At WPC 2015 Microsoft announced it is expanding the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program to cover additional markets (bringing the total number to approximately 131). Also, CRM Online and Azure will join Office 365, Intune, and Enterprise Mobility Suite as offerings included in CSP. Dynamics AX7, the next version of Microsoft’s flagship ERP product, will join CSP in the coming year.
The CSP program enables partners to:
- Sell integrated offers and solutions across all Microsoft cloud services
- Own the end-to-end customer lifecycle with direct provisioning, management, and support
- Own and control the billing relationship – partners create an offer, set the price, and manage the billing terms, providing one convenient bill to customers.
- Add partner services and IP to deliver a complete end-to-end solution
Neil Holloway, corporate vice president, sales and partners, Microsoft Business Solutions, blogged: “This keeps partners at the center of the customer relationship and provides opportunities to upsell, driving higher customer adoption, satisfaction, and loyalty.”†
He added, “CSP is a great fit for Dynamics partners as it enables the provisioning and management of subscriptions for multiple cloud services and a smoother buying process for customers, allowing partners to become trusted advisors and one-stop source for selling ‘Business Solutions from Microsoft.'”†
And now partners can resell and deliver managed services on top of Azure. Via the Partner Center, partners can handle transactions and manage their customers, including the use of APIs and PowerShell to automate operations.
There are two tiers of the CSP program: direct (1) and indirect (2). Similar to Microsoft’s traditional channel, the company expects the majority of partners to be serviced through the Tier 2†model as resellers. Tier 2 resellers will work with a cloud distributor. Benefits include:
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Through-distributor margin and 6 percent†rebate
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Rich platform services such as white-label billing and customer management
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Solution services,†third-party services, and products needed to offer compelling customer solutions
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Product training and practice development support
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Customer marketing and demand generation
- Finance and credit
In a related announcement, Microsoft is launching the Azure consumption incentive on August 1, which will reward partners for driving consumption of Microsoft Azure Services. The new incentives will be available to all Silver or Gold Cloud Platform competency partners.
