Integration with Microsoft Partner Center

As a partner in the Microsoft ecosystem, you engage with Microsoft via the Partner Center platform.  Via Partner Center, you can publish offers to Microsoft marketplaces, submit or receive referrals, submit deal registrations, and track incentives with Microsoft.

WorkSpan is your platform for planning and collaboration with one or multiple partners. Now with a direct integration between the two platforms, you can manage your partnering motions on WorkSpan AND ensure that updates are received from Microsoft and sent to Microsoft automatically. 

• Receive a referral from Microsoft in Partner Center, the referral is imported into WorkSpan, invite additional partners on WorkSpan for a P2P collaborative deal cycle and send updates back to Microsoft as the deal progresses. 

• Start a pre-pipeline deal in WorkSpan, qualify and collaborate with partners. When the deal matures and you are ready to share the deal with Microsoft, submit the referral to Microsoft Partner Center from WorkSpan.

Manage your Partner to Partner (P2P) motions with Microsoft and additional Partners in WorkSpan: Joint Planning, Pre-Pipeline and Pipeline Collaboration, Track Progress against Plan and keep all parties aligned and accountable. Learn more about this P2P offering on the Microsoft AppSource marketplace.

Using this integration, you can:

• Add Referrals from Microsoft Partner Center - Receive leads from Microsoft in WorkSpan, collaborate with additional partners, include Microsoft and Microsoft sellers at the right stage in the deal lifecycle. 
• Link / Unlink from Microsoft Partner Center - For deals that were independently submitted in WorkSpan and Partner Center, you can link the 2 transactions so updates can flow across the applications.
• Submit to Microsoft Partner Center -  A pre-pipeline opportunity is created in WorkSpan either by a user in your company or submitted by a partner. Opportunity progresses through the qualification steps, in collaboration with partners. When the opportunity is mature, it is submitted as a referral to Microsoft Partner Center.

Add from Microsoft Partner Center

Once the integration is configured, both Incoming referrals (referrals received from Microsoft) and Outgoing referrals (referrals submitted by your company in Partner Center) are periodically refreshed in WorkSpan.

Partner managers in WorkSpan can periodically review these referrals from Microsoft Partner Center and add them to the respective partner Sales Plans.

Steps:

1. Click on Add Opportunities, select Add from Microsoft Partner Center.
2. A view is opened where all Referrals from your company's Microsoft Partner Center account is displayed. Search and select one or multiple referrals to be imported into WorkSpan.
   • Recommend setting the Direction filter to Incoming, to import only Microsoft-sourced referrals.
   • Tip:  If the WS ID and Sales Plan WS ID are already populated, this Referral has previously been imported into WorkSpan. You can import the Referral again and create a new opportunity in a different Sales Plan.
   • This action will create Opportunities in WorkSpan that are linked to the Referrals in Partner Center. 
   • In the confirmation step - confirm the Sales Plan these opportunities should be created in, list any WorkSpan solutions to link to the opportunities, and select additional users to add to the opportunity. 
   • When the action is completed, a confirmation message notifies you that a job has been created to trigger creation of these opportunities. Another message is displayed when the opportunities are created successfully.
3. Review the opportunities created from the Partner Center referrals.
   • Microsoft Partner Center section is updated on the opportunity with the referral fields, including a hyperlink on the Referral ID. Click on this link to open the Referral in Microsoft Partner Center and see additional details such as Comments or perform updates directly in Partner Center.
4. Invite additional partners in WorkSpan to collaborate and progress this opportunity. 
5. Referral updates are automatically propagated to WorkSpan.  For instance - if Referral SubStatus moves to Accepted or Won in Microsoft Partner Center, integration will periodically refresh this status in WorkSpan as well.
6. Opportunity in WorkSpan can also be linked to an Opportunity in your CRM (if CRM integration is also enabled for your company). When CRM sends updates to key fields such as Close Date and Amount, these updates can be automatically synced to the corresponding fields on the Referral in Partner Center.

Link / Unlink from Microsoft Partner Center

In the scenario that the same opportunity is: (a) Created directly in WorkSpan, either by a user in your company, or a pre-pipeline opportunity submitted by your partner, or via a CRM integration, AND (b) Also created by a user directly in Partner Center - you can link the WorkSpan Opportunity with the Referral in Partner Center. 

Steps for Link:

1. Open the opportunity in WorkSpan, click on Gear icon, select Link to Microsoft Partner Center.

2. Referral fields are populated on WorkSpan opportunity in Microsoft Partner Center section of the opportunity fields. 

3. Referral updates in Partner Center are automatically propagated to WorkSpan. 

If the link was set up incorrectly, you can also unlink the referral and link to another referral.

Steps for Unlink:

1. Open the opportunity in WorkSpan, click on Gear icon, select Unlink to Microsoft Partner Center.

2. Referral fields are populated on WorkSpan opportunity in Microsoft Partner Center section of the opportunity fields. 

3. No further updates to this referral will be reflected on the WorkSpan opportunity.

Submit to Microsoft Partner Center

After creating an opportunity in WorkSpan, you can submit the opportunity to create a new referral in Microsoft Partner Center.  This is a manual action and can be performed at any stage of the opportunity.

Steps:

1. Create the pre-pipeline opportunity in WorkSpan, invite partners and progress the opportunity.
2. When the opportunity is ready to be shared with Microsoft,  click on Gear icon, select Submit to Microsoft Partner Center.
3. A form opens to capture the required fields to complete the submission. These fields could have been previously entered on the opportunity and will be auto-filled if the values exist.
   • • You must specify either the Customer DUNS number or Customer Address fields.
     • Customer Contact fields and My Company Contact fields are required. My Company Contact is the contact from your company who will work with Microsoft seller on this deal.
     • You must specific at least one Microsoft Solution to be attached to this referral. Note: This requires selecting the Solution ID from your offering listed in Microsoft Partner Center. There is no support for selecting a Solution Name.
     • Save & Close: This will only save the fields on the opportunity, the submission is not triggered. 
     • Save & Submit: The fields are saved on the opportunity AND the submission is also triggered.
4. A confirmation message is displayed that a job has been triggered for this submission. It can take up to a few minutes for the referral to be created in Microsoft Partner Center. 
   • Check the Integration Status in Microsoft Partner Center section on the opportunity to confirm if the referral was successfully created. If there were any issues submitting the referral, check the errors in the opportunity's Activity Log -> Integration tab.
   • Referral ID is automatically updated and other Referral fields are also set when the referral is created successfully.

Integration Configuration

• This integration is delivered via pre-built flows and connectors on Microsoft Power Automate platform. Your company must have a Power Automate license for this integration to be configured.
• A user from your organization who has Referral Admin rights in the Microsoft Partner Center account must also provide (a) consent for the data to be shared between WorkSpan and Microsoft Partner Center and (b) provide the MPN ID for the company's account in Partner Center. This consent is captured in WorkSpan.
• List of Microsoft Solutions that your company is eligible to access in Microsoft Partner Center, must be added in your company's Microsoft Solutions list of values on WorkSpan. This step is required if you plan to enable the Submit to Microsoft Partner Center action.
• Contact your WorkSpan Customer Success Manager or support@workspan.com to complete the integration configuration.