November 2023 announcements

  • Article

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

December NCE price list preview will erroneously show Triennial Microsoft 365 E3 & E5 and Office 365 E3 SKUs

  • Date: November 30, 2023
  • Workspace: Pricing
  • Impacted audience: Cloud Solution Provider partners (indirect providers and direct bill) in some markets/countries/regions.

Due to a Microsoft price list publishing error, the following Triennial availabilities will be visible for the following SKUs on the December 1, 2024 price list preview: Microsoft 365 E3, Microsoft 365 E5, and Office 365 E3. These triennial SKUs won't be available for Partners to transact, and these erroneously visible SKUs will be removed on the January 1, 2024 price list.

Product ProductID SkuID
Microsoft 365 E3 CFQ7TTC0LFLX 0003
Microsoft 365 E3 CFQ7TTC0LFLX 0001
Microsoft 365 E5 CFQ7TTC0LFLZ 0002
Office 365 E3 CFQ7TTC0LF8R 0001

Monthly update: What's new for Solutions Partner designations, specializations, and Microsoft AI Cloud and Partner program offerings and benefits

Important capabilities, offers and updates have been introduced to improve the way partners can further differentiate their deep technical expertise across a set of priority scenarios with high customer demand.

  • Date: November 27, 2023
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: Partners enrolled in the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program

Available now

Solutions Partner for Training Services performance dashboard: Starting November 16, 2023, partners interested in attaining the Solutions Partner for Training Services designation will be able to see the requirements and their performance against those requirements in a new dashboard in Partner Center. This will allow partners to see where they stack up against the criteria for Solutions Partner for Training Services and begin working towards attaining the designation in preparation for when it becomes fully available for purchasing in early 2024.

To access the Solutions Partner for Training Services performance dashboard in Partner Center, sign in and select Membership. Then, navigate to Training Services partner to begin working towards attainment. You must have the Global admin or MPN Partner Admin role to view the Membership workspace. For more details, review the requirements for the designation on the Learning resources site, and read the article about qualifying for a Training Services designation in Partner Center.

In early 2024, qualified partners will receive designation-specific badges, distinguishing their services from other partner types within the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program. These badges greatly enhance customer discoverability, making it easier for them to identify partners with unique expertise and a proven track record of delivering quality training.

Reminders

Specializations - Upcoming year 2 renewals: This is the second year of the annual review of the specialization's requirements. For those that enrolled in the specialization prior to 2023, there are some additional aspects to this review that you should be aware of and plan accordingly.

  • Azure specializations: an audit will be required before you can renew your enrollment. These audits will be the same as those undertaken to enroll originally.

  • Modern Work or Security specializations: you'll be required to submit new customer references for review.

To learn more, see Specializations overview.

Next steps

Monthly Update: Important actions partners need to take to secure the partner ecosystem

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

  • Date: November 20, 2023
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: Direct bill partners, indirect providers, and indirect resellers transacting through the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program and with advisors

The Secure Future Initiative and our commitment to security.

Microsoft has launched a new initiative: the Secure Future Initiative to advance cybersecurity protection. It's a response to the increasing speed, scale, and sophistication of cyberattacks.

Partners can learn more about it from Brad Smith blog post and from Charlie Bell's internal email.

As part of Microsoft's commitment to help customers be secure by default, on November 6, 2023, we announced the auto-rollout of Microsoft Entra Conditional Access policies.

With this rollout, we'll require multifactor authentication to access admin portals such as Azure, Partner Center, and Microsoft 365 Admin.

Customers should understand the new policies and how they'll affect their organizations.

GDAP updates:

  • Transitioning delegated admin privileges (DAP) relationships to granular delegated admin privileges (GDAP) roles: Microsoft has completed the creation of GDAP relationships as part of Microsoft-led DAP to GDAP transition and has begun DAP removal.

    • Review the frequently asked questions related to this milestone.

    • Validate the newly created GDAP relationship and create a new GDAP relationship with the necessary Microsoft Entra roles in case you require more roles to manage customers.

    • In certain cases, for Microsoft-led created GDAP relationships, Microsoft Entra roles aren't mapped to security groups due to few conditional access policies set by customers.

  • Creating new customers: Default GDAP is available via Partner Center UI and API during create customer flow. Partners must explicitly grant granular permissions to security groups in the Default GDAP.

  • Stop DAP for new customers: Stop DAP and grant GDAP by default (with no payload changes to API) is now November 27, 2023.

  • GDAP auto extend feature: Partners can now auto extend new or existing GDAPs by six months. Learn more by referencing the FAQs.

  • DAP is no longer available with new reseller relationships for existing customers. The updated Request Reseller Relationship link continues to be available in Partner Center UI and the API contract "/v1/customers/relationship requests" property URL continues to return the invitation URL to be sent to the admin of the customer tenant.

  • Microsoft Admin Center will continue to accept DAP=true in the Request Reseller Relationship request from requests already sent to customers until November 29, 2023.

  • The bulk migration tool is available through the end of November 2023. You can continue to create and apply GDAP templates in Microsoft 365 Lighthouse beyond this date, and a consent link will be generated to provide to customers.

Partners should continue

  • Requesting GDAP if admin access is required for a customer tenant.

  • Disabling DAP if DAP relationships are no longer required. The person with the admin agent role within the partner organization should review the DAP monitoring report and disable DAP relationships immediately.

  • Ensuring their app is consented in customer tenant.

Available now

  • Compliance Admin role in Partner Center: To help our partners manage their compliance obligations, we're adding a new Compliance admin role in Partner Center. The Compliance admin role is intended to help Partners authorize a point of contact that they want Microsoft to engage with for compliance-related matters. Ensure this role is assigned to someone in your company and that the point of contact is kept current as change happens within your company. To learn more, see Compliance Admin Role.

  • Partner Center Security Score is now available in Partner Center. The Security Score feature provides a summary of security requirements and recommendations to help partners improve their security and health and mitigate risk areas. The score reflects how secure the partner's Partner Center and Azure AD tenant is based on prioritized security requirements. Partners will be able to view alerts, non-compliant security requirements, and recommendations to improve their score on the Partner Center Security requirements page. By taking necessary actions, partners can improve their security score and demonstrate their commitment to security.

  • Re-activate Azure subscriptions: This capability enables partners with customer Azure subscriptions to have more control in the event of compromise or abuse. It also enables partners to cancel the Azure subscriptions and the Azure plan directly from the Partner Center, shutting down suspicious activity discovered in their Azure plan subscriptions. Now, partners can reactivate an Azure subscription using the API after the issue is mitigated and the threat actor is evicted from the compromised tenant. Partners can also reactivate through the Partner Center portal. Once the subscriptions are reactivated, they show up as Active Azure subscriptions.

  • Partners can now reduce the Azure quota: Partners can now request a quota reduction using the self-serve tools. We've enabled a self-serve capability for CSP partners to request a quota reduction on their customers' Azure subscriptions. Partners can request quota using the Azure portal or Quota - Update - REST API. For security reasons, quota requests are only allowed by CSP partners and not by customers. Partners need to request using the admin on behalf of permissions to enable their customers to make quota requests.

Coming soon

  • As Microsoft continues to strengthen the security posture for partners and customers, we'll begin expanding into Microsoft Entra error codes along with Conditional Access Policy (CAP) enforcement for all Partner Center APIs. Any existing Partner Center APIs that previously didn't enforce a customer's cross-tenant CAP will now return detailed diagnostic information for these cases. Refer to the Microsoft Entra error codes documentation in Microsoft Learn for details. The list of affected APIs can be found in the Partner Center APIs DAP-to-GDAP transition article in Microsoft Learn. We're working towards January 22, 2024, to roll out these changes.

Next steps

New user experience for software keys and downloads

We're excited to announce the release of our new Software page!

  • Date: November 16, 2023
  • Workspace: Customers
  • Impacted audience: All global CSP partners.

We're excited to announce that we've updated the user experience for Software keys and downloads in Partner Center. This update is designed to significantly enhance the user experience for our partners. The improvements include a new page layout, filters, search bar, and pagination, all aiming to make navigation more intuitive and efficient. Core functionality hasn't changed, and this change is a user experience update only.

The changes are available in both sandbox and production. To view the changes, navigate to the Software page:

  1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Customers.
  2. Select a customer from the list.
  3. From your customer's detail page, select Software.

Next steps

Review the Partner Center documentation: Sell software subscriptions through CSP.

Microsoft 365 and Copilot program to publish apps and plugins for Microsoft 365 is available in preview in Partner Center

  • Date: November 16, 2023
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: All partners

Independent software vendors (ISVs) will be able to submit apps that include Copilot plugins and Graph connectors for Teams, Outlook and more to the new Microsoft 365 and Copilot program. Developers will be able to package plugins and Graph connectors into the same unified app manifest and publish their app to Partner Center. Upon app validation, these apps will be made available in Microsoft 365 admin center, where administrators can discover and enable for their users. Users can discover the apps and plugins through the app store in Teams, Outlook and Microsoft365.com.

Next steps

Partners can learn more about the new experience at Publish plugins and Graph connectors for Copilot for Microsoft 365.

New commerce launch and migration details for Cloud Solution Provider, US Government Community Cloud, education, and nonprofit per-user legacy offers

Announcing new commerce launch and migration details for Cloud Solution Provider (CSP), US Government Community Cloud (US GCC), education, and nonprofit per-user legacy offers.

  • Date: November 16, 2023
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: CSP direct bill, indirect providers, indirect resellers

CSP education, nonprofit, and US GCC per-user offers will be available in new commerce starting January 1, 2024.

Note

Microsoft also refers to this group of offers as "public sector" offers.

Many CSP partners have been maintaining two different systems to support their legacy and new commerce business. The launch of education, nonprofit and US GCC offers in new commerce will enable partners to streamline their operations and reduce their engineering costs. Transitioning customers to the new commerce system will also give partners access to new product offers—including AI-enabled offers in future—and to durable incentive opportunities through the Microsoft Commerce Incentives program (MCI).

We encourage CSP partners with education, nonprofit, and US GCC customers to prioritize migrating their customers from legacy to the new commerce system during the months of January through June 2024, before Microsoft-led migration begins in July. As we're doing with the CSP commercial migration, Microsoft plans to migrate the education, nonprofit, and US GCC offers that remain in the legacy system to new commerce on the offer renewal date. This Microsoft-led migration effort will begin with public sector offers renewing on July 1, 2024, and will continue with all offers renewing throughout calendar years 2024 and 2025.

Note

All legacy offers that Microsoft migrates will be set to annual terms by default. Partners will have seven days after migration is complete to change the subscription term, quantity or cancel the subscription if necessary.

Microsoft will launch the CSP education, nonprofit, and US GCC offers in four waves, as shown in the following table. Wave 1 will include the offers with the highest customer volume. The remaining offers will be launched in the subsequent waves. The offers included in each wave will be published in the new commerce license-based price list in the Partner Center Pricing workspace, one month before the launch date.

Education, nonprofit, US GCC offers Price list preview Available in new commerce
Wave 1 December 1, 2023 January 1, 2024
Wave 2 January 1, 2024 February 1, 2024
Wave 3 February 1, 2024 March 1, 2024
Wave 4 March 1, 2024 April 1, 2024

As a CSP partner, you might have some customers using commercial SKUs and some using education, nonprofit, or GCC SKUs. While Microsoft will migrate all offers remaining in the legacy system to new commerce in 2024, the timeline for Microsoft-led migration of commercial offers is different than the timeline for public sector offers. To clarify the differences, here are the key dates for each migration effort:

CSP offers Available in new commerce Microsoft-led migration begins for offers renewing on this date
Commercial SKUs Now January 11, 2024
Education, nonprofit, US GCC SKUs Starting January 1, 2024 July 1, 2024

Note

Most CSP government customers around the world use commercial SKUs. The Microsoft-led commercial migration will include government customers using CSP commercial SKUs. The term "US GCC" refers to a specific set of United States government cloud customers.

Request to indirect providers

If you're a CSP indirect provider, please spread the word about the details for launch of public sector per-user offers in new commerce and the Microsoft-led migration timeline with your resellers to ensure they're preparing customers for this change.

Important legacy to new commerce transition considerations

  • Retiring offers: Some public sector legacy offers won't be migrated to new commerce. Partners are able to review the list of public sector legacy offers scheduled for retirement in the CSP Offer Retirement Guide. This guide is updated monthly with lists of offer IDs being retired, the dates after which renewals stop and guidance for partners on how to fill the gap for subscriptions that stop renewing to new terms.

  • Naming: CSP Public Sector legacy offers might have a different name in the new commerce system. Partners can consult the Legacy Offer Matrix in the Partner Center Pricing workspace, to look up the name of their legacy subscription and map it to the new name in the new commerce system.

  • Price: There are a small number of CSP Public Sector offers that have a different price in the new commerce system. The price partners pay can also be affected by FX rates, depending on regional FX rate fluctuations. Partners can review the new commerce license-based price list in the Partner Center Pricing workspace, to look up the exact price of offers sold in the new commerce system.

  • Billing: In the new commerce system, invoices and reconciliation files are available by the 8th of each month. Visit Billing for one-time and recurring purchases in new commerce to learn more about how billing works in the new commerce system.

  • Sandbox testing: In response to partners' requests, Microsoft will make sandbox testing available in January 2024, both for validation of customer tenants and for testing of new commerce SKUs. We'll publish the technical details in the Test and debug with integration sandbox Microsoft Learn article in January 2024.

  • Legacy incentives: CSP partners will be able to earn legacy incentives through December 31, 2024. See the Next steps section for information about the new commerce Microsoft Commerce Incentives (MCI) program.

CSP nonprofit customers who meet the Nonprofits Grants & Credits Eligibility requirements, and are migrating to new commerce, will be eligible for new promotional offers for specific Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, and Power Platform SKUs. These promo offers will provide a 16.67% discount to nonprofit customers who choose to start in new commerce with a low-risk monthly commitment to any of the listed products. The promotional period will be January 1, 2024, to September 30, 2024. Details will be available January 1, 2024, in the Global Promo Readiness Guide Collection.

Next steps

To help your organization prepare for CSP public sector per-user offer launch and migration, we recommend the following resources:

Questions?

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

Transaction history, Revenue summary, Payment and Export pages retired

Links to Transaction history, Revenue summary, Payment and Export pages retired from the Earnings workspace pages – Earnings, Revenue, and Reports.

  • Date: November 14, 2023
  • Workspace: Earnings
  • Impacted audience: All partners who use Partner Center to view earnings and payouts, such as Incentive Admin and Incentive Users for the incentive programs and Account Owner for store and marketplace programs.

As communicated through in-page banner on the Earning, Revenue and Reports pages, the old pages that were available as part of the Payouts workspace are permanently retired. Use the new pages, which have parity + new features. Learn more about the Earnings workspace pages features and FAQs.

Listing parity features for change management

Activity Old page/section New page/section
View earning total per program Transaction history /Total – with time and program name filter
Note: This total included claims as well (which isn't earnings but rather payments).		 Earnings /Total earnings KPI on top left (with time and program filter).
Note: Earnings KPI doesn't include claims.
View total payments received Payment page /Total payments received this year (with ability to apply program, earning type, status and payment ID filter). Earnings /Total payments KPI on top (with time, program, earning type, status and payment ID filter)
View individual payment orders sent from Microsoft (also known as payment) Payment page / List of payments - Paid Earnings / Payment summary – By paid
View pending payment orders Payment page / List of payments - Pending Earnings / Payment summary – By pending
View earning details per payment order Payment page / List of payments – Paid. Select View on each payment order Earnings /Payment summary – By paid. Select the payment order number to filter the page to view earning insights just for that payment order.
View earnings by status Transaction history / Earning by status Earnings / Earning distribution and trends – By payment status
View earnings and payment trend. Examples: all up, per program, and per location Transaction history / Earnings and Payments trend (apply necessary filters) Earnings / Earnings and payments trend (apply necessary filters)
Estimated payment month Transaction history / Estimated payment month Earnings / Next estimated payments
Transaction history earning details 1. Transaction history /Details with every earning listed (limited to 10,000 lines)
2. Default transaction history, Default marketplace or default store reports		 Earnings/Download section
1. Earnings – Default
2. Earnings – Marketplace
3. Earnings - Store
Reports available to download Earning, transaction, payment status details - Default Transaction history Earnings-Default
Reports available to download Earning, transaction, payment status details (Growth Levers) – Transaction summary Earnings-Growth
Reports available to download Earning, transaction, payment status details - Default Marketplace Earnings-Marketplace
Reports available to download Earning, transaction, payment status details - Default Store Earnings-Store
Reports available to download Payment details – Payments Payments

Sales stage alignment to MCEM in Partner Center

We're aligning sales stages in the co-sell workflows to match the Microsoft Customer Engagement Methodology (MCEM).

  • Date: November 10, 2023
  • Workspace: Referrals
  • Impacted audience: Referral admins

To offer clarity and enhance our co-sell workflows, we're introducing the Microsoft Customer Engagement Methodology (MCEM) stages to Partner Center. These stages will be displayed inline, right alongside the legacy sales stages you're familiar with. This update is a reflection of the alignment strategy introduced at Inspire 2023.

FY24 Modern Work and Security Usage incentives updates

In FY24, the Modern Work and Security Usage incentive (formerly OSUM365) moved to Microsoft Commerce Incentives (MCI) to provide an integrated and seamless incentive user experience.

  • Date: November 10, 2023
  • Workspace: Incentives
  • Impacted audience: All partners participating in Business Applications incentives

New this year, the Modern Work and Security Usage incentive is a high-water mark (HWM) model rewarding partners for driving customer deployment and adoption growth. The HWM tracks the highest value of measured units by tenant and workload over time and is an incentive pattern used across multiple solution areas.

Example:

Bar graph showing the high-water mark principle with units sold and compensable units for modern work and security.

  • In this example:
    • January: five units billed; five units compensable
    • February: 10 units billed; five incremental units compensable
    • March: 20 units billed; 10 incremental units compensable
    • April: 22 units billed; two incremental units compensable
    • May: 15 units billed; zero incremental units compensable as HWM = 22
    • July: 25 units billed; three incremental units compensable as HWM = 22

Partners will earn when driving Monthly Active User (MAU) growth and enjoy a larger addressable market with enhanced earning opportunities. Incentivized workloads align to Microsoft field priorities to ensure up-selling and renewal with focused bets on key strategic products. In addition, earnings are limited to Paid Available Units (PAU), meaning that only paid growth is rewarded.

How do you reconcile earnings for Modern Work and Security Usage?
  • Monthly Active Users (MAU): Number of unique users, by workload, that have taken an intentional action in the past 28 days. Monthly active usage is specific to each workload.
    • Monthly Protected Users (MPU): Number of distinct users, by Security workload, that were protected in the past 28 days.
  • Paid Available Units (PAU): Measure of "paid" licenses on a tenant, such as Microsoft has recognized revenue for those licenses.
  • Compensable Units: MAU/MPU growth above the HWM, not exceeding total PAU.
  • Earnings = compensable units * rate card
  • Earnings page: Provides earning and payment insights. View all reconciliation attributes in the Earnings: Default download, for example, by MAU, PAU, PriorHWM, compensable units, workload.

Next steps

  • For more information, refer to the "Modern Work and Security Usage Incentive" slide in the MCI Program Guide.

Changes to the November New Commerce price list

To allow you to purchase Microsoft Sustainability Manager (product ID CFQ7TTC0N38H) as soon as possible, we're making it available in Partner Center. The product will be visible on the price list starting December 1, 2023.

  • Date: November 10, 2023
  • Workspace: Pricing
  • Impacted audience: Cloud Solution Provider partners (indirect providers and direct bill) in all markets/countries/regions

Some of our test products are added to the November price list. We would like to highlight that these aren't purchasable.

  • 000W - DO NOT USE - Windows 365 Frontline 16 vCPU, 64 GB, 1 TB
  • 000Z - DO NOT USE - Windows 365 Frontline 16 vCPU, 64 GB, 512 GB

We'll remove these test products on December 1, 2023.

Now live: View and manage organization support requests

Users with the new Support request admin role can now view and manage support requests created by other users within the organization.

  • Date: November 9, 2023
  • Workspace: Help + support
  • Impacted audience: Global admins, Support request admins

Global admins can now assign the new Support request admin role to users to allow them access to all support requests for the organization. The Organization requests tab on the Help + support Overview page shows all support requests for the currently logged on tenant.

Support request admins can view, update the status, add notes, and attachments to organization requests.

To learn more, see View and manage support requests.

The Microsoft Partner Agreement (MPA) is being updated, effective May 1, 2024

This communication is Microsoft's formal notice of the update to partners.

  • Date: November 09, 2023
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: Partners who have an active Microsoft Partner Agreement.

Changes will become effective May 1, 2024, automatically without further action by the parties; partners don't need to sign or provide any form of acknowledgment.

The MPA is being updated, effective May 1, 2024.

The MPA incorporates terms that support our commitment to privacy, security, compliance, and transparency. Microsoft strives to protect customers, partners, and Microsoft by establishing clear requirements for transparency, compliance, and lawful business practices, fostering long term growth and business continuity. In order to further improve business best practices, Microsoft has updated the terms and conditions of the MPA.

On May 1, 2024, the updated terms will apply automatically. No action, signature, or acknowledgment by partners is required.

A look ahead at upcoming changes to the Services Provider License Agreement (SPLA) program

As part of our efforts to continuously evolve and enhance the SPLA program, Microsoft will roll out a new SPLA template on January 12, 2024.

  • Date: November 08, 2023
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: SPLA resellers

Why is Microsoft making changes?

Microsoft is updating the SPLA template in response to an increasing number of trade law and other regulatory requirements. In addition, SPLA resellers and their SPLA customers have asked Microsoft to clarify its rights and obligations under the SPLA, and Microsoft has responded.

What changes is Microsoft making?

The primary updates that SPLA customers can expect in the new SPLA template are:

  • Requiring affiliate identification: SPLA customers must identify the affiliates for which they request participation rights. Microsoft approval of affiliates is required prior to their participation.

  • Simplifying reporting and focusing on compliance:

    • Simplifying the monthly use report: SPLA customers, via their SPLA resellers, only need to provide the total number of licenses used for each product during the preceding calendar month. Customers no longer need to create end customer enrollments or report usage separately.

    • Focusing on trade and anti-corruption compliance: SPLA customers might be requested to provide end user reports, via their SPLA resellers. End user information is retained in accordance with all applicable privacy laws and regulations. End user reports are considered customer confidential information and used for compliance verification purposes only.

When will Microsoft make these changes?

The new SPLA template will roll out on January 12, 2024. Existing agreements remain effective until their expiration date, and SPLA customers who choose to renew will be renewed on the new SPLA template. Draft packages on the current SPLA template must be submitted to Microsoft by January 12, 2024. Contract packages submitted on or after January 13, 2024, will only be accepted on the new SPLA template.

Next steps

  • Share this information with all appropriate contacts in your organization, especially with those who are responsible and accountable for managing SPLA customers.

  • Ensure awareness of the planned changes with your SPLA customers ahead of their next renewal date. If you have any questions, contact your account team or submit a query using the Volume Licensing (VL) Central tool.

  • Note: SPLA resellers with customers in the following countries and regions will receive an email communication with further details of changes specific to those geographies.

    • Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bhutan, Brazil, China, Hungary, India, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Moldova, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Poland, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, Türkiye, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates.

November 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 CSP community resources that provide you with essential program updates.

  • Date: November 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, which 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 Calendar, monthly 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.

FY24 Business Applications incentives updates

Microsoft is investing heavily in many aspects in the Business Applications solution area, including incentives and several partner programs to support skilling and go-to-market.

  • Date: November 7, 2023
  • Workspace: Incentives
  • Impacted audience: All partners participating in Business Applications incentives

In Business Applications, partners can expect a focus on simplicity with the move of all our Biz Apps incentives to Microsoft Commerce Incentives (MCI) and growth with the overall incentive's opportunity growing year-over-year. In FY24, partners will see a focus on partner capacity and execution.

Prioritizing impact in the small, medium, and corporate (SMC) customer segments where partners are a primary resource in transforming from transactional to value-added services. Partners participating in MCI Biz Apps Presales Advisor incentives (previously OSA) will see differentiated rates by customer segment as a reflection on how Microsoft invests resources driving engagement with customers in the enterprise segment and the partner led motion in SMC.

Partners will also see a continued focus on both activities and outcomes. As such, we're shifting all investments from the Online Services Usage Dynamics 365 program (OSU) into postsales activities.

What's changing?

Here's the complete summary of the incentives changes:

Incentive Change
Biz Apps Presales Advisor - Differentiated rates for enterprise and SMC: FY24 ENT rates < SMC, but not far from average FY23 ENT rates given EA price differentiation and discounts
- High-water mark (HWM) growth pattern at tenant level enables tracking over time, eliminating risk of paying for existing seats upon renewal, or for recapture growth below the HWM
- Fixed rate card model provides earnings transparency and predictability
OSU Dynamics 365 OSU Dynamics 365 retires; funding moves to postsales activities
Power Apps and Power Automate (PAL) - Removing Customer Insights and Power BI to focus on core Power Platform workloads
- Rate card removed to simplify calculation (monthly active users [MAU] * $ amount)
Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) - Invested in customer adds for indirect providers
- Maintained base rates across all partner types
- Shifting our investments from the Power Apps and Sales Pro product accelerators to Business Central and Sales Enterprise
Independent Software Vendor (ISV) Marketplace Transact and Grow (through Campaigns enrollment in Partner Center) Biz Apps available under Marketplace Transact in FY24 (new)
High-water mark (HWM) = Pay for growth

The HWM tracks the highest value of measured units (such as net paid seats, MAU) by tenant and workload over time.

Example:

Bar graph showing the high-water mark principle with units sold and compensable units.

  • In this example:
    • January: five units billed; five units compensable
    • February: 10 units billed; five incremental units compensable
    • March: 20 units billed; 10 incremental units compensable
    • April: 22 units billed; two incremental units compensable
    • May: 15 units billed; zero incremental units compensable as HWM = 22
    • July: 25 units billed; three incremental units compensable as HWM = 22
High-water mark (HWM) = Workload and tenant level

Measuring the HWM at the tenant and workload level enables tracking over time, eliminating risk of paying for existing seats upon renewal, or for recapture growth below the HWM.

Flowchart showing shift of high-water mark from subscription to tenant and workload.

  • In FY23, the HWM was determined at the subscription level. This approach was challenging in tracking the HWM in instances of customer renewals or recurring revenue, as these situations led to the creation of net new subscriptions.
  • In FY24, the HWM is established at the tenant and workload level, which is a less detailed level in comparison to subscription level. This approach prevents overpayment in renewal or recurring revenue scenarios as the HWM is easier tracked at this higher grain.

Note

Partners will still need to reassociate via Claiming Partner of Record (CPOR) and Partner Center when agreements and subscriptions renew.

How do you reconcile earnings for Biz Apps Presales Advisor?
  • Compensable units: Net paid seat growth above the High-Water Mark (HWM) for claimed seats for the associated workload and tenant.
  • Earnings = compensable units * rate card
  • Earnings page: Provides earning and payment insights. View all reconciliation attributes in the Earnings: Default download, for example, by quantity (net paid seats), HWM, compensable units, workload, or CPOR claim ID.

Next steps

  • For more information, refer to the "Business Applications Incentives" slide in the MCI Program Guide.

License and VM image version reports now available to ISVs via API download

Our API now offers robust support for license and VM image version reports, specifically designed to streamline and enhance the ISV experience.

  • Date: November 7, 2023
  • Workspace: Insights, APIs
  • Impacted audience: ISV partners having offers published in marketplace

ISVs can now download the license and VM image version reports programmatically. The license report provides insights around the licenses assigned and provisioned. The VM image deprecation report can help ISVs in deciding which VM images can be deprecated based on their usage.

This enhancement brings multiple benefits to partners, such as automated report generation, improved data quality, and consistency. Also, partners who access reports in both the UI and via API can see that the columns in reports downloaded are the same across both experiences. This ensures a seamless transition between the two platforms, providing ISVs with a more reliable and cohesive experience.

Next steps

Referral summary using generative AI

We're riding the generative AI wave and showing referral summaries on the co-sell opportunities preview card for top-tier partners.

  • Date: November 7, 2023
  • Workspace: Referrals
  • Impacted audience: Referral admins for top-tier partners

Are you tired of opening every referral and reading through pages of notes to do opportunity sizing? We've added a referral summary that helps you process inbound deals from Microsoft and speed up your opportunity sizing process by summarizing the content (>300 characters) using generative AI.

To try the new experience, hover over "Referrals" in the Co-sell opportunities section of the Referrals workspace. Send us your feedback using the smiley icon on the top right corner in Partner center.

Note

This feature is being enabled gradually to all top-tier partners.

Next steps

CSP offer retirement guide November update schedule

The CSP offer retirement guide November update is delayed until November 17, 2023.

  • Date: November 6, 2023
  • Workspace: Customers
  • Impacted audience: CSP direct bill partners and indirect providers

The CSP offer retirement guide was updated in September and October 2023. The next update for the retirement guide will be posted by November 17, 2023. The November update will include legacy license-based offers that will be retired after January 2024. There are no plans for a December 2023 guide update, and we'll assume monthly updates starting the first week of January 2024.

Next steps

  • Partner should review the latest CSP offer retirement guide, talk to your customers, and ensure you're meeting their needs with the latest available new commerce product SKUs.
  • Anticipate the next wave of offer retirements to be available by November 17, 2023.

Questions?

Contact Partner Support if you have any questions or need more information.

View the latest promotions and offers

The latest Global Promo Readiness Guide is available.

  • Date: November 2, 2023
  • Workspace: Pricing
  • Impacted audience: Partners transacting through the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) 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.
  • 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.

The New NCE Billing Overview page will soon be generally available

We're excited to announce that our new Billing overview page will be generally available (GA) in November.

  • Date: November 1, 2023
  • Workspace: Billing
  • Impacted audience: All global partners who are transacting with the new commerce products

The new commerce billing overview page, currently in Beta, will soon be GA. This page is a convenient place to view your current and previous invoices, and billing reconciliation files for new commerce programs. Additionally, it provides various other billing-related information and allows partners to submit withholding tax receipts to fulfill regulatory tax and compliance requirements.

How does it affect your user experience?

With the general availability of the new page, we have made some exciting updates to enhance your user experience. The current Billing history page will solely focus on displaying billing, invoicing, and reconciliation information and files specifically for our legacy program. However, the brand new Billing overview (NCE) page will offer a separate and improved user experience for our new commerce program. This page is designed to provide you with a comprehensive overview of your billing activities, including advanced features and functionalities tailored specifically for the new program.

To help you better understand the differences between the two pages, take a look at the detailed comparison in the following table.

Activity Current Billing history page New Billing overview (NCE) page
View the current account balance and unallocated payments Only for legacy invoices Only for new commerce invoices
View and download the most recent invoice and reconciliation files Only legacy invoices and reconciliation files Only new commerce invoices and reconciliation files
View and download historical invoices and reconciliation files Only legacy invoices and reconciliation files Only new commerce invoices and reconciliation files
View and download estimates files Not applicable Only for new commerce unbilled transactions
View and download Azure Credit Offer (ACO) balance file Not applicable Only for new commerce partners who have eligible customers with ACO credit
Submit withholding taxes Only for legacy invoices Only for new commerce invoices
View and download Fapiao (only in China) Not applicable Only for new commerce invoices

Known limitations

N/A

Benefits

With the separation of the legacy and new commerce billing information, you'll enjoy the following advantages:

  • Faster page loading times
  • Improved performance and more details available on the new Billing overview (NCE) page to support informed decision-making
  • All billed invoices and related reconciliation files are conveniently stored in one location in the bottom section of the Billing overview (NCE) page
    • Also, reconciliation files are categorized by billing status, either billed or unbilled, to simplify tracking
  • Estimates file names are now displayed on the new Billing overview (NCE) page, categorized by billing month and type, to facilitate easier tracking

We hope that these updates will greatly enhance your billing experience and provide you with a more seamless and intuitive platform to manage your financial activities.

Next steps

This feature is expected to be GA for all on November 28, 2023. However, for now, prioritize the following activities to ensure a smooth transition process:

  • Inform your users about the change and ensure they're aware of the necessary adaptations to find related billing information.
  • We're dedicated to constantly improving our platform and providing our partners with efficient tools and insights. Thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to serving you on our new and improved billing platform.

The New NCE Report Download page will soon be generally available

We're excited to announce that our new Reports (NCE) page will be generally available (GA) in November.

  • Date: November 1, 2023
  • Workspace: Billing
  • Impacted audience: All global partners who are billed for new commerce products

The new commerce report download page, currently in Beta, will soon be generally available (GA). This page is a convenient place to download current and previous invoices, as well as billing reconciliation files for new commerce programs. You'll trigger the downloads from the Billing overview page and retrieve the downloads in this page.

How does it affect your user experience?

This brand new Reports (NCE) page will offer improved user experience for downloading invoices, reconciliations, and Azure Credit Offer balance files. Once the Reports (NCE) page becomes GA, all new commerce downloads will be available on this page, and the existing Download file page will retire, which means you won't be able to see that in the task menu.

The key differences between the existing Download file and the new Reports (NCE) pages are as follows:

  • You should start all reconciliation file downloads from the new Billing overview (NCE) page. The system will automatically add these downloads to the queue, and you'll be able to see them on the Reports (NCE) page.
  • You still have the ability to search for your downloaded reports on this page, but the filter option won't be accessible.

Known limitations

N/A

Benefits

With the general availability of the Reports (NCE) page, you'll enjoy the following advantages:

  • Improved performance and additional details for better error handling and troubleshooting
  • The downloaded report's name will include the invoice number for billed data or year-month in YYMM format for unbilled data, providing clarity on the billing period
    • Also, the Last status update will tell you how recently the report was downloaded
  • The Azure Credit Offer Balance report will also be downloaded asynchronously from the new Reports (NCE) page

We hope that these updates will greatly enhance your billing experience and provide you with a more seamless and intuitive platform to manage your financial activities.

Next steps

This feature is expected to be GA on November 28, 2023. However, for now, prioritize the following activities to ensure a smooth transition process:

  • Inform your users that there has been a change in the location of the reports downloaded.
  • If you have bookmarked the link, update your bookmark with the new link once the page is GA.
  • We're dedicated to constantly improving our platform and providing our partners with efficient tools and insights. Thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to serving you on our new and improved billing platform.