Winning a Microsoft Partner Award can help attract new customer prospects, add credibility to existing sales efforts, enable partnerships within the Microsoft ecosystem, and trigger Microsoft Co-Sell collaboration.
The Microsoft Partner of the Year award submission tool is now available. The deadline for all entries is April 21, 2020.
The tool for submitting nominations has changed but the core requirement of writing a compelling 8,000-character essay is the same. As usual, award categories have seen some additions and eliminations.
Award Changes
New awards this year include the following:
Business Applications
Dynamics 365 Business Central
Modern Workplace
Apps & Solutions for Microsoft Teams
Modern Workplace for Firstline Workers
Industry
Energy
Other
Advisory Services
Commercial Marketplace
Microsoft for Startups
Solution Assessment
Surface Hub
Surface PC
There were no significant changes to the Azure awards.
Award categories eliminated this year include:
Dynamics 365 for Talent
Microsoft CityNext
Several awards were modified including:
Dynamics 365 for Marketing and Dynamics 365 for Sales were merged into one award (Intelligent Sales & Marketing)
Intelligent Communications became Calling and Meetings for Microsoft Teams
Modern Desktop became Modern Endpoint Management
Award Requirements
ISV Co-Sell Ready status is enough to qualify for most awards. Gold competencies are typically required if applying as another kind of partner and the specific competency requirements have been made clearer for each award. Note that Competencies must have been achieved by January 2020 (no last-minute competency achievement for award purposes). There are requirements for Microsoft marketplace listings across the award categories.
The Nomination Tool
The award submission tool (https://partnerawards.partner.microsoft.com/nominate) can be finicky if accessed from Chrome. You’ll have a more consistent experience if you access the tool from Edge.
When submitting a nomination, you need to log in with a corporate account that maps to your MPN Partner Center identity. You also must identify regional CEO, CFO, and COO contacts as part of the nomination process.
You can learn all about the submission rules, award categories and nomination process from the Inspire awards website: https://partner.microsoft.com/en-us/inspire/awards
How to Win
Thousands of nominations were received last year so if you plan to go for an award, put your best foot forward. See the 10 Tips to Winning a Microsoft Partner Award article in the Resources section of Competegy.com. In addition, Competegy provides award writing services for managed partners (Competegy clients have won 10 Microsoft Partner of the Year awards).
2020 Microsoft Partner Awards
The full list of 2020 Microsoft Partner of the Year awards is as follows:
Azure awards
AI and machine learning
Application innovation
Azure Influencer
Data analytics
Data estate modernization
Datacenter migration
DevOps
Internet of Things
Mixed reality
OSS on Azure
SAP on Azure
Business applications awards
Connected field service
Dynamics 365 business central (new)
Intelligent sales & marketing (changed)
Modernize finance and operations
Power Apps and Power Automate
Power BI
Proactive customer service
Industry awards
Automotive
Education
Energy (new)
Financial services
Government
Healthcare
Manufacturing
Media & Communications
Retail
Modern workplace awards
Apps & solutions for Microsoft Teams (new)
Calling and meetings for Microsoft Teams (changed)
Modern endpoint management (changed)
Modern workplace for firstline workers (new)
Project and portfolio management
Security and compliance
Teamwork
Other awards
Advisory services (new)
Alliance global ISV
Diversity and inclusion changemaker
Commercial marketplace (new)
Customer experience
Indirect provider
Learning
Microsoft for startups (new)
Partner for social impact
Solution assessment (new)
Surface Hub (new)
Surface PC (new)
Country/Region Partner of the Year Awards
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