With the CSP, Microsoft has finally set up cloud in a way that most partners want to sell it and in a way that customers seem to want to buy it.
1 2 3 4
“
The opportunity ahead for Microsoft is vast, but to seize it, we must focus clearly, move faster, and continue to transform.” So said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on his appointment as CEO, but he could just as well have been referring to the company’ s Cloud Solution Provider( CSP) programme.
Introduced in 2014, the CSP programme enables Microsoft partners to sell Microsoft Office 365 along with other cloud applications such as Microsoft Azure, Dynamics CRM Online, Enterprise Mobility Suite and Microsoft Intune under one bill.
One of the big news items at Microsoft’ s 2015 Worldwide Partner Conference( WPC) was the introduction of new rules regarding its CSP programme, delivering a platform for partners to own the end-to-end customer engagement by enabling them to directly provision, bill, and support Microsoft Cloud Services for their customers.
Although Microsoft has historically offered the Advisor and Open cloud programmes, the CSP programme was a substantial move towards enabling the channel, and changed the way Microsoft interacts with the majority of its partners on the products that it considers most strategic to its future.
Microsoft states that in a cloud-based world, partners want to own the customer relationship, service the complete customer lifecycle and attach partner services. To this end, it says that its CSP programme enables partners to set the price, the terms and directly bill customers, directly provision and manage subscriptions, and be the first point of contact for customer support.
Partners have always had concerns that Microsoft would use a direct billing relationship to upsell and cross-sell services to their customers, cutting the partner out. Controlling the customer billing therefore is an important issue for many partners. Having the bill to the customer go directly from the partner to the customer, rather than from Microsoft to the customer, means that partners have much greater control of the margin. It’ s not all roses for the partners though – responsibility for customer support now resides with the partner, whereas in the past this was something which was handled by Microsoft.
As Scott Bekker writes on Redmond Channel Partner,“ With the CSP, Microsoft has finally set up cloud in a way that most partners want to sell it and in a way that customers seem to want to buy it.”
Due to Microsoft’ s size, as well as the ubiquity of its product portfolio, experts predict partner participation as well as its attendant revenue to grow rapidly, and indeed there has been a substantial partner take-up, aided no doubt by the scale of the rollout – Microsoft has made the programme available in over 130 countries globally.
Prominent CSP signups so far have included the likes of major global market players like Ingram Micro, Crayon, Synnex, Insight and many others, testifying to the depth and recognition of the programme.
First Distribution is now joining those esteemed companies, proudly bringing cloud channel enablement to Africa at long last.
Exciting times for channel partners await.
“
With the CSP, Microsoft has finally set up cloud in a way that most partners want to sell it and in a way that customers seem to want to buy it.
”
Set the price, the terms and directly bill customers
Directly provision and manage subscriptions
Be the first point of contact for customer support
1 2 3 4
13 | www. firstdistribution. co. za