As a Microsoft partner, staying ahead of the curve with the latest program updates, security enhancements, and new opportunities is crucial for your success. This blog post provides a comprehensive overview of recent announcements, focusing on how these changes impact your business and how you can leverage them to your advantage. Let's dive into the details.
Revolutionizing Your Workflow with The Partner Center AI Assistant
Microsoft is continually innovating to provide better support for its partners, and the new Partner Center AI Assistant is a perfect example of this commitment. This feature, currently in preview, harnesses the power of generative AI to offer tailored insights and intelligent suggestions1. As a Microsoft cloud solution provider (CSP) partner, this tool can significantly streamline your daily tasks and unlock new avenues for growth.
Personalized Assistance
The AI Assistant is designed to understand your unique needs and provide assistance with a wide range of tasks. Whether you're looking to understand a customer's Microsoft Azure usage estimate, analyze your earnings over a specific period, or need help with the various memberships offered, the AI Assistant is ready to provide data-driven responses pulled from Microsoft product documentation, partner program guides, and partner-specific information.
Solutions Partner Designations Support
One of the key benefits of the AI Assistant is its ability to answer specific questions about Solutions Partner designations. It can review program rules, analyze underlying metrics, and provide detailed responses, helping you navigate the requirements and opportunities associated with these designations. Additionally, the AI Assistant can troubleshoot issues such as missing attribution of employees in skilling scores and provide contextual recommendations to help you qualify for a Solutions Partner designation.
Streamlined Support
In addition to answering your questions, the AI Assistant can also initiate the support ticket creation process when needed3. This seamless integration of support capabilities ensures that you can quickly address any issues that may arise, minimizing downtime and ensuring a smooth operational experience.
Access and Availability
The AI Assistant is currently available in English, and it will soon be expanded to other languages. You can easily access it through the sparkle icon in the upper-right corner of the Partner Center page.
One of the preview users shared, "This is really helpful! And I am very glad to see that our AI friend will know the payment status of claims IDs now," highlighting the assistant's value.
Microsoft Action Pack (MAPS) AI Assistant Support
The AI assistant also helps you navigate the transition away from the Microsoft Action Pack (MAPS) and legacy gold/silver offerings. The AI assistant can help you determine alternatives to MAPS/Silver/Gold offerings and can provide information about your current MAPS status when your MAPS renewal is due, and what the necessary next steps are.
Pre-purchase AI Assistant
In mid-December 2024, a new AI assistant plugin will be released to answer partner questions about prepurchase scenarios. This tool will provide partners with all the necessary details before they purchase or renew any program available in the Membership workspace. For instance, partners will be able to ask, "Why is the Buy Now or Renew Now button disabled?" "What is the price of the Partner Success Core Benefits program?" or "How do I renew a program?".
Fortifying the Partner Ecosystem: Key Security Updates
Deprecation of graph.windows.net Audience Tokens
Microsoft is deprecating the Azure Active Directory (AD) Graph to enhance the security posture. As a result, the method for calling Partner Center APIs is changing. Partners must take the required actions to prepare for this transition to ensure continued access and functionality.
Mandatory Identity Verification
As part of Microsoft's commitment to trust and safety, identity verification checks are now mandatory for all partners enrolling in commercial programs. This includes dual enrollments and existing partners undergoing re-verification. Identity verification enhances Security and reduces fraud by preventing impersonation.
Mandatory Multifactor Authentication (MFA)
Microsoft is enforcing MFA for users signing in to both the Azure portal and Microsoft 365 admin center. Enforcement for the Azure portal began in October 2024, and MFA will be required for the M365 admin center starting February 3, 2025.
Removal of Unused Azure Subscriptions
Microsoft is now actively blocking unused Azure subscriptions. Any subscription without activity or consumption for more than 12 months is considered unused. Account owners and service admins of these subscriptions will receive a notification 30 days before the block is applied, and the subscription will be deleted 90 days after the block.
Microsoft Security Copilot
Microsoft Security Copilot is available for Admin On Behalf Of (AOBO) on the Service Management page of the Customers workspace within Partner Center. Partners can learn about granting access to external users through this feature.
Newly Released Features: Streamlining Your Business
Upcoming Subscription Renewals Dashboard
Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partners now have greater visibility when approaching subscription renewals. They can view renewals for legacy and new commerce license-based subscriptions seven, thirty, and ninety days in advance, allowing proactive management of renewals, including turning off auto-renewal or scheduling changes.
New End of Sale (EOS) Price List
Starting November 1, 2024, partners can view pricing for EOS SKUs through the newly introduced end-of-sale price list for new commerce license-based services. This list ensures continued visibility into all end-of-sale offers, including Microsoft 365 E3/E5 and Microsoft Office 365 E1/E3/E5 Enterprise SKUs, which are still renewable but not available for new purchases.
Price in Cart
Partners can now review unit prices and total prices for new commerce offers directly in both the Partner Center portal and cart APIs. Prices shown will account for license quantities, any relevant promotions, and proration adjustments.
Enhanced CSP Billing Reconciliation APIs Migration
The new asynchronous APIs for billing reconciliation in Partner Center offer significant improvements, such as faster download times and reduced latency. To avoid service disruption, partners must migrate to these new APIs by January 21, 2025.
The migration process involves modifying code to incorporate the new APIs, as outlined in the Partner Center documentation.
The legacy APIs will return an error message starting January 21, 2025, causing disruption in billing and reconciliation processes.
These new Microsoft Graph APIs are currently only available for the public global cloud and are not yet available for Azure Government, Azure Germany, or Azure China 21Vianet.
Variable Payout for Microsoft Commerce Incentive (MCI)
The variable pay pattern for MCI incentives now includes opportunities that drive consumption impact. Payments are based on opportunity value and are capped to align with partner costs. Partners can use the unified platform to gain visibility into potential payouts.
Professional Services in the Marketplace
Partners in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States can now sell professional services through private offers in the marketplace, providing additional monetization avenues. This feature allows a single payout for both software and services, streamlining the customer procurement process.
Reduced Agency Fees
Partners now benefit from a 50% reduction in agency fees for renewals sold as private offers through the marketplace. This reduction is automatically applied when claiming existing marketplace agreements or off-marketplace sales as renewals in the Partner Center.
Microsoft 365 Copilot CSP Getting Started 15%-off Promo Extension
The Microsoft 365 Copilot CSP Getting Started 15%-off promotion has been extended until April 1, 2025. This extension gives partners more time to take advantage of the discount on new Microsoft 365 Copilot subscriptions for 10 to 300 licenses for 12 months.
Flexible Billing for Microsoft 365 Copilot
A new monthly billing plan option for annual subscriptions to Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales, and Microsoft 365 Copilot for Services is now available through CSP. The monthly billing option for annual subscriptions is priced 5% higher than the annual billing option with upfront payment.
Local Currency Price Adjustments
Effective February 1, 2025, Microsoft will adjust prices for its commercial cloud services to better align with global levels in Brazilian Real (BRL) and British Pound (GBP) currencies.
Cloud prices will increase by 12% in Brazil and decrease by 5% to 6% in the UK.
On-premises software prices will increase by 12% in Brazil, with no changes in the UK
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Price Values in Partner Center Checkout:
Partners can now review prices, including unit and total prices, before completing their checkout in the Partner Center portal. This update enables partners to verify price attributes that were previously only available through Cart APIs.
Australian Taxation Office (ATO) Reporting Feature
Active publishers in the Australian Microsoft Store and Microsoft commercial marketplace must update their Partner Center fields to comply with new requirements from the ATO. This includes updating information such as business name, Australian business number, foreign tax ID, contact information, and bank account details.
Spotlight on Managed Service Providers (MSPs)
Solutions Partner Designations
MSPs can differentiate their expertise through Solutions Partner designations. Microsoft is introducing added benefits for partners with certified software designations. The thresholds for the Small and Medium Business (SMB) path for the Solutions Partner designation in Security are now available.
Specializations
New specializations are on the horizon, including a unified specialization that integrates the Analytics on Microsoft Azure and Data Warehouse Migration specializations.
The "AI and Machine Learning in Microsoft Azure" specialization will be renamed "AI Platform on Azure," and the performance threshold will increase from an average of $2,000 over the trailing three months to an average of $5,000. *The "Build and Modernize AI Apps with Microsoft Azure" specialization will be rebranded as "Build AI Apps on Azure," and the performance requirement threshold will also increase from an average of $2,000 to $5,000.
New Benefits
Microsoft is planning to introduce more than 20 in-demand product licenses, including Microsoft 365 Copilot products, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, and GitHub Enterprise, on January 22, 2025. These benefits can be accessed through new partner benefits packages, Solutions Partner designations, or specializations.
Microsoft Action Pack, Learning Action Pack, Legacy Silver, Legacy Gold benefits transition: Microsoft will no longer sell the Microsoft Action Pack, Learning Action Pack, and legacy silver/gold benefits on January 22, 2025. Partners with existing benefits can renew them until January 21, 2025, and retain them until their expiration one year later. To continue receiving benefits, partners are encouraged to purchase new partner benefits packages or attain Solutions Partner designations.
Conclusion
This December update brings a wealth of changes and opportunities for Microsoft partners. From groundbreaking AI tools to critical security enhancements and new features designed to streamline your operations, there's much to explore. Stay tuned to our blog for more updates and tips to help you thrive in the Microsoft ecosystem. We encourage you to take advantage of the available resources, engage with our community, and continue to grow your business with Microsoft.
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