Kristy Brown (Fusion5)
Fusion5 has attained the new Microsoft Cloud Partner Program ‘Solutions Partner' designation in all six solution areas along with two specialisations, as the new program was being launched.
Microsoft released its new Cloud Partner Program on 3 October, which did away with Gold and Silver tiering structures for solution designations and a points-based system.
It replaces the base minimum numbers for qualified consultants and sales achievement with a “holistic approach to competencies that sets a new, elevated standard, and also emphasises the achievement of desired customer outcomes with Microsoft technologies.”
Fusion5 attained Solutions Partner for all six solution areas: Microsoft Cloud, Infrastructure (Azure), Data & AI (Azure), Digital & App Innovation (Azure), Business Applications, Modern Work, and Security, along with Specialisations for Low Code Development (working with Power Platform) and for Windows and SQL Server Migration Services.
Fusion5 is also accredited for training services for all of these categories and has more than 125 qualified consultants in its New Zealand and Australian Microsoft practices.
Fusion5 Microsoft solutions country manager Kristy Brown said the program makes it easier for customers to understand if a partner is skilled in a certain area.
“It certainly requires all Microsoft partners to lift the bar in terms of the number of certified consultants you have in the business, measuring customer outcomes, driving solution improvements on an ongoing basis, and meeting a minimum number of customer deployments," Brown said.
“This achievement resulted from us proactively evaluating and lifting our own performance and standards, and our efforts being perfectly aligned with Microsoft’s new expectations of its partners. We certainly wouldn’t like to be doing this from a standing start.”
But not all partners have felt the same sentiment when changes to the program were first revealed and some continue to feel as if Microsoft is leaving the smaller partners behind in this focus shift to net new customers.
