Microsoft Partner Chief Dezen: Solution Providers ‘Touch Every Stage Of The Customer Journey’

‘I always think about it as one plus one equals three,’ says Microsoft Chief Partner Officer Nicole Dezen.

More training and certification resources for solution providers. Empowering partners for the artificial intelligence era. And working with partners to chase a $661-billion total addressable market (TAM) in fiscal year 2025 for small and medium enterprise customers.

These are just some of the big items on the plate of Nicole Dezen, Microsoft’s chief partner officer and corporate vice president of the Global Partner Solutions (GPS) organization as the tech giant navigates the latter months of its fiscal year. The 2026 fiscal year starts July 1 and with it, usually, are new incentives and promotions for solution providers.

“Our partners really touch every stage of the customer journey,” she said. “They build their solutions on our stack. They add services. They add capability. They add differentiation. They add value on our platform. I always think about it as one plus one equals three.”

Microsoft Partner Chief Dezen

Dezen (pictured) spoke with CRN in time for what Microsoft calls the “State of the Partner Ecosystem,” a progress report of sorts on how the tech giant works with its 500,000-plus partners worldwide.

“Our partners have impacted every single thing we've rolled out for customers–and they play such an instrumental role in everything we do in the company,” she said. “They're just deeply, deeply connected to all of our success and certainly our history and most definitely our future.”

She said partners can look forward to new capabilities coming soon to Microsoft’s Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program and the availability of a small and midsize business (SMB) path for partners who want the “solutions partner for security” designation, which comes with resources for business development, customer reach, obtaining technical skills and more, according to the vendor.

A blog post Dezen published for this year’s State of the Partner Ecosystem acknowledges Microsoft’s 50th anniversary, the current multiplier of $8.45 services partners earn for every $1 of Microsoft revenue and the $10.93 multiplier for software partners.

One of Microsoft’s ongoing efforts this year is streamlining and simplifying its partner portals for developing new skills. Ahead of Dezen’s post, Microsoft launched a private preview for Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partners of its Sales Titan skills portal, which has a learning path for Microsoft 365 E5 security and compliance licenses training and a path for assessments, certifications and sales strategy development. Sales Titan will become available for all partners this summer, according to Microsoft.

Here’s more of what Dezen had to say.

What do you want partners to take away from your State of the Partner Ecosystem report this year?

As we thought about this year's State of the Partner Ecosystem moment, it just felt so clear that this was an opportunity to celebrate 50 years of partnership for Microsoft.

Our partners have impacted every single thing we've rolled out for customers–and they play such an instrumental role in everything we do in the company.

They're just deeply, deeply connected to all of our success and certainly our history and most definitely our future.

In honor of our 50th anniversary, Microsoft is introducing the Microsoft AI Skills Fest. It's a 50-day AI learning event.

It starts April 8, and it runs through May 28. And it's all about helping our partners sharpen their AI expertise, connect with industry leaders and gain insights. This is another example of Microsoft's investment and skilling on behalf of our partners – and what a great way to celebrate our anniversary.

Are partners becoming more important to Microsoft in the AI era?

Contemplating the work that our partners will do to deliver customer success in all of these solutions, in every industry, for every customer segment, in every country in which we do business, is just core to how we operate.

And you can see the impact that partners have on the business. Our partners really touch every stage of the customer journey.

They build their solutions on our stack. They add services. They add capability. They add differentiation. They add value on our platform. I always think about it as one plus one equals three.

500,000 partners, it's a pretty incredible statistic.

I look at it as a great signal that every day there are companies that are choosing to bet their businesses on Microsoft, and I think that's a combination of the innovation that the company is creating and delivering, the way that we go to market–which is pretty unique in the industry–and our overall platform capability is really resonating with customers.

That gives partners something meaningful to deliver to our shared customers.

The thing that's pretty exciting is to see the way that our partners are embracing our technology, first within their own organizations. At Microsoft, we call that ‘customer zero.’

There are so many partners that have built AI solutions, have adopted copilots or are using Copilot Studio, Copilot Chat.

And then they have so much credibility and strength when they go have that conversation with their resellers and with their customers, to speak to the ways that it can change the way that they work. It can enhance the customer experience. It can enhance the employee experience. It adds value to the workflow.

These are very real experiences that our partners are leveraging themselves internally. And so I love seeing that benefit to their own businesses. And then they extend that benefit to their customers.

What are the big opportunities for partners as we head into the summer?

We can't have a conversation without talking about the AI opportunity for customers and for every single one of our partners.

Microsoft is continuing to invest in innovation across our stack, across the AI platform.

And this has meaningful business opportunities for every single kind of partner that we do business with–whether they are a services partner, devices partner, a solution partner, certainly all of our channel.

There's really meaningful growth and opportunity. And giving partners the tools, the skills, the capability and resources to solve real problems for customers and create meaningful business growth for customers and for our partners at the same time.

The five priorities that we have in the MCAPS [Microsoft Customer and Partner Solutions] organization, they're durable. And they're meant to be interdependent.

This is where we see a ton of innovation from partners where they may start with a conversation with a customer around migrations. And then they get into the security conversation and governance and compliance. There's so much opportunity, and that really creates a fantastic foundation for AI innovation.

And this is where we're seeing partners thrive. Partners that are embracing our solution designations and specializations. It really gives them the skills, the capability and proof to customers that they're capable of delivering these really important workloads.

We recently introduced an SMB [small and midsize businesses] path for Azure solutions partner designations.

It speaks to the investment that Microsoft is making in the partners that have that very special capability of serving SMB. It's important. It's unique. It's a place where we know our partners have incredible expertise. We want to make sure that we're giving our partners all of the tools and resources and support to do that.

Partners have really embraced the new designations. So that's been wonderful to see. And security is coming up later this year as well.

Are the new paths indicative of future advancements for the partner program?

There are a few things that we're very focused on in the Microsoft AI and Cloud Partner Program.

One is meeting partners where they are. The focus on SMB designations is a great example of that. We took partner feedback. We heard their asks, that they wanted to make sure that we were tailoring our designations and the support around it to meet the needs of partners that service SMB.

It's a great example of that sort of virtuous cycle that we focus on. The next thing that I would point to is all of the investments that we're making in skilling.

Skilling is so critically important. Technology is moving at such a rapid pace. We're making significant investments in ensuring that partners have all of the tools and skills they need, both on the business of the new tech as well as the tech itself. And you can expect a lot more from us there in the coming year.

Should we expect more resources for distributors?

Distributors are such a strategic bet for Microsoft. They play such a critically important role, particularly, if I tie it back to the discussion we were just having about SMB, our distribution channel has a level of expertise and capability that is unparalleled.

You'll see us investing more there in the coming year.

The big device refresh expected this year is still a major partner opportunity?

Absolutely. Windows 10 end of support, right around the corner in October 2025.

It is the best time for customers of all sizes to future-proof their business with the most secure, most performant, AI-capable PCs in the market,

Every single one of our partners has a really, really great portfolio of devices to suit anybody's needs, everything from small businesses to the very largest businesses and gamers and consumers. The portfolio is awesome.

Is the changing economy a possible disruption to some of these partner opportunities?

It's a great time for partners to have a thoughtful conversation with customers about how they shore up their estate, how they make sure that they're betting on the right platform to serve the needs of the business.

This is where Microsoft's investments in our R&D across the six solution areas [business applications, data and AI, digital and app innovation, infrastructure, modern workplace and Surface, and security] can add real value to a customer.

They can bet on a company that they trust, that they know they've got our valued partners that deeply, deeply understand our stack, our capabilities, our technology.

Particularly, in the channel, you've got really capable partners with excellent managed services to be able to manage the end-to-end environment for customers. It's a great time for partners to have those conversations with customers.

Any updates to the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program?

This is a place where these partners are the trusted advisers to our customers, particularly in the small and medium enterprise segment.

Our partners are doing excellent work to bring our full portfolio to bear for customers. So what may begin with a ‘modern work’ conversation, perhaps an ME3 [Microsoft 365 E3 enterprise productivity apps suite] renewal or an ME5 [the tier above E3] renewal quickly turns into a discussion about adding Copilot.

What begins with that migration discussion quickly turns into an AI solution and AI innovation discussion. This is a place where we have a very rich portfolio of incentives.

Seventy percent of our partner incentives are targeted to partners that are serving that segment of the market. We are constantly introducing new promos. And there's a lot of new capabilities that's coming soon.

One of the things we've been really focused on is the $661 billion TAM in the small and medium enterprise market, and this is where CSP partners will shine.

We are betting with a lot of intentional focus on these partners as our trusted advisers to serve customers, help them accelerate their AI transformation needs and delivering all of the value-added services and solutions that deliver real business impact to those customers.

Any updates to Microsoft’s efforts in marketplace?

We continue to make a significant investment in marketplace. This is an area where we see ISVs of all sizes embracing the opportunity.

Our customers want to be able to have streamlined procurement. The other benefit is for perhaps smaller, lesser-known ISVs.

The marketplace gives those companies the ability to sell globally with Microsoft's brand standing behind them. It gives the customers a trusted place to procure solutions. And it's a great buying experience for the customer.

It's like co-sell at scale.