This post has been republished via RSS; it originally appeared at: New blog articles in Microsoft Community Hub.
As we wrap up another transformative year, we are excited to cover a range of topics including today’s spotlight: Incentives. We will also explore the latest on the new commerce experience in CSP, rewarding customer performance, membership, accounts, and co-sell. Finally, we will close with a few critical reminders on our joint journey to Zero Trust.
Spotlight: Enhancing partner and customer engagement through Microsoft Commerce Incentives
Microsoft rewards partners for “partner activities,” meaning any activity conducted by an eligible partner with an eligible customer that drives the customer’s intent to buy or use products and/or services. There are many different activities that claiming partners of record can be compensated for, including one-on-one workshops, Azure migrations, solution assessments, and more. The journey of partner activities onto Microsoft Commerce Incentives (MCI) has been split across three phases: first, building the one-on-one activities capability on MCI and extending it to all business groups; second, integrating MCI activities capabilities with Microsoft seller systems; and third, rewarding partners by linking activities to sales and usage and enabling support for one or many activities.
The partner activities capability (phase 1 above) was originally launched in early 2022 and has seen a 700% increase in active engagements across all solution areas (Azure, Modern Work, Business Applications, etc.) to date. A recent key evolution related to phase 2 is the variable pay pattern that provides integration with the Microsoft seller system, allowing partners to work with customers based on active opportunities with Microsoft.