January 2024 announcements

  • Article

This page provides the announcements for Microsoft Partner Center for January 2024.

Reminder: End of sale for Microsoft 365 and Office 365 (w/Teams) suites in European Economic Area (EEA)

Beginning February 1, 2024, partners will no longer see the Microsoft 365 & Office 365 (w/Teams) Suite SKUs on the CSP price list in the European Economic Area (EEA).

  • Date: January 29, 2024
  • Workspace: Pricing
  • Impacted audience: CSP Partners, LSP Partners

In August 2023, we announced the end of sale (EOS) for Microsoft 365 and Office 365 w/Teams Enterprise suites (Office 365 E1/E3/E5 and Microsoft 365 E3/E5) in the EEA.

Beginning February 1, 2024, partners will no longer see these SKUs on the CSP price list. For pricing details for EOS SKUs, use the most recent price list before the EOS effective date. For the products included in this announcement, most Partners should reference the January 2024 New Commerce License-based services Price List.

For Partners requiring pricing for Sweden and Norway, in scope for the upcoming price alignment adjustments, reference the February 2024 (Preview) new commerce License-based services Price List. The Pricing workspace provides access to price lists for future month (preview), current month, and five additional months of history.

Next steps

Upcoming improvements to the invoice-ready notification template

We're excited to announce that we improved our "Invoice-ready" notification template to provide better user experience. The updated version includes more essential details that can help you make better decisions.

  • Date: January 25, 2024
  • Workspace: Billing
  • Impacted audience: All global partners.

The new notification includes the following details so you can make better decisions:

  • Partner name

  • Partner tenant ID (Microsoft Entra ID)

  • Partner country/region

  • Invoice number

  • Invoice date

You also can sign in to Partner Center directly from the notification.

How does it change your user experience?

As a billing admin, you might need to manage multiple tenants for your company across different countries/regions. Our new notification template can help you identify which invoice belongs to which tenant and country/region, and an estimated payment deadline based on the invoice date. Here's a sample of the new notification template:

Screenshot of invoice-ready notification template.

Known limitations

N/A.

Benefits

Our new template offers the following advantages:

  • Quicker access to important details: See key details of your invoice in the notification without having to sign in to Partner Center.

  • Make a better decision: Make smart choices about your billing with the new information in the notification.

Next steps

We plan to make this experience change in the next week. To ensure a smooth transition process:

  • Inform your users about the new "Invoice-ready" notification template and ensure they know where to find essential details in it.

We're committed to improving our platform and providing our partners with effective tools and insights. Thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to serving you in our new and improved billing workspace!

"Billing overview (NCE)" will soon be the default landing page in the Billing workspace

We're excited to announce that our "Billing overview (NCE)" page will be the default landing page in the "Billing" workspace.

Categories

  • Date: January 24, 2024
  • Workspace: Billing
  • Impacted audience: All global partners who transact with the new commerce products.

Details

The "Billing overview (NCE)" page will be the default landing page in the "Billing" workspace. This page is much faster than the current "Billing history" landing page and will be your main page to check and download current and past invoices, as well as billing reconciliation files for new commerce programs. This page also provides billing-related information and allows you to submit withholding tax receipts to meet regulatory tax and compliance requirements.

How does it change your user experience?

The landing page is now going to be the "Billing overview (NCE)" page instead of "Billing history" page, and you can still access your legacy billing details by selecting the "Billing history" link in the left-side task menu.

By using this new landing page, you'll get better performance and a more user-friendly experience.

Known limitations

N/A.

Benefits

Our new landing page offers the following advantages:

  1. Quicker access to the billing data: Get your billing data faster with our new landing page, which has a loading speed that is more than triple that of the current landing page, so you can quickly access your new commerce billing details.
  2. Efficient design: The new "Billing overview (NCE)" page includes more details to help you make better decisions.
    1. The improved layout shows billed invoices and related reconciliation files in one place at the bottom of the page, organized by billing status (billed or unbilled), for easier tracking.
    2. Estimates file names are sorted by billing month and type to easy access.

We believe these changes are going to enhance your billing experience and provide you with a more seamless and intuitive platform to manage your financial activities.

Next steps

We plan to make this experience change in early February 2024. To ensure a smooth transition process, please prioritize the following activities:

  • Inform your users about the change and ensure they're aware of the necessary adjustments to find related billing information.

  • We're committed to improving our platform and providing our partners with effective tools and insights. Thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to serving you in our new and improved billing workspace!

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

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

  • Date: January 24, 2024
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: Partners enrolled in the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program

Available now

  • New partner benefits packages: Microsoft released three new benefits packages - Partner Launch Benefits, Partner Success Core Benefits, and Partner Success Expanded Benefits - to strengthen partner services. Each one is purpose-built to meet the varied needs of our partners at different stages of growth. The partner benefits packages are now available for purchase in most major markets, and are being released in all other geographies by the end of March 2024. For more details, visit the Grow with Microsoft: unlock new benefits packages and program updates partner blog.

  • Microsoft AI Cloud Partner program purchases: Migration to the new commerce platform: Effective January 22, 2024, Microsoft is making the new commerce platform the single, unified billing experience via credit card transactions for partners. Any partner program membership purchase, such as ISV Success, Partner Launch Benefits, Partner Success Core Benefits, and Partner Success Expanded Benefits, Microsoft Action Pack, Solutions Partner designation benefits or legacy gold or silver benefits will move to the new commerce system. The Global admin will be prompted to create or update their Microsoft billing account and profile in Partner Center before purchasing or renewing any AI Cloud Partner Program offer using a credit card. To learn more, see linking billing account and profile to Partner Center account.

What's coming

  • Call for self-nomination | Participate in the Support Services designation public preview: Get an early look at the upcoming Support Services designation. This designation builds on the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program solution area designations and further recognizes a partner's breadth and excellence of support capabilities.

    Partners who earn a Support Services designation will be given access to Microsoft benefits and resources to enhance their support capabilities. Badging for the designation helps partners differentiate their organizations with customers and in the Microsoft commercial marketplace.

    Don't miss the chance to gain early access to the Support Services designation, share your feedback, and fast-track your qualification for the program's full availability. Learn more about the prerequisites for joining the public preview and self-nominate by visiting Partner Support Services Designation Public Preview.

  • Signature Cloud Support benefit update: The Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program Signature Cloud Support (SCS) benefit provides unlimited cloud support to eligible partners, fostering significant growth and delivering exceptional value to our partner ecosystem.

    Effective July 1, 2024, at the time of your anniversary date, the SCS incidents benefit available to partners who have attained a solution area Solutions Partner designation or who purchased the gold or silver legacy benefits package will be limited to 50 incidents per year. Read the partner blog, Grow with Microsoft: unlock new benefits packages and program updates for more information.

Reminders

  • If you're renewing an Azure specialization for the second year, then an audit will be required for re-enrollment. Review the updated checklist and plan accordingly. You're able to start scheduling your audits 60 days ahead of your anniversary date of the specialization.

  • If you're renewing your Modern Work or Security specialization for the second year, then customer references are required for re-enrollment. Start to prep these references ahead of your anniversary date. You'll be able to load your customer references into Partner Center 60 days ahead of the anniversary date of the specialization.

Next steps

Update: Changes to the Services Provider License Agreement (SPLA) program

As part of our efforts to continuously evolve and enhance the SPLA program, Microsoft rolled out a new SPLA template on January 12, 2024. This is an update to the announcement from November 2023.

  • Date: January 22, 2024
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: SPLA resellers

Why is Microsoft making changes?

Microsoft updated 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 are in the new SPLA?

The primary updates in the new SPLA 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 and processed 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 did Microsoft make these changes?

The new SPLA template rolled 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. 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/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, Ukraine, and United Arab Emirates.

Now live: Programmatic access version 1.1 now available for Commercial Marketplace Insights reports

Version 1.1 of the API is available now. Version 1.0 will be deprecated in six months ending June 30, 2024. Plan to migrate to version 1.1 accordingly.

  • Date: January 22, 2024
  • Workspace: Insights
  • Impacted audience: ISV partners

Here are the top changes coming in Version 1.1

  • Recurrence count: The recurrence count parameter is now mandatory. This change means that all scheduled reports must have a recurrence count. There are certain limits based on Recurrence Interval.
  • Execution GET API: The 1.1 version of the GET Execution API returns new information about the recurrence count (remaining), end date, and next execution start time.
  • Scheduled Report PUT API: The 1.1 version of the API allows users to update the end date of their scheduled reports in addition to the recurrence count.

To migrate from v1 to v1.1 of the API:

  • Update your code to use the new endpoint for version 1.1 of the API.
  • Update any requests or responses that reference fields that are added or changed in version 1.1.
  • Test your code thoroughly to ensure that it's compatible with version 1.1 of the API.
  • Monitor your application to ensure that it's functioning correctly with the new version of the API.

Next steps

Republishing the January NCE price list to include the Copilot SKU

We're republishing the January NCE license-based price list to include the Copilot SKU.

  • Date: January 17, 2024
  • Workspace: Pricing
  • Impacted audience: Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partners, direct-bill partners, and indirect providers who use NCE license-based pricing in all markets/currencies

Download the new updated price list. We've republished the NCE price list to do the following:

  • Add the new Copilot SKU to the price list
    • The product is available, backdated with an effective start date of September 25, 2023, and an end date of February 1, 2024. On the February 1 price list, the effective date will be refreshed to February 1, 2024, to November 30, 9999.
  • Remove "nonprofit pricing" from 18 commercial SKU titles

Due to this out-of-cycle republication, you'll see on the price list the noncommercial PubSec SKUs that were supposed to launch on January 1, but as announced last month, the launch has been postponed to March 1 and they won't be purchasable.

Next Steps

  • Share this information with all appropriate contacts in your organization.
  • Review the new commerce license-based price list in the Partner Center Pricing workspace to find the offers included each month.

Copilot for Microsoft 365 now generally available through Cloud Solution Providers (CSPs)

Copilot for Microsoft 365 is now available to transact through Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partners. To give customers of all sizes access to Copilot, we also announced that the minimum seat purchase requirement has been removed and that customers with Office 365 E3 and E5 can now purchase Copilot for Microsoft 365.

  • Date: January 15, 2024
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: CSP partners transacting Microsoft 365

Copilot for Microsoft 365 is now generally available across all sales channels, including Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) new commerce.

  • Commercial customers with Microsoft 365 E3/E5, Office 365 E3/E5, and Microsoft 365 Business Standard/Business Premium prerequisite base SKUs can purchase the Copilot for Microsoft 365 add-on SKU across all sales channels - CSP, EA, MCA-E, EAS, and direct from Microsoft online.
  • Education customers with Microsoft 365 A3/A5 and Office 365 A3/A5 can purchase through Enrollment for Education Solutions.
  • We're removing the minimum seat purchase requirement for Copilot for Microsoft 365 across all channels and segments; however, customers must have a product license of one of the prerequisite base SKUs for each seat of Copilot for Microsoft 365 they purchase.
  • To help every customer get AI ready, Office 365 E3 and E5 licenses include Semantic Index for Copilot. Semantic Index for Copilot is critical to getting relevant, actionable responses to prompts in Microsoft 365 Copilot.
  • For full Copilot for Microsoft 365 SKU information, CSP partners can view the updated price list. Alternatively, refer to this Copilot for Microsoft 365 Product/SKU ID for full details: CFQ7TTC0MM8R/0002.

Copilot for Microsoft 365 is a major opportunity for partners to help every customer, regardless of their size, become an AI-powered organization. Make sure to use the resources in Next steps to start defining your strategy and operationalizing your sales engine today.

Next steps

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

A new MFA Statistics page is now available. Updates coming soon include the enablement of security defaults, a new Customer MFA Statistics page, and the new Security workspace.

  • Date: January 15, 2024
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: Direct bill partners, indirect providers, and indirect resellers transacting through the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program and with advisors

Coming soon

  • Starting in March 2024, Microsoft will enable security defaults on all CSP partner tenants that haven't already enabled security defaults, conditional access, or a third-party multifactor authentication (MFA) solution. We recommend that partners turn on security defaults immediately.
  • Customer MFA Statistics: The Insights workspace will soon have a new Customer MFA Statistics page that shows the number of customers in the partner's tenant, and the number that have MFA enabled for admin and non-admin users. This information will be useful for tracking the adoption and usage of MFA within the partner's customer base.
  • Partner Center Security Workspace: Coming soon to Partner Center is the Security workspace, a centralized platform designed to help partners assess their security situation and take necessary actions to improve their security posture. The workspace will simplify the user experience, offer educational resources, and act as a one-stop-shop for all security-related items in Partner Center.

Available now

  • MFA Statistics: The Insights workspace has a new MFA Statistics page that shows the number of partner tenant admin and non-admin users who have MFA enabled. 99% of compromised accounts don't have MFA enabled, so it's important to ensure MFA is enabled. Review MFA Statistics in the Partner Center documentation to learn more.
Reminders
  • The Compliance admin role in Partner Center allows partners to authorize a point of contact they want Microsoft to engage with for compliance-related matters. Ensure this role has been assigned to someone in your company and that the point of contact is kept current as change happens within your company. Review information about Compliance admin in the Partner Center documentation to learn more.
  • Improve your Partner Center Security Score 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.
  • Device management will require granular delegated admin permissions relationships starting January 31, 2024. To ensure a seamless experience, Microsoft recommends the Directory Reader as the least privileged role for this action. For more information, review how to upload devices to a new batch, update devices with a policy, and upload devices to an existing batch.
  • 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 enforcement for all Partner Center APIs. Refer to the Microsoft Entra error codes documentation for details. We're working toward January 22, 2024, to roll out these changes.

Next steps

Earnings, Revenue, and Reports pages have some updates to enhance reconciliation

We've made updates to the Earnings, Revenue, and Reports pages to help partners reconcile their earnings and payments.

  • Date: January 10, 2024
  • 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

The following updates have been made to the Earnings, Revenue, and Reports pages to help partners reconcile their earnings and payments:

  • Earnings page:

    • The Payment summary section now includes Earning types. Intended Audience: Incentives, Marketplace and store users

    Screenshot of the Earnings page, on the Earnings summary tab.

    • In the Payment summary section, the payment filter is now disabled for claim payments. Intended Audience: Incentives users only

  • Revenue page:

    • In Ineligible reasons, the link now shows distinct ineligible reasons for usage based engagements (in addition to existing revenue based engagements), Quantity (MAU) and QuantityAlt (PAU)

      Screenshot of the Revenue summary page, with reason codes, ineligible revenue, ineligible quantity, and ineligible quantity alt shown.

    • The Incentives Eligible and Ineligible section now includes more values in Customize columns. These columns help Modern work usage and Business applications presales partners to reconcile the eligible and ineligible usage.

      Screenshot of the Customize columns flyout.

  • Partners can now view the balance earning opportunities for Microsoft commerce incentives engagements with a earnings max cap. At this point, this release covers new commerce CSP related engagements, Surface, Modern work usage, Azure quarter on quarter engagements. This new report is available as a download from the Reports page. Learn more about the attributes in this report here Earnings - MaxCapBalance report in Partner Center

    Screenshot of the Earnings report page, with the new report: Max Cap Balance selected.

Next steps

To learn more about the definitions/details, review the following resources:

To get answers to some frequently asked questions, see the following pages:

Republish of February legacy license-based price list preview with updated deprecated prices for some currencies (INR, KRW, NOK, SEK, and TWD)

We're republishing the preview price list for legacy license-based products in Indian rupee (INR), Korean won (KRW), Norwegian krone (NOK), Swedish krona (SEK), and Taiwanese dollar (TWD).

  • Date: January 9, 2024
  • Workspace: Pricing
  • Impacted audience: Cloud Solution Provider (CSP), direct-bill partners and indirect providers who use legacy license-based pricing in INR, KRW, NOK, SEK, and TWD currencies

The deprecated products represent legacy offers that are no longer available for new purchase, only for renewal. The preview that was published on January 1, 2024 that showed the prices for INR, KRW, NOK, SEK, and TWD currencies doesn't have the latest deprecated product pricing. We're republishing it to provide you the most up-to-date pricing.

January 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: January 9, 2024
  • 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. You can 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 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.

View the latest promotions and offers

The latest Global Promo Readiness Guide is now available.

  • Date: January 5, 2024
  • 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.

January NCE price list preview will erroneously show triennial Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 and Office 365 E3 SKUs

Some triennial Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 and Office 365 E3 SKUs were made visible due to a publishing error. They'll be removed in a future price list publish.

  • Date: January 1, 2024
  • 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 January 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 will be removed in a future price list publish.

Title (SKU) Product ID SKU ID
Microsoft 365 E3 CFQ7TTC0LFLX 0001
Microsoft 365 E5 CFQ7TTC0LFLZ 0002
Office 365 E3 CFQ7TTC0LF8R 0001

Increase of margins for Windows 365 for Cloud Solution Provider (CSP)

We're announcing increased margins for Windows 365 Business, Enterprise, and Frontline from 15% to 20%.

  • Date: January 1, 2024
  • Workspace: Payouts
  • Impacted audience: CSP direct bill and indirect providers

We're happy to inform you that we're increasing the margins for Windows 365 Business, Enterprise, and Frontline from 15% to 20%, starting from January 1, 2024. This is a great opportunity for you to grow your cloud business and serve your customers better.

As a Microsoft Direct Bill or Indirect Provider, you're essential for bringing Windows 365 to the market and helping customers benefit from it. We value your partnership and want to reward you for your efforts by increasing the margins for Windows 365 Business, Enterprise, and Frontline editions.

The increased margins apply to all new and existing Windows 365 subscriptions that are active on or after January 1, 2024. The margins are based on the list price of Windows 365 and paid out monthly through the Partner Center. For more details, please refer to Partner Center.

We hope that you're excited about this announcement and the opportunity to grow your cloud business with Windows 365. If you have any questions or feedback, contact your Microsoft account manager or the Partner Support team. We look forward to working with you and supporting your success with Windows 365.