Can Marketplace Become the Trusted Delivery Ecosystem for Specialized Microsoft Services?
Over the past several years, Azure Marketplace has become an increasingly important mechanism for connecting customers, partners, publishers, and Microsoft. As Marketplace adoption grows, I have been reflecting on one aspect of ecosystem collaboration. Many customer initiatives involve multiple organizations, each with different responsibilities, commercial models, onboarding requirements, and procurement processes. This raises an interesting question for the community: Can Azure Marketplace play a larger role in reducing operational friction between Marketplace participants who are already transacting through the platform? Potential outcomes could include: Faster customer project execution. Simpler cross-organizational collaboration. Greater adoption of Marketplace-transactable solutions. Reduced administrative overhead. Increased Marketplace transaction activity. From a Marketplace ecosystem perspective, reducing friction between participants may create value for customers, partners, publishers, and Microsoft alike. I would be interested in learning: Whether others have encountered similar challenges. Whether existing Marketplace capabilities already address this area. Which future improvements would have the greatest impact. Looking forward to hearing the community's perspective.Free webinar Aug 5: What actually changed in FY27 for software companies co-selling with Microsoft
Microsoft's fiscal year just reset. MCAPS Start laid out new seller priorities, refreshed solution plays, and shifts to the programs and incentives software companies rely on. And there's more moving underneath than what made the announcements. We're hosting a free, live session on August 5 to break it down for ISVs co-selling with Microsoft. The angle isn't a news recap of what changed. It's what to do about it. For every shift that matters, we cover the specific move to make. What we'll get into: - The FY27 changes that actually affect your partnership and co-sell motion (and the ones that just sound like they do) - What each shift means for how you share deals, engage sellers, and position your solution this year - A prioritized action list you can start working the same day Who it's for: software companies co-selling with Microsoft, including partnership leads, alliance managers, and co-sell teams who want to start FY27 with a plan rather than a backlog. The FY27 Playbook for Software Companies: What Changed and What to Do About It Wednesday, August 5 · 1:00 PM ET · 60 minutes · Free Register: https://www.carvepartners.com/upcoming-webinars/fy27-playbook-for-software-companiesD365 FO IUR - legacy benefits
Dear Community We have been using a D365 Finance instance since 2019 as IUR. As from my understanding, from the old silver/gold ERP competency. Since we bought the legacy benefits this summer, I assumed we‘ll get the D365 instance extended as well. But know I have to learn, that this is not included in the legacy benefits and our subscription will run out in one month. We‘d have to buy the subscriptions - really funny, we can not even use the software internally that we are selling/implementing at our customers? I know, we could get the Business Applications Designation - but for a partner with 20 employees, there is no chance to reach this (maybe for one year, but not a couple of years consecutively). Any ideas on this one? cheers DanielOptimizing Azure spend with Microsoft Marketplace
As someone deeply involved with Microsoft Marketplace product marketing team, I was excited to host our recent customer office hour session with Trunal Bhanse, CEO of Clazar. Our conversation focused on using Microsoft Marketplace to optimize Azure spend. The session explored how organizations can leverage Marketplace as a strategic procurement engine and maximize their cloud investments. Setting the stage: Marketplace as a growth engine Every organization today is striving to become a frontier firm—enriching employee experiences, reinventing customer engagement, and reshaping business processes. With AI at the center of transformation, the question often arises: should we build or buy AI solutions? If buying, how do we procure them efficiently and securely? That’s where Microsoft Marketplace comes in. It’s your trusted source for cloud solutions, AI apps, and agents, offering the largest catalog in the industry. Marketplace is fully integrated with Microsoft Cloud, providing a seamless experience from discovery to deployment. Whether you need standard contracts, private offers, or multi-year agreements, Marketplace adapts to your procurement needs and ensures your transactions are visible in the Azure cost management portal. Azure spend optimization: The power of Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC) A major focus of our session was the Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC). This agreement allows organizations to commit to a certain level of Azure consumption in exchange for discounted rates. The beauty of MACC is that eligible Marketplace transactions decrement your commitment dollar-for-dollar. That means when you purchase MACC-eligible solutions through Marketplace, you’re directly funding your cloud investments and maximizing your discounts. Our conversation covered how to identify MACC-eligible solutions using tools like Azure Marketplace Compass, the Azure portal, and Marketplace storefront. With over 4,000 eligible solutions available, most organizations can find the software they need and align it with their MACC commitments. This approach is especially valuable at fiscal year-end or when budgets are tight, allowing you to leverage your commitment for critical investments. Operationalizing Marketplace procurement To truly optimize spend companies should start with an inventory of all solutions currently deployed or planned for procurement across their organization. By mapping this inventory against MACC-eligible offers, they can ensure every purchase maximizes commitment and discounts. Security and governance are also paramount. Marketplace enables role-based access controls and private marketplaces, so only authorized employees can procure approved applications. This walled-garden approach gives administrators full control over what’s available for procurement. Partner solutions and automation To bring the MACC optimization process to life, Clazar provided a live demonstration of their platform which specializes in automation of this process. Their solution enables organizations to seamlessly match their software inventory against MACC-eligible offers, giving procurement and finance teams consolidated visibility into spend and streamlining the entire procurement workflow. With robust integrations for single sign-on-systems and automated dashboards, Clazar empowers customers to instantly identify eligible applications and make faster, more informed decisions about their Azure Marketplace investments Microsoft Marketplace is more than a procurement platform—it’s a strategic lever for optimizing Azure spend, accelerating innovation, and simplifying operations. By aligning purchases with MACC commitments, organizations unlock savings, streamline processes, and gain unparalleled visibility into their cloud investments. To learn more, watch the full recording of our conversation here: Using Microsoft Marketplace to optimize Azure spend - Microsoft Marketplace Community Resources Microsoft Marketplace: Microsoft Marketplace | cloud solutions, AI apps, and agents Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC) benefit: Azure Consumption Commitment Benefit - Marketplace customer documentation | Microsoft Learn Cost management for Microsoft Marketplace purchases: Cost management for Microsoft Marketplace purchases - Marketplace customer documentation | Microsoft Learn
Eligible Microsoft Marketplace partners with MCA customers now to benefit from accelerated payouts
Microsoft Marketplace partners transacting with Microsoft Customer Agreements (MCA) customers can now benefit from accelerated payouts. This enhancement is intended to support improved cash flow and greater predictability, with daily payment processing that shortens the average time to receive funds. To learn more about how accelerated payouts work and how to view payouts with transactions for a given month, read the full announcement article. Announcing accelerated payouts to Microsoft Marketplace partners with MCA customers | Microsoft Community HubA note about the FY26 Build and Publish Incentive
For anyone here who is/was Top Tier in FY25: You ARE eligible for the Build and Publish incentive (up to $100k) through 31 December - even though you might have been told otherwise. I mention this here because we were initially told "No, you are not eligible because you still need to have an Azure or industry CSD." Took a wee bit of perseverance, but we broke through the denials and received confirmation yesterday that the incentive is on its way to us. Probably a niche scenario, but please do feel free to message me if you were also told no on this incentive - I'll be happy to share how we got to 'yes.' #marketplacechampions #sponsored
