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June 2024 announcements

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

Monthly Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program update: What's new for Solutions Partner designations, specializations, and other Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program offerings and benefits

Important capabilities, offers, and updates have been introduced to improve the way partners can further differentiate their deep technical expertise across a set of priority scenarios with high customer demand.

  • Date: June 28, 2024
  • Workspace: Membership
  • Impacted audience: Partners enrolled in the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program

Available now

  • Solutions Partner* with certified software** designation now generally available - Apply today and get a 50% subsidy for the audit process for a limited time.

Microsoft is subsidizing the application fees for the recently launched Solutions Partner* with certified software** designations. For independent software vendors (ISVs), certified software designations provide an opportunity to become Solutions Partners within the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program and to better connect with customers and to unlock additional benefits from Microsoft. These designations differentiate partners' software solutions in areas of high demand and help customers identify trusted solutions. Solutions Partner* with certified software** designations will be available for qualifying cloud software solutions.

When partners become a Solutions Partner* with certified software**, they signify to customers that their solution meets technical criteria for interoperability with the Microsoft Cloud and that it demonstrates a proven track record of customer success. All partners can now sign in to partner center in the Referrals workspace to check their progress, apply for the designations, and unlock the new benefits. To receive a subsidy - offered on a first-come, first-served basis and for a limited time - you must apply through Partner Center and begin the audit process with our independent third-party auditing partner.

  • Infrastructure and Migration specialization audit update for renewing partners

Based on feedback that we received from partners; we adjusted the audit requirements and added an alternate path for eligible partners seeking to renew their specialization where an audit is required. Review the audit checklist for specifics regarding this update. If you have questions regarding the audit, reach out to azureas@microsoft.com.

What's coming

  • Business Central certification in skilling for Business Applications partner capability score certification is added to the partner capability score this end of June for Business Applications. Any partner who attains, or already attained the certification earns points in the skilling subcategory for advanced certifications. Learn more about the certifications for the Business Applications solution area today.

  • Azure bulk credits modernization: Partner Center grants Azure credits benefit to partners upon the purchase of partner program offers such as Microsoft Action Pack, Legacy Silver, Legacy Gold, Solutions partner designation, etc. The current Azure credits benefit redemption process is complex. The modernization project simplifies the redemption process by eliminating the current process of assigning Azure credits to individuals. Instead, the modernization project allows partners to do a direct deposit of Azure credits on their organization's billing account with MCA agreement and billing profile on the new commerce stack. This feature will be generally available by September 2024.

  • Analytics on Microsoft Azure specialization: The Skilling requirements for the Analytics specialization are being updated to include the Fabric Analytics Engineer Associate (DP-600) certification. This is replacing the current Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305) certification. The number of individuals to pass these certifications is also increasing from 3 to 5, and each must be held by at least two individuals. These changes will be effective in July 2024. Partners currently enrolled in the Analytics specialization will be given a grace period until December 31, 2024 to meet these new knowledge criteria, allowing for minimal impact to the current renewal window of 2024. Come 2025, partners are expected to meet the new requirements to renew.

  • Business Intelligence specialization: The Skilling requirements for the Business Intelligence specialization are being updated to include the Fabric Analytics Engineer Associate (DP-600) certification. The Azure Enterprise Data Analyst Associate (DP-500) certification was retired April 30, 2024. If the DP-500 exam was already passed prior to the retirement date, partners can count that toward the Skilling requirements, or move forward with passing the new DP-600 exam. There's no change to any of the other requirements as written. These changes will be effective in July 2024. Partners currently enrolled in the Business Intelligence specialization will be given a grace period until December 31, 2024 to meet these new knowledge criteria allowing for minimal impact to the current renewal window of 2024. Come 2025, partners are expected to meet the new requirements to renew.

  • Data Warehouse Migration to Microsoft Azure specialization: The Skilling requirements for the Data Warehouse Migration specialization are being updated to include the Fabric Analytics Engineer Associate (DP-600) certification. This is replacing the current Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305) certification. The number of individuals to pass these certifications is also increasing from 3 to 5, and each must be held by at least 2 individuals. These changes will be effective in July 2024. Partners currently enrolled in the Data Warehouse Migration specialization will be given a grace period until December 31, 2024 to meet these new knowledge criteria allowing for minimal impact to the current renewal window of 2024. Come 2025, partners will be expected to meet the new requirements to renew.

  • Teamwork Deployment specialization: The Skilling requirements for the Teamwork Deployment specialization are being updated to remove the retired Messaging Administrator Associate (MS-203) certification. The number of individuals to pass the remaining Teams Administrator Associate (MS-700) certification is also increasing from 2 to 4. These changes will be effective in July 2024. Partners currently enrolled in the Teamwork Deployment specialization will be given a grace period until December 31, 2024 to meet these new knowledge criteria, allowing for minimal impact to the current renewal window of 2024. Come 2025, partners will be expected to meet the new requirements to renew.

  • Supply Chain specialization: The Skilling requirements for the Supply Chain specialization are being updated to include the Dynamics 365: Finance and Operations Apps Developer Associate (MB-500) and the Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management Functional Consultant Expert (MB-335) certifications. The Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, Manufacturing Functional Consultant Associate (MB-320) certification was retired June 30, 2023 and will now be removed. Each of the four certifications must be held by at least one individual. These changes will be effective in July 2024. Partners currently enrolled in the Supply Chain specialization will be given a grace period until December 31, 2024 to meet these new knowledge criteria, allowing for minimal impact to the current renewal window of 2024. Come 2025, partners are expected to meet the new requirements to renew.

  • Low Code and SMB specializations data migration: The Low Code and SMB specializations are being aligned to the official data feeds used by Partner Center for the Business Applications Solutions Partner Designation and all other Business Applications specializations. As of June 24, 2024, these two specializations moved from the custom data sources used today for the Performance and App Source metrics to the same data sources as Solutions Partner Designation and all other specializations. This change will impact the Performance and App Source metrics for some partners who have achieved or are working toward achieving the Low Code and SMB specializations. Partners who were meeting the Performance and/or App Source requirements prior to the data migration will be given an override for the requirements they met before the update when enrolling or applying for renewal to these specializations before December 31, 2024.

Reminders

  • If you're renewing an Azure specialization for the second year, then an audit will be required for re-enrollment. Review the updated checklist and plan accordingly. You'll be able to start scheduling your audits 60 days ahead of your anniversary date for the specialization.

  • If you're renewing your Modern Work specialization or Security specialization for the second year, then customer references will be required for re-enrollment. Start to prep these references ahead of your anniversary date. You'll be able to load your customer references into Partner Center 60 days ahead of the anniversary date of the specialization.

  • Microsoft moved all partner program transactions to the new commerce platform.

Next steps

Expanded availability for Copilot for Microsoft 365

Microsoft continues to invest in expanding Copilot for Microsoft 365 availability to reach more customers. We have extended eligibility for customers with standalone plans to purchase Copilot for Microsoft 365.

  • Date: June 24, 2024
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: All Partners transacting Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365

What’s new:

As of June 12, the following standalone commercial plans are added to the existing qualifying prerequisites for Copilot for Microsoft 365:

  • Microsoft 365 Apps for Business
  • Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise
  • Microsoft Teams Essentials
  • Microsoft Teams Enterprise
  • Microsoft Teams EEA (European Economic Area)
  • Exchange Kiosk
  • Exchange Plan 1
  • Exchange Plan 2
  • SharePoint Plan 1
  • SharePoint Plan 2
  • OneDrive for Business Plan 1
  • OneDrive for Business Plan 2
  • Microsoft Planner Plan 1 (formerly Project Plan 1)
  • Microsoft Project Plan 3
  • Microsoft Project Plan 5
  • Project Online Essentials
  • Visio Plan 1
  • Visio Plan 2
  • Microsoft ClipChamp

‌Users licensed with one of the plans in this list and Copilot for Microsoft 365 will be able to use all the Copilot capabilities available within the apps and services included with that plan.

Details and complete list of eligible SKUs will be available soon.

Next steps

Review the Copilot blog and Copilot for Work site today!

Now live! Partner Center Technical Corner blog series: June 2024 edition

The June edition of the Partner Center Technical Corner blog is live! This edition spotlights Solutions Partner designations and securing the channel, followed by a summary of recent releases.

  • Date: June 18, 2024
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: All partners

The June edition covers:

  • Spotlight: Solutions Partner with certified software designations
  • Spotlight: securing the channel
  • Recently released
    • New commerce Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partner-to-partner transfers
    • Rewarding partner performance with two new incentives
    • Membership - Independent software vendor (ISV) Success renewals
    • Insights for multiparty private offers
    • Account settings and Action Center
    • Services partner co-sell
  • Partner Center roadmap and resources

Previous editions

Next steps

Migrate to Enhanced CSP Billing Reconciliation APIs by September 30, 2024

The new Asynchronous API for billing reconciliation in Partner Center is now live. Partners must migrate to this improved API by September 30, 2024, to ensure uninterrupted service.

  • Date: June 18, 2024
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: CSP direct bill and indirect providers who access and use billing APIs in Partner Center.

As previously announced, we introduced a new Asynchronous API (asynchronous v2 APIs) for billing reconciliation in Partner Center in March 2024. This API offers faster download times and reduces latency, especially when handling large data volumes. Partners must migrate to this new API by September 30, 2024, to help avoid disruption in service.

The new Asynchronous API is a result of partner feedback and is part of our commitment to improving the Partner Center experience. These are the four APIs affected by this change:

API Name Version Partner Center Link
Get invoice line items API V1 Get invoice line items
Invoicing and reconciliation v2 API (beta) V2 Invoicing and reconciliation API v2 (beta
Get invoice billed commercial consumption line items V1 Get invoice billed commercial consumption line items
Get invoice unbilled commercial consumption line items V1 Get invoice's unbilled reconciliation line items

The migration process involves updating your code to use the new APIs, following the documentation on the Partner Center portal. The legacy APIs will be retired on September 30, 2024.

The newest API is currently only available for the Microsoft Graph public/global cloud. The newest API is not yet available for Azure Government or Azure China 21Vianet.

Next steps

Partners must migrate to this new API by September 30, 2024, to help avoid disruption in service.

  • Share this information with your organization. We added this to the CSP launch calendar so you can stay informed.
  • Review the documentation for how to migrate to the new Asynchronous API.
Resources

Questions

We encourage you to use the readiness resources listed in this announcement.

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

Your Microsoft Operations Team

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: June 17, 2024
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: Direct bill partners, indirect providers, and indirect resellers transacting through the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program and with advisors.

Last November, we announced our Secure Future Initiative (SFI), which brought every part of Microsoft together to combat the increasing scale and sophistication of cyberattacks and advance cybersecurity protection across new products and legacy infrastructures. For more detailed information, read Charlie Bell’s recent blog post. "We're making security our top priority at Microsoft, above all else - over all other features" and as a result, we're implementing immediate and future changes that have the potential to affect some of our partners, and in some instances with little notice. In the next few days and months, we'll send notifications that might require you to act quickly to help close security vulnerabilities.

MFA implementation

Starting July 2024, Microsoft is requiring Multifactor authentication (MFA) for all Azure users.

Available now

  • Security workspace in Partner Center: Your company's Admin Agent is able to access the Security workspace in Partner Center. This workspace helps partners evaluate their security situation and take the required actions to enhance their security posture. The workspace makes the user experience easier, provide learning resources, and serve as a single place for all security-related matters in Partner Center.
  • View expired global delegated access permissions (GDAPs) in “Expiring Granular Relationships” page: Partners can now view the details of GDAPs that expired over the past year in the Expiring Granular Relationships page and can create new GDAP relationships with the customer if necessary.

Coming soon

Releasing newer version of Security Alert API: Microsoft Graph Security Alerts API V1 (full) version will be released on July 31, 2024, providing a unified API gateway across Microsoft services. CSP partners must start to use this new API, as the existing Azure fraud notification API will be deprecated by the end of 2024. The preview (beta) version of the Microsoft Graph Security Alerts API was made available on May 31, 2024.

GDAP Expiration Summary Emails notifications: Starting June 16, 2024, CSP partners will no longer receive separate email notifications for each GDAP that has expired or is about to expire. Instead, you'll receive summary email notifications every 15 days with a link to the Expiring Granular Relationships dashboard. You can apply various filters and take appropriate actions, such as extending the active GDAP.

Reminders

Next steps

  1. Review the securing the channel journey map to navigate the transformational journey for partners to Zero Trust.
  2. Strengthen your security posture and navigate the evolving threat landscape with Microsoft cybersecurity tools and resources.
  3. Sign up for dedicated CSP Technical Training to have your queries answered by subject matter experts.
  4. Find guidance and resources in securing the partner and customer ecosystems partner readiness gallery.

Upcoming CSP price list improvements for license-based services

Microsoft is enhancing the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) new commerce experience (NCE) with updates to the license-based services price lists.

  • Date: June 17, 2024
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) direct-bill partners, CSP indirect providers, Control Panel Vendors (CPVs)

Following on from the recent change to the Legacy Microsoft Reserved Instances price list, Microsoft is enhancing the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) new commerce experience (NCE) with updates to the license-based services price list.

The new features, which are targeted for the end of the third quarter (Q3) of the calendar year 2024, will include the implementation of a change indicator to identify whether items are being added, changed, or deleted. Additionally, end-of-sale (EOS) pricing will be rolled out to enable partners to access pricing for products that are still renewable but no longer available for net-new purchase.

Change indicator

Microsoft will introduce a net-new column into the Final Price List (FPL) of the NCE license-based services price list called A/C/D/U. This new column will be the first column in the updated NCE license-based services price list, and it will contain one of four possible values:

  • Add: If a new product SKU is identified for a specific market/segment
  • Change: If a product SKU is present in the new price list/specific market/segment as well as the previous price list published and if a product SKU has changed within ANY of the price list values
  • Delete (for midmonth republication only): If a price list is republished midmonth to fix an error
  • Unchanged: If a product SKU has no changes within the price list values

These values will enable partners using the UI experience to quickly filter by changes month over month. Make sure that any automation you utilize for ingestion of the price list spreadsheet is prepared to handle this extra column and its associated values.

In addition to the inclusion of the column within the price list itself, we're also making this feature available via API. Both the UX and API experiences will support a price list in the current format (without the A/C/D/U column) and a price list with the net-new column for three months. After three months, all NCE license-based services price lists will incorporate the A/C/D/U column. This feature will be an improvement upon the legacy license-based change indicator, by also highlighting SKU name changes as a Change.

End-of-sale (EOS) pricing

Microsoft will introduce EOS pricing for the NCE license-based services price list. This net-new feature will enable partners to fetch pricing for products that are still renewable but no longer available for net-new purchase.

This EOS pricing feature won't break your current processes, and CSP partners can adopt it once it's generally available when it suits their organization. The EOS pricing feature will be available via the Partner Center UX only initially, with API support planned as a later release.

For more information on what an EOS product is, see Manage EOS offers.

We'll update the CSP Partner Launch Calendar to keep you informed to help you prepare for this.

Next steps

Resources

Questions?

For questions or to receive clarification on pricing, offer availability and upgrades, migrations, and conversions, create a support request in Partner Center.

Introducing Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partner-to-partner (P2P) subscription transfers for new commerce experience (NCE) seat-based subscriptions.

P2P is now live. Authorized partners selling new commerce CSP subscriptions can now transfer new commerce license-based subscriptions from one partner to another.

  • Date: June 13, 2024
  • Workspace: Customers
  • Impacted audience: CSP direct-bill partners, indirect providers, and indirect resellers

We're pleased to introduce a new capability that is now live and allows CSP direct-bill partners and indirect providers to transfer CSP NCE license-based subscriptions from one partner to another. This update extends the existing Azure plan functionality and is based on valuable feedback from our partner community.

CSP direct-bill partners and indirect providers can now transfer customer subscriptions midterm to new or different partners. Partners may need to transfer subscriptions due to mergers and acquisitions, regulatory requirements that necessitate a transfer, business dissolution, consolidation of billing within the same CSP authorized region, and partner offboarding.

Next steps

Resources

Questions?

We encourage you to take advantage of the readiness resources available to you and listed. However, if you need help outside of the readiness available or have issues with using the capability, raise a support ticket through Partner Center.

June 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, along with CSP community resources that provide you with essential program updates.

  • Date: June 12, 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 can 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, 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.

Viva Glint will be generally available through Cloud Solution Providers (CSPs) on July 1, 2024

Viva Glint is now available to transact through Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partners. To ensure a quality data experience, the minimum seat purchase requirement is 50 seats.

  • Date: June 1, 2024
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: CSP partners transacting Viva Glint, Modern Work CSP partners

Viva Glint will be generally available across all sales channels, as we launch Viva Glint for Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) on July 1, 2024.

Commercial customers can purchase the standalone Viva Glint SKU across all sales channels - CSP, EA, MCA-E, EAS, and direct from Microsoft online.

Viva Glint is already available as part of the Viva Suite SKU and the Viva Glint charity SKU is available for qualifying customers.

The minimum seat purchase requirement for Viva Glint is 50 seats. Customers must also have a base Entra SKU to deploy Viva Glint. Viva Glint is an enterprise-wide product so the license count should be equal to the number of users in Viva Glint.

For full Viva Glint SKU information, CSP partners can view the updated price list.

Viva Glint success relies on advisory and people science services. Ideal partners have experience in employee engagement consulting, human capital, people advisory consulting, or consulting to HR and leadership teams. Partners with experience in complementary Viva Apps, such as Insights, can also expand their practice by enabling their team on Viva Glint.

Make sure to use the resources in the Next steps section of the January announcement: Copilot for Microsoft 365 now generally available through Cloud Solution Providers (CSPs) to start defining your strategy and operationalizing your sales engine today.

Next steps

Launching Extended Security Updates (ESUs) for SQL Server 2014

On June 1, 2024, volume licensing SKUs of Extended Security Updates for SQL Server 2014 become available in the CSP catalog.

  • Date: June 1, 2024
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: CSP partners, CSP-Hosters, and SPLA partners

ESU Year 1 for SQL Server 2014 starts on July 10, 2024, and ends on July 8, 2025. Purchases made before July 10, 2024, will be billed in the billing period of purchase. The coverage of ESU will be available starting on July 10, 2024, and will extend past the purchase period until July 8, 2025.

Next steps

To learn more, see the May announcement.