Technical presales and deployment services
Appropriate roles: Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program Admin
Note
The Microsoft Partner Network is now called the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program.
This article describes technical presales and deployment (TPD) benefits that are available to partners on the Benefits page in Partner Center.
Use TDP for consultations
Use TPD services for personalized, one-to-one consultations. These consultations help you plan, build, and publish your Microsoft AI and cloud service or application and help you close sales opportunities.
| Offer type | Number of advisory hours | Technical presales |
|---|---|---|
| Partner Success Expanded benefits | 10 | Unlimited |
| Partner Success Core benefits | 5 | Deducts advisory hours |
| Partner Launch benefits | - | - |
| Solutions Partner designation | 50 | Unlimited |
| Legacy Gold | 50 | Unlimited |
| Legacy Silver | 20 | Unlimited |
| Action Pack (MAPS) | 5 | Deducts advisory hours |
Only partners with Solutions Partner designation, Partner Success Core or Expanded benefits, legacy gold/silver benefits, or Microsoft Action Pack are eligible for service. TDP services aren't provided to customers or partners/resellers who don't have the mentioned designations. It includes scenarios in which they might be on the same call as an eligible partner.
Sign in with any Partner Center user account to Create a technical presales and deployment services request.
Use delivery scenarios
The following delivery scenarios help you understand all your technical presales and deployment services options.
Plan your business with Microsoft
Get help assessing your organization's technical capabilities to uncover key opportunities that can help you grow your business:
- Evaluate current skills within your organization
- Create a plan to develop or grow your services, applications, and AI solutions
- Help plan Cloud Service Provider (CSP) Enrollment, including technical architecture and requirements.
Not supported: Training delivery, long-term consulting (over 25 hours per engagement)
Build a service or application
From your product vision to publishing, our consultants advise and support you in the following ways:
- Provide overview and value proposition of available products and scenarios
- Guide architecture design and reviews
- Establish best practices and patterns
- Help make efficient use of Partner Center workspaces, including customer and order management in the CSP program
- Adapt solutions to industry scenarios
- Help listing in the appropriate marketplace
- Guide submissions to co-sell
Not supported: Long-term consulting (over 25 hours per engagement), building complete architecture, code reviews/troubleshooting/performance tuning, application development beyond light proof-of-concepts, hands-on support in a production environment, integration of non-Microsoft solutions.
Provide technical assistance for sellers
Create demos and proofs of concepts and remove sales blockers to help close more sales opportunities:
- Provide demo and proof of concept resources and guidance
- Create technical licensing Q&A
- Manage customer objections
- Help in Pricing and Billing workspaces in Partner Center, specific to the CSP program
Not supported: Sales pipeline planning, complete demo environments, end-customer discussions, licensing pricing and price lists, RFP response, and license terms.
Grow and support your business
Consultants are here to support you in the following ways, even after you build and sell your service or application:
- Provide implementation guidance
- Review design and guide modification
- Incorporate changes into base build
- Broaden your footprint with existing customers
- Improve the Security Posture of the Partner organization and support CSP customers in Partner Center using security best practices
- Help develop application and automation using Partner Center Software Development Kit (SDK) & API.
Not supported: Break-fix support and troubleshooting, hotfixes, on-site services, direct-to-customer support, or hands-on support in a production environment.
Use the technical support for Independent Software Vendors (ISVs)
Through the steps you take to build, publish, and modernize the application, our consultants advise and support you in the following ways:
- Provide overview and value proposition of available products and scenarios
- Offer architecture design guidance to build a well-architected app
- Provide architecture review guidance
- Assist with application coding focused on technical knowledge transfer
- Establish best practices and patterns
- Guide you when you move your app from another cloud service or on-premises environment to Azure
- Adapt solutions to industry scenarios
- Provide Azure standard support
- Help listing in the appropriate marketplace
- Provide guidance for submission to co-sell
- Guide you on modernizing your application to accelerate time to market, deliver innovative experiences and improve security, efficiency, and reliability
Understand the in-scope products and services
The following cloud or cloud-hybrid products and services are in-scope for TPD:
Microsoft 365: All Microsoft 365 platforms and services, such as Microsoft Teams, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive, Yammer, Project Online, Microsoft Endpoint Management, Microsoft Entra, Microsoft Purview, and Windows 11 Pro/Enterprise
- Out of Scope: Exclusively on-premises Office Servers – Exchange and SharePoint
Business Applications: Microsoft Dynamics 365 (online), Microsoft Power Platform (Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, Power Virtual Agents, Power Pages), Microsoft Sales Copilot
- Out of Scope: Exclusively on-premises versions of Dynamics 365, GP, SL, AX, NAV
Microsoft Azure: All Microsoft Azure solutions and related services, such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) services, Developer services, Azure Stack, or Cloud services used to develop gaming or Mixed Reality solutions
- Out of Scope: Requests related to hardware devices, such as HoloLens and Xbox
Windows Server and SQL Server: Within mainstream support as governed by the product lifecycle
- System Center includes related products, such as System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), if related to cloud or hybrid scenarios
Products in Private or Public Preview: Help is provided on a best-effort basis, for nonproduction environments, and with no guarantee of information availability or response time
Submit a TPD services request
Your TPD benefits automatically activate and are available to all Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program-associated users.
To view your TPD benefits in Partner Center:
Sign in to Partner Center and select Benefits.
Select Technical pre-sales & deployment.
Note
If your account is only associated to the CSP program and not associated with Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program, you see the error message, "You aren't authorized for this action. You must have a program-associated account."
If you have no active Membership offers, you see the message "Looks like you don't have any benefits yet." If your company has active membership offers but you can't see them, you maybe signed in using the wrong account. To check your account, select the Account icon at the top right of the page, and then select Sign-in with another account, if necessary.
Select the Partner Advisory Hours benefit name link that you want to use.
Under the Activate benefit tab, provide the Case title and Case Description. In the Search Products text box, enter the name of the relevant product. If you get too many results, you can filter based on solution area or browse the entries to filter each taxonomy level.
Note
If you need a Cloud Consult as part of your Advanced Support for Partners (ASfP) or Premier Support for Partners (PSfP) support plan, contact your Partner Success Account Manager (PSAM).
Complete the form and submit it. Make sure you include the full international dial code with your phone number. For countries/regions that cover multiple time zones (for example, the United States), indicate your time zone and preferred working hours.
Important
Be sure to select the relevant country/region and language because it determines where your request routes.
The confirmation page shows the support request number and description. You also receive a confirmation email from Partner Center with the case number.
Note
A Partner Technical Consultant should reach out to you within two business days to discuss your request. The consultation delivery timeline is mutually agreed upon and dependent upon the technical scenario.