In 2022, we continued to invest in our partners and our partner program, unlocking new ways to drive business growth and profitability for your organization. We remain driven by a belief that the surest path to success is continually investing in new ways to build and go to market with solutions. This year, our commitment to reflecting the continuous digital transformation of our industry meant a necessary evolution of our partner ecosystem. Changes in the partner program align with continuously shifting customer needs. Along the way, many of our partners provided feedback, and we want to thank you for innovating alongside us this past year.
As one of our main channels for broad partner communication, the Microsoft Partner blog is an excellent guide for navigating this year’s resources, strategic advice, and expert perspectives. Below, we’ve rounded up some of our most popular blogs and can’t-miss announcements to revisit before we turn the calendar into 2023:
Microsoft Cloud Partner Program
This year, we reimagined the Microsoft Partner Network into the Microsoft Cloud Partner Program to ensure our partner ecosystem is beneficial for everyone — whether you build and sell services, software solutions, or devices. Within this new structure, we are building out pathways to success for all partners. The launch included elements for services partners (six new Solutions Partner designations, aligned to customer solution areas and anchored on the Microsoft Cloud) and ISV partners (via ISV Success), and we will continue to add offerings for other partner types. Our aim is for the Microsoft Cloud Partner Program to empower partners to meaningfully engage customers in any scenario and industry. We’ve tracked this evolution throughout the year, and now you can reread both our original vision and October’s exciting launch announcements:
The new Solutions Partner designations provide a way for partners to differentiate their organization, and we have blog posts exploring each and how to earn them:
Partner programs and initiatives
As the partner ecosystem evolves, we are aligning our investments with the new ways you engage with customers. This year’s programmatic changes are designed to accelerate your cloud innovation, connect you with more customers worldwide, and drive greater business growth:
Microsoft Inspire and Partner of the Year Awards
Our annual partner event, Microsoft Inspire, is always one of the highlights of the year. Inspire 2022 was another great opportunity to come together with our partners and build on each other’s successes. Sessions are now available on-demand, with a helpful viewing guide available on the blog:
At Inspire, we also celebrated the winners of the 2022 Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards, recognizing the most outstanding achievements and innovations from across the partner ecosystem:
Welcoming our Chief Partner Officer
We are thrilled to have Nicole Dezen as our first ever Chief Partner Officer, bringing a wealth of experience and knowledge to the partner community. Nicole will share more about her vision for the coming year with a blog post in January, in the meantime you can read about her role here:
New Resources
To ensure you are armed with the necessary information to make the best choices for your business and customers, we periodically share out the latest research on our industry. In 2022, our experts dove into the relevant results from two Microsoft-commissioned studies:
Thank you for being a part of this year’s story. We already have some exciting things planned for 2023 and look forward to what we’ll achieve together.