Is your Partner staying Direct with Microsoft, you should probably be asking that question of your Partner
If you’re underwriting a Dynamics partner acquisition right now, ask them one question: are they staying direct with Microsoft next year?
What else is hiding in that diligence blind spot?
Microsoft’s FY27 partner requirements are getting harder to hit every year. Revenue thresholds are climbing, support obligations are expanding, security investment is no longer optional, and operational readiness expectations keep moving the bar.
A growing number of Business Central partners are quietly reassessing whether staying direct still makes sense for their business.
Here is why I think that matters far beyond the partner community itself. If you’re a PE or VC operating partner evaluating a Dynamics-focused acquisition target, that direct-versus-indirect status should not be a secondary consideration. It affects margin structure, Microsoft roadmap access, customer relationships, and how much control the firm actually has over its own future.
A target firm that gets pushed to indirect mid-hold can see its economics shift in ways that were never modeled in the deal.
This is why I keep telling clients that technical and financial diligence alone will not catch this. You also need people on the ground who understand what direct status actually requires operationally, and what it takes to build or acquire the talent to hold onto it.
Scaling security investment, customer success functions, and delivery capacity is a talent problem before it is anything else, and it belongs in the diligence conversation just as much as the cap table does.
If you are looking at a Dynamics or NetSuite partner acquisition and want a second set of eyes on the talent side of that equation, I would love to talk. This is exactly the kind of blind spot we help clients see before it becomes a post-close surprise!
Credit to MSDynamicsWorld’s BC Insiders series for putting this on the radar, hosted by PartnerTalks’ Rick McCutcheon with MSDW editor Jason Gumpert, TD SYNNEX’s Tracy Beyer, and a panel of partners who have lived through this decision firsthand.
Worth a registration if you work anywhere near the Dynamics partner ecosystem: https://lnkd.in/g4ihEGUA
What else is hiding in that diligence blind spot?
Microsoft’s FY27 partner requirements are getting harder to hit every year. Revenue thresholds are climbing, support obligations are expanding, security investment is no longer optional, and operational readiness expectations keep moving the bar.
A growing number of Business Central partners are quietly reassessing whether staying direct still makes sense for their business.
Here is why I think that matters far beyond the partner community itself. If you’re a PE or VC operating partner evaluating a Dynamics-focused acquisition target, that direct-versus-indirect status should not be a secondary consideration. It affects margin structure, Microsoft roadmap access, customer relationships, and how much control the firm actually has over its own future.
A target firm that gets pushed to indirect mid-hold can see its economics shift in ways that were never modeled in the deal.
This is why I keep telling clients that technical and financial diligence alone will not catch this. You also need people on the ground who understand what direct status actually requires operationally, and what it takes to build or acquire the talent to hold onto it.
Scaling security investment, customer success functions, and delivery capacity is a talent problem before it is anything else, and it belongs in the diligence conversation just as much as the cap table does.
If you are looking at a Dynamics or NetSuite partner acquisition and want a second set of eyes on the talent side of that equation, I would love to talk. This is exactly the kind of blind spot we help clients see before it becomes a post-close surprise!
Credit to MSDynamicsWorld’s BC Insiders series for putting this on the radar, hosted by PartnerTalks’ Rick McCutcheon with MSDW editor Jason Gumpert, TD SYNNEX’s Tracy Beyer, and a panel of partners who have lived through this decision firsthand.
Worth a registration if you work anywhere near the Dynamics partner ecosystem: https://lnkd.in/g4ihEGUA
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