What to look for when choosing a Microsoft Cloud Distributor

In the first post of this series, I gave examples of the questions you, as a Microsoft reseller, might want to ask of a prospective CSP Distributor (the partners Microsoft used to call indirect CSP providers, and that many people in the channel still refer to that way casually). And if you're reading this because you've recently been moved off direct-bill CSP and you're choosing your first CSP Distributor, that post is the best place to start. Building on competencies, support and skills, this post focuses on practice development, the CSP platform experience, and partner-to-partner engagement.

CSP Distributors are actively focused on showing you how they add value to the relationship you build. It's in their interest, since both parties see success each month through the various profit margins, rebates and incentives earned for every pound spent on Microsoft products and services. Crucially, it's easier than ever for a reseller to switch providers, so they have to work harder to keep your business. The conversation pivots away from price and margin towards value, growth, relationship and success. That isn't unique to traditional 'broadline' distributors; it's a shift across the 'born in the cloud' challenger distributors too.

Practice Makes Perfect

The skills gap hasn't gone away. If anything, it's wider, because the surface area has grown to include Microsoft 365 Copilot, custom agents, Copilot Studio, the Microsoft Agent Framework, and the operational disciplines (responsible AI, data readiness, evaluation) that come with them. Businesses of all shapes and sizes are recruiting for these roles. It's never been easier to learn about Microsoft technologies, and the current certification and Applied Skills catalogue makes it straightforward to validate that learning. Demonstrating skills attainment is an important step towards Solutions Partner designations and Specializations under the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program, but on its own it doesn't guarantee success.

Microsoft has made much of the importance of developing differentiated, vertically aligned, repeatable solution offerings. The current generation of partner playbooks lives in Microsoft Partner under the various Solutions areas, and the AI Cloud Partner Program ties them back to recognised designations. Today, that includes practices for AI and Copilot adoption, agent build and run, secure data foundations for AI, Azure migrate and modernise, and the Industry Clouds.

If you're new to some of these areas, building a practice from scratch is a daunting prospect. This is where your prospective CSP Distributor should be able to help. I'd be asking:

1. How do you support me through practice and solution development beyond pure skills attainment, especially for Copilot adoption and agent build?

2. How do you help me market my practice or solution capabilities (co-sell readiness, marketplace listings, AI Design Wins, customer references)?

3. What case studies or references can you show me of partners you've taken from zero to a working practice in the last twelve months?

Look for documentation in the answers. CSP Distributors should be proud and keen to wax lyrical on the successes they've supported, and that should be easy to share.

When is a platform not a platform?

One thing CSP Distributors are typically excellent at is handling transactions. It's in their DNA. That's usually delivered through a platform, either developed in-house or licensed from a platform provider, sitting on top of Microsoft Partner Center and the CSP APIs. In any situation, it's generally your primary way to create quotes, place orders, raise support requests and handle billing. While many CSP Distributors have similar functionality, there are no universally guaranteed core capabilities. Some platforms are basic, 'good enough', where others are evolving fast to capitalise on data, analytics and (increasingly) AI to enrich the experience for resellers.

The platform conversation has moved on since I first wrote this post. The interesting battlegrounds now are around marketplace and co-sell automation, FinOps and cost optimisation for your Azure customers, Microsoft 365 Copilot adoption tracking, agent governance, and the integration of the disti's own AI agents into your day-to-day workflow. For me, it should be a bit of all of those things, and more. CSP Distributors occupy a unique position in the sales cycle, with sight of a tremendous amount of data that could help you spot trends and opportunities to better serve your customers. The race is on to see which disti turns that data into something genuinely useful for the channel.

You may make your decision about which CSP Distributor to use based purely on the platform experience. I'd be thinking about the following questions:

1. How does your platform equip my business with the knowledge and insights to have more intelligent conversations with my customers (consumption trends, optimisation recommendations, Copilot adoption signals, renewal risk)?

2. What are the availability SLAs for your platform? Is it independently audited for security (penetration testing, ISO 27001, SOC 2), and how do you handle data residency and the UK GDPR?

3. Can I bring my own identities to access your platform through federation, multi-factor authentication, conditional access and role-based controls? Does it support modern Microsoft Entra ID integration?

4. What's your roadmap for marketplace, co-sell and AI Design Win automation? How will I transact agents and SaaS offers through you alongside traditional CSP subscriptions?

Operating a modern, feature and insight-rich platform should be one of the jewels in the crown of a CSP Distributor. Some still see them as a 'necessary evil' rather than a strategic differentiator. The most revealing test is what happens behind the scenes: if onboarding, provisioning or billing depends on a hand-crank requiring lengthy human intervention, that's a platform in name only. Customers expect a certain pace from their suppliers. Can your chosen CSP Distributor meet the standards you and your customers demand?

Let's stick together

I mentioned earlier in this post the skills gap and the importance of practice development. It's true to say that not every reseller can spread bets to every opportunity. Sometimes it makes sense to partner with a relevant business to deliver a solution worth more together than your individual abilities can achieve. For example, you might have a rich set of capabilities in modern work, and know you can dramatically improve the situation for one of your customers by coupling Microsoft 365 Copilot with Dynamics 365 Business Central and a custom agent. Rather than learn the nuances of the Dynamics cloud and agent development from scratch, it makes more sense to partner with a specialist, divide and conquer the opportunity, and improve the chances of delivering something successful.

CSP Distributors interact with a significant number of channel partners, so they have the opportunity to build a community of partners who can share knowledge, skills and opportunities. Facilitating partner-to-partner connections is genuinely valuable, and a healthy community is something a CSP Distributor should be keen to showcase. To that end, here's what I'd be asking:

1. How do you build and run a community amongst your channel partners (events, digital communities, regional groups)?

2. How will you connect me to complementary organisations to win bigger, broader and more meaningful opportunities, including Microsoft co-sell plays?

3. Where have you successfully facilitated partner-to-partner opportunities (case studies, references, joint marketplace offers)?

Some partners, understandably, see their competitors as a threat. Sharing knowledge, best practice, skills and opportunities is a 'forward thinking' stance, and not something every partner is comfortable with. That said, there's a growing contingent of partners who recognise the power of partnership: a growth mindset, a sharing and collaborative posture, and lasting relationships to galvanise success. Microsoft now calls this kind of partner a Frontier partner, and that's the cohort that benefits most from a well-run disti community. If that sounds like you, make sure to build a relationship with a CSP Distributor who can support those philosophies.

Conclusion

The CSP Distributor market is diverse. It isn't always clear how to compare and contrast the different offerings each presents to its resellers. That's why asking questions matters. I'd like to hope that in time, CSP Distributors will answer many of these questions and more by default.