ISV Competency

[ianmoroney]

Greetings,

I am one of the partners which is facing the upcoming removal of the ISV competency, and as a Gold partner with this competency, we are facing losing benefits of 35 Visual Studio Enterprise subscriptions plus other IUR benefits that we avail of.

With nothing for us to migrate to in terms of an equivalent competency, why is Microsoft doing this to its own partner community?
If suddenly the ISV competency is no longer fit for purpose, and Microsoft intend to restructure it and replace it with something else, surely they should be putting the new competency in place before sunsetting the old one so that partners don't lose out on such a substantial benefit?
35 VSE subscriptions is not something that we can find down the back of the sofa. It would equate to real costs for our business and to be honest, would turn us away from the partner program in future if Microsoft just randomly decide to remove competencies with nothing for partners to do as an alternative.

What are we supposed to do?

[xss]

“>”@x.y

[czhu]

Hi Everyone,

I totally understand where you're coming from, and that the process has been frustrating. Have you created a support ticket with Partner Support? That's the best way for our partner support team to look into your individual cases and work with you to find the best solution.

Cathy

[idtpes]

Cathy, while your response is appreciated, we went that route.  Here we are now in April, we lost our Gold status, meanwhile we continue to deal with program, process and people issues at Microsoft.  Answers such as "go to this link" where you can help yourself and figure out which exams to take and pull your staff off billable projects to take exams, prep exams, buy study guides, go to testing centers, etc.   Then the links they send you are BROKEN or have BAD information on them.  Then what you are left to do, send emails or spend hours on the phone waiting for an OFFSHORE agent to take your call and REEXPLAIN everything over and over and then end up right back where you started but BEHIND the eightball in getting the competency achieved.  The entire process is a joke.  Its broke, Microsoft needs to step up and fix it and TEST it before they tell a partner the previous compentency is no longer relevant.  You see, Microsoft created a problem for everybody who had ISV competency and it also created a problem for itself - namely, you have ticked off your ISV community.  

[huislaw]

Hi czhu,

May I know which link to create the support ticket regarding the ISV issue?

The page Partner Support seems like a FAQ listing and I cannot find the link to submit a ticket.

Thanks.

[czhu]

If you click on the "My Support" drop down up top, you'll be given the options to create support tickets for product or advisory issues. For program specific issues, you can go here: https://partner.microsoft.com/en-us/pcv/servicerequests/create or speak to a Regional Service Center agent at +1 800-676-7658 (800-MPN-SOLVE)

Hope that helps!

[BlaineHuntley]

Hi,

I have called into the service centre this morning ( am currently on hold again), have an open case with support for over a week, and no one can give me any answer that is more than, "go to the competency pages". I cannot understand how there is no Partner Rep available that can assist us past that for such a large program.

We have lost access to Visual Studio, our developers are not able to login now which has stopped us from being able to work. I'm not asking for anything free we want to pay our membership fee and re-qualify and need to be able to access benefits today. We just need someone that is beyond that first level of support that can elevate us to someone, anyone, that knows how we can move forward.


Regards,

Blaine

Blaine Huntley | Information Technology Director
GEOSLOPE International Ltd. | www.geoslope.com
1200, 700 6 AVE SW, Calgary, AB, Canada, T2P 0T8
Main: +1 403 269 2002 | Fax: +1 888 436 2239
Direct: +1 403 213 5335|

[cid:image009.jpg@01D4DD7B.0C459670] [cid:image010.jpg@01D4DD7B.0C459670] [cid:image011.jpg@01D4DD7B.0C459670] [cid:image012.jpg@01D4DD7B.0C459670]

[czhu]

Hi Blaine,

Thank you for reaching out to the partner community. We looked into support to get some more context behind this issue and an agent is scheduled to follow up with you in the next day about your competency details. Please let me know if you don't hear from them by Thursday. In the meantime, here are some additional resources about competency renewals that you can refer to as well.

Cathy

[JamesP]

And another sufferer of this foolish decision.

We are about to lose our partnership status and associated benefits unless we can get sufficeint staff certified in the next week.  We've ben using the ISV route for years and have had no notice.

As others have found the partner support line is a joke I'm afraid - the woman I spoke to yesterday said she had only been recently notified of the change - had no useful information other that to email me a link on the partner website that I told her I had already been looking at (thats once she could actually get her internet working at all).

The phone line quality was also almost inaudible.  Both ends struggled.

If MS are introducing a new ISV scheme in 2020 why don't they let all the existing one requalify under the existing scheme until the new system comes into place.

At the moment I have an MD who wants to remove Microsoft from everything we do as a result of this.  Given the drive from much of our customer base towards open source software this couldn't have been a more poorly timed decision from Microsoft.  

[nullable]

I’m facing the same issue. Opened a support ticket, but not even a reply is received.
Is it true that a new ISV category is replacing the current one in 2020?