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Merge your partner account with another partner account

  • Artikkeli

Appropriate roles: Account admin

Two or more companies who are active Microsoft partners and have accounts in Partner Center can merge their accounts as part of an acquisition.

Learn what happens when two partners elect to merge their Partner Center accounts

Here's what to expect when two partners merge their accounts.

  • The partner organization who initiates the merger is the partner global account (PGA).
  • The invited organization's PGA becomes a location of the initiating company.
  • The locations of the merging account become locations under the PGA.
  • You can see the details of both accounts (such as locations and users) within the PGA profile after the account merger completes. You can't reverse this process.
  • The PartnerIDs for locations are preserved during the consolidation.
  • The user's roles are brought over. For example, if a user is an Incentives admin for a location, they still have that role after the merger and can see the incentives they saw before the merger. If a user is a Referrals admin for the whole organization, they'll still have that role after the merger and can see the referrals across the merged organization.
  • The admin rights are extended to the whole organization for admins of both tenants. For example, a Partner Admin from the invited organization can assign the Referral Admin role to any user from their tenant to the entire merged organization or PLAs across the merged organization.
  • The Microsoft Entra tenants and CSP accounts aren't merged and have no effect.
  • The published offers and co-sell pipeline data associated with both companies are preserved.

Here's a diagram that shows a view of merged accounts:

Diagram of an initiating account and an accepting account merging.

Learn what to expect if you're invited to merge your Partner Center account

If you decide to accept an invitation to merge accounts, you can expect:

  • Your PartnerIDs (formerly MPN IDs) and locations are merged into the PGA of the partner account that invited you.
  • Your users are brought into the merged account with their roles intact.
  • Your users with admin roles that extend across your whole organization gains admin access across the whole merged organization. But they can only manage users within the tenant they're in.
  • Existing benefits and competencies are preserved for both companies after the merger until renewal. At renewal, the accounts are treated as one company and standard renewal rules apply.
  • You should activate all the benefits you intend to use, for both accounts, before merging and your subsequent membership renewal date. See the following table.

Understand the effects on programs and benefits when partners elect to merge accounts

When partners elect to merge accounts, they can expect:

  • All existing Solution areas, purchases (such as Solutions Partner designation), and associated benefits are retained during consolidation. This retention means they continue to use both bundles of benefits if there's an immediate merger, since they paid for or acquired the benefits separately.
  • The most recent renewal date for Microsoft Action Pack is retained after the merger. For example, if the Action Pack renewal date is June 2020 for company 1 October 2020 for company 2, Microsoft uses the October 2020 date as the renewal date for the merged company.
  • Each account retains its Action Pack and/or Solutions Partner benefits and/or legacy gold/silver benefits during the account merger and until the next renewal. At renewal, standard Action Pack and Solutions Partner designation renewal rules apply.
  • Both companies have different solution area designations, so the acquiring partner is awarded with the consolidated solution areas. If Company A is acquiring company B, and company A has two solution areas, company B has two different solution areas, then the merging company A (B got merged into A) has four solution areas.
  • Highest anniversary date for Microsoft Solutions Partner designation will be retained after the merger, provided both the Partners got Solutions Partner badges. (See the table below the Business rules)
  • The acquiring account has all the solution areas that they were qualified for in either of the accounts after the two accounts merge. The benefit bundles for the company that is being acquired are migrated to the acquirer without any change in the expiration date of benefits.
  • Benefits that are included with Solutions Partner attainment are provisioned for the partner global account upon renewal. Refer to the detailed list of scenarios shown in the next section for the possible scenarios during renewal.
  • All benefits are subject to the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program Terms of Participation. (For example, an activated Office 365 E3 token is functional for 12 months after activation.) After a token is activated for licenses on a tenant, those licenses can't be moved to another tenant.
  • The MCP ID associations for both companies are retained and associated with the PGA Partner ID (formerly MPN ID).
  • The go-to-market and technical benefits are offered as competency core benefits.
  • Your benefits are retained until renewal if your company is in the Azure Expert MSP program.
  • Any advanced specializations your company earned are retained across both accounts.
  • Any software assurance vouchers are retained across both accounts.
  • You see no effect on DPOR or PAL association. Any associated revenue contributions flow into the new Partner Global Account.

After the merger, we recommend that you check your bank, and tax information to ensure accuracy.

Invite a company to merge their Partner Center account with your Partner Center account

To invite a company to merge their Partner Center account with yours, use the following steps:

  1. Sign in to Partner Center as an Account admin for your company and select the Settings (gear) icon.

  2. Select the Account settings workspace.

  3. Select Account merge.

  4. Enter the PartnerID (formerly MPN ID) in the Partner profile of the account that you want to invite to merge with you.

    You must use the partner global PartnerID (formerly MPN ID). You can't use a location PartnerID (formerly MPN ID).

  5. Select Merge.

    An invitation to merge is sent to the partner company.

    • If the company accepts your invitation, you can initiate the account merger within Partner Center.
    • If the company rejects your invitation, they can explain why they rejected the request.

A list of all your account mergers is available in Merge history.

Example of two companies merging accounts

Here's an example of two companies that chose to merge their accounts.

Before the merger

  • Contoso, Ltd. has:

  • Fabrikam, Inc. has:

    • A global PartnerID of 3333333
    • Two subordinate location PartnerIDs of 4444444 and 5555555
    • A Microsoft Entra tenant of @fabrikam.com
    • Two Solutions Partner designations that expire December 1, 2024

During the merger

  1. Contoso buys Fabrikam and goes to Partner Center to initiate a merger request.
  2. Fabrikam signs into Partner Center and goes to the same page as Contoso did in step 1 to approve Contoso's request.
  3. Contoso reviews the details of the merger on that same page and provides confirmation to proceed with the account merger.

After the merger

After the merger, the company account has the following characteristics:

  • A company name of Contoso
  • A global PartnerID of 1111111
  • Four subordinate location PartnerIDs of 2222222, 3333333, 4444444, and 5555555
  • Two Microsoft Entra tenants (@contoso.com and @fabrikam.com) that have access to the same Partner Center account
  • Two benefits packages:
    • One Solutions Partner benefits package that expires October 1, 2024
    • Two Solutions Partner benefits packages that expire December 1, 2024,
  • Three Solutions Partner designations for the merged entity

Also:

  • Fabrikam's admins continue to manage Partner Center roles for @fabrikam.com's users
  • Contoso's admins continue to manage Partner Center roles for @contoso.com's users.
  • Contoso's and Fabrikam's admins can assign roles for users across all PLAs and the merged PGA account for users from their respective tenants.
  • Contoso's admins can only administer Fabrikam's users if they're invited as a guest into Fabrikam's tenant.
  • Contoso could decide to ignore the @fabrikam.com tenant and reissue the Fabrikam employees new @contoso.com credentials with new roles and permissions.

Review various possible scenarios

Scenario Just before merger At time of merger First postmerger renewal Options
Partner A Partner B Membership and anniversary date of merged entity (A+B) Benefits purchase options at the time of renewal for merged Partner
1a Solutions Partner designation with Solutions Partner benefits Solutions Partner designation with Solutions Partner benefits Solutions Partner designation, AD = Max of two ADs of two Solutions Partner designations At the time of renewal, the Partner can only choose the benefits for Solutions Partners.
1b Solutions Partner designation with Solutions Partner benefits Solutions Partner designation with legacy benefits Solutions Partner designation, AD = Max of two ADs of two Solutions Partner designations Partner can renew the Solutions Partner badge, if they get qualified Partner can opt for Solutions Partner benefits. Partner doesn't get the option to choose legacy gold/silver benefits
1c Solutions Partner designation with legacy Benefits Solutions Partner designation with Solutions Partner benefits Solutions Partner designation, AD = Max of two ADs of two Solutions Partner designations Partner can renew the Solutions Partner badge, if they get qualified Partner can opt for Solutions Partner benefits. Partner doesn't get the option to choose legacy gold/silver benefits
1d Solutions Partner designation with legacy Benefits Solutions Partner designation with legacy benefits Solutions Partner designation, AD = Max of two ADs of two Solutions Partner designations At the time of renewal, the Partner has two options to choose between Solutions Partner benefits or Legacy benefits. If the Partner chooses benefits for Solutions Partners, the enrolled Solution areas associated benefit bundles are provided. If the Partner chooses the legacy benefits, the aggregate of the legacy benefits of both partners (without any duplicates) at the higher level is provided.
2a Solutions Partner designation with Solutions Partner benefits No Solutions Partner designation. Has got legacy Gold/Silver benefits Solutions Partner designation, AD = AD of Solutions Partner designation of A* Partner can renew the Solutions Partner badge. If they get qualified, the partner can opt for Solutions Partner benefits. The partner doesn't get the option to choose legacy gold/silver benefits
2b Solutions Partner designation with Legacy benefits No Solutions Partner designation. Has got legacy Gold/Silver benefits Solutions Partner designation, AD = AD of Solutions Partner designation of A* At the time of renewal, the Partner has two options to choose the benefits between benefits for Solutions Partners or Legacy benefits. If the Partner chooses Benefits for Solutions Partners, the enrolled Solution areas associated benefit bundles are provided. If the Partner chooses legacy benefits, an aggregate of the legacy benefits of both partners (without any duplicates) at the higher level is provided.
2c No Solutions Partner designation. Has Gold/Silver benefits Solutions Partner designation with Solutions Partner benefits Solutions Partner designation, AD = AD of Solutions Partner designation of B* Partner can renew the Solutions Partner badge. If they get qualified, the Partner can opt for Solutions Partner benefits. The Partner doesn't get the option to choose legacy gold/silver benefits.
2d No Solutions Partner designation; Has got Gold/Silver benefits Solutions Partner designation with legacy benefits Solutions Partner designation, AD = AD of Solutions Partner designation of B* At the time of renewal, partners have two options to choose from, the benefits between benefits for Solutions Partners or legacy benefits. If the partner chooses benefits for Solutions Partners, the enrolled Solution areas associated benefit bundles are provided. If the Partner chooses legacy benefits, then an aggregate of the legacy benefits of both partners (without any duplicates) at the higher level is provided.
3 No Solutions Partner designation; Has got Gold/Silver benefits No Solutions Partner designation; Has got Gold/Silver benefits No Solutions Partner designation The renewal window opens on Company A legacy Gold/Silver Anniversary date. The partner has only one option to choose the legacy benefits and if the Partner chooses legacy benefits, then an aggregate of the legacy benefits of both partners (without any duplicates) at the higher level is provided.
4 No Solutions Partner designation; Has got Gold/Silver benefits None No Solutions Partner designation The renewal window opens on Company A legacy Gold/Silver AD. The partner has only one option to choose the legacy benefits and if the Partner chooses legacy benefits, an aggregate of the legacy benefits of both partners (without any duplicates) at the higher level is provided.
5 NIL No Solutions Partner designation; Has got Gold/Silver benefits No Solutions Partner designation As the company A doesn't have any legacy AD, the renewal window for legacy benefits (aligned with the ones eligible for partner B) purchase happens with legacy AD date of company B

* Be sure to activate all the benefits you intend to use, for both accounts, before merging and your subsequent membership renewal date.

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