Show Notes
Recorded live at Microsoft Ignite 2025, San Francisco Microsoft Marketplace continues to be one of the fastest-scaling engines inside the Microsoft ecosystem, and few people are closer to the momentum than Jason Rook, Senior Director for Product Marketing. Fresh off a packed Ignite keynote, Jason sat down with me at Moscone West in San Francisco to break down what’s new, what’s growing, and what the newest wave of Marketplace features means for software companies and channel partners around the world. Marketplace Momentum: Faster Growth, Bigger Deals Jason shared fresh data from their latest Omnia research, and the numbers were eye-opening. One of his standout points came from year-over-year Marketplace growth, especially where software companies and channel partners sell together. “In that segment of the business where software companies and channel partners are selling together, that business is growing 3.5 times as fast.” That acceleration isn’t just volume. It’s deal size, too. “When channel partners and software companies sell together those deals are almost 75 percent larger.” Jason explained that Marketplace growth mirrors a classic Microsoft pattern - when partners get involved, outcomes improve. And now Microsoft has the data to quantify it. The Marketplace Multiplier: $1.75 for ISVs, $6.26 for Channel Partners Jason walked through two specific multipliers from the Omnia study: * ISVs earn an additional $1.75 for every $1 transacted through Marketplace. * Channel partners earn an additional $6.26 for every $1 sold together with a software company. That second multiplier raised eyebrows, so I asked him what drives it. “It’s implementation, it’s design, it’s managed services, support contracts, all those other wraparounds.” This is exactly the type of revenue that channel partners care deeply about. Marketplace isn’t replacing services; it’s expanding them. Resale Enabled Offers: A New Global Channel Motion Microsoft also introduced one of the most significant Marketplace enhancements yet at Ignite: Resale Enabled Offers. This feature allows a software company to take its existing Marketplace offer and transfer it to a channel partner, who can then sell that offer directly to the customer. No republishing. No friction. “We’re giving the software company the ability to take their existing offer and basically just transfer that over to the channel partner, and then the channel partner can sell that offer directly to a customer.” Even more importantly, this capability is enabled in all Microsoft commercial marketplace markets - roughly 130 regions worldwide. The go-to-market implications are massive. A Truly Global Channel Strategy In the past, Marketplace momentum was strongest in the US, UK, and Canada. But with resale-enabled offers now available globally, Jason emphasized that the partner opportunity is no longer constrained by geography. “Now you think about this channel selling motion - it’s truly global now.” This unlocks new motion types: * GSIs * MSPs * SIs * VARs * Regional boutique partners If you have a Microsoft Partner ID and a tax profile - you can participate. Marketplace and Co-Sell Come Together For the last two years, many SIs and MSPs felt Marketplace co-sell motions were out of reach. Not anymore. Jason was clear that resale-enabled offers connect tightly into Microsoft’s co-sell system. “If you’re a systems integrator or managed service provider and you’re like, I’ve been cut out of co-sell because it’s been a marketplace thing… that’s not the case anymore.” Marketplace can now be the transaction system, while partners remain the primary sales motion. Why This Matters to Software Companies ISVs now have three interconnected levers to drive growth: * Marketplace transactions * Channel-led resale * Co-sell acceleration And when partners get involved, deals get bigger, move faster, and carry more attach services. For every product leader thinking about scale in 2025 and beyond, these motions aren’t opti
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