(left-to-right: Robert DeMarzo of MSP Summit and Microsoft's Jason Jones)
Jason Jones, Microsoft’s director of global partner solutions, spoke at an MSP Summit keynote interview about MSPs’ importance to Microsoft, and offered advice for succeeding in today’s AI world.
“You've got to move faster, and that applies to me as well,” Jones said. “I've been through everything. I remember Token Ring. Then client-server, then this cloud thing, and now this AI transformation. The shocking thing is the pace and speed. Two weeks ago I was with some partners whose concern was that their customers were more knowledgeable about AI than they were, and they feared being left behind. So it's not only speed, it's skilling.
“That's a daily conversation with our distribution partners, our system integrators, and our MSP channel: ‘how do we move faster?’ It's coming at us so fast. Every day we challenge our distribution partners, our MSPs, and ourselves internally. How do we get to market, with the right level of security and the right message, while still maintaining control?”
He also offered what he termed a “shameless plug” to help keep up with AI skills: the Microsoft Partner Skilling Hub. “That's all you need to remember,” Jones said. “That's where all our skilling plans are. When people say, ‘My salespeople need to know more about Copilot and I don't know where to start,’ my first answer is ask Copilot. My second is go to the Skilling Hub and take that learning journey. I don't have secret training, I go to the Skilling Hub myself. It's phenomenal.”
As a major AI player, Microsoft faces plenty of competition from not only hyperscalers such as AWS and Google but well-funded startups such as OpenAI and Anthropic that are aggressively building channel programs.
“I think all of those companies realize the potential of partnering with the MSP channel, but Microsoft has been doing it for 30 years,” he said. “We've been making that investment across time, so we aren't asking whether there's a need. There's an absolute need right now. AI is great and exciting, and there are stories every day. At the end of the day, [MSPs are] on the front lines of data governance and security. That's a massive opportunity.”
Jones pointed out that Microsoft earnings show the giant brings in $1 billion a day in revenue, and “that does not happen with you, the MSP ecosystem. Collectively, your power and your voice permeate a lot of the changes we make. Even if they take a while, they happen because of the feedback we hear from the community.”
He also marveled at the way the MSP ecosystem is truly a community, unlike other markets.
“One thing I've always loved about the MSP community is that it is a community,” he said. “We don't see this across other ecosystems. We don't see CDW sitting down with SHI to share best practices, and we don't really see Ingram sharing best practices with TD Synnex. What we see is MSPs gathering together. That includes this community, and smaller ones like the ASCII community, and ConnectWise has IT Nation.”
He added: “I'm really passionate about how important MSPs in particular are to our success. We cannot do what we do as a company without you on the front lines. It's not easy, and we aren't always the easiest vendor to work with, but Microsoft has never invested more money and resources into our channel than during this time.”