Customers page for MCI engagements
Appropriate roles: Incentives admin | Incentives user
The Customers page shows customer associations that have applicable partner activity for partner activity engagements.
Each engagement's Customers page displays all the customers who have provided consent to you for any previous engagement claim.
Engagements are sorted as:
Eligible: Customers who are eligible for the engagement.
Ineligible: Customers who are ineligible for the engagement.
Customers might be ineligible for engagements because:
- They don't meet the eligibility criteria for the engagement, or
- They met the allowed limit on the number of active/allowed claims a given customer can have.
The Ineligible tab doesn't show detail for partner activity type engagements that only allow customers to be nominated using their Microsoft Sales Experience (MSX) opportunity ID.
Complete: Shows details about all customer claims that are in a terminal state and have no further action pending. These details could be customer claims that have been completed, expired, canceled, or final rejected. To see details of completed claims, select the claim number in the claim ID column.
For any engagement, you must either add a customer or claim a customer, but not both.
Add a customer
Select Add customer from the Customers page of the relevant engagement using the Eligible tab.
Provide a friendly name to the claim.
Select a Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program location ID for the engagement, and then select Next.
Only Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program location IDs that are enrolled in the MCI program are eligible for MCI engagements. To select a location, your Partner Center user profile must have either Incentives user or Incentives admin permissions.
Select the customer ID type that you want to use to add the customer. You can then go on to provide the value for the ID type selected, then select Next.
ID type options include: domain name, tenant ID, TPID (Top Parent ID), Azure subscription ID, or MSX opportunity ID (Microsoft Sales Experience opportunity ID).
For fixed pay engagements, you can nominate the customer by using the domain name, tenant ID, TPID, or Azure subscription ID based on the customer eligibility rules of the engagement. Each engagement might allow customers to be nominated using a subset of these IDs.
If the customer is only eligible via their Top Parent ID (TPID), or only eligible via a tenant ID that isn't associated with their email domain, you must provide their eligible TPID or tenant ID.
For variable pay engagements, you can only nominate the customer by using the MSX opportunity ID.
Note
Eligibility checks:
- If you provide a domain name, the system derives the tenant ID from the customer domain. It then runs a customer eligibility check.
- If you provide a tenant ID, TPID, Azure subscription ID or MSX opportunity ID, then customer eligibility checks are performed on the ID value provided in this step. The eligibility status of any given ID doesn't automatically cascade to any other IDs owned by that same customer.
- If you provide a tenant ID, the system checks whether it matches the customer's email domain. If a mismatch is found, the system asks you to provide a reason.
Choose the engagements for which you'd like to add the customer.
The Eligible tab lists only engagements that can be selected for which both you and your customer are eligible. The Ineligible tab lists ineligible engagements along with reasons for ineligibility.
For variable pay engagements, you can only select a single engagement in the flow. You must provide the number of hours that you would need to complete the engagement with the customer. The number of hours can't be updated after the Add customer flow has been completed.
Select Next.
Provide the customer's email and contact information, along with contact information for your own company. Select Next.
Review the information.
For variable pay engagements, review the proposed payout amount for conducting the engagement with the customer. This amount is based on the MSX opportunity ID, the number of hours provided, and the rules of the variable pay engagement.
After reviewing, select Add customer.
After the customer has been added, you'll get confirmation, and the customer will appear on the respective Customers pages for the engagements selected in step 3.
Claim a customer
The Eligible tab on the Customers page displays a list of customers who are known to you (the partner) through other active or completed engagements. You can initiate an engagement with any of those customers.
To claim a customer, use the following steps:
Select Claim customer from the Action column.
Provide a friendly name to the claim.
Choose a Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program location ID for the engagement.
Only the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program location IDs that are enrolled in the MCI program and that are eligible for this engagement appear.
Select Next.
Choose the engagements you'd like to add, then select Next.
Provide the customer's email and contact information, along with contact information for your own company, and then select Next.
Review the information and select Add customer.
You'll get confirmation that the customer has been claimed.
Ask for customer consent
If you want to conduct an engagement with a customer, you must ask the customer for consent, which is their agreement to participate in the engagement.
You'll have a defined number of days to obtain consent after adding or claiming the customer, based on the specific engagement.
To ask for customer consent:
Select Send customer consent email from the Action column.
Review and update, if necessary, the already provided customer's email and contact information, along with contact information for your own company, and then select Next.
Provide the estimated deal size ($USD equivalent) that is associated to this claim, then select Next.
This field should be used in the same manner as the Deal size value required in Partner Center referrals. The deal size should reflect the estimated license, seat, or consumption revenue to be gained from the first 12 months use of this incentive associated to the claimed customer.
Provide the best possible estimate of the deal size, because this field can't be updated after claim is sent for customer consent.
The information that you provide in this field won't affect the claim eligibility or payout. Microsoft is working to enhance MCI to support relationships with partners and help guide Microsoft ability to co-sell with partners.
Review the details and check the disclaimer, then select Send for consent.
Email is sent to the customer so they can accept or decline the engagement.
- If you haven't received consent, you can send a reminder by selecting Re-send email for customer consent under the Action column.
- If a customer was newly added but declines participation in the engagement or doesn't respond within the required time, they'll no longer appear on the Customers page for that engagement.
After a customer provides consent, you must submit your claim within the timeline defined per engagement type.
Referral creation and co-selling through MCI engagement claim
Microsoft is working to enhance MCI to support relationships with partners and help guide Microsoft’s ability to co-sell with partners.
Some partner activity-type engagements can have referral creation and co-selling enabled for them. When a partner creates a claim (such as adding or claiming a customer and seeking consent from customer), the system checks the engagement and customer details. When certain conditions are met, the system creates a partner-led referral corresponding to the claim.
The link to the partner-led referral shows in the claim detail page. Partners with a referral admin role can select the referral to see more details.
Once the claim gets consent from the customer, the partner-led referral might get upgraded to a co-sell referral if customer qualifies for the upgrade. Microsoft field sellers then get visibility of the claim and can co-sell with partners.