ArchitectNow Earns Microsoft Support Services Designation

Customer-validated recognition adds to firm's existing Solutions Partner designations and AI Apps on Azure Specialization

Microsoft just awarded ArchitectNow the Support Services designation. It sits on top of our existing Solutions Partner designations in Digital & App Innovation, Data & AI, and Infrastructure, and our AI Apps on Azure Specialization. It's worth a real explainer, because this designation is structured differently from anything else in the Microsoft partner program.

Where it sits in the partner program

Microsoft's partner ecosystem has gone through a few rebrands over the years. Today it's called the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program, and it has three layers of recognition that layer on top of each other.

The base layer is the Solutions Partner designation. There are six categories (Digital & App Innovation, Data & AI, Infrastructure, Business Applications, Modern Work, and Security), and you earn each one by hitting a points-based scorecard that combines certifications, customer success metrics, and Azure consumption. Most Microsoft partners hold one or two. Holding three is meaningful. Holding more than that is rare.

On top of the Solutions Partner layer sit the Specializations, which are deep-dive credentials in specific technical domains. Things like AI Apps on Azure, Kubernetes, SAP on Azure, and so on. Specializations require third-party technical audits in addition to the Solutions Partner prerequisites. They're harder to earn and they're meant to identify partners who do not just have a footprint in a category, but who actually go deep in a specific area.

The Support Services designation is a third, separate track. It does not replace the other two and it cannot be earned without them. It's specifically about whether you can support what you sell.

What the designation actually means

Microsoft launched the Support Services designation in late 2025 and rolled out the automated Partner Center qualification experience in March 2026.

There are tens of thousands of Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partners in the Microsoft ecosystem. Most of them are perfectly competent. Some of them sell licenses, collect margin, and disappear when something breaks. Customers who get burned by that experience often blame Microsoft, even when the partner is the issue.

The Support Services designation is Microsoft's answer. It's a public, customer-validated signal that a partner can actually deliver support, not just resell it. To carry the badge, the partner has to clear a five-step qualification process and re-qualify on a rolling basis.

The five-step qualification:

Step 1: Hold an active Solutions Partner designation. This is the entry ticket. If you don't already have at least one Solutions Partner designation in good standing, you don't get to apply for Support Services. This filters out partners who have not even cleared the foundation.

Step 2: Be enrolled in the Cloud Solution Provider program. Direct Bill or Disributor — either works. The point is that the partner has a contractual support relationship with their customers through CSP, not just a referral arrangement.

Step 3: Carry an active Microsoft support plan. Specifically Advanced Support for Partners (ASfP) or Premier Support for Partners (PSfP). These are paid Microsoft support contracts that give partners a direct escalation path into Microsoft engineering. Without one, the partner has no way to actually get a stuck Microsoft issue resolved on a customer's behalf.

Step 4: Pass a 12-month performance audit. This is the quiet step that filters out a lot of applicants. Microsoft looks at the partner's support case volume against their CSP-billed revenue over a rolling year. If the math doesn't add up, meaning the partner is collecting CSP margin without actually doing the support work, they don't qualify. It's a back-end check that's hard to fake.

Step 5: Pass the Customer Success Survey. Microsoft sends a survey directly to the partner's customers. The customers grade the partner on response time, technical expertise, problem resolution, communication, and overall recommendation. The partner does not see the responses before Microsoft does. If customers don't vouch for the partner, no designation. This is the step that makes the whole credential mean something.

Why the customer survey is the real test

Most partner badges are checklist exercises. Pass an exam, accumulate points, log certifications, hit a revenue threshold, you're in. Once you're in, you stay in until the next renewal cycle.

The Customer Success Survey breaks that pattern. The partner is not the one being asked. The customer is. And the customer is being asked by Microsoft directly, in a context where the customer has nothing to lose by being honest.

That is the part of the designation that we think actually matters. It's the part that makes this credential different from a logo on a website. It's the part that means, when a customer sees the Support Services designation on a partner profile, they're seeing the result of other customers having vouched for that partner on the record.

What this signals for customers evaluating Microsoft partners

If you're a Microsoft customer evaluating partners, the Support Services designation is one of the cleaner signals to look for. It is not a marketing claim, it is not a self-attestation, and it cannot be earned by spending money. It requires that real customers, in writing, told Microsoft that the partner delivered.

We hold this designation alongside our Solutions Partner designations in Digital & App Innovation, Data & AI, and Infrastructure, and our AI Apps on Azure Specialization. Each of those credentials measures a different thing, and we think the combination is what actually matters. The Solutions Partner designations show category depth. The Specialization shows technical depth in a specific domain. The Support Services designation shows that the customers we already work with grade us well enough to keep the badge.

A small note from us

We don't typically write up every Microsoft credential we earn. Most of them quietly land in the footer of the website. This one is worth pausing on because support is the part of any technology engagement that becomes invisible when it works and existential when it doesn't.

If you're already working with us, nothing changes except that you have one more piece of third-party validation that you bet on the right team. If you're not working with us and your looking for a great partner to work with, we're glad to have a conversation.