In exciting news Microsoft has recently announced they are introducing the ability to transfer subscriptions between partners including across indirect providers and from/to direct partners. This will happen sometime next quarter (so April to June).

 

Why Transfer Subscriptions?

Sometimes, customers may want to switch from one CSP partner to another for various reasons, such as better pricing, service quality, or customer satisfaction. In the past, this process was complicated and required customers to cancel their existing subscriptions and purchase new ones from the new partner. This could result in service disruption, data loss, and administrative hassle and double costs unless they wait until the end of the annual commit term.

 

What are the Benefits?

The new ability to transfer subscriptions from one CSP partner to another offers several benefits for both customers and partners, such as:

  • Customers can easily switch to a partner that meets their needs and expectations without losing their service or data.
  • Partners can attract new customers and retain existing ones by offering competitive pricing and value-added services.

 

How to Transfer Subscriptions?

Microsoft is introducing a new feature that allows CSP indirect providers and direct bill partners to transfer subscriptions from one partner to another without affecting the customer's service or data. This feature is available for all CSP license subscription types (does not include Software Subscription or Perpetual licenses at this time and nothing changes for the current process for Azure). To transfer subscriptions, the following steps are required:

  • The customer must initiate the transfer request by contacting the new partner and providing their tenant ID and subscription IDs. For partners who transact through an Indirect Provider such as Dicker Data, then the partner would contact the Indirect Provider to initiate the transfer via their Partner Centre.
  • Not every subscription in a tenant needs to be transferred as a customer may have multiple partners (i.e. a modern work partner and a Dynamics partner)
  • The new Indirect Provider or Direct Bill partner must accept the transfer request and verify the customer's identity and consent.
  • If the transfer request isn’t approved within 30 days it will be cancelled by the system. In the case of an Indirect Provider this would be confirmed with the old partner prior to approving.
  • The transfer will be completed within 24 hours and the customer and partner will receive a confirmation email.

image-png-Mar-28-2024-03-45-29-0012-AM

image-png-Mar-28-2024-03-45-47-5758-AM

 

 

What about Payments and Incentives?

There’s been a lot of discussion around Microsoft’s proposed way of dealing with this. The way they say it will work is:

  • For any part of the current term that has been invoiced to the old partner, this will be credited and the remainder of the term invoiced to the new partner
  • The new partner won’t get incentives for a “customer add” (Modern Work) as they are not considered new in this case.

It’s still a work in progress from Microsoft at this stage and we don’t have a finalised release date or finalised details. Things could also change between now and final release. We will update you as we learn more.