Microsoft is expanding capabilities for cloud partners in the Microsoft Cloud Solutions Provider program. Cloud Solutions Providers will be able to package their own tools, products, and services with Microsoft subscriptions and provide customers one monthly bill. With in-product tools, partners can directly provision and manage their customers’ subscriptions. This keeps partners at the center of the customer relationship and improves the customer experience.
Partners requested more direct ownership of the customer relationship through billing and a desire to service the customer purchase, management and support experience as the single point of contact.
- You are the first point of contact for your customers needs
- You own and control the billing cycle
- You create unique financing options
- You sell integrated offers and services - perfect for upselling
- You receive in-product tools to directly provision, manage and support your customers
Customers can more easily purchase partner tools, products, and/or services with their subscription in one predictable monthly bill. Beyond the inherent benefits of the cloud, customers will have more frequent partner interactions which can serve to deepen the relationship.
The cloud and product value of Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Intune, and Enterprise Mobility Services (EMS) are exactly the same. This is simply one of the business models partners can consider when selling Microsoft cloud subscriptions. If you have the resources to provide complete customer lifecycle management and want to own the customer billing and support relationship, this model may be a great fit for your business.
Delegated admin privileges enable partners to effectively provide technical support to their customers. Since partners are required to provide support, customers are not able to remove their partner from having delegated admin privileges.
All commercial major suites and standalone products are available.
We currently have Government and educational SKUs.
Contracts, Billing & Invoicing
No, Microsoft publishes a price list at the beginning of each month and provides 30 days advance notice of the price list. All partners in the program have access to the price list at the same time.
Partner Admin Center
A more detailed FAQ for the Partner Admin Center can be found here
Yes, this can be done. To do this, log in to your tenant (using an admin account) and go into your admin center. From here, go to USERS from the left navigation area, then select Active Users and then add a new or modify an existing user. You can select the options such that an individual user does NOT have admin rights to their own environment but DOES have rights to perform delegated admin tasks for your customers.
No. There are currently no CSP trial subscriptions. If a customer has a trial subscription that it provisioned directly from Microsoft, there are ways to transition that trial subscription over to a paid CSP subscription. Additionally, customers with existing subscriptions (paid or trial) acquired through syndication channels currently can’t use that same tenant for CSP subscriptions.
A customer cannot remove its CSP Partner from having delegated admin privileges. CSP Partners need delegated admin privileges to help provide technical support for its customers.
Yes. Additional seats are prorated based on the 1 year term of the base subscription. The additional seats are coterminous with the base subscription term length (i.e. 1 year).
You can cancel a customer’s subscription at any time within the partner admin center. Go into your partner admin center, select a customer from your customer list so that it is highlighted, and then select the Manage Subscriptions and Add-Ons link from the right navigation area. On the next screen, select a subscription from the list so that it is highlighted and click the change status link from the right navigation area. On the popup box, select Suspended from the drop-down list. You will be billed a prorated amount based on when the subscription is suspended.
No. Customers are not able to take any action on their CSP subscription (such as cancel, add seats, or order an add-on subscription). Subscription management must be performed by their partner from within the partner admin center.