Tag Archives: CSP

Customer purchasing guidance from Microsoft

Microsoft release some customer purchasing guidance, comparing CSP, the EA, Web Direct, and buying via the Microsoft Customer Agreement direct from Microsoft.

You can read the article here: https://bit.ly/3igCnRR, and/or get a standalone summary guide here: https://bit.ly/3xKVcmF.

Extension of Audio Conferencing promotions

In September 2020, Microsoft announced two promotions which entitle Enterprise Agreement and CSP customers to free Audio Conferencing licences. The changes listed on the Product Terms site for 1 February 2021 (http://bit.ly/3prduoo) confirm that these promotions are now extended to 30 June, 2021 from the previous end-date of 31 March, 2021.

Find the original announcement with details of the promotions here: https://bit.ly/33NIFkN.

Update on the old Azure offer in CSP

Microsoft announce an update on the old Azure offer in CSP. Today, there are two offers that a partner can transact to sell the Azure consumption services to their customers: the “old” Azure offer which is the original way that partners transact these services, and the new Azure plan which is billed via the new commerce platform.

When the Azure plan launched, Microsoft were clear that at some point the old Azure offer would be retired, and there’s now information on the timeline for this to happen. Firstly, customers new to Azure will only be able to purchase through the Azure plan from 21 July 2021, then partner incentives for the old Azure offer will be retired sometime in 2022, and in the third phase, on a date to be determined, customers on the old Azure offer will be migrated to the Azure plan.

Find the announcement with a few more details here: http://bit.ly/3iEmhBu.

General Availability of perpetual software licences in CSP

Microsoft announce the General Availability of perpetual software licences in CSP from 21 January 2021.

Commercial customers can now buy licences for a range of on-premises products through any CSP partner. This was previously only available for selected partners in some geographies, and additionally both the range of products and geographies are extended with this launch – if you’re interested in what’s been added, there’s a useful document here: https://bit.ly/3oehDLx, and the announcement itself is here: http://bit.ly/3iOCunF.

The Product Terms document is also updated with an additional CSP column to show availability of the on-premises products through this channel.

Qualified Educational User Definition document

For customers to be eligible to purchase academic edition products they must meet the criteria detailed in the Qualified Educational User Definition document.

This document was updated in December 2020 to specifically include CSP as part of the Microsoft Customer Agreement, and now public libraries and public museums are eligible academic customers in the CSP program.

Find the updated document here: http://bit.ly/3bCGNP8, making sure you choose the right one for your region.

Windows 10 Qualifying Operating Systems

There’s a new (October 2020) Microsoft Licensing Brief to help you to answer questions around Windows 10 Qualifying Operating Systems.

Note though, that it’s not yet updated for the changes that were made to page 42 of the November 2020 Product Terms whereby Windows 10 Home licences are now qualifying licences for academic customers buying through CSP.

Find this document here: https://bit.ly/38xPnPR.

Open soon to be Closed

Microsoft announce that customers won’t be able to make new purchases through an Open agreement after 31 December, 2021. So, what does that mean for existing customers?

Licences with no Software Assurance

  • Licences purchased through an Open agreement are perpetual and customers can continue to use these licences with no changes. New licences without SA can now be purchased through partners via the Cloud Solution Provider program

Licenses with Software Assurance

  • Existing SA benefits continue to be available until the end of existing agreements with no changes, and then SA can be renewed into a new or existing Open Value agreement

Subscriptions for Online Services

  • Existing subscriptions for services such as Office 365 can be renewed into a new or existing Open Value agreement or through CSP. If customers have purchased subscriptions in an Open agreement and not activated them, then they can still be activated without the need for any active agreements

Azure services

  • Pre-paid tokens are used to pay for Azure consumption services in the Open and Open Value agreements. A new Open Value non-Company Wide agreement can be signed by customers to purchase more tokens to power their existing Azure deployments without the need for any technical migrations

Read the announcement article for customers here: https://bit.ly/3jlRNDL and, if you’re a partner, find more useful information for you here: https://bit.ly/3jlVx8h.

Product Terms updated for the Microsoft Customer Agreement

The Microsoft Customer Agreement now governs a customer’s purchases through the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program, replacing the Microsoft Cloud Agreement, and the April 2020 Product Terms document is updated to reflect this. So, for example, on page 60 it’s stated that rights to install Exchange, SharePoint and Skype for Business Server are included with a Microsoft 365 E3/E5 User SL, but NOT if these licences have been acquired under the Microsoft Cloud Agreement or Microsoft Customer Agreement.

Find the Product Terms documents here: http://bit.ly/MSproductterms.