1. Road to Gold Cloud Competencies
October 2016

2. Your opportunity in the cloud
“The greater cloud market is forecasted by IDC to be $500B by 2020”
-IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Cloud 2016 Predictions — Mastering the Raw Material of Digital Transformation, doc #259840, November 2015
“Cloud partners are more profitable, grow faster, and have
more recurring revenue”
- IDC eBook, sponsored by Microsoft, The Modern Microsoft Partner Series, Part 1: The Booming Cloud Opportunity, 2016
1.5x gross profit
1.8x recurring revenue
2x growth

3. World-class security paves the way to the cloud
“After getting past considerable concerns about privacy and security, companies are increasingly placing their faith -- and their information and services -- in the cloud.”
— Computerworld: Enterprise IT pros see most workloads in cloud by 2018, September 6, 2016
Customers care about security, and that’s what you bring to the table. Microsoft Gold Cloud Competency partners are positioned to give customers confidence, ensuring them that they can enjoy all the benefits of the cloud and still sleep at night, knowing their data is being protected.
Here’s one example. Secure Productive Enterprise E5 includes Windows 10 Enterprise E5 Advanced Threat Protection, providing gold cloud partners additional opportunities to help customers detect, investigate, and respond to advanced threats on their networks.
Continuous threat monitoring with zero-day protection
Predictive protection based on advanced behavioral analytics
Customer lockbox
Post-breach protection to help detect threats that have made it past other defenses

4. Microsoft Gold Cloud Competencies unlock your opportunity.
Be recognized as an elite partner.
Customers value the Gold Competency brand
73% of customers associate trustworthiness with the Gold Competency badge and 77% associate it with high quality*
Gold Cloud competencies empower partners to succeed.
Make more customer connections
Prioritization for some program benefits
Enjoy richer benefits for less
Customers will only trust cloud solutions that deliver the best.
The best technology
The best security
Delivered by the best partners
*Value of Partner Messaging Summary Report - MDC Nov 2015

5. Boost your bottom line.
On average, gold competency partners focused on the cloud enjoy 5% higher margins than non-gold partners
Similarly, gold competency partners enjoy 19% higher margins than experienced with other vendors such as AWS, Google, and Salesforce
90% of Microsoft gold competency partners are satisfied with the profitability offered by building Microsoft cloud solutions
Source: Channel Partner Profitability Study- AMI June 2016

6. Stand apart from the crowd.
Customer demand for Microsoft cloud solutions is greater than ever, and it’s still accelerating.
A Microsoft cloud competency gives you tools, resources, and support to help you connect with customers and grow your business:
Increase productivity and gain a competitive edge with access to software and cloud services for your own use, including dev/test, through internal use rights licenses
A competency badge to market your expertise and reinforce your positioning to customers
Unlimited Cloud Support plus increased access to training and technical support
Digital marketing and sales tools including web syndication content; campaigns that include customizable content such as templates, web banners, to customer presentations, proposals, and more
Product and business training to build your team’s skills and build your competitive advantage
Go for gold and add:
Customer connection
Priority placement in our referral engine
Promotion to customers on Microsoft cloud campaign pages
Leads distributed exclusively to gold partners
Support
MPN Concierge Service to help you navigate the Microsoft Partner Network, with ongoing, proactive outreach
Priority for local account management
More Partner Advisory hours and more product support incidents
Software tools and resources
Up to 100 Internal Use Rights (IURs) per product
More product flexibility with N-1 on selected products for dev/test

7. Demonstrate expertise in one area—or many.
A single gold cloud competency marks your business as an expert provider and gives you a competitive advantage that drives new business and bigger profits. But, you don’t have to stop there! Earning two, three or four of the available Gold Cloud Competencies will put you in an elite class of partners who are prepared to tackle a broad range of cloud challenges.
Small and Midmarket Cloud Solutions competency: Be known for selling and deploying Microsoft Office 365 cloud and hybrid solutions to small and mid-sized businesses.
Cloud Productivity competency: Be known for selling and deploying Microsoft Office cloud and hybrid solutions.
Cloud Platform competency: Capitalize on the growing demand for infrastructure and software as a service (SaaS) solutions built on Microsoft Azure.
Enterprise Mobility + Security Suite
Enterprise Mobility Management competency: Standout as the expert in powerful, secure mobility management solutions for large businesses.
Dynamics 365
CRM Online competency: Be known as a premier provider of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, marketing, social, and Parature.

8. Gold cloud competency benefits help throughout the customer lifecycle
Build expertise
Access more internal use rights to gain experience and master Microsoft technologies
Get trained webcasts and in person events increase business & technical skills and staff understanding of customer solutions
Recruit
Get increased access to leads.
Customers value the Microsoft brand, so use it to your advantage. A Gold competency badge (with Microsoft logo) identifies you as a trusted partner with proven expertise and close connection with Microsoft to potential customers and business partners.
Marketing assets save money and time and enhance digital marketing efforts. Capitalize on Microsoft brand recognition, professional marketing capabilities, and ad spend.
Pre-sales
Get technical consultation and customized guidance with technical pre-sales assistance for help speeding up the sales cycle and checking to make sure you’re offering the best solution in any customer environment. Expanded rights to custom demos and instant access to demo environments, means that holding demos has never been easier.
Close
Win more deals with sales tools, including competitive analysis, pricing models, to customer proposals, etc.
Design & Deployment
Advisory services help you develop better solutions, become more profitable, showcase your expertise, and be the “hero” for your customer.
Support
Signature Cloud Support provides unlimited access to technical support engineers with a deep knowledge of Microsoft products who are ready to team with you as needed for consultation on your solution.
Be careful re: lead prioritization…
Elaborate on value of competency badge – what it represents. What it means in regards to capabilities, endorsement, trust, MS backing etc.
Consider elaborating on “Marketing assets” – for many it’s more than just saving money and time, it’s capitalizing on Microsofts brand recognition, marketing capabilities and ad-spend
I’ve found pre-sales to be more compelling when talking about speeding up the sales cycle and overcoming (the partners) uncertainty as to what the best solution is in any given customer environment. Remember – these guys are proud, but largely insecure, they can’t afford to look indecisive or make a wrong recommendation.
Expand on the value of demos
Design & deployment – these benefits allow partners to be more profitable, showcase expertise, be the “hero” for their customer
Support is a safety net. Appeal to the partners ego,

9. Top certification increases customer confidence.
CFO: “What happens if you train our employees and they leave?”
CEO: “What happens if we don’t train them and they stay?”
When it comes to security, customers only want to work with the best:
Gold cloud certification demonstrates that partners have made extra investments to ensure their employees have top-level skills
Lack of certification indicates that employees might not be ready to support the latest solutions that deliver top-level of security
Certification empowers partner organizations:
Investment in professional development is a great talent acquisition / retention tool
Skilled employees are more ready to solve customer challenges, which can lead to additional business opportunities, cross-sale into complex scenarios, and ultimately, greater revenue
*Channel Partner Profitability Study- AMI June 2016

10. What does it take to become a gold cloud partner?
Meet performance requirements
Based on number of customers, number of deployments or usage (varies by competency)
Pass exams of certifications
Training content for the exams and certifications can be found on the Partner University learning paths
Provide customer evidence
Submit customer references from the previous 12 months
Annual competency fees (vary by location)
Partners who attain a gold competency after they have already attained a silver competency can upgrade that year to gold for no additional cost
Only pay for your first gold competency – a single gold competency fee covers all gold competencies earned

11. Sell big in the cloud to meet performance goals
Focus on active use. To be successful, drive customer lifetime value – work with customers to make sure they deploy and use their cloud services
Leverage sales offers to move on-premises customers to the cloud
Be creative with your hiring - start an incubation team to bring in new ideas and new customers
Use digital marketing to build scale and add more customers
Qualify partners digitally
Move beyond flyers & cold calls
Check out handy Microsoft marketing materials in Smart Partner Marketing
See recommendations on ways to structure your organization for success with Cloud Partner Profitability
Move your business forward as a managed service provider, or create and market an app to profit from your own IP

12. Cloud consumption and active use matter.
The cloud has changed everything.
Cloud solutions provide customers a wider range of solutions, more and better apps, stronger security, lower risk, easier updates to new features, and more.
As adoption and usage become ever more central to success in the cloud, we’ve shifted our focus from seats sold and revenue to active use and consumption.
Driving cloud consumption sets you up to achieve more with the cloud.
Shifting to a focus on consumption is critical to your success in a mobile-first, cloud-first world. The more customers use our cloud solutions, the more likely it is that they’ll expand that use, which not only increases recurring revenue but helps build competitive barriers. Increased use includes using more services and workloads, as well as using more of a particular service.
Increased use means customers are more familiar with a solution, which typically translates into:
Higher satisfaction  Increased loyalty  More sales Higher partner profitability

13. What’s your next step? Evaluate your business:
1.) Get optimized to meet performance goals
Get credit for your work as Digital Partner of Record or through Partner Association
2.) Prove your skills through exams
Take advantage of key trainings for yourself and your team
3.) Consider ways to transform to maximize profit potential – look at:
What you sell
How you sell
Who you sell to
Who you partner with

14. Appendix Gold Cloud competencies based on partner’s interest areas:
Cloud Solution Provider program
Gold Small and Midmarket Cloud Solutions competency
Gold Cloud Productivity competency
Gold Cloud Platform competency
Gold Enterprise Mobility Management competency
Gold Cloud CRM competency

15. Own the entire customer relationship as a Cloud Solution Provider
Build a profitable business in the cloud, meeting the needs of our mutual customers.
Visit aka.ms/CSP to find out more.

16. Gold Small and Midmarket Cloud Solutions competency
Gold Small and Midmarket Cloud Solutions competency partners are top of class in selling and deploying Microsoft Office 365 cloud and hybrid solutions to small and mid-sized businesses.
Road to Gold
Key workloads and scenarios
Many partners focus on driving a single workload at high volume, such as Exchange Online.
Top Project Services provided by partners:
Exchange migration
Solution analysis, scope, and design
Training
Simple file server migration
Top managed services for SMB customers
Domain management
New accounts added and removed
Desktop and device management and support
TOP SOFTWARE BENEFITS (FOR INTERNAL USE)
100 O365 E3 seats + 25 incremental O365 E3 seats
Microsoft demo site
License grants: CRM Online (60), EMS (100), SQL Server (16), W10 (100)
10 Visual Studio Enterprise with MSDN subscriptions plus Xamarin
US$100/month Microsoft Azure + additional $150/mo through MSDN
Achieving competency requirements
Help to get to gold
Meet the performance requirement:
25 new Office 365 customers within previous 12 months*
Two people must pass this exam:
Exam : Enabling Office 365 Services
Find related training on Partner University.
Submit 5 customer references
Complete an organizational profile
Pay competency fee (one fee covers all)
*To qualify, partners must be associated as the Office 365 Delegated Administrator, Transacting Partner, or Digital Partner of Record. See more.
SkyKick Migration Offer to help partners move to Office 365 fast, easy, and free. Offer good worldwide except China. See more.
BitTitan for Office 365 Migration makes customer migration and onboarding to Office 365 fast and easy. Available worldwide. See more.
TOP TRAINING AND SUPPORT BENEFITS
50 Advisory hours for support and services
20 Product support incidents
Unlimited technical pre-sales assistance (deals > US$3K)
Unlimited Signature Cloud Support + 10 incidents
Direct partner support by a regional or tele partner account manager
Access to Partner University for training
TOP BUSINESS BENEFITS:
Gold competency badge with Microsoft logo
Prioritization for leads in partner referrals and in Microsoft marketplaces
Eligibility for licensing, solution, and cloud incentives
Eligible for Microsoft Online Services Advisor Accelerator for Office 365
Professional sales and marketing assets and digital marketing
Information as of October For the most current information, visit the Small and Midmarket Cloud Solutions competency page.

17. Gold Cloud Productivity competency
Gold Cloud Productivity competency partners are top of class in selling and deploying Microsoft Office 365 cloud and hybrid solutions to enterprise customers.
Road to Gold
Key workloads and scenarios
In addition to helping customers migrate to and deploy Exchange Online, many partners specialize in other enterprise workloads such as SharePoint Online, Skype Online, or Yammer.
TOP SOFTWARE BENEFITS (FOR INTERNAL USE)
100 O365 E3 seats incremental O365 E5 seats
Microsoft demo site
Host or create meetings using Skype for Business PSTN conferencing (100 seats) (available September 2016)
License grants: CRM Online (60), EMS (100), SQL Server (16), W10 (100)
Visual Studio Enterprise with MSDN subscriptions plus Xamarin (10 core incremental with competency)
US$100/month Microsoft Azure + additional $150/mo through MSDN
Top Project Services provided by partners:
Exchange migration
Solution analysis, scope, and design
Training
Simple file server migration
Top managed services for Enterprise customers
Single sign-on management
Hybrid environment support
Microsoft technical support
Achieving competency requirements
Help to get to gold
There are different ways partners can choose to earn this competency, based upon what best suits their business model.
Typically, partners must meet performance, exams and assessments, provide customer evidence and organizational information, and pay a one-time competency fee.
Requirements vary - see all options and specific details on the competency requirements tab of the Cloud Productivity competency page.
SkyKick Migration Offer to help partners move to Office 365 fast, easy, and free. Offer good worldwide except China. See more.
BitTitan for Office 365 Migration makes customer migration and onboarding to Office 365 fast and easy. Available worldwide. See more.
TOP TRAINING AND SUPPORT BENEFITS
50 Advisory hours for support and services
20 Product support incidents
Unlimited technical pre-sales assistance (deals > US$3K)
Unlimited Signature Cloud Support + 10 incidents
Direct partner support by a regional or tele partner account manager
Access to Partner University for training
TOP BUSINESS BENEFITS:
Gold competency badge with Microsoft logo
Prioritization for leads in partner referrals and in Microsoft marketplaces
Eligibility for licensing, solution, and cloud incentives
Eligible for Microsoft Online Services Usage Incentive
Professional sales and marketing assets and digital marketing
Information as of October For the most current information, visit the Cloud Productivity competency page.

18. Gold Cloud Platform competency
The Cloud Platform competency is designed to help partners capitalize on the growing demand for infrastructure and software as a service (SaaS) solutions built on Microsoft Azure cloud services.
Road to Gold
Key workloads and scenarios
As a growing collection of cloud services, new services are regularly added to Azure. Popular solution areas range from data storage, backup, and recovery; dev/test; digital marketing; mobile; BI; e-commerce and more. Sample applications: create a Windows Server VM for small production deployment, go hybrid by backing up on-premises data in the cloud, or create a SQL database.
Plus, any developer or IT professional can be productive with Azure. The integrated tools, pre-built templates and managed services make it easier to build and manage enterprise, mobile, Web and Internet of Things (IoT) apps.
Cloud Platform competency partners can sign in to access the Microsoft Server and Cloud Partner Resources site to gain access to information to help win against the competition.
TOP SOFTWARE BENEFITS (FOR INTERNAL USE)
US$12,000 Azure credit per enrollment year + US$100/mo (core benefit) + additional $150/mo through MSDN
License grants: O365 E5 seats (100), CRM Online (60), EMS (100), SQL Server (16), W10 (100)
Visual Studio Enterprise with MSDN subscriptions plus Xamarin (10 core incremental with competency)
Eligible to deploy certain on-premises, internal-use software on Azure
Microsoft demo site
Achieving competency requirements
TOP TRAINING AND SUPPORT BENEFITS
50 Advisory hours for support and services
20 Product support incidents
Unlimited technical pre-sales assistance (deals > US$3K)
Unlimited Signature Cloud Support + 10 incidents
Direct partner support by a regional or tele partner account manager
Access to Partner University for training
There are different ways partners can choose to earn this competency, based upon what best suits their business model.
Typically, partners must meet performance, exams and assessments, provide customer evidence and organizational information, and pay a one-time competency fee.
Requirements vary - see all options and specific details on the competency requirements tab of the Cloud Platform competency page.
TOP BUSINESS BENEFITS:
Gold competency badge with Microsoft logo
Prioritization for leads in partner referrals and in Microsoft marketplaces
Eligibility for licensing, solution, and cloud incentives, including for Azure consumption
Professional sales and marketing assets and digital marketing
Information as of October For the most current information, visit the Cloud Platform competency page.

19. Enterprise Mobility Management competency
In an increasingly mobile world, companies want the freedom to conduct business from their preferred apps and devices and the safety of protected data. The Enterprise Mobility Management competency qualifies partners as experts on Microsoft Enterprise Mobility + Security suite - a comprehensive enterprise mobility solution.
Road to Gold
Key workloads and scenarios
New technologies made available through Microsoft’s Enterprise Mobility + Security stack unlock massive partner opportunities to build unique solutions for their customers, such as:
TOP SOFTWARE BENEFITS (FOR INTERNAL USE)
100 Enterprise Mobility Suite seats incremental seats (core benefit)
Coming Dec. 2016: Cloud App Security (100 seats)
License grants: O365 E3 (100), CRM Online (60), SQL Server (16), W10 (100)
10 Visual Studio with MSDN subscriptions + Xamarin
US$100/month Microsoft Azure
Microsoft demo site
Identity and Access Management: Provide users with single sign-on and self-service password management for any corporate resource and manage identities across on- premises and cloud.
Mobile Device & App Management: Allow customers to manage and protect corporate apps and data on almost any device with Microsoft's MDM and MAM solution.
Information Protection: Enable customers to stay in control of corporate data even when shared with others.
Application Virtualization: Enable customers to stream apps from their datacenter or the cloud.
Advanced Threat Analytics: Sophisticated, automated behavioral analytics to help customers identify suspicious activities and advanced threats.
TOP TRAINING AND SUPPORT BENEFITS
50 Advisory hours for support and services
20 Product support incidents
Unlimited technical pre-sales assistance (deals > US$3K)
Unlimited Signature Cloud Support + 10 incidents
Direct partner support by a regional or tele partner account manager
Access to Partner University for training
Achieving competency requirements
There are different ways partners can choose to earn this competency, based upon what best suits their business model.
Typically, partners must meet performance, exams and assessments, provide customer evidence and organizational information, and pay a one-time competency fee.
Requirements vary - see all options and specific details on the competency requirements tab of the Enterprise Mobility Management competency page.
TOP BUSINESS BENEFITS:
Gold competency badge with Microsoft logo
Prioritization for leads in partner referrals and in Microsoft marketplaces
Eligibility for licensing, solution, and cloud incentives (including Microsoft)
Online Services Advisor Sell and Online Services Usage Partner Incentives
Eligibility for Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS) FY16 Adoption Offer
Professional sales and marketing assets and digital marketing
Information as of October For the most current information, visit the Enterprise Mobility Management competency page.

20. Cloud Customer Relationship Management competency
Capitalize on the rapidly growing demand for customer engagement solutions. Whether you’re building a cloud business, looking to move from an on-premises business, or interested in expanding your offerings, sell the best in personalized, proactive, and predictive engagements.
Road to Gold
Key workloads and scenarios
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online helps sales, service and marketing teams work as one to deliver personal experiences across every interaction of their business.
Example scenarios:
Provide sales team with automation that helps manage complex quotes.
Anywhere, anytime access helps mobile and remote teams deliver exceptional customer experiences.
TOP SOFTWARE BENEFITS (FOR INTERNAL USE)
License grants for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Enterprise Edition, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Non-Production Environment, Microsoft Social Listening, Microsoft Dynamics Marketing, Windows Enterprise 10, Add-on products: Microsoft Dynamics Employee Self Service, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online -Portal, Field Service, Project Service
Core license grants: CRM Online (60), Office 365 E3 (100), EMS (100), W10 (100)
1 year Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online demo tenant and Microsoft demo site
Additional CRM Online sandbox instances
Visual Studio Enterprise with MSDN subscriptions plus Xamarin (10 core + 25 incremental with competency)
US$100/month Microsoft Azure
Achieving competency requirements
There are different ways partners can choose to earn this competency, based upon what best suits their business model.
Typically, partners must meet performance, exams and assessments, provide customer evidence and organizational information, and pay a one-time competency fee.
Requirements vary - see all options and specific details on the competency requirements tab of the Cloud Customer Relationship Management competency page.
TOP TRAINING AND SUPPORT BENEFITS
50 Advisory hours for support and services
20 Product support incidents
Unlimited technical pre-sales assistance (deals > US$3K)
Unlimited Signature Cloud Support + 10 incidents
Direct partner support by a regional or tele partner account manager
Access to Partner University for training
TOP BUSINESS BENEFITS:
Gold competency badge with Microsoft logo
Prioritization for leads in partner referrals and in Microsoft marketplaces
Eligibility for licensing, solution, and cloud incentives including for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Services Advisor
Professional sales and marketing assets and digital marketing
Information as of October For the most current information, visit the Cloud Customer Relationship Management competency page.