Cloud, Windows and Teams should spur Microsoft channel growth

Microsoft has one of the largest channel bases, with tens of thousands of global partners, and those relationships are driving revenue for the firm.

Earlier this week, the vendor announced that it was introducing major changes to its partner programme, replacing the 15-year-old current option with a more cloud-driven focused approach from October.

At the same time as it unveiled those changes, the firm’s corporate vice-president of global partner solutions Nick Parker provided an update on the progress that the vendor’s channel had made so far in the fiscal year.

“Our recent second-quarter earnings from January showed strong contribution by partners and continued demand from Microsoft Cloud offerings, as well as increased usage of Teams and our advanced security and identity offerings,” he said.

“The scale of our success that we see through our partners drives these incredible results, with $28bn in partner co-sale value in the past four years, and we continue to refine and enhance the sales motion with partners, as you can see by the 37% revenue growth,” he added.

“With 40,000 sellers globally and our marketplace that scales and connects across millions of customers, almost every company on the planet does business with us, which means opportunity for our partners.”

Parker added that it had the tools that could help partners gain revenue, with Teams now enjoying 270 million monthly active users, some 1.4 billion Windows 10/11 monthly active devices, and impressive growth on the cloud side of the business.

Parker added that the vendor had made significant investments in cloud, set out sustainability ambitions and was committed to driving change that would benefit customers and be profitable for its channel.

“The challenges facing people on the planet are complex, and no one company sector or even country can solve them alone. That’s why we are committed to working across all sectors to be the platform for growth, fostering partnerships and solutions that will have lasting impact on communities and the planet,” he said.

Parker added that it was against that background that the firm had introduced the Microsoft Cloud Partner Programme as it looked to align its channel with the areas it was making investments and where customers were looking for support.

“All of us in the partner business are making significant investments to our partners to get aligned with that opportunity,” he said. “We’re making these changes specifically because of the customer desire.

“We see customers looking for ongoing digital operation capability from their partners – from the partners that Microsoft has. We see huge customer demand for the digital transformation products and services. This is very client-driven – clients want our partners and Microsoft together at the table with that trusted platform in the office.”