June 2023 announcements

This page provides the announcements for Microsoft Partner Center for June 2023.


Updated interface for the new deal flow

We're announcing updates to the deal creation workflow on the Co-sell opportunities page within the Referrals workspace.

  • Date: June 27, 2023
  • Workspace: Referrals
  • Impacted audience: Referral admins

As part of our larger initiative to update the user experience and performance in the Referrals workspace, we've updated the look for the new deal creation flow!

The new deal creation flow has a step-by-step wizard to help you create new deals. For a limited time, both the old and the new experiences will be live.

Try the new workflow out today and share your feedback with us!

Next steps

Sign in to Partner center and visit the Referrals workspace -> Co-sell opportunities tab -> New deal button to see the new interface. To learn more, see New user experience in Referrals.



Important update regarding Microsoft Teams Rooms licensing policy enforcement date

Microsoft Teams Rooms Licensing Policy Enforcement date extended to September 30, 2023.

  • Date: June 26, 2023
  • Workspace: Customers
  • Impacted audience: Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) and Licensing Solution Provider (LSP) partners

We have an important policy enforcement notice update regarding the licensing for Microsoft Teams Rooms.

As previously communicated, Teams Rooms devices, including those using Personal Mode as well as the Teams application on Surface Hub and Teams Panels will be blocked from signing in without a valid Teams Rooms license starting July 1, 2023.

While we remain steadfast in our objective of ensuring a secure and compliant use of Microsoft Teams Rooms devices, we also acknowledge the need for adequate time to address migration issues. Therefore, we're granting more time to allow you to help your customers complete their transitions smoothly.

To ensure a seamless transition for our partners and customers, Microsoft has decided to provide a 90-day grace period on the Microsoft Teams Rooms Licensing Enforcement. The grace period will begin on July 1, 2023, and end on September 30, 2023.

Next steps

If you haven't yet, please use this 90-day grace period to engage with your customers to facilitate the license transition process and address any concerns. Thank you for your unwavering commitment and support.

Resources

As a friendly reminder, to help you communicate this policy enforcement and provide guidance for how your customers can review their current licensing, we have prepared several resources and tools that can be shared directly with your customers:

Questions

For any questions, contact TRLCQ@microsoft.com.



License-based legacy commercial offers to be deprecated July 2023

Multiple legacy offers are going to deprecate as of July 1, 2023.

  • Date: June 23, 2023
  • Workspace: Pricing
  • Impacted audience: Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) direct-bill partners and indirect providers who use legacy license-based pricing and offers for all markets

Some commercial license-based legacy offers that exist in New Commerce will no longer be purchasable as legacy subscriptions.

CSP Partner Center has enabled over 400 legacy license-based offers as migratable to New Commerce. Partners who want new subscriptions for any offer that is migratable to New Commerce product SKUs should acquire the New Commerce product SKUs.

Most of the migration-enabled offers available March 2022 were removed at that time, but some offers took longer to deprecate. These offers are being deprecated on July 1, 2023.

Partners will notice 138 legacy license-based commercial offers that are both migratable and available in New Commerce are no longer purchasable in the catalog as new subscriptions. Partners that already have customer subscriptions for these deprecated offers aren't affected and can keep those subscriptions until the end of their terms. Existing subscriptions for these DEPR offers will continue to renew. DEPR only limits new subscriptions to be acquired from the catalog.

Partners can identify the respective New Commerce product SKUs for each of the legacy offers migrate to the NCE Mapping tab in the legacy Offer List Matrix. Partners can view deprecated offers in the legacy license-based price list as DEPR (deprecated). These recent deprecated offers will have the Valid-From Date value as 20230701 in the July price list available on July 1.

CSP price lists are updated on the first of every month and available from the Partner Center Pricing workspace. The pricing workspace is the place for partners to find the latest price lists and offer matrix files for both license-based and New Commerce license-based offers and product SKUs

Next steps

  • Get the latest price lists and offer matrix files for license-based and New Commerce license-based offers and product SKUs from the Partner Center Pricing workspace.
  • CSP transacting partners should review the DEPR offers in the legacy license-based price list and the NCE Mapping data in the Offer List Matrix.
  • Partners wanting to purchase new subscriptions for most offers should be using the New Commerce product SKU price lists and catalogs.
  • Share this information with the appropriate contacts in your company.
  • Review the Partner Center migration how-to topic for more information on migration to New Commerce.
  • Review pricing guidance on the Partner Center documentation Pricing and offers page.

New UI to manage Azure Spending with improved performance for New Commerce Experience

We’re excited to announce the general availability of the new Azure Spending UI page, designed to offer improved performance and better user experience for our partners. With this new experience, partners can now easily view and manage monthly Azure budgets for customers with Azure plan subscriptions. The Azure Spending page provides a streamlined experience with enhanced functionality, making it easier than ever for our partners to manage their customers’ Azure spending.

  • Date: June 22, 2023
  • Workspace: Billing
  • Impacted audience: All global partners who have customers with Azure plan subscriptions.

One of the key features of the new Azure Spending page is its improved performance. We’ve worked hard to make sure that our partners can quickly and efficiently access usage data and insights through the new experience. Partners can also set up alerts and actions to control costs and avoid overspending. With this new page, we're confident that partners will be able to better manage your customers’ Azure budgets and make informed decisions about their spending. We're committed to providing the best possible experience for our partners, and we look forward to seeing how this new feature enhances your efficiency.

To access the new Azure Spending page, sign into Partner Center and go to the Azure spending (NCE) task menu on the left-hand side. To learn more, see Set an Azure spending budget for customers.

Note

Both the new and old pages enable partners to view and manage their customers’ Azure budgets. However, likely by the end of July, the old page will only support viewing and managing budgets for legacy CSP, while the new page will offer the same for New Commerce. The estimates on these pages might be 24 hours behind the actual usage cost.

Benefits

The new page offers the following advantages:

  • The new page loads nearly four times faster than the current page.
  • It helps you more easily set or update different budget amounts for multiple customers simultaneously.

Known limitations

N/A

Next steps

The new page is available from June 14, 2023. To take advantage of the new and improved experience, follow these steps:

  1. Sign in to Partner Center and navigate to the Billing workspace.
  2. Select the Azure spending (NCE) from the task menu on the left-hand side.
  3. After you open this menu, you’ll be able to view, set, edit, or remove budgets for your customers with Azure plan subscriptions.

We welcome your feedback and suggestions to make it even better. Please feel free to share your thoughts with us by selecting the smiley button located on the page.



Now Live! Partner Center Technical Corner blog series: June 2023 edition

The June edition of the Partner Center Technical Corner blog is live. Get excited to learn about the new features and functionalities—now available for you to harness within Partner Center!

  • Date: June 20, 2023
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: All partners

The June edition of the Partner Center Technical Corner blog is available now.

  • Find out about new security alerts that can help you protect against Microsoft Azure fraud
  • Learn how the Action Center can help you stay up to date on important Partner Center communications
  • Understand key recent updates and expanded rationale behind these enhancements
  • See the Partner Center Technical Roadmap with what’s coming soon to Partner Center

Previous editions:

Next steps



Constraint data now available in Get promotion by ID API

Partners will see new values returned by the 'Get promotion by ID' API.

  • Date: June 19, 2023
  • Workspace: Pricing
  • Impacted audience: Direct bill partners and indirect providers transacting through the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program

You can now use the Get promo by ID API to get constraint details for New Commerce Experience promotions. You can use this data to understand eligibility requirements of promotional discounts. Partners can view constraint information regarding a promotion’s seat limits, asset ownership limits, eligibility, and product ownership prerequisites. To view a response example and more details about the constraints being exposed, see Get a single promotion.

Next steps

Share this information with the appropriate stakeholders in your organization.

Questions?

Contact Support if you have questions or need more information.



Referrals UI navigation enhancements

We've updated some features of the Referrals workspace: you can now see more rows at once in the Co-sell opportunities grid view and navigate more easily within the Deal details page.

  • Date: June 19, 2023
  • Workspace: Referrals
  • Impacted audience: Referral admins

We have added two new enhancements to the Referrals workspace.

  • First, you can now see more rows in the same page in the Co-sell opportunities grid view. Many of our partners had asked us for this functionality to review more deals at a time instead of navigating pages.
  • Second, we have added a convenient way to navigate within the Deal details page using the Previous and Next buttons deals without coming back to the grid view.

Note

The new view of the Deal details page in the Co-sell opportunities tab is now permanent, and there will no longer be an option to toggle to the old view.

Next steps



Microsoft Publisher Agreement version 8.0 – July 2023 update

We've updated the Microsoft Publisher Agreement to clarify some of your rights and obligations and to include language to cover new features offered in the commercial marketplace.

  • Date: June 16, 2023
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: Publishers

Read the Microsoft Publisher Agreement.

Next steps

To see what's changed since the last version, see Change history for Microsoft Publisher Agreement version 8.0 – July 2023 update.



View the revamped users and licenses page with new and improved workflows

We're announcing a redesigned experience for user creation and license management in the Customers workspace, the Users and Licenses page with new features that aim to provide an improved user experience for our partners.

  • Date: June 16, 2023
  • Workspace: Customers
  • Impacted audience: Partners transacting through the Cloud Solution Provider program

We're excited to announce the redesigned experience for user creation and license management in the Customers workspace. The Users and licenses page has new features that aim to provide an improved user experience for our partners. With simplified navigation aimed at enhancing productivity, partners are able to access all actions related to creating and editing users and experience intuitive and consistent license management.

Next steps



Monthly update: Important actions to secure the partner ecosystem

Important capabilities and updates to improve your security posture and protect your customers' tenants are now available.

  • Date: June 16, 2023
  • Workspace: Account settings
  • Impacted audience: Direct bill partners, indirect providers, and indirect resellers transacting through the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program and with advisors

Sign up for new security alerts today to help prevent unauthorized party abuse

The complexity, scale, and volume of threats is increasing. To help you detect and address them quickly, we’ve released new security alerts that analyze anomalies across Azure Resource Manager (ARM) activities, deployment of workloads, billing meter consumption spikes, identity risk signals, crypto mining, and quota increase requests. Partners should immediately take action to adopt the new security alerts in Partner Center and/or API to mitigate any monetary loss.

Partners can sign in to Partner Center to review and resolve alerts. API partners need to make API changes to get the new alerts. Learn more about the security alerts at Azure fraud detection and notification.

Granular delegated admin privileges (GDAP) milestones reminder

  • Transitioning delegated admin privileges (DAP) relationships to GDAP roles: Microsoft has begun transitioning DAP relationships to GDAP roles. Details on the GDAP roles can be found in the April announcement.
    • Based on partner feedback received, we’ve suppressed the GDAP notifications when relations are set up successfully during this Microsoft-led transition process.
    • This transition excludes scenarios where a GDAP relationship exists in an expired, pending or terminated state at the time of migration.
    • GDAP roles created during this transition will be granted for a one-year duration.
    • Partners will need to ensure they carry out access assignments by providing the necessary roles to their security groups for certain conditional access policies enabled by the customer after the GDAP relationship is created during Microsoft-led migration.
    • You can find FAQs related to this milestone here.
  • Creating new customers: DAP is currently granted when a new customer tenant is created. Starting September 25, 2023, Microsoft will no longer grant DAP for new customer creation and will instead grant GDAP with default roles when a new customer tenant is created. The default roles vary by partner type, and the respective roles can be found in the May announcement.
  • The bulk migration tool will be available through the end of November 2023.

Continued action for partners

  • Requesting GDAP: If admin access is required for a customer tenant, then the partner (with the admin agent role within the partner organization) should request, and the customer should approve a GDAP relationship with the appropriate Microsoft Entra roles.
  • Disabling DAP: If admin access isn’t required, then partners (with the admin agent role within the partner organization) should review the DAP monitoring report and disable DAP relationships immediately. If admin access is needed, the partner should complete the GDAP setup, and then disable DAP. DAP can now be disabled in bulk using the bulk migration tool.

Other security updates

  • Now generally available: Native integration of Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps in Microsoft Defender XDR: We’re happy to announce that the entire Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps experience in Microsoft Defender XDR, which supports GDAP, is now available.
    • Enjoy a short tour and review our documentation. Automatic redirection is generally available to customers. While it’s currently set to off by default, we’ll start automatically redirecting customers to Microsoft Defender XDR soon. The classic Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps will be retired towards the beginning of calendar year 2024.
    • As Microsoft Defender XDR supports GDAP, we encourage you to migrate from DAP to GDAP to start using Microsoft Defender XDR exclusively.
  • GDAP parity issues fixed: As Microsoft continues to bridge parity gaps, we’ll update the documentation to reflect the same. This month, we’d like to highlight:
    • Microsoft Admin Center (MAC)—Tenant Switcher and All Tenants page was fixed on May 25, 2023.
    • SharePoint: Partners can’t edit files and permissions on files and folders within their customers' SharePoint site. This was a security risk for customers and has since been addressed.

Next steps

  • Strengthen your security posture and navigate the evolving threat landscape with Microsoft cybersecurity tools and resources.
  • Sign up for dedicated CSP Security Q&A sessions to have your queries answered by subject matter experts.
  • Find guidance and resources in the securing the partner and customer ecosystems partner readiness gallery.
  • Review the journey map to navigate the transformational journey for partners to Zero Trust.


Programs added in the Qualified Referral Program (QRP) performance widget

We're introducing two new programs as part of the Qualified Referral Program (QRP) performance widget: Customer lifecycle management and Cloud deployment services.

  • Date: June 16, 2023
  • Workspace: Insights
  • Impacted audience: Partners receiving co-sell or QRP opportunities in Partner Center

The Qualified Referral Program (QRP) performance widget has been updated to include two new programs, Customer lifecycle management and Cloud deployment services. The close rate has been updated for all programs. For more information, please visit your onboarding deck or connect with your local contact.

The Programs and Compare widget in the Qualified Leads tab of the Leads page has been updated to include the Customer lifecycle management Program.

Next steps



Immediate action required for Microsoft Teams Rooms licensing enforcement

In less than 30 days, the Microsoft Teams Rooms licensing policy will enforce mandatory Teams Rooms licenses starting July 1, 2023.

  • Date: June 9, 2023
  • Workspace: Customers
  • Impacted audience: Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) and Licensing Solution Provider (LSP) partners

Starting July 1, 2023, Teams Rooms devices, including those using Personal Mode and the Teams application on Surface Hub and Teams Panels will be blocked from signing in without a valid Teams Rooms license. To prevent imminent service disruption, work with your customers to provision and activate either a Teams Rooms Pro ($40), Teams Rooms Basic ($0 / max 25 devices), Teams Rooms Premium, Teams Rooms Standard, or Teams Rooms Shared Device license (panels only) before the deadline.

For Teams Panels, customers need to provision a Teams Shared Device license for those accounts where a Teams Panel is deployed to a space where there's no Teams Room or Surface Hub in the room. Also, from July 1, 2023, access to the Teams Rooms Pro Management Portal will be restricted to those customers holding an active Teams Rooms Pro or a legacy Teams Rooms Premium license.

Next steps

Time is running out! Please work with your customers NOW to ensure to avoid service disruption on July 1, 2023, when this change takes effect.

Read the full announcement at aka.ms/MTRLicenseNoticeBlog, and if you haven’t already, please notify your customers as soon as possible.

Resources

To help you communicate this policy enforcement and to help provide guidance for how your customers can review their current licensing, we have prepared several resources and tools that can be shared directly with your customers:

Questions

For any questions, contact TRLCQ@microsoft.com.



Partner Center .NET SDK is now archived

The Partner Center .NET SDK has been archived. It can now be downloaded from GitHub.

  • Date: June 7, 2023
  • Workspace: APIs
  • Impacted audience: Direct-bill partners and indirect providers participating in the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program and who are using the Partner Center .NET SDK.

The latest Partner Center .NET SDK release 3.4.0 is now archived. You can download the SDK release from GitHub, along with a readme file that contains useful information.

Partners are encouraged to continue to use the Partner Center REST APIs.

Next steps



June Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) monthly updates and community reminder

Monthly views are now published including the updated partner launch calendars, the CSP Bimonthly Update newsletter, along with additional CSP community resources that provide you with essential program updates.

  • Date: June 7, 2023
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: CSP direct bill partners and indirect providers

Always available — Launch content on demand

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

The downloadable CSP Bimonthly Update newsletter aggregates recent CSP announcements, updates, events, and reminders in an easy-to-read document.

Partner Journey Maps provide detailed navigation along the journey of Microsoft's highest priority transformations.

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

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.

Register here to join upcoming calls.

Next steps

Review the partner launch calendars and bimonthly newsletter, and register for upcoming community Q&A calls.

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.

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



Republish of June 2023 NCE license-based pricing for all markets

There's a republished price list for partners in all markets.

  • Date: June 2, 2023
  • Workspace: Pricing
  • Impacted audience: Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) direct-bill partners and indirect providers who use new commerce experience license-based pricing for all markets.

On June 2, 2023, the new commerce experience (NCE) current month license-based price list was republished for all markets. Partners should download the June 2023 updated price list for their applicable markets, to have the latest data.

A pricing correction to Defender for IOT was identified and partners will notice a price change for the following Defender for IOT products. Other products' prices are unaffected.

Product title Product ID Product SKU
Microsoft Defender for IoT - OT Site License - Small Site - 250 max devices per site CFQ7TTC0MLTF 0001
Microsoft Defender for IoT - OT Site License - Extra-Large Site - 5000 max devices per site CFQ7TTC0MLTF 0002
Microsoft Defender for IoT - OT Site License - Medium Site - 500 max devices per site CFQ7TTC0MLTF 0003
Microsoft Defender for IoT - OT Site License - Extra-Small Site - 100 max devices per site CFQ7TTC0MLTF 0004
Microsoft Defender for IoT - OT Site License - Large Site - 1000 max devices per site CFQ7TTC0MLTF 0005

Note

Republishing might cause products to appear twice in the price list. Where this occurs, filter by the Effective End Date with year '9999' to see the most recent data. For purchases made between June 1, 2023 to June 2, 2023, Microsoft will work to correct any overcharges due to pricing adjustments.

Next steps

Partners should cancel any order placed on June 1st at the incorrect price and then repurchase the product at the corrected price.

If your organization resells as part of the CSP program, download the latest NCE license-based pricing sheet for the current month (June 2023).

If there's an impact to your organization, share this information with the appropriate contacts in your company.

Looking for more about local currency pricing updates related to the preview price list? Check out our partner resources.

Reference the latest pricing guidance on the Partner Center documentation Pricing and offers page.



View the latest promotions and offers

The latest Global Promo Readiness Guide has now been published.

  • Date: June 2, 2023
  • Workspace: Pricing
  • Impacted audience: Partners transacting through the Cloud Solution Provider program

The latest Global Promo Readiness Guide, a consolidated view of all current and upcoming promotions, is now available on the Operations Readiness resource gallery. See active and upcoming promotions and offers at the Global Promo Readiness Guide collection.

Next steps

Review the latest monthly Promo Guide in the Operations Readiness resource gallery. Share this information with the appropriate contacts in your organization, and let us know if the guide is helpful by responding to the “Was this page helpful?” question at the bottom of the page.

Questions?

If you have questions, go to CSP Support.



New filters for Marketplace in co-sell insights track intent to transact and MACC eligibility

It's easier to find referrals for customers who want to transact in the Marketplace and have a Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC).

  • Date: June 1, 2023
  • Workspace: Insights
  • Impacted audience: Partners receiving co-sell opportunities in Partner Center

We've added new filters into the Referral Insights: Co-sell page to help identify referrals where a customer intends to transact in the Marketplace, and customers that are eligible for Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC) at the time of referral.

Next steps

To learn more, see Review your co-sell insights: Apply filters.