indirect
64 TopicsMicrosoft CSP - Indirect Reseller Status is Suspended and Can't Get Fixed
I am in a very bad spot with our indirect reseller Microsoft account and am hoping that maybe someone out there might be able to help me. In mid May, I placed an order with Pax8 for a new customer and the order was rejected by Microsoft with the error, "Associated partner LegalBusinessProfile NotFound." It turns out that when we moved offices and I updated our business's address at http://partner.microsoft.com, Microsoft de-authorized our partner status, which I didn't catch, and then put our Cloud Service Provider (CSP) indirect reseller program into "Suspended" status after some time. In the partner center, I was able to get our legal business profile fixed easy enough - I just had to open a ticket and send them some legal documentation. Everything under the "Partner" tab in the Partner Portal is now green checkboxes and "Authorized". Pax8 tried the provisioning again, and got the same error. It turns out that our "Indirect Reseller status" is now "Suspended" and this wasn't changed when the "Partner" status was fixed. Microsoft has a webpage that describes why this can happen and what to do to get it fixed at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/partner-center/account-settings/suspended-partner-center-account . It says, "Microsoft suspends Partner Center accounts for Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program when: Significant account abuse is detected Your vetting status is Rejected for more than 30 days" We haven't had any account abuse (mercifully, our existing tenants are still operational and being billed for through Pax8), so our vetting status was almost certainly to blame. That same document says, "If you are sure that your account is compliant and should be moved back to Active state, contact https://partner.microsoft.com/dashboard/support/servicerequests/create for help with reactivating your account," so I opened a ticket with Microsoft. Actually, 3 tickets so far, because every single one has the same copy-and-paste reply: Thank you for contacting Microsoft Partner support about the suspension of the CSP account. In the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program Agreement, both Microsoft and our partners reserve the right to walk away from the partner relationship by providing 30 days' notice to the other. The notice of suspension and termination proceeding was provided April 2024. Neither party is required to offer an explanation for the decision to terminate the partner agreement. As Microsoft is exercising its rights under this section 4.b of the Microsoft AI Cloud Program Agreement, we are unable to share an explanation or further details. Thanks, I can't get anywhere with Microsoft support. We just landed a big customer and need to set up their tenant. I am afraid that if this goes on much longer or if somehow we are unable to add any more customers to our Pax8 account, that we'll lose this customer, which is large enough to really hurt the business. Does anyone here have any ideas on how to get through to someone at Microsoft that could help with this situation? Does anyone else have any other ideas on what else we could try? Some additional notes: When clicking "Agreements" in the partner portal, we get an error message, "Service unavailable. Something went wrong. Please try reloading the page, if this problem persists please contact https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?linkid=868372." Everything in Legal Info/Partner looks good. Our "Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program status" is "Active". Everything in Legal Info/Reseller looks good except that "Indirect Reseller status" shows "Suspended". Under Identifiers/Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program, I have 1 PartnerGlobal ID and 2 PartnerLocation IDs, corresponding to our old and new addresses. Do I need to delete the old PartnerLocation ID? I haven't done so because it looks like this step is irreversible but I am getting desperate enough to try it. Our "Company profile" is not filled out, but the "Update" button stays grayed out after I fill in the information and it appears that I am unable to update this. I thought that maybe I just needed to sign the "Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program Agreement" again, but I can't find anywhere on the partner portal where I would do so. I went through my emails exhaustively and we did not receive a, "notice of suspension and termination proceeding" in April 2024, or any other time for that matter. I can't find a copy of the Microsoft AI Cloud Program Agreement to even see what section 4.b says. I've dealt with government bureaucracies a lot in my career, but I've never experienced a Kafkaesque situation 10% as bad as this one. This is probably the most stressful thing I've dealt with in this business in the last decade. This could destroy our business if I can't get this sorted out. Sorry for the wall of text, but I tried to include as much detail as possible and it got long. If you got to this point in my post, thank you for helping or trying to help me. The latest ticket ID we have from Microsoft is 2406050040012239SolvedRequirement: Users with administrative roles in the customer tenants must use MFA
I have 4 customers who are showing as not meeting this requirement, I know one of the 4 that we're working with the customer to resolve but the other 3 I cannot for the life of me locate. The majority of our customers we are the sole admin so they are easy but when I click on Insights I get: No. of Admins with MFA enabled. No of Users With MFA Enabled. No of Users (this appears to includ blocked\disabled and maybe guests?) I can't actually tell which tenant has an Admin with MFA not enabled from this data if they have more than one user with a privlidged role. So I created a spreadsheet and went through each tenant and within Entra I looked at their Identity Security Score and one of the requirements within their score is: Ensure multifactor authentication is enabled for all users in administrative roles And besides the one customer I know of who has an 8/10 score, all my other customers have a 10/10 score. I've gone through each customer that I am aware of that could have more than one user with an admin role and any that were transferred to us from another CSP and looked at the Role assignments in Entra and I just cannot locate these remaining 3. I'm stuck at at an overall Security Score of 71.43% becuase i can't get any of the 20 points for this requirements until its 100% complete. What we really need is an additional column in the insights "No. of Admins" so we can at least identify the offending clients as without GDAP access to the customer I would not be able to look at any of the Role assignments or the tenant Identity Security Score and not even be aware of who is bringing me undone with the information provided. I'm going to go through ALL customers again for the third time looking at role assignments for any that might have been missed on the first 2 passes I did, I might even get someone other than me to do it with fresh eyes but its pretty easy to locate as you can sort by the No. of Users assigned to the role so I can't see how I've missed it. We really just need the tools to manage and audit ourselves e.g. that extra column, would make this a < 5 minute job to audit ourselves against this requirement and also I do beleive in this requirement is an important one, i'm not against it, it just needs to be managable\maintainable.SolvedExplore Dynamics 365 Business Central Digital Event
Learn how adding Dynamics 365 Business Central to your offerings catalogue can increase your revenue and reduce customer churn — with low risk and a small lift to your existing resources. Hear from a Modern Work Partner who will join us and share how they got started and successfully built a Business Central business! Register for this upcoming Level Up CSP digital event to and hear about Business Centrals business management solution for small and mid-sized organizations. Voted the number one ERP solution for SMBs by Forbes in 2024, Business Central seamlessly integrates with Microsoft’s productivity and collaboration tools—making it a natural fit for your Modern Work customers. Business Central is also blazing the trails when it comes to AI innovation, bringing copilot capabilities and agents to life, to help your customers become more productive. Date/Time: March 13, 2025 Americas/EMEA 8:00am PST and APAC 5:00pm PST In this session we'll: Guide you on how to lead impactful customer conversations and close Business Central opportunities without significant investment. Walk you through your earnings potential, including lucrative margins and available incentives for partners. Register todayNEW! Microsoft 365 Customer Self-Serve Template for CSP partners
We’re excited to share the Microsoft 365 Customer Self-Serve Template to support your self-serve capabilities and insights for optimizing the commerce experience. Today, online buying is the norm, and customers are increasingly looking for one-stop shopping with a self-serve experience that’s fast, convenient, and on demand. The Customer Self-Serve Template gives you the tools to offer a seamless self-serve experience, streamlining the customer journey. Whether you leverage the content for new customer acquisition or for customer expansion, this quick-start guide will help you optimize the customer purchasing and provisioning process. With your self-serve capabilities in place, customers can easily choose, pay for, and auto-provision users on Microsoft 365 without manual partner interaction. Download the Customer Self-Serve Template to get startedCSP relationship scenarios
In the Partner Center documentation at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/partner-center/enroll/csp-supported-partner-relationships, I find sample scenario 4b and sample scenario 5, which contradicts each other. Sample scenario 4b appears to say that we can buy four ourselves if our production environment is separate from the one used for CSP business, while scenario 5 appears to say that we cannot. Which one is it?NEW Level Up CSP | M365 & Copilot Sales and Technical Bootcamps!
We are excited to invite you to the upcoming http://aka.ms/LevelUpCSPBootcamp. These special edition bootcamps will help drive CSP success during the January – March renew and upsell moment. We will discuss Premium SKUs, M365 Copilot and Copilot agents, as well as key partner tools, programs, and promos to leverage. Learn more below to register. Level Up CSP Sales Bootcamp Renewal and Upsell 1-day sales Bootcamp Americas/EMEA region: December 10 | 8:00 AM – 12:00 PM, Pacific Time APAC region: December 10 | 5:00 PM – 9:00 PM, Pacific Time Who should attend: Sellers and sales managers Level Up CSP Technical Renewal and Upsell Bootcamp 2-days technical Bootcamp Day 1: Americas/EMEA region: December 11 | 8:00 AM – 12:00 PM, Pacific Time Day 1: APAC region: December 11 | 5:00 PM – 9:00 PM, Pacific Time Day 2: Americas/EMEA region: December 12 | 8:00 AM – 12:00 PM, Pacific Time Day 2: APAC region: December 12 | 5:00 PM – 9:00 PM, Pacific Time Who should attend: Pre and post sales, IT admins and technical staff Register at http://aka.ms/LevelUpCSPBootcamp We will be offering voiceover and subtitles for ten languages to support our global CSP partners.Upcoming Teams Live Webinars | Teams Phone, Teams Premium, devices and more!
As we enter the new year, join us in 2024 while we delve into the world of Microsoft Teams and discover how it can revolutionize communication and collaboration for Small and Medium-sized Businesses (SMBs). Whether you're a Microsoft partner, business owner, IT professional, or someone interested in enhancing your team's productivity, these webinars are tailored to help you unlock the potential of Microsoft Teams. Register and gain insights into Microsoft Teams (Phone, Premium, Devices, etc.) capabilities, connect with industry experts and get answers to your questions. Get more webinar details on topics with registration information below: Januaryhttps://df.events.teams.microsoft.com/event/76d7ba6f-16a4-4f73-bd19-6948c31a9e35@72f988bf-86f1-41af-91ab-2d7cd011db47 January https://df.events.teams.microsoft.com/event/12672c18-ba14-49dc-be5a-540dbfc8bdb1@72f988bf-86f1-41af-91ab-2d7cd011db47 January https://df.events.teams.microsoft.com/event/50c1afd8-5fe0-4113-9caf-ac6c6c79f6d6@72f988bf-86f1-41af-91ab-2d7cd011db47 January https://df.events.teams.microsoft.com/event/173f2569-7a99-48f9-b63c-8bd2570d73d1@72f988bf-86f1-41af-91ab-2d7cd011db47Transitioning from Direct Bill to Indirect Reseller
I am sharing our experience regarding transition from DB to IR started 4 months ago to understand the better approach to manage our partner centers in the future. We started transitioning from Direct Bill to Indirect Reseller in November 2025. We currently have: one PGA with two different associated CSP PLAs: Direct Bill PLA and Indirect Reseller PLA. We operate with two different Partner Centers: "first" PC used for the PGA and the Direct Bill PLA "second" used for the Indirect Reseller PLA At the moment, everything is working correctly, as we are actively transferring customers from the Direct Bill model to the Indirect Reseller model, Incentives for the Indirect Reseller (PLA IR) are being received correctly, designations are managed under the PGA tenant, ecc. Regarding TTM, we exceed the 1M‑dollar requirement, but only at the PGA level, as it currently includes both DB and IR revenue. Do you know whether Microsoft requires the 1M‑dollar threshold to be met at the PGA level by combining DB and IR revenue, or if only DB revenue counts for maintaining Direct Bill status? Our other question concerns the end of the customers migration, considering that the Direct Bill PLA will eventually become restricted or revoked. Whether it is recommended to continue using two separate Partner Centers, first for Membership, Incentives, Designations, Earnings, and overall partner management and the second exclusively for CSP Tier-2 customer management. Or whether you suggest alternative or better scenarios for managing the Partner Center structure once the transition is fully completed. Tks for feedback and information. FabrizioSolvedMicrosoft SMB Copilot Bundles — CSP Partners Undercut on Pricing. Are Others Experiencing This?
I want to raise something that's creating real problems for us as a CSP partner, and I suspect we're not alone. Microsoft recently launched the SMB Copilot Business bundles — including a M365 Business Premium + Copilot Business bundle at 25% off. Great initiative. The problem? Through eCommerce (direct), customers can purchase this bundle from 1 seat. Through CSP, the bundle has a 10-seat minimum. This is causing a very specific and common issue: we have customers with well over 10 seats on Business Premium who want to trial Copilot with a small group first — say 3 to 8 users — before committing to a wider rollout. That's a completely reasonable approach. But because CSP enforces a 10-seat minimum on the bundle, we can't offer them the discounted pricing for a small initial rollout. Meanwhile, they can see that if they went direct with Microsoft, they'd get 25% off from just 1 seat. The result? Our customers are asking us why we — their trusted Microsoft Partner — are charging them more than Microsoft itself. Some are outright accusing us of trying to rip them off. These aren't micro-businesses slipping through the cracks. These are established customers with legitimate deployments who simply want to pilot Copilot sensibly before scaling up. We've raised this with Microsoft and the justification we received boils down to: the direct channel serves even the smallest customers, while CSP requires a 10-seat minimum to "ensure sufficient scale and support for partner-led deals" and to "protect partner business interests." With respect, this doesn't protect our interests at all. It actively undermines them. Here's what's actually happening: • Customers who want to trial Copilot on a handful of seats see a better deal going direct and question why they're paying a partner at all • It erodes trust in the partner relationship — the very thing Microsoft says it wants to strengthen • It creates an incentive for customers to move licensing to the direct channel for the trial, fragmenting their management and making our job harder • We're left in the impossible position of either absorbing margin to match the direct price, or losing the customer's confidence • Ironically, it discourages the very Copilot adoption Microsoft is pushing — customers who would happily trial on a few seats are put off by being told they need to commit to 10 or more through us We're not asking for special treatment. We're asking for parity. If Microsoft believes 25% off is the right price for this bundle, let us offer it to our customers too — regardless of how many seats they want to start with. We're the ones providing the onboarding, the training, the support, and the ongoing management. We shouldn't be penalised for it. Is anyone else running into this with customers who want to trial Copilot on fewer than 10 seats? How are you handling the conversation when they come to you asking why Microsoft is cheaper direct? Would love to hear how others are navigating this, and whether there's any appetite to push back on this collectively.Customer CUSTOMER_NAME notified of anomalous activity in Azure subscription
How do others feel about the alerts showing up in the Partner Center? We’ve detected suspicious or malicious activity in this Azure subscription. The customer of this subscription has been notified. What suspicious or malicious activity did microsoft detect you ask? An important security update is available for your Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) resource(s). That's right, there is no suspicious or malicious activity. Microsoft wants people to install an out of band security update and thought sending a notification to all azure customers was the best way to ensure that happened. Half the clients that received this alert aren't even running windows servers! Those that are running windows servers do not have the WSUS role installed. All the clients Microsoft alerted us about to suspicious activity in their subscriptions... Don't use WSUS We did have the pleasure of manually closing every single alert as "ignore" and I'm delighted to know that these alerts didn't count towards the security requirement to have an avg response time of less than 24h. I thought the partner security alerts were to notify us of critical issues microsoft detected in azure subscriptions. This, does not appear to be that. Am I missing something? thoughts?