Microsoft SaaS - CONNECT 14.1 Release Notes

Introduction

This document describes the new features, enhancements, fixed issues and known limitations of Microsoft SaaS - CONNECT v14.1

New Features

• Microsoft’s Order-Level Partner Attestation of 'No Self-Dealing' has been implemented.
  

  Important: Microsoft considers this a breaking change. Please ensure that your channel associates are aware of the change.

  • From 00:01 UTC December 7th 2021, this feature will be available as an optional-use feature.

  • From 00:01 UTC January 13th 2022, this will be a mandatory use feature. Transacting Partners (Indirect Reseller Partners and Direct Provider Partners) will not be able to complete Sales Orders | Connect Purchases Requests) without an Attestation.

  The CloudBlue Connect Processor will present the following text into every Connect Purchase Order and a checkbox for the transacting Partner to Attest. This text is mandated exactly by Microsoft, not by CloudBlue.

  [ ] Partner Attestation – I Attest to the following on behalf of my organization
  
  I confirm that my organization is acting as an Indirect Reseller when choosing a Reseller and as a Direct Partner in the absence of selecting a Reseller.
  
  I confirm that I am not reselling products purchased within this order, or subsequent licenses thereafter, to other partners that are affiliated with my parent organization.

  Microsoft provides only in United States English and may provide translations to other common languages for calendar year 2022.
  CloudBlue is aware that some Partners have Customer Self-Order journeys. CloudBlue has opened a co-design initiative with Microsoft for this use case. However, Microsoft does not officially support Customer Self-Order journeys.

  For more information, please see the CloudBlue Partner Enablement Community resources:
  
  

  • Partner Attestation of No Self-Dealing

  • CloudBlue's Approach on the Microsoft Partner Attestation of No Self-Dealing
    

Enhancements

A new Connect Parameter for Tier Ordering has been added to improve the Connect Purchase Order experience for first time business in a CSP Relationship.

Before the change, the Connect Processor would correctly detect that a CSP Relationship is not in place and initiate the Partner Invitation Link (PIL) journey. However, it cannot easily determine when a RBAC Global Administrator of the Customer AAD Tenant or Indirect Reseller AAD Tenant has actually accepted the Partner Invitation Link (PIL) for CSP Relationship.

This feature will introduce an order validation checkbox for transacting Partners to confirm that they know that the RBAC Global Administrator of the Customer or Partner AAD Tenant has accepted the Partnership Invitation Link issued from the Microsoft Direct Billed Partner.

This checkbox has been implemented to avoid confusion for a transacting Partner when a CSP Relationship error is displayed, as it makes it clear that any persistent error has to do with the need to accept the Partnership Invitation Link (PIL) from the Microsoft Direct Billed Partner to solve the problem.

Fixed Issues

To improve provisioning performance, the Connect processor's dynamic order validation will now use the MPN Id and Reseller Id (in 2-tier models) and the Partner Id (only in 1-Tier models) to check the status of the Microsoft Partner Agreement.

Known Limitations

• NCE Microsoft 365 to Non-Qualified Commercial Customers: Changing the NCE order billing cycle is not supported.

• NCE Microsoft 365 to Non-Qualified Commercial Customers: Downsizing or changing the billing cycle in upgrades is not supported.

• All Microsoft User-Based Products: End-User Management is not supported.