Microsoft To Add Copilot, Defender for Endpoint Licenses To Certain Partner Benefit Packages

'We are adding over 20 in-demand product licenses to our benefits packages,’ Julie Sanford, Microsoft’s VP of partner GTM, programs and operations, said in a blog post.

Along with Microsoft’s announced end to selling Action Pack, Learning Action Pack or legacy silver and gold benefits starting Jan. 22, the tech giant shared more details on products getting added to its newer benefits packages, including Partner Success Core Benefits and Partner Success Expanded Benefits.

“We are adding over 20 in-demand product licenses to our benefits packages,” Julie Sanford, Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft’s vice president of partner go-to-market (GTM), programs and operations, said in a blog post. “This includes game-changing Microsoft Copilot products, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, and Microsoft GitHub.”

[RELATED: Microsoft To Ditch Action Packs In Partner Benefits Overhaul]

Microsoft Partner Benefits Packages

Microsoft has more than 400,000 partners worldwide and is a member of CRN’s Channel Chiefs.

CRN has reached out to Microsoft for comment.

Robby Hill, CEO of Florence, S.C.-based Microsoft solution provider HillSouth told CRN in an interview that he stopped using Action Packs and shifted to packages that are cloud-focused and help with the Microsoft 365 bundle of applications.

“Where we would like to see Microsoft continue to refine is offering partners free or reduced cost AI services,” Hill said. That way, “partners can prepare to enhance their services to clients and learn how to sell the newest AI products customers will be asking for soon.”

Randy Jorgensen, managing member of South Jordan, Utah-based Microsoft solution provider RJNetworks, told CRN in an interview that discontinuing MAP is “frustrating” and “another nail in the coffin of the small partners just trying to help small businesses do the best they can with limited budgets.”

“It is like they do not care about nor want small partners any more,” said Jorgensen, who has used Action Packs. “It truly feels that Microsoft does not feel they need to worry about small businesses.”

He said that Microsoft has been incentivizing moves to cloud when many of his customers “are not interested in renting everything they use.”

Here is a breakdown of the new products making their way to Microsoft partner benefits packages on Jan. 22.

Partner Launch Benefits

Partner Launch Benefits is the lowest tier of the new Microsoft partner benefits packages, selling for $345 a year.

Mirosoft bills the package as having a retail value of $13,792. The package includes $700 in Azure credits and is meant for up to five users.

New products coming to Partner Launch Benefits include:

Existing products in this package include:

Microsoft also noted that on Jan. 22, Defender for Endpoint P2 and Entra ID P2 will “be added into existing active instances of this benefit offer.” This will be “a one-time occurrence.”

Partner Success Core Benefits

Microsoft’s middle-tier package for partners is Partner Success Core Benefits, which sells for $895 a year.

Microsoft says the retail value is at least $62,086. The package is meant for up to 25 users and includes $2,400 of Azure credits.

Benefits coming to Partner Success Core Benefits include:

Some of what’s already included in Partner Success Core Benefits are:

Microsoft also noted that on Jan. 22, Defender for Endpoint P2 and Entra ID P2 will “be added into existing active instances of this benefit offer.” This will be “a one-time occurrence.”

Partner Success Expanded Benefits

Partner Success Expanded Benefits is the highest tier of the newer Microsoft partner benefits packages, selling for $3,995 a year, according to Microsoft.

The retail value of this package is $390,864, according to Microsoft. The package is meant for up to 35 users and has $4,000 of Azure credits.

Benefits coming to Partner Success Expanded Benefits include:

Microsoft also noted that on Jan. 22, Entra ID P2, Defender for Endpoint P2 and the Copilot products will “be added into existing active instances of this benefit offer.” This will be “a one-time occurrence.”

Some of what’s already included in Partner Success Expanded Benefits are:

Solutions Partner Designations

Microsoft also disclosed that on Jan. 22, the business applications, data and AI, digital and app innovation, infrastructure, “modern work” and security “solutions partner” designations will get new benefits.

The designations changes only apply to solutions partner designations for solution areas and training services. No changes are planned for solutions partner with certified software designations.

All of the mentioned designations are receiving the following:

For the business applications solutions partner designation, products coming include:

For the data and AI solutions partner designation, products coming include:

For the digital and app innovation solutions partner designation, products coming include:

For the infrastructure solutions partner designation, products coming include:

For the “modern work” solutions partner designation, products coming include:

For the security solutions partner designation, products coming include:

Specializations And Expert Programs

The Azure, business applications, modern work and security specializations and expert programs are also receiving new benefits in January.

All of these will receive a partner marketing-as-a-service benefit. Also, each has individual maximum cap amounts for the number of specializations or expert programs in that category that will be eligible for incremental product benefits, according to Microsoft.

Products coming to the Azure specialization and expert program (which has a cap amount of five) include:

Products coming to the business apps specialization include:

Products coming to the modern work specialization include:

Products coming to the security specialization include:

Changes For Incident Counts, MFA

Outside of the Action Pack and newer benefits packages changes, Microsoft revealed other partner program updates of interest to solution providers.

Starting Sept. 2, Microsoft will limit partners to 50 incidents per year instead of unlimited incidents for new purchases and renewals for the partner cloud support benefit that is included with “solutions partner” designation benefits and gold and silver cloud competency legacy benefits.

“Partners who purchase or renew before September 2, 2024 will have unlimited incidents until their next anniversary date,” Microsoft said.

Partner cloud support was previously called signature cloud support benefit. Partners can raise two to 50 support incidents for cloud products depending “on the membership offer through which you got the benefit.”

If a partner uses up the available incidents, they “can create support tickets using other available support plans or can buy additional support incidents by purchasing other MAICPP offers or partner support plans,” such as Advanced Support for Partners and Premium Support for Partners, according to Microsoft.

Microsoft has also changed the way it assesses “refund eligibility for a one-time discretionary credit for fraudulent activity that occurs on individual Azure customer tenants on CSP new commerce.”

Starting in September, Microsoft partners need to enable “multifactor authentication (MFA) for all their administrative users on their CSP tenant at the time the fraudulent activity started, to be eligible for review,” according to Microsoft.

On Sept. 1, Microsoft will deprecate its delegated administration privileges (DAP) insights dashboard because partner should be moved over to granular DAP (GDAP).

Microsoft will also start blocking and terminating “unused Azure subscriptions 90 days after the block is applied” in an effort to mitigate security risks, according to the vendor. To avoid a block, users need to create resources or register an activity.

“Customers with subscriptions that have never been used or have been inactive for 12+ months will be notified by November,” Microsoft said.

August also marked the start of Microsoft requiring public sector product offer purchases on its new commerce experience (NCE), a change to the invoice collection application programming interface to “apply a default filter to limit the invoice list to the last 18 months” to improve API response time and expanding the GitHub product portfolio as metered services on Azure.

Metered GitHub Services

The GitHub news can help Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) and Licensing Solution Provider (LSP) partners by giving them “the opportunity to accelerate AI Design Wins and win mindshare in the developer community.”

“Microsoft CSP customers can now access all GitHub service offerings within the CSP channel,” according to Microsoft. “Partners can drive AI momentum by positioning GitHub Enterprise + GitHub Copilot to their customers.”

CSP customers can use their Azure subscription identity to pay for GitHub offerings. GitHub usage is reflected within an Azure bill to the direct or indirect provider, according to Microsoft. GitHub metered services on Azure generates Azure Consumed Revenue (ACR) and is eligible for Microsoft Partner Incentives.

GitHub Enterprise is a prerequisite for GitHub Copilot Business and Copilot Enterprise and add-on products including Codespaces, Actions, Packages and Advanced Security.

Microsoft Enterprise Agreement (EA) users new to GitHub can buy GitHub Enterprise (GHE) and GitHub Advanced Security (GHAS) as Azure metered or volume license-based offerings. Existing customers can transition from volume-licensed to metered at EA renewal .