As a Microsoft Partner, we know the expectations are high for organizations that consult with us. They expect the best service and technical competence when needing an implementation, deployment or cloud solution like Dynamics 365. Their investment in you as a partner can result in a long-term, trusted business relationship that leads to years of transformation.
Cloud Business Applications competency is valuable for Microsoft partners because it helps differentiate your businesses within the marketplace. It also provides customers with confidence in your technical skills and abilities to drive success with Microsoft products. Partners have wanted to be evaluated more holistically with their skill set to provide even more diversity in the market. As a result, the Partner Contribution Indicators (PCI) score was developed to create a more comprehensive score to measure how partner technical abilities drive customer success.
Beginning October 1, 2020, Microsoft will use the PCI score to determine eligibility for the Cloud Business Applications competency. In order to obtain or renew the competency on or after October, you will need a certain score to do so. For example, a score of 60-70 achieves a silver competency, a score of 80-100 receives a gold competency. Competency scoring is explained. Also, within the Partner Center, you will be able to see your score and how its calculated to decide where to invest your development.
Why are these changes happening?
Microsoft is making the change to ensure Business Applications customers are service by Microsoft partners that have the best business and technical experience for customer needs. By associating the new PCI scoring, your business can stand out in the marketplace and will instill more confidence to help drive business.
A Microsoft partner must meet the current requirements of several criteria to achieve a Cloud Business Applications competency. The criteria include a licensing revenue generated and the number of employees certified through applicable training. To better assist partners to distinguish their capabilities, Microsoft worked with several Business Applications partners to formulate a more adaptable system. The PCI offers a more holistic measure of a partner’s impact to drive success with their customers. Therefore, a greater distinction in the market when a partner accomplishes or maintains the Cloud Business Applications competency.
Partners receive credit for a successful department and increasing usage. They are also rewarded for continuing to invest in and increase their technical abilities. The goal for PCI is to help partners reach their key measure by:
- Improving customer outcomes – The PCI-based competency score measures your ability to drive customer success by tracking large deployments that were completed and the growth rate of monthly active users across your customer foundation.
- Boosting customer confidence – The PCI score increases when you add new functional consultants and developers, along with achieving advanced levels of role-based certifications. Your PCI score allows your customers to know the technical skills and knowledge that are required for their success.
- Energizing business growth – Reveal service opportunities by showcasing your competency to a substantial customer base within the industry through Microsoft’s commercial marketplace and sellers’ channel. Go-to-market services and training benefits that are incorporates with a competency, help you attract leads and keep your skillset up to date.
Where can you learn more?
Microsoft thinks this new, holistic measure will better assist partners to showcase their knowledge, skills and technical capabilities to guide organizations to transformative Business Applications solutions. To help you learn more about the competency updates, use these assets:
- The fact sheet – an overview of how PCI works and tips to better manage your PCI score.
- Check out the FAQ – You will have detailed answers to your questions and gain insight into which partners are affected on the updated PCI metric definitions
- Training and informative resources.
The Partner Center is where you need to go to get started. Here, you will be able to view your PCI dashboard to see if you need to make improvements to your score before the effective date, October 1st, 2020. The Partner Center can also guide you on actions to put into place immediately and answer any other questions you have.
