Microsoft Inspire 2020: ‘Adapting to Support Our Partners’ in New Normal

The Microsoft Inspire 2020 digital event kicked off Tuesday with a flurry of news across Azure, M365, Security, and Teams. The virtual partner conference runs July 21-22.

Microsoft sees the core priorities for partners and customers over the coming year as those that focus on remote work, business continuity, security and cloud migration. The pandemic forced the company to pivot and rethink its direction for the next year. The latest product enhancements and services aim to better assist partners to help their clients establish a more secure footing operating in the new business normal.

Microsoft’s Gavriella Schuster

“When we think about what’s next, our mission and vision for our ecosystem hasn’t changed, but we’re adapting to support our partners as they service customers in this environment,” Gavriella Schuster, corporate vice president, Commercial Partner at Microsoft, said in a news briefing. “We’re creating a model that enables partners to manage and master their own digital transformation and the digital transformation of their customers. So we’re streamlining and optimizing the partners engagement with us.”

What’s New at Microsoft Inspire 2020

There are four specific customer and partner enablement announcements at Microsoft Inspire 2020:

• Azure Lighthouse security enhancements. These include Azure Multi-Factor Authentication and Azure Privileged Identity Management Support.

• New Microsoft Azure Center of Excellence and App Innovation Practice playbooks. These playbooks, which are now available, are new to the Cloud Practice series.

• New Lenovo managed services suite. These IT services target SMBs and aim to maximize their Microsoft 365 cloud-based tools. There are two offers – Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) Managed Services and Endpoint Managed Services. CSP Managed Services will be available this month. Endpoint Managed Service availability is slated for October.

• New cloud-based digital supply chain from SAP and Microsoft. In an expanded partnership, the vendors will help mutual customers design and operate intelligent digital supply chain solutions in the cloud and on the edge. Customers will be able to use SAP Digital Supply Chain solutions in a SaaS model on Microsoft Azure. This includes SAP solutions for digital manufacturing, SAP Intelligent Asset Management, SAP Integrated Business Planning and SAP supply chain network solutions. SAP and Microsoft are also collaborating to make SAP services available on Microsoft Azure Stack Edge, starting with SAP Digital Manufacturing Cloud.

SAP Solutions for digital manufacturing and SAP Intelligent Asset Management are available now. Additional solutions will be available later this year.

Helping Partners

Schuster talked about how Microsoft is helping partners. One, among many efforts, is modifying Partner Center as the hub for Microsoft partners. This makes it easier for partners to do the work that’s relative to the pandemic. New dashboards make it easier for partners to see the status of payouts, payments, customers and usage.

Microsoft also created a set of Power Platform Connectors. The software giant previously offered APIs to integrate with its CRM system. But based on partner feedback, Microsoft changed course.

Recent changes in the marketplace simplify onboarding, uploading and validation.

Microsoft has been busy helping partners run their businesses while helping their customers transition to remote working. For example, the company created six-month trials across multiple parts of its portfolio. This allows partners deploy customer solutions without worrying about paying for the service at that time.

Microsoft Teams Online Usage Incentive is an example. Other COVID-19 changes include extension of timelines around partner agreements, competencies and other administrative issues.

Partner Program Changes

Don’t expect to hear about any major changes to the Microsoft Partner Program at Microsoft Inspire 2020. The company announced the big ones in April. Schuster wants partners to stay focused on …