Celebrated annually at Microsoft Inspire, these awards recognise outstanding successes and innovations from across the global and diverse partner ecosystem. Partners can submit to a variety of categories that showcase the range of solutions built on Microsoft cloud and platforms, including two new awards added this year.

Microsoft’s partner ecosystem provides value to customers by delivering innovative solutions and services to businesses and local economies worldwide, and it’s critical these solutions are built to deliver meaningful outcomes for customers and create inclusive economic opportunities.

Microsoft believes technology should be a force for global good and therefore are intentional about recognising partner organisations and technology that is inclusive, trusted and enables a more sustainable and equitable future, empowering every person and organisation to achieve more.

New award categories added

The Operational Excellence Award is for partners who are committed to and recognise the importance of operational excellence to drive partner profitability, digital transformation, consumption, and customer loyalty.

The Compliance Award recognises partners enabling customer success by delivering expertise through the technologies within the Microsoft Compliance product portfolio and advising customers as they navigate today’s compliance challenges.

Read more about these two awards and download the official guidelines here: https://aka.ms/POTYA_Guidelines

Why should you nominate your business?

Nominations take time and skill but at the end of the day, award recognition can greatly benefit your business, starting with greater visibility for your team.  Award winners or finalists often find it creates new or stronger business opportunities, generates positive press coverage and may even lead to increased market recognition.

Tips and tricks for preparing your nomination

Review the official award rules, FAQs and guidance from judges. You can find these in downloadable PDF form on the Partner of the Year Awards website.

Ensure your organisation is eligible for the award you’re nominating for. Things to watch out for are required Microsoft competencies.

Do your research. Select the award category/ies that best match your company’s most significant solutions. Then read through the questions provided and start drafting your answers offline. All responses are limited to 8,000 characters total (spaces included) and are submitted in an executive summary style format.

Don’t wait until the last minute. A good submission can take anywhere between 10 and 15 hours to research, draft, edit and finalise. Each award description outlines the purpose of the award, eligibility for nomination and provides specific points that you’re required to respond to. You can also upload three (3) supporting documents (this could include URLs) to support your entry. Make sure your summary is clear, consistent, purposeful and highlights the problem your solution solved and any resultant benefits to the customer. Review and revise and have it to the point where you simply copy and paste in the online Awards Submission Tool.

Submit before the cut-off date. This seems pretty obvious but it’s worth mentioning! All final nominations must be submitted by March 31, 2022 at 6:00pm Pacific Time (that’s 2pm Friday April 1st for New Zealand). No extensions are granted.

You can submit multiple award nominations but each must be submitted individually via the awards submission application tool and while this is an international award round, your nomination may also be entered for consideration in regional award programs.

Finally, don’t think it’s out of your reach. If you’ve solved a pressing problem and significantly impacted a customer, it’s worth spending a little time and energy on crafting a submission. You may not realise how truly inspiring your solution is to others!