The education industry has undergone significant changes in recent years, with technology playing a crucial role in transforming the way students learn and teachers teach. In today’s digital age, technology is an integral part of education as students of all ages leverage the latest innovations to augment their studies and advance progress across important fields like bioscience, agriculture, climate science, and renewable energy. The rise of digital transformation and cloud technology has unveiled new modes of education coupled with some challenges. Microsoft and our partners understand this and are working to provide innovative solutions to help schools, colleges, and universities meet the evolving needs of students and educators.

Personalized learning experiences are now the gold standard in education. By leveraging data analytics and machine learning, teachers can identify the unique needs and learning styles of each student, allowing for personalized instruction and improved student engagement. In addition, cloud technology can help streamline administrative tasks, allowing educators to focus on teaching and learning. Tasks such as grading, attendance, and scheduling can be automated, freeing up valuable time and resources for teachers.

Our partners have been at the forefront of creating solutions that facilitate collaboration, communication, data access, and efficient record keeping. I welcome you to explore some of these stories that showcase how Microsoft partners are innovating with customers in the education industry.

Planet Technologies helps UNC Greensboro deliver personalized learning experiences
UNC Greensboro (UNCG) wanted to deliver better resources to students, faculty, and residents of the surrounding community. Through the campus-wide cloud migration and the launch of the Technology and Data Institute for the community, UNCG has become a model for what North Carolina academic institutions and communities can accomplish together through technology.

Through joint efforts, they were able to provide access to high-speed networks and offer robust computing capabilities to their students, faculty, and the community. The solution leverages Azure to deliver personalized learning experiences to students through data analytics and helps administrators by automating administrative tasks like course scheduling and registration. Through this project, tech leaders and businesses can now derive insights to make data-driven decisions about using public resources to meet the community’s needs. As a result, UNCG has seen improved student retention rates, increased student satisfaction, and streamlined administrative tasks while the surrounding community is able grow and advance their own technology infrastructure through cloud migration. Read the customer story.

DataON is helping Colorado State University enhance research capabilities
Colorado State University (CSU) is a higher education institution that serves over 34,000 students. The university wanted to enhance its research capabilities by creating a platform that could store and process large amounts of data. To achieve this, CSU turned to Microsoft’s partner, DataON, to implement a solution using Azure.

The solution created a research platform that can store and process large amounts of data with lower complexity than their prior system. The reduced complexity allows their small technology team to manage the system more easily. It also provides researchers with the tools they need to analyze and visualize the data. As a result, CSU has seen improved research capabilities, enhanced collaboration, and increased efficiency. They also have a system that is future-ready and able to scale as its needs change in the coming years. Read the customer story.

Connection helps Texas City Independent School District with enhancing classroom collaboration
Texas City Independent School District (TCISD) is a K-12 school district that serves over 8,000 students. The district wanted to enhance classroom collaboration and improve communication between teachers, students, and parents. To achieve this, TCISD turned to Microsoft’s partner, Connection, to implement a solution using Microsoft 365.

The solution provides teachers, students, and parents with a collaborative platform for learning. It also provides teachers with tools to create and share lessons, assignments, and assessments. As a result, TCISD has seen improved student engagement, enhanced collaboration, and streamlined administrative tasks. Read the customer story.

Delivering solutions together

The education industry is currently undergoing a metamorphosis, and Microsoft’s partners are at the forefront of fueling innovative solutions that address its unique challenges of connection, scale, proximity, special needs, and socio-economic offerings. Together, Microsoft and our partners are focused in concert with our clients to provide a future-ready infrastructure, improve student achievement, streamline routine tasks, and support the entire education ecosystem. With their expertise and Microsoft’s technology, and the creativity and ambitions of our clients, together we’re creating a better future for students and educators alike.

Next steps

Interested in learning more about our partners and customers in the education space? We’re excited to be showcasing our technology solutions alongside many of our partners at the upcoming premier higher ed event, the EDUCAUSE Annual Conference, October 9-12, 2023, in Chicago. It’s an exciting time within the education space and we’re working with our partners to help customers accelerate learning, improve efficiencies, and simplify and secure their IT investments.

Find a Microsoft partner.

Learn how to become a Microsoft partner.

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Join the conversation

Want to explore this and other topics you care about with Microsoft and other US partners? Head over to the Microsoft US Partner Community on LinkedIn.

Recognizing our sustainable partners

To celebrate Earth Day 2022, I’m excited to shine focus on Microsoft partners making a positive impact through the initiative. I’m proud of the way they’re building for a more sustainable future and how their innovative solutions are delivering impact to the business community while making the world a better place. Here is a brief list of a few partners deserving extra recognition:

Earth Knowledge: The Earth Knowledge Foresight Platform is a solution that brings full clarity to the economic risk of climate change and biodiversity loss and your associated investment decisions. Unique climate and biodiversity indicators simplify how institutions assess risk and identify opportunities at the physical asset level for the companies in which they invest.

ICONICS: ICONICS solutions provide insight to ensure that all treatment and filtration happens as planned. Its key capabilities include native GIS mapping, mobile visualization, and real-time, distributed alarming. Customer benefits include energy and labor savings, leak detection, pollution reduction, government compliance, and sustainability improvement.

Uptake: By leveraging Uptake industrial AI software and solutions, companies can achieve transparency from sensor to boardroom. Uptake helps customers get more out of their digital investments to record, report, and reduce environmental impact while creating synergies across sustainability, ESG, energy innovation, and more.

Honeywell: Honeywell Forge Predictive Maintenance is a SaaS solution which continuously analyzes asset performance to identify issues before failures occur. It provides building owners and operators with guided real time performance insights and centralized expertise across their portfolio.

Discover more #BuildFor2030 partner solutions focused on sustainability. We’re proud to support Microsoft partners enabling solutions for a more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable world.

Sustainability goals: from here to 2030

Organizations across industries are embracing the importance of sustainability, which says to me the appetite for these solutions is there. According to a Forrester report, the number of firms committing to The Climate Pledge around Carbon, Waste and Water will triple this year. A short list of Microsoft’s commitments to combat the climate crisis are:

Carbon

• By 2030, be carbon negative.
• By 2025, shift to 100 percent supply of renewable energy.
• By 2030, 100 percent of Microsoft energy supply, 100 percent of the time, will come from carbon free resources (100/100/0).
• By 2030, reduce third-party emissions (which represent more than 97 percent of our total emissions) by more than half.
• By 2030, eliminate our dependency on diesel fuel in our datacenters.
• By 2030, electrify our global campus operations vehicle fleet.
• Deploy $1 billion of our own capital in a Climate Innovation Fund.
• By 2025, protect more land than we use.
• Build, deploy, and accelerate a Planetary Computer through our AI for Earth program.

Waste

• By 2025, achieve 90 percent reuse of servers and components.
• By 2025, eliminate single-use plastics in packaging.
• By 2030, achieve 100 percent recyclable Microsoft product packaging.
• By 2030, achieve 100 percent recyclable Surfacedevices and Xbox consoles and accessories.
• By 2030, divert at least 75 percent of construction and deconstruction waste for all projects from landfill and incineration.
• By 2030, divert at least 90 percent of solid waste from landfills and incinerators for our campuses and owned datacenters.

Water

• By 2030, become water positive in our direct operations, meaning we will replenish more water than we use.
• By 2030, ensure accessibility to clean drinking and sanitation water to more than 1.5 million people.

Check out our recently released Microsoft 2021 Environmental Sustainability Report for a deeper look at our commitments and progress.

Thinking big: our #BuildFor2030 focus

The #Buildfor2030 Initiative provides a roadmap to help partners apply skills and expertise to bring impact-focused solutions to market across areas aligned to five of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Their challenges are aligned around five #Buildfor2030 themes to create transformative solutions to global challenges. These are:

• Gender equality: Enable technology that creates equal participation, equitable economic access, and opportunities at all levels in work and life for women and girls.
• Climate action and sustainability: Build new solutions to help customers and industries across the globe transition to a net-zero carbon future.
• Digital inclusion and accessibility: Create accessible technology devices and applications with inclusive design for more than 1 billion people living with disabilities
• Enabling the nonprofit sector: Develop solutions to enable the nonprofit sector to achieve scalable and measurable mission impact.
• Empowering communities: Reimagine solutions that strengthen our institutions, build resilient infrastructure, and create equitable access to health, education and social services.

How can you get involved?

In a recent blog post, we focused on seven best practices for sustainability that we are using to set strategy and accountability, and measure progress drawn from the Sustainability Report.

1. Set ambitions based on the science
2. Scale strategy by using the “whole of the business”
3. Set the tone from the top
4. Make commitments relevant to business groups
5. Hold everyone accountable
6. Take steps to accelerate markets, ecosystems, and global progress
7. Report on everything, not just progress

For those who are trying to align with ecosystem goals, the climate action & sustainability goal an important way to align themselves with Microsoft to help the planet and empower a more sustainable ecosystem.

What do we mean? Learn more.

Get started

Building a sustainability solution

Together, we can accelerate solutions that are good for the planet and good for business. Discover how you can bring sustainability into your business.

Nominate Yourself

We know there’s room for growth from within Microsoft, as well as partners and consumes ready to make a difference. If you’re a partner going above and beyond, nominate your solution or service to be featured with added go-to-market benefits.

Other posts you may like

• Learn more about how we can save the planet while empowering others
• Read the full 2021 Environmental Sustainability Report
• Learn more about the Microsoft #Buildfor2030 Initiative
• Learn more about Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability

What is PSAP? 

The Microsoft Partner Sales Acceleration Program (PSAP) is an on-demand training program for partners looking to increase their knowledge across the Microsoft Cloud and build solid sales strategies. It’s a collection of sales tools and video guidance created to help you stand out in a crowded market and “get to yes” with potential SMB customers. 

  These learning journeys include a comprehensive library of meeting-facilitation videos, project discovery and objection-handling role-plays, and presentation and whiteboard templates for you to customize—all designed to equip you with a robust SMB sales engagement framework and a set of preconfigured sales assets that you can use immediately. 

 The on-demand virtual coursework includes: 

• Sales guidance on how to ask the right questions and respond to objections. 
• How-to videos exploring ways to navigate real-world pitch scenarios. 
• Role-play videos to model recommended approaches for sales conversations. 

Upon completion of your PSAP training, you can take an assessment to validate what you’ve learned. 

 Choose the sales program that best meets your customer’s needs 

Designed to address common customer needs, PSAP currently offers programs in the following four Microsoft Cloud solution areas: 

 Start building your sales knowledge—and confidence—today 

PSAP presents a great opportunity to grow your understanding of the Microsoft Cloud and learn how to navigate the six “moments that matter” conversations with your SMB customers. It will help you differentiate your sales approach and “get to yes”. Get started today.  

 Sign up for the Microsoft Partner Sales Bootcamp Series

The Microsoft Partner Sales Bootcamp series is taking place throughout April and May. Each three-hour, virtual session is designed to deliver foundational knowledge for selling the four Microsoft Cloud solution areas. Learn more and register today.  

Here is a diverse cross-section of stories and resources from across the Microsoft ecosystem that celebrate Black history and serve to guide our action as we continue to learn, grow, and work toward a future where respect and the opportunity to flourish and prosper is accessible to all.

1. BLOG: Celebrating partners who are writing their own history within the Black Partner Growth Initiative | Microsoft Partner Network

Rodney Clark, Corporate Vice President of Channel Sales and Channel Chief, reflects on the trailblazers of the past and present, and features the stories of partners who embody the early success of the Black Partner Growth Initiative and are co-investing their time, energy, and talent to shape the initiative and contribute to the generational wealth-building opportunities that will continue to lift their communities.

Read Rodney’s blog post.

2. VIDEO: Black History Month 2022 | Microsoft Black Partner Growth Initiative

Black History Month offers us an opportunity to reflect and honor the trailblazers who have come before us, while inspiring the next history makers. Our partners are representative of the latter group, and their unique lived experiences and successes inspire and shape the Microsoft Black Partner Growth Initiative.

Hear three partners tell their stories.

3. ART: Celebrating Black History Month with the Microsoft Art Collection

To commemorate Black History Month, the Microsoft Art Collection is sharing some of the incredible art pieces in our collection by Black and African American artists.

Discover Black & African American artists.

4. INTERACTIVE: The Legacy Project: Virtual travel & museum tours

The Legacy Museum is a virtual experience from Microsoft Store featuring more than 200 Black and African American changemakers, including Stacey Abrams, John Legend, Dwyane Wade, John Lewis, and Trevor Noah. Experience a full digital re-creation and tour of early 20th Century Black Wall Street before and after the 1920 Tulsa Massacre, explore various histories of communities from Africa to Canada, and discover the worlds of the Tuskegee Airmen, Rosa Parks, Nelson Mandela, and other historic Black icons.

Visit the Legacy Museum exhibit and explore interactive experiences for the whole family.

5. CHANGEMAKING: Action and inaction matter | Microsoft In Culture

Reflect on the historical strides of Black and African American communities through videos, candid interviews with Microsoft employees, and a wide variety of resources from book clubs to movie, TV, and Xbox game recommendations selected by Black communities at Microsoft.

Explore how action and inaction matter.

We are grateful for the voices and efforts of members of Microsoft employee and partner ecosystem who continue to deepen our recognition of the rich contributions of Black individuals and communities to life, culture, and business.

Learn more about Microsoft’s commitment to address racial equity and how you can make an impact.

Other posts you may like

Closing the Opportunity Gap and Advancing Racial Justice in the Tech Industry

Early success of Black Partner Growth Initiative partners paves the way for new accelerator & special programs

Celebrating the strength of our ecosystem: Reflections on 2021

Accelerator program launching to support Black partners

Keep reading to find out more—and register for the live events or on-demand access today!

Security Cloud Week

When: February 7-11, 2022

Today’s SMBs are under constant threat of increasingly sophisticated cyber-attacks. Technology professionals need to stay up to date on cloud security solutions to keep data and system assets protected. Learn how Microsoft training can fortify your security knowledge for real-world scenarios.

Security Cloud Week for Partners is a digital experience designed to train and certify partners on Microsoft’s Security, Compliance, and Identity solutions so they’re better prepared to defend against cyber-attacks. This modular five-day virtual training experience will help you build your security skills through a choice of instructor-led courses, on-demand labs, live Q&A, and offline Q&A during the hours that best fit into your schedule.

Learn more about Security Cloud Week and register here.

Business Applications Cloud Week

When: February 28 – March 4, 2022

Business Applications Cloud Week is a virtual skilling event designed to help partners discover the power of Dynamics 365 and Power Platform. Gain a deeper knowledge of technical and sales capabilities so you can deliver exceptional solutions and services to your customers.

Business Applications Cloud Week will feature:

• Keynote addresses from Microsoft executives.
• Structured instructor-led training.
• Challenge-based, hands-on session.
• In-depth exam prep for Microsoft certifications.

Who should attend?

While Business Applications Cloud Week is open to all partners, the event is best suited for:

• Partners who are seeking fundamentals training in Dynamics 365 and Power Platform.
• Business analysts, functional and technical consultants, and IT personnel who are pursuing Dynamics 365 and Power Platform certifications.
• Individuals pursuing a solution architect role.
• Individuals in a pre-sales or sales function who want to learn about shaping a business-first sales model focused on business apps and core sales plays.

Learn more about Business Applications Cloud Week and register here.

Can’t attend Cloud Weeks in real time?

Two live training sessions will be offered each day of the event, starting at different times depending on your location. If you can’t attend the live sessions, not to worry! All sessions will be recorded and available on demand for up to 30 days post-event.

—Martin Luther King Jr. (1963)

Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy inspires us to be kind to ALL humans, to ensure equality for ALL people, and his dedication to the nonviolent pursuit of racial equality moves me to action.

His life’s work led to the Civil Rights Act which banned discrimination in employment, public accommodations and other aspects of life, and the Voting Rights Act to stop discriminatory voting practices such as literacy tests.

His posthumously published book, A Testament of Hope, urges Black Americans to continue their commitment to nonviolence, but each and every person bears a personal responsibility in this effort to make MLK’s dream a reality. As an ally, I can work to dismantle systematic racism that has been ingrained into our society. It takes all of us working together to bring hope and love to every corner of our nation.

While progress has been made thanks to MLK and many civil rights leaders, there is much work left to do. MLK’s nonviolent protests and commitment to equality paved the way to the current Black Lives Matter movement which has elevated discussions around the racism that is still experienced today. Institutional racism is a legacy of past and current public policy, institutional practices, cultural representations, and other norms, that continues to perpetuate inequity and opportunity gaps.

Microsoft’s ongoing commitment to racial justice and closing the opportunity gap

In an effort to help correct these gaps, Microsoft collaborated with the Black partner community to launch the Black Partner Growth Initiative (BPGI) and other initiatives to provide access to resources, skilling, and opportunities needed to overcome barriers to growth and accelerate success in a long-unlevel playing field.

Microsoft has taken our role in addressing economic inclusion with a commitment to increase Black partner representation in our ecosystem by 20% within three years. We’ve scaled up existing programs and launched new initiatives in a multi-year, multi-faceted approach to building a more inclusive workforce.

During the recent Voices for Innovation webinar, I had the opportunity to speak with partners about the important work we’re doing around this at Microsoft.

During that webinar, I highlighted a few of the core programs we’re expanding and adding in an effort to increase representation and strengthen our culture of inclusion within our partner community, including

• Microsoft Accelerate
• Career Connector
• Clear Vision Impact Fund
• Black Partner Growth Initiative

Microsoft Accelerate

We recognize that nurturing a more diverse workforce means investing in people early on. In 2020, Microsoft launched a global skills initiative with the aim of training 25 million people worldwide with skills needed for in-demand tech roles.

US-based implementations of the global initiative include Microsoft Accelerate and Microsoft’s community skills program. Microsoft Accelerate partners with local community leaders and businesses to provide no-cost tech skilling to underserved communities.

The Accelerate program is near and dear to my heart as I was in the room when this concept was born. We were in Atlanta, GA, where MLK grew up and went to college, meeting with the mayor’s staff, the chief of police, members of the city council, Chamber of Commerce, and other community leaders, discussing the unemployment problem in Atlanta and the surrounding areas.

Two primary challenges stood out: 1) significant unemployment rates impacting the citizens of Atlanta, and 2) numerous local companies that could not find qualified workers to fill their open positions.

Our former Microsoft US President, Kate Johnson, said, “What if we could help with both of those problems?” The idea was born to work with major cities for digital skilling for citizens and then also work with the Chamber of Commerce to host job fairs with local businesses that needed qualified workers once they had the skills needed.

Microsoft Accelerate centers on amplifying free training and resources within communities. The start-to-finish program provides subsidized upskilling and resources for small business owners to build digital skills, for students to be prepared for their first job, for those looking to change careers, and for educators to integrate technology into their classrooms.

Atlanta was home to our first pilot program. Since then, five additional cities have been added, with more to come!

Career Connector

As was the case in Atlanta, demand for digitally skilled workers is at an all-time high, with companies across the US struggling to identify enough capable applicants. At the same time, businesses are looking to build more diverse and inclusive workforces that better reflect the communities and customers they serve.

To bring the impact of skilling programs like Microsoft Accelerate to fruition, there is a need to connect historically overlooked talent of nontraditional backgrounds with the employers that need their skills. Career Connector, launched in 2021, does just this by creating a channel between job seekers historically underrepresented in the industry to tech and tech-enabled jobs across Microsoft’s network of customers and partners.

We aim to match 50,000 skilled workers with growing companies within three years.

Clear Vision Impact Fund

The Clear Vision Impact Fund, launched in August 2020, seeks to counter chronic underinvestment in minority-owned businesses through improved access to capital, and thereby enhance the positive impact that these companies have on the communities in which they operate.

Formed by Siebert Williams Shank & Co. with an initial $257 seed investment from Microsoft, the fund invests growth and operating capital in small and medium-sized businesses, with an emphasis on minority-owned businesses.

As of March 2021, the fund has grown to over $100M, well on the way toward the target size of $250M.

Black Partner Growth Initiative

The US-based Black Partner Growth Initiative (BPGI) is setting the framework for delivering programmatic elements that can be replicated globally for minority communities.

Created in close partnership with Black channel partners, the BPGI provides personalized guidance and support to help Black partners engage successfully with the Partner Network, and accelerate growth through greater community connections, stronger partnerships across Microsoft’s expansive ecosystem and platforms, and access to capital.

We’ve been blown away by the positive response of Black partners and their active engagement in helping to evolve and improve the program to better meet the needs of this community. This engagement has helped shape the brand-new #MicrosoftAdvance accelerator which kicked off with its first high-potential cohort in January 2022.

#MicrosoftAdvance accelerator participants unlock business resources designed to aid success, including 1:1 consultation with a dedicated advisor and tools to help jumpstart marketing.

While we view the first year of this initiative as a measured success, we are also intensely aware that our work in this area will continue to mature and evolve as we deepen collaboration with our partners, become sharper students of their lived experience, and learn from our partners and continue to better understand what a truly inclusive economy looks like.

Advancing racial justice and inclusion in your sphere of influence

Diversity helps us think about our processes, programs, and products in a different light. By working on these initiatives as well as our internal diversity and inclusion efforts, we not only produce better products and solutions for all, but also, we give our children a diverse group of people to look to for inspiration.

These programs and more offer unique opportunities to join other partners across the ecosystem who are partnering with organizations in their own community to equip students, displaced workers, and underserved populations with digital skills and more equitable opportunities to find their place in the thriving tech industry. Consider how you can leverage your own business and social connections to build a more diverse talent pool for high-demand sectors and establish Microsoft technology hubs in your area.

“Diversity is being invited to the party; inclusion is being asked to dance.” – Verna Myers