As an indirect reseller you can take advantage of the ability to offer Microsoft online services while outsourcing billing and support to your CSP indirect provider. Working with an indirect provider has several benefits. They can help you start selling sooner, expand your portfolio, and lower your costs. If you know this is the model for you, follow these three steps and get started!
- Join the Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) and get an ID number you’ll use to enrol in CSP
- Enrol your business in the CSP program as an indirect reseller
- Connect with an indirect provider who can help you with support and billing
- Accept a partnership invitation from your indirect provider
An indirect reseller needs to sign the MPA before the reseller can participate in the following activities:
- Before an indirect provider can associate the indirect reseller’s MPN ID to a new CSP subscription
- Before an indirect provider can transact new business with that reseller
Indirect resellers need to do three things before they can transact new business in the Cloud Solution Provider program:
- Onboard into Partner Center
- Enrol as an indirect reseller
- Sign the Microsoft Partner Agreement (MPA)
Your company’s location determines your market. Your market includes the regions and/or countries where you can sell CSP offers. See Cloud Solution Provider program regional markets and currencies for the complete list of CSP markets and currencies. Before you can order CSP offers on behalf of a customer, the customer must sign the Microsoft Customer Agreement. You can find the applicable agreement for your customer’s location at Microsoft Customer Agreements by region and language.
The information you see in Partner Center depends on your role and permissions. Learn more in Roles and permissions.
- Manage your account
You get link your company’s work account to your new Partner Center account. The link enables your account users to sign into Partner Center with their work account usernames and passwords.
Link: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/partner-center/azure-active-directory-tenants-and-partner-center - To work in Partner Center, you must first verify ownership of your domain and become a global admin for your company. In addition, your employees will not have been assigned the roles necessary to begin working. To work in the Partner Center everyone needs to have a role, which includes permissions, assigned to them.
Link: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/partner-center/become-global-admin - Connect with customers
Link: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/partner-center/see-your-customer-list - Build relationships with other partners
- Enrol in incentive programs
- Manage your membership in the Microsoft Partner Network
The Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) gives you the widest range of products in the industry and program options to differentiate your business, go to market, and sell your solutions. Join at no cost, then choose how to invest in your partnership with a Microsoft action pack, starter kit, or competency.
Link: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/partner-center/mpn-overview
- Manage customer subscriptions
Link: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/partner-center/create-a-new-subscription
- Bill and get paid
- Contact support
Link: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/partner-center/support-from-microsoft
- Microsoft 365
- Azure Subscription
- Perpetual Licenses
- Server Subscription
- The easiest way to add user accounts is to add them one at a time in the Microsoft 365 admin center. After you do this step, your users have Microsoft 365 licenses, sign in credentials, and Microsoft 365 mailboxes.
- Go to the admin center at https://admin.microsoft.com
- Go to Users > Active users and select Add a user.
- In the Set up the basics pane, fill in the basic user information, and then select Next.
- Name
- Domain
- Password settings
You first have to create a tenant
Link: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/create-users-and-groups-in-azure-active-directory/3-exercise-add-delete-users-azure-ad
- In the Azure AD organization you created, in the left menu pane, under Manage, select Users. The All-users pane appears.
- In the top menu bar, select new user
- Enter the following values for each setting.
- Identity
Username: chris@contosomarketingXXXXXX.onmicrosoft.com. The domain name should match the primary domain you copied in the previous section.
Name: Chris Green - Password
- Then select Create
- In the admin center, go to the Users > Active users page.
- Select the circles next to the names of the users that you want to assign licenses to.
- At the top, select Manage product licenses.
- In the Manage product licenses pane, select Assign more: Keep the existing licenses and assign more > Next.
- Under Licenses, select the box for the license(s) that you want the selected users to have.
By default, all services associated with those licenses are automatically assigned to the users. You can limit which services are available to the users. Deselect the boxes for the services that you don’t want the users to have. - At the bottom of the pane, select Save changes.
- Customer
- Select Customers from your Partner Center menu and locate the customer you want to manage
- Select the down arrow at the end of the row to expand the customer’s record and then select Microsoft Azure Management Portal. You will be directed to the Azure portal where you can manage the customer’s subscriptions.
- From the Azure portal, select Subscriptions.
- Select the subscription you would like to assign, then select Access Control.
- Select Add to add a user to the subscription.
- After you add the user to the subscription, you can assign the user a role and the specific account that user will have access to.
- Go to your customer’s detail page, and then select Software. You’ll see a list of all the software you’ve purchased on behalf of the customer.
- Choose product version, language, bit, and select Get keys and downloads.
- Choose Get Key which will display the 32-digit product in a pop-up dialogue which you can copy and send to the customer.
- Choose Download to download the bits.
- Choose Copy Link if you want to send the customer the link to the bits downloads.
- You can also Cancel the software order and receive 100% credit (if done within the 30 days cancellation policy period).
- From your customer’s detail page, and then select Software. You’ll see a list of all the software you’ve purchased on behalf of the customer.
- Choose product version, language, bit, and select Get keys and downloads.
- Choose Get Key to display the 32-digit product in a pop-up dialog box, which you can copy and send to the customer.
- Choose Download to download the bits.
- Choose Copy Link if you want to send the customer the link to the bits downloads.
- You can also Cancel the software order and receive 100% credit (if done within the 30-day cancellation policy period).
If your registrar doesn’t support adding TXT records, you can verify by adding an MX record.
- Sign in to the Microsoft 365 admin center and select Show all > Settings > Domains.
- In a new browser tab or window, sign in to your DNS hosting provider, and then find where you manage your DNS settings (e.g., Zone File Settings, Manage Domains, Domain Manager, DNS Manager).
- Go to your provider’s DNS Manager page, and add the MX record indicated in the admin center to your domain.
Make sure that the fields are set to the following values:
- Record Type: MX
- Priority: Set to any large value not used already.
- Host Name: @
- Points to address: Copy the value from the admin center and paste it here.
- TTL: 3600 (or your provider default)
Introducing partners to the Technical Pre-Sales and Deployment (TPD) services available within Microsoft, in case you may not have heard of them.
The TPD team can offers technical consultations to you as a Microsoft partner/reseller since you have already attained Silver Competency status. These consultations include;
- Technical Presales Consultations
- Deployment Consultations
- Marketplace Consultations