Microsoft is aiming to put partners firmly in the centre of cloud transactions with some new program strategies announced at World Partner Conference (WPC).
The Cloud Solutions Provider Program will initially be constrained to Office 365 and InTune and will be limited to a small number of pilot partners in the first few months.
The program gives partners 100 percent of the "customer lifecycle", including billing, provisioning and support.
John Case, Microsoft's corporate vice president, Office Division, called it "a true cloud reseller program", as he revealed details of the new program to an audience of some 16,000 partners who had packed out the Verizon Centre in DC for three hours of opening keynotes.
"In the program, you will be able to directly provision customers subscriptions and provide one monthly bill – and you will own the technical support relationship."
Case said that Microsoft's intent is for every new Office 365, Azure or Dynamics customer to have a partner attached.
It will represent a marked change from the original go-to-market strategy for Office 365 in Australia, where all sales for accounts under 250 seats had to go through exclusive syndication partner Telstra.
Phil Goldie, Microsoft Australia's new director of partner, told CRN that the program changes followed market feedback.
"The billing relationship has been a constant piece of feedback across all different types of cloud services. It is not about just a margin or monetisation issue, it is about owning the customer relationship. Partners want to show they can provide the service as part of an overall value-add for the client."
The Cloud Solutions Provider Program will roll out progressively for Office 365 for a small number of partners worldwide over the next two months, "then we want to scale that out significantly" over the coming fiscal year, said Goldie.
Azure gets Open
Microsoft has also brought Azure onto the Open licensing mechanism, which Goldie said was "another way we are enabling a greater participation of partners in the cloud environment".
"It essentially allows partners to buy commitments of Azure dollars on Open licensing and sell those onto customers.
"There are a couple of reasons that we think this will be great for our local partners. Firstly, it really provides a compelling price-point advantage; it allows the partners to take the Azure components and bundle that as part of a broader solutions for the customer.
"Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, it is another example of how we are trying to enable the greater participation of partners inside the cloud ecosystem… Typically in the SME and midmarket segment, customers would [previously] have used a direct payment to Microsoft via the Azure portal using a credit card or monthly billing, this allows the partner to take control of the billing relationships as part of a broader solution for the customer."
Nick Sone, general manager of Microsoft's 2014 Australian country partner of the year, Ensyst, told CRN: "Azure for Open is perfect for us, because it lets us own the whole customer. We're the only face they see."
Sone was also very positive of the new cloud competencies.
He said the messaging at this year's WPC was "Azure, Azure, Azure", which vindicated Ensyst's decision to "bet the house" on Microsoft's public cloud.
Loryan Strant, principal of Office 365 specialist Paradyne, said he welcomed more choice for partners and customers.
"I believe that ultimately having Azure in Open is a great thing, however, at the end of the day it doesn’t mean we go only in that direction.
"Ultimately it gives the customer choice – either they can have a direct billing relationship with Microsoft via an Enterprise Agreement or it can be part of a billing relationship we have with them that includes other products and services that we offer.
"It’s great that Microsoft is listening to partners and evolving its service offerings to allow us to engage stronger with them. Those partners that still don’t offer Office 365 or Azure services will be left in the dust," added Strant.
While the change is expected to be welcomed warmly by systems integrators and managed service providers, not all partners are fussed about taking on billing.
Nicki Page, chief executive of Sydney-based Breeze, told CRN: "I don't want the administrative overhead of dealing with the billing. We are a development shop. Happy for Microsoft to take care of the billing, like Telstra took care of Office 365.
"We are quite happy for Telstra to manage the billing and I guess that is the difference between a development shop versus an infrastructure shop."
Steven Kiernan is a guest of Microsoft at WPC.
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