Gold legacy benefits renewal cost - 3x price increase
We have been a gold partner for a few years, this would be our second legacy benefits renewal on gold, but the price increased by almost three-fold, we always paid 1700$ and the cost is now $4,729. Our currency in South Africa is R18.61 against the dollar at the moment, and the cost impact on our region is severe. The cost in our currency used to be R32,000 vs now R88,017. So far as we can see it is because Microsoft aligned the pricing for Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program (MAICPP) offers to US dollar (USD) levels across regions and the banner in PN stating "Starting December 2023, we will reconcile membership offer prices to current foreign exchange rates for USD. This reconciliation may result in different pricing for your market”. Can Microsoft consider the impact this has on certain regions?
ECIF Funding Milestone Date Changes
Hi there - We're working on an ECIF funded project and due to approval date being pushed back we were unable to start the project until a few days before the first milestone completion date. Our team was hoping to extend the date of the first milestone but we received feedback that we may lose the funding if the date is extended. Looking at the ECIF process documentation, it seems like if all milestones listed are completed in the same quarter then the changes are documented and approved by Microsoft, then an amendment isn't required. All approved milestone completion dates are in Q3 and if the milestone dates are extended the project will be still be completed in Q3. How do milestone extensions on approved ECIF scopes work within the same quarter (and in general) and will we lose funding if we request an extension?Microsoft 365 EDU A5 usage conditions in benefits
Hello, The benefits for Modern Work & Security Solutions partner designations include Microsoft 365 EDU A5 licences next to E5. What are the licence usage conditions of these education licences please as service partner? I guess they are designed for schools and students. But if that's Microsoft that provides them in the benefits package, how can we use them? As they are not suffixed 'Sandbox', my conclusion is they are production ready. Best regards.Defining the "Trailing Twelve Month" period regarding minimum annual CSP Revenue requirement
Dear community, Hope you are doing great. As part of Microsoft's https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/partner-center/announcements/2023-october#3 around the annual revenue requirement for CSP Indirect Resellers, we would like your confirmation if our understanding is correct. More specifically, the annual requirements will be based on Indirect Reseller's trailing 12 months (TTM) CSP revenue around the relevant products & SKUs. The question: does the trailing 12 months (TTM) CSP revenue means the revenue generates within the last twelve months? Based on the above, and to shape it into an example, Microsoft will examine the revenue that an Indirect Provider generated from April 1, 2023 to March 30, 2024. Is our understanding correct? Thank you in advance for you prompt reply! NickThere are no benefits to being a MS Partner
The absolute absurdity of being a Microsoft Partner is beyond insanity. Some of us have built businesses around the Microsoft Ecosystem (STUPIDLY I MUST ADD). And for what? For Microsoft to block us from our accounts and give zero explanation of the issue? As I am sure others have seen since there are posts everywhere of other people having the same issues, its mind blowing that Microsoft does nothing to assist its partners who are the ones generating them the revenue. Supporting their crappy products over and over and over again being the ones on the front lines getting beat up by their customers because of constant outages, constant issues. Back in September my account was blocked. Not one bit of an explanation. Not one email telling me why. The only thing I got was a notice saying my visual studio enterprise license was removed. Upon checking I couldn't find anything. I open a support ticket. And so far, the only thing I have been told is my account has been blocked. Yet not one person can apparently tell me why? Not one person can tell me what I need to do to fix it? Not one person can even get on the phone to assist on this. Before I lost numerous customers because of this. I was selling 30k a month in licenses. And now because my account was blocked, I have lost access to a crap ton of my development, I have lost access to any and all of the benefits. I have lost access to basically everything even though when you look at my partner center account. Every single thing still shows active / approved. Etc. My suggestion, if you are considering becoming a Microsoft Partner. DONT. SIMPLE AS THAT. The fact they can block you from doing business, block access to products and services you have paid for. And give you zero ability to fix it so you lose numerous customers and don't even tell you what happened or what needs to be done to rectify the issue. Partnering with Microsoft is the single biggest mistake I have made as a business owner. The second biggest would be that I built my development side of the business fully integrated into the MS ecosystem. Which made it so they cost me countless amounts of money and ability to even do business with my customers.
