Solutions Partner for Modern Work

Appropriate roles: Global admin, Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program partner admin

A Solutions Partner for Modern work has demonstrated a broad capability to help customers boost their productivity and make the shift to hybrid work using Microsoft 365.

To earn this designation, your partner capability score must meet the qualification requirements for this area. You need a minimum of 70 points out of a possible 100 to attain a solutions partner designation.

This score is measured in three categories—partner performance, skilling, and customer success—and is informed by data that is already recorded in Partner Center.

You must attain at least one point in each of the following individual metrics in addition to your total points being higher than the qualifying threshold mentioned previously.

  • Performance category
  • Skilling – Intermediate certifications
  • Skilling – Advanced certifications
  • Customer success – Usage growth
  • Customer success – Deployments

You can track your progress towards attaining the Solutions Partner for Modern work designation in Partner Center.

Two attainment paths: Enterprise, and Small & Medium business

There are two distinct attainment paths to get the Solutions Partner for Modern Work designation: Enterprise, and Small and Medium business (SMB). Each path has its own requirements,

Microsoft recognizes that some partners target SMB customers and some target Enterprise customers. To provide you with the flexibility and the advantage of the path that works best for your organization, we evaluate you on both paths and choose the highest scores towards qualifying for the designation.

Performance category

The Performance category is a measure of your organization's ability to increase the customer base using Microsoft products for Modern work and productivity.

There's one metric in the Performance category:

Net customer adds Enterprise path criteria and SMB path criteria are different. The details are explained in the following sections.

Performance: Net customer adds metric

Net customer adds for modern work is the number of qualifying workloads added to your customer base during the trailing 12-month period.

Scoring:

Enterprise track: Each net new customer added contributes to 4 points, for up to a maximum of 20 points, from 5 customers

SMB track: Each net new customer added contributes to 2 points, for up to a maximum of 20 points, from 10 customers

Calculation:

Net customer adds = [Total qualifying current customer tenants] – [Total qualifying customers tenants 12 months ago]

Eligible customer tenants:

Enterprise track: Each customer tenant having at least 1 workload with paid seats greater than 300 is counted to be an eligible tenant

SMB Track: Each customer tenant having at least 1 workload with paid seats between 11 to 300 is counted to be an eligible tenant

Note

Same tenant can participate in both Enterprise and SMB track

Eligible workloads:

For both tracks: Intune, Exchange, Microsoft365Apps, SharePoint, Teams, Teams Meetings, Teams Phone, Teams Phone calling, TeamsApps, VivaEngage, Viva Insights, Viva Topics, Viva Learning, Viva Connections

Eligible association types:

Enterprise track: Claiming Partner of Record (CPOR) and Digital Partner of Record (DPOR) are valid partner association types

SMB track: Claiming Partner of Record (CPOR) and CSP (CSP Tier 1, CSP Tier 2) are valid partner association types

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Skilling category

The skilling category measures your organization's skills and capabilities by using the number of persons who have an eligible certification.

  • Each person with an eligible certification earns your organization points towards the skilling designation, but they can't earn more points by completing more certifications.

  • There are two attainment paths: Small & medium business and Enterprise

  • There are two certification metrics:

  • To fulfill the requirement to have more than zero points in every metric, your organization must have at least one qualifying person with an intermediate certification, and the same person or a different person with an advanced certification.

Certified persons required to earn the maximum of 25 points in the Skilling category:

Path Intermediate certifications (10 points max) Advanced certifications (15 points max)
Enterprise Four certified persons Two certified persons
Small & Medium Business Two certified persons One certified person

Eligible Microsoft 365 certifications

Important considerations

  • Each certified individual is counted once for this metric, even if the certified individual completes multiple certifications.

  • Intermediate certifications can be earned by the same individual, or different individuals, than the Advanced certifications.

  • Some of these certifications might have prerequisites listed on the certification website (select on the individual certification links). Those prerequisites need to be addressed in order for a person to complete certification.

Customer success category

The customer success category measures your ability to enable growth in the use of Microsoft products or in the expansion of Microsoft's services and workloads utilized by the customers.

There are two metrics in the Customer success category:

Customer success: Usage growth metric

This customer success metric measures your ability to grow the use and consumption of our qualifying products. You earn points for this metric based on the growth exhibited in the Usage growth across all your eligible customer tenants and workloads. Calculation:

Usage growth = [Eligible Active users last month] – [Eligible Active users same month last year]

Eligible Active users:

This is the number of active users across all eligible customer tenants from all eligible workloads for specific partner association types

Eligible customer tenants:

Enterprise track: Each customer tenant having at least 1 workload with paid seats greater than 300 is counted to be an eligible Tenant for Enterprise track.

SMB track: Each customer tenant having at least 1 workload with paid seats between 11 to 300 is counted to be an eligible Tenant for SMB track.

Eligible workloads:

Both tracks: Intune, Exchange, Microsoft365Apps, SharePoint, Teams, Teams Meetings, Teams Phone, Teams Phone calling, TeamsApps, VivaEngage, Viva Insights, Viva Topics, Viva Learning, Viva Connections

Eligible associations:

Enterprise Track: Claiming Partner of Record (CPOR) & Direct Partner of Record (DPOR) are valid association types

SMB Track: Claiming Partner of Record (CPOR) &CSP (Tier 1 & Tier2) are valid association types

Note

You can only receive points for usage growth from the time you claim or associate with a customer. You don't receive credit for Usage growth that existed prior to your association.

Thresholds to earn maximum points - Enterprise track:

In the Enterprise eligibility path, you get points for usage growth based on the association type. Two options have been created: CPOR and DPOR. Each option has different thresholds. You get different points for each option based on your performance against those thresholds. Qualifying points for usage growth is the higher of the points obtained from the two options, CPOR and DPOR.

Option Threshold for maximum points
CPOR 1,000 Usage growth
DPOR 4,000 Usage growth

Scoring example:

Partial scoring is applied for any Usage growth, up to a maximum of 30 points, obtained from 1,000 Usage growth (for CPOR) OR 4,000 Usage growth (for DPOR), whichever is higher.

For example, if you have 2,000 Usage growth from DPOR associations over the past 12 months and 1,500 Usage growth from CPOR associations, then scoring for the usage growth metric is:

DPOR based growth = 2,000 Usage growth DPOR based points = (actual growth / threshold growth level) * max points = 2,000/4,000 * 30 = 15

CPOR based growth = 1,500 Usage growth CPOR based points = (actual growth / threshold growth level) * max points = 1,500/1,000 * 30 = 45

Usage growth net score = 30 ~ higher of 15 and 45 from above, for up to a maximum of 30

Thresholds to earn maximum points - SMB track:

In the SMB eligibility path, you earn points for usage growth based on the association type. Two options have been created: CPOR and CSP. Each option has different thresholds. You get different points for each option based on your performance against those thresholds. Qualifying points for usage growth is the higher of the points obtained from the two options, CPOR and CSP.

Option Threshold for max points
CPOR 500 MAU
CSP 2,000 MAU

Scoring example:

Partial scoring is applied for any Usage growth, up to a maximum of 30 points, obtained from 500 Usage growth (CPOR) or 2,000 Usage growth (CSP), whichever is highest. For example, if you have 1,000 Usage growth from CSP associations over the past 12 months and 1,000 Usage growth from CPOR associations, scoring is decided for usage growth metric as follows:

CSP based growth = 1,000 Usage growth CSP based points = (actual growth / threshold growth level) * max points = 1,000/2,000 * 30 = 15

CPOR based growth = 1,500 Usage growth CPOR based points = (actual growth / threshold growth level) * max points = 1,000/500 * 30 = 60

Usage growth score = 30 ~ higher of 15 and 60 from above, for up to a maximum of 30

Note

Targets differ for different association types for both SMB and Enterprise. You can earn points only for one association type per metric. If you have more than one association type, we award points based on the one that earns the most points.

Customer success: Deployments metric

This metric in the customer success category measures your ability to grow the deployments of our Microsoft 365 services. You earn points for this metric based on the growth in deployments of eligible workloads with a minimum monthly usage level.

Calculation:

Deployments = (Eligible deployments last month) – (Eligible deployments same month last year)

The preceding calculation excludes deployments that were claimed or associated within the last 12 months and were already greater than 40% at the time of claim or association.

Eligible Deployments:

This is the number of unique eligible customer tenants having 40% of paid seats as Active seats (MAU - Monthly active usage) from all eligible workloads for specific partner association types

Eligible customer tenants:

Enterprise track: Each customer tenant having at least 1 workload with paid seats greater than 300 is counted to be an eligible Tenant for Enterprise track.

SMB track: Each customer tenant having at least 1 workload with paid seats between 11 to 300 is counted to be an eligible Tenant for SMB track.

Eligible workloads:

Both tracks: Intune, Exchange, Microsoft365Apps, SharePoint, Teams, Teams Meetings, Teams Phone, Teams Phone calling, TeamsApps, VivaEngage, Viva Insights, Viva Topics, Viva Learning, Viva Connections

Eligible associations:

Enterprise Track: Claiming Partner of Record (CPOR) & Direct Partner of Record (DPOR) are valid association types

SMB Track: Claiming Partner of Record (CPOR) &CSP (Tier 1 & Tier2) are valid association types

Threshold for maximum points - Enterprise track:

In the Enterprise eligibility path, you get points for deployments based on the association type. Two options have been created: CPOR and DPOR. Each option has different thresholds. Based on your performance against those thresholds, you get different points for each option. Qualifying points for deployments is the higher of the points obtained from the two options, CPOR and DPOR.

Option Threshold for maximum points
CPOR 5 net new deployments
DPOR 10 net new deployments

Scoring example:

  • Each new qualifying CPOR deployment gets 5 points OR each new qualifying DPOR deployment gets 2.5 points, whichever aggregates to higher points, for up to a maximum of 25 points.

For example, if you have four net new deployments from DPOR associations over the past 12 months and 3 from CPOR associations, the scoring is decided for deployments metric as follows:

DPOR based deployments = 4 DPOR based points = (actual deployments / threshold deployments level) * max points = 4/10 * 25 = 10 points

CPOR based deployments = 3 CPOR based points = (actual deployments / threshold deployments level) * max points = 3/5 * 25 = 15 points

**Deployments net score = 15** ~ higher of 15 and 10 from above, for up to a maximum of 25

Threshold for maximum points - SMB track:

In the SMB eligibility path, you get points for deployments based on the association type. Two options have been created: CPOR and CSP. Each option has different thresholds. You get different points for each option based on your performance against those thresholds. Qualifying points for deployments is the higher of the points obtained from the two options, CPOR and CSP.

Option Threshold for max points
CPOR 5 net new deployments
CSP 10 net new deployments

Scoring example:

  • Each new qualifying CPOR deployment gets 5 points OR each new qualifying CSP deployment gets 2.5 points, whichever aggregates to higher points, for up to a maximum of 25 points.

For example, if you have four net-new deployments from CSP associations over the past 12 months and 3 from CPOR associations, the scoring is decided for deployments metric as follows:

CSP based deployments = 4 CSP based points = (actual deployments / threshold deployments level) * max points = 4/10 * 25 = 10 points

CPOR based deployments = 4 CPOR based points = (actual deployments / threshold deployments level) * max points = 4/5 * 25 = 20 points

**Deployments net score = 20** ~ higher of 20 and 10 from above, for up to a maximum of 25

Note

Targets differ for different association types for both SMB and Enterprise, and you can only earn points for one association type per metric.

If you have more than one association type, we award points based on the one that earns the most points.


Data freshness:

Performance and Customer Success subcategories are typically refreshed by the 20th of every month. However, there might be other minor data refreshes throughout the month. Skilling subcategories are typically refreshed within 10 days after certification is completed.


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