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Enroll in the Cloud Solution Provider program

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The rapidly growing demand for cloud-based solutions and services means many opportunities for Microsoft partners of all sizes to build profitable cloud solution businesses. Partners who are ready to enter the market but who don't want to have to manage multiple vendors, or who might not have an end-to-end customer relationship management infrastructure in place, can enroll in Microsoft's Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program as indirect resellers.

Complete your CSP application

To complete the CSP application, you need your company's:

  • PartnerID
  • Complete business address
  • Bank information
  • Work email for the employee who acts as the admin for the Partner Center

To complete the CSP application, use the following steps:

  1. Sign in to Partner Center using your work email (your Microsoft Entra tenant credentials).

  2. Associate your PartnerID with your profile.

    • If you're already enrolled in the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program program, select the location PartnerID, which is linked to your incentives enrollments. The PartnerLocationID must be active and located in the same country/region as your CSP account
    • If you're not enrolled in the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program program, enroll today

  3. Enter the information to create your partner profile.

    • If your company is registered with Dun & Bradstreet, you can use your DUNS ID to look up your company information.
    • If you want to provide the company details yourself, select Enter manually.
      • For business addresses in some countries/regions, if you enter the address manually, we validate the address for you. If the address you entered differs from the validated one, we suggest that you use the validated address. That ensures that the address is in the format specified by the country or region's postal authority and is shippable.

  4. During verification, we might ask you for another document, or request that you complete a questionnaire. It can take us several days to review and verify the information you provide. We'll email you after we complete our review.

  5. After we verify your information, accept the Microsoft indirect reseller terms agreement. To accept the Microsoft Partner Agreement, sign in at the Partner Center and select CSP from the Pending actions view on the right-hand side.

Partners typically launch their CSP business as an indirect reseller. This go-to-market model helps you begin selling in CSP quickly, with minimal requirements for authorization. As you grow your cloud business and customer base by working with an indirect provider, you can choose to apply for direct-bill partner status in CSP. Applying for direct-bill partner status in CSP can be done when you meet the revenue requirement, and are willing to invest in the infrastructure and resources needed to operate independently of indirect provider support.

Enroll as an indirect reseller

You can enroll as an indirect reseller by following the enrollment instructions.

If you're enrolling in the CSP program as an indirect reseller, you don't purchase products directly from or be invoiced directly by Microsoft. Instead, you work with indirect providers (also known as distributors) who transact directly with Microsoft.

Partnering with an indirect provider means you don't need the infrastructure in place to go to market or to buy directly from Microsoft but can instead work with an experienced technology provider to help ensure your success. In the provider-reseller model, the provider buys cloud solutions and services from Microsoft and relies on you to deploy and service the products.

Different indirect providers offer different support and services, so you should evaluate the providers in your area to determine which ones best meet your needs. Generally, most indirect providers will:

  • Provide you with technical training and assistance

  • Help you market your products and services

  • Help you establish financing and credit terms

If you're not already working with an indirect provider, you can search the list of official Microsoft indirect providers to find one.

For more information about what's required to participate in the CSP program as an indirect reseller, see Grow your business in the Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider program on the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program site.

Enroll as a direct-bill partner

As a direct-bill partner, you own the end-to-end relationship with your customer and with Microsoft. The requirements for direct-bill partners ensure that you accelerate your business growth with the right Cloud Solution Provider program model and strengthen your customer relationships with value-added services and support.

To enroll in the CSP program as a direct-bill partner, verify that you've met the minimum requirements.

During the direct-bill enrollment process, you're asked to provide the following information:

  • Billing anniversary date, which defines the day you receive your invoices for usage-based and license-based billing. The billing anniversary date can't be changed after the enrollment of your account in the CSP program. However, the new commerce invoice and usage billing don't have this concept. You receive them by the eighth of every month, and they follow a calendar-month cycle for billing periods.

  • Domain name, which is used to create the CSP account (tenant) and can't be changed later. The domain name suffix is part of account verification process and wherever possible should be the domain associated with your legal company (rather than the "viral" onmicrosoft.com domain). Also, new Partner Center user accounts are created with this suffix.

  • Company tax ID, which is an optional entry in some countries/regions.

    • Be aware of your local tax requirements, and note that if you don't provide a company tax ID that could cause taxes to be calculated incorrectly on CSP invoices. For more information, see Value added tax (VAT) information.
    • You can update your company tax ID after enrollment. For more information, see Add a VAT ID for business taxes.

To learn more about the direct-bill enrollment process and next steps to take, see Start your direct-bill partner enrollment.

Important

If you want to enroll both as an indirect reseller and a direct-bill partner, you can't do it on the same tenant. You need to use two separate tenants to enroll as an indirect reseller and a direct-bill partner, respectively.

CSP regional markets and currencies

Your market is the regions and/or countries where you can sell CSP offers. Your company's location determines your market.

Providing partner registration ID numbers required for some countries/regions

If you're an indirect provider, direct-bill partner, or indirect reseller doing business with new or existing customers in the following countries/regions, you must provide registration ID numbers for your business. The registration ID is optional if the country/region you're doing business in isn't listed here:

  • Armenia
  • Azerbaijan
  • Belarus
  • Brazil
  • Hungary
  • India
  • Iraq
  • Kazakhstan
  • Kyrgyzstan
  • Moldova
  • Myanmar
  • Poland
  • Russia
  • Saudi Arabia
  • South Africa
  • South Sudan
  • Tajikistan
  • Thailand
  • Türkiye
  • Ukraine
  • United Arab Emirates
  • Uzbekistan
  • Venezuela
  • Vietnam

For more information, see Registration ID number information.

Related content

Learn about the Microsoft Partner Agreement for CSP program partners