Microsoft partners down under have started an online petition disapproving of newly announced Microsoft partner programme changes, which they universally declare to be “not fair dinkum”.
The petition dubs the tech giant’s new partner scoring system “impossible to achieve as it’s heavily biased toward ‘new sales.’”
One of the petition organisers told the local press that suppliers were concerned that this is going to continue and it’s going to go down the path of Microsoft wanting to ultimately be that direct relationship with the end-user.
Basically, the fear is that Vole will eventually incentivise customers to work directly with the vendor by sticking partners with higher prices and less favourable contract offers.
Some in the channel are muttering that Vole is taking advantage of a stressful time for partners – from learning new technology to a hiring crunch to dealing with COVID-19 and adapting to remote work – to roll out business-altering changes in its partner programme.
Vendors have not really got the energy to fight and are worried that they will lose whatever they have already.
The central issue with the new scoring system is that it emphasizes net new business and doesn’t properly reward returning business or increase business with an existing customer. This means that no one receives recognition for net new business from a small company such as one with fewer than 10 seats.
Vole is vetting the type of client and some suppliers provide the same service to small and big customers alike.
Many are worried that their business will not meet the 70 score minimum needed for Microsoft to consider him a “solutions partner” instead of a base-level partner.
Microsoft has already made at least one change to New Commerce Experience due to backlash from partners. The seven-day window for changes to customer subscription plans was originally 72 hours.
