Leading business applications company Fusion5 has become the first Microsoft partner based in Australia and New Zealand to earn the prestigious Microsoft Low Code Application Development Advanced Specialisation. 

Fusion5’s Director Customer Engagement & Collaboration Kristy Brown said that the achievement represented a substantial level of effort and elevated competency levels for the business. 

“Microsoft has quite rightly set the bar high for partners keen to showcase this significant specialisation,” she said.  

“It’s admittedly been demanding, but achieving it demonstrates that if you start from a base of excellence, you can stand out from the crowd as a safe pair of hands.” 

Microsoft launched its advanced specialisation last February, in recognition of the rapid market growth of low code application development tools. 

The specialisation denotes a partner who can rapidly develop custom and flexible low code line-of-business solutions that integrate existing systems and data, driving innovation and efficiency across organisations.  

It also critically acknowledges a partner’s verified knowledge, substantive experience, and documented success in supporting customer adoption of Microsoft low code solutions. 

Microsoft New Zealand’s Partner Director Matt Bostwick said Fusion5’s achievement showed that NZ innovation is holding its own among the best in the world. 

“Microsoft applies exacting standards for their Low Code Application Development Advanced Specialisation. So, when a customer chooses to work with Fusion5, they can be confident it’s a truly world-class partner,” he said. 

“It’s really exciting for us to see partners like Fusion5 not just trying to keep up with the breakneck pace of change, but actively leading the way on making their solutions and skills the best they possibly can be.” 

To be eligible for a partnership with Microsoft, the organisation must have a minimum of five Power Apps customers with solutions actively in use in their business. Each quality-validated app should have at least five users and 50 sessions monthly. 

Aside from this, the organisation should achieve at least 35% growth in usage across their customer base in a trailing 12-month period. It should also reach a minimum of 50% in monthly active usage (MAU) as a baseline to be eligible for growth.  

Other requirements include demonstrating internal knowledge and capability by having the requisite volume of certified experts across functional consultants, developers, and solution architecture. 

The organisation usually starts with a gold badge competency in Cloud Business Applications, Cloud Platform, Small and Midmarket Cloud Solutions, Cloud Productivity, or Application Integration. 

Director Brown said that it wasn’t easy to achieve the advanced specialisation even though the company started from a position of strength with gold badges for all five of the competencies. 

“Microsoft laid out an incredibly stringent set of guidelines for this Advanced Specialisation, and being the first trans-Tasman partner to achieve it, is a testament to the quality of real-world applications we\’ve built over time using of a vast array of technical elements,” she said.

“And that’s something you can’t do by just building and deploying the same Power App many times. It’s a tribute to our people, our drive for excellence, and the customers that place their trust in us, every day.” 

Eliza Sayon

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Eliza is a content producer and editor at Public Spectrum. She is an experienced writer on topics related to the government and to the public, as well as stories that uplift and improve the community.

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