10 Essential tips for Marketplace success: Insights from Microsoft Ignite 2025
At Microsoft Ignite 2025, the Marketplace took centre stage as the unified platform for cloud and AI innovation. With the global expansion of resale-enabled offers, new incentives, and a reimagined partner ecosystem, the Marketplace is now the fastest path for customers to discover, purchase, and deploy solutions—and for partners to scale. This article distils the top 10 tips for Marketplace success, blending strategic guidance with practical actions for partners ready to lead in the AI-first era. Tip 1: Marketplace is mainstream—Make it core to your strategy The Microsoft Marketplace is no longer an optional channel; it’s the foundation of modern go-to-market. With millions of monthly shoppers and the largest catalogue of AI apps and agents, Marketplace is where customers expect to find, try, and buy solutions. Partners who prioritise Marketplace as their primary route to market are best positioned to capture demand, accelerate sales, and build lasting customer relationships. Treat Marketplace as your digital front door—optimise your listings, ensure discoverability, and align your sales motions accordingly. Introducing Microsoft Marketplace — Thousands of solutions. Millions of customers. One Marketplace. - The Official Microsoft Blog Microsoft Marketplace deal execution To unlock faster time to value and close more strategic deals, partner must understand how Marketplace integration, private offers, and deal constructs work together across customer segments. Tip 2: Integration is the differentiator—Accelerate time to value In today’s fast-moving landscape, speed and integration are critical. Marketplace enables partners to deliver solutions through direct, on-behalf-of, and syndicated sales models, adapting to how customers want to buy. By leveraging Marketplace’s integration with Microsoft’s cloud ecosystem, partners can streamline procurement, reduce onboarding friction, and deliver value faster. The ability to scale across geographies and segments is a unique differentiator—embrace it to stay ahead. Tip 3: Master private offers—Customise for customer needs Private offers are a powerful lever for partners to tailor deals, pricing, and terms to specific customer requirements. Marketplace’s private offer capabilities allow you to negotiate directly, offer flexible billing, and align with customers’ pre-committed cloud spend. Understanding the private offer flow—from creation to acceptance—enables you to close strategic deals efficiently while maintaining control over the customer experience. Tip 4: Understand deal constructs—Align to customer segments Every customer segment—SMB, mid-market, enterprise—has unique procurement needs and deal structures. Marketplace supports a range of constructs, from private offers to multiparty and CSP deals. Partners who understand these nuances can better align their sales motions, optimise for MACC (Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment) alignment, and deliver tailored solutions that resonate with each audience. Read more information on Tips 2,3,4 here: Boosting cloud and AI ROI: The power of Microsoft Marketplace | Microsoft Community Hub Scaling Marketplace impact through visibility and relationships Long-term Marketplace growth depends on being discoverable, co-sell ready, and disciplined in how you manage pipeline and relationships with both customers and Microsoft field teams Tip 5: Be public, transactable, and co-sell eligible Visibility and credibility are essential for Marketplace success. Ensure your solutions are not just listed, but transactable and co-sell eligible. This signals to Microsoft and customers that your offer is robust, secure, and ready for enterprise deployment. Co-sell eligibility unlocks joint go-to-market opportunities, larger deal sizes, and deeper engagement with Microsoft’s field teams. Invest in technical validation and business readiness to maximise your Marketplace impact. Tip 6: Focus on pipeline management and relationship building Effective pipeline management is the backbone of Marketplace growth. Use Marketplace tools to track leads, map stakeholders, and drive proactive engagement. Build relationships with customers and Microsoft field teams, leveraging account intelligence and industry references to differentiate your proposition. A marketplace-first approach, combined with strong relationship management, accelerates deal closure and drives repeat business. Read more information on Tips 5 & 6 here: How we talk about the value of Microsoft Marketplace with customers | Microsoft Community Hub Investing in the teams and framework that power Marketplace success A repeatable and scalable Marketplace motion requires intentional investment in the people, processes, and operating frameworks that support consistent execution. Tip 7: Build your Marketplace practice—Invest in people and process Marketplace success is a team effort. Invest in building a dedicated Marketplace practice, engaging cross-functional teams across sales, marketing, operations, and technical enablement. Adopt proven frameworks (such as MEDDPICC), focus on enablement and execution, and create a culture of continuous learning. A strong internal process ensures you can scale, adapt, and capture every opportunity Marketplace presents UK Microsoft Marketplace Channel Assets Extending Marketplace growth through partners and go-to-market investment To scale beyond direct sales, partners must activate channel-led motions and fully leverage Microsoft’s go-to-market resources and incentives to expand reach, drive demand, and accelerate growth. Tip 8: Embrace channel-led opportunities—Scale through partnerships Marketplace is a platform for partnership. By enabling channel partners to resell your solutions—via resale-enabled offers, multiparty private offers, and CSP private offers—you unlock new markets and customer segments. Distributed marketplaces empower partners to bundle software and services, creating differentiated value propositions. Building a strong channel ecosystem is essential for scaling reach and driving sustainable growth. Tip 9: Leverage go-to-market resources and incentives Microsoft offers a comprehensive suite of go-to-market resources—co-branding, marketing benefits, Azure credits, and more. Take full advantage of these incentives to fuel your Marketplace growth. Optimise your listings, participate in promotional programmes, and use Azure sponsorships to drive preference and accelerate sales. Stay informed about new programmes and adapt quickly to maximise your benefits. Read more information on Tips 8 & 9 here: December edition of Microsoft Marketplace Partner Digest | Microsoft Community Hub Strengthening Marketplace success through community engagement The most successful Marketplace partners don’t just participate – they actively contribute, collaborate, and help shape the evolution of the Marketplace ecosystem. Tip10: Join and shape the Marketplace Community Marketplace is more than a platform—it’s a thriving community of partners, Microsoft SMEs, and innovators. Engage in peer-to-peer learning, share best practices, and provide feedback to help shape the future of Marketplace. Early access to new features, direct support, and community recognition are just some of the benefits. By contributing to the community, you not only accelerate your own success but help raise the bar for the entire ecosystem. aka.ms/marketplacecommunity Microsoft Marketplace is the trusted destination for cloud and AI solutions, connecting customers and partners in a unified, scalable ecosystem. By embracing these ten tips, partners can unlock new growth, accelerate innovation, and lead in the AI-first era. The time to act is now—make Marketplace the cornerstone of your strategy and join the community shaping the future of digital commerce.
Microsoft Ignite 2025 AI announcements: What software developers need to know
Igniting what’s next: What software development companies need to know about Microsoft’s AI announcements at Ignite 2025 The AI landscape took a major leap forward at Microsoft Ignite 2025, and for software development companies and digital natives, the announcements represent a massive opportunity: faster innovation, simplified agent development, access to enterprise‑ready AI platforms, and a dramatically expanded ecosystem to build on. This year, Microsoft introduced the era of agentic AI—and software companies are at the center of this shift. Ignite 2025 formally unveiled Microsoft Foundry, our unified platform for building, governing, and scaling intelligent agents. From new agent runtimes to multi‑agent orchestration, enterprise‑grade knowledge access, and one‑click publishing to Microsoft 365, the momentum creates one clear signal: 💡 AI assistants are becoming intelligent agents—and Foundry is the platform software companies will use to build them. Why Microsoft Ignite 2025 mattered for software companies Across every session, Microsoft doubled down on helping partners accelerate time‑to‑market with agentic AI solutions. Whether you’re building vertical apps, automation copilots, knowledge systems, or developer tools, the new capabilities in Foundry eliminate much of the heavy lifting associated with retrieval, orchestration, compliance, hosting, and model selection. Key themes this year from Azure AI: Unified agent platform across all Microsoft clouds Framework‑agnostic development (bring your own models, tools, or frameworks) Enterprise‑grade governance built into the lifecycle Open ecosystem and interoperability using MCP, A2A, OpenAPI Seamless distribution through Microsoft 365 and Teams Let’s break down what’s new—and what it means for your product strategy. Top announcements for software companies at Ignite 2025 Microsoft Foundry: A unified brand for AI agent development Azure AI Foundry is now Microsoft Foundry—a consolidated platform for building, deploying, and managing intelligent agents. For software companies, this means: One consistent developer experience Shared governance and compliance across products A more integrated ecosystem for publishing and distributing agentic solutions This rebrand isn’t cosmetic—it reflects Microsoft’s strategic shift to deliver a platform built explicitly for the next generation of AI agents. Introducing Foundry IQ: Your enterprise knowledge engine One of the most exciting announcements is Foundry IQ, a new engine that gives agents instant access to enterprise data from SharePoint, OneLake, ADLS, and the web, all governed by Purview. For software companies, this unlocks: Reliable, production‑grade knowledge retrieval without building RAG pipelines Consistent compliance and security models Faster customer onboarding with fewer integration gaps Foundry IQ is a game‑changer for teams who have spent months building retrieval layers or maintaining custom RAG components. Foundry Control Plane: Unified governance for all agents Now in public preview, the Foundry Control Plane enables teams to manage agents across frameworks, clouds, and environments. Highlights: Unified visibility and observability Built‑in security & compliance (Defender, Purview) Fleet‑wide monitoring for cost, health, and risk For software companies offering multi‑tenant solutions or operating in regulated industries, this dramatically simplifies the operational burden of managing AI agents. Agent Framework (public preview): SK + AutoGen, Unified The Microsoft Agent Framework, now in public preview, merges the strengths of Semantic Kernel and AutoGen into a single SDK for building durable, interoperable agents. Software companies gain: A consistent programming model Durable memory Strong interoperability with MCP, A2A, OpenAPI Framework‑agnostic design This is the developer foundation for future AI applications built on Microsoft clouds. Hosted Agents: Enterprise‑grade runtime, no infrastructure needed With Hosted Agents, teams can deploy custom‑code agents directly into a fully managed runtime—no containers, pipelines, or infra setup. What this enables for software companies: Faster deployment cycles Secure, autoscaling environments Simple onboarding for customer‑specific agents Observability and monitoring built in This drastically reduces the operational overhead many software companies face today. Multi‑agent workflows & connected intelligence Ignite 2025 introduced major advancements in multi‑agent orchestration: Built‑in memory across sessions A catalog of 1,000+ Microsoft & partner tools (with private catalogs for software companies) Visual and programmatic orchestration tools Enterprise‑ready coordination for long‑running workflows Foundry IQ for instant knowledge access This allows software companies to design more autonomous, intelligent, and interconnected systems—moving beyond assistants toward true digital workers. Model Router GA + Anthropic partnership expansion There are two major updates for model flexibility: Model Router GA Now supporting 11,000+ models, the router helps developers intelligently choose the best model for each task, optimizing both cost and performance. Anthropic Claude models in Foundry Claude Sonnet 4.5, Opus 4.1, and Haiku 4.5 are now integrated into Microsoft Foundry through an expanded partnership with Anthropic. This gives software companies more choice, capability, and model‑agnostic development paths. One‑click publishing to Microsoft 365 & Teams One of the biggest wins for software companies: Agents built in Foundry can now be published to Microsoft 365 and Teams Chat with one click. This means: Access to hundreds of millions of users Unified governance through Microsoft Admin Center Seamless integration with Copilot experiences For software companies, this is a massive new distribution channel. Why this matters for software development companies Ignite 2025 didn’t just introduce new products—it signaled a platform shift. software companies now have: A full-stack platform for agentic applications - From data access to orchestration, hosting, deployment, and compliance. A unified runtime and SDK - Reducing fragmentation and speeding up development cycles. Enterprise reach through Microsoft 365 - Making your agents as discoverable as apps. A rapidly expanding ecosystem - More models, more tools, more integration points. If you’re building AI-powered products, this is your moment. Get hands-on: Sessions & resources for software companies Here are links to top Ignite sessions to dive deeper. Build & Manage AI Apps with Your Agent Factory AI Agents in Azure AI Foundry: Ship Fast, Scale Fearlessly AI‑Powered Automation & Multi‑Agent Orchestration Agent Developer Guide for Foundry Agent Service The Future of RAG with Agentic Retrieval & AI Search What’s next: December Foundry Council Session Join us on Dec 18 for the Ignite Recap session through the Foundry Partner Council. It’s the best opportunity for software companies to: Get deeper into the new capabilities Share partner/DN feedback Join focus groups For more information about the December 18 session, contact foundrycouncil@microsoft.com or visit aka.ms/foundrycouncilAccelerate your sales growth with resale enabled offers (REO) through guidance in App Advisor
Why start with App Advisor? If you’re looking to expand your sales reach quickly and efficiently, App Advisor helps clarify your options. It provides tailored guidance to help you understand resale enabled offers (REO) and determine whether this pathway to near global scale is right for your marketplace strategy. Microsoft Marketplace offers several ways to grow through partners, and choosing the right one can feel complex. App Advisor simplifies the decision, giving you clear, scenario‑based guidance on REO, Cloud Solution Provider (CSP), multi‑party offers (MPO), and customer private offers, so you can confidently pick the model that aligns with your goals. Grow globally with resale enabled offers Resale enabled offers (REO) open the channel-led marketplace opportunity for near-global scale. Many software companies like you rely on channel partnerships for the sales and implementation of their solution. With this feature, you can enable your channel partner(s) to sell on your behalf, creating a simplified pathway for recurring revenue and growth. For the channel, this helps unlock pre-committed cloud budget in new markets while also helping cut down implementation times as solutions are pre-configured to deploy on Azure. If you’ve been looking for a clearer, faster path to a channel-led sales motion, REO provides the structure and automation to help you grow. ough channels only continues to grow. Why resale enabled offers matter REO changes the way you can sell. It gives you a repeatable resale model inside Microsoft Marketplace to help you break through to new markets without adding overhead while channel partners maintain their customer relationships while getting the added value of Marketplace. The result is a simplified path to recurring revenue: one that aligns offer owners, channel partners, and customers around a more efficient transaction flow. The benefits of REO Resale enabled offers can help grow your bottom line with ease: Authorization to resell is nearly instantaneous, Your reach grows to match your reseller’s markets, Channel partners take on more of the sales execution, You only enable resale once. No repeated setup or engineering work required, Both you and your channel partner earn full Marketplace Billed Sales (MBS) credit, enabling you to maximize Marketplace Rewards benefits. These advantages make REO a strategic lever for you to move toward a broader channel-led distribution model while helping you stay agile, expanding your reach, and avoiding adding extra overhead. How resale enabled offers work You can offer a REO on any SaaS or Azure Virtual Machine (VM) offer. The REO experience is designed to be simple, structured, and predictable for both the offer owner and the reseller. You, as the offer owner, come to an agreement with a channel partner to sell your offer. You authorize this sale in Partner Center (once) and then your channel partner is empowered to sell your offer, either as a customer private offer or as a multi-party offer (MPO). With this additional way to sell, you’ll be able to scale without worrying about hiring more salespeople. Other ways to sell at scale With many great ways to sell through negotiated deals or channel partners within Microsoft Marketplace, it can sometimes be challenging to choose. If you’re not sure which options are right for your marketplace offers, App Advisor can help you choose. To discover the benefits of REO, Cloud Solution Provider (CSP), MPO, and customer private offers, and when to use which, see how to grow with negotiated deals and channel partners here. Ready to unlock channel-led scale? Resale enabled offers can create a faster, more predictable path for software companies that want to expand with ease through channel partners. With simplified resale authorization, broader reach, and shared sales credit, REO makes it easier to activate partners and grow your marketplace presence. Ready to explore your path to channel-led scale? Visit App Advisor to get started.How AI closes requirements gaps, and how Modern Requirements and Microsoft Marketplace can help
In this guest blog post, Asif Sharif, CEO of Modern Requirements, explores where DevOps workflows fall short and how teams can better manage requirements with Copilot4DevOps, Modern Requirements4DevOps, and Microsoft Azure DevOps.Becoming a Frontier Firm: Accelerate custom app development with Quick-Start Development Toolkit
The theme of Ignite was undeniable: Frontier firms are transforming business with investments and projects developing AI apps and agents. And these aren’t just businesses using AI - they’re companies developing and monetizing AI apps and agents. The numbers are clear - here are a few compelling stats from a global study commissioned by Microsoft with the International Data Corporation (IDC) about Frontier firms: 67% are monetizing industry-specific AI use cases to boost revenue 58% use custom AI, and in the next two years, that will increase to 77% Those building agentic solutions will grow 3x in the next two years ROI is 3x higher for Frontier firms than slower adopters It’s no longer a question. Companies who get ahead, make and sell AI apps and agentic solutions. But it can be difficult to develop at the speed of AI. To answer the challenge of streamlining and shortening the development cycle, we’ve improved the Quick-Start Development Toolkit to help your team start coding in minutes. Getting simple guidance for custom application development To help your team go from idea to coding in minutes, we've introduced the Quick-Start Development Toolkit. Teams were spending too much time with false starts or hunting for AI app or agent code templates. With expert developer guidance, we created the Quick-Start Development patterns - a package that includes a sample solution reference diagram, custom code templates for your dev team to download and customize, and high-value resources to address common development challenges. We’ve also made it easier to find the right development pattern for your needs. Answer a few questions to see how to develop an AI app We’ve built an interactive wizard that makes it easy for software companies to go from thinking about AI or agentic solutions to solve a problem directly to creating custom code. The process is easy: Go to Quick-Start Development Toolkit Click on “Find the right pattern for your needs” Answer a few simple questions about your priority scenario, environment, and tools Land on a development pattern designed to help your team start coding in minutes With development patterns ranging from flexible AI app or agent development with Microsoft Foundry to multi-agent custom automation to integrating your data with Microsoft Fabric Unified Data Foundation, you’ll find a development pattern to get started on your next AI app or agent. Not the right fit? Keep looking at focused patterns, all created in partnership with Microsoft experts. If your project has a different focus, like migrating or replicating an AWS app to Azure or integrating Microsoft Security to an app, the Quick-Start Development Toolkit has development templates for these, too. Take the confusion out of how to make an app and then publish and monetize it After you're done developing, realize full ROI on your app or agent and help other companies advance their Frontier level by publishing and selling it on Microsoft Marketplace. Within each development pattern, you can get curated guidance from App Advisor to package, publish, and sell your app. Ready to get started with your next AI app project? Visit the Quick-Start Development Toolkit today!
