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Partner transfers the billing ownership to another Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partner

  • Article

This new capability extends the existing Azure Plan functionality to include transfer of new commerce license-based subscriptions. These transfer paths are available both from the Partner Center user interface and by calling the Partner Center transfer APIs.

Partners have different reasons for transferring subscriptions from one partner to another:

  • The current partner may no longer be authorized to transact as a Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partner.
  • The customer finds a new partner that better supports their needs.
  • Some direct bill partners may be transitioning to indirect reseller status, so they need to transfer their subscriptions to their new indirect provider.
  • A partner may merge with or be acquired by another partner. This situation may result in the current partner needing to move their customers’ subscriptions to their new partner tenant.

Partner transfers can only occur if both the source (current/existing) and target (new/future) partner approve it. Customers don't initiate the transfer process; instead, their target partner does. Partners are under no obligation to approve or send transfer requests.

It’s at the partner’s discretion to choose whether to use this capability for transferring subscriptions. This capability is accessible in the Partner Center user experience (UX) and API to facilitate self-service and accommodate various business scenarios.

Partners can transfer either Azure plan items or new commerce license-based subscriptions:

Overview

Partners can transfer either Azure Plan items or new commerce license-based subscriptions. Before a transfer can take place, the customer needs to establish a relationship with a target (new) partner. Once the customer has a relationship with their target partner, they can work with their target partner to send a transfer request to the source partner who currently owns their subscriptions. Conversations between the customer, source partner, and target partner must take place to agree on transfer expectations.

Supported scenarios

Transfers enable the partners, if agreed, to move customer subscriptions. The following paths are supported:

  • Direct bill partner to direct bill partner
  • Direct bill partner to indirect provider
  • Indirect provider to indirect provider
  • Indirect provider to direct bill partner

Indirect resellers need their indirect provider, the billing owner of the subscription, to send or approve a transfer request.

Direct bill partners transitioning to become indirect resellers can transfer their customer's subscriptions to the indirect provider they're working for. Their indirect provider should send the transfer request for the customer to the direct bill partner to accept and submit.

Only Admin agents can create and approve transfers.

Supported transfer types

Transfer requests only support Azure Plan subscriptions, reservations, savings plans and/or new commerce license-based subscriptions. Software subscriptions, perpetual software, and third-party subscriptions can't be transferred using this transfer capability.

Prerequisites

Customers need to establish a relationship with the new target partner for a transition to work.

  • The customer notifies the source CSP partner of the intent to transition.
  • The target CSP partner works with the customer to ensure the customer’s needs can be met.
  • The customer signs a Microsoft Customer Agreement with the target CSP partner.
  • The target CSP partner signs the Microsoft Partner Agreement before creating transfers.
  • The target partner sends a relationship request to the customer.
  • The target partner needs to have the source partner's Microsoft ID (tenant ID), required when creating the transfer.

Notifications for transfers

Partner Center sends notification when transfers happen. Source partners and customers receive email notifications for creation. Source partners, target partners, and customers receive email notifications for completed. Target partners receive a record in the audit log when they create a transfer. Source partners receive a record in their audit log when they accept a transfer. Partner notifications are sent to the Admin agents. Customer notifications are sent to the customer email contact defined in the transfer request.

Expected timelines for transfers

The amount of time it takes for an accepted transfer to complete depends on factors such as the number and types of subscriptions being transferred. Some transfers may experience specific line item failures, which are retried until they succeed. Most transfers take less than an hour to complete, but in some cases may take up to 72 hours.

Canceling a transfer

Transfers in the Pending state can be canceled by the target partner. Target partners can go to the transfer details and click Cancel in the upper right of the page. Cancelling a transfer disables the source partner from accepting the transfer. Cancelling a transfer is helpful if the transfer was mistakenly created.

Activity logs and transfers

The activity logs ensure transfer creation and updates events are available to both target and source partners. Both target and source partners leverage the activity log to track transfer activity events for created, updated (submitted), completed, and failed transfers. Activity data is available in the partner center's partner accounts and also are API enabled. Partners can review activity log documentation to understand how to track transactions made to their customers and other actions. Partners can learn more about partner center APIS to retrieve audit records and audit events.

Webhook support

Partner center webhooks support partner to partner transfers. Webhook APIs allow partners to register for resource change events. These events are delivered in the form of HTTP POSTs to the partner's registered URL. Partners receive webhook notifications for created, updated (submitted), completed, and failed transfers. Webhook events enable partners to more easily operationalize transfer solutions and track new transfers sent to them. The webhook events are used to track status changes for transfers after creation and submission by the source partner. More infomrmation about webhooks is found in webhooks documentation and webhook events topics.

API and sandbox

Partners can use Partner Center APIs to execute transfers. The most important APIs are how to create a transfer, executed from the target partner, and how to update and submit a transfer, executed by the source partner. These APIs are supported in the Partner Center sandbox environments, however new customer relationship acceptance is not. This limitation complicates validating sandbox transfers end-to-end. Partners can learn more by reviewing the sandbox capabilities for reseller relationship topic.

Transfer line items

A created transfer is a request from the target partner to the source partner. The source partner selects items to transfer and submits the transfer for processing. Submitted transfers include line items of the intended items to transfer. The target partner cannot see line items until the line item is completed, issuing new IDs that are newly available for the target partner to view. Source partners see line items for the transfer of items they are attempting to transfer. Target partners see newly created line items after they are completed. Target partners can use the line item IDs to help understand newly created subscriptions that result from the transfer.

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