Microsoft Partner Incentives

Cloud Solution Provider (CSP)

Indirect Provider Incentive Guide
July 1, 2016 – June 30, 2017
Contents
Indirect Provider Overview............................................................................................................4
Executive summary......................................................................................................................4
Incentives summary ....................................................................................................................4
Partner eligibility...............................................................................................................................5
MPN requirements ......................................................................................................................5
Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) agreement ..................................................................5
Microsoft agreements and/or authorizations ...................................................................5
Managed Partner List .................................................................................................................5
Cloud Distributor Solution Accelerator (CDSA) eligibility .............................................6
MPN requirements (CDSA) .......................................................................................................6
Eligibility monitoring and management ..............................................................................8
Loss of eligibility...........................................................................................................................8
Enrollment ...........................................................................................................................................9
Invitation period ...........................................................................................................................9
Onboarding process ...................................................................................................................9
Partner Incentives Experience account set-up ............................................................... 10
Program structure & rates ......................................................................................................... 10
Global incentives ....................................................................................................................... 10
Local accelerators ..................................................................................................................... 10
Co-op ............................................................................................................................................ 11
Earnings & calculation ................................................................................................................. 12
Eligible revenue rules .............................................................................................................. 12
CDSA eligible revenue............................................................................................................. 13
Payment ............................................................................................................................................ 14
Payment cadence ...................................................................................................................... 14
Payments details ....................................................................................................................... 14
Payment compliance ............................................................................................................... 14
Payment earnings reporting ................................................................................................. 15
Dispute and resolution ........................................................................................................... 15

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 Overpayment .............................................................................................................................. 15
Support & Resources ................................................................................................................... 15
Support channels ...................................................................................................................... 15
Partner resources........................................................................................................................... 16
Useful links .................................................................................................................................. 16
Appendix A: Emerging & Mature Markets ........................................................................... 18

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Indirect Provider Overview
Executive summary
The Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program is a sales model that allows
partners to resell or bundle their own services in addition to Microsoft Cloud
Services as a complete solution, and gives customers the payment flexibility with
pay-as-you-go billing.
The Microsoft CSP Indirect Provider (formerly known as CSP 2-Tier Distributor)
incentive program rewards Indirect Providers for driving the activation and
enablement of a resale channel and the sale of Online Services.
This guide summarizes the requirements to participate in the Microsoft CSP
Indirect Provider incentive. It replaces and supersedes all prior Microsoft CSP
Incentive guides for Indirect Providers and any related communications.
This guide is not applicable for the People’s Republic of China. Please reference
the CSP Incentive guide for China Indirect Providers.

Incentives summary
CSP Indirect Providers are eligible for an incentive of 10% of monthly billed
revenue from sales of online services such as Microsoft Office 365, EMS, Windows
Intune, CRM Online and Azure. An amount equal to 50% of the global incentive
will be made available as a Co-op.
All links referenced throughout the guide will be available in the Support and
Resources sections.

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Partner eligibility
To be eligible to participate in the CSP Indirect Provider incentive, a partner must
meet the following criteria:

Eligibility
Eligibility Requirement Examples of Program Specific Criteria
Type
Enrollment
MPN

Enrollment Status Active MPN Membership

Microsoft Agreement Microsoft Cloud Distributor Agreement (Signed

Performance

and Active)
Status &
Partner

Microsoft Management Status Managed Partner (on FY17 Managed Partner

List)
Figure 1: Eligibility requirements overview

MPN requirements
Eligible partner organizations must hold an active MPN membership.

Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) agreement

Partners must hold an active MPN Agreement. The Master Channel Incentive
Agreement (MCIA) is now presented as part of the FY17 MPN Agreement as
Exhibit B.

Microsoft agreements and/or authorizations

Partners must hold a valid Cloud Distributor Agreement.

Managed Partner List

Partners must be included on Microsoft’s FY17 Managed Partner List (MPL).

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Cloud Distributor Solution Accelerator (CDSA) eligibility
To be eligible for the CDSA, the following criteria must be met by August 15,
2016. Eligible partners will start earning CDSA incentives beginning September 1,
2016:
Eligibility
Eligibility Requirement Program Specific Criteria
Type
Membership Level Silver or Gold
MPN Enrollment

Competency See below (CDSA Eligibility)

Competency Status Active Earned

MPN requirements (CDSA)

In order to qualify for the CDSA incentive in one or more of the defined
workloads, your organization must achieve and maintain the following:

Cross-sell/Up-sell Cloud Solution:

One individual must pass one of the following Azure Exams and Technical
Assessments:
 Exam 70-532: Developing Microsoft Azure Solutions
 Exam 70-533: Implementing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions
 Exam 70-534: Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions
And

 Technical Assessment for Using Microsoft Azure for Datacenter Solutions

 Technical Assessment for Using Azure for Data Analytics and Data Platform
Solutions
 Technical Assessment for Using Microsoft Azure for Application
Development
One individual must pass the following exams:

 Exam 70-346: Managing Office 365 Identities and Requirements

And
 Exam 70-347: Enabling Office 365 Services
One individual must pass one of the following Technical Assessments:
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  Technical Assessment for Enterprise Mobility Suite Overview
And
 Technical Assessment for Mobile Device Management or
 Technical Assessment for Identity & Access Management

CRM Online:
 Cloud CRM Competency;
The relevant exams must be certified to be eligible for the related workload
accelerator. Partners will only earn while eligible.
Indirect Providers in certain regions will be able to earn the required MPN
competency in one subsidiary in order to earn CDSA incentive in all subsidiaries
in the regional group.
CDSA Region Subsidiaries included in region

Costa Rica, Panamá, Ecuador, Guatemala, Dominican

LATAM New Markets Tier-1 Subs
Republic, Trinidad, Venezuela

Argentina, Chile, Uruguay Argentina, Chile, Uruguay

Benelux Netherlands, Belgium

Nordics Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway

Germany/Austria/Switzerland Germany, Austria, Switzerland

Balkans Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Macedonia

Baltics Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia

Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya,

NEPA and Egypt Morocco, NEPA New Markets (Afghanistan,
Iran, Syria), Pakistan and Tunisia

Bangladesh, Brunei, SEA Multi Country (Bhutan, Laos,

South East Asia (SEA) New Markets
Nepal), Sri Lanka (Sri Lanka, Maldives)

Africa New Markets, Angola, Ghana, Indian

Ocean Islands, Kenya, Nigeria, RESA and WCA. See
WECA and Nigeria
detailed list of included countries for the above Bolded
subsidiaries below.

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 Benin, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad,
Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, The Gambia,
Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Malawi, Niger,
Africa New Markets
Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, Somalia,
South Sudan, St Helena, Ascension, Tristan da
Cunha, Sudan, Togo

Comoros, Djibouti, French Polynesia,

Indian Ocean Islands Madagascar, Mauritius, Mayotte, New
Caledonia, Reunion, Seychelles

RESA - Rest of East & South Botswana, Ethiopia, Namibia, Rwanda, Tanzania,
Africa Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire,

WCA – West and Central Africa
Gabon, Mali, Senegal

Eligibility monitoring and management

Partner eligibility requirements for this Microsoft CSP Indirect Provider incentive
must be met before partners are invited to the incentive platform. Partners must
meet these criteria and onboard to the Partner Incentives Experience platform
(PIEX)1 before Microsoft can approve and release incentive payments. If a partner
becomes eligible during the earning period, eligible revenue will be included
from the start of the earning period. The Payment section of this guide includes a
comprehensive set of conditions required for payment approval and release.
Cloud Distributor Solution Accelerator (CDSA) incentive eligibility varies
depending on whether the subsidiary in which the partner operates is classified
as a “Mature Market” or “Emerging Market.” The market classification of each
Microsoft subsidiary is provided in Appendix A of this guide.

Loss of eligibility
Partners must be eligible in order to be onboarded onto the Partner
Incentives Experience platform. Microsoft will check incentive eligibility 30
calendar days prior to the end of the earnings period and will notify partners
if they have lost eligibility. This is the only notification partners will receive.
Partners must ensure they are eligible at all times during the program
period.

1
Web based Microsoft tool used for viewing of incentive earnings and activity.
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Reconsideration for resolution of Loss of Incentive Eligibility
At the end of the earnings period, partners who have not become
compliant will forfeit their incentive earnings for the whole semester.
Partners meeting eligibility requirements after the H1 earnings period has
ended will only be considered for the H2 earning period.

Enrollment
Invitation period
Partners who meet all eligibility requirements will be invited to the Partner
Incentives Experience platform at the beginning of the Microsoft fiscal year and
then monthly for new Partners.
Eligible partners will receive an invitation to log into the Partner Incentives
Experience platform. Invitations are non-transferrable and the Partner
Administrator is defined as the primary contact provided on Partner Center
during the CSP program onboarding process. Each partner must be successfully
enrolled in Partner Incentives Experience prior to the end of the program period in
order to receive incentive payments.

Onboarding process
Partners must meet all eligibility criteria and complete the enrollment process by
program (even if active in PIEX for another incentive) to become active in the
Partner Incentives Experience platform. This is a critical step for partners to gain
visibility to incentive calculation and receive payment information.
Microsoft will invite partners per eligible MPN HQ or Location ID to participate in
the CSP Indirect Provider incentive by means of an email with a company domain
(for example: @microsoft.com). Onboarding must be completed for each
invitation.
Partners who onboarded onto the Partner Incentives Experience platform in a
previous fiscal year do not need to re-onboard onto PIEX but must continue to
meet eligibility requirements in order to earn and be paid incentives for the
current fiscal year.

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Partner Incentives Experience account set-up
Visit aka.ms/partnerincentives to review the Partner Incentives Experience
Guide for details on entering information such as bank and tax details and
MPN ID partners are transacting under.

Program structure & rates

This incentive includes global, local, and Co-op components.

Global incentives
Incentive Rate
4% of monthly billed revenue with a 50/50
Core
split between Rebate and Co-op
6% of monthly billed revenue with a 50/50
Accelerator
split between Rebate and Co-op
10% of monthly billed revenue with a
Cloud Distributor Solution Accelerator (CDSA)
50/50 split between Rebate and Co-op

Local accelerators
In addition to the global incentive outlined above, Microsoft subsidiaries have the
option to offer additional local accelerators. These local accelerators may
augment levers within the global incentive, or may reward partner engagement
toward the specific local market need. Not all local accelerators are available in
each subsidiary. Participation in a local accelerator is subject to the terms and
conditions set forth by the local subsidiary and provided to Partners.
Local accelerator terms will be sent to partners by the Regional Operations
Centers (ROCs) in each subsidiary for accelerators available in that subsidiary.
Incentives from local accelerators will be paid as 100% Rebate (no Co-op). See
the following option:

Cloud Revenue Accelerator

Rewards partners with an incremental incentive of billed revenue from sales of
eligible Online Services. This accelerator is paid in addition to the incentive
earnings for qualified sales and will be paid out as Rebate.

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Co-op
Partners participating in the CSP Indirect Provider incentive will earn 50% of the
global incentive as Co-op. This allows partners to perform specific marketing,
demand generation, and readiness activities in accordance with the Partner
Incentives Co-op Guidebook.
The global incentives are split between Rebate and Co-op as follows:
Incentive Rebate Co-op
Core 50% 50%
Accelerator 50% 50%
CDSA 50% 50%

Co-op funds must be claimed during the usage period that follows the earnings
period. Co-op funds not used during the usage period will be forfeited after the
end of the period.

Earning and usage periods

The incentive funds for Indirect Providers are earned and paid out as follows:

FY16 Earning Period 2 FY17 Earning Period 1 FY17 Earning Period 2

Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun

Earning Earn 2 Earn 1

Usage Usage/Claim 2 Usage/Claim 1

“Earning Period” is the 6 months during which Partners earn Rebates and Co-op.

“Usage Period” refers to the 6 months that immediately follow the “Earning"
period. Partners perform co-op activities and submit claims during the Usage
Period. There is a 45-day grace period after the end of the Usage Period for
Partners to complete their claim submissions. If funds are not claimed by the
conclusion of the grace period, they will be forfeited and retired with no
possibility of reinstatement.

The Co-op Guidebook on the Partner Incentives MPN Portal is the primary source
to provide the mechanics, requirements and executional logistics for all eligible
Co-op activities.

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Earnings & calculation
Eligible revenue rules
Eligible revenue is determined by Microsoft’s internal sales tools as invoiced sales
of qualifying products during the earning period.
CSP Indirect Providers must provide a valid HQ or Location MPN ID of the
Indirect Reseller to whom they have sold Microsoft Online Services in order for
that revenue to qualify for this incentive. The reseller ID cannot be controlled or
part of the Indirect Provider’s internal organization.
The following restrictions apply:
 Revenue from subscriptions of Exchange Lite and other adjustments such
as Internal Use Rights or Trial seats is excluded.
 Not all Microsoft Online Services are available in all markets. New services
and offers may be rolled out in new markets and current services and
offers may be discontinued. As these service changes occur, customer
consumption of Microsoft Online Services will also change, resulting in
different incentive earnings for partners.

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CDSA eligible revenue
Workload definitions and minimum requirements to earn incentives for each
workload are described below.
Minimum requirements for Emerging Markets are lower than Mature Markets.
Emerging and Mature Markets are listed in Appendix A.
MPN Compe tency Eligibility for Mature
Solution
(Silver or Gold) Markets
Any customer with $750 in
existing CSP O365 revenue
(excluding Business
Premium, E3, E5) and adds
minimum of one of the
See MPN
following during the 6-
O365 Up-sell Requirements (CDSA)
month program period:
section above for
details  $300 of O365 Business
Premium (~5 seats) or
 $500 of O365 E3 (~5
seats)
 $900 of O365 E5 (~5
seats)
Eligibility for Emerging
Markets
Any customer with $500 in
existing CSP O365 revenue
(excluding Business
Premium, E3, E5) and adds
minimum of one of the
following during the 6-
month program period:
 $200 of O365 Business
Premium (~3 seats) or
 $300 of O365 E3 (~3
seats)
 $600 of O365 E5 (~3
seats)

Any customer with $750 in Any customer with $500 in

CSP O365 SKUs consisting CSP O365 SKUs consisting
See MPN of Business Premium, E3, E5 of Business Premium, E3, E5
EMS Cross-
Requirements (CDSA) and adds minimum of one and adds minimum of one
sell
section above for of the following during the of the following during the
details 6-month program period: 6-month program period:
 $200 of EMS (~5 seats)  $150 of EMS (~5 seats)

 Any customer with a  Any customer with a

purchase of $100 of purchase of $100 of
Azure See MPN PowerBI
PowerBI
Consumption Requirements (CDSA)  Any customer with $500
 Any customer with $500
section above for or more of new Azure
or more of net new
details Revenue
Azure Revenue
See CRM Online
section under MPN
$1,200 of CRMOL (5 seats of $700 of CRMOL (3 seats of
CRM requirements (CDSA)
professional) professional)
section above for
details

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Payment
Partners can only receive payments after completing enrollment to the Partner
Incentives Experience platform and continuing to meet incentive eligibility
requirements at the time of payment calculation.

Payment cadence
Payment will be disbursed to the partner along the following schedule:
Type How Often Expect payment within

 45 days after the end of the earning

period (Earning period 1: July 2016 –
2 payments per December 2016; Earning period 2:
Rebate
program year January 2017 – June 2017)
 Payment will be in the form of credit
memo or wire transfer

 By the end of the month for claims

Co-op Monthly
approved by 15th of that month

Minimum payment threshold

 If the incentive earnings are below the minimum threshold of $200 USD,
those earnings will be carried over to H2 and the partner will not receive
payment.
 Incentive earnings under $200 USD at the end of the program period will
be forfeited.

Payments details
For a detailed summary of payment details visit the Partner Incentive Experience
Guide at aka.ms/partnerincentives.

Payment compliance
Payment compliance means that 100% of all Microsoft invoices billed to the
partner must be paid by the due date during each month of the earnings period.
If this obligation is not met, the partner will not receive payments for incentives
earned for the month(s) of non-compliance.

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Payment earnings reporting
Partners can view their earnings, co-op information, and payment activities via
the Partner Incentives Experience platform. Data is updated on a daily basis.
Click here to view payment information on the Partner Incentives Experience
platform for CSP Indirect Providers.
Click here to view earnings information on the Partner Incentives Experience
platform for CSP Indirect Providers.

Dispute and resolution

If partners find a discrepancy with their incentive payouts, they can follow the
below:
 Earning disputes can be disputed for up to 30 days after the earning
period ends.
 Payment disputes can be disputed for up to 30 days after payment date.
All disputes must be submitted in writing to Microsoft within the above time
frames to the respective alias in the Support and Resource section below.

Overpayment
In the event of an overpayment, Microsoft will proceed with the recovery of an
overpayment in accordance with the Microsoft Channel Incentive Agreement
(MCIA).
Microsoft will generally attempt to recover overpayment by offsetting against
future incentive payments earned. If for any reason such approach cannot be
executed (e.g. partner is no longer participating in an incentive), Microsoft
reserves the right to invoice partner for the overpaid amount directly.

Support & Resources

Useful resources for all incentives can be found on the Microsoft Partner Network
at aka.ms/partnerincentives (partner authentication required).

Support channels
Support for the partner incentive program is available in the support hub of the
Partner Incentives Experience by clicking ‘Support’ in the header. The support hub

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provides a centralized location for all channel incentives and Partner Incentives
Experience queries.
Additional incentive program support is available by contacting the appropriate
alias below for your region:
 North America: ocina@microsoft.com
 Latin America: ocilatam@microsoft.com
 Asia Pacific including Greater China: ociapgc@microsoft.com
 Japan: ocijp@microsoft.com
 Europe Middle East & Africa (EMEA): ociemea@microsoft.com

Partner resources
All of the resources below are available through the Microsoft Partner Network.
Program Assets Description
Guide containing CSP Indirect Provider incentive overview,
Incentive Guide
including product rate, and eligibility guidelines
Guide providing instructions on how partners can view
Partner Incentives incentive earnings, make claims and submit proof, do
Experience Guide payment reconciliations and manage users, all from one
single secure Partner Incentives Experience portal.
Guide providing partner incentive details regarding eligible
Co-op Guidebook
Co-op activities and requirements for claim

Templates Description
Template to submit proof of execution requirement for Co-
CSR Template op claims. To be used in place of, or in addition to, an
invoice for specific Co-op execution
On Site Champ Reporting Template to facilitate reporting/proof of execution for On
Template Site Champ activity

Useful links
 Microsoft Partner Network: https://mspartner.microsoft.com
o Program membership, products, licensing, training & event
information
 Partner Incentives MPN Portal: aka.ms/partnerincentives
o Includes all Partner-facing incentives materials

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  Partner Incentives Experience: https://partnerincentives.microsoft.com
o A dashboard providing program information, notifications and
support
 Partner Center: https://partnercenter.microsoft.com/en-us/partner/home
o Support, Partner Community and Partner Services Site
 Partner Incentives Experience guide: aka.ms/partnerincentives
o This guide summarizes requirements for participating in Microsoft
CSP incentive program(s)

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Appendix A: Emerging & Mature Markets
Asia Pacific France Mature
Emerging France
Mature
Indonesia Germany
Australia
Malaysia
Philippines
Korea Mature
Bangladesh
New Zealand Greater China Germany
Brunei Emerging
Cambodia
South Asia HQ China
Myanmar Mature
Bhutan Singapore
Hong Kong
Laos India
Taiwan
Nepal Emerging
Sri Lanka India
Thailand
Japan
Vietnam Mature
Japan
Canada Latin America
Mature Emerging
Mature
Canada Argentina
Puerto Rico
Central and Eastern Europe Uruguay
Anguilla
Brazil
Emerging Mature Antigua and
Chile
Kazakhstan Czech Republic Barbuda
Colombia
Romania Greece Aruba
Bahamas, The
Ukraine Hungary Barbados
Belize
Albania Poland Cuba
Bermuda
Armenia Slovakia Dominica
Cayman Islands
Azerbaijan Croatia French Guiana
Jamaica
Belarus Cyprus Grenada
Turks and Caicos
Bosnia and Estonia Guadeloupe
Islands
Herzegovina Malta Guyana
Bolivia
Bulgaria Slovenia Haiti
Costa Rica
Kyrgyzstan Martinique
Dominican Republic
Mongolia Montserrat
Ecuador
Tajikistan Netherlands
El Salvador
Uzbekistan Antilles
Guatemala
Georgia Saint Martin
Honduras
Kosovo St Maartens
Nicaragua
Latvia St. Kitts and Nevis
Panama
Lithuania St. Lucia

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Macedonia (FYROM) Paraguay St. Vincent and
Moldova Venezuela Grenadines
Montenegro Mexico Peru Suriname
Serbia Trinidad & Tobago
Turkmenistan Virgin Islands,
Western
Russia British
Europe
Middle East and Africa
Mature
Emerging
Austria
Egypt
Belgium
Algeria
Luxembourg
Iraq
Mature Denmark
Gaza Strip
Kuwait Iceland
Jordan
Bahrain Finland
Palestinian Authority
Oman Ireland
West Bank
Qatar Italy
Lebanon Libya
United Arab Emirates Netherlands
Morocco
Yemen Norway
Afghanistan
Israel Portugal
Iran
Saudi Arabia Spain
Syria
Sweden
Pakistan
Tunisia Switzerland
Nigeria
South Africa
Turkey
Africa New Markets
Gambia
Angola
Ghana
Indian Ocean Islands
Kenya
Botswana
Ethiopia
Namibia
Rest of East &
Southern Africa
Zimbabwe
Cameroon
Ivory Coast
Senegal
United Kingdom
Mature
United Kingdom

United States
Mature
United States

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