FPC Program ideas/suggestions

Hello, Are there any plans to expand the demo tenant offerings available on the Microsoft Demo eXperiences (MDX) site to include newer solutions such as Microsoft 365 Copilot, Entra Suite, Intune Suite, and others. Having access to demo environments for these products would be incredibly valuable for us. It would allow our team to gain hands-on experience with setup and configuration, which in turn would help us deliver more effective walkthroughs and demonstrations of the associated ADGs. Thank you

Please increase partner-facing technical enablement sessions—similar to the October Copilot Oversharing Guidance Community Call. Partners struggle to keep up with rapid updates in M365, especially Copilot and Security.   What’s needed More frequent partner-facing calls/webinars with: Latest feature updates and roadmap highlights Deployment/adoption best practices and security guidance   Impact Improves pre-sales confidence Accelerates M365 products adoption Strengthens competitive positioning

My idea would be for me to have a way to quicky get a preformatted report from Partner Center within 1 click.  Currently I go to the Partner Center page and gather data for my sales team. The sales team doesn't have access so I provide them with the information on existing customers that are ready for any MCI, SCI, E3, or E5 upgrades. Currently I have to select the area in Partner Center that I want to export. Then it processes into a CSV file. I then download the CSV file. I have to open Excel use Get Data and point it to the CSV. After that, I have to click on Transform Data and the screen switches to the Data Screen where I can set the values for each cell. For example, Customer Is Eligible the value may be set to 1 or ineligible may be set to 2. However on my report I want the word Eligible or Ineligible so I se that on this screen.After all that I have to close and import the data into Excel. From there I have to use the existing data to create a Pivot table to group all the like data together. This would be more efficient if that was all done on the backend and what I download is an editable Excel sheet. Just have a basic template with all the data logically sorted and let the user be able to edit it so they can change whatever they need on their time. This would be so helpful and save massive amounts of editing time.

As partners and Microsoft focus on moving customers to NCE contracts at renewal, is Microsoft considering allowing customers renewing from EA into NCE to be eligible for the MW Security Deployment Offer voucher program? We have several opportunities where we are working with Microsoft on renewals and encouraging customers to move to NCE, which disqualifies them from the voucher program. These customers are renewing from M365 E3 to M365 E5 and need assistance with deploying security products and would be a great fit for the deployment voucher.

Why not have automated forms sent out to partners after a certain period of time to provide feedback on a referral? 

Overview:Angi (eGroup) highlighted a critical trend impacting partner revenue streams: as customers transition from EA to CSP, they often discontinue Unified Support because CSP includes break-fix support at no additional cost. This shift significantly reduces the perceived need for paid managed services, creating a structural GTM blocker for partners like eGroup.Detailed Feedback & Context:Customer Behavior:Many customers only use Unified Support for ticket resolution and do not leverage its additional value-add services (training, proactive engagement).When moving to CSP, these customers see an opportunity to eliminate costs while still receiving break-fix support, making managed services upsell difficult.Angi noted: “We try to upsell it and want to be in there, but as people make that move, they’re like, sweet, I can save money on this and what I still need tickets for is just included in being a CSP.”Market Dynamics:CSP indirect providers like Ingram offer robust Tier 2 support and absorb Microsoft escalation costs, reinforcing the perception that CSP support is “good enough.”This model commoditizes basic support and erodes differentiation for partners who traditionally relied on Unified Support gaps to position premium managed services.Partner Impact:Reduced attach opportunities for managed services, especially for customers who prioritize cost savings over enhanced experience.Even when prospects express dissatisfaction with Unified Support (e.g., poor value, lack of technical depth), converting them to paid managed services remains challenging for large enterprises due to cost competitiveness.Angi emphasized that non-break-fix requests (e.g., proactive optimization) are rare, limiting upsell triggers.Business Implications:Revenue Risk: Partners lose a key monetization lever as CSP adoption accelerates.Customer Experience Gap: Customers may settle for reactive support, missing opportunities for proactive optimization and strategic guidance.Program Misalignment: Current CSP support structure unintentionally disincentivizes managed services adoption, conflicting with Microsoft’s goal of driving partner-led value.Recap: eGroup + Enabling/FRP Microsoft Sync Wednesday, November 12 | Meeting | Microsoft Teams

Some of the Disti PDMs have raised concerns over the amount of Data we are exposing to potential competitors and the motion of Share shift.  It has been proposed that if a certain partner doesn't own the majority of the license that we don't expose the data in their feeds. This is potentially more important in the CSP world as customers can purchase licenses form multiple partners. 

Our data today is broken down into individual workloads. This is great for an EA customer that aligns to E3 and E5 license types. In the SMB space the CSP terms for licenses are Business essentials or standard and Business Premium. Some of the advanced workload have add on SKUs to these “hero” SKUs. It would be great if we could map the workload to the license type that aligns with CSP. 

Following a Security Compete Partner Insights meeting with Exakis partner, EPS Security GTM  (Petra Korica) and Security Compete Strategy Lead (Ozge Sahin), Exakis partner shared an important feed-back about the lack of Purview for structured data for MCI envisioning.  For Purview focused on Structured Data, it implies databases, data lake, data warehouse or any systems that propose a structured data.Those services in Purview (Data Map, Data Catalog, Data Quality, etc) are not on the same pricing model because they are based on Azure Consumption. Customers want to assess the solution on several topics including Classification, Protection, governance & Compliance for those structured data using those features which are not part of any modules in the current engagement.

Partners face challenges converting EA customers to CSP because EA contracts offer access to programs and funding that CSP cannot match. This creates friction during renewal cycles and slows CSP growth. Recommend publishing clear guidance and value comparison for EA vs CSP, along with potential funding levers to offset gaps. Both BDO and Quisitive have provided this feedback in Q2.  EA to CSP Transition Challenges and Funding Opportunities: Michelle and Josh discussed the complexities of transitioning customers from EA to CSP, including eligibility, funding programs, and the need for compelling business cases to secure Microsoft support, with input from Emily on operational alignment. Recap: BDO:Microsoft - FRP Rhythm of Business Tuesday, October 28 | Meeting | Microsoft Teams