Changes to Azure offer availability in CSP related to the new commerce experience in CSP for Azure
Tuesday 9th February 2021
Impacted audience: All partners transacting through the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program.
Microsoft are notifying Partners 6 months in advance of their 3 Phased approach to transition to the New Commerce experience in Azure.
The new commerce experience for Azure in the Cloud Solution Provider program expands partner opportunities to build and deliver managed services, further extend their customer base, and help customers on their digital transformation.
The new commerce experience delivers the following benefits:
• Simplifies the Azure purchasing process with Azure Plan.
• Creates better pricing alignment across channels. The new Azure experience will use a single price list, providing customers and partners with consistent pricing on a global scale.
• Reduces customer acquisition obstacles by providing you with tools that incorporate the appropriate governance, customer experience, and policies to move them to the new Azure experience in the Cloud Solution Provider program.
• Enables partners to manage their customers more efficiently by leveraging capabilities such as Azure Lighthouse and Azure Cost Management.
• Expands access to Azure Marketplace.
Expanding on the new commerce experience for Azure, Microsoft have enabled transition tools to enhance the flexibility to manage Azure in ways that adapt to customers’ evolving business needs and to help facilitate getting your customers to the new Azure offer in the Cloud Solution Provider program. View the overview of the tools that exist to support the transition of customer Azure subscriptions in the Cloud Solution Provider program.
New Azure in Cloud Solution Provider program offer (Azure plan)
With the new commerce experience, partners gain access to Azure services at pay-as-you-go rate for customers under the Microsoft Customer Agreement, through an Azure plan. This plan simplifies the purchase experience by enabling the creation of multiple Azure subscriptions within an Azure plan. There is no longer a need to submit a separate order per Azure subscription in Partner Center.
Changes to the previous Azure offer availability in the Cloud Solution Provider program
When Microsoft announced the new Azure offer in the Cloud Solution Provider program (Azure plan) we informed partners that the previous Azure offer and platform would continue to be available, alongside the new Azure experience, for some time, and that partners would be infomed six months in advance before any changes would be made to the previous Azure offer.
There will be three phases of change to the previous Azure offer:
Phase 1 – Beginning 21st July, 2021
In phase 1, all new Azure Cloud Solution Provider program business will be on the new Azure Plan offer. The following guidelines will apply:
• For all existing reseller relationships between partners and customers in the Cloud Solution Provider program, if the customer has already purchased the previous Azure offer, the partner may continue to transact, and the customer may continue to purchase the previous Azure offer from that partner.
• The previous Azure offer will no longer be available to net-new partners transacting in CSP
• The previous Azure offer will no longer be available to net-new customers purchasing via a partner in CSP
• For all new reseller relationships or new customer acquisitions, partners can only transact the new Azure offer (Azure Plan)
• For all existing reseller relationships between partners and customers, if the customer has never purchased Azure before, the partner may only transact, and customer may only purchase the new Azure offer from that partner.
Phase 2 – During calendar year 2022
In phase 2, which will begin sometime during 2022, incentives and partner margin opportunity will be removed from the previous Azure offer. We will communicate the phase 2 start date to partners 6 months in advance.
Phase 3 – Date TBC
In phase 3, any remaining customers on the previous Azure offer will be migrated to the new Azure offer in the Cloud Solution Provider program (Azure plan). As with the previous phases, we will communicate the phase 3 start date to partners 6 months in advance.
Partner Earned Credit (PEC)
With the new commerce experience, partners get recognised for differentiated value-added services on an ongoing basis through the partner earned credit model. Partner earned credit rewards partners who focus on driving customer success via value-added services that generate sustainable profitability.
Next Steps: Partners are highly encouraged to familiarise themselves with the following resources:
Partner earned credit (PEC)
• Understanding Partner Earned Credit (Guide)(microsoft.com)
• Partner earned credit - overview - Partner Center | Microsoft Docs
• Partner earned credit for managed services - Partner Center | Microsoft Docs
• Roles, permissions for partner earned credit - Partner Center | Microsoft Docs
• On demand training module on partner earned credit in Azure in CSP modules (eventbuilder.com)
The new commerce experience
• Partner resources gallery: A new commerce experience in CSP for Azure
Please read the full announcement on the Partner Center announcements page here.
Want to keep informed? Sign up to our Newsletter