intY & Microsoft SureStep Programme

Are you making the most of your Microsoft partnership? This article will focus on the SureStep programme from Microsoft and how you can utilise it to grow your Microsoft offering.

SureStep is an exclusive programme available to Microsoft partners and is aimed at helping you grow and expand your cloud business with Microsoft.

The programme is available to all intY partners transacting Microsoft and is tailored to suit you and your desired business goals. Surestep will help you to access the relevant Microsoft Partner programmes, resources, training and certifications to help you sell more, and increase margins.

Rebates and incentives are offered across three Microsoft workstreams; Modern Workplace, Azure and Microsoft Dynamics.

intY partners have been engaging with SureStep on the following areas:

Identifying and activating Partner rebate programmes
Creating and executing Go-To-Market strategy
Enrolling in official Microsoft learning paths and enablement programmes
Access to exclusive partner events with intY and Microsoft

Want free Microsoft leads?

Enrolment onto the SureStep programme can also help you increase your ranking on the Microsoft Service Providers portal and raise your profile within the Microsoft Marketplace. Your Partner Profile will be listed on the Microsoft Solution Provider Webpage where your business’ expertise will be visible to prospective customers and any leads will be sent to you within the Referrals section of your Partner Centre. With Silver and Gold membership you can even get prioritized listing to get ahead of the competition.

They can also help you make sense of the Cloud Ascent Data (also known as CLAS, My Insights Dashboard, Customers Insight Dashboard) available in your Partner Centre. It delivers leads and actionable insights to help you capitalize on the opportunity in your existing customer base.

The dashboard will:

List customers ready for renewal

Calculate the likelihood of the customer renewing

Prioritise customers based on their current portfolio and propensity to buy

Provide insights into cross-sell and up-sell opportunities

Recommend actions based on the customer’s rating

Although these are not pre-qualified leads, you can analyse and combine this data with your own to forge a more targeted sales and marketing play. The SureStep programme can help you develop your services, applications and offerings by utilizing the Solutions Workspace, a tool that pulls resources and actionable steps to help you take your solution through the sales lifecycle from idea to market.

If a Partner adopts the tools recommended by SureStep effectively then they can expect to develop a cohesive and substantial sales and marketing strategy that will help accelerate their growth within the Microsoft space.

Case Studies

intY acquired a new (Microsoft Network level) partner who was not previously aware of the SureStep programme. Their Account Manager introduced them to the SureStep programme after conducting a partner review, acknowledged that the Partner was eligible for a Silver Competency and all of the accompanying commercial benefits.

The SureStep team outlined the benefits associated with holding a Silver Competency and helped the partner put a plan in place to achieve it. This included putting together a Learning plan focussed specifically on Microsoft 365, utilising the resources available on the Partner Network such as Virtual Instructor Led Training and other assets, alongside developing their Go-To-Market strategy, using the Smart Partner Marketing resources and built in marketing materials, also available on the Partner Network. This enabled them to confidently have conversations with their customers around SKU optimization as well as reaching new customers and marketing within their existing customer base.

Since being introduced to the SureStep programme and enrolling onto the Silver Competency 6 months ago they have seen an 18% growth in their Microsoft Sales as well as benefitting from an additional 5% in rebates from Microsoft every month. Our partner now aspires to achieve Gold Membership status and has the facilities and resources to be able to achieve this with support from the intY Business Development team.

Other Partners have been utilising the SureStep team to deliver webinars, these have been both end-user and partner facing on a variety of subjects such as:

Azure Cost Calculator

Windows Virtual Desktop

Teams deployment and backend management

Building a Teams/ Security practice

Practical demonstration / product demonstrations

Access to exclusive webinars covering Modern Workplace, Azure and Microsoft Dynamics

Access to resources and collateral

Our Business Development Managers

“
I am a business development manager aligned to Microsoft and Modern Workplace. I work very closely with the SureStep team and our Account Managers to mobilise our partners to consume Microsoft products and resources, as well as encouraging their participation in Microsoft programs that will enable them to accelerate their Microsoft growth.
”

— Kristina Bennington

Modern Workplace

“
I specialise in Azure, Dynamics 365 and Power Platform and I help partners become more enabled with regards to incentives, benefits and resources available from Microsoft. I also provide support to partners with customer requirements through enabling pre-sales support, pricing and go to market strategies.
”

— Max Chamberlain

Azure and Dynamics

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Azure Ascend

The dashboard will:

Other Partners have been utilising the SureStep team to deliver webinars, these have been both end-user and partner facing on a variety of subjects such as:

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