Navigate the Microsoft Partner of the Year Award 2025
Estimated Read Time: 7 minutes
Intended Audience: Microsoft Partners
What is Microsoft Partner of the Year?
The Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards annual celebration honors Microsoft Partners from around the world for their exceptional work in delivering innovative and impactful solutions using Microsoft technologies. These awards recognize excellence across various categories, including cloud services, AI, sustainability, and industry-specific solutions, highlighting Partners who drive digital transformation and customer success.
Why is Microsoft Partner of the Year Important?
The Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards (POTYA) recognize Partners for their contributions and achievements, aligning with Microsoft’s mission to empower every individual and organization on the planet to achieve more.
What Benefits Come with Winning Microsoft Partner of the Year?
- Gain global recognition and credibility as a top Microsoft Partner.
- Receive marketing and PR exposure through press releases, social media, and Microsoft Ignite.
- Build customer trust by showcasing excellence and innovation.
- Access exclusive opportunities like special programs, executive briefings, and co-selling.
- Expand networks and grow through connections with top Partners, Microsoft leaders, and industry influencers.
Navigating the 2025 POTYA Submissions
What are the POTYA 2025 Guidelines?
- Eligibility requires being a member in good standing of the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program.
- Submissions must include an executive summary with a maximum of 8,000 characters, excluding spaces.
- All entries must be submitted in U.S. English.
- Multiple entries are allowed, but each must be submitted separately.
- Each entry may include one optional supporting document or URL.
- Judging will be based on innovation, customer impact, use of Microsoft technologies, scalability, and alignment with Microsoft priorities such as AI, Copilot, and sustainability.
What are the POTYA 2025 Categories?
The 2025 POTYA features diverse categories across solution areas, industries, impact, innovation, and regions, offering opportunities to showcase excellence in many different fields. Here are the categories:
- Azure
- Business Applications
- Modern Work
- Security
- Industry
- Partner Innovation
- Business Transformation
- Social Impact
- Country/Region of the Year
Each category also has multiple subcategories.
What are the Best Practices for POTYA Submissions?
- Align with category guidelines by ensuring your nomination meets the award category’s specific requirements.
- Tell a compelling story by adding an emotional or cultural hook for engagement and add a 500 character winner summary of your solution and its impact.
- Show value to Microsoft by highlighting customer and business impacts, quantifying where possible.
- Include customer testimonials by providing real feedback or quotes to validate success, with the opportunity to add three customer references.
- Demonstrate alignment with Microsoft by referencing funding, workshops, and strategic support.
- Emphasize co-sell and marketplace success by showcasing wins involving co-selling or marketplace presence.
- Highlight repeatability by explaining how your solution can be scaled or replicated.
- Add hyperlinks to your executive summary to highlight resources and marketplace listings without compromising character count. Nominations can also include an additional five links to what is included in the executive summary and supporting asset.
- Note: The supporting asset section no longer supports MP4 files. We recommend uploading your supporting video to YouTube and linking to it in your executive summary and supporting asset.
Note These Key Dates
Mark your calendar with these key dates to ensure your nomination for the 2025 Partner of the Year Awards is submitted on time and you don’t miss the winner announcements.
- Nominations Open: June 18, 2025.
- Nominations Close: July 18, 2025, at 6:00 PM PT.
- Winners Announced: Typically revealed ahead of or during Microsoft Ignite, which will be held in November 2025.
How the Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards Have Evolved for 2025
The 2025 awards introduce several key changes from 2024, including new categories and tighter eligibility criteria. Below is a breakdown of what’s been updated since last year.
2025 Category Changes
New Categories in 2025
- Accelerate Developer Productivity: A brand-new Azure award focused on GitHub Copilot and DevOps.
- Telco (under Partner Innovation Awards): Introduced as a standalone category, now distinct from the “Media and Telco” category under Industry awards.
Renamed or Repositioned in 2025
- Data Analytics Platform: Formerly called “Analytics,” the category keeps its focus but has been renamed for clarity.
- Innovate with Azure AI Platform: Previously part of “Building with AI,” this category now stands alone with a clearer focus on Azure AI Foundry.
Removed or Consolidated Categories in 2025
- Apps & Solutions for Microsoft Teams: Now part of “Cloud Endpoints” or other Modern Work categories.
- Compliance: Merged into Data Security and Compliance, covering governance, risk, regulatory controls, and data protection.
- Modern Endpoint Management: Now under Secure Productivity, Identity, or Cloud Endpoints; endpoint security is included in broader security strategies.
- Employee Experience: Integrated into Modern Workplace for Frontline Workers or Project & Portfolio Management.
- Communication & Hybrid Cloud Provider: This category has been removed.
- AI-related categories: Categories such as AI Innovation and Modernizing Applications are now organized under AI-specific categories.
2025 Eligibility Criteria Differences
| Area | 2024 | 2025 | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solution Partner Designation | Required for many categories, with flexibility for ISV programs. | Still required, with greater emphasis on having specializations (e.g., “Build AI Apps,” “SAP on Azure”). | -- |
| Marketplace Participation | Encouraged but not mandatory. | Still encouraged, but with a clearer expectation for transactable offers. | Higher bar for “preferred” nominations in 2025. |
| Date of Eligibility | Projects eligible up to January 30, 2024. | Extended to June 1, 2025. | Later cutoff may exclude some recent projects. |
| Executive Summary Requirements | Required basic use case, results, and solution architecture. | Now includes Responsible AI principles, Copilot readiness, and solution repeatability. | 2025 expects alignment with Microsoft frameworks like CAF and WAF for AI. |
Partner of the Year Criteria Updates 2025
Position Your Business for Microsoft Partner Recognition
As the 2025 Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards draw near, now is the moment to plan strategically, stay organized, and align your efforts with Microsoft’s evolving priorities. With updated categories, tighter submission criteria, and a stronger emphasis on AI, repeatability, and measurable customer impact, the competition is more rigorous, but so is the opportunity to shine.
Working with experts who truly understand the Microsoft ecosystem can give you a competitive edge. At Maven Collective, we know what it takes to stand out and succeed as a Microsoft Partner.
Let’s connect to explore how we can support your submission and boost your Microsoft Partner marketing strategy.
