Unified for Partners (UfP)
Hello! A few months ago at Microsoft Ignite, Dan Rippey shared an update on The Future of Partner Support - Customer + Partner + Microsoft. Dan brought 'Unified for Partners' center stage and mentioned that Microsoft is going into listening mode and taking partner feedback. It's easy to share feedback with Microsoft by visiting booths at Ignite. What are some ways partners can share feedback with Dan and others at Microsoft year round? For reference, we have a signed NDA with Microsoft if that helps! My first thought are the two community calls that were running for most of 2025. They were the CSP Technical Training Series and Microsoft Partner Community Q&A Call. However, I don't see any upcoming events scheduled... Thanks! -jon
Microsoft 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.i have a Question FY26 Indirect reseller security score Can't access it.
I must say that I am a Distributor and my Partners do not have access to the Security page and I want to make sure that they can access it. From what I have found, it only says that it is enforced for direct bill partners, distributors (formerly indirect provider), and indirect resellers. Can you please update this because the FY26 document requires that you Complete the mandatory requirements of the Partner Center security score. Please provide clarity on compliance with the Security requirements. FY26 When I click on the link Adn i see in Security Role i Not see Indirect reseller access On Partner Center Indirect reseller Can't access Even if they are Global Admins, they cannot access it.Explore 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 started
URGENT: CSP Direct Bill Termination due to Revenue Discrepancy / Visibility Gap Support Exhausted
We’re currently working through a CSP Direct Bill eligibility review and have run into a discrepancy that we’re hoping other partners may have experience with. Our organization has been operating under CSP Direct Bill and, based on Partner Center indicators and prior guidance from Microsoft, we believed we were meeting the ~$1M TTM revenue requirement. However, we were recently informed by Microsoft that our Direct Bill revenue is being calculated at approximately $892K, below the threshold. The key issue appears to be related to revenue classification: Microsoft indicated that some of our revenue may be attributed to CSP Indirect Reseller (IR), even though we do not actively transact through a distributor. All licensing is billed directly by Microsoft, and we can provide invoices to support this. We’ve also been told that when tenants are associated with both Direct Bill and Indirect models, the 12-month revenue breakdown is not visible in Partner Center. Microsoft has acknowledged that this visibility gap exists and that partners cannot currently see the same classification used internally. Our case is currently under review with Microsoft, but we’re trying to better understand: Has anyone encountered a situation where tenants were classified as indirect without actively selling through a distributor? Are there any reliable ways to identify which customers or subscriptions may be tagged as indirect? Has anyone successfully reconciled or corrected this type of revenue classification issue? Any insights or similar experiences would be greatly appreciated, especially if you’ve navigated this during a Direct Bill eligibility review. Thanks in advance.Azure Plan CSP Pricelist Download
Dear community, Hope you are doing great. We are a Distributor (ex. Indirect Provider) and we recently discovered a change in terms of Pricing in Partner Center, and more specifically when it comes to Azure Plan Pricelists download. Usually, we were able to download the respective Azure Plan pricelist as a Category under the NCE option. However, what we see now is an option in Beta which redirects us to the Azure Portal. Could you please be so kind to help us identify how will we be able to download the CSV Azure Plan Pricelists as we were doing couple months ago? Thank you so much in advance for your assistance! Nick
