cimply's three Microsoft solution areas.
- AI Business Solutions: Microsoft 365, Teams and secure hybrid work, set up and supported properly
- Cloud and AI Platforms: your data turned into insight, and business apps built in Azure
- Security: Microsoft security tools configured, monitored and kept current across every user, device and account
Before and after
Proof you can check, not a promise.
Most IT partners say they know Microsoft. A designation means Microsoft has measured it.
Before:
Picking an IT partner on trust alone. Anyone can claim deep Microsoft expertise, there's no easy way to check that claim, and you only discover how far the skills really go when something important breaks.
After:
Picking an IT partner Microsoft has measured. Certified engineers, real results in client environments and a designation reassessed every year, shown on cimply's profile in Microsoft's partner directory so you can check before you sign.
What it means
What is a Microsoft Solutions Partner designation?
A Solutions Partner designation is Microsoft's own recognition that a partner has the certified people and the client results to deliver in a specific area. In [month year], cimply became a Solutions Partner in all three of Microsoft's solution areas: AI Business Solutions, Cloud and AI Platforms and Security. Microsoft replaced its old Gold and Silver competencies with designations in 2022, and has since grouped them into these three areas. Each area is earned through one or more designation pathways. Ours are Modern Work for AI Business Solutions, Data and AI and Digital and App Innovation (both on Azure) for Cloud and AI Platforms, and Security.
Area by area
What does each solution area mean for your business?
Each area covers a different part of how your business uses Microsoft. Together they mean one IT partner looks after how your team works, what you build on your data and how all of it is kept secure.
| Solution area | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| AI Business Solutions (Modern Work) | Microsoft 365, Teams and devices set up securely and supported by certified engineers |
| Cloud and AI Platforms (Data and AI, Digital and App Innovation) | Your data turned into reporting you trust, and business apps built and run in Azure |
| Security | Microsoft security tools configured, monitored and kept current across your business |
What you can expect from a designated partner.
- Certified engineers on your account, with skills Microsoft checks every year
- Advice based on how Microsoft products work together, not on a single tool
- Expertise you can verify yourself on Microsoft's partner directory before you sign
“Money alone can't earn a designation. Microsoft measures our certified engineers and real results in our clients' environments, and we have to qualify again every year to keep it.”
Mitchell Hancock
Managing Director, cimply IT Group
How Microsoft measures it.
Each designation is earned on a partner capability score out of 100, which Microsoft calculates from data in its own partner systems. It measures three things: performance (the clients a partner has added over the past year), skilling (how many of its people hold current Microsoft certifications) and customer success (how much clients’ use of Microsoft products has grown, and the new deployments the partner has delivered).
A partner needs at least 70 points and a score above zero on all five metrics, so strength in one area can’t cover a gap in another. The score is recalculated daily, and each designation has to be requalified to renew. Source: Microsoft Learn, partner capability score.
70/100
minimum partner capability score Microsoft requires for any designation
5
individual metrics that must each score above zero to qualify
12 months
between requalifications, after which each designation must be renewed
Confident your defences match today’s threats?
Let’s pressure-test that together. Let’s talk.
