The past three months have brought a new round of investments in the Microsoft Partner Network, accompanying our transition to a new fiscal year and ongoing evolution into the Microsoft Cloud Partner Program. Below, we’ve compiled this quarter’s biggest announcements that you should know about — more information on these and other updates are always available on the Partner Center Docs site.
Microsoft Cloud Partner Program
Evolving toward the Microsoft Cloud Partner Program: We are progressing toward the general availability of the new Solutions Partner designations on October 3. Partners can check their current eligibility for these designations by viewing their partner capability score in Partner Center.
ISV Success program now in private preview: The Microsoft Cloud Partner Program is for all partners, whether you build and sell software, services, or devices. As part of our support for ISVs, we’ve launched the ISV Success program to help connect partners with powerful tools, one-to-one consultations, and training resources.
New commerce experience
Postponing phase 3 of the Azure offer availability: As of this April, we have postponed the start date for phase 3 of the new commerce experience for Azure in the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program. For now, partners should continue transitioning customers to the Azure plan in new commerce to accrue partner earned credit or incentives.
Change to cancellation and seat-reduction window: Partners now have seven calendar days to cancel or reduce seats after ordering or renewing new commerce subscriptions in CSP.
Indefinitely extending legacy renewals: Microsoft has indefinitely extended auto-renewals of legacy CSP subscriptions, which were previously scheduled to end on July 11. We continue to encourage partners to migrate legacy subscriptions to new commerce as soon as possible.
Cybersecurity
Availability of Granular Delegated Admin Privileges (GDAP): On June 1, granular delegated admin privileges (GDAP) became generally available in Partner Center, offering a more secure model for administering customer tenants. All partners in the CSP program should remove any delegated admin privileges (DAP) you don’t need or use, transition active DAP connections to GDAP, and update your process for acquiring new CSP customers to include requesting GDAP permissions from customers.
By the end of August, we plan to release a tool that allows partners with existing DAP relationships to create a GDAP relationship with Azure AD roles. When it’s available, we’ll update Partner Center announcements.
Launching Microsoft Defender for Business Standalone GA: We launched Microsoft Defender for Business (MDB) as a standalone offering in May, offering partners enterprise-grade endpoint security for SMBs for up to 300 seats. This complements the inclusion of MDB in Microsoft 365 Business Premium announced earlier this year, and is an opportunity for partners to acquire new SMB customers.
Microsoft Inspire
Catch up on anything you missed from Microsoft Inspire: We held Microsoft Inspire, our largest event for partners, last week from July 19 – 20. Sessions are now available on-demand on the Inspire website.
Partner of the Year Awards finalists and winners: Congratulations to the 2022 Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards winners and finalists, announced during Microsoft Inspire! These awards recognize the most outstanding successes and innovations from across our global and diverse partner ecosystem.
Partner incentives
Upcoming changes for FY23: Standard adjustments to our partner incentives and investments portfolio for the new fiscal year are planned to take effect in October 2022. Preview these changes on the Partner blog.
Black Partner Growth Initiative
Accelerator Program Graduates: Join us in recognizing and celebrating the successes of our first cohort of graduates from the Black Partner Growth Initiative program.
New BPGI homepage: We’ve launched a redesigned home for all things BPGI, with links from the new landing page to events, FAQs, and more.
Inclusive economy
#BuildFor2030 Initiative: Join us to celebrate and watch how Microsoft partners are making a difference in support of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, view featured solutions, and prepare for the #BuildFor2030 Hackathon coming in September.
Social impact and diversity business attestations: Microsoft partners can now attest to social impact and diversity business classifications and certifications in Partner Center. This information may be shared with customers and Microsoft sellers looking to identify diverse tech suppliers through AppSource and referrals.
These news items represent new ways for partners to engage with Microsoft and take advantage of the benefits that the partner network offers. As you explore the latest changes, we encourage you to stay plugged into partner channels to receive announcements and updates in real-time. We look forward to sharing more in future blog posts and deepening our collaboration to achieve more.