Getting Started Reselling Azure as a New CSP

Microsoft has opened the doors to their Cloud Solution Providers (CSP) to resell Azure Cloud Services! And continued adoption of Cloud Services by startups and SMB's, government agencies, non-profits, enterprise companies... you name it! EVERYONE is adopting the cloud and driving the need for Cloud System Integrator's, Consultants, Solution Providers, Cloud Application Architects, Migration Engineers, Solution Engineers, etc.

As a Microsoft CSP, you own and control the billing cycle. You provide a single bill to your customers for the cloud services you offer plus your own tools, products, and services.  You create financing options on your own terms. You are the first point of contact for your customers’ needs, and you are the center of the customer relationship and experience. You sell integrated cloud solutions and services in a single sales motion. In addition to Microsoft cloud solutions, you sell cloud applications, services and solutions from leaders in the industry plus your own value-added services, including deployment, migration, software customization or custom cloud application development, plus support, ongoing maintenance, or training.

With a defined Go To Market Strategy and a solid Cloud Services Practice offering, you are able to build stronger relationships with your customers and provide added value managing their end-to-end cloud experience.

Listed below are the best practice steps followed by partners to get started that went on to develop very successful Azure Businesses.

• Establish an Azure Champion: Assign a point person to be the go-to person for Azure within your organization. This person’s responsibility should be to stay up to speed on new Azure announcements, drive awareness and a training plan for both sales & technical resources, and be the go-to person for other team members to pull in for specific customer sales/technical questions.
• Set a GOAL 1-2 Punch: This is your investment in your company’s future, so you need to set a goal and invest. A good goal would be to have 1 customer deployed in the next 2 Months on Azure. The great thing is that once you get one customer deployed, the learning will spark lots of ideas for new engagements across your customer base. We typically see partners spinning up multiple new profitable customer engagements shortly after their first sale.

Take a look at this detailed resource @ "Getting Started Reselling Azure" as a new Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) 1-Tier Partner

For details, see the complete article published @
http://blogs.technet.com/b/uspartner_ts2team/archive/2015/04/22/getting-started-with-azure.aspx

For additional Azure Practice Development and Ideas:
https://mspartner.microsoft.com/en/us/Pages/Sales%20and%20Marketing/Cloud%20SureStep%20Azure%20page.aspx

Check out this extensive list of FAQ's about the Microsoft CSP partner program @
https://mspartner.microsoft.com/en/us/pages/solutions/cloud-reseller-faq.aspx#_