Producing the goods that drive economic growth and development, the manufacturing industry is a crucial sector of the global economy. Technology has had a profound impact on this sector, and it continues to drive changes and improvements in the way products are made.

Increased global competition, rising labor costs, the skills gap, technological disruption, and vulnerability to cyber criminals are some of the challenges in front of manufacturers today. In addition, they face increased pressure to reduce their environmental impact and improve sustainability.

The power of Azure

Microsoft and our partners are helping address these opportunities and challenges with the power of Microsoft Azure. The advanced analytics and data management tools in Azure help companies collect and analyze data from multiple sources, including production lines and supply chains. With these capabilities, companies can track performance, spot bottlenecks and inefficiencies, and build strategies to improve performance across the manufacturing process.

As innovation has accelerated, many manual tasks are now automated, and manufacturing systems can operate continuously with a high degree of precision. This has led to increased efficiency and productivity while freeing up employees to focus on more strategic and complex business challenges.

The following are just a few examples of how Microsoft partners are helping our mutual customers address common business challenges.

Partner success stories

Split Software helps J.J. Keller & Associates increase speed to market

More than half a million customers rely on J. J. Keller & Associates for regulatory, safety, and compliance solutions. They help create safe working environments and simplify the complexities of regulatory compliance. J.J. Keller needed help to enable its development team to provide continuous integration and delivery of features that are most impactful for their customers. They enlisted Microsoft partner Split Software and its Feature Data Platform. Split Software’s integration with Microsoft Azure DevOps services brought increased visibility across teams, agile deployment and development, and granular control of the release process. J. J. Keller’s development team now releases updates biweekly instead of quarterly, and in minutes instead of hours.

Read the customer story.

Core BTS implements a new data foundation for Ernie Green Industries

Ernie Green Industries (Ernie Green) is a Tier 1 automotive supplier with a 40-year history of collaboration with prominent auto manufacturers. They had security concerns that were aggravated by aging technical infrastructure, production facilities with siloed, on-premises systems, and equipment that was nearing the end of its usability. To solve this, Ernie Green selected Core BTS, a digital consultancy and national Microsoft partner, to launch their digital transformation on Azure. Core BTS helped Ernie Green migrate their datacenter infrastructure across nine locations to a single cloud solution, using Azure services. In just 12 months, Ernie Green transformed their operations. The result is a more secure environment with better overall performance and infrastructure that’s ready for the data-driven future.

Read the customer story.

Reimagine your business with these and other Microsoft partners. Learn how:

• Accenture helps Dow break down data silos and accelerate digital manufacturing with Microsoft solutions.
• Velosio streamlines product service and increases revenue for Sumitomo Heavy Industries (SHI) Cryogenics Group.
• KPMG helps CST industries to better meet their business objectives by optimizing Microsoft Dynamics 365.

Delivering solutions together

Microsoft solution technology and our trusted partner ecosystem enable manufacturers to address the trending challenges facing their industry. Automation, advanced analytics, and data management tools leveraging AI and machine learning can help companies increase efficiency, improve the quality of their products, and reduce their environmental impact. Microsoft partners specialize in bringing cutting-edge technologies to our manufacturing customers.

Find a Microsoft partner.

Learn how to become a Microsoft partner.

Related posts

Microsoft partners aid the healthcare industry with innovative solutions | Microsoft

Microsoft partners innovate to help meet the evolving needs of students and educators | Microsoft

Microsoft partners provide innovative solutions to challenges facing today’s professional services industry | Microsoft

Microsoft partners driving change in the financial services industry | Microsoft

Get to know Nina Harding, the new Microsoft GPSUS CVP | Microsoft

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.

The areas below will help you facilitate customer engagement and grow market share, enabling partners at all levels in their lifecycle to build intelligent solutions, accelerate time to market, reach new customers, and be discovered in the Microsoft commercial marketplace by millions of customers.

We hope that this will be a useful guide in helping you identify which priorities integrate well with your partner competencies and what steps you can take to grow into these key opportunity areas.

Priorities for the next half year

These select priorities have been defined for Microsoft and partners to focus on in the second half of our fiscal year (January-June 2022).

1.      Make Hybrid Workplace a reality for customers with Microsoft 365 E5

We see a massive opportunity as customers continue to embrace Hybrid Workplace and look for productivity solutions that facilitate rich team collaboration and foster employee engagement, while strengthening your cybersecurity posture. Microsoft 365 E5 continues to be a top priority for Microsoft field teams in our fiscal H2 (January-June 2022).

Microsoft partners make the possibilities of the Hybrid Workplace a reality for our customers – through workshops and pilots, and accelerating deployment and adoption of these advanced workloads.

The following workshops can help establish the value for Microsoft 365 E5 workloads:

• Modernize Communications
• Microsoft Viva
• Microsoft Viva Insights
• Threat Protection
• Discover Sensitive Data
• Manage & Investigate Risk
• Hybrid Cloud Security

Please nominate customers for workshops in MCI Engagements via aka.ms/MCI/Claim.

2.     Employ the power of Surface for employee retention

Our customers are among the many organizations struggling to overcome what’s been coined ‘the Great Resignation’ where as many as 40% of employees are considering leaving their job this year¹. One of the primary pain points – reported by 70% of workers – is the need for improved devices to support a successful hybrid work experience².

Microsoft Surface is one way we are helping customers achieve a competitive advantage in holding onto top talent. In fact, when Microsoft asked their customers about the benefit of M365-powered Surface devices, 86% agreed that they help drive employee satisfaction and retention³. Devices partners can take Microsoft services to market on their devices, offering incremental value to their customers.

To ensure that more customers recognize this opportunity, we’ve launched Modern Work Assembled, an integrated Microsoft 365, Surface, and Services Partner program aimed at streamlining cross-solution selling. New integrated training and BOMs are available to help partners kick off customer-centered conversations, and there are a number of channel and customer incentives and promotions available for you to leverage. Speak to your PDM for more information.

Get started:

• Learn how to include Surface in your Hybrid Workplace conversations.
• Explore Q3 Surface offers you can leverage through March 2022
• Invite your customers to our February Webinar: Reimagine workplace dynamics and adapt your business to the new world of work
• Learn more about the Windows 11 optimized Surface Premium devices: Surface Pro 8, Surface Laptop Studio and Surface Laptop 4

¹Work Index Study

²PC Devices Forrester Research Paper

³M365+Surface TEI Study

3.     Boost Business Applications billed revenue and Dynamics 365 customer adds

The US Business Applications market has grown beyond $78 billion⁴ this year. There is significant growth potential for Microsoft solutions and partners. Leading customers to their first Dynamics 365 workload is key to accelerating our market share and hitting our growth objectives in FY22 and beyond. Microsoft Internal Research shows that winning that first workload with a customer, and deepening relationships with business leaders (BDMs), is key to strengthening our impact across the customer’s organization and expanding reach into other next-best workloads.

In H2, we continue to focus on leading customer conversations with industry stories and business impacts that speak to the circumstances of the customer. In this way, we demonstrate empathy for our customers’ challenges, can better anticipate their questions, and build trust among BDMs.

Our FY22 Business Applications Partner Offers Presales Program enables partners to utilize Business Value Assessments to accelerate the sales process and funds pre-sales engagements at a customer level.

Partners are encouraged to understand our Sales Plays, Industry Marketing Priorities, and leverage our presales offers to grow their business.

• Learn more about the Microsoft Business Applications business opportunity and ways to grow your practice.
• Leverage the Partner Plays-in-a-Box bringing together capacity and enablement, go-to-market, and co-selling resources for Business Applications.
• Explore partner GTM resources and case studies: Dynamics 365 Partner Portal (microsoft.com)
• Request funding for pre-sales engagement: FY22 Business Applications Partner Offers – Presales
• If you need help closing a large deal, fill out the Partner Lead Sales Resource Engagement Form to ensure that you have the right resources to close the deal.

⁴ Microsoft Internal Research

4.     Drive co-sell readiness through Commercial Marketplace

Through Microsoft’s global co-sell programs and our cloud-based Commercial Marketplace, we are working toward enabling our partners and customers for digital transformation.

One meaningful benchmark of progress is enabling our partners to take advantage of transformational business opportunities like marketplace and Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC). Becoming co-sell ready is the first step to getting there. By publishing transactable offers on the marketplace, partners gain access to Microsoft’s global customer base to build awareness of their solutions and drive frictionless B2B sales at a global scale. B2B sales at a global scale.

Microsoft’s industry-leading commercial marketplace gives partners unmatched access to customers and opportunity to drive sales more effectively and efficiently. Simply creating a listing in marketplace gives you access to over 4 million active visitors per month across 140 geographies. Through relationships with Microsoft field sellers and partner-to-partner co-sell, you can scale your sales force through the Commercial Marketplace while earning Marketplace Rewards.

Microsoft is committed to ensuring our partners know how to leverage commercial marketplace and how to benefit from associated FY22 Marketplace Incentives, such as the Teams Build With incentive. Publishing on commercial marketplace is easy – set up your account, prepare your offer, create your offer, publish, and go to market. Get started now with step-by-step guidance for publishing to commercial marketplace.

Takeaway

Staying aligned with Microsoft priorities ensures you are prepared to move into key industry growth opportunities and take advantage of programs, resources, and incentives Microsoft offers to drive mutual growth.

Stay connected

Keep a pulse on these priorities throughout the quarter – join Microsoft and other US partners in the US Partner Zone within the Microsoft Partner Community!