Intelligent Modern Solutions
Fractional Microsoft Alliance & GTM Leadership

You invested in Microsoft. The deals never showed up.

Most partners have done what Microsoft asked. They registered for co-sell. They published a Marketplace listing. They showed up to partner calls. And the channel still does not produce. The problem is not the product. It is a handful of conditions, missing or mismanaged, that determine whether a Microsoft seller ever brings you into a deal.

Measure your co-sell readiness See how IMS works
Built by an operator who launched one of Microsoft's fastest-growing products.
IMS Co-Sell Readiness Index Sample result

Why your deals aren't closing

Six dimensions that decide whether Microsoft sells with you.

Marketplace Transactability
Co-Sell Eligibility & Status
Microsoft Field Traction
Enablement & Sales Readiness
Program & Incentive Capture
Measurement & Attribution
17/30
EmergingBinding constraint: Measurement & Attribution
The pattern

If this sounds familiar, it is not just you.

✕

You registered for co-sell and the deals did not follow.

✕

Your marketplace listing exists, but customers are not buying through it.

✕

You are reporting "partner-influenced" revenue your CFO quietly discounts.

✕

Microsoft sellers do not know you exist, or why they would call you.

These are not separate problems. They are symptoms of a co-sell motion missing a few specific, fixable conditions. There is a way to know exactly which ones.

The IMS Co-Sell Readiness Index

Know exactly why your Microsoft deals aren't closing.

The Index scores your motion across the six dimensions that determine whether a Microsoft field seller will co-sell you. You get a clear profile and, more importantly, your one binding constraint: the single thing blocking your deal flow regardless of everything else you are doing.

Take the assessment See a sample result first

Ten minutes. No sales call required to see your score.

01
Marketplace Transactability
02
Co-Sell Eligibility & Status
03
Microsoft Field Traction
04
Enablement & Sales Readiness
05
Program & Incentive Capture
06
Measurement & Attribution
What IMS does

The senior alliance leader you need, without the full-time hire.

A Microsoft-native operator embedded with your team. IMS does not advise and hand off. We design the co-sell motion, engage the field, build the assets, and manage the relationship — the same function a VP of Alliances would own, at a fraction of the cost and overhead. Clients come to IMS when they need an operator inside their business, not a strategy deck.

SELL WITH

Run the co-sell motion

Field alignment, joint messaging, and Microsoft program positioning that shortens deal cycles. Partners in the right program tier with the right co-sell status give Microsoft sellers a financial reason to bring them into deals. IMS builds that position and drives the motion end to end.

  • Co-sell alignment workshop and motion design
  • Joint messaging framework: to Microsoft, to partner, through partner
  • Go-to-market plan with named field and account targets
  • Microsoft program positioning: Solution Partner designations, co-sell status, and incentive alignment that gives sellers a reason to close deals with you
BUILD WITH

Align product to partnership

Integration targets, joint roadmap, and a joint offering that Microsoft sellers can actually position in a deal.

  • Joint roadmap sessions with the product team
  • Integration targets that unlock co-sell eligibility
  • Joint offering definition a seller can position
  • Marketplace transactability and listing readiness
GTM CONTENT

Build the co-sell engine

The assets the motion runs on: solution playcards, briefs, WinWires, and the co-marketing content that creates demand.

  • Microsoft solution playcards and seller one-pagers
  • Solution briefs, WinWires, and customer-facing eBooks
  • Co-marketing blog series and demand-generation kits
  • Overview videos and enablement assets
Engagement Fractional alliance leadership, embedded with your team.
Scope Typically a three-month initial scope against a defined deliverables list.
Model Fixed monthly retainer, with optional deal component on sourced deals.

Not sure where to start?

Most engagements begin with the IMS CRI. It shows which of these capabilities will generate deals first, so the work is aimed at your binding constraint rather than spread thin.

Start with the Index
Where you are today

Wherever you are with alliances, there is a fit.

You have an alliance leader

IMS makes them more effective: the framework, the measurement, and the Microsoft-insider guidance they are missing.

You do not have one yet

IMS is your fractional alliance leader now, and will help you hire and onboard the permanent one when the time comes.

You are not sure you need one

Start with the Index. It will tell you honestly whether partnerships will generate real deals for you.

Who you work with

Senior alliance leadership, fractional by design.

IMS is a fractional Microsoft alliance and go-to-market practice. For more than thirty years its leadership has built and run alliance motions across enterprise IT, ISVs, and the cloud ecosystem, most recently owning the full Microsoft and cloud co-sell motion for an enterprise software vendor.

IMS exists because most partners do not need a full-time VP of Alliances to fix their Microsoft motion. They need someone who has actually run one, for a focused stretch, to find what is broken and fix it. That is the work IMS does.

The practice is commercial first: co-sell strategy, field alignment, marketplace, and the partner programs that fund all of it. It is also fluent enough in the technical side to sit in a roadmap session and know which integration actually unlocks co-sell, rather than taking the engineering team's word for it. That fluency is a quiet advantage, not the headline. The result is a working co-sell motion.

IMS, LLC is a Florida company. Engagements are scoped and retainer-based. We run the readout. We own the plan. We drive the execution. When the time comes to bring on a permanent alliance leader, IMS structures the transition.

Helped launch one of the fastest-growing products in Microsoft history.

Built a top-five solution in the Azure Marketplace.

30+ years of leadership across enterprise IT, ISVs, and cloud partnerships.

Field Intelligence

Resources for practitioners.

Practitioner briefs on Microsoft partner mechanics, co-sell program structure, and how deals actually get created.

Practitioner Brief

The Five Conditions That Make Microsoft Sellers Bring You Into a Deal

Most partners never get co-sell deals. This brief explains the five specific conditions that separate the partners who do, grounded in how Microsoft field incentives and co-sell mechanics actually work. Updated for Microsoft FY27.

Read the brief
Practitioner Brief

What Fractional Microsoft Alliance and GTM Leadership Actually Is

The role Microsoft assumes you already have, and what happens when no one is filling it. What fractional means, what the IMS model looks like in practice, and how to know if fractional is the right structure for your stage.

Read the brief
Practitioner Brief

The 90-Day Co-Sell Motion: From Co-Sell Ready to IP Co-Sell Eligible

A specific milestone sequence for partners who need Azure IP Co-Sell Eligible status before the next board meeting. The mechanical checklist versus the revenue track, the one dependency Microsoft controls, and where the honest edge of a 90-day claim actually sits.

Read the brief
Practitioner Brief

The Microsoft Partner Program Has Not Stopped Changing. Here Is Where It Actually Stands.

Six structural changes since FY25: what moved, what stayed the same, and what your co-sell motion depends on getting right. Covers the QRP retirement, co-sell status mechanics, the $100K gate, certification overhaul, and what none of these changes actually fix.

Read the brief
Practitioner Brief

The Program Changed. Here Is What That Means for Your Co-Sell Motion.

ISV Success tiers, Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace's nomination pathway, co-sell status mechanics, and the FY27 certification overhaul: a structured audit of where your program posture actually stands, and seven diagnostic questions to find the gaps.

Read the brief
Practitioner Brief

Who Does What in a Co-Sell Deal: A RACI for Both Sides of the Engagement

Six roles, five phases, eight failure points. The accountability map that Microsoft does not publish: who owns each task across partner and Microsoft orgs, what auto-expires and when, and the specific mechanics that cause deals to fail at registration.

Read the brief Download reference card
Practitioner Brief

MCAPS Start for Partners: What Actually Changed for FY27

Microsoft's July 2026 partner kickoff replaced the segmented workload pitch with eight named conversations, a reworked Copilot specialization audit bar, and a three-badge designation taxonomy. What the reset means for partners who were not in the room.

Read the brief
Practitioner Brief

Managed vs. Unmanaged: The Partner Status Microsoft Never Explains and Never Lets You Look Up

Microsoft uses "managed" and "unmanaged" constantly, and never once tells a partner which one they are. What the label actually means, why there is no dashboard for it, and what to do if the answer is unmanaged.

Read the brief
Practitioner Brief

REO vs. MPO vs. CSP Private Offers: The Three Marketplace Motions Microsoft's Own Documentation Can't Keep Straight

Microsoft's own Marketplace pages currently disagree on which countries support Multiparty Private Offers. What REO, MPO, and CSP Private Offers each actually require, the mechanics that trip up partners mid-deal, and a five-item checklist to confirm before your first offer goes live.

Read the brief
Practitioner Brief

PRACR Is Retired. If Your Co-Sell Credit Depended On It, You Have a Gap Now.

As of July 1, 2026, Microsoft counts co-sell revenue through Marketplace Billed Sales, not self-reported ACR. What actually changed, why there is no grace period, and what a partner without a dedicated PDM is supposed to do about it.

Read the brief

Start with your score.

The fastest way to understand why your Microsoft deals aren't closing is to measure it. Take the Index, then let us walk you through what it means.

Measure your readiness Get in touch

A 30-minute call on why your Microsoft deals aren't closing and the one constraint to fix first. No pitch.

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