Cloud Solution Provider program

This article explains how to configure your offer to be available to the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program. In addition to publishing your offers through commercial marketplace online stores, you can also sell through the CSP program to reach millions of qualified Microsoft customers that the program serves.

You can configure new or existing offers for availability in the CSP program on an opt-in basis, which allows CSP partners to sell your products and create bundled solutions for customers.

Publishers are responsible for providing break-fix support to end customers and for providing a mechanism for partners in the CSP program and/or customers to contact you for support. It's a best practice to provide partners in the CSP program with user documentation, training, and service health/outage notifications (as applicable) so that partners in the CSP program are equipped to handle tier 1 support requests from customers.

The following offers are eligible to be opted in to be sold by partners in the CSP program:

• Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) transact offers
• Virtual Machines (VMs)
• Solution templates
• Managed applications
• Dynamics 365 Business Central offers (new)

How to configure an offer

Configure the CSP program opt-in setting when you create the offer in Partner Center.

Partner Center opt-in

The opt-in experience is located under the CSP Reseller audience module:

Choose from three options:

1. Any partner in the CSP program.
2. Specific partners in the CSP program I select.
3. No partners in the CSP program.

Option 1: Any partner in the CSP program

By choosing this option, all partners in the CSP program are eligible to resell your offer to their customers.

Option 2: Specific partners in the CSP program I select

By choosing this option, you authorize which partners in the CSP program are eligible to resell your offer.

To authorize partners, select Select CSP Partners and a menu appears that lets you search by partner name or CSP Microsoft Entra tenant ID.

You can apply search filters, such as Country, Competency, or Skill.

Once you choose the list of partners, select Add.

A table showing the list of partners you selected appears on the CSP Reseller audience page.

Select Save draft to register your changes.

If this offer is unpublished, you can publish the offer to make it available to your selected partners.

If you're updating the CSP list of an already published offer, add the partners and select Sync CSP audience.

If you have an offer that already has a list of authorized partners and you'd like to use the same list for another offer, use Import/Export. Navigate to the offer that has the CSP list and select Export CSPs. The function develops a .csv file that can be imported into another offer.

Option 3: No partners in the CSP program

By choosing this option, you're opting your offer out of the CSP program. You can change this selection at any time.

Deauthorize Partners in the CSP program

If you authorized a partner in the CSP program and that partner has already resold the product to their customers, you won't be allowed to deauthorize that partner.

If a partner in the CSP program has not sold your product to their customers and you'd like to remove the CSP after your offer has been published, use the following instructions:

1. Go to the Support request page. The first few dropdown menus are automatically filled in for you.

   Note

   Don't change the pre-populated dropdown menu selections.

2. For Select the product version, select Live offer management.

3. For Select a category that best describe the issue, choose the category that refers to your offer.

4. For Select a problem that best describes the issue, select Update existing offer.

5. Select Next to be directed to the Issue details page to enter more details about your issue.

6. Use Deauthorize CSP as the issue title and fill out the rest of the required sections.

Navigate between options

Use this section to navigate between the three CSP reseller options.

Navigate from Option one: Any partner in the CSP program

If your offer is currently Option 1: Any partner in the CSP program and you'd like to navigate to either of the other two options, use the following instructions to create a request:

1. Go to the Support request page. The first few dropdown menus are automatically filled in for you.

   Note

   Don't change the pre-populated dropdown menu selections.

2. For Select the product version, select Live offer management.

3. For Select a category that best describe the issue, choose the category that refers to your offer.

4. For Select a problem that best describes the issue, select Update existing offer.

5. Select Next to be directed to the Issue details page to enter more details about your issue.

6. Use Deauthorize CSP as the issue title and fill out the rest of the required sections.

Navigate from Option two: Specific partners in the CSP program I select

If your offer is currently Option 2: Specific partners in the CSP program I select and you'd like to navigate to Option one: Any partner in the CSP program, use the following instructions to create a request:

1. Go to the Support request page. The first few dropdown menus are automatically filled in for you.

   Note

   Don't change the pre-populated dropdown menu selections.

2. For Select the product version, select Live offer management.

3. For Select a category that best describe the issue, choose the category that refers to your offer.

4. For Select a problem that best describes the issue, select Update existing offer.

5. Select Next to be directed to the Issue details page to enter more details about your issue.

6. Use Deauthorize CSP as the issue title and fill out the rest of the required sections.

If your offer is currently Option 2: Specific partners in the CSP program I select and you'd like to navigate to Option 3: No partners in the CSP program, you'll only be able to navigate to that option if the partners in the CSP program you'd previously authorized haven't resold your offer to end customers. Use the following instructions to create a request:

1. Go to the Support request page. The first few dropdown menus are automatically filled in for you.

   Note

   Don't change the pre-populated dropdown menu selections.

2. For Select the product version, select Live offer management.

3. For Select a category that best describe the issue, choose the category that refers to your offer.

4. For Select a problem that best describes the issue, select Update existing offer.

5. Select Next to be directed to the Issue details page to enter more details about your issue.

6. Use Deauthorize CSP as the issue title and fill out the rest of the required sections.

Navigate from Option 3: No partners in the CSP program

If your offer is currently Option 3: No partners in the CSP program, you can navigate to either of the other two options at any time.

Sharing sales and support materials with partners in the CSP program

To help partners in the Cloud Solution Provider program most effectively represent your offer and engage with your organization, you must submit sales and support materials that will be available to the resellers. These resources won't be exposed to customers in the online stores.

Partner Center CSP channel

If you opted into the CSP channel in Partner Center, publishers must enter a URL that hosts relevant marketing materials and channel contact information under the offer listing module.

Next steps

• Learn more about Go-to-market services.
• Sign in to Partner Center to create and configure your offer.