Solutions partner for Modern Work
Appropriate roles: Global admin, MPN partner admin
A Solutions partner for Modern work has demonstrated a broad capability to help customers boost their productivity and make the shift to hybrid work using Microsoft 365.
To earn this designation, your partner capability score must meet the qualification requirements for this area. You need a minimum of 70 points out of a possible 100 to attain a solutions partner designation.
This score is measured in three categories—partner performance, skilling, and customer success—and is informed by data that is already recorded in Partner Center.
- Performance category
- Skilling – Intermediate certifications
- Skilling – Advanced certifications
- Customer success – Usage growth
- Customer success – Deployments
You can track your progress towards attaining the Solutions partner for Modern work designation in Partner Center.
Two attainment paths: Enterprise, and Small & Medium business
There are two distinct attainment paths to get the Solutions partner for Modern Work designation: Enterprise, and Small and Medium business (SMB). Each path has its own requirements,
Microsoft recognizes that some partners target SMB customers and some target Enterprise customers. To provide you the flexibility and the advantage of the path that works best for your organization, we evaluate you on both paths and choose the highest scores towards qualifying for the designation.
Performance category
The Performance category is a measure of your organization's ability to increase the customer base using Microsoft products for Modern work and productivity.
There's one metric in the Performance category:
Net customer adds Enterprise path criteria and SMB path criteria are different. The details are explained in the following sections.
Performance: Net customer adds metric
Net customer adds for modern work is the number of qualifying workloads added to your customer base during the trailing 12-month period.
Calculation:
Net customer adds = [Total qualifying current customers (tenants)] – [Total qualifying customers (tenants) 12 months ago]
Note
You won't be credited multiple times if a customer has more than one association type.
Eligible workloads:
Intune, EXO, ProPlus, SPO, Teams, Teams Meetings, Teams Phone Calling, Teams Platform, Yammer
Thresholds to earn maximum points:
The Enterprise eligibility path provides a maximum 20 points for five net new customers.
Scoring:
Each net customer added gives you four points, for up to a maximum of 20 points, from five customers.
Eligibility criteria:
For a subscription to be considered for this metric, it must be active at the time of evaluation.
- Tenants with paid available units (PAU) for at least one eligible workload must be greater than 300.
- They're either claimed by or associated with you, the partner.
Eligible association types:
Claiming Partner of Record (CPOR), Digital Partner of Record (DPOR)
Eligible workloads:
Intune, Exchange, ProPlus, Sharepoint, Teams, Teams Calling, Teams Meetings, Teams Phone, Teams Platform, Yammer
Thresholds to earn maximum points:
SMB eligibility path provides maximum 20 points for 10 net new customers.
Scoring:
Each net new customer added gives you two points, for up to a maximum of 20 points, from 10 customers.
Eligibility criteria:
For a subscription to be considered for this metric, it must be active at the time of evaluation.
- Tenants with paid available units (PAU) for at least one eligible workload must be between 10 and 300
- They're either claimed by or associated with you, the partner.
Eligible association types:
Claiming Partner of Record (CPOR), CSP
Skilling category
The skilling category measures your organization’s skills and capabilities by using the number of persons who have an eligible certification.
Each person with an eligible certification earns your organization points towards the skilling designation, but they can't earn more points by completing more certifications.
There are two attainment paths: Small & medium business and Enterprise
There are two certification metrics:
- Advanced, for which one certification is eligible: Enterprise Administrator Expert
- Intermediate, for which five certifications are eligible (see Eligible Microsoft 365 certifications)
To fulfill the requirement to have more than zero points in every metric, your organization must have at least one qualifying person with an intermediate certification, and the same person or a different person with an advanced certification.
Certified persons required to earn the maximum of 25 points in the Skilling category:
| Path | Intermediate certifications (10 points max) | Advanced certifications (15 points max) |
|---|---|---|
| Enterprise | Four certified persons | Two certified persons |
| Small & Medium Business | Two certified persons | One certified person |
Eligible Microsoft 365 certifications
Intermediate metric
Advanced metric
Customer success category
The customer success category measures your ability to enable growth in the use of Microsoft products or in the expansion of Microsoft's services and workloads utilized by the customers.
There are two metrics in the Customer success category:
Customer success: Usage growth metric
This customer success metric measures your ability to grow the use and consumption of our qualifying products. You earn points for this metric based on the growth exhibited in the monthly active usage (MAU) across all your qualifying paid customers and workloads.
Calculation:
Usage growth = [sum of MAU in latest month] – [sum of MAU 12 months ago] – [sum of MAU at the time the workload or customer was claimed by or associated with the partner if the claim or association occurred during the past 12 months]
Note
You can only receive points for usage growth from the time you claim or associate with a customer. You don't receive credit for MAU that existed prior to your association.
Eligible workloads:
Intune, Exchange, ProPlus, Sharepoint, Teams, Teams Calling, Teams Meetings, Teams Phone, Teams Platform, Yammer
Eligible associations:
Claiming Partner of Record (CPOR), Direct Partner of Record (DPOR)
Eligibility criteria:
- Tenants with paid available units (PAU) for at least one eligible workload must be greater than 300.
- For a subscription to be considered for this metric, it must be active at the time of evaluation.
Thresholds to earn maximum points:
In the Enterprise eligibility path, you get points for usage growth based on the association type. Two options have been created: CPOR and DPOR. Each option has different thresholds. You get different points for each option based on your performance against those thresholds. Qualifying points for usage growth is the higher of the points obtained from the two options, CPOR and DPOR.
| Option | Threshold for maximum points |
|---|---|
| CPOR | 1,000 MAU |
| DPOR | 4,000 MAU |
Scoring:
Partial scoring is applied for any growth in MAU, up to a maximum of 30 points, obtained from 1,000 MAU growth (for CPOR) OR 4,000 MAU growth (for DPOR), whichever is higher.
For example, if you have 2,000 MAU growth from DPOR associations over the past 12 months and 1,500 MAU growth from CPOR associations, then scoring for the usage growth metric is:
DPOR based growth = 2,000 MAU DPOR based points = (actual growth / threshold growth level) * max points = 2,000/4,000 * 30 = 15
CPOR based growth = 1,500 MAU CPOR based points = (actual growth / threshold growth level) * max points = 1,500/1,000 * 30 = 45
Usage growth net score = 30 ~ higher of 15 and 45 from above, for up to a maximum of 30
Eligible workloads:
Intune, Exchange, ProPlus, Sharepoint, Teams, Teams Calling, Teams Meetings, Teams Phone, Teams Platform, Yammer
Eligible associations:
Claiming Partner of Record (CPOR), CSP Tier 1/2
Eligibility criteria:
- Tenants with paid available units (PAU) for at least one eligible workload must be between 10 and 300.
- For a subscription to be considered for this metric, it must be active at the time of evaluation.
Thresholds to earn maximum points:
In the SMB eligibility path, you earn points for usage growth based on the association type. Two options have been created: CPOR and CSP. Each option has different thresholds. You get different points for each option based on your performance against those thresholds. Qualifying points for usage growth is the higher of the points obtained from the two options, CPOR and CSP.
| Option | Threshold for max points |
|---|---|
| CPOR | 500 MAU |
| CSP | 2,000 MAU |
Scoring:
Partial scoring is applied for any growth in MAU, up to a maximum of 30 points, obtained from 500 MAU growth (CPOR) or 2,000 MAU growth (CSP), whichever is highest.
For example, if you have 1,000 MAU growth from CSP associations over the past 12 months and 1,000 MAU growth from CPOR associations, scoring is decided for usage growth metric as follows:
CSP based growth = 1,000 MAU CSP based points = (actual growth / threshold growth level) * max points = 1,000/2,000 * 30 = 15
CPOR based growth = 1,500 MAU CPOR based points = (actual growth / threshold growth level) * max points = 1,000/500 * 30 = 60
Usage growth net score = 30 ~ higher of 15 and 60 from above for up to a maximum of 30
Note
Targets differ for different association types for both SMB and Enterprise. You can earn points only for one association type per metric. If you have more than one association type, we award points based on the one that earns the most points.
Customer success: Deployments metric
This metric in the customer success category measures your ability to grow the deployments of our Microsoft 365 services. You earn points for this metric based on the growth in deployments of eligible workloads with a minimum monthly usage level.
Calculation:
Deployments = (Total qualifying deployments in the latest month) – (Total qualifying deployments 12 months ago) - (Total qualifying deployments associated during the last 12 months)
The preceding calculation excludes deployments that were claimed or associated within the last 12 months and were already greater than 40% at the time of claim or association.
Note
You can only receive points for usage growth from the time you claim or associate with a customer. You will not receive credit for MAU that existed prior to your association.
Eligible workloads:
Intune, Exchange, ProPlus, Sharepoint, Teams, Teams Calling, Teams Meetings, Teams Phone, Teams Platform, Yammer
Eligible associations:
Claiming Partner of Record (CPOR), Direct Partner of Record (DPOR)
Eligibility criteria:
- Tenants with paid available units (PAU) for at least one eligible workload must be greater than 300.
- Monthly active usage (MAU) should be more than 40% of paid available units (PAU) in the given month.
Threshold for maximum points:
In the Enterprise eligibility path, you get points for deployments based on the association type. Two options have been created: CPOR and DPOR. Each option has different thresholds. Based on your performance against those thresholds, you get different points for each option. Qualifying points for deployments is the higher of the points obtained from the two options, CPOR and DPOR.
| Option | Threshold for maximum points |
|---|---|
| CPOR | 5 net new deployments |
| DPOR | 10 net new deployments |
Scoring:
- Each new qualifying CPOR deployment gets 5 points OR each new qualifying DPOR deployment gets 2.5 points, whichever aggregates to higher points, for up to a maximum of 25 points.
For example, if you have four net new deployments from DPOR associations over the past 12 months and 3 from CPOR associations, the scoring is decided for deployments metric as follows:
DPOR based growth = 4 DPOR based points = (actual growth / threshold growth level) * max points = 4/10 * 25 = 10 points
CPOR based growth = 2 MAU CPOR based points = (actual growth / threshold growth level) * max points = 3/5 * 25 = 15 points
**Deployments net score = 15** ~ higher of 15 and 10 from above, for up to a maximum of 30
Eligible workloads:
Intune, Exchange, ProPlus, Sharepoint, Teams, Teams Calling, Teams Meetings, Teams Phone, Teams Platform, Yammer
Eligible associations:
Claiming Partner of Record (CPOR), CSP Tier 1/2
Eligibility criteria:
- Tenants with paid available units (PAU) for at least one eligible workload must be between 10 and 300.
- Monthly active usage (MAU) should be more than 40% of paid available units (PAU) in the given month.
Threshold for maximum points:
In the SMB eligibility path, you get points for deployments based on the association type. Two options have been created: CPOR and CSP. Each option has different thresholds. You get different points for each option based on your performance against those thresholds. Qualifying points for deployments is the higher of the points obtained from the two options, CPOR and CSP.
| Option | Threshold for max points |
|---|---|
| CPOR | 5 net new deployments |
| CSP | 10 net new deployments |
Scoring:
- Each new qualifying CPOR deployment gets 5 points OR each new qualifying CSP deployment gets 2.5 points, whichever aggregates to higher points, for up to a maximum of 25 points.
For example, if you have four net-new deployments from CSP associations over the past 12 months and 3 from CPOR associations, the scoring is decided for deployments metric as follows:
`CSP based growth = 4 CSP based points = (actual growth / threshold growth level) * max points = 4/10 * 25 = 10 points
CPOR based growth = 2 MAU CPOR based points = (actual growth / threshold growth level) * max points = 3/5 * 25 = 15 points
**Deployments net score = 15** ~ higher of 15 and 10 from above, for up to a maximum of 30
Note
Targets differ for different association types for both SMB and Enterprise, and you can only earn points for one association type per metric. If you have more than one association type, we award points based on the one that earns the most points.
Data freshness:
Performance and Customer Success subcategories are typically refreshed by the 10th of every month. However, there may be other minor data refreshes throughout the month. Skilling subcategories are typically refreshed within a week post certification is completed