From Transactions to Outcomes: What 2025 Taught Us — and How Partners Win in 2026

12th February 2026 3 minute read

If I had to sum up 2025 for our partner ecosystem in one word, it would be transition. Over the past year, my team and I have spent a lot of time talking with partners across New Zealand — indirect resellers, direct CSPs, and Microsoft teams. One theme has been impossible to ignore: the old growth model of simply transacting licences is no longer enough.

2025: The Year Services Became NonNegotiable

Margin pressure didn’t ease in 2025 — if anything, it intensified. Licensing alone is no longer where sustainable growth comes from. The partners who performed best were the ones who shifted their motion from transactions to valued services.

We saw this play out clearly through the Microsoft Customer Engagement Methodology (MCEM). The most successful partners treated customer relationships as cyclical, not linear — from listening and consulting, through design and delivery, all the way to adoption, optimisation, and ongoing management. Every renewal, upgrade, or subscription change became a services opportunity:

Readiness and security assessments
Migration and optimisation projects
Adoption and change management
Managed services wrapped around Microsoft 365, Azure, Security, and Copilot

Partners who did this turned routine subscription events into high-value conversations — and protected their margins as a result. AI in 2025: From Hype to Reality 2025 was also the year AI moved from hype into real experimentation. Almost every partner and customer we spoke to was dabbling — particularly with Copilot Chat. What stood out was that early adoption wasn’t driven by confidence or strategy, but by curiosity. And that’s okay. In fact, curiosity is often the best starting point. But what quickly became clear is that AI success is gated by foundations:

Governance
Security posture
Data readiness
Change management

Without these, pilots stalled and value stayed theoretical. The partners who won were the ones who could answer one simple question early: “Where will my people save time in week one?” Specific, outcome-based answers cut through the noise. Abstract benefits didn’t. Just as importantly, the rollout of Defender and Purview for Business Premium has brought enterprise-grade security and governance into SMB and midmarket environments. That’s been a major catalyst — and a huge opportunity — for partners to lead with the right conversations before a licence is ever purchased.

What’s Coming in 2026: Simplify, Standardise, Productise

Looking ahead, the partners who outperform in 2026 will be the ones who remove complexity — both for customers and internally. We’re seeing three clear pillars emerge:

1. Simplification
Customers are overwhelmed by choice — AI, security, tooling, licensing. Winning partners reduce that noise, streamline environments, and make decisions feel manageable.

2. Standardisation
The best partners don’t reinvent the wheel. They deliver CSP, security, and AI outcomes the same way every time, using repeatable frameworks and consistent success measures.

3. Productisation
Instead of adhoc services, partners are packaging expertise into outcomeled offers tied to onboarding, renewals, security uplift, AI readiness, and adoption. This makes it easier for customers to buy, easier for partners to scale, and much harder for competitors to break in.

Cost Optimisation and FinOps Are Table Stakes

Customers are asking tougher questions:

Are we getting value from what we bought?
Where can we optimise?

If you’re not having these conversations, someone else will. Cost optimisation — across licensing, Azure, and usage — is now part of the core partner motion. When done well, customers don’t walk away; they reinvest into higher-value workloads.

Stay Connected with Dicker Data

To stay ahead and keep up with the latest opportunities, events, and updates, I strongly recommend partners join our Microsoft Community. Signing up gives you access to news, resources, and ongoing support tailored for CSP partners. It’s also worth regularly checking our Events page — we’re always launching new skilling programs that can help you deliver even more value to your customers. Staying connected ensures you’re the first to know about what’s coming next and how to take advantage of it.

Final Thought

The CSP partners who won in 2025 weren’t just selling AI, security, or licences.

They were selling clarity, confidence, and outcomes. That’s exactly what will separate the leaders from the rest in 2026.

Zach Dickson Microsoft Business Manager - NZ

Microsoft Sales Manager - Dicker Data NZ

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