external consultants Improve your execution across the entire lifecycle What’s new: AI-powered Marketplace listing recommendations The latest addition—AI-powered Marketplace listing recommendations—builds directly on that foundation. For us, Marketplace listings are a primary driver of inbound demand. In the Teams App Store, especially, visibility translates directly into installs, usage signals, and ultimately sales conversations. That raises the stakes. Any change to a listing—new messaging, updated screenshots, revised positioning—can impact uptick and performance. Historically, we were averse to making any changes. Now, that dynamic has changed. With AI-powered recommendations, we know what performs well, and as a result we can easily: Validate listing quality before and after updates Identify gaps in areas like keywords, messaging, and structure Make improvements without risking performance regression Iterate more frequently with confidence The ability to revalidate our listings and maintain a high-quality score as we evolve our messaging is incredibly valuable. What this means in practice This isn’t just about optimization. It’s about a different kind of operational fluency. Instead of treating our Marketplace listings as a static asset, we treat it as dynamic, continuously improving service. For example, this new App Advisor feature helped us identify that we needed to improve our key words. While our listings were strong in structure and clarity, optimizing key words would improve discoverability. That’s the kind of targeted feedback that drives meaningful outcomes. It not only shortens the feedback loop significantly but also removes uncertainty from the process. How this fits into the bigger picture What stands out most is how this feature fits into the broader App Advisor experience. It’s not a standalone tool. It’s part of a system designed to help software companies: Build with Marketplace readiness in mind Publish with clarity and compliance Sell with stronger positioning and visibility That continuity matters. It ensures that what you build, how you position it, and how you present it in Marketplace are all aligned from the start. If you’re already selling through Marketplace—or planning to—this is, in my twenty-plus-year experience with Microsoft, one of the fastest ways to improve outcomes without adding overhead. Review your current listings and run them through the AI-powered recommendations. You’ll quickly see where to focus. Ready to get started? aka.ms/AppAdvisor Explore how to optimize your listing and improve Marketplace performance today: aka.ms/ImproveMyListingMicrosoft Marketplace 101: Insights from high performing software development company sellers
Microsoft Marketplace is probably the one topic that can give 'AI' a run for its money in terms of the number of mentions on LinkedIn, on cloud hyperscaler blogs, and in Partner Ecosystem presentations. But ask the average SaaS seller what a marketplace is, and you’ll probably get a different answer every time. That’s because marketplaces have become more than just a listing catalog, it’s now a pervasive commerce platform across the entire B2B Software purchase process. Jay McBain @ Omdia described Cloud Marketplaces as the "epicenter of partnerships, co-selling and co-innovation” and we see that play out at Microsoft. The combination of Microsoft's co-sell model and Microsoft Marketplace has created the platform for modern procurement and modern partnerships. Today, Microsoft Marketplace: Impacts all personas and incentives – from customers commercial incentives, to software company program sale incentives, channel partner benefits, and hyperscaler seller compensation models Enhances B2B purchase processes for customers – Streamlining supplier onboarding, to internal FinOps, to governance and guardrails on purchasing Brings agility to the sales process for software companies and channel partners – from pricing and quoting, budget allocation, billing & payments, right through to co-selling and go-to-market. With this level of impact, it’s not surprising that Microsoft Marketplace represents a significant growth opportunity for software companies. Customers are increasingly transacting through Marketplace as they align Azure commitments with third-party software purchases and adopt a more “marketplace-first” procurement approach. Research shows 69% of partners report larger deals and 75% close deals faster (Omdia), reinforcing the role of Marketplace as a strategic channel for enterprise software procurement. So, if you are a seller at a Microsoft SaaS software company and you want to take advantage of this opportunity, here are my five top learnings for high performance software sellers! This article assumes you are running your SaaS software platform on Microsoft Azure and you are already transactable in Marketplace. If you aren't, there are plenty of great resources for software companies to help get you there, and I have summarized them here: New Software Company Partner Guide. LEARNING 1 - Understand the customer benefits of Microsoft Marketplace and weave it into your customer proposal: This is about understanding the bigger picture of Marketplace for Microsoft customers, as the benefits go way beyond an individual transaction. The average enterprise is managing over 600 applications (Source - Zylo) and >60% of these applications being purchased outside of IT. Marketplace is a great way for customers to scale and bring efficiency across their B2B Software estate, giving them: Rapid access (find, try, buy) to software and AI innovation they need to run their business, Governance and guardrails for each purchase – so you are never compromising control and compliance. Streamlined procurement – onboarding suppliers in minutes using their Microsoft Agreement, invoicing and payment terms, Improved cloud economics – aligning the cloud consumption with your software company spend can unlock additional P&L impacting benefits, If you need to get up to speed on these aspects, check out: Microsoft Marketplace 101 - Top Customer Questions. LEARNING 2 - Understand how Microsoft partners can help you scale and close customer opportunities: Microsoft has always been a partner led organization. Today we have 500,000 partners globally ranging from a small start-up in a garage, to the largest Global Systems Integrator. These partners play different roles in our customers helping them transform and compete in the AI era through Microsoft Cloud & AI technologies. The great news for you is that we have empowered Microsoft channel partners and sales partners to sell Marketplace solutions. So, think about how you can use channel partners to (i). expand your reach, (ii). drive new opportunities or (iii). accelerate deal closure. We have a range of different models to support your channel led motions in our customers, including: Multi-party private offers (MPO) - Partner led sales agents for individual transactions. Resale enabled offers (REO) - Nominated and enabled partner representative by geo. Cloud solution provider (CSP) resellers - to scale into SMB/Corporate Accounts via a managed service provider For each opportunity, understand who the incumbent Microsoft partner is, and how you can use these mechanisms to accelerate your deal. Or better still, if you are looking to explore a more proactive partnership, check out the 1000s of Partners that are building Marketplace practices to support customers and software companies. Examples include Bytes, Softcat, CDW, Trustmarque, Crayon, Computacenter etc. LEARNING 3 - Accelerate your deal closure by including Microsoft programs and incentives into your customer proposal: Here are the most commonly used accelerators used by software company sellers to close deals: If you are marketplace transactable: Marketplace Rewards - Azure Sponsorship Credits - A performance related benefit that provides up to $400k in Azure Sponsorship Credits. These credits can be used as a deal sweetener with your Marketplace transaction and passed on to the customer for consumption. Up to 40% of transactions involve these credits today. If you are IP co-sell ready: Azure Benefit Eligible - This enables customers to decrement their Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitments (MACC) with eligible Marketplace purchases. By aligning their cloud consumption with their software company spend, it can unlock additional P&L impacting benefits. More than 85% of MACC customers buy via Marketplace. Microsoft IP co-sell incentive - This enables Microsoft sellers to get paid on the license value sold via Microsoft Marketplace. It also allows eligible Marketplace transactions to contribute to retiring Microsoft seller quota, helping accelerate deal alignment between partners and Microsoft field teams. If you have a Certified Software Designation (CSD): Marketplace Rewards - Azure Sponsorship Credits - If you come CSD Certified, Microsoft extends this benefit to $1M. These credits can be used as a deal sweetener with your Marketplace transaction and passed on to the customer for consumption. Customer Migrate & Modernize Incentive - This partner incentive is used to drive migrations to Microsoft Azure. Cash incentives vary based project size, but Microsoft will pay up to $200k per opportunity for NEW customer migrations to Microsoft Azure. High-performing software companies and sellers will combine these incentives into their proposals to help drive customer acquisition success. LEARNING 4 - Know your Microsoft customer Three things I urge every software company Seller to do as part of their Marketplace and co-sell conversations: Know your customer 1 - Understand the customer's Marketplace Propensity Score to help prioritize your opportunities Marketplace Propensity Scoring (combined with your co-Sell conversations) has proven a powerful tool for prioritizing pipeline and accelerating sales cycles. Offered as a Marketplace Rewards benefit, propensity scoring provides you with a score that ranks your pipeline prospects by their likelihood (0 to 100) to transact through Marketplace. The score is based on a number of factors including their commercials, existing spend and transaction volumes, relationship metrics etc. Access the benefit at: Microsoft Marketplace Rewards Know your customer 2 - Enable more tailored offers for customers by updating your MEDDIC, MEDDPICC or BANT qualification questions with these Marketplace qualifiers: Are they a Microsoft customer? This means they have agreed Microsoft terms and conditions to enable Marketplace transactions. Are they a Managed Microsoft Customer? This opens up the possibility of selling with Microsoft. What Microsoft segment/industry are they in? This opens up sales play alignment, industry go-to-market etc. How do they buy Microsoft Azure today? This helps navigate potential commercials, incentives and programs, purchase routes and the role of channel partners. Does the customer have a Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC)? This could unlock the MACC benefit of Azure Benefit Eligible which allows customers to decrement marketplace purchases. What is the status of their Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC)? Are they ahead or behind of their consumption commitment? Is it coming up for renewal? This is all about getting access to planned Azure budgets at the right time. Is there an incumbent Microsoft partner in the customer and what role do they play? It is forecasted that 60% of ALL marketplace sales will involve a channel partner, so get them involved early in the process. Know Your Customer 3 - Use the Partner Center referral process to engage incentivized Microsoft sellers and gain customer intelligence: Submitting your referrals via Partner Center will enable you to engage incentivized Microsoft sellers directly. For most Microsoft sellers, Microsoft Marketplace and co-sell deals are critical for how they will make their Azure quota. Help could include: Navigate and increase your visibility with the customer's buyers Gain insights on the customer's Azure commitments, Understand the partner landscape in the customer Potentially find ways to combine sales motions to drive bigger/better outcomes for all. Build this discipline with every opportunity is a key characteristic of a high-performance software company seller. LEARNING 5 - Celebrate and amplify Microsoft co-sell/Marketplace success The best Microsoft Marketplace and co-sell partners treat Microsoft as a customer. They market to the Microsoft sales and go-to-market teams the success they are driving, which in turn is driving further engagement and activity. Work with your aligned Microsoft Partner Development Manager to create a regular drumbeat of communication or use your Marketplace Rewards GTM benefits to amplify your success with the Microsoft sales teams. Need more help? Speak to your Partner Development Manager or aligned engagement manager Check out App Advisor for a guided experience on the journey for software development companies. Let me know your feedback or if you have any additional recommendations. Thanks Lee Corbett - EMEA ISV Recruit & Grow LeadUsing App Advisor to build, publish, and grow in Microsoft Marketplace
In a recent partner office hour webinar, experts walked through how to build, publish, and optimize Marketplace offers using App Advisor, complete with a live demo of the platform in action. This article summarizes the key insights from that session and highlights how you can apply them to your own Marketplace journey. Navigating the path from idea to a successful Microsoft Marketplace offer can feel overwhelming. With countless resources, technical requirements, and go-to-market decisions to make, many software companies struggle to stay focused on what matters most. That’s where App Advisor comes in. App Advisor is a self-service, end-to-end guidance experience designed to help you build, publish, and grow high-performing marketplace offers, all with tailored, actionable recommendations based on your specific scenario. In this article, we break down how App Advisor supports every stage of your offer journey and how you can use it to drive better outcomes faster. What is App Advisor and why it matters App Advisor brings together curated Microsoft guidance, interactive tools, and AI-powered recommendations into a single experience. Instead of searching across scattered documentation, you get step-by-step, personalized guidance aligned to: Your app type and architecture Your chosen marketplace offer model Your current stage in the journey The result? Less guesswork, faster execution, and higher-quality marketplace offers. The four key stages of the Marketplace journey 1. Discover: Validate the opportunity Before building, it’s critical to understand the business value of Microsoft Marketplace. App Advisor helps you: Evaluate the business opportunity of building on Microsoft technology Understand the value of selling through marketplace Explore available partner benefits and incentives A standout feature here is the Marketplace Value Calculator, which allows you to: Estimate revenue potential Compare transaction costs vs. benefits Generate a business case to share with leadership 2. Build: Accelerate development with confidence In the build phase, App Advisor connects you with: Code templates and reference architectures SDKs, APIs, and technical documentation Free tools, cloud credits, and development resources A newly integrated Quick Start Development Toolkit helps you: Match your app idea to proven development patterns Access deployable code repositories Speed up time-to-market with ready-to-use solutions You also gain guidance on building secure, compliant, and well-architected applications, ensuring your solution is marketplace-ready from the start. 3. Publish: Simplify offer creation and launch Publishing in Microsoft Marketplace involves multiple steps—from selecting the right offer type to configuring listings and pricing. App Advisor simplifies this by: Helping you choose the right marketplace offer type Guiding you through pricing models and selling options Providing step-by-step Partner Center instructions Highlighting common pitfalls and certification requirements The platform dynamically adapts guidance based on your selections, ensuring you only see what’s relevant to your scenario. 4. Grow: Optimize, sell, and scale Publishing your offer is just the beginning. Growth requires continuous optimization and active selling. App Advisor supports this with: AI-powered listing optimization Receive a quality score for your marketplace listing Get actionable recommendations across key areas like value proposition, content clarity, and visual assets Improve discoverability and customer engagement by connecting to your offer so you can edit today Go-to-market and sales guidance Learn how to promote your offer effectively Use tracking tools and analytics to refine performance Access co-branded marketing assets and toolkits Advanced selling strategies Create private offers with custom pricing and terms Partner with resellers and channel partners Scale through CSP and multi-party private offers Unlock benefits and incentives Earn cloud credits and marketplace rewards Leverage co-sell opportunities with Microsoft sellers Accelerate deals with incentives and partner programs The benefits of using App Advisor throughout the journey Using App Advisor consistently across all stages delivers significant advantages: ✔ Personalized guidance- No more generic documentation, get recommendations tailored to your app, technology, and goals. ✔ Faster time to market- Reduce delays with step-by-step instructions, pre-built templates, and streamlined workflows. ✔ Higher quality listings- AI-driven insights help you create compelling, optimized marketplace listings that convert. ✔ Improved discoverability- By following best practices, you increase your chances of being found and chosen by customers. ✔ Better sales outcomes- Access tools and strategies to promote, track, and close deals more effectively. ✔ Continuous optimization- Return anytime to refine your listing, improve performance, and unlock new growth opportunities. App Advisor is valuable for everyone Whether you're: A first-time publisher exploring marketplace opportunities An experienced software development company scaling multiple offers A marketing or sales stakeholder optimizing performance App Advisor provides value at every level. Watch the full webinar 👉 Be sure to watch the complete recorded session to see a detailed demo of App Advisor, showcasing how to navigate each stage and apply best practices in real time to get the most out of your Microsoft Marketplace journey. Partner office hour: Build, publish, and optimize marketplace offers with App Advisor By integrating App Advisor into your workflow, you’re not just building marketplace offers; you’re building better, faster, and more successful ones. Get started with App Advisor App Advisor is publicly available and free to use. Partners are encouraged to explore the experience firsthand and share feedback directly within App Advisor. App Advisor: https://aka.ms/appadvisor Marketplace Community: https://aka.ms/community/marketplaceGet personalized, fast recommendations for your Marketplace listing to boost your discoverability
First impressions matter on Microsoft Marketplace. In a growing and increasingly competitive catalog of apps and agents, the quality of your listing often determines whether a customer discovers, clicks, tries, or moves on. But most software companies are left guessing. Is your value proposition clear enough? Are your benefits compelling? Are you aligned with Marketplace best practices? Now, you don’t have to guess. Try it now: https://aka.ms/ImproveMyListing Why speed matters in a crowded Marketplace Marketplace visibility is competitive. Customers are comparing multiple solutions quickly. If your listing is unclear, vague, or missing key details, you may not get a second chance. Traditional listing optimization required: Trial-and-error updates, Waiting for manual review cycles, Interpreting best-practice documentation, Delayed feedback after publishing or guessing about feedback. Now, you can move at the speed of AI. This agentic capability, trained on the best practices of listings and the extensive experience of Marketplace Reward expert editors, scans your public Marketplace listing and delivers: Targeted, focused recommendations, A clear rating across six critical categories customers care about, Immediate guidance aligned to Microsoft Marketplace best practices. Anyone can get objective feedback in seconds — not weeks. "To make sure that the quality of our listings stays at a consistently high score is going to be really valuable for us and we can make changes to our listings more often and with more confidence." -Dan Langille, VP Mover Engagement and Customer Experience, Breakthru How the AI-powered listing optimization works The experience is intentionally simple. Sign in to App Advisor using your Partner Center account, Select your published publicly available Marketplace offer, Receive personalized recommendations in seconds. Anyone at your organization can use this feature, no special permissions required. Your listing is evaluated across six categories that directly impact discoverability and engagement: Value proposition Solution description Information quality Presentation Clarity and coherence Grammar and style Each category receives a 1–5 score. You see exactly where to improve and why. After reviewing your recommendations, you can edit your listing in Partner Center, republish, and rescan after 24 hours to measure progress. No waiting. No guesswork. No cost. Built on Microsoft expertise This AI capability is trained on Marketplace best practices and the editorial methodology used by Microsoft experts reviewing thousands of listings. You’re not receiving generic AI suggestions. You’re getting structured, Marketplace-aligned guidance designed to help your listing: Improve clarity and positioning Increase search discoverability Strengthen engagement signals Better communicate value to buyers Because insights are AI-generated, you should review and validate each recommendation before publishing changes. But the speed and structure dramatically reduce friction. Designed for software companies who want to stand out Marketplace is not just a publishing channel. It is a competitive sales surface. High-quality listings: Convert more trials, Communicate value faster, Generate stronger engagement, Differentiate you from similar offers. This capability democratizes listing optimization. Previously constrained by availability, it is now available on demand to any organization with a public Marketplace listing in the US. Have multiple listings? Scan them all. Iterate as often as you need. Stop waiting. Start optimizing. What this means for your Marketplace growth Optimization is no longer a one-time activity. It becomes an iterative advantage. Scan. Improve. Republish. Rescan. Over time, this creates compounding improvements in discoverability and engagement — helping your app or agent rise above the noise. Ready to improve your listing today? Visit https://aka.ms/ImproveMyListing Sign in, select your offer, and get recommendations in seconds.Move from idea to a Marketplace-ready app faster with the Quick-Start Development Toolkit
Want to jump right to the Quick-Start Toolkit? Visit the Quick-Start Development Toolkit in App Advisor. Software companies building applications and agents for Microsoft often face the same early challenge: getting from idea to a working build to get to market fast. Early development slows down. Teams lose momentum. And they never reach the stage of publishing or selling their application. The Quick-Start Development Toolkit in App Advisor changes that. It provides guided, action-oriented resources that helps developers move from idea to build faster with ready-to-deploy code templates, sample reference architectures, and actionable how-to resources. Instead of searching across documentation, your team can immediately focus on the next step of building an app or agent optimized for Microsoft Marketplace. Developers know early momentum matters At this stage, the priority is simple: validate ideas quickly. The Quick-Start Development toolkit is designed to assist building early momentum in three key business scenarios and works best if you: have a clear app or AI agent concept but aren’t sure how to construct it on Microsoft, understand the Microsoft technology stack but want to build faster, or want to replicate an existing solution in the Microsoft Marketplace. The toolkit supports development across several of today’s most common application scenarios. AI and agent-based applications, AWS to Azure migration and replication patterns, Security-focused applications, agents, and integrations. Across each scenario, developers are guided with tools to: Start building without complex setup, Understand the right architecture patterns, Move quickly from concept to a working prototype. The Quick-Start Development Toolkit focuses on streamlining that initial process with deployable code templates, architecture guidance, and development workflows, so teams can move forward with confidence and clarity toward a Marketplace-ready application. A guided starting point for building on Microsoft The experience begins with a simple, interactive wizard. Developers answer a few short questions about what they are building and the scenario they are targeting. Based on responses, you’ll be routed directly to the most relevant development pattern to begin development. This includes: Deployable code templates that help teams start coding immediately, Reference solution architectures aligned with common build patterns, Targeted how-to guidance for the next development step. This approach helps you move from exploration to execution faster by eliminating the need to search across multiple resources before starting the build. Designed to reduce friction, eliminate guesswork, and accelerate progress The Quick-Start Development Toolkit is built around three core outcomes: Reduce friction Start building without lengthy environment setup, Access always-on self-serve development resources, Launch preconfigured services with click-to-deploy templates. Eliminate guesswork Follow reference architectures aligned with proven development patterns, See deployable code templates to iterate and deploy, Avoid rework caused by unclear design decisions. Accelerate progress Move quickly from concept to prototype, Maintain momentum throughout the build stage, Focus on the next most relevant development action. Together, these capabilities help your team move faster while building on patterns designed to maximize Marketplace outcomes. Start building with Marketplace in mind While the toolkit focuses on accelerating the build stage, it is designed with the full Marketplace journey in mind. By following these development patterns, you can build apps and agents that align with the requirements for publishing and selling through Microsoft Marketplace. That alignment helps reduce friction later in the process when teams move from development to publishing to maximize go-to-market opportunities. Visit https://aka.ms/QuickStartToolkit to explore the experience, answer a few questions about what you’re building, and start coding in minutes.Unlock 5 powerful App Advisor capabilities to sell faster on Microsoft Marketplace
Software companies building apps and agents move quickly. But speed alone isn’t enough. Teams also need clear guidance on development decisions, publishing steps, and how to bring solutions to Microsoft Marketplace. App Advisor helps streamline that process. App Advisor helps streamline the process for anyone, with no barriers to start. However, when you sign in and authenticate, the experience becomes even more powerful. Here are 5 reasons to authenticate in App Advisor. 1. Manage multiple app or agent projects in one place Many software companies work on several apps or agents at once. Each may be at a different stage — from early design to publishing. Signing in to App Advisor unlocks multi-project save, allowing you to manage multiple projects in one place, complete with step-by-step guidance. This allows you to: Track several apps or agents simultaneously. Save project name and development progress. Connect to correlating existing Partner Center offers. Resume work later on offers without restarting the process. Save your progress on each app or agent across different devices and browsers. Instead of recreating your progress each time, your work is now saved and organized. You can access any of your projects whenever you want to work on them in the Your projects section of App Advisor above the steps. 2. Get personalized guidance based on your benefits When you sign in, App Advisor can personalize recommendations to your current benefit membership and help guide you to the next step. Guidance adapts based on: Your Microsoft AI Cloud Partner program membership. Your eligibility for benefits based on ISV Success or Azure IP Co-Sell. Your Marketplace Billed Sales (MBS) and Marketplace Rewards benefits. This helps reduce time spent searching through documentation and surfaces the most relevant guidance for your scenario. The result: clearer decisions and faster development cycles. 3. Start Marketplace offers directly from App Advisor Signed in users can create Marketplace offers directly inside App Advisor, which will create your record in Partner Center. Supported offer types include: SaaS offers. Azure Container offers. Azure Virtual Machine offers. These represent the majority of Marketplace listings today. Want to use a different Marketplace offer type? No problem! App Advisor can still curate guidance for you based on your desired offer type. Once started, the offer is automatically saved in Partner Center, allowing your team to continue configuration without losing progress. After choosing your offer type, additional guidance within App Advisor is focused on steps applicable to that offer type. This simplifies the transition from development to publishing. Sign up for partner programs without leaving your workflow. 4. Signing in also allows you to enroll in partner programs directly within App Advisor. You can start sign-up for programs such as: ISV Success. Publisher enrollment. Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program (if applicable). This makes it easier to unlock benefits like development resources, go-to-market support, and cloud credits while staying focused on building your solution. After you are enrolled, App Advisor continues to personalize content based on that membership. 5. Coming soon: Instant recommendations for your Marketplace offers A new capability launching soon will allow software companies to sign in, choose a publicly available Marketplace offer, and get actionable recommendations to improve the listing in seconds. Directly within App Advisor. By scanning your listing, App Advisor will quickly provide recommendations to help you: Improve listing quality. Increase discoverability. Boost engagement from the right customers. You’ll receive targeted suggestions in seconds, based on an AI model trained on best practices for Microsoft Marketplace listings and on expert editorial feedback. You’ll then be able to click right to your listing in Partner Center and implement your recommendations. This empowers you to improve your listing without waiting for any manual review. Ready to unlock the full App Advisor experience? Authenticating in App Advisor turns it from a guidance tool into a workspace designed to help you build, publish, and sell apps and agents on Microsoft Marketplace. Sign in to App Advisor to save your projects, receive personalized recommendations, and move faster toward Marketplace success.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
