There is some functionality in Partner Centre, that I used a lot when I was part of the Operations Team, that I think some partners may find useful. One option can be particularly handy if you have customers have access to the portal and manage their own licensing, Activity logs.
Once you’ve logged into MS Partner Centre, from any screen/window, you can click on the little blue circle in the top right corner of the screen, a new window will appear on the righthand half of the screen.
If you then click on the My profile writing in blue, a whole new part of Partner Centre appears.
Much of the information is pertinent to just your profile, what access you have, links to your learning profile, your access and what you can do with that access, etc.
There’s also information on the Organisation’s profile, who owns this Partner Centre Account and other information that most of you may not use.
But I particularly want to draw your attention to the Activity Log blade. Do note that you need to have the appropriate access to view this functionality.
This is a little gem, hidden away in the most unexpected place, you wouldn’t think to look for it under your profile information, but it can be very useful. This information is not restricted to your own activity but all that relates to your partner centre, which is why I think Global Admin credentials is required.
To be honest, I’m not sure if this functionality will be affected by GDAP, but I don’t see that it will be, as information can be restricted by what’s actually, published in the activity log data. In some cases, you may need to have some idea of what information you’re looking for. As you can see in the example detailed below, I deleted a user from a tenant, but as there is no listing of the tenant name and I think this is because the licensing is direct, it was a trial license so the Partner Centre account couldn’t track that detail, but as I was able to delete the user from within Partner Centre, it logged that change and who made it. So, you can see that that information could be helpful should someone question what was done, by whom and when.
This will tell you what has been done by who in your Partner Centre account. Wahoo you may think, but bear with me here…ONLY if you have all your team accessing customers Admin Centre accounts, through Partner Centre, will the information then be logged here.
If your team are using GA accounts to access partners admin centres, this won’t be logged here of course, but if technicians use Partner Centre the way it’s intended, it’s not only more secure but there is tracking. The limitation, there’s always limitations, is that the activity logs only go back 90 days, searching only on a maximin date range of 30 days.
The other information here, that you may require in the future:
MPN IDs.
If you’re ordering licensing, or are asked for the company MPN ID, you don’t need to ask anyone. They’re all here for you to gain quick access too.
NOTE: Identifiers – The location MPN ID should always be used for your CSP licensing NOT the Global ID.
Don’t be scared to have a look, it’s sensible to get familiar with Partner Centre and understand your access and limitations within the environment. There’s a chance that it could make some aspects of your job easier or hold a wee nugget of information that’s helpful.
But reading between the lines, Microsoft is subtly hinting that partners should be using Partner Centre and the different workspaces, reporting and tools to manage your customer base, membership, incentives, etc. They are investing in these facilities, so I urge you to look and start taking advantage of them.
If you don’t have access, ask, explain why to the people that manage your Partner Centre account, the options for access are many and you can gain some real insights into the business, what customers to target and managing your customers.
Do let us know if there are features within Partner Centre that you would like to know better, we are happy to look at all requests and see how we can help you.
Be well.
Carol
