How to Navigate for Microsoft’s New CSP Direct Bill Partners Requirements

CSPs who do not qualify for the above criteria will be moved to be Indirect Cloud Service Providers.

Indirect Service Providers will not have to provide the above criteria but will instead have to partner with Indirect Resellers in order to offer customer support and billing services.   

Microsoft is signaling to the partner community that they need to be ready for scale if they want to work with Microsoft as a Direct Bill partner. The only benefit, of being a direct bill partner is that there is a slightly higher margin between working with a distributor and directly with Microsoft.

That margin, which is usually a couple of percentage points will not be justified unless they are able to scale and grow their Cloud Recurring Business.

The manual cost of labor-intensive processes around Billing, Subscription Management, and Customer Support will outweigh the few percentage points of a margin between being Direct and Indirect Cloud Service Providers.

Having automation and the ability to scale, however, makes it worthwhile to stay in the program as a Direct Bill Partner.  

With these new requirements, Work 365’s Customer Service and Billing Infrastructure Apps will help many current and potential CSPs/Direct Bill Providers meet those prerequisites and solve those common issues with minimal additional investment or resources.