MS Funding FA for Copilot - Another change to the process !

Hi all,

it appears that Microsoft has introduced an additional approval step for the “Frontier for Copilot” funding.

This change appears to be very recent.
MS Support had no information about this change, the change was not mentioned during last week's Asia/ANZ Copilot partner meeting, 
and it is not documented in the incentives guide. 

Key points of this change

• Previously, we could start with our funded Copilot activities once customer consent was received.
• There is now an additional Microsoft approval step after consent.
• Microsoft will inform us partners if funding is approved or if it is declined.
• This review appears to take up to ~1 week.
• It is currently unclear what Microsoft is validating during this additional review.

Impact

• A simple Partner Centre check (*) is no longer sufficient to assume funding has been approved.
  (*) Pages where we partners submit our customer claim/funding claim under Incentives.
• We must get customer consent, then WAIT ~1 week, and only then we can confirm to our customer that the selected Copilot engagement is funded by MS (or not).
• This delay does not appear to extend the 90-day delivery window, which still seems to start from customer consent.
  
  

Could the MS Community moderators please share some additional insights into this?
As mentioned above, this change appears to be done in a rush with a complete lack of communication to values partners!
It impacts the conversation with customers - so I appreciate a clear response.

Ralf