Multichannel support—using other partners to support customer subscriptions purchased elsewhere
Applies to: Partner Center | Partner Center for Microsoft Cloud for US Government
Appropriate roles: Global admin | User management admin | Sales agent
Partner Center's multichannel feature supports scenarios in which a customer wants to hire a partner to manage and support a subscription they purchased elsewhere.
Multichannel support applies when a customer:
Already purchased subscriptions directly from Microsoft or through the Advisor, Open, or EA programs.
Purchased subscriptions from a third party who is either not in the Cloud Solution Provider program or not a Microsoft Syndication Partner. Customers can't switch existing license-based subscriptions to a different partner in the Cloud Solution Provider program; they must wait until the end of their subscription or cancel before moving.
| To support these services: | Do this: |
|---|---|
| License-based services | To provide support for multichannel accounts, you must request permissions from the customer to manage their subscriptions. For more information, see Request a reseller relationship with a customer. |
| Usage-based services | For a customer who already has a subscription to Microsoft Azure from another channel (such as Advisor, Open, or EA), create a new Azure subscription in Partner Center, manually enter the subscription details, and then cancel the individual services or the entire subscription. Azure CSP can coexist with different channels. For a customer who already has a subscription to Microsoft Azure from another partner, for example, you can switch Azure services to the other partner. For more information, see Switch Azure subscriptions to a different partner. |
Important
A CSP partner cannot resell online services to another CSP partner. Microsoft continuously reviews policies and capabilities of all programs. Any announcements about feature releases will be announced through the usual communication channels, including the Partner Center.
Next steps
If you're an indirect reseller, see Partner with indirect providers.
If you're an indirect provider, see Partner with indirect resellers.