If you haven’t started thinking about making the switch to Microsoft's new commerce experience for Azure, the time to plan is now. In Microsoft's latest announcement, there will be a three-phased approach to retire the previous Azure offer on CSP and transition all Azure business to the new Azure plan offer.
You don’t have to go through the transition alone! We’re here to act as your trusted advisor
This most likely isn’t the first time you’re hearing about Microsoft’s initiative to drive innovation and digitally transform the CSP program, but before we go into the important upcoming changes and what this means for you, let’s quickly review the new commerce experience.
First, what is Microsoft’s New Commerce Experience?
Microsoft has been working over the years to try and simplify their licensing and programs that are offered to both partners and end users. Currently there are at least 6 different ways depending on the size and requirement for the end user and Microsoft’s aim is to get this reduced to 3 Go-To-Market channels, named The New Commerce Experience (also known as Modern). Microsoft have started the route to ‘Modern’ with Azure services changing from legacy to plan and the announcement in January 2021 of the Open Licensing retirement and moving this to CSP. If you want to dive deeper on Microsoft Commerce Experience check out this blog here.
So, what does Microsoft’s latest announcement mean for Microsoft partners on Azure?
Microsoft has announced the plan to retire the previous Azure offer on CSP in three phases to allow partners time to incorporate the new Azure features with their services and transition their customers.
Phase one began in July 2021, which stated all new Azure CSP business will be on the new Azure plan offer within the new commerce experience. So, what does this mean and what about the final two phases?
Let’s break it down.
- Phase 1- July 21, 2021: All new Azure business in the Cloud Solution Provider program will transact on the new commerce platform via the Azure plan offer.
- For all new Azure business, partners can only transact the new Azure offer (Azure Plan).
- For all currently transacting Azure business in CSP:
- If the customer has already purchased the legacy Azure offer, the partner may continue to transact, and the customer may continue to purchase the legacy Azure offer from that partner.
- If the customer has never purchased Azure before, the partner may only transact, and customer may only purchase the new Azure offer from that partner.
- Phase 2- In 2022, Microsoft will announce the removal of incentives and partner margin on the previous Azure offer.
- From then on, incentives will only be available through the new Azure offer (Azure Plan) sold through the new commerce experience.
- Phase 3- The final phase will include the removal of the availability of the legacy Azure offer in the Cloud Solution Provider program for existing partners and customers. All remaining customers on the previous Azure offer will be migrated to the new Azure plan in the Cloud Solution Provider program. The start date is unconfirmed, but will be communicated by Microsoft six months in advance.
For full details on the changes, read more here.
Don't Miss out on Microsoft Incentives!
Not only is achieving Microsoft Gold Partner status the best way to demonstrate your expertise, but it also means you will not miss future incentives from Microsoft. As a Gold Cloud Platform Partner, by transitioning your customers to an Azure Plan, you will start to earn an immediate 4% rebate for Azure Plan consumption under the Microsoft Commerce Incentive (MCI), providing you are enrolled in the incentive. From 1st October 2021, when the incentives reset, it has now been confirmed that Silver Cloud Platform Partners, will also be eligible to earn the 4% rebate for Azure Plan consumption via the MCI incentive. So its important that you move your customers to Azure Plan now, if you hold a Silver or Gold Cloud Platform competency.
What are the next steps?
Good News – you don’t have to go through the transition alone! We’re here to act as your trusted advisor to help you land the Azure Plan with new and existing customers to ensure a smooth transition and adoption of the modern Azure Plan offer.
But before we get started there are a few things you should familiarise yourself with:
- Review the partner earned credit (PEC) model here
- Differentiate your business by attaining Microsoft Gold competency here
- Ready to get started? We have a Azure Legacy to Azure Plan Transition request form here
- Watch back the Azure Legacy to Azure Plan Transition webinar with our Azure Business Manager, Darren Climie-Newman here
