PLANNING SERVICES: POST ENROLLMENT

Microsoft compensates Planning Services partners to lead implementation planning engagements for
their enterprise customers. In the process, partners gain the opportunity to set their business apart,
become a trusted advisor, and offer follow-on services.

Post enrollment; the process includes the points and sub-points below.

4. Customer creates and assigns voucher

Before you can begin a Planning Services engagement, your customer must first activate their
Planning Services benefit, create a Planning Services voucher, and then assign it to a project
manager in their organization. If your customer has not yet created the required voucher, you can
help expedite the process by sharing the resources at right and explaining the process outlined
below.

Activate voucher benefit

The company's Software Assurance Benefits (SAB) administrator can activate the Planning
Services benefit through the Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC).

1. Sign in to VLSC using a Microsoft account associated with the SAB administrator.
2. Select View Software Assurance benefits, then select Planning Services from the
Software Assurance summary list.
3. Select the relevant licensing ID, then select Planning Services from the Benefits
available for activation pane.
4. To activate the benefit, select Planning Services and follow the instructions in the
subsequent screens.

Create and assign voucher

Below are the steps your customer must take to create and assign a Planning Services voucher.

1. Sign in to VLSC.
2. Select Software Assurance from the top menu.
3. Select Planning Services (this will take you to the Manage Software Assurance benefits
page).
4. Select the LicenseID for which you want to manage Planning Services (this will take you
to the Benefit Summary page).
5. Select Planning Services.
6. Select the voucher type and service level (length of the engagement in days).
7. Assign the Planning Services voucher to a project manager within your organization by
entering their name, email address, and any special instructions.
8. Select Confirm Voucher Assignment.
9. After the voucher is created, select Assign Voucher (this takes you to a benefit details
page confirming voucher information, including voucher status and expiration date).
An email message will be generated and sent to the customer's project manager and SAB
administrator, requesting them to forward the email to their chosen Planning Services partner.
The email contains all of the information a Planning Services partner needs to reserve the
voucher.

5. Validate and reserve voucher

After a customer successfully assigns a voucher to your organization in VLSC, an email will be
generated and sent to the customer's project manager and Software Assurance
benefits administrator, requesting them to forward the email to you (their chosen Planning
Services partner). If you did not receive an email from your customer containing the voucher ID
and email address associated to the voucher, ask your customer contact to forward the email to
you so you may validate and reserve the voucher in Partner Center before scheduling the
engagement.

6. Complete engagement and submit completion report

After validating and reserving your voucher(s) in Partner Center, complete the following steps:

1. Deliver the Planning Services engagement according to the guidance provided on

the engagement page (expand offerings below to locate desired engagement page).
2. Provide the customer with the final completed customer deliverable upon completion
of the engagement (customer deliverable template found on engagement page).
3. Complete and submit the online Planning Services Completion Report Submission
Form
o Ensure you provide a copy of the actual customer deliverable to Microsoft by
uploading a copy of the deliverable prior to submitting the online form.
o File formats accepted for upload: Microsoft Word (.doc, .docx), PDF (.pdf),
PowerPoint (.ppt, .pptx), XML (.xml), Excel (.xlns, .xlsx) and Visio (.vsd, .vsdx).
o Formats not accepted for upload: HTML (.html) and ZIP (.zip).

For more information on scope, deliverables and supporting resources, please locate your
engagement page by expanding the parent offering below (click on link below):

IMPORTANT LINK:

https://planningservices.partners.extranet.microsoft.com/en/Pages/RequiredDeliverables.aspx

7. Redeem voucher

Once you complete a Planning Services engagment and submit a completion report to Microsoft,
it is time to redeem the voucher in Partner Center.
Resources
How to redeem a Planning Services voucher in Partner Center (Note: you cannot redeem a
Planning Services voucher until after the service start date has passed. Additionally, to manage
Planning Services vouchers via the Partner Center dashboard, you must hold MPN Partner
Admin permissions. Global Admins can assign user roles, so if you do not see the navigation
options required to manage vouchers (shown below), reach out to your Partner Center Global
Admin.)

1. Sign In to your Partner Center Dashboard.

2. Click MPN on the navigation pane to expand the section.
3. Expand Software Assurance and select Planning Services to reveal the Planning
Services vouchers page.
4. Select Reserved from the voucher status drop-down to filter the listed vouchers to
display only reserved vouchers. The list of reserved vouchers can then be sorted to help
you locate the voucher(s) to be redeemed.
5. Tick the checkbox(es) next to the desired voucher(s) then click Redeem selected
vouchers.

6. From the Confirm voucher redemption page, review the voucher information for
accuracy, then select Yes to redeem the voucher.

Submit payment requests within 60 days of redeeming vouchers.

After redeeming a voucher, you have 60 days in which to submit a payment request in the SAVB
Online Payment Tool. Any non-compliance issues with the voucher must also be resolved within
this 60-day period. If the 60-day period ends before compliance issues are remediated or a
payment request is submitted, the voucher is forfeited and payment cannot be processed for the
engagement delivered under that voucher.
8. Get paid through SAVB
After redeeming Planning Services vouchers, you must invoice Microsoft for payment. A request
for payment may be made via the Software Assurance Voucher Benefit (SAVB) payment tool.

Register for payment

The registration step is required in each of these instances:

1. Your organization has redeemed its first voucher.

2. Your organization has redeemed a voucher in a new program (e.g., if you previously
redeemed a Planning Services voucher but are now redeeming a Software Assurance
Training Voucher for the first time).
3. Your organization has redeemed a voucher in a new offering (e.g., if you previously
redeemed a Planning Services voucher in DDPS but are now redeeming one in AZDPS).

If your organization has already registered in SAVB for payment for a particular instance, you
may start at the Invoice against voucher step.
A Global Administrator for your organization in the Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) is
required to complete this initial registration process in SAVB. The Global Administrator may
also function as one of your organizations’ designated Partner Program Administrators (PPA) in
the SAVB tool.
Tips
If your organization is active in more than one voucher program or you are redeeming a voucher
for a new offering, you must go through this registration step for each voucher program or new
offering (see Registration for additional programs below).

Initial registration

1. The first time you redeem a voucher, an auto-generated email will be sent to your
organization. This email is an invitation with a passcode you will use to register in the
Microsoft Channel Incentives Platform (CHIP), (where the SAVB tool resides) in order
to invoice against vouchers.
o If the Primary Program Contact does not hold Global Admin permissions, the
invitation will need to be forwarded to a member of the organization holding the
tool’s required Global Admin role.
o Each time a voucher is redeemed for a new offering, a separate invitation email
will be sent. Subsequent voucher redemptions within the same offering will not
trigger another email invitation.
2. Your organization’s Global Administrator must log into CHIP.
3. On the initial Registration page, select the Organization name from the drop-down
menu. (If this is your first time in SAVB, you will not see anything listed in the
Programs Registered section of the page.)
4. In the Programs Available for Registration section, select the program(s) for which
you are now registering, then select Register.
5. On the Confirmation page, check to ensure the listed program is the one you registered
on the previous screen, then select go to Home to return to your program homepage in
SAVB.
 6. After completing initial program registration, you can access SAVB directly at
channelincentives.microsoft.com, using your Microsoft account to sign in.

Remember: the first time you redeem a voucher for a particular offering, you will be sent an
email inviting you to register with the SAVB tool for that offering, even if you have already
registered with SAVB for different offering for a previous voucher.
Registration for additional programs
If you want to redeem vouchers for an additional program, you (a Global Administrator in MPN)
must complete the program registration process again for each new program. Follow the steps
below:

1. From one of the program home pages in CHIP, under the I Need To menu, select
Manage Organizations.
2. Follow the prompts to register your additional program.
3. Wait one to two business days for your vendor ID to be mapped.
4. Assign your vendor ID to your location in your newly register program.

Create a payment profile

After completing your new program registration, the Regional Service Center (RSC) team
creates a new vendor ID request for your Primary Contact for that location ID in MPN to get
administrative access to Payment Central. The Primary Contact will be sent an email from
Microsoft Payment Central with an access invitation.

1. As the Primary Contact, sign into your Payment Central account using the email address
at which you received the invitation (this email address should be linked to your
Microsoft account; view instructions).
2. After accessing your new supplier/vendor account, enter the required details in the five
sections displayed. Select Submit to send the information to the Microsoft accounts
payable team for review.
 3. Once approved by the accounts payable team, a new vendor ID will be created. You will
receive a confirmation email with the new vendor ID. The RSC team will transfer the
new vendor ID to your organization’s SAVB payment profile.
4. Assign the payment profile to your location ID in SAVB (this will need to be done for
each new program). You can now create payment requests for your redeemed vouchers.

Adding and managing users

Read the FAQs that explain how to add new users and manage users in SAVB.
Tips
For additional guidance on how to use SAVB, see the FAQs at the bottom of this page.

Invoice against voucher

Follow the steps below to create your payment request. Note that SAVB only displays vouchers
that have already been redeemed in VVR; it does not display vouchers that are in “reserved”
status.

Submit payment requests within 60 days of redeeming vouchers. After redeeming a voucher,
you have 60 days in which to submit a payment request in the SAVB Online Payment Tool. Any
non-compliance issues with the voucher must also be resolved within this 60-day period. If the
60-day period ends before compliance issues are remediated or a payment request is submitted,
the voucher is forfeited and payment cannot be processed for the engagement delivered under
that voucher.

1. From your program home page, select Create Payment Request from the I Need To…
menu.
2. Using the voucher Search Criteria filters to narrow your voucher selection:
o Select the Country for which you are creating the payment request. Note: you can
only select one country. You cannot combine redeemed vouchers from locations
that are in different countries on the same payment request (view voucher policies
).
o Select the Locations for which you would like to view redeemed vouchers.
o Select the Payment Profile that maps to the location(s) you want to view. This is
the payment profile under which you want payment to be made for the location(s)
you are going to include in your payment request.
o Select the Tax Jurisdiction that correctly applies to the country and locations you
have selected.
o Select Search
3. Review the redeemed vouchers in the Create Payment Request – Select Vouchers pane
in the lower half of the screen. These results are based on the search criteria used in the
prior screen. (To change your search, select Change Criteria to reset your filters.)
4. Select the Invoice By date next to the vouchers to ensure that you prioritize the ones that
are closest to the date shown for submission first.
5. To view the Voucher Details of a particular voucher listed in the table, select arrow next
to the voucher record, or use Expand All/Collapse All to see all details for all vouchers.
6. Select the vouchers you wish to attach to this payment request. Select Add in the row of
each voucher to be included. The notation will then change to Remove, which you can
select to remove vouchers from your payment request.
7. Confirm the Voucher Sub-Total for the vouchers you have added to the payment
request.
8. Input the alpha/numeric invoice number created by your company’s financial system in
the Partner Invoice No. field provided (required field which allows you and Microsoft to
cross-reference your company invoice with its corresponding SAVB payment request
number).
9. Input Tax Rate (%) to be added to the payment request, based upon the applicable tax
jurisdiction for the locations included in the payment request. SAVB will automatically
calculate the tax amount and update the invoice total based upon the tax % you enter.
10. Attach Documentation: depending on the country associated with your payment
request, SAVB may prompt you to submit your company’s invoice as supplemental proof
of your valid payment request. Note: information on your own company invoice
(softcopy or hardcopy) must exactly match the information in the online payment
request—including Partner Invoice Number and Total—to avoid payment delays.
11. Select Submit. Selecting Save for Later allows you to find the saved payment request
by selecting Search Payment Requests on your home page.

12. The Payment Request Confirmation screen shows the unique Microsoft Reference
Number assigned by SAVB to your submitted or saved payment request. Reference this
number if you require help from your Regional Service Center.
Searching vouchers and payment requests
Read the FAQs that explain how to search for vouchers and quickly find payment requests that
have been created and submitted in SAVB.

Get paid
Once your payment request is successfully submitted, Microsoft will initiate payment according
to the terms you established while setting up the payment profile for the location ID.