May 2022 announcements

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This page provides the announcements for Microsoft Partner Center for May 2022.

Cloud for Sustainability price list preview exception

Date: May 31, 2022

Summary

The Cloud for Sustainability launch didn't have a price list preview.

Workspace

Pricing

Impacted audience

Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partners

Details

The Cloud for Sustainability SKUs will be available from June 1, 2022. However, there was no price list preview for this launch.

Next steps

Share this information with the relevant members of your team.

Reminder: Updates to GetProducts API coming in June 2022

Date: May 27, 2022

Summary

The GetProducts (by country or by customer) APIs will be updated on June 3, 2022.

Workspace

Pricing

Impacted audience

Cloud Solution Provider partners who use the GetProducts API with the OnlineServices targetView to fetch commercial marketplace offers

Details

The OnlineServices targetView within the GetProducts (by country or by customer) APIs currently includes licensed-based services, commercial marketplace offers, and new commerce licensed-based services. From June 3, 2022, a new MarketplaceSaas targetView will be available to fetch marketplace offers. There will be a buffer period from June 3 to July 7 in which the OnlineServices will continue to return marketplace offers while you migrate to the new targetView. This change will improve the performance of OnlineServices and make it easier for you to distinguish marketplace offers. For full documentation on this API, visit Get a list of products (by country).

Next steps

If you currently use GetProducts to fetch marketplace offers, you'll have between June 3 and July 7 to update your call to use the MarketplaceSaas targetView query parameter.

Share this communication with the relevant stakeholders within your organization.

Questions?

If you have any questions, visit the Partner Center support page.

Microsoft Defender for Business standalone upgrade to Business Premium

Date: May 23, 2022

Summary

For partners who help customers upgrade from Defender for Business standalone to Business Premium, there are now options to upgrade at renewal or do a midterm upgrade.

Workspace

Customers

Impacted audience

Small and Medium Business (SMB) customers with more than 300 seats and Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partners

Details

We announced the general availability of the standalone version of Microsoft Defender for Business on May 2, 2022. Defender for Business brings enterprise-grade endpoint security to SMBs with up to 300 employees with ease of use and pricing that small business customers and their partners expect. Customers can now purchase Defender for Business as a standalone solution to complement their existing productivity solutions.

For customers with Microsoft 365 Business Premium, Microsoft Defender for Business value is included as part of the suite. Defender for Business strengthens Business Premium's existing productivity and security offering by adding cross-platform endpoint protection and sophisticated ransomware defenses with technologies like Endpoint Detection and Response.

We expect that SMB customers who initially purchase Defender for Business standalone will eventually consolidate their investments and upgrade to Microsoft 365 Business Premium. For partners who help customers upgrade from Defender for Business standalone to Business Premium, there are a few options:

  • Upgrade at renewal: Customers can upgrade at the renewal of monthly and annual commitment offers. For upgrades at renewal, partners can follow the guidance in the CSP New Commerce Experience Handbook on the New commerce experience for CSP seat-based offers resources collection page. In order to be considered an upgrade at renewal to Microsoft 365 Business Premium, all original subscriptions must be up for renewal.
  • Midterm upgrades to Microsoft 365 Business Premium: Partners and customers won't be limited by their Defender for Business subscription duration commitments. If a customer desires a midterm upgrade to Business Premium, which includes the Defender for Business value, partners can reach out through Partner Center Support to request the midterm subscription change. Partner Center Support will triage midterm upgrade requests on a case-by-case basis. For midterm upgrade requests, the end date for the target subscription of Business Premium must end on or after the latest end date of the original subscriptions. Additionally, the number of target subscription seats of Business Premium must be equal to or greater than the number of Defender for Business seats.

The standalone offering of Defender for Business is a unique opportunity for partners to acquire new customers to the Microsoft 365 ecosystem and secure these customers with Microsoft 365 solutions and value-add managed services. To learn more, check out the Microsoft Defender for Business partner page and the Business Premium partner playbook.

Next steps

For SMB customers who want to upgrade from Microsoft Defender for Business to Microsoft 365 Business Premium, review the upgrade options for Microsoft Defender for Business.

Questions?

If a customer wants a midterm upgrade to Business Premium, which includes the Defender for Business value, partners can reach out to Support to request the midterm subscription change.

Microsoft Cloud Partner Program: Training session and Q&A

Date: May 20, 2022

Summary

We're pleased to invite you to the upcoming Microsoft Cloud Partner Program training session and Q&A.

Workspace

General

Impacted audience

Direct-bill partners and indirect providers

Details

We're pleased to invite you to the upcoming Microsoft Cloud Partner Program training session and Q&A.

We're evolving Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) programs and are committed to our partnership and helping you grow your business. This evolution includes simplifying our partner programs and aligning how we go to market, validating partner capabilities to deliver successful customer outcomes, and investing in your growth and profitability.

This session will focus on the upcoming changes to the MPN so that you have time to get your questions answered.

Session duration: 60 minutes

Agenda:

  • Overview
  • Resources
  • Q&A

Next steps

Region Date and time
Asia Pacific Operations Center (APOC) or Americas May 24, 2022 at 5∶00 PM Pacific Time (UTC-7) or May 25, 2022 8∶00 AM Singapore Time (UTC+8)
Americas or Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) May 25, 2022 at 8∶00 AM Pacific Time (UTC-7) or May 25, 2022 4∶00 PM Dublin Time (UTC+1)

Questions?

If you have questions in relation to this notification, contact your local partner sales executive.

Change to software subscription cancellation in CSP new commerce

Date: May 20, 2022

Summary

Starting July 11, 2022, partners will have seven days (168 hours) after the order is placed to cancel new purchases or renewals for software subscriptions in CSP new commerce.

Workspace

Customers

Impacted audience

Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program direct-bill partners, indirect providers, and indirect resellers through their indirect providers

Details

To implement consistency in the cancellation policy for CSP subscriptions across product types, Microsoft will change the cancellation window duration for new purchases or renewals of software subscriptions (which currently include Windows Server, SQL Server, and Azure SQL Edge) in CSP new commerce effective July 11, 2022.

As of that date, with any new purchase or renewal of a software subscription in CSP new commerce, a partner will have 168 hours (seven days) from the subscription order or renewal date to cancel the subscription, regardless of the term, instead of the previous 30-day window. The partner will receive a prorated refund when canceling within the first 168 hours of the term (proration calculated daily); after that 168-hour period, cancellation isn't available, and no refund will be provided.

The perpetual software cancellation policy isn't affected by this change.

Information about this upcoming change in the cancellation window will be included in the following documents by June 1, 2022:

Next steps

Plan to implement this change within your provisioning and billing systems and marketing content. Also, communicate the revised cancellation window to your customers when transacting software subscriptions in CSP.

Now live: Price change feature in the commercial marketplace

Date: May 19, 2022

Summary

The price change feature is now live in the commercial marketplace. The feature allows publishers to change the prices of marketplace offers that are transacted through Microsoft.

Workspace

Pricing

Impacted audience

Independent software vendors (ISVs)

Details

The price change feature allows publishers to update the prices of previously published plans and publish the price changes to the marketplace. Price changes are scheduled in the future to align with future billing cycles.

The price change feature provides the following benefits:

  • Easy to change prices. Publishers can increase or decrease the prices of existing offers without having to create a new plan with the new price and retire the previous plan.
  • Automatic billing of the new price. Once the price change becomes effective, existing customers will automatically be billed the new price without any action on their part.
  • Customer notifications. Customers will be notified of price increases via email and on the product listing page of the marketplace.

If the price of an offer is increased, existing customers of the offer will receive an email notification before the price increase becomes effective. The product listing page on Azure Marketplace and AppSource will start displaying a notice of the upcoming increased price. Once the price change becomes effective, customers will be billed the new price. If locked into a contract, they'll continue to receive the contract price for the length of the contract term. When it's time to renew the contract, the new price will be billed.

Review the following resources for more information on this feature, including supported scenarios:

Next steps

Review the resources listed in the previous section carefully and share this communication with the relevant individuals within your organization.

Questions?

If you have questions, contact your Regional Operations Center using the Calling Logging Tool (CLT) or via Explore.ms. Follow the standard CLT process closely so that we can resolve your query as quickly as possible.

API for getting the DAP stats and customer list to help automate DAP removal

Date: May 18, 2022

Summary

Now you can launch a Partner Center API to get the customer list and statistics and remove an inactive delegated admin (DAP) relationship.

Partners in the Cloud Solution Provider program are responsible for their customers' consumption of Microsoft cloud services, so it's important that you're aware of—and take steps to mitigate and remediate—security issues that affect you and your customers.

Workspace

APIs

Impacted audience

Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) direct-bill partners and indirect providers who can call Partner Center APIs.

Details

Background, requirements, and guidance

Partners are required to securely manage the customer tenant and remove inactive DAP relationships that are beyond 90 days.

Partners in the Cloud Solution Provider program are responsible for their customers' consumption of Microsoft cloud services. It's important that you're aware of—and take steps to mitigate and remediate—security issues that affect you and your customers. To learn more, see Enforcement of Microsoft Acceptable Use Policy.

Microsoft continually monitors for attacks and has previously released guidance in response to detected attempts by threat actors to gain access to downstream customers of cloud service providers (CSP), managed service providers (MSP), Advisors, and other IT services organizations that have been granted administrative or privileged access by other organizations. A key step for partners in mitigating against these attempts by threat actors is the removal of delegated administrative privileges that aren't in use.

Actions and the API

To learn about the Partner Center API and how to use it to remove a DAP relationship with a customer that you no longer need to manage, see Remove a DAP relationship with a customer

Note

This API is short-lived and will be supported only during the DAP deprecation phase. After the DAP deprecation program, this API will be retired.

The new Partner Center API:

Resources

Next steps

  • Launch the Partner Center API to get the customer list and statistics to remove inactive DAPs.

  • Start using the Partner Center API for removing DAP at scale.

Microsoft announces new benefits for cloud providers

Date: May 18, 2022

Summary

Initiatives in licensing changes and new product availability are designed to create more opportunities for partners and their customers in Europe and throughout the world.

Workspace

General

Impacted audience

Hosters; Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) direct-bill partners and indirect providers; resellers through their indirect providers; and all commercial licensing customers

Details

As announced on May 18 in Brussels by Microsoft president Brad Smith, Microsoft will make some important changes in the coming months to its outsourcing and hosting terms to better support customer and partner needs. These changes—part of a broader initiative focused on European Cloud Providers that will also be advantageous for partners and customers worldwide—will empower partners to sell to customers the licenses and subscriptions necessary for the partner to build complex, hosted solutions, including desktop solutions. These changes will impact partners and customers in the following ways:

  • Hosters (excluding Listed Providers) can run more types of Microsoft products—including Windows and Office—on their own servers for customers, including on-premises products that previously had been licensed only for customer computers and servers. This will help hosters create end-to-end solutions for customers who want a cloud provider to host this software for them.
  • Software Assurance and subscription benefits will be expanded to allow customers to bring their licenses to non-Listed Provider hosters' multitenant and dedicated servers.
  • Microsoft will make it easier than ever to license Windows Server for virtual environments by enabling customers to buy licenses for only the virtualized compute capacity they need, without being tied to a physical number of cores.
  • Microsoft will create a European Cloud Partner Support Team, invest more time and money in developing business opportunities with European partners, and partner with local European providers to deliver cloud offerings including those that meet European government sovereign needs.

Next steps

For more details on these initiatives, see Brad Smith's blog post that accompanied the May 18 Europe-focused announcement.

Co-sell with Microsoft community call Q&A for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2022

Date: May 18, 2022

Summary

Register now for the upcoming FY22 Q4 Co-sell with Microsoft community sessions. There are various language and time zone options for you.

Workspace

Referrals

Impacted audience

Partners using the Marketplace offers workspace for offer publishing management and the Referrals workspace for leads and co-sell opportunity sharing management

Details

Microsoft is committed to further enhancement of your co-sell experience. The co-sell with Microsoft community session will highlight the latest launches and various enhancements made across Marketplace offers and Referrals workspaces in Partner Center.

This month's resources cover the following topics:

Launches

Reminder/ Refresh Topics

All Partner Center users can access content on demand in the May 2022 Co-Sell Community Collection (microsoft.com) at Operations Readiness.

Next steps

Register now for the upcoming May community call Q&A.

Questions?

The community call Q&A is the best place to bring questions about operational changes. You can submit a question up to 48 hours before the call. All launch-related questions will be answered in the call and/or in the Q&A document published after the call. If you have other questions, visit the Partner Center support page.

Upcoming training session for Microsoft Cloud Partner program and Q&A

Date: May 17, 2022

Summary

This training will focus on the upcoming changes to our partner programs and answer your questions.

Workspace

Membership

Impacted audience

Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) direct and indirect partners

Details

We're evolving the Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) programs and are committed to our partnership and helping you grow your business. This includes simplifying our partner programs and aligning how we go to market, validating partner capabilities to deliver successful customer outcomes, and investing in your growth and profitability.

In May, there are two training opportunities to align to your time zone.

Event title Agenda Date Registration link and recording
Microsoft Cloud Partner program: Training and Q&A This training will focus on the upcoming changes to our partner programs and answer your questions. May 25, 2022 8∶00 AM Pacific Time (UTC-7) Microsoft Cloud Partner program Q&A registration page
Microsoft Cloud Partner program: Training and Q&A This training will focus on the upcoming changes to our partner programs and answer your questions. May 24, 2022 5∶00 PM Pacific Time (UTC-7) Microsoft Cloud Partner program - Training & Q&A registration page

Next steps

Register for the event. If you can't attend either session, you can listen to the recording instead.

To prepare for the training, we encourage you to review Evolving the Microsoft Partner Network programs resource collection.

Questions?

For further questions about these offers, check your relevant Yammer communities.

Improved customer account matching process during referral submission coming to Partner Center in May 2022

Date: May 17, 2022

Summary

Enhancements to improve the customer account-matching process during referral submission in Partner Center are expected to be available by May 30, 2022.

Workspace

Referrals

Impacted audience

Co-selling partners, referral admins, alliance managers, partner sellers, and individuals from partner organizations who create referrals in Partner Center

Details

In alignment with Microsoft's guiding principle to be more transparent and the continued commitment to be the best partner for its partners, there will be enhancements to the customer account section and matching process during inbound referral creation in Partner Center.

Current process limitations contribute to delays in the account matching process, high expiry rate of referrals, rejection of deal registrations, and most importantly, dissatisfaction for our partners.

These new features will provide a streamlined way for partners to select customer accounts during referral creation with clearly defined managed or unmanaged account status and implications of picking an account from different categories.

Coming enhancements include:

  • Transparency: Advising partners upfront if an account is managed or unmanaged by Microsoft, and outlining the implications on Azure IP co-sell deal registration early in the referral creation process.
  • Self-serve capability: Enabling partners to pick the right Microsoft account instead of depending on automated match post-referral creation, providing a faster and less error-prone process.
  • Clarity: Providing a collapsed list of different accounts linked to each other, eliminating confusion around multiple accounts listed with the same names.
  • Faster responses: Reducing the time taken by Microsoft to respond by cutting on account-matching process time after referral creation.

There will be a phased approach to the launch of the customer account selection and matching improvements.

Phase 1

The Microsoft account list is exposed in Partner Center, in addition to the current experience of Data Universal Numbers System (DUNS) and manual entry.

  • Partners will see three different tabs as part of customer accounts search during the inbound referral creation process—Microsoft Managed, Microsoft Unmanaged, and Others (such as DUNS).
  • Tool tips will be provided for each tab with clearly defined insights on the implications of Azure IP co-sell deal registration on picking accounts from different tabs.
  • Manual entry option will also continue to be available in the user interface (UI).

Note

Note that entering manually or selecting customer accounts from the Others tab could result in delays and potential rejection of the Azure IP co-sell deal registration if the accounts are wrongly matched by the backend system.

Next steps

  • Share this communication with the appropriate stakeholders in your organization.
  • This communication is for awareness only. The features and capabilities described will be applied automatically.
  • More details will be coming soon.

Questions?

If you have questions, submit a support ticket via the Partner Center Support page.

Monthly security update: securing the partner and customer ecosystem

Date: May 23

Summary

Here are the latest steps Microsoft is taking to secure the partner ecosystem.

Workspace

Account settings

Impacted audience

Direct bill partners, indirect providers, and indirect resellers transacting through the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program and with CSP advisors

Details

The new granular delegated admin privileges (GDAP) will be generally available by early June 2022. GDAP is a more secure model for administering customer tenants and adheres to the Microsoft zero trust principle of least-privileged access. By the end of calendar year 2022, GDAP will replace the delegated admin privileges (DAP) model and DAP will be discontinued. Partners can test GDAP as a technical release in their sandbox and production tenants today, and when generally available, GDAP will support all workloads that are currently supported by DAP. Partners in the CSP and Advisor program should prepare for the transition using the information and guidance in this communication.

Partners in the CSP program are responsible for their customers' consumption of Microsoft cloud services and it's important that you're aware of—and take steps to mitigate and remediate—security issues that affect you and your customers. To learn more, see Enforcement of Microsoft Acceptable Use Policy.

Microsoft continually monitors for attacks and has previously released guidance in response to detected attempts by threat actors to gain access to downstream customers of CSPs, managed service providers (MSP), advisors, and other IT services organizations that have been granted administrative or privileged access by other organizations. A key step for partners in mitigating against these attempts by threat actors is the removal of delegated administrative privileges that aren't in use.

Microsoft is committed to providing capability for partners to transition to GDAP at scale without disruption to their current marketplace and customer experiences. Here are the actions partner organizations should take now to prepare for GDAP general availability, secure their customers, and complete transitions from DAP to GDAP before the end of calendar year 2022. Review the GDAP step-by-step guide.

  • Remove DAP connections that you don't need or use. Review your DAP report in Partner Center (available now) or through the API (available May 2022). Disabling unused and unneeded connections minimizes exposure and helps secure both partners and customers. Starting in Q3 2022, Microsoft will remove DAP connections that haven't been used for more than 90 days. Delegated admin privileges can be reinstated through a GDAP request with the customer.
  • Transition DAP connections that you and your customers are using to GDAP. Several GDAP workloads are available now, and in early Q3 2022 we'll release a tool—available for a short time—that simplifies this process and minimizes disruption. In Q4 2022, Microsoft will assist partners in moving remaining DAP connections to the least privileged GDAP roles.
  • Update your process for acquiring new CSP customers to include requesting GDAP permissions from customers. Around the end of Q3 2022, Microsoft will stop creating new DAPs when a new relationship is created. Learn how to obtain granular admin permissions to manage a customer's service.

Many partners have taken action to remove unneeded DAPs. We appreciate those efforts and look forward to continuing to work with you to improve the security posture of our ecosystem.

To stay informed about security-related information and issues, subscribe to fraud notifications. We've added a new security contact field in Partner Center so that your organization can designate a person or group to receive email notifications if there's a security-related incident.

Note

When you update any of the data fields in the Legal business profile or Primary contact section, your account might be required to go through verification. If you update one or more data fields only in the Security contact section, account verification won't be required.

Next steps

Change log

  • May 23, 2022: Added the note about updating data fields in the Legal business profile or Primary contact section.

Now it's easy to find your workspaces, roles, and admins in Partner Center

Date: May 16, 2022

Summary

Find your workspaces, roles, and admins in Partner Center.

Workspace

Account Settings

Impacted audience

All Partner Center Users

Details

Now it's easy to find your workspaces, roles, and admins in Partner Center.

Find your workspaces: Workspaces group tasks and information into distinct areas. You can view your organization's workspaces and which of them that you have been granted access to with the new Account settings | My Access page. Selecting a workspace in the list displays the admin to contact to request access to a workspace alongside other useful information. Learn more about workspaces at Getting around Partner Center | Workspaces.

Find your roles: You can determine the types of access your users have to Partner Center by the roles and permissions that you give them. Roles are related to the programs your business is involved in. You can find the user roles you've been assigned to in Partner Center at Account Settings | My profile. Learn more about roles at Assign roles and permissions to users | Manage commercial transactions in Partner Center (Azure AD and CSP roles).

Find your admins: You can also find a list of admins who can assign and change the user roles you've been assigned to in Partner Center at Account Settings | User management.

Next steps

Using the Operations Readiness gallery: Find changes that affect you

Date: May 12, 2022

Summary

This communication is about how to use the Operations Readiness gallery to find information on the changes that affect you.

Workspace

General

Impacted audience

All Microsoft partners

Details

The easiest way to find the latest updates from Microsoft is to use the Operations Readiness gallery.

You can quickly find monthly views of changes that affect you on the partner launch calendar and the product launch calendar.

Access the latest communications, and filter the ones that are important to you.

Monthly views of changes that affect you

The partner launch calendar is the most comprehensive view of launches that affect you, providing a view of recent and upcoming launches to help you stay up to date with changes in how you do business with Microsoft. It also provides links to announcements, published communications, and other key operational readiness resources across all Microsoft channels and programs. The partner launch calendar is published on the second Tuesday of every month.

The product launch calendar provides a view of recent and upcoming product launches and offers with links to learn more. The product launch calendar is published on the second Tuesday of every month.

The global promo guide provides information on promotions, including availability, products, duration, and eligibility. It also has links for you to learn more about the promos.

Community collections include current launch updates, clinic topics, reminders, and links to register for upcoming calls or to view recordings of recent calls.

Latest communications

The Operations Readiness gallery is the best place to find and sort the latest communications for your program. You can filter by program to get the most important ones for you.

Bookmark these links, or visit the program home pages for always-on access to the latest monthly views and communications.

These monthly views and filterable lists make it easy to self-serve. We'll email you whenever these monthly views have been updated.

To get the best from the Operations Readiness gallery, use The Operations Readiness resource gallery: How to search, filter,sort, and preview and download (19-page PDF download).

Next steps

  • Visit the Operations Readiness gallery and select a program home page.
    • View the This Month's updates section for our most popular calendar and community views.
    • View the Communications section for the latest communications.
    • Build your own filtered views, and save them in your browser's favorites.

May Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) community update and reminders

Date: May 11, 2022

Summary

The CSP monthly update newsletter is now available, along with additional CSP community resources that provide you with essential program updates.

Workspace

General

Impacted audience

CSP direct bill partners and indirect providers

Details

This month's resources cover the following topics:

Launches

Clinics

CSP Community Q&A reminder

The monthly CSP community Q&A session provides you with an opportunity to learn more and ask questions about changes affecting the program. This month's call will focus on the topics listed in the previous section and more.

Register here to join the call.

Always available—Launch content on demand

Within the monthly CSP community collection, you can find:

For a consolidated view of all recent and active launches in a single place, visit the partner launch calendar. You'll find a timeline for each launch and links to published materials to help you learn more about that launch.

Need licensing readiness? The monthly CSP spotlight webinars covers the latest CSP licensing information available for all partners.

Next steps

Review the community resources and register for the Community Call Q&A.

Questions?

The monthly CSP community Q&A call is the best place to bring questions about operational change in the CSP program. You can submit a question up to 48 hours before the call. All launch-related questions will be answered in the call or in the Q&A document published after the call.

Questions on any other CSP topic? Visit the Partner Center support page.

Legacy CSP subscription expiration date identifier

Date: May 11, 2022

Summary

A new column has been added to the subscriptions file of the batch migration tool that was made available with the software development kit (SDK) sample code.

Workspace

Customers

Impacted audience

Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) direct-bill partners and indirect providers, and resellers through their indirect providers (excluding Brazil CSP partners)

Details

The new column is labeled AutoRenewEnabled and can be used with the ExpiryDate column to determine which legacy commercial seat-based subscriptions won't autorenew on legacy and will expire after the term-end date on July 11, 2022.

To ensure the continuation of legacy CSP subscriptions in the new commerce experience, from July 11, partners must take action to migrate or repurchase those legacy subscriptions in new commerce before they expire.

Partner and customer impact

  • Microsoft will soon start the process of turning off the autorenew flag for commercial seat-based legacy subscriptions. The timeline for turning off autorenew will be communicated to partners at a later date. We expect that autorenew will be turned off by early June for July, August, and September subscriptions.
  • Partners can download the batch migration tool now to become familiar with the various files, fields, and actions that can be taken. They can also identify which of their customers' commercial legacy seat-based subscriptions will be affected by toggling off the autorenew flag.
  • Once Microsoft turns off the autorenew flag for commercial seat-based legacy subscriptions, users of the batch migration tool can still filter the subscriptions file by ExpiryDate (expiry dates from July 11) and AutoRenewEnabled values to determine which subscriptions are affected by the upcoming milestone.
  • If a partner decides to migrate a legacy subscription midterm, they can choose to keep the original term-end date or extend it to full new term beginning on the migration date.

Note

Once a legacy subscription has expired, it can't then be migrated. A new subscription must be created in its place in new commerce if the customer wants to continue with the subscription.

Next steps

Upcoming training for new commerce experience for seat-based offers

Date: May 5, 2022

Summary

In May, there are a number of training opportunities for you to attend and learn more about new commerce experience (NCE) for seat-based offers.

Workspace

Pricing

Impacted audience

Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) direct partners and indirect providers

Details

In May, there are a number of training opportunities for you to attend and learn more about NCE for seat-based offers.

Register for the events that you're interested in. If you can't attend during the event time, you can listen to the recording of the event.

Event title Agenda Date Registration link and recording
NCE Fundamentals Calls The NCE Fundamentals session is designed to provide an overview of NCE in the CSP program, help our partners to learn, understand, and get ready to transact Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Power Platform, and Windows 365 offers in NCE. May 10-11 Link
PBO Community Calls These sessions are dedicated to assist CSP direct bill and indirect providers with questions related to CSP launches and upcoming changes. For your convenience, community collections are made available ahead of time in the partner readiness gallery where you can review launch material that will be discussed on the Q&A call. May 18-19 Link

Next steps

To be prepared for the training, review the following assets:

Put in place prevention and detection risk mitigation controls to avoid Azure fraud or misuse

Date: May 5, 2022

Summary

Partners in the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program should familiarize themselves with information on nonpayment, fraud, or misuse in Partner Center and take steps to avoid exposure.

Impacted audience

All CSP partners

Workspace

Customers

Details

This is a reminder that as a partner in the CSP program, you're responsible for your customers' Microsoft Azure consumption. This includes financial responsibility for fraudulent purchases by your customers and/or customers' nonpayment of purchased services. So, it's important that you're aware of any fraud or misuse in your customers' Azure subscriptions. Awareness enables you to take immediate action to determine whether the behavior is legitimate or fraudulent and, if necessary, suspend the affected Azure resources or Azure subscription to mitigate the issue.

To avoid abuse, misuse, and theft of service, you should put in place prevention or detection risk mitigation controls and reduce your exposure. Prevention and detection risk mitigations can include processes and policies related to onboarding new customers, managing customer accounts post purchase, and managing customer billing.

You should subscribe to receive Azure fraud notifications to be alerted if potential fraud is detected, so you can take appropriate action to mitigate the fraud. Read more about nonpayment, fraud, and misuse.

If Microsoft detects partner or customer activity that we confirm or suspect violates the Acceptable Use Policy, we'll take enforcement steps. This could include immediately suspending a customer's tenant. You'll be notified of enforcement actions or updated on your requests by Microsoft. For all other cases and as provided in your Microsoft Partner Agreement, you'll be responsible for your customers' Azure consumption. This includes financial responsibility for fraudulent purchases by your customers and/or customers' nonpayment of purchased service as mentioned above.

Partners should take action to:

Next steps

Visit the resources provided to learn more about Azure fraud notifications.

Questions?

Contact Support for questions, queries, or more information.

New charity discounts introduced in CSP for Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations, Fraud Protection, and Project Operations offers

Date: May 5, 2022

Summary

Nonprofits approved for Microsoft charity discounts can now get Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations, Fraud Protection, and Project Operations at a reduced price.

Workspace

Pricing

Impacted audience

Cloud Solution Provider (CSP)

Details

Starting June 1, charity discounts are being introduced for the first time for multiple offers associated with the following solutions and now match Enterprise Agreement pricing:

  • Dynamics 365 Finance

  • Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management

  • Dynamics 365 Operations

  • Dynamics 365 Commerce

  • Dynamics 365 Human Resources

  • Dynamics 365 Project Operations

  • Dynamics 365 Fraud Protection

The new offers are coded as ADD on the Preview Price List.

Next steps

Update quotes for customers considering these SKUs.

Questions?

Email TSI Partner Community: tsipcomm@microsoft.com

Subscriptions canceled between May 1 and 6 (invoice generation date) will appear in the April Invoice

Date: May 4, 2022

Summary

CSP partners who canceled subscriptions between May 1 and 6 will see the refund amount credited to the April invoice rather than the May invoice. This may result in a lower invoice amount in April.

Workspace

Billing

Impacted audience

All partners who canceled subscriptions between May 1 and 6.

Details

We're unable to block the transactions that occurred due to canceling subscriptions between May 1 and 6 (invoice generation date) from rolling into the April invoice today due to a system limitation.

For example, assume you purchased 10 licenses of a Microsoft 365 E3 subscription on April 28, 2022, with an annual billing term and monthly payment. Later, on May 2, 2022, you canceled the subscription. Since the cancelation occurred during the May billing period, it should be shown in the May invoice and reconciliation file, according to new commerce billing rules. Due to system constraints, the canceled transaction will appear in the April invoice, and your April reconciliation file will look like this:

Customer Name Order Date Product Name Charge Type Unit Price Quantity Subtotal TaxTotal Total Charge Start Date Charge End Date Term And Billing Cycle Effective Unit Price Billable Quantity Billing Frequency Subscription Start Date Subscription End Date
Contoso 4/28/2022 Office 365 E3 new 15.75 10 149.6 29.9 179.5 4/28/2022 5/27/2022 One-Year commitment for monthly/yearly billing 14.96 10 Monthly 4/28/2022 4/27/2023
Contoso 5/2/2022 Office 365 E3 cancelImmediate 15.75 10 -124.66 -24.91 -149.57 5/2/2022 5/27/2022 One-Year commitment for monthly/yearly billing -12.46666667 10 Monthly 4/28/2022 4/27/2023

Known Limitation

You won't be able to see the "wipe/refund" transactions that occurred between May 1 and 6 (invoice generation date) as part of seat changes or upgrades in your unbilled/estimate data until your bills are generated.

Next steps

To exclude these transactions from your April reconciliation file:

  • Use the OrderDate column as a filter and choose transactions between May 1 and 6.
  • Isolate these transactions by filtering the ChargeType to "cancelImmediate".

Updates to GetProducts API coming in June 2022

Date: May 3, 2022

Summary

The GetProducts (by country or by customer) APIs will be updated on June 3, 2022.

Workspace

Pricing

Impacted audience

Cloud Solution Provider partners who use the GetProducts API with the OnlineServices targetView to fetch commercial marketplace offers

Details

The OnlineServices targetView within the GetProducts (by country or by customer) APIs currently include licensed-based services, commercial marketplace offers, and new commerce licensed-based services. From June 3, 2022, a new MarketplaceSaas targetView will be available to fetch marketplace offers. There will be a buffer period from June 3 to July 7 in which the OnlineServices will continue to return marketplace offers while you migrate to the new targetView. This change will improve the performance of OnlineServices and make it easier for you to distinguish marketplace offers. For full documentation on this API, visit Get a list of products (by country).

Next steps

If you currently use GetProducts to fetch marketplace offers, you'll have between June 3 and July 7 to update your call to use the MarketplaceSaas targetView query parameter.

Share this communication with the relevant stakeholders within your organization.

Questions?

If you have any questions, visit the Partner Center support page.

View this month's product launches and offers

Date: May 2, 2022

Summary

The May product launch calendar is now published.

Impacted audience

All partners transacting through the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program

Workspace

Pricing

Details

The May 2022 product launch calendar is now available in the Operations readiness resource gallery. View the upcoming product launches and offers here.

Next steps

Review the product launch calendar, and share the information with the appropriate stakeholders in your organization.

Questions?

For any further questions about these offers, check your relevant Yammer communities.