April 2022 announcements

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This page provides the announcements for Microsoft Partner Center for April 2022.

New Commerce Experience (NCE) fundamentals session: Overview and seat-based offers deep dive

Date: April 28, 2022

Summary

This session is designed to help partners by providing an overview of the new commerce experience in the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program.

Workspace

Pricing

Impacted audience

CSP direct partners and indirect providers

Details

This session is designed to provide an overview of NCE in the CSP program to help our partners learn, understand, and get ready to transact Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Power Platform, and Windows 365 offers in NCE.

Session duration: 90 minutes

Agenda:

  • NCE overview
  • NCE in CSP
    • Legacy vs. new commerce offers
    • Price list and offer matrix
  • Seat-based offers in NCE
    • Migrations
    • Promotions
    • Subscription management
    • Billing
  • Resources
  • Q&A

Pre-session work:

Review the following materials before the session:

Next steps

Register for your preferred session by going to the CSP Fundamentals listing page and selecting the appropriate link.

Region Time Date Language
Americas (EN) 2∶00 PM Eastern Time May 10, 2022 English
Americas (ES) 11∶30 AM Eastern Time May 11, 2022 Spanish
Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) 1∶30 PM GMT May 10, 2022 English
Asia Pacific (EN) 11∶00 AM Singapore Time May 11, 2022 English
Asia Pacific (JP) 9∶00 AM Singapore Time/10∶00 AM Japan Time May 25 and 26, 2022 Japanese

Questions?

Contact globizop@microsoft.com if you have any questions or need more information.

Microsoft Publisher Agreement version 8.0 – May 2022 update

Date: April 27, 2022

Summary

We’ve updated the Microsoft Publisher Agreement.

Workspace

General

Impacted audience

Publishers

Details

We've updated the Microsoft Publisher Agreement to clarify our respective tax obligations, remove outdated terms, and make the Agreement easier to read. Many of these changes offer you more favorable terms.

Next steps

End-of-sale products will be in the June price list preview

Date: April 26, 2022

Summary

The May 1 preview of the June price list will include upcoming end-of-sale products.

Workspace

Pricing

Impacted audience

Cloud Solution Provider partners

Details

On May 1, 2022, the end-of-sale product retirement date addition to the CSP price list preview will be available to help you identify products that will no longer be available for purchase in the new commerce experience.

The new column in the price list is EndofSaleDate.

Next steps

  • Learn more by downloading the latest version of the Operating Guide and searching for End of Sale in the Product retirement lifecycle section. (It's on page 166).

  • Share this information with all appropriate contacts in your organization.

Increased discounts to Dynamics 365 Marketing and Customer Insights charity offers in CSP

Date: April 26, 2022

Summary

Higher discounts are now available to make Dynamics 365 Marketing and Customer Insights more affordable for nonprofit customers.

Workspace

Pricing

Impacted audience

Cloud Solution Provider (CSP)

Details

Starting May 1, the following charity offers have an increased discount from the commercial price:

  • Dynamics 365 Customer Insights B2B Accounts Add-on (Nonprofit Staff Pricing): Increased from 60% to 75% discount.

  • Dynamics 365 Customer Insights B2C Profiles Add-on (Nonprofit Staff Pricing): Increased from 30% to 75% discount.

  • These Dynamics 365 Marketing offers increased from 30% to 50% discount:

    • Dynamics 365 Marketing Additional Application (Nonprofit Staff Pricing)

    • Dynamics 365 Marketing Additional Non-Prod Application (Nonprofit Staff Pricing)

  • These Dynamics 365 Marketing offers increased from 30% to 75% discount:

    • Dynamics 365 Marketing Additional Contacts Tier 1 (Nonprofit Staff Pricing)

    • Dynamics 365 Marketing Additional Contacts Tier 2 (Nonprofit Staff Pricing)

    • Dynamics 365 Marketing Additional Contacts Tier 3 (Nonprofit Staff Pricing)

    • Dynamics 365 Marketing Additional Contacts Tier 4 (Nonprofit Staff Pricing)

    • Dynamics 365 Marketing Additional Contacts Tier 5 (Nonprofit Staff Pricing)

The new offers are coded as “ADD” and should be used on all new contracts or “renewing” contracts moving forward.

Next steps

Update quotes for customers considering these SKUs.

Questions?

Email TSI Partner Community tsipcomm@microsoft.com

May 2022 update: Online Services and Software Channel Authorization guide

Date: April 25, 2022

Summary

There’s an update to the Online Services and Software Channel Authorization guide.

Workspace

General

Impacted audience

Direct-bill partners, indirect providers, and multitier partners participating in the Cloud Solution Provider program

Details

In accordance with that subsection of the Online Services and Software Channel Authorization, under that section entitled “Notice of Changes”, entitled “Changes to the Guides”, in your Microsoft Partner Agreement, Microsoft is hereby notifying you that the Online Services and Software Channel Authorization guide is being updated.

The update will become effective 30 days from the date of this notice. There’s no further action needed to be taken by you.

Next steps

There are no actions required. This is a notice only.

New Commerce Experience (NCE) Fundamentals session: Overview and seat-based offers deep dive

Date: April 22, 2022

Summary

This session is designed to help partners by providing an overview of the new commerce experience in the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program.

Workspace

Pricing

Impacted audience

CSP direct bill partners and indirect providers

Details

Session duration: 90 minutes

Agenda:

  • NCE overview
  • New commerce experience in CSP
    • Legacy vs. new commerce offers
    • Price list and offer matrix
  • Seat-based offers in NCE
    • Migrations
    • Promotions
    • Subscription management
    • Billing
  • Resources
  • Q&A

Pre-session work:

Review the following materials before the session:

Next steps

Register for your preferred session by going to the CSP Fundamentals listing page and selecting the appropriate link.

Region Time Date Language
Americas (EN) 2∶00 PM Eastern Time May 10, 2022 English
Americas (ES) 11∶30 AM Eastern Time May 11, 2022 Spanish
Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) 1∶30 PM GMT May 10, 2022 English
Asia Pacific (EN) 11∶00 AM Singapore Time May 11, 2022 English
Asia Pacific (JP) 9∶00 AM Singapore Time/10∶00 AM Japan Time May 25 and 26, 2022 Japanese

Questions?

Contact Support if you have any questions or need more information.

Microsoft Defender for Business standalone availability

Date: April 20, 2022

Summary

Microsoft Defender for Business standalone will be available for purchase on May 1, 2022. Pricing will be available on the May 1, 2022, price list.

Workspace

Customers

Impacted audience

Partners transacting in the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program

Details

Microsoft Defender for Business is a new endpoint security solution that will bring enterprise-grade endpoint security to businesses with up to 300 employees.

Microsoft Defender for Business standalone will be enabled for CSPs to purchase beginning on May 1, 2022. Pricing will be available in the May 1 CSP price list. The offer is priced at USD 3 per user per month. (The price is subject to change based on subscription term, currency, and region). We'll provide more details on the solution at general availability in early May.

Microsoft Defender for Business is already available as part of Microsoft 365 Business Premium. For existing Microsoft 365 Business Premium customers, no action or additional transactions are required. Defender for Business will show up in the Microsoft 365 Defender security portal in the Endpoints section.

Next steps

Learn more about the upcoming solution and prepare plans for launch:

Change to date for blocking of legacy Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) subscription renewals

Date: April 20, 2022

Summary

The end date for renewals of legacy CSP subscriptions on the legacy platform has been moved from July 1, 2022, to July 11, 2022.

Workspace

Customers

Impacted audience

CSP direct-bill partners and indirect providers, and resellers through their indirect providers (excluding Brazil CSP partners)

Details

CSP partners wanting to have their customers' commercial seat-based legacy subscriptions renewed on the legacy platform will now have until July 11, 2022, for those renewals to be completed. The previously announced end date for legacy renewals was July 1, 2022.

Starting July 11, 2022, any commercial seat-based legacy CSP subscription that reaches the end of its term won't be automatically renewed on the legacy platform and must be either repurchased in the new commerce experience or allowed to expire.

While the subscriptions are active, partners may migrate existing legacy subscriptions to new commerce in CSP at any time. By using the migration tool in Partner Center or via API, the partner migrating a legacy subscription to new commerce can do the following:

  • Keep the existing legacy term duration, number of months remaining on the term, seat count, and billing frequency.
  • Select a different term duration, seat count, and/or billing frequency.
  • Start a new term for the migrated subscription.

We'd like to remind you that Microsoft won't notify the partner or customer when a legacy subscription nears or reaches its expiration date. It will be the responsibility of the partner to monitor active legacy subscriptions to confirm when each one is due to expire.

With legacy subscriptions that reach end of term starting July 11, the partner must take action to migrate or repurchase the commercial seat-based legacy subscription in new commerce before the legacy subscription expires if the customer wants to continue using the subscription. Also, as communicated in March, an existing legacy subscription can't be repurchased in legacy before that subscription reaches the end of its term, as this repurchase is considered a new order and will be blocked.

Note that the blocking of legacy subscription renewals on July 11 applies only to commercial seat-based offers since Education, Government, and Non-profit seat-based offers haven't yet been added to the CSP new commerce platform.

Next steps

Questions?

Contact Support if you have any questions or need more information.

New timeline: Changes to Azure offer related to the new commerce experience in CSP

Date: April 20, 2022

Summary

The timeline for changes to the Azure offer availability in the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) for the new commerce experience has been updated.

Workspace

Pricing

Impacted audience

Partners transacting through the CSP program

Details

Three phases

Phase 1: Launched on July 21, 2021. Find details of phase 1 in the July 2021 announcement.

Phase 2: Launched on February 1, 2022. Find details of phase 2 in the February 2022 announcements.

Phase 3 update: Microsoft has postponed the phase 3 transition to start later in the year due to more testing validation being required. In phase 3, any remaining customers on the previous Azure offer will be migrated to the new Azure offer in the CSP program (Azure plan). Any existing Azure Partner Shared Services (APSS) on the previous Azure offer will continue to be available until they're transferred to a different sales motion or until APSS is removed. APSS will eventually be removed from the previous Azure offer and won't be available as part of the new Azure offer (Azure plan).

APSS transfer from previous Azure offer in CSP to a different sales motion

  • APSS will continue to be available for purchase until further announcement. To learn more about the existing experience, see Add Azure Partner Shared Services so partners can buy Azure subscriptions for their own use. To make the APSS transition simpler later in the year, we recommend that new Azure plan purchases be made through the self-service motion via the Azure portal.
  • APSS transitions will start later in the year. Further details will be shared over the coming months.

Migration from the previous Azure offer to the new Azure offer

  • Continue to transition your previous Azure offers in CSP to the new Azure offer (Azure plan) to ensure that you’re earning incentives and partner margin.
  • The new timelines for Microsoft to migrate customers who are still on the previous Azure offer to the new Azure offer (Azure plan) will be announced in the coming months.

Next steps

Continue to migrate your customers to the new Azure offer. To get started, see Transition customers to Azure plan from existing CSP Azure offers.

Review the following resources on the new commerce experience:

Enforcement of CSP customer onboarding requirements postponed

Date: April 20, 2022

Summary

The requirement for customer information to be complete in Microsoft Admin Center before the customer can accept a partner relationship, implemented on April 12, 2022, has been temporarily rolled back.

Workspace

Customers

Impacted audience

Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) direct-bill partners and indirect providers

Details

The enforcement of customer onboarding requirements, announced on April 6, 2022 for implementation on April 12 in certain CSP countries, has been discontinued temporarily. This postponement is intended to allow for increased partner and customer awareness of the criteria that must be met to prevent the blocking of customers from accepting reseller relationships with partners, as well as partners being blocked from purchasing for those customers.

A date for the resumption of the enforcement of the customer onboarding requirement hasn't yet been confirmed, but partners will be notified in advance so that they can prepare and communicate with their customers as needed.

Next steps

Tell customers about the requirement to complete their profile at Microsoft Admin Center so that customers can accept the reseller relationship.

Customer List enhancement: advisor relationship filter

Date: April 18, 2022

Summary

Admin agents can now filter the Customer List to show customers they have an advisor relationship with.

Workspace

Customers

Impacted audience

Admin agents

Details

Partners can now filter the Customer List in the Partner Center Customers workspace to show the customers they have an advisor relationship with.

  • Admin agent user role permissions are required to use this filter.

  • The advisor filter is currently available only in Partner Center and not through an API.

Next steps

To learn more about managing your customer list, see  Managing your customer list - search, update, or export customers in Partner Center.

Questions?

For further questions about this transition capability, check your relevant Microsoft partner community.

Voice of Partner update and Partner Sentiment Survey (PSS)

Date: April 14, 2022

Summary

We listen to our partners’ feedback and represent their voice within Microsoft. The PSS is how we capture their lived experiences and feedback.

Workspace

General

Impacted audience

All partners

Details

Partner feedback is a gift to us. With it, we can capture and hear in our partners’ own words what we did well and what our areas of opportunity are. By giving visibility to our internal teams and senior leaders, we could drive operational improvements.

Through our engagements with you, we’ve captured your requirements, prioritized them, and focused on the areas that have the most impact on your business.

This Voice of Partner update provides a summary of the partner feedback and our updates on actions that we're taking in response. The latest Voice of Partner update is now live in the Operations Readiness gallery. You can find it at Microsoft Operations - Voice of Partner Updates.

Next steps

Partners can drive change by participating in the regular Operations PSS to provide feedback on their experiences of working with Microsoft Operations teams.

  • Review the latest Voice of Partner update in the Operations Readiness Resource gallery.
  • Share this information with the appropriate contacts in your organization, and let us know if this update is helpful by responding to the Was this page helpful? question at the bottom of the page.
  • If you have feedback that you’d like to share with the Operations team and wish to be included in the future Operations PSS, sign up here.

Note

PSS is sent from PulsePBO@email5.microsoft.com. Make sure to check your spam/junk folder for this email.

Questions?

Contact Support if you have any questions or need more information.

Transfer of Azure subscriptions and reservations between partners now live for all partners

Date: April 14, 2022

Summary

The Azure portal and Partner Center have been enhanced for the transfer of Azure subscriptions and reservations between partners.

Workspace

Customers

Impacted audience

Partners transacting through the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program

Details

Expanding on the new commerce experience for Azure, transition tools enhance the flexibility to manage Azure in ways that adapt to customers’ evolving business needs. On February 18, 2022, the Azure portal was enhanced so that a customer’s Azure subscriptions and reservations can be transferred between partners in the CSP program.

Azure Expert Managed Service Provider (MSP) program partners can transfer Azure subscriptions of customers transacting through the Enterprise motion to a partner in the CSP program through the Azure portal.

Azure reservations can also be transferred through Partner Center. These new capabilities through the Azure portal and Partner Center are now live for all partners.

Transition Portal
Azure subscriptions and reservations between CSP partners Azure portal, Partner Center
Azure subscriptions and reservations from Direct Enterprise Agreement and Microsoft Cloud Agreement (MCA) in Enterprise motion to CSP

Note: Tooling is only available to Azure Expert MSPs.		 Azure portal

Key capabilities and considerations

Transition tooling makes it easy for you and your customers to use the enhanced Azure new commerce experience in CSP and position for growth now and in the future.

  • For transferring Azure subscriptions and reservations between partners, transition is driven by customer decisions and occurs only when both partners take explicit action.
  • If there's a transition from the Enterprise motion to the breadth motion (via CSP partners), both partners will need to take action.
  • The automated transition tool reduces errors, saves time, and provides visibility to you and your customers.
  • Transition is immediate with no customer downtime and no impact on Azure services.

Next steps

Questions?

For further questions about this transition capability, check your relevant Microsoft partner community.

Change log

February 18: Original message
March 1: Clarifying that the capabilities will be rolled out in phases
April 14: Announcing that transfer capabilities are now available to all partners

Windows 365 Business and Enterprise in CSP: annual term now available

Date: April 13, 2022

Summary

Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partners can now sell Windows 365 subscriptions on an annual term with an automatic 10 percent discount.

Workspace

Customers

Impacted audience

CSP direct bill partners and indirect providers, and resellers through their indirect providers

Details

Windows 365, announced in July 2021 and launched as a product in August 2021, is the world's first cloud PC for every organization, securely streaming the Windows experience—including desktop, apps, processing power, storage, and more—to any customer device. The cloud PC experience can scale to fit customers’ needs and is easy to deploy without the need for Microsoft Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Suite (VDI) expertise.

Windows 365 monthly subscription terms were made available in the current CSP experience in August 2021 and in CSP new commerce in October 2021. Effective immediately, in addition to the current monthly subscription terms, partners can now sell Windows 365 subscriptions on an annual subscription term.

The annual subscription term is priced at a 10 percent discount compared to the monthly term. The same cancellation policy applies to Windows 365 in new commerce that’s in effect for all other seat-based offers. However, midterm conversions from monthly to annual term or from annual to monthly term Windows 365 SKUs aren’t allowed, while term duration can be changed at the beginning of a new term.

Monthly licenses are still recommended for use in cases where procurement flexibility is required or when future performance requirements are unknown.

Next steps

  • Review your accounts, and confirm if any customer conversations in progress would benefit from an annual purchasing experience and discount.
  • Review common questions and answers for Windows 365 in the new commerce experience in the partner new commerce FAQ.
  • Visit the Windows 365 docs page and download the Windows 365 Partner FAQ to learn more.

Questions?

If you have any questions, visit the Partner Center support page.

April Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) community update and reminders

Date: April 14, 2022

Summary

The CSP monthly update newsletter is now available, along with additional CSP community resources that provide you with essential program updates.

Workspace

General

Impacted audience

CSP direct-bill partners and indirect providers

Details

This month’s resources cover the following topics:

Launches

Clinics

CSP Community Q&A reminder

The monthly CSP community Q&A session provides you with an opportunity to learn more and ask questions about changes affecting the program. This month’s call will focus on the topics listed in the previous section and more.

Register here to join the call.

Always available—Launch content on demand

Within the monthly CSP community collection, you can find:

For a consolidated view of all recent and active launches in a single place, visit the partner launch calendar. You'll find a timeline for each launch and links to published materials to help you learn more about that launch.

Need licensing readiness? The monthly CSP spotlight webinars cover the latest CSP licensing information available for all partners.

Next steps

Review the community resources and register for the Community Call Q&A.

Questions?

The monthly CSP community Q&A call is the best place to bring questions about operational change in the CSP program. You can submit a question up to 48 hours before the call. All launch-related questions will be answered in the call and/or in the Q&A document published after the call.

Questions on any other CSP topic? Visit the Partner Center support page.

New secondary deal review upload feature

Date: April 11, 2022

Summary

A new feature to support our partners in submitting and managing secondary deal review documents will be available in Partner Center.

Workspace

Help + support

Impacted audience

Cloud Solution Provider (CSPs) indirect providers in Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Italy, the United Arab Emirates, India, Taiwan, and Hungary

Details

Microsoft runs on trust. We’re committed to providing a compliant, safe, and secure method of transacting customer subscriptions in the CSP program. The secondary review desk aligns with Microsoft’s ethical selling practices, builds trust, and is critical for your success.

Beginning April 7, 2022, Microsoft introduced the capability for partners to test within their sandbox environment an update that allows CSP partners to upload requested end-customer purchase commitment details related to their purchase order (PO). This new feature gives partners the ability to enter and verify specific information, attach relevant documents related to the end customer purchase commitment, and track the overall status of the order that’s under secondary review directly in Partner Center. This feature will go live July 7, 2022.

For more information on the secondary review process, what to upload for the end customer purchase commitment, or the information required in this form, view the training at the Secondary Review Desk Collection.

Remember that a deal being flagged for review doesn’t necessarily mean that there are any inherent issues present, but rather, a combination of multiple risk attributes required Microsoft to take a deeper look.

Partner impact

A new set of order states will be introduced when transactions are required to provide additional documentation.

Orders can now be in the following states:

  • Pending PO upload: This means that you’re required to select the link to upload documentation for a secondary deal review. Follow the link on the upload documentation page for more information.
  • PO upload submitted: Thank you! This status means that you’ve uploaded the required documentation for secondary review, and this order is currently being reviewed.
  • Approved: This means that the secondary review has been completed and this order is now being processed.
  • Rejected: This status means that this order didn't pass the secondary review and won't be processed.

Technical information for testing the PO upload

You can find the steps for uploading the document in the Secondary deal review training deck.

Next Steps

  • Notify cspsandbox@microsoft.com with your sandbox tenant ID to participate in testing the new functionality and ensure that you’re ready for the July 7 release.

  • When testing with your sandbox tenant ID, use one or both of the following products so that we can distinguish the test from your other test transactions:

    • Access LTSC 2021:

      • Product ID: DG7GMGF0D7FV
      • SKU title: Access LTSC 2021
      • Product type: Perpetual software

    • Excel LTSC 2021:

      • Product ID: DG7GMGF0D7FT
      • SKU title: Excel LTSC 2021
      • Product type: Perpetual software

  • Share this information with all appropriate contacts in your organization, especially those who are responsible and accountable for deal and order submission in the countries listed.

Questions?

If you have questions about the secondary review desk, review the secondary deal review deck, or contact your account executive, partner development manager, or commercial executive.

Enforcement of CSP customer onboarding requirements starts April 12

Date: April 6, 2022

Summary

As part of our commitment to help partners and customers run their business based on trust, we'll require customer information to be complete before accepting a partner relationship request for the criteria and countries listed below, effective April 12, 2022.

Workspace

Customer

Impacted audience

Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) direct-bill partners and indirect providers who have new or existing customers in the countries listed in the next section

Details

This release is a follow-up to our December 2021 release related to CSP customer onboarding that we described in our December 15, 2021 announcement. Microsoft runs on trust. We're committed to providing a compliant, safe, and secure method of customer validation for transacting customer subscriptions in the CSP program.

Blocking criteria

Starting April 12, 2022, customers who meet all three of the following criteria will be blocked from accepting reseller relationships with partners, and partners will be blocked from purchasing for those customers:

  • The customer has an incomplete profile at Microsoft Admin Center.
  • The partner has a direct-billing relationship with Microsoft (which means that the partner is either a direct-bill partner or an indirect provider).
  • The partner does business with new or existing customers in the following countries:
    • Thailand
    • Vietnam
    • Turkey
    • Poland
    • South Africa
    • India
    • Brazil
    • Iraq
    • Myanmar
    • South Sudan
    • Saudi Arabia
    • United Arab Emirates
    • Venezuela
    • Armenia
    • Azerbaijan
    • Belarus
    • Hungary
    • Kazakhstan
    • Kyrgyzstan
    • Moldova
    • Russia
    • Tajikistan
    • Ukraine
    • Uzbekistan

Blocking will be removed when a customer completes their profile at Microsoft Admin Center.

Next steps

Tell customers about the requirement to complete their profile at Microsoft Admin Center before they can accept the relationship.

Windows powers the future of hybrid work

Date: April 6, 2022

Summary

This advisory summarizes the product news that was shared on the Tuesday, April 5 event on Windows, Management, and Surface.

Workspace

Customers

Impacted audience

Partners and customers

Details

On Tuesday, April 5, 2022, Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella anchored a keynote address from Windows Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer Panos Panay, and focused on the Windows vision from the client to the cloud. The demo-driven digital event charted the future with Windows and Microsoft cloud services, demonstrating how to alleviate the myriad of challenges organizations now face with managing hybrid work, enhanced security, and remote operations. The keynote was followed by three in-depth breakout sessions that focused on end-user productivity and collaboration, simplicity in IT management, and security concerns for the future of hybrid work.

This advisory summarizes the product news about Windows, Management, and Surface that was shared at the event.

Windows 11

Best productivity experiences

  • Collect apps in app folders in Windows Start
  • Access and organize content with tabs and favorites in File Explorer
  • Grow satisfaction and increase adoption of Microsoft 365 capabilities with IT-controlled in-product messages to employees
  • Print from office for web from any device and set per-user print permissions with Universal Print
  • Personalize widgets with your Microsoft Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) account

Elevating protection

  • Windows Hello to unlock encrypted files, so local files are protected
  • Enhanced phishing protection with Microsoft Defender SmartScreen, detecting and protecting people from unintended consequences when entering their passwords on a phishing site

Simplicity for IT

  • Windows Autopatch—a Microsoft-managed intelligent update that keeps Windows, Microsoft Edge, and Office deployments updated—will be included with Windows Enterprise E3 starting July 1, 2022
  • More intelligent and successful deployments with Windows Update for Business deployment service
  • IT configures and protects Enterprise user profiles and access to corporate resources using data protection policies on unmanaged devices, with application management for Microsoft Edge

Windows 365

Last year, we introduced Windows 365, the world’s first Cloud PC, to give people a simple way to securely stream their Windows experience—including their personalized apps, content, and settings—from the Microsoft cloud to any device with their Windows 365 Cloud PC.

Today, we announced that we’ll deliver new integrations that bring the power of the Windows 365 Cloud PC and familiarity of the local Windows experience together with the following future features:

  • Windows 365 Boot enables a user to sign in directly into their Cloud PC and designate it as the primary Windows experience on the device.
  • Windows 365 Switch gives the end user the ability to easily move between the Cloud PC and the local desktop in the Task Switcher.
  • The Windows 365 app provides a direct path to Windows 365 from the taskbar.
  • Windows 365 Offline will enable work in Windows 365 even when disconnected.

Microsoft’s vision for advanced endpoint management starts with remote help

Today we’re announcing Microsoft’s vision for advanced endpoint management and our plan to expand service coverage to include premium capabilities currently provided to our customers by third parties. Microsoft will launch a series of solutions that are designed to increase endpoint security, improve end user experience, and reduce total cost of ownership (TCO). The first of the new solutions is remote help for Windows, now generally available as an add-on to Endpoint Manager. The product catalog was updated on April 1, 2022, and the product experience will be released in the Microsoft Endpoint Manager admin center by April 5, 2022.

Customers can learn more about the licenses for remote help through a new centralized experience in the Endpoint Manager admin center. This will connect them with the process to request a trial or to purchase the licenses in the same way that customers today add licenses for Microsoft Intune.

Next steps

Watch and share the digital Windows event and engage customers regarding their Windows 11 and Windows 365 adoption and management plans. Invite both customers and partners to participate in the tech community live event (April 7), where we’ll answer all your questions on Windows.

Review the product announcement information and the additional resources (blog announcements):

Questions?

For more information, contact your Partner Development Manager.

View the latest promotions and offers

Date: April 5, 2022

Summary

The latest Global Promo Readiness Guide has now been published.

Workspace

Pricing

Impacted audience

Partners transacting through the Cloud Solution Provider program

Details

The latest Global Promo Readiness Guide, a consolidated view of all current and upcoming promotions, is now available at the Operations Readiness resource gallery. See active and upcoming promotions and offers at the Global Promo Readiness Guide collection.

The following changes have been made to the Global Promo Readiness Guide for new commerce experience promotions:

  • The cloud migration promotion isn’t currently available, but an update will be provided as soon as it is.
  • These promotions expired on March 31, 2022:
    • Dynamics AX Migration
    • Discount on annual term seat-based offers in the new commerce experience
  • These new promotions have been added:
    • Microsoft Viva
    • Microsoft Teams Essentials (Azure Active Directory identity)
    • Windows 365 Business
  • Additional context on mid-term conversations has been included in the resources section of the document.
  • New commerce promotions for monthly terms have been backfilled to align with recently added product SKU monthly terms.
  • New commerce promotions details, including promotion IDs, product SKUs the promotions are available for, and all the terms and billing plans have been centralized in the new commerce promotions excel data sheet. This enables partners to get all the necessary data about the promotions and filter them by promotion type.

Partners can use the Operations Promo Guide Excel file to review the SKU details for the promotions that are available for the new commerce experience. You can also search the document or use column A labeled Promo Type to sort by promotion. For example, you can choose New commerce launch promo from column A and see the applicable SKU details for that specific promotion.

Next steps

Review the latest monthly Promo Guide in the Operations Readiness resource gallery. Share this information with the appropriate contacts in your organization, and let us know if the guide is helpful by responding to the “Was this page helpful?” question at the bottom of the page.

Questions?

For questions about these offers, check your relevant Yammer communities.

Change log

April 8, 2022: Added details about changes that have been made to the Global Promo Readiness Guide for new commerce experience promotions.

View this month’s product launches and offers

Date: April 5, 2022

Summary

The April product launch calendar is now published.

Workspace

Pricing

Impacted audience

All partners transacting through the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program

Details

The April 2022 product launch calendar is now available in the Operations Readiness resource gallery. View the upcoming product launches and offers here.

Next steps

Review the product launch calendar, and share the information with the appropriate stakeholders in your organization.

Questions?

For any further questions about these offers, check your relevant Yammer communities.

April changes to nonprofit software grant program

Date: April 5, 2022

Summary

Starting on April 4, 2022, we'll be retiring our perpetual software grants, with two notable exceptions. On April 5, 2022, the new Windows Professional 11 Charity Grant through TechSoup will be available.

Workspace

Pricing

Impacted audience

Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) direct-bill partners and indirect providers

Details

Starting on April 4, 2022, we'll be retiring our perpetual software grants, with two notable exceptions:

  • To ensure all nonprofits can access Windows 11, we'll provide grants of the new Windows Professional 11 Charity SKU. All registered nonprofits will be eligible for up to 50 granted licenses via TechSoup, with the option to purchase additional licenses at a discount through Microsoft partners.
  • In markets where Azure isn't yet available, we'll continue to provide grants of Windows Server and SQL Server.

All other perpetual software SKUs remain available with current discounted Charity pricing in the CSP and Open Value programs.

Next steps

Review the October 2021 announcement that outlines key changes to the nonprofit program.

Questions?

Field roles and partners can contact TSI Partner Community with any questions.

Important updates for Microsoft partners serving customers in Belarus

Date: April 4, 2022

Summary

This communication contains important updates for Microsoft partners serving customers in Belarus.

Workspace

Pricing

Impacted audience

All partners serving customers or with sales in Belarus

Details

Microsoft partners can sign in to access the full announcement.

Next steps

See the full announcement.

Remote Help compliance and availability announcement

Date: April 4, 2022

Summary

Remote Help, a new add-on to Microsoft Intune, will be available in the price catalog on April 1, 2022.

Workspace

Pricing

Impacted audience

Cloud Solution Provider partners

Details

Remote Help, a new add-on for Microsoft Intune, will be available soon.

The full announcement is available only to Microsoft partners. Sign in to access the full announcement.

Next steps

Sign in and view the full announcement.

New commerce price list preview not available for April 2022

Date: April 1, 2022

Summary

The new commerce license-based price list preview isn't available for the May 2022 month.

Workspace

Pricing

Impacted audience

Cloud Solution Provider partners

Details

The new commerce price list preview file for April (the May price list) isn't available due to a delay in the end of sale and new products preview feature as well as no anticipated price changes for May 2022. An announcement will be posted in the coming weeks about when the end of sale and preview feature will be available.

Next steps

  • Share this information with all appropriate contacts in your organization.

  • Check Partner Center announcements for future updates.

New CSP Revenue Details Report available for direct CSP Partners

Date: April 1, 2022

Summary

Direct CSP partners who have the Executive report viewer or Report viewer role can download a new report about CSP revenue details and progress.

Workspace

Insights

Impacted audience

Cloud Solution Partner (CSP) partners who have Executive report viewer or Report viewer permissions

Details

Partners can now monitor progress and details of CSP revenue in a new report that gives a breakdown of revenue by the customers, subscriptions, and products (which maps to the product family, such as Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Power BI, EMS, Azure, and so on).

To generate a report, in the Download reports section of Partner Center Insights workspace, select CSP Revenue Details Report from the dropdown, then select a timeframe, file type, and either a full or custom report.

Next steps

Explore the CSP Revenue Details Report at Insights reports and data definitions.

Questions?

If you have any questions, visit the Partner Center support page.

Simple and flexible Windows Server guest licenses for Azure Stack HCI as a subscription

Date: April 1, 2022

Summary

This offer provides unlimited purchasing of Windows Server guest licenses for your Azure Stack hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) cluster through your Azure subscription.

Workspace

Pricing

Impacted audience

Cloud Solution Provider partners

Details

To facilitate guest licensing for Azure Stack HCI customers, we’re pleased to announce a new offer that brings simplicity and more flexibility for licensing. The new Windows Server subscription for Azure Stack HCI is generally available as of April 1, 2022. With this offer, you can purchase unlimited Windows Server guest licenses for your Azure Stack HCI cluster through your Azure subscription. This subscription offer will be charged at USD23.60 per physical core per month. This offer simplifies billing through an all-in-one-place Azure subscription and in some cases will be less expensive for customers than the traditional licensing model.

Next steps

Review the resources about this topic, and share this information with the appropriate stakeholders in your organization.

Questions?

Contact Support for questions, queries, or more information. For further questions about these offers, check your relevant Yammer communities.