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Build and publish with ISV Success

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Appropriate roles: Microsoft Entra ID tenant member

ISV Success, an offering available within the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program, is a 12-month program designed to help Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) innovate rapidly, build well-architected applications, publish to the Microsoft commercial marketplace, and grow their sales. It also provides product benefits like Azure credits, cloud benefits, technical consultations, developer tools and support, early AI tool access, and marketing assistance.

This program is open to ISVs across the globe who build business-to-business (B2B) applications by using the Microsoft Cloud and who intend to publish their solutions to the commercial marketplace.

Eligibility criteria

To be eligible for ISV Success, a partner must meet the following requirements.

  • Partner's company must be headquartered in a country or region that isn't included on Microsoft's embargo list.
  • Partner must have an ongoing application development project, or started developing an application project that meets the following criteria:
    • B2B focused
    • Built on or integrated with Microsoft Cloud
    • Externally available and intended for repeat sales
    • At least one developer must be assigned for app development
  • Commitment to initiating app development within three months and completing app development within 12 months.
  • Commitment to publish app to the Microsoft commercial marketplace
  • Agree to the terms and conditions in the Microsoft ISV Success Benefits Guide, which are incorporated into the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program Agreement

Enrollment

Use the following steps to enroll in ISV Success:

  1. Navigate to ISV Hub where you find options to join ISV Success, or sign in.
    • If you're new to Microsoft partner programs, select Join ISV Success
    • If you're already part of Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program or other Partner Center programs, select Sign in and sign in with your work account
  2. In the following steps, you're prompted to fill out details about yourself, your company, and your app. This information includes company size, app features, and your cloud integration. For more details on what information is collected, review the prerequisites for enrolling.
  3. If you qualify, additional information about your organization is collected to assist with the account verification.
  4. After you finish all the steps in ISV Hub, you're redirected to Partner Center, where you can view your ISV Success journey, activate ISV Success benefits, and manage your account details.

For questions regarding ISV Success enrollment, refer to our FAQ in this article.

ISV Success journey

After successful enrollment, partners can track their journey through Partner Center's ISV Success - Build & Publish page.

Going through the steps helps streamline your app journey, but also unlocks valuable product, marketing, and technical consultation benefits. These benefits help you to build and publish applications faster and market them effectively.

As an initial step once you get started, your company goes through a verification process with Microsoft, which usually takes 3-5 business days. During this process, Microsoft might send email to your primary contact to request other verification documentation. You can go to Legal info in Partner Center to monitor verification status. To understand more about the verification process, review Verify your account information when you enroll in a new Partner Center program.

Screenshot showing the ISV Success build and publish page.

Benefits

You have an opportunity to redeem several types of benefits to assist with the building and publishing your application as part of ISV Success. These benefits can be redeemed and used up to 12 months (one year) from the date of enrollment or renewal.

Core package benefit list

  • Azure benefits:

    • Microsoft Azure sponsorship ($5k USD usage)
    • Azure standard support plan

  • Product benefits:

    • Microsoft 365 E5 developer subscription
    • Dynamics 365 Sales, Field services, and Customer Service partner sandbox
    • Dynamics 365 discounted and free licenses
    • Visual Studio Enterprise subscription
    • GitHub Enterprise Cloud subscription*
    • Limited access features for Azure AI Services

  • One-to-one support:

    • Business Readiness Sessions
    • Application design session (ADS) consultation
    • Application design review (ADR) consultation
    • Application publishing consultation
    • AI technical consultation
    • Marketplace listing optimization

    * Only for the first 12-month engagement

Access your benefits

To access your benefits, follow these steps:

  1. Sign in to Partner Center, then select Benefits.
  2. Locate the benefits in the following categories: Azure credits, Cloud services, developer tools, technical support and consultation, and marketing benefits.
  3. Activate any of these benefits instantly from this section in Partner Center. Partner Center provides details on the process to redeem each of the individual benefits.

Expanded benefits

Some ISVs enrolled in ISV Success might be invited to participate in the Expanded Benefits benefit offering. Disbursement of these benefits occurs outside of the Partner Center experience. Benefits, in addition to the Core Package benefit list, include:

  • Additional Azure sponsorship (another $20k USD, totaling $25k USD with Core)
  • 50 hours of one-to-one support through technical consultations

The ISV Success Expanded Benefits Offering is available to existing ISV Success participants. Microsoft examines a combination of factors in determining whether an ISV Success participant is eligible for the ISV Success Expanded Benefits Offering, including Marketplace Billed Sales (MBS) and Azure Consumed Revenue (ACR) or for some AI offerings. Microsoft reserves the right to make all eligibility determinations in its sole discretion.

Advanced benefits

As of November 18, 2024, we're excited to introduce the Advanced Package for our highest performing ISVs across build, publish, and grow stages of ISV Success. The Advanced Package is available for ISVs with a Certified Software Designation who are enrolled in ISV Success. For build and publish, the Advanced Package offers up to $100K in cash incentives for software companies building applications on Azure AI or Analytics services and publishing to the commercial marketplace. This incentive builds on the benefits of the Expanded Package, including 50 hours of technical consultations and Azure credits, to help technical teams bring their app to market faster. For grow (Marketplace Rewards), ISVs can get up to $50K to simplify end-customer migrations to their cloud app. ISVs that meet these criteria can get full details on these cash incentives from their assigned ISV Success engagement manager.

Renewal

This section describes renewal eligibility, when your company can renew, and how to renew.

Eligibility

A partner can renew into another 12 months of ISV Success Build and Publish.

The option to renew becomes available to eligible 30 days prior to the end date of the current benefit's package. Eligibility is based on account verification, billing profile creation, publication status, and being within the 30 days of the benefit's end date. Eligibility can be confirmed in the Partner Center in the Membership offers page.

Shows a screen capture example of a partner who published, but won't be able to complete signing up to renew until January 1, 2025, so is ineligible for renewals.

To be eligible to renew ISV Success, a partner must meet the following requirements:

  • Published an offer to the commercial marketplace or upgraded an offer to transactable since they started their latest engagement with ISV Success.
  • Meet all requirements outlined for ISV Success in the eligibility requirements. See Eligibility criteria in this article.
  • Completed a billing profile setup to pay the $1,500 USD renewal fee For more information, see Link billing account and profile to Partner Center account
  • Have another offering to publish to the commercial marketplace.

How to know when your company can renew

On the ISV Success | Build & Publish page, you see a section with your status information. The first part of the page has a Renewal info section that has the date when your renewal becomes available. The renewal available date displays the first date when you're eligible to renew.

If your renewal status is Not eligible, you can see why the renewal status is disabled in the same section.

If your renewal status is Eligible, you're able to access Click to Renew.

Steps to complete the renewal

  1. Navigate to Partner Center, Membership > Membership Offers, page two.

  2. Select the ISV tab and select Buy Now

  3. On the menu that appears, fill out the form about your next app, provide contact information, and read over and agree to the terms and conditions.

  4. After checking the box, select Renew now.

  5. Select a payment method.

  6. Select Proceed, to continue to the Checkout page.

  7. Ensure your information and payment method are correct, check the offer summary for pricing information and, when you're ready, select Accept Payment & Place Order.

  8. Your payment method is charged at this point. You're directed to an Order status page.

    Tip

    If your order number and date shows on the page, capture them.

  9. When your order processes, you can navigate back to the ISV Success Build & Publish page and see that your renewal status is Renewed.

Note

GitHub Enterprise Cloud subscription benefit is not included in the ISV Build & Publish renewal benefits.

Frequently asked questions

What qualifies me for the sales and marketing benefit of ISV Success?

To qualify for the sales and marketing benefits of ISV Success, you must publish your app through Microsoft commercial marketplace, Azure Marketplace or Microsoft AppSource. Learn more about Microsoft commercial marketplace.

I'm enrolling in ISV Success; why do I need to sign agreements for the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program and Commercial Marketplace?

Joining both Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program and Commercial Marketplace is the prerequisite to join ISV Success. The Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program (formerly called the Microsoft Partner Network) connects you to Microsoft partners, resources, and offerings to help you build and deliver solutions to your customers. The Commercial Marketplace enables you to publish your apps to Microsoft AppSource or Azure Marketplace, expanding your reach and allowing for repeat sales.

If I wanted to enroll in other programs (for example, Microsoft 365, and Copilot) after I completed ISV Success enrollment, where should I go?

You can explore other programs by signing in to Partner Center. In Partner Center, you find various partner programs and opportunities listed under the Membership or Programs section. Learn about Programs and memberships you can enroll in.

I completed my enrollment, but why don't I see my ISV Success journey in Partner Center?

After you enrolled, it might take up to 24 hours for the right status to reflect in the membership and benefits workspace.

How can I update the information I provided during the enrollment?

Sign in to Partner Center and navigate to your account settings or enrollment details section. From there, you can modify your personal, company, or app information as needed.

Why do some of the steps show In progress, even after I completed them?

After you complete a step, it might take up to 24 hours for the right status to reflect in the membership and benefits workspace.

Why can't I see my ISV Success benefits?

If you're an early participant of ISV Success (enrolled before January 23, 2023), your benefits won't be displayed on the Benefits workspace on Partner center. You can reach out to your engagement manager for queries about your benefits.

I published a 'contact me' listing in the Microsoft Commercial Marketplace. Does it qualify me to renew for a subsequent year of benefits?

Yes, it meets the qualifications for ISV Success Build and Publish. However, publishing transactable allows you to access Marketplace Rewards, a free benefit offering providing you to access tiers of benefits. For more information, see: Marketplace Rewards.

During my 12 month benefits package, I used a previous contact for my listing and upgraded it to transactable. Does it meet the requirements to renew for a subsequent engagement?

Yes!

Can I stack the ISV Success benefits on top of other benefits I'm receiving as a member of other benefits in Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program?

You can use benefits by sponsorship. For information about how each type of benefit works, visit the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program Benefit FAQ.

During my prior year of using ISV Success Build and Publish benefits I didn't publish an offering due to unforeseen circumstances at my organization. Can I receive another year at no or reduced cost?

As a part of the terms and conditions of each year of benefits, it's a requirement that each year of benefits has either a new offer published to the marketplace, or an existing offer upgraded to a transactable offer. If a partner doesn't meet these requirements, they're unable to re-enroll for a subsequent year of benefits until that is complete.

I completed the renewal process but didn't get an email. Where does the confirmation email go?

This email is sent to the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program Partner Admin in your organization.

I'm having trouble with payment processing or my billing profile, what are resources I can use?

For resources to set up or manage your billing profile, see: