The 60 minute guide to partnering with Microsoft

This guide is the most abbreviated version of my book ´Refresh the Road Ahead´ which I published in July 2018. In that book I go deep into things like the Microsoft strategy, organization, culture, etc. and, I reflect in detail on the outcomes and learnings of interviews with 40 award winning Microsoft partners.

Refresh the Road Ahead is a book of over 450 pages in its paperback version and close to 100.000 words, which for some people is a stopper to dive into the book. With this version I have tried to make a summary guide that can be read in 60 minutes.

This guide is intended for Microsoft partners or companies and individuals that want to start partnering with Microsoft. It will help you understand how to build or transform your business together with Microsoft.

Content

Introduction. 6

Chapter 1. Vision, Mission & Strategy. 7

Satya Nadella putting his mark on Microsoft 7

Microsoft´s Paradigm Shift 8

Windows becoming the Edge of the Cloud: 9

The Four Platforms. 9

Beyond the Cloud. 10

Conclusions. 10

Lessons for Partners. 10

Chapter 2. Microsoft´s Business Model Changes. 13

The Satya Era: All about Cloud & Services. 13

Conclusions. 15

Lessons for Partners. 16

Chapter 3. Co-opetition. 18

How competing has changed under Nadella. 18

Competing in the cloud world. 18

Competing in the AI world. 19

Conclusions. 20

Lessons for Partners. 20

Chapter 4. The Microsoft Culture. 22

The Nadella Effect 22

Conclusions. 23

Lessons for Partners. 23

Chapter 5. How Microsoft organizes. 25

The Microsoft organizational setup and the cloud world. 26

The Commercial Sales Organization. 26

The One Commercial Partner Organization. 28

Conclusions. 29

Lessons for partners. 29

Chapter 6. The Microsoft Partner Strategy. 31

Introduction. 31

A unique partner sales model 31

Different partner types. 31

Pre-Cloud partner Business models. 32

Microsoft´s partner strategy summarized. 34

What should a partner do?. 35

Conclusions. 35

Lessons for partners. 36

Chapter 7. Required knowledge to partner with Microsoft. 38

The Microsoft Partner Network. 38

Microsoft Competencies. 38

Licensing. 38

The Cloud Solution Provider Program.. 39

Channel incentives. 40

Conclusions. 41

Lessons for partners. 41

Chapter 8. Working with Microsoft Consulting Services. 44

Conclusions. 44

Lessons for Partners. 44

Chapter 9. Define your strategy. 46

ISVs. 46

The Modern Partner. 47

The Distributor. 50

The Asset Heavy provider. 50

Conclusions. 51

Lessons for partners. 51

Chapter 10. Operationalize. 54

Operationalizing your strategy with Microsoft 54

Plan, Execute & Govern. 57

Conclusions. 58

Lessons for partners. 58

Chapter 11. Best Practices & Challenges in working with Microsoft 60

General best practices. 60

Conclusions. 62

Lessons for partners. 62

Acronyms. 64

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