Partner Network

Partner Contribution Indicators score

The new eligibility measure for Cloud Business Applications competency

Learn about the new ways to attain and retain your competency
To attain a Cloud Business Applications competency, a Microsoft partner must currently meet requirements pertaining
to these primary criteria:

• How much Microsoft licensing revenue they have generated

• How many employees are certified through the appropriate trainings

And they must pay the competency fee. However, many partners have told us that this is too limiting and doesn’t take
into account other factors that should weigh into qualifying for the competency.

We listened to feedback from our customers and partners, and we worked with numerous Business Applications partners
to formulate a new, more flexible and inclusive system: the Partner Contribution Indicators (PCI) score.

Why are we doing this?

Competencies help partners differentiate their businesses in the marketplace and give customers confidence in their
technical competence and ability to drive success with Microsoft products. We continue to iterate and improve the way
we measure our most capable partners based on evolving customer needs and technology changes.

PCI provides a more holistic measure of a partner’s impact in driving successful customer outcomes and, therefore,
greater differentiation in the market when a partner attains and retains the Cloud Business Applications
competency. Partners receive credit for key measures of customer success, such as successful deployments and
increasing usage, and are rewarded for continuing to invest in and scale out their technical capabilities. The goal
of PCI is to help more partners:

• Improve customer outcomes—The PCI-based competency score gauges your ability to drive customer
success by tracking both the number of large deployments you successfully complete and the growth rate of
monthly active users across your customer base.
• Boost customer confidence—Your PCI score increases when you add new functional consultants and
developers, as well as when you achieve advanced levels of role-based certification. Under the new PCI-based
model, your data-driven capability score provides a simple way for customers to know you have the technical
skills and knowledge required for their business success.

1
 • Energize business growth—Unlock service opportunities by showcasing your competency to the largest
customer base in the industry through our commercial marketplace and sellers’ channels. Customers, Microsoft
sellers, and fellow partners will use the competency badge to help identify the most capable partners for their
needs. And Go-To-Market Services and training available through a competency help attract leads and keep
your skills up to date.

How PCI works

PCI provides a sophisticated, holistic view of a partner’s technical capabilities, their ability to drive customer success, and
their sales performance. PCI measures your organization’s prior-year performance across seven key indicators:

• Net new revenue—Net new revenue across all sales channels for Microsoft Dynamics 365 products.
• Net customer adds—Net customers acquired for Dynamics 365 across all sales channels.
• Functional Consultants—Number of individuals holding a currently active Functional Consultant Associate
certification for Dynamics 365.
• Functional Consultant growth—Growth in the number of Functional Consultant Associates since
October 1, 2020.
• Developers—Number of individuals holding a currently active Developer Associate certification for
Dynamics 365.
• New large deployments—Number of production tenants that cross the high-usage threshold over the past
12 months.
• Monthly active user growth—Growth in monthly active users across all your customers over the past
12 months.

Four of the indicators are new, which means that partners can count more achievements and successes toward
attaining and retaining their competency. Moving from three to seven indicators offers partners flexibility in how they
choose to invest in differentiating themselves and achieving their desired competency level.

Points are granted for each achieved indicator, resulting in a single-number PCI score with a possible 100 maximum
points. The PCI score determines competency eligibility:

1-59 PCI score 60-79 PCI score 80-100 PCI score

Not eligible Meets requirements Meets requirements
for competency for silver competency for gold competency

Each indicator brings points that are added to the total. Here are the maximum points for each indicator:

Performance Capability Customer success

10 Net new revenue 15 Functional consultants 20 New large deployments

10 Net customer adds 15 Functional consultant growth 25 Monthly active user

5 Developers
2
Each PCI metric has Microsoft-set thresholds that can earn your company maximum points. These thresholds differ for
the Customer Engagement and Finance & Operations paths for attaining the Cloud Business Applications competency.
The thresholds also differ for partners operating in developed markets versus those that operate exclusively in
developing markets. Your points across each metric are tallied to yield a distinct PCI score for Customer Engagement and
Finance & Operations, which will be updated monthly.

Review the detailed definitions for each of the PCI metrics to learn how they are determined.

Managing your PCI score

We encourage you to visit the PCI dashboard in Partner Center often to learn about the metrics and build a plan to
improve your score to attain or retain your competency. Below are some effective ways to improve your scores:

• Ensure your consultants have taken the new role-based certifications

• Grow your certified consultant base
• Increase monthly active usage with current and new customers
• Drive large deployments of 250+ active users for Customer Engagement and 100+ active users for
Finance & Operations
• Expand and grow your practice by exploring and delivering Business Application innovations

In particular, check your dashboard well before your competency renewal period so you have time to improve your score
before renewal, if necessary.

Effective April 1, 2021*

PCI scoring for the Cloud Business Applications competency goes into effect April 1, 2021, which means if you’re
planning on attaining or renewing your competency after March 31, 2021, you’re subject to the new scoring system.

Get help
To help you transition to the new system, we’ve posted detailed training videos, presentations, FAQs, and fact sheets.

Get resources

You can also contact Partner Center support for more guidance on any actions you can take immediately.

Sign in to Partner Center to view your PCI dashboard as soon as possible to see if you need to meet additional
requirements to improve your score before the April 1, 2021, effective date.

Sign in

*We have set a new date of April 1, 2021 for Partner Contribution Indicators (PCI) scoring for the Cloud Business Applications competency to
take effect as part of the requirements. Along with that, we are postponing the implementation of the baseline snapshot for the Functional

Consultant metric in the new Partner Contribution Indicators scoring from March 31 to October 1, 2020.