CSP Partner Insights Series – Monthly Key Updates

As a valued Synnex CSP partner, staying informed of key updates is essential to maintaining seamless operations and leveraging new opportunities. Welcome to our monthly CSP partner updates and actions required to ensure compliance and efficiency in your business processes.

Action Required: 

Ensure Correct Partner Location Account (PLA) ID Assignment

To comply with Microsoft’s requirements, all transactions must be assigned to the correct indirect reseller Partner Location Account (PLA) ID linked to an active indirect reseller tenant. Failure to do so may disrupt your ability to:

• Enrol in incentive programs
• Transact in the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program
• Conduct other business transactions

Next Steps:

1. Follow the step-by-step guide to locate your PLA ID.
2. Update your PLA ID on the Synnex portal to ensure seamless transaction processing.

For further assistance, please contact the Synnex CSP team at csp@au.synnex-grp.com.

Upcoming Pricing Updates from Microsoft

New Monthly Billing Plan Pricing

Starting April 1, 2025, Microsoft will price all new and renewing monthly billing plans for annual subscriptions 5% higher than the annual billing option for annual subscription plans. On your renewal date, you can elect to switch from monthly to annual billing for your annual subscriptions.

Additional Updates:

• Customers using end-of-sale (EOS) and EOS with Conversion offers (e.g., Microsoft 365 E3/E5 and Office 365 E1/E3/E5 suites with Teams) will be able to schedule changes to billing frequencies for their annual subscriptions at renewal.
• For trials, partners will gain greater control over subscription renewals, including license quantity, term, billing frequency, or opting out of auto-renewal.
• Mid-term billing frequency changes for customers with triennial offers will no longer be permitted.

License Pricing Changes:

Effective April 1, 2025, Microsoft will update pricing for the following licenses:

• Teams Phone Standard
• Power BI Pro
• Power BI Premium

Recap of Key Announcements from 2024

Microsoft 365 Copilot Launch: Microsoft introduced Microsoft 365 Copilot, enhancing productivity tools with advanced AI capabilities.

Synnex CSP Professional Services Launch: Synnex rolled out CSP professional services to help partners grow their businesses by expanding operational capacity and strategically optimising costs. These services include data migration, Azure assessments and optimisation, security solution design, custom application development, and more.

New Suite Offerings and Teams SKU Changes: Microsoft aligned new suite offerings without Teams across regions to align with the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland, and introduced a standalone Teams SKU for enterprises. Existing customers can continue using or upgrading their current SKUs with Teams, while new customers must purchase updated SKUs.

Public Sector Migration to New Commerce: In September 2024, Microsoft began migrating Public Sector offers to new commerce.

Partner-to-Partner (P2P) Subscription Transfers: Microsoft has launched mid-term P2P subscription transfers for NCE licenses, enabling MSPs to consolidate customer licenses under a single provider. Partners now have the ability to transfer and consolidate customer licenses from a different provider to Synnex. This provides organisational flexibility and allows for more effective license optimisation.

Monthly Billing for Microsoft 365 Copilot: In December 2024, Microsoft introduced a monthly billing option for annual term subscriptions of Microsoft 365 Copilot and related services. This option is priced 5% higher than the upfront annual billing option.

We’ll be back next month with more updates and insights. Look out for our next update in your inbox next month.

For more information or assistance, please reach out to the Synnex CSP team at csp@au.synnex-grp.com.