Plan, build, sell, and grow with expert guidance

Technical Presales and Deployment Services provides eligible partners with the expert guidance needed to build their practice or solution. Partner organizations receive technical and business enablement guidance from a Microsoft Partner Technical Consultant (PTC) through personalized, one-to-one consultations. PTCs will help you plan, build, and publish Microsoft cloud services or applications and accelerate the closure of sales opportunities.

Microsoft Cloud Partner Program advisory benefits help partners:

Go to the Technical Presales and Deployment Services page to learn more about the benefits of TPD to partners.

Get started

To get started using TPD, create a request here or directly through Partner Center.

Read this document in Partner Center to learn more about what services are covered, including in- and out-of-scope scenarios.

Join the conversation

Want to hear about what Microsoft and other US partners think about TPD? Head over to the US Partner Zone within the Microsoft Partner Community!

To search for specific types of events or look further ahead at what’s planned, check out our Events Calendar. Keep an eye out for new events and offerings being added weekly.

To find on-demand training, check out the Hot Sheets from prior months.

Week of December 5 – 9

Week of December 12 – 16

Week of December 19 – 23

Week of December 26 – 30

Week of January 2 – 6

Week of January 9 – 13

Week of January 16 – 20

Week of January 23 – 27

Week of January 30 – 31

Microsoft Azure provides the industry’s most scalable and performant infrastructure and services to host SAP workloads replete with a lot of capabilities to maximize return on investment.

However, deploying and managing SAP workloads on public cloud platforms can be more complex with its own challenges. The challenges that can eat up time including capacity planning and sizing (choosing the right cloud IaaS (infrastructure as a service) resources), deploying SAP with best practices (deploying cloud resources and installing/configuring SAP on it), and then managing and optimizing it (monitor infrastructure and app layers, backup, security, managing costs, etc.).

Additionally, partners are looking beyond simple tools, frameworks and automations that current cloud providers are offering to deploy, manage and optimize their SAP workloads.

To address these needs, Microsoft has launched the Azure Center for SAP Solution (ACSS).

Introducing the Azure Center for SAP Solution (ACSS)

ACSS is a first-party, native Azure service which allows Microsoft partners to deploy SAP workloads in Azure by providing simple unified experience with seamless management fabric, as well as in concert an innovation foundation to accelerate the cloud migration journey. ACSS acts as a single pane of glass by pinning together first-party Azure services, tools, and framework for SAP workloads to get full return of investment from SAP deployments.

To begin, partners should leverage the ACSS provided full guided and automated option to deploy SAP workloads in Azure. And then, from the same ACSS experience window, partners can utilize first-party SAP-specific Azure services like monitoring, backup, security, threat protection and cost optimization to manage and optimize SAP workloads.

At this time of this writing, ACSS is a completely free service with no licensing cost (customers only pay for Azure infrastructure consumption). Below is more detail on how partners can get started with ACSS for deploying their SAP workloads as well as a top-level capability summary.

Getting started with Azure Center for SAP Solution: Make Azure aware of your SAP workload by leveraging the Guided Deployment Experience

When deploying a SAP workload in Azure, the workload gets deployed on Azure virtual machines (VMs) and Azure will not be aware these VMs are running SAP. Because of that, Azure will not automatically apply its own intelligence to manage and optimize the SAP layer of these VMs.

But what if we can tell Azure the new/existing VMs are running SAP? And this is what ACSS does for us. Partners can go to ACSS and register new/existing SAP deployments in Azure making Azure aware that the deployments are SAP-specific.

Below are two scenarios for partners to leverage ACSS capabilities:

1. In the case of a new deployment, ACSS provides a simple form-based registration process by capturing information about the SAP system that is being deployed (e.g., SAP product, database type, deployment location, Operating System detail, etc.) along with a high availability option (vs standalone).

This new deployment registration process also provides a guided deployment experience by asking performance requirements (e.g., SAPS, memory, etc.) and recommending right-sized VMs and storage disks. Upon registration completion, the system will confirm and deploy the SAP infrastructure and install/configure the SAP software automatically with single click of button.

The registration process will create logical representation of your deployment called a Virtual Instance for SAP solution (VIS). The VIS makes Azure aware about SAP, allowing Azure to apply its own SAP specific native management and optimization capabilities. To learn more about the ACSS registration process and VIS, view this documentation.

It should also be noted that for new deployments, instead of choosing the guided deployment option, partners can bring their own automation OR utilize the Microsoft provided opensource and customizable automation scripts (SAP Deployment Automation Framework) to first deploy the SAP workload in Azure and then register it as an existing system by going to ACSS.

2. In the case of a partner already running SAP based VMs in Azure, they can still register them by going to ACSS and choosing the “Register existing SAP system” option.

Post-Deployment: Manage, Optimize and Innovate with Azure Center for SAP Solution

 Once partners have deployed an SAP workload(s) with ACSS by registering it as Virtual Instance for SAP Solution (VIS), partners can leverage ACSS provided all native SAP-specific management and optimization services for their SAP workload. ACSS also provides a foundation for innovation allowing partners to create custom solutions on top of ACSS to extend their SAP workload to the next level.

Stay tuned! All ACSS management, optimization and innovation capabilities will be covered in part two of this blog series.

Learn More

• Azure Center for SAP Solution Documentation
• Explore: SAP Solutions on Azure
• Visit: SAP on Azure Partner Page
• Watch: SAP Center for SAP Solution Demo
• Learn: SAP on Azure training

Week of October 24 – October 28

Week of October 31 – November 4

Week of November 7 – November 11

Week of November 14 – November 18

Week of November 21 – November 25

Sessions

For a full list of sessions, check out the Microsoft Teams digital brochure embedded at the bottom of this blog and bookmark this link so you can come back to it later.

Kick-off Ignite with Jared Spataro and Nicole Herskowitz

First up in the 2 days of continuous learning, join us for an opening keynote with Jared Spataro, CVP of Modern Work at Microsoft, and Caroline Stanford, Director, Microsoft Teams Product Marketing. In this session, you will learn how Microsoft 365 is the cloud-first platform that helps organizations enable a digitally connected, distributed workforce to work in new ways while simplifying IT and reducing cost.

• TS03: Re-energize your workforce in the office, at home, and everywhere in between – Jared Spataro, CVP, Modern Work, and Caroline Stanford, Director, Microsoft Teams Product Marketing

Then join Nicole Herskowitz, VP of Microsoft Teams, to learn how Microsoft Teams supports collaboration and productivity at home, in the office, and everywhere in between so your organization can thrive with a simple, integrated experience powered by data and automation to allow teams to work smarter and collaborate seamlessly.

• BRK31: Microsoft Teams: Supercharge the who, where, and how of work – Nicole Herskowitz, VP, Microsoft Teams

Continue your Ignite experience with the Teams Into-Focus session

Be sure to join Jeff Teper and Into Focus Host Karuana Gatimu as they discuss the technical strategy underlying all the innovation coming from his Collaborative Applications and Platform division.

• KEY08H: Microsoft 365 and next-gen collaboration – Jeff Teper, President, Microsoft Collaborative Apps and Platforms and Karuana Gatimu, Principal Product Management Manager, Microsoft Teams

Learn more during the Teams Breakout and On-Demand Sessions
Join sessions from our Teams executives and get a detailed view of our vision for Teams, the latest innovations, and what’s next.

• BRK32: For low-code to pro code: building collaborative apps to power an evolving workplace – Graham Sheldon, CVP, Microsoft Teams Product Management
• BRK33: Create rich connections and customer experiences with Microsoft Teams Phone and contact center capabilities – Mahendra Sekaran, VP Microsoft Teams Product Management

Next, dive deep into specific Teams topics by attending our 30-45 minute on-demand sessions. These sessions will cover Teams Rooms, best practices for Microsoft Teams, and frontline workers.

• OD15: Harness the power of Teams Rooms and intelligent devices for immersive hybrid meetings – Ilya Bukshteyn, VP, Microsoft Teams Calling and Devices
• OD19: Microsoft Teams best practices, tips and tricks from our experts – Moderator, Stephen Rose, Senior Product Marketing Manager joined by several Microsoft Teams MVPs
• OD21: Quickly deploy your frontline workforce at scale with Microsoft 365 and Teams – Tulsi Keshkamat, Group Product Manager, Microsoft Frontline and Zoe Hawtof, Product Marketing Manager, Microsoft Teams & Platform

Talk with Microsoft product experts during Teams Product Roundtables (PRT007-011) and Ask the Expert Sessions (CATE31H-33H)

In the product roundtables, you get the opportunity to talk directly with Microsoft product makers about your needs and the solutions you care about most! To promote meaningful discussions, each roundtable will be limited to only 50 individuals, so request a seat at these virtual tables soon! Refer to digital brochure for details.

Then, join the 30-minute ask the expert sessions with product experts to ask your questions and hear from the subject matter experts that are closest to the product. Refer to the digital brochure for details.

Explore governance and security practices in Teams Technical Deep Dive

Join Karuana Gatimu and John Gruszczyk as they discuss the governance and security practices for Microsoft 365.

• BRK219H: Governance and Security Practices for Microsoft 365, including Microsoft Teams, Viva and Loop guidance – Karuana Gatimu, Principal Product Management Manager, Microsoft Teams and John Gruszczyk, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Microsoft Teams & Platform

Teams Sessions Digital Brochure

https://aka.ms/TeamsSessions

Resources

• Register for Microsoft Ignite and start building your event schedule with Teams sessions.
• Follow Microsoft Teams on Twitter and Instagram to stay up to date with the latest Microsoft Teams announcements.
• Follow Microsoft Ignite on Twitter to stay up to date with latest Ignite announcements.
• Use the hashtag #MSIgnite to share highlights of your Ignite experience.

The new program transforms the existing 18 competencies into six Solutions Partner designations that are aligned with the Microsoft Cloud.

This new, single-tier designation model combines today’s silver and gold tiers. As of September 30, 2022, legacy competencies and associated badging are no longer valid. Partners that have competencies by this date will retain their benefits and have time to learn and assess how the Solutions Partner designations fit in to the strategic plan for your business. Partners have until their anniversary date to make decisions.

Learn, assess, and activate

We’re here to help guide you through your transformation journey. Start by knowing what to learn, what to assess, and how to prepare to activate the changes ahead:

Learn more about the requirements and benefits of the Solutions Partner designations.

• • Read the blog Evolving Microsoft Partner Network programs for partner growth and customer success.
  • Read the blog Evolving the Microsoft Partner Network programs.

Assess your current score and track progress towards new designations via the Partner Center dashboard.

Activate your business plan in the new program with the following calls to action:

• • Hold a discussion as a part of your business rhythms to ensure awareness of the change.
  • Confirm your status in the new Partner Center dashboard.
  • Outline steps for how you can be ready for the transition to the new Solutions Partner designations.

Secure your infrastructure and control access

Transition to GDAP

As part of the Zero Trust security model, Microsoft urges partners to take a step-by-step approach to securing their infrastructure and access to their customers’ tenants in order to minimize fraudulent and abusive activities.

To help secure the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) ecosystem, partners are being advised to transition from delegated admin privileges (DAP) to granular delegated admin privileges (GDAP). GDAP is a security feature that allows partners to control more granular and time-bound access to their customers’ workloads.

Cybersecurity continues to be one of the top challenges of our digital age. Partners in the CSP program are responsible for their customers’ consumption of Microsoft Cloud Services. It’s important to be aware of, and take steps to mitigate and remediate, security issues that affect you and your customers. Microsoft has extended the time partners have to make the transition from DAP to GDAP. However, partners in the CSP program are advised to take the necessary steps now:

• Review DAP report and remove DAP relationships that are not required.
• Leverage the bulk migration tool to transition to GDAP.
• Find relevant links and guides in the Operations Readiness gallery.
• For technical documentation, review the introduction to GDAP and API overview.
• Sign up for CSP Security Q&A sessions and check out these GDAP resources to learn more.

Help promote security best practices

SMBs still running SQL Server 2012 can save money and keep their businesses safe by migrating to Azure. Learn how you can help secure your customers’ workloads during the transition, whether they’re ready to upgrade now or need more time.

Secure now, update when ready

End of support (EOS) means regular security updates will no longer be provided. With cyberattacks becoming more sophisticated and frequent, running apps and data on unsupported versions can create significant security and compliance risks. It is highly recommended that customers upgrade to the most current versions for better performance, efficiency, and regular security updates.

Customers that migrate applications and SQL Server databases to Azure Virtual Machines get free Extended Security Updates for three years after end of support, only in Azure. Customers can combine this with Azure Hybrid Benefit by using existing on-premises SQL Server and Windows Server licenses on the cloud at no additional cost.

For customers who need more time, we’re announcing Extended Security Updates (ESUs) for SQL Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2. This additional extended servicing option will help secure workloads for three more years after the end of support deadline. Also, one additional year of ESUs is available for Windows Server and SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2, only on Azure.

Get started

Make sure you’re prepared before reaching out to customers still running SQL Server 2012. Take these steps to get started:

• Use CloudAscent in Partner Center to identify existing SMB customers who might be at risk of losing security updates.
• Watch the Path to Azure Cloud Growth webinar for a comprehensive overview of the Azure Cloud market opportunity, along with resources for migrating customers to Azure.
• Get up to speed with the Windows Server and SQL Server End of Support Collection, including the Play-in-a-Box (PiB), which explains and provides resources for all Windows Server and SQL Server solution plays to help partners ready their staff, create demand, and sell.
• Launch a broad-reach digital Azure migration campaign. The Digital Marketing Content OnDemand platform provides partners with an easy-to-execute, customizable digital campaign to share with their customers the value of migrating to Azure.

Attend the October 25 webinar:
Grow Your Azure Virtual Desktop Business

Desktop as a service (DaaS) is among the fastest-growing cloud services. Take advantage of this expanding market opportunity by quickly deploying Azure Virtual Desktop and apps that enable secure remote work for your customers’ hybrid workforce. Learn more and register here.

The work-from-anywhere world presents new opportunities for partners in the SMB space to provide value-added managed services to their customers. Microsoft 365 Business Premium is a comprehensive toolkit that brings together collaboration solutions like Microsoft Teams with advanced security and device management. By offering security-based managed services, partners have a great opportunity to grow their practice, unlocking new revenue streams while reducing operational costs.

New! Increase your Microsoft 365 Business Premium Sales

Increase your Microsoft 365 Business Premium sales this quarter (Q3) by earning the M365 Business Premium US Local Accelerator, which is now richer in the current quarter (January through March).

Partners who are in the CSP or MCI program and have attained the required competency are eligible to participate. You must perform all registration requirements and qualifying activities, as stated in the incentives guide, before this incentive can be earned.

Please reach out to the M365BP US Local Accelerator Support Team if you have any questions.

Now, let’s dive into some of the benefits and opportunities that Microsoft 365 Business Premium offers.

What are the benefits—to you and your customers?

Remote work is here to stay. With Microsoft 365 Business Premium you can help your SMB customers run their businesses securely, from anywhere. Microsoft 365 Business Premium allows you to:

• Enable remote access and product identity so your customers’ employees can securely access business apps from wherever they’re working.
• Defend against cyberthreats and safeguard business data by providing solutions that allow your customers to control who has access to their business information.
• Easily secure and manage devices by enabling your customers to maintain control over the devices that connect to their business data.
• Encourage collaboration in real time by helping your customers’ employees stay connected and productive from anywhere.

Learn more about the benefits of Microsoft 365 Business Premium.

What are the opportunities for partners?

With Microsoft 365 Business Premium you can create standardized managed services offerings around remote access, productivity, and security that can deliver an ongoing revenue stream and profitability.

	Help customers get secure One in four SMBs are targeted by cyberattacks. Upsell customers by helping them solve security concerns. Support one, integrated solution across productivity, security, and device management that enables customers to operate more efficiently and cost-effectively.	Provide tangible examples to customers about their current security position, using Microsoft Graph with SecureScore. Solve customer needs by providing comprehensive solutions across security vectors. Increase efficiencies and reduce your operational cost by managing an integrated solution.
	Unlock new deployment opportunities Leverage the extensive Microsoft 365 Business Premium technology stack to unlock project-based services.	On-premises-to-cloud workloads Teams deployment and integration Security assessments, implementation
	Differentiate through managed services Deliver ongoing monitoring, remediation, adoption, and support services.	Provide remote monitoring and management of security threats for customers. Manage end-to-end compliance processes with Compliance Manager. Enable bring-your-own-device (BYOD) scenarios and protect email data with Azure Information Protection. Modernize and manage policies with Azure Active Directory and Intune.

Next steps

The Microsoft 365 Business Premium Partner Playbook will provide you with practical guidance about how to build a profitable managed services practice. Visit the Microsoft 365 Business Premium Partner Playbook and Readiness Series page today to learn more and download the playbook.

Other posts you may like

Microsoft Defender for Business: Security designed for SMBs now included in Microsoft 365 Business Premium

Join the conversation

Want to hear about what Microsoft and other US partners think about Microsoft 365 Business Premium? Head over to the US Partner Investments Forum within the Microsoft Partner Community!

Under the Microsoft Cloud Partner Program, the primary metric used to measure partner capabilities is the Partner Capability Score. It is calculated as a composite score of three categories: performance, skilling, and customer success.

• Performance: the ability of partners to expand their customer base as measured by Net Customer Adds.
• Skilling: the capabilities and skills acquired as the number of people in a partner organization who are certified.
• Customer success: the ability to enable growth in the use of Microsoft products, or in the expansion of Microsoft’s services and workloads used by customers.

You can find your partner capability score in the Partner Capability Score Dashboard within Partner Center for each of the three categories of performance, skilling, and customer success that align to each solution partner designation. You can earn a maximum of 100 points across all three categories. You need a minimum score of 70 points, with at least one point in each category, to earn a Solution Partner Designation.

The impact of your score

• Provides partners with the flexibility to choose their own path towards attaining the qualifying criteria in a solution area.
• Requires that partners demonstrate their ability to provide high quality service to customers.
• Ensures that customers who are searching for partners can trust Solution partner designations.

We have recently added a new tool to your Partner Capability Score Dashboard that allows you to take your planning to the next level – The Partner Capability Score Simulator! Use this tool to test various scenarios you can implement to improve your score, whether that is adding one new customer or having a member of your team focus on a specific intermediate or advanced certification.

You must be a Global or MPN Partner Admin in Partner Center to be able to view your Partner Capability Score Dashboard. Please note that some partners’ capability score within the solution area will be comprised of multiple metrics.

Watch this overview video that includes a demo: Overview video: Solutions partner dashboard overview and demo (microsoft.com)

What are some of the benefits of the Microsoft Cloud Partner Program?

While you do have the option to keep your existing benefits until they expire, the Microsoft Cloud Partner Program is offering these exciting new investments to help you:

• Realize business development with product benefits such as product licenses, cloud services subscriptions, and Azure credits.
• Increase customer reach with go-to-market services, Microsoft solution provider placement, customer-facing badges, and co-selling with Microsoft.
• Expand training and enablement with access to personalized assistance and world-class Microsoft experts, including comprehensive courses, technical presales, and deployment services, as well as product, platform, and technical support.

Calls to Action:

As you prepare for FY23, it’s critical to do the following to help you get ready:

• Continue developing your understanding of the partner capability score and how it can help shape your business strategy. Continue to learn about this new program.  and how it can help shape your business strategy.
• Get smarter about your score and how to improve. To view a recording of the one hour virtual session discussing the Microsoft Cloud Partner Program please log in to your IAMCP account.

View the complete list of upcoming Microsoft Cloud Partner Program sessions with IAMCP and Microsoft. Each series will cover a different topic. We look forward to seeing you at our next event.

Other posts you may like

• Announcement/Blog and Overview Videos
• Microsoft Cloud Partner Program Landing Page
• Partner-Ready Assets and Support Resources

Welcome to the US Partner Community Hot Sheet, a comprehensive schedule of partner training, webcasts, community calls, and office hours. If you want to search for specific types of events or look further ahead at what’s planned, check out our Events Calendar. Keep an eye out for new events and offerings being added!

Week of May 30 – June 3

Week of June 6 – June 10

Week of June 13 – June 17

Week of June 20 – June 24

Week of June 27 – July 1