Infinigate Cloud is an expert business unit within the Infinigate Group specialising in secure cloud solutions. We have been working with Microsoft since the 1990s and our deep relationship, along with 25+ years of experience in the cloud, means that you can be confident that you’re getting the very best advice.
Covering a wide range of business objectives, Microsoft’s incentive offerings provide critical resources to help your business grow and succeed. Enrolling in the right program allows you reap the rewards of your company’s achievements.
Microsoft Commerce Incentives are designed to reward partners who make a direct impact in delivering value-added services, drive customer adoption and consumption. Microsoft Partners must enrol for the incentive programs in the Partner Centre before they can begin earning and have the required solutions designations to be eligible.
Solution Designations
The Silver and Gold partner competencies have been retired as of October 2022. The Microsoft Partner Network pivoted to the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program in October 2022, shifting its focus towards cloud-based solutions across six solution areas. The program comprises of a portfolio of tools, resources, and offerings to help partners meet evolving customer opportunities, innovate for any cloud scenario on an extensible platform, and deliver successful solutions to industries and markets worldwide.
Since October 2022, Microsoft has updated the thresholds for earning Solution Designations. Overall, certifications identified for retirement continue to count toward your Partner Capability Score (PCS) for one year after retirement or until your individual certification expires, whichever is sooner, to give you time to adjust. In addition, there are specific changes across five of the six solutions designations that Partners must be mindful of to maintain their status.
The six Solution Designations are now as follows:
Modern Work – demonstrates broad capabilities in helping customers boost their productivity and make the shift to hybrid work, using Microsoft 365.
Infrastructure (Azure) – allows partners to demonstrate their ability to help customers migrate key infrastructure workloads to Azure.
Security – A Solutions partner for Security must demonstrate a broad skillset to help customers safeguard their entire organisation, by using integrated security, compliance, and identity solutions.
Digital and Application Innovation (Azure) – showcases partners that build, run, and manage applications across multiple clouds, on-premises, and at the edge.
Business Application – a great opportunity for partners who provide consultation, deployment, or ongoing management services for Dynamics 365 and Power Platform.
Data and AI (Azure) – highlights a provider’s skills in managing customers’ data across multiple systems to build analytics and AI solutions.
Key benefits of earning Solution Designations
Customers want to work with partners who have the necessary skills and expert capabilities to meet their requirements, along with demonstrated ability to deliver customer success. As such, this change is coming to provide customers with the power to easily identify partners with vast experience in high demand Microsoft solution areas.
Partner capability score: Alignment across the Microsoft Cloud
The new approach has been established around capability scores, based on a points system.
To attain a Microsoft Solutions Partner Designation, a partner will need to earn at least 70 points (including points in each subcategory) out of the available 100 points. These are measured by:
- Performance: Measured by customer additions. As an Infinigate Cloud partner, you will access to our Marketing and Sales enablement program, GROW, which will improve your online presence and attract new customers to your business.
- Skilling: Verifies and demonstrates a partner’s dedication to skilling and training. Points are awarded for each person on a team, with specified certifications. We can help you with education and skills development through our award-winning partner education and development program, EDGE.
- Customer success: Measured by usage growth and number of successful solution deployments.
While the existing partner program is available until 3rd October, partners will have up to 18 months to transition to the new Microsoft Partner Designations.
Modern Work Rebates
To be eligible for Core Modern Work rebates, partners must meet a 12-month revenue threshold of $25,000 and hold one of the four solutions partner designations (Digital & App Innovation, Infrastructure, Modern Work, Data & AI) or hold a gold or silver status related to one of the following legacy competencies:
- Cloud Business Apps
- Cloud Platform
- Cloud Productivity
- Data Analytics
- Data Platform
- Enterprise Mobility Management
- Enterprise Resource Planning
- Small & Midmarket Cloud Solutions
- Windows & Devices
Core – Modern Work & Security billed revenue has a rate of 3.75% (reduced from 4% last year). Maximum incentive earning opportunity thresholds:
- Microsoft 365 E3, E5 – $55,000
- Microsoft Other including O365 E1, E3, E5, Intune and Windows 10 E5 – $20,000
Global Strategic Product Accelerator – Tier 1 (Business Premium & Microsoft 365 E3) has an incentive rate of 5% and the maximum incentive earning opportunity is $55,000 for Microsoft 365 E3.
Global Strategic Product Accelerator – Tier 2 (M365 E5) has an incentive rate of 7% (a 2% increase from last year) and maximum incentive earning opportunity stands at $115,000.
Global Calling and Conference PSTN Accelerator has an incentive rate of 20% without a threshold for maximum incentive earnings.
Modern Work Usage Incentives
Modern Work Usage Incentives are in place to reward partners for helping their customers successfully deploy and adopt Microsoft 365 and Security workloads. To be eligible for Core Modern Work usage incentives, partners must hold a Modern Work or Security Solutions partner designation or hold a gold or silver status related to one of the following legacy competencies:
- Cloud Productivity
- Enterprise Mobility Management
- Security
Partners must also have the following to be eligible:
- Tenant must have reached a minimum High Water Mark (HWM) of a minimum of 300 active users for earnings to be released.
- The volume of compensable units cannot exceed total paid available users (PAU) by tenant- workload.
Incentives are based on compensable units calculated on paid usage growth above the High Water Mark (HWM), not exceeding the volume of Paid Available Users (PAU). The HWM tracks the highest value of measured units by tenant and workload over time.
Teams Phone system and Frontline Worker Teams has a rate of $4 per compensable unit and a maximum incentive earning opportunity of $75,000. For example, partners deploy 500 seats of Teams Phone, they will be eligible to receive 200 x $4.
Business Applications
To be eligible for Business Application rebates, partners must meet a 12-month revenue threshold of $25,000 and hold one of the six solutions partner designations or hold a gold or silver status related to one of the following legacy competencies:
- Cloud Business Apps
- Cloud Platform
- Cloud Productivity
- Data Analytics
- Data Platform
- Enterprise Mobility Management
- Enterprise Resource Planning
- Small & Midmarket Cloud Solutions
- Windows and Devices
Core – Business Applications billed revenue has a rate of 4.75%.
Global Strategic Product Accelerator – Tier 2 (D365 Business Central and D365 Sales Enterprise) has an incentive rate of 10% (double from last year).
Customer Add – Business Applications billed revenue (Must be customer’s first Power Platform or Dynamics purchase) has an incentive rate of 20%.
Security
MCI Build Intent Workshops are partner-led engagements designed by Microsoft to help partners demonstrate value, build customer intent, and accelerate opportunities for Modern Work and Security.
MCI Workshops offer $5,000-$6,500 per completed workshop. Partner criteria must have relevant “Co-sell Ready” Solution and customer criteria applies. Security workshops include:
- Endpoint Management
- Defend against Threats with SIEM plus XDR
- Mitigate Compliance and Privacy Risks
- Protect and Govern Sensitive Data Workshop
- Secure Multi-Cloud Environments Workshop
New engagements include:
- Threat Protection – This engagement is designed to create customer intent for purchasing and/or deploying advanced Microsoft Security products, including but not limited to Microsoft 365 Defender and Microsoft Sentinel. The engagement is expected to require a three-day partner effort. The Threat Protection Engagement is delivered in a customer’s production environment by discovering real security threats and vulnerabilities. Partners can receive $6,500 per engagement but must have a Microsoft Security designation.
- Microsoft Sentinel Migration and Modernisation – Microsoft Sentinel Migration and Modernization helps accelerate and simplify customer migration and modernisation projects to Microsoft Sentinel workload. In this engagement, partners will provide expert guidance to execute a Microsoft Sentinel migration project. Partners can receive up to $50,000 depending on the project size and Microsoft Threat Protection Specialisation needed.
Security Usage Incentives
Similar to Modern Work Usage Incentives, Security Usage Incentives rewards partners for helping customers successfully deploy Security workloads.
From October 2023, partners must have a Modern Work or Security solutions designation to be eligible. Customers must reach a minimum of 300 active users to start earning by tenant and the total compensable units cannot exceed total paid seats by tenant. Incentives are paid calculated on usage growth.
Security Workload Usage
$3 Per Compensable unit – Maximum $30,000 each:
- Entra Active Directory Premium 2 (EADP2)
- Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (MDE)
- Microsoft Information Protection (MIP)
$1 Per Compensable Unit – Maximum $10,000 each:
- Insider Risk Management (IRM)
- Microsoft Defender for Identity (MDI)
- Microsoft Defender for Office (MDO)
- Microsoft Cloud App Security
Azure
To be eligible, partners must have attained a legacy benefits package related to Cloud Platform, you hold one of the following designations:
- Solutions Partner for Infrastructure (Azure)
- Solutions Partner for Data & AI (Azure)
- Solutions Partner for Digital & App Innovation (Azure)
Incentives for the new Azure offer (Azure plan) are calculated as a percentage of Azure consumption revenue. All maximum earning opportunities are at per engagement term, per partner, per subscription level.
Azure Consumption CSP motion has an incentive rate of 4% and the maximum earning opportunity is $75,000.
Azure Reservation and Savings Plan Incentive has an incentive rate of 10% and the maximum earning opportunity is $75,000.
Azure Workload Accelerator CSP has an incentive rate of 2% and the maximum earning opportunity is $75,000. The Accelerator applies for eligible products only – Purview, Azure Arc or CosmosDB.
Additional Azure Incentives
Azure Assessment for Rapid Migration are Partner-led assessments, providing a report to customers highlighting the expected costs for Azure from on-premises. It is funded by Microsoft and delivered by Infinigate Cloud and partners with Azure Specialisations in:
- Infrastructure & Database Migration to Microsoft Azure
- Modernisation of Web Apps to Microsoft Azure
Azure Migrate and Modernise (AMM) helps simplify and accelerate customer migration and modernisation projects. Partners will provide expert guidance to execute an infrastructure and database migration project. Funding opportunities are available for all Azure opportunities which have an annual consumption of above $10,000.
Further information
As a born in the cloud distributor with a deep technical heritage, Infinigate Cloud continually invest in our teams and evolve our value-add services to ensure we deliver the very best in technical expertise and 24*7 support for our partners.
If you are interested in finding out about how we can help you add value to your business, please contact us and we’ll be happy to chat through any of your questions.
By becoming an Infinigate Cloud partner, you will be allocated a dedicated Account Manager, access to world-class support, an integrated provisioning and billing platform and a training and enablement program that can you spark your growth.