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Upcoming program for Business Applications ISVs

By 2022, the business applications market will reach USD 125 billion—a 43 percent increase from 2018—with independent software vendors (ISVs) projected to drive 57 percent of the business applications business*. To help position our ISV partners for success, we are introducing a modernized ISV program that provides technical, marketing and sales benefits to help accelerate app delivery and customer acquisition.

Launching in July, the Business Applications ISV program provides new and improved development tools and guidance, marketplace resources, joint field engagement processes, and go-to-market support to drive business growth. The program is built on a revenue sharing model that offers reinvestment in ISVs through new technical, marketing, and sales enablement benefits. We’ve included actions you should take—including an information webinar session on April 23—to help you prepare for the new opportunities ahead.

One of the big changes to the ISV program is the way we ensure customers are offered only the highest-quality and secure apps. With this new program, Microsoft is ensuring only certified applications are part of the ISV ecosystem, and we will be providing the guidance and resources needed to help our valued ISV partners meet the requirements.

When the program launches in mid-July 2019, all cloud-based Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement apps, Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations apps (except Dynamics 365 Business Central), and PowerApps must enroll in the program and be listed in AppSource upon certification (or recertification).

ISV Focused Engineering

At the core, the separation of our first party applications from the underlying platform, which serves as the basis for our own SaaS services, is a huge step forward. Now, ISVs can leverage this underlying platform. This effort was the topic of a previous blog post and an exciting key to enabling ISVs to build or extend modern Line of Business SaaS offerings. Whether “connecting” to new or existing solutions, “building” new solutions from the ground up, or “extending” existing Dynamics 365 SaaS offerings, we are enabling new capabilities that are specific to developers/ISVs. Some of the new capabilities include:
  • Self-Service quality check for app certification – ISVs can independently verify that apps they are building for Dynamics 365 Customer Experience and PowerApps can run seamlessly through the AppSource onboarding process and get certified without delay.  Going forward, all new apps will need to be certified and existing apps will need to be recertified periodically to keep them up to date.
  • ISV Studio – ISVs who have published Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement apps or PowerApps to AppSource can enjoy the benefits of a new ISV-centric Studio experience. The ISV Studio is critical in providing SaaS-like experiences to our partner ecosystem and providing ISVs with a consolidated view into how their apps are performing across their installed base.
Knowing how to get started on a platform should be easy and we are investing in self-serve materials for partners to get started with less friction than today. As we get closer to Build 2019 you will learn about new capabilities that we are lighting-up for Canvas and model driven app development, Common Data Service and Analytics & AI.

App Ingestion & Marketplace

We are simplifying the process for ISVs to submit apps, as well as improving how customers discover them. The first phase is to standardize our app ingestion process by streamlining the submission process from the Cloud Partner Portal (CPP), AppSource, DevCenter, Partner Sales Connect (PSC) and others into a unified Partner Center solution. This will reduce the complexity of submitting an app for ISVs while making it easier for ISVs to collaborate with Microsoft sellers. In addition to changes in how apps are submitted, we are making improvements to our Business Applications marketplace – Microsoft AppSource. Driving all the apps through a single marketplace will enable us to focus our efforts into creating a better experience for users while supporting our partners to succeed. Some of the things we are doing here are improving app discoverability, enhancing app ratings and reviews, consistently applying categories across apps, improving the user experience, and offering new transaction capabilities. Note that we will also be driving a consistent quality bar so that users can be confident in the apps that they get from Microsoft AppSource.

Sales & Marketing

The new program has been designed to invest in the success of our ISV partners by funding sales and marketing benefits.  Some of the benefits available (depending on an ISV’s tier) include co-sell ready materials, a Microsoft case study, a 20-30 second commercial, PR support, tele-sales campaign, workshops, marketing tools and more.

For ISVs that connect with multiple product groups at Microsoft, we are simplifying the way you engage with Microsoft contacts and resources, helping you to more easily find resources and guidance when you need it.

Supporting this alignment will be dedicated to partner development managers and technical support roles who are deep in the Dynamics 365 and PowerApps businesses. ISVs focused on industry verticals will also benefit from being connected to our industry teams which will provide a deeper reach into key companies in these industries.

Join the April 23 webinar for details about the program

To prepare for the new program, we encourage all ISV partners to follow the steps below. Be sure to sign up for one of the two readiness webinars on April 23rd to learn about the business model along with benefits package that will be part of the program, as well as ask questions.
  1. Sign up for email updates to stay current on the program
  2. Read about the program model, benefits, and recertification
  3. Register for one of the two the readiness webinars on Tuesday, April 23rd:
  4. Assess your applications to get prepared for recertification process

As always, we value the partnership and look forward to working together to serve our joint customers and to grow the Business Applications opportunity.

*Based on internal research commissioned by Microsoft

Steven Guggenheimer posing for the camera
Steven Guggenheimer
Corporate Vice President - AI & ISV Engagement
As a Microsoft Corporate Vice President I spend my energy helping customers and partners on their adoption of Artificial Intelligence while also helping ISVs partner with Microsoft on developing a new generation of Line of Business SaaS offerings based on Microsoft’s Dynamics, Power Platform, Office and Azure cloud platforms. I have worked in the technology industry for more than 20 years and spent close to a decade leading Microsoft’s efforts to create a more vibrant ecosystem across both hardware and software as the leader of our OEM & DPE/DX teams accordingly, along with a variety of leadership roles across the Microsoft product portfolio.

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