Accelerating Growth in a Thriving Microsoft Partnership
Centric Consulting gains Microsoft Managed Partner status and evolves its practice of serving clients
Centric Consulting collaborates with The Partner Masters to transform client delivery and achieve outstanding business outcomes in its Microsoft practice. As a result, employees within and outside of the company’s Microsoft team hone their business and technical skills and gain a better understanding of clients. Centric Consulting’s engagement with The Partner Masters has allowed the organization to achieve Microsoft Managed Partner status, greatly increasing Claiming Partner of Record (CPOR), Azure Consumed Revenue (ACR), and other important metrics. Centric Consulting also enhanced its visibility and renown within the Microsoft Cloud AI Partner Program.
Driving Growth by Building Relationships
Centric Consulting offers solutions and role-based consulting as well as managed services on several technology platforms, including Microsoft. The organization thinks of Microsoft as one of its largest clients. “The Microsoft partnership is a key element of our growth,” says Faison. “We bring our way of building real relationships to it just as we do with our clients.”
Since 2023, the company has collaborated with The Partner Masters in broadening and gaining additional value from its Microsoft engagement. During that time, Centric’s Microsoft Partner Capability Scores have increased in every measure and in every Solution Area and they’ve seen double digit growth in revenue associated with Microsoft solutions. Says Faison, “Both within and outside of our Microsoft practice, The Partner Masters are truly seen as our trusted advisors in this space.”
Rapid return to Microsoft Managed Partner designation
One spectacular result of Centric Consulting’s engagement with The Partner Masters was a fast return to Managed Partner status. “When we launched our journey with The Partner Masters, we were really just one of roughly half a million Microsoft partners working to establish with Microsoft,” says Faison. “At the start of that next fiscal year, Microsoft invited us to its Growth Partner portfolio. The fiscal year after that, we were once again a Managed Partner with our own Microsoft team and Partner Development Manager. That didn’t happen by accident, especially at that speed. It’s largely because of the work we did with The Partner Masters and the sound advice we received from them.”
On a Mission to Deliver Unmatched Experiences
Centric Consulting, a global technology consultancy with offices in 14 locations, was founded in 1999 with a vision of a thoughtful partnership practice of serving clients. Maurice Faison, Centric Consulting Partner and Director of Microsoft Partnership & Channel Sales, says, “Our fundamental purpose is to create unmatched experiences. We apply this across our disciplines and practices by creating genuine partnering relationships between clients and team members. We know that the quality of our people and their way of engaging with clients for many of them is a key reason why they work with us.” Confirming the effectiveness of Centric Consulting’s approach, 97 percent of the company’s clients agree that it delivers unmatched experiences. Assessments and polls from a variety of sources have confirmed Centric Consulting 68 times as a Best Place to Work.
Boosting the Metrics that Matter Most
The Partner Masters reviewed the activities of Centric Consulting’s Microsoft practice to generate better business results, boost the company’s visibility with the Microsoft partner organization, and continue improving its delivery of outstanding client experiences. One example of this is the practice of linking Centric Consulting to its clients by establishing itself as Claiming Partner of Record (CPOR) in the Microsoft ecosystem. Compared to times before the collaboration with The Partner Masters, CPOR registrations by Centric Consulting have increased by 39 percent. “The Partner Masters helped us understand how important it is to let Microsoft know who works with a given customer and set up a consistent process to take this step with every new project,” notes Faison. “We now have a discipline that allows us to stay on top of CPOR opportunities.”
Another critical metric Centric Consulting came to appreciate was Azure Consumed Revenue (ACR). At the time, ACR was not a performance measure the company used, but it is hugely important to Microsoft. Centric Consulting adopted the metric, set firm goals for it, and ensured that team members understood why ACR matters. “The Partner Masters’ contribution to our business is key to increases in ACR and other metrics,” says Faison. “We have boosted our clients’ ACR by 280 percent during this collaboration.”
Effective Co-selling with Microsoft
Selling with Microsoft was also an area of opportunity for evolving Centric Consulting’s Microsoft partnership. With guidance from The Partner Masters, Centric Consulting acquired an understanding of the requirements for co-selling, developed a process for readying its offers for co-sell engagements, and closely reviewed the results to drive continuous improvement. “We still follow the same effective process for Microsoft co-sell that we set up with The Partner Masters,” notes Faison. “The Partner Masters consultants don’t just tell us what we should do, their input is often almost at hands-on-keyboard level.”
Tracking Partnership Outcomes
For Centric Consulting, The Partner Masters created dashboards and analytics that make it easy to assess all relevant metrics and the conditions of the organization’s Microsoft practice. These tools were invaluable, for example, when Centric Consulting strove to achieve Microsoft Copilot Ready Tier Designation. “We rely on the dashboard built by The Partner Masters to verify the criteria for Microsoft partner programs, understand our position from a skills and operational perspective, correlate Microsoft metrics with our own, and plan our next steps,” says Faison. “It’s the only resource where I can see our critical Partnership information at a glance.”
Creating More Client Value from Microsoft Solutions
Pursuing Centric Consulting’s mission of providing unmatched experiences, the client delivery practice found new opportunities for making a difference with Microsoft technology. Faison says, “In working with The Partner Masters, we reached a new level of understanding and ownership of our clients. We learned to look at client engagements from an additional perspective, as a Microsoft Partner. This has elevated our solutions and the client experience at the same time.”
As part of this effort, Centric Consulting adopted the Microsoft concept and approach to the customer sales journey, Microsoft Customer Engagement Methodology (MCEM). “We took advantage of an MCEM training offered by The Partner Masters,” says Faison. “This provided our team with the skills to advance the customer journey with Microsoft by applying the terms Microsoft uses.” The organization’s marketing and sales teams are beginning to use MCEM concepts in their interactions with Microsoft. “Applying MCEM gives us greater visibility with Microsoft and makes us more effective in going to market with them,” Faison adds.
Centric Consulting clients directly benefit from the company’s work with The Partner Masters as delivery becomes more standardized and efficient. “Thanks to our work with The Partner Masters, we can reduce clients’ risk by more easily delivering predictable, repeatable outcomes, investing less effort, time, and expense than customized engagements require,” Faison explains. “This is also highly important to Microsoft in engaging with its partners."
Growing the Microsoft Practice Team’s Skills and Expertise
Centric Consulting added people and skills to its Microsoft practice to take advantage of the momentum they were seeing in engaging with TPM and Microsoft. “The Partner Masters helped us take full advantage of the Microsoft Partner Program as we serve our clients,” Faison comments. “For example, because Microsoft funding might be associated with certain opportunities, we created a role that continuously monitors and understands the objectives, specifics, and guidelines of the various programs, including funding programs, available to Managed Partners. This person works closely with Microsoft and our client pursuit teams across the firm.”
As Centric Consulting employees recognize the success of the collaboration, more of them participate in conversations with The Partner Masters experts and draw on the learning resources of The Partner Masters University. Faison explains, “Working with the Partner Masters gives us a common framework for understanding our business and optimizing processes, especially in marketing, sales, and delivery in the context of being a meaningful Microsoft Partner. This makes it possible for us to empower people to make the best of their entrepreneurial mindset and technical skills.” Centric Consulting can more easily recruit professional job candidates when they know that the organization uses Microsoft tools such as the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework. “People like hearing that we use standard methodologies and that they will become proficient in them when they join us,” Faison adds.
Innovating with the Right Strategy and Community
When Microsoft adjusts its focus for the Partner Program at the start of every fiscal year, The Partner Masters helps Centric Consulting pivot without missing a beat. The company relies on The Partner Masters’ ability to share an accurate view of where Microsoft is headed, delivered with an unbiased perspective. “From strategy to execution, we continually evaluate our approach with The Partner Masters,” comments Faison. “That gives us the confidence to use our resources to develop innovative solutions and to effectively market them to current and future clients as well as to Microsoft."
The Partner Masters offers an environment where Microsoft partners can develop relationships, learn from each other, and find synergy based on their unique strengths. “I have already made several valuable connections in that community,” says Faison. “When partners meet in the TPM community, there’s a common ground of interests and values. That opens the door to sharing expertise and helping each other out, where we don’t directly compete of course.”
Keeping the Collaboration Alive
Centric Consulting and The Partner Masters apply their innovative spirit to deepening their relationship. Matt Soseman, CTO and Co-founder at The Partner Masters, addressed Centric Consulting software engineers and solution architects working with Microsoft technologies at a 2025 Organization-wide meeting. “Matt talked about how technologists can get ahead with the right mindset and passion,” says Faison. “It was empowering and so well received that people still refer to his remarks.”
During the coming years, Centric Consulting will continue its successful collaboration with The Partner Masters as it grows the Microsoft business. Faison and his colleagues are also recommending The Partner Masters in their professional networks. “As a consulting organization, we know what good consulting looks like,” Faison explains. “It’s so nice to be on the receiving end of this with The Partner Masters, benefiting from extensive domain expertise delivered through dynamic relationships.”