COVID-19 drives Microsoft NZ's new-model SaaS partners to the cloud SaaS companies come out of all sorts of organisations, not just the start-up community Andrew Taylor (Theta) Credit: Supplied Microsoft NZ is signing around five new software-as-a-service (SaaS) partners a month, driving business for its Azure cloud and creating a virtuous circle for partners and their customers as well. Partner director Matt Bostwick says while the company has a traditional channel and a SaaS channel, they are not incompatible. Some traditional channel partners, consultancies and service providers, are also becoming SaaS partners, spurred in part by the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic.