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December 2024 announcements

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This page provides the announcements for Microsoft Partner Center for December 2024.

Follow this Fundraising and Engagement Yearly Giving Calculation guidance

Microsoft recommends a year-end process to ensure yearly giving totals are correctly calculated in the Fundraising and Engagement system (version 2.0.3.0 and up). These recommendations serve as guidance and should be considered as part of the year-end processing.

  • Date: December 23, 2024
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: All partners and customers running Fundraising and Engagement
Disable the Yearly Giving Full Azure Function before the end of the calendar year

To disable this function, follow these instructions.

Why is this important? The Yearly Giving Calculation is used to recalculate the yearly giving totals of every Contact and Account in the Azure SQL database.

  • At the start of a new calendar year (by default, precisely on January 1 at 00:01 UTC), this process runs to transfer the current year's giving totals to the last year, and so on for all five yearly totals. The updated data is then synchronized to Dataverse.
  • Because of Fundraising and Engagement data synchronization limitations, the Yearly Giving Calculation job might have trouble calculating the data and also synchronizing it from the Azure SQL database to Dataverse.
Run the Yearly Giving Calculation Accelerator

To optimize these calculations and overcome any limitations, we created a Yearly Giving Calculation Accelerator for running the Yearly Giving Calculations and a detailed guide to help you execute the accelerator.

  • This guide provides you with detailed instructions on how the recalculation of Yearly Giving fields can be done at the start of the new year for Contact and Account records without any performance limitations.

Note

These recommendations serve as guidance.

Next steps

  • Follow the year-end process guidance shared as part of the year-end processing efforts.

Questions?

New Microsoft 365 E5 Accelerate 15% promotion for CSPs

The Microsoft 365 E5 Accelerate 15% promotion is launching January 1, 2025.

  • Date: December 20, 2024
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: All Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partners transacting Microsoft 365

To help partners accelerate their Microsoft 365 practice by providing customers with a secure, comprehensive, AI-powered cloud solution, Microsoft is excited to announce a new promotion discount for Microsoft 365 E5.

CSP partners will receive 15% off the net partner price of Microsoft 365 E5 when eligible new-to-offer customers purchase a Microsoft 365 E5 annual subscription.

Promotion highlights: 

  • Duration: Available January 1 to June 30, 2025
  • Discount: 15% off Microsoft 365 E5 and Microsoft 365 E5 (no Teams), annual term (monthly or annual billing)
  • Availability: Worldwide
  • Customer eligibility: New-to-offer customers (FirstPurchase)

Now is the time for CSP partners to leverage this new promotion during customer renewal conversations. CSP partners should prioritize closing current Microsoft Office 365 or Microsoft 365 E3 customers with the opportunity to reduce the burden of managing multiple vendors while improving customer security.

This promo applies automatically to eligible customers purchasing Microsoft 365 E5. For more information, see the Transaction guide.

Next steps

  • Review the Global Promo Readiness Guide for more details when it publishes in early January.
  • See the Offer FAQ for more details and next steps.
  • Attend the CSP Level Up trainings to learn how to successfully go to market with Microsoft 365 E5.

Monthly update: Important actions partners need to take to secure the partner ecosystem

Important capabilities and updates to improve your security posture and protect your customers' tenants are now available.

  • Date: November 11, 2024
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: Direct-bill partners, indirect providers, and indirect resellers transacting through the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program and with advisors

AI innovations for a more secure future unveiled at Microsoft Ignite: At Microsoft, we remain steadfast in our commitment to security, which continues to be our top priority. Insights gained from the Secure Future Initiative (SFI) help us continue to harden our security posture and product development.

At Microsoft Ignite 2024, we unveil new security solutions, an industry-leading bug bounty program, and innovations in our AI platform. To learn more about these announcements, see the blog post by Vasu Jakkal, Microsoft Corporate Vice President Security, Compliance, Identity, and Management.

If you missed the Putting Security First session, you can watch it now.

Mandatory multifactor authentication (MFA) for Microsoft portals:

Available now

Microsoft Security Copilot is available for Admin On Behalf Of (AOBO) on the Service Management page of the Customers workspace in Partner Center. Learn about granting access to external users.

Removal of unused Azure subscriptions: As of December 2024, Microsoft blocks unused Azure subscriptions. The blocked Azure subscriptions are then deleted after 90 days.

A subscription is considered unused when there's no activity or consumption for over 12 months. Account owners and service admins of the unused Azure subscription are notified by email 30 days before the block is applied. The subscription is deleted 90 days after the block.

Coming soon

Deprecation of graph.windows.net audience tokens: Because we're deprecating graph.windows.net audience tokens to enhance our security measures, we're updating the way you interact with Partner Center APIs. Take the necessary steps to prepare for this transition.

Reminders

Security requirements API is available in Beta version and gives partners direct access to essential security compliance data.

Next steps

Reminder: Migrate to enhanced CSP billing reconciliation APIs by January 21, 2025

We're reminding partners to migrate to the new asynchronous APIs for billing reconciliation in Partner Center by January 21, 2025, to ensure uninterrupted service.

  • Date: December 16, 2024
  • Workspace: Billing, APIs
  • Impacted audience: Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) direct-bill partners and indirect providers who use billing APIs in Partner Center

In March 2024, we introduced new asynchronous APIs (asynchronous v2 APIs) for billing reconciliation in Partner Center. These improved APIs offer faster download times and reduce latency, especially when handling large data volumes. Partners must migrate to these new APIs before January 21, 2025, to avoid disruption in service.

This change affects four APIs:

The migration process requires modifying your code to incorporate the new APIs, as outlined in the linked Partner Center documentation. Starting January 21, 2025, the legacy APIs will return an error message, which could result in disruptions to your billing and reconciliation processes.

The new Microsoft Graph APIs are currently only available for the public/global cloud. They aren't yet available for Azure Government, Azure Germany, or Azure China 21Vianet. If you operate within these regions, no changes are necessary.

Resources

Next steps

Partners must migrate to these new APIs by January 21, 2025, to avoid disruption in service.

Questions?

We encourage you to use the readiness resources listed in this announcement or in the Partner Center documentation.

If you need assistance or encounter issues with the capability, open a support ticket through Partner Center.

Microsoft 365 Copilot CSP Getting Started 15%-off promo extension

We're announcing that the Microsoft 365 Copilot CSP Getting Started 15%-off promo is extended until April 1, 2025.

  • Date: December 16, 2024
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: All Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partners transacting Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365

The Microsoft 365 Copilot CSP Getting Started 15%-off promotion is available until April 1, 2025. This extension gives you more time to take advantage of this opportunity and deliver exceptional value to your customers during the biggest Microsoft 365 renewal quarter of the year.

Promotion highlights
  • Extended deadline: The promotion is now available until the end of Microsoft Q3, expiring on April 1, 2025.
  • 15% discount: Benefit from a 15% discount off net partner price on new Microsoft 365 Copilot subscriptions for 10 to 300 licenses for 12 months.
  • Flexible additions: Add up to 300 licenses at the discounted price anytime during the subscription term.
  • Flexible billing options: Customers can enjoy better cashflow by opting for an annual commitment with monthly payments, available with a 5% price increase compared to the annual upfront payment option.

We encourage you to proactively connect with customers who have upcoming Microsoft 365 renewals and highlight this promotion. It can be presented as a standalone offering or bundled with other services, providing a comprehensive solution for customers to get started quickly and confidently. Both the Offer Landing Kit and Copilot Partner Services Blueprint are available to help position this offer effectively with customers.

Don't miss this chance to help your customers maximize the potential of Microsoft 365 Copilot.

Next steps

Now live: Partner Center Technical Corner blog series: December 2024 edition

The December edition of the Partner Center Technical Corner blog is now live. This edition includes a closer look at the new Partner Center AI assistant (preview), important security updates, and a recap of recently released capabilities.

Date: December 12, 2024 Workspace: General Impacted audience: All partners

The December edition covers the following key topics:

  • Spotlight: Partner Center AI assistant (preview)
  • Securing the channel
    • Deprecation of graph.windows.net audience tokens
    • Reducing fraud with identity verification
  • Just released
    • Upcoming subscriptions renewals dashboard
    • New end of sale (EOS) price list
    • Price in cart
    • Enhanced Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) billing reconciliation APIs migration
    • Variable payout for Microsoft Commerce Incentive (MCI) activity-based incentives
    • Microsoft Action Pack Subscription (MAPS) AI assistant support
    • Professional services through private offers in the marketplace
    • Reduced agency fees for marketplace renewals
  • Partner Center roadmap and resources

Previous editions

Next steps

Australian Taxation Office reporting feature

We're providing instructions to add or update Partner Center fields based on requirements from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

  • Date: December 12, 2024
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: Active publishers in the Australian Microsoft Store and Microsoft commercial marketplace

As we previously announced, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) now requires the Microsoft Store and Microsoft commercial marketplace to collect and report seller transactions under the Sharing Economy Reporting Regime (SERR). To comply with the new SERR reporting requirements, the platform now gathers and reports information such as business name, Australian business number, foreign tax ID, individual names, contact information, and bank account details.

By collecting this information, the ATO can complete data-matching activities to ensure that publishers on Microsoft's Australian electronic distribution platform are declaring the correct level of income and activity.

If you’re an active publisher in the Australian Microsoft Store and Microsoft commercial marketplace, you need to review and update any missing information.

Next steps

Monthly Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program update

Here's what's new for Solutions Partner designations, specializations, and other Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program offerings and benefits.

  • Date: December 11, 2024
  • Workspace: Membership
  • Impacted audience: Partners enrolled in the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program

We're introducing important capabilities, offers, and updates to improve the way partners can further differentiate their deep technical expertise across a set of priority scenarios with high customer demand. We added benefits for eligible Solutions Partner with certified software designations.

Available now

Security SMB Path: We're excited to share that the thresholds for the Small and Medium Business (SMB) path for the Solutions Partner designation in Security are now available. Although this path isn't live yet, you can review the qualifications in our new Security SMB Path walking deck. We recommend you prepare by focusing on the necessary skills to achieve the 70-point threshold for qualification.

Partner Center AI assistant plugin for Microsoft Action Pack: As of October 22, 2024, we introduced a new AI assistant plugin to answer queries related to membership status, renewals, and enrollment for the Microsoft Action Pack (MAPS). Partners can open the AI assistant from MAPS page or the global entry point in Partner Center (the sparkle icon in the top right corner) and ask questions. AI assistant can answer your questions instantly. For example:

  • What is my membership status for Microsoft Action Pack?
  • What is my membership status for the MAPS program?
  • When can I renew my MAPS program?
  • What happens if I don't renew my MAPS purchase within the renewal period?
  • How do I renew my MAPS purchase?

What's coming

New Analytics on Microsoft Azure specialization: During the first half of calendar year 2025, we'll unveil a unified specialization that integrates the strengths of both the Analytics on Microsoft Azure and Data Warehouse Migration specializations. This consolidation is a strategic move to meet customer expectations more effectively and apply the synergies between the two previously separate specializations. The consolidated specialization will streamline the validation of partners' expertise in core analytics and migration, enhancing the partner experience and ensuring that our customers engage with the most proficient analytics partners in the industry.

Partners accredited with or achieving either the Analytics on Microsoft Azure or Data Warehouse Migration specializations before the launch of the new integrated specialization will seamlessly be enrolled into the new version until the next renewal cycle.

This initiative underscores our ongoing dedication to providing exceptional, distinct value to our partners and customers and to maintaining our position as a leader in the market. Stay tuned for more details on the updated requirements.

AI and Machine Learning in Microsoft Azure specialization: A change is coming to the AI and Machine Learning in Microsoft Azure specialization. This specialization will be renamed "AI Platform on Azure" and will offer more products to be considered toward earning and maintaining eligibility. The threshold for the performance requirement will be increasing from an average of $2,000 over the trailing three months to an average of $5,000. This Azure consumption revenue will need to come from at least three customers, consistent with the previous criteria. The eligible services and products to meet this criterion are available under each of the following product areas:

  • AI Infrastructure: Azure Machine Learning, MaaS, Other AI Infrastructure
  • Azure AI Services: Academic Knowledge, Anomaly Detector, Azure AI Search, Azure AI Services, Bot Service, Content Moderator, Content Safety, Document Intelligence, Emotion, Health Bot, Health Insights, Immersive Reader, Ink Recognizer, Language, Metrics Advisor, Personalizer, Phi, Recognition, Recommendations, Search, Speech, Translator, Text Analytics, Video Analyzer, Video Indexer, Vision
  • Azure OpenAI: Azure OpenAI

Build and Modernize AI Apps with Microsoft Azure specialization: A change is coming to the Build and Modernize AI Apps with Microsoft Azure specialization. This specialization will be rebranded as "Build AI Apps on Azure" and will offer more services and products to be considered toward earning and maintaining eligibility. The threshold for the performance requirement will be increasing from an average of $2,000 over the trailing three months to an average of $5,000. This increase will be consistent across each layer of evaluation: Application Platform, Data Platform, and AI Platform. This ACR will need to come from at least three customers, consistent with the previous criteria. The eligible services/products to meet these criteria are available under each of the following product areas:

  • Application platform
    • App Platform Services: Azure App Service, Azure Spring Cloud
    • Container and Serverless Services: AKS, ARO, Azure Container Apps, Container Instances, Container Registry, Functions
    • Integration Services: API Management, BizTalk Services, Event Grid, Logic Apps, Service Bus
  • Data platform
    • Cosmos DB: Cosmos DB
    • OSS DBs: MariaDB, MySQL, PGSQL
    • SQL DB: SQL DB, SQL DB MI
  • AI platform
    • Azure AI Services: Academic Knowledge, Anomaly Detector, Azure AI Search, Azure AI Services, Bot Service, Content Moderator, Content Safety, Document Intelligence, Emotion, Health Bot, Health Insights, Immersive Reader, Ink Recognizer, Language, Metrics Advisor, Personalizer, Phi, Recognition, Recommendations, Search, Speech, Text Analytics, Translator, Video Analyzer, Video Indexer, Vision
    • Azure OpenAI: Azure OpenAI

Partner Center AI assistant plugin for prepurchase scenario: A new AI assistant plugin is planned to be released in mid-December 2024, which can answer partner questions about prepurchase queries. This will help the partners know all the details before purchasing or renewing any program that is available in the Membership workspace. For example, partners can ask:

  • Why is the Buy Now or Renew Now button disabled?
  • What is the price of the Partner Success Core Benefits program?
  • How do I renew a program?
  • What are the qualifications required to purchase the Solutions Partner designation program?

Reminders

  • Apply today to attain one of seven Solutions Partner with certified software designations and qualify for top-tier benefits, along with Azure Migrate and Modernize and Azure Innovate incentives. If you missed our announcement last month, Microsoft is offering subsidies on a first-come, first-serve basis for assessments conducted by the third-party auditor for qualification for the designations. To learn more, read this blog post.
  • Announcement of new benefits: On January 22, 2025, Microsoft is planning to introduce more than 20 in-demand product licenses, including Microsoft 365 Copilot products, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, and GitHub Enterprise. These new benefits are designed to help streamline tasks, enhance creativity, and drive efficiency across businesses. Partners can access these benefits when they go live, by purchasing partner benefits packages, Solutions Partner designations, or specializations. The new packages offer comprehensive support and advisory benefits, helping partners accelerate business growth, scale their operations, and stay updated with the latest offerings.
  • Announcement of Microsoft Action Pack, Learning Action Pack, Legacy Silver, Legacy Gold benefits transition: As part of this transition, Microsoft will no longer sell the Microsoft Action Pack, Learning Action Pack, and legacy silver/gold benefits on January 22, 2025. Partners with existing benefits can renew them until January 21, 2025, and keep them until they expire one year later. To continue receiving benefits, partners are encouraged to purchase new partner benefits packages or attain Solutions Partner designations. These new offerings are designed to help meet business goals and provide more robust support compared to the legacy benefits. To learn more, see Manage membership with Microsoft in Partner Center.

Next steps

December Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) monthly updates and community reminder

Monthly views are now published, including the updated partner launch calendars, the CSP Bimonthly Update newsletter, and other CSP community resources that provide you with essential program updates.

  • Date: December 10, 2024
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: CSP direct-bill partners and indirect providers

Always available - Launch content on demand

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

The downloadable CSP Bimonthly Update newsletter which aggregates recent CSP announcements, updates, events, and reminders in an easy-to-read document.

Partner Journey Maps provide detailed navigation along the journey of Microsoft’s highest priority transformations.

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

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.

Register here to join upcoming calls.

Next steps

  • Review the Partner Launch Calendar, read the monthly newsletter, and register for upcoming Community Q&A calls.

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.

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

Local currency price adjustments for Microsoft's commercial cloud

We're announcing upcoming price adjustments for our commercial partners transacting in the Brazilian Real or the British Pound.

  • Date: December 3, 2024
  • Workspace: Pricing
  • Impacted audience: Commercial partners transacting in Brazilian Real or the British Pound

Effective February 1, 2025, Microsoft will adjust prices for its commercial cloud services to more closely align with global levels in the Brazilian Real (BRL) and British Pound (GBP) currencies. Brazil on-premises software pricing will also be adjusted to correct for local currency fluctuations and business conditions.

Microsoft follows a semiannual process for aligning prices globally to US dollar (USD) levels. This process ensures that customers across different geographies and currencies experience consistent pricing, reflecting the exchange rate of their local currency to USD.

Pricing currency Cloud % adjustment* On-premises % adjustment*
Brazilian Real (BRL) 12% 12%
British Pound (GBP) -5% to -6% None

* Percentage changes for individual SKUs might vary slightly from these percentages due to pricing calculations and rounding rules.

Next steps

  • Review the December 2024 Partner Launch Calendar, monthly newsletter, and register for upcoming Community Q&A calls.

Price values are now visible in the Partner Center checkout experience

Beginning November 28, 2024, partners who purchase offers in the Partner Center portal can review prices prior to checkout.

  • Date: December 2, 2024
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: All Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partners

Partners can see columns for Unit Price (that align with the price sheet) and Total Price (price accounting for license quantity, end-date proration, and promotions) on the Review cart page. Prices are reflected across New Commerce Experience offers, including license-based subscriptions, software subscriptions, perpetual software, marketplace offers, and modern Azure.

Partners can view prices to ensure the prices are as expected before completing their checkout in the UX portal. This update enables partners who use the portal to verify price attributes that were previously only available by way of Cart APIs.

Next Steps

Flexible billing for Microsoft 365 Copilot now available

Monthly billing plan option for annual subscriptions of Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales, and Microsoft 365 Copilot for Services is now available in CSP.

  • Date: December 2, 2024
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: All Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partners

On November 12, 2024, we announced several commercial licensing and pricing updates. These updates include the introduction of a new monthly billing plan for annual subscriptions of Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales, and Microsoft 365 Copilot for Service on the new commerce platform starting December 1, 2024. This new monthly billing option for annual subscriptions is priced 5% higher than the annual billing (upfront payment) option for annual subscription plans for Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales, and Microsoft 365 Copilot for Services.*

* There might be slight variations in price due to exchange rate fluctuations, local pricing policies, and rounding rules.

Key resources

Next steps

  • Read the blog post by Nicole Dezen, Chief Partner Officer and Corporate Vice President, Global Partner Solutions, on this announcement.
  • Review the partner FAQ and the resources on Modern Work for partners - Microsoft 365 Copilot CSP to understand this new option.
  • Inform customers of the new monthly billing option for annual subscription of Microsoft 365 Copilot for pricing flexibility.
  • Leverage the 15% promo (10-license minimum) with the monthly billing option for annual subscriptions to position the Getting Started offer and land Microsoft 365 Copilot with customers.