Supporting customer's BC Environment without reseller link

[Ann2750]

Hi

A customer has asked us to help them, but they would rather not accept the reseller link. They say that they have previously received support from another supplier w/o accepting a reseller link, but instead filling out a web form.

Has anyone come across this before and if so. Could you point me in the direction of this web form?

It concerns support on a BC environment. There is no license sale involved.

Thanks.

Br/

Annike

[#2]

Hi @Ann2750 

"A customer has asked us to help them, but they would rather not acceptthe reseller link. They say that they have previously received support from another supplier w/o accepting a reseller link, but instead filling out a web form.

Has anyone come across this before and if so. Could you point me in the direction of this web form?

It concerns support on a BC environment. There is no license sale involved."

For Business Central (BC) online, in order to manage a customer's service/subscription on their behalf, the customer must grant administrator permissions for that service or subscription and sign the Microsoft Customer Agreement (MCA). 

Customer acceptance of the MCA can only be confirmed in two ways:

1. Partner attestation - As a partner, you can confirm your customer's acceptance through the Partner Center or Partner Center APIs.
2. Customer direct acceptance - You can invite the customer to review and accept the agreement in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center.

Resources:

• You can find details by searching "How to confirm that your customer has accepted the Microsoft Customer Agreement to the CSP program " in Partner Center Documentation.
• Microsoft Customer Agreement | Microsoft Licensing

If this (or someone else's) reply answers your question, please Accept as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly. Otherwise, please let me know if you need further assistance on this topic.

Regards,

Microsoft CSP Licensing Concierge

[#3]

I'm moving this post to the CSP community & adding a label since your question is pertaining to the reseller process.

Regards,

Microsoft CSP Licensing Concierge

[#4]

Adding that it is not possible for the any partner to have sold CSP BC licenses without the customer accepting the reseller link. With DAP this could have been with or without admin permissions, so perhaps for the previous partner this was without. It would have allowed them to sell licenses but not have admin access.

If you don't know about GDAP yet, which replaces DAP and provides an improved least privilege partner to CSP customer access model, then I recommend learning about this and perhaps this would be more acceptable to the customer.

Without partner access DAP/GDAP your users would need to be invited as guests or added as users in the customer's tenant. These users would need the D365 admin role anyway, and possibly a BC license to provide support.

Also, without the correct partner access you cannot raise support requests on the customer's behalf with Microsoft. And in a true CSP model, the partner providing the licenses should be responsible for any escalations to Microsoft.

[#5]

Hi

Thanks so much for all your answers.

Just to clarify. The customer has already bought the environment, so they must have accepted the MCA (as my understanding is that they cannot buy licenses w/o accepting the MCA)

My issue is that the customer would like us to support them in the BC environment w/o accepting a reseller link.

Is that possible? Our first thought was to ask the customer to assign a license to one of our consultants and through that license be able to support them.

Would that be the correct solution (w/o reseller link acceptance?)

Thanks. 🙂

[#6]

Hi @Ann2750 

As mentioned, if you want to manage a customer's service or subscription on their behalf, the customer must grant administrator permissions for that service or subscription and sign the MCA & there are two ways that a customer can use to sign the MCA, which is required - Request a reseller relationship with a customer - Partner Center | Microsoft Learn

If this (or someone else's) reply answers your question, please Accept as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly. Otherwise, please let me know if you need further assistance on this topic.

Regards,

Microsoft CSP Licensing Concierge

[#7]

@Ann2750 

Additionally, If the partner wanted to introduce an alternative process, they could create their own and use that to attest on behalf of the customer in Partner Center.

Hope this helps. 

If this (or someone else's) reply answers your question, please Accept as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly. Otherwise, please let me know if you need further assistance on this topic.

Regards,

Microsoft CSP Licensing Concierge

[#8]

Yes, they must have agreed to the MCA otherwise the licenses could not have been provided by the other partner.

To support the customer without the reseller link acceptance, your consultants will need either an invited guest account or a user account in the customer's tenant. This account will need Dynamics 365 administrator role and, in some cases, an appropriate license.

So, with the customer not willing to accept your reseller link, they will have to manage your consultants access, and provide additional licenses at their cost.
They also do not benefit from you being able to raise support requests on their behalf.

From your perspective as the partner, you get zero accreditation towards solution partner designations, or incentives. You're doing all the work and license (shop) partner gets all the kudos.

[#9]

@Nick_Beacroft  If the partner wanted to introduce an alternative process, they could create their own and use that to attest on behalf of the customer in Partner Center.

Regards,

Microsoft CSP Licensing Concierge

[#10]

Attesting the MCA for the customer is only for license provisioning and does not provide the partner with access that the DAP reseller link 'can' do. Noting that all partners should be moving to GDAP, which requires different approval links the customer must still accept to allow a partner access.

If the customer is unwilling to accept DAP or appropriate GDAP roles, then the only options are as I described.

[#11]

@Nick_Beacroft @Ann2750 

My reply's were to answer the original question, which is:

They say that they have previously received support from another supplier w/o accepting a reseller link, but instead filling out a web form.

I spoke with the Microsoft Sr Partner Tech Strategist, who confirmed my response. 

If you're adding a point about the DAP/GDAP, then thank you very much. 

Since the OP hasn't responded, I'm assuming our replies have been helpful, so I'll go ahead and disengage.  Thanks Nick 

If this (or someone else's) reply answers your question, please Accept as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly. Otherwise, please let me know if you need further assistance on this topic.

Regards,

Microsoft CSP Licensing Concierge

[#12]

@LicensingConcierge1 

Thanks for all your answers.

BR/ Ann

[#13]

You're most welcome.

Regards,

Microsoft CSP Licensing Concierge