In this article: Value and opportunity | Type of FPC referrals | How FastTrack Referrals work | Criteria for identifying Benefit and Non-benefit Referrals | Example communications
Overview: FastTrack Partner Community Customer Referrals
Value and opportunity
The goal of FastTrack Partner Community (FPC) referrals is to match Microsoft customers with the right partner, with the right expertise, at the right time.
FPC customer referrals offer numerous benefits to partners:
- Sell and deploy value-added services beyond the benefit to customers.
- Get connected with customers who need the services with which they specialize.
- Lower the cost of customer acquisition.
- Uncover earning opportunities.
- FastTrack drives approximately 95% of all incoming referrals to the FastTrack Partner Community.
- Partner quote: “FastTrack Benefit Referrals help build a relationship with customers.”
- Eighty percent of Referral Ready Partners surveyed want more RFAs (FastTrack Benefit Referrals).
- FastTrack Request for Assistance Form is submitted by customers or the Microsoft field.
- Partners deliver the FastTrack Benefit as outlined in the FastTrack Service Description.
- All FastTrack Ready Partners (FRPs) will receive FastTrack Benefit Referrals.
Non-benefit Referrals
- FastTrack Request for Assistance Form is submitted by customers or the Microsoft field, or from a Microsoft-identified customer propensity list, or as part of a webinar delivery.
- Partners may charge for all Non-benefit services.
- All FastTrack Partner Community (FPC) members (including FastTrack Ready Partners) will receive Non-benefit Referrals.
How FastTrack Referrals work
Both types of referrals (Non-benefit Referrals and FastTrack Benefit Referrals) follow a process including phases of Submission, Evaluation, and Assignment and Partner Delivery.
Submission
A FastTrack Request for Assistance (RFA) may be submitted by the customer via the Microsoft Admin Center or through a form in the Microsoft Setup site. The Microsoft field may also submit RFAs via the Setup site. All RFA requests submitted through the Microsoft Setup site will be routed back to the Tenant Admin for approval prior to triage and assignment to a partner or delivery team. Non-approved submissions will be archived after five weeks. Review the section below, Example communications.
When an RFA is received, it is reviewed and routed to a delivery team as a FastTrack Benefit Referral or a Non-benefit Referral (paid deployment, adoption, or other consulting services).
In addition, the Microsoft program team may identify customers at high propensity for growth with the help of a partner. Those customers may also be assigned to partners as Non-benefit Referrals.
Criteria for identifying Benefit and Non-benefit Referrals
- Once an RFA is submitted, referrals are automatically identified as a Benefit or Non-benefit Referral.
- Referrals become a Benefit Referral when:
- It’s for a non-core workload, or migration assistance is requested.
- Monthly Active Usage (MAU) is less than 10% for core workloads: Exchange Online, OneDrive/SharePoint Online, Teams, M365 Apps.
- At least one workload within a multiple workload request is Benefit eligible.
- All other referrals are considered Non-benefit Referrals.
Evaluation and assignment to partner
- Referral matching of a partner with a customer is dependent upon the following criteria:
- Workload endorsement (see Knowledge Base article about partner endorsements)
- Location where partner services may be provided (home location and other countries served)
- Language in which partner services may be delivered (12 FastTrack languages: Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese (resources speak Mandarin only), English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish, Thai, and Vietnamese)
- Target customer size: Number of employees
- Industry: Limited to Education, Government or Non-profit
- Claim Partner of Record (CPOR) claims by existing partners in the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program
- Once a partner is matched with the customer, the partner receives a Referral Notification email directing them to respond to the referral in the FastTrack Partner Experience (FPX) within two days. The referral is assigned to a different partner or another delivery team if the partner hasn’t accepted the referral within the required time period.
- Once a partner accepts a referral in FPX, the Partner Assignment email is sent to the requestor, the customer, the account team, the FPM, and the partner informing them of the match. The partner is expected to contact the customer within two business days of the assignment email.
Partner delivery
- FastTrack Benefit Referral: the partner is expected to deliver the benefit according to the FastTrack Benefit description and then optionally sell value-added services to the customer.
- Non-benefit Referral: the partner is expected to evaluate the customer situation through a no-obligation consultation and propose. During this consultation, the partner should validate that the FastTrack benefit has been delivered and suggest appropriate paid services for the remaining scope.
- If applicable, the partner should submit a CPOR claim for the workloads serviced for that customer.
Closing a referral
- Partners are expected to return to FPX at the end of the customer engagement to inform Microsoft that the work outlined in the referral is complete. This does not mean that the engagement with the customer is over. It simply provides Microsoft with visibility into the length of a referral service and awareness of when the customer need is fulfilled.
Example communications
Example: Request for Assistance (Benefit Referral)
Example: Admin communication to approve Request for Assistance (Non-benefit Referral)