Pax8 and Microsoft Updates for February 2025

Grow your business, Microsoft, MSPs

February 10, 2025

Pax8

To stay current with all things Microsoft in 2025, be sure to register for our monthly Microsoft partner update webinar. Below are the top takeaways from our February 2025 webinar.

Program Updates

CSP Data Quality Enhancements

Please note: Any changes made to Partner Center information will trigger a verification process for data validation, and Microsoft reserves the right to audit partners and request verification at any time without cause. Failure to complete the verification process in 30 days may result in a failed/rejected state and be subject to CSP suspension and offboarding. If suspended, no new orders will be allowed under your MPN ID.

To ensure your CSP enrollment is in good standing, your global admin should regularly check partner center notifications via the action center. If you have any questions, please contact Microsoft support directly. Pax8 will not be able to support due to compliance reasons set by Microsoft.

Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program (MAICPP)

The last day to purchase or renew legacy MAICPP benefits was January 21, 2025. Partners with Silver or Gold benefits will only be able to earn incentives and rebates until September 30, 2025, and will need to attain a Solutions Partner designation or specialization to continue to earn incentives and rebates.

Key licenses partners can use within this program for their internal business purposes include:

Copilot for Microsoft 365 (Partner Success Expanded Benefits only)
Copilot for Sales, Finance and Service (Partner Success Expanded Benefits only)
Windows Server (Partner Success Core and Expanded Benefits only)
Defender for Endpoint P2
Entra ID P2

Securing the Partner Ecosystem

Please be aware that, as of this month, all Microsoft 365 users accessing the Microsoft 365 Admin Center will require multi-factor authentication (MFA). For assistance, please open a support ticket with Microsoft.

Also, to reduce vulnerabilities for fraudulent activity, Microsoft will block usage on subscriptions with no previous activity within the past 12 months. These subscriptions will be deleted 90 days after the block.

Microsoft Pricing Updates

Starting April 1, 2025, Microsoft will implement a 5% price adjustment across all new and renewing annual paid monthly subscriptions. Monthly subscriptions will not be impacted, and the current 20% price adjustment will remain. At the same time, Teams Phone Standard licenses will be priced at $10 per user, per month; with Power BI Pro licenses at $14 per user, per month; and Power BI Premium licenses at $24 per user, per month. Additionally, annual, paid monthly subscriptions will incur a 5% premium at the time of purchase or renewal on top of the price increase.

Promotions and Offers

Current Microsoft promos and offers include the following (see links for details and FAQs):

Microsoft 365 Business Premium – 15% off annual term
Microsoft 365 E3 – 15% off annual term
Microsoft 365 E5 – 15% off 1-year term
Office 365 E1 ASEAN – 60% off annual term
Office 365 E1 Plus – 30% off annual term
Copilot for Microsoft 365 – 15% off annual term
Dynamics 365 Business Central – 10% off annual term

Storage Policies for Unlicensed OneDrive
As of January 27, any OneDrive user account that has been unlicensed for more than 93 days will either be moved to the recycle bin and subsequently permanently deleted, or archived if they fall under a retention policy. Reactivation fees and monthly storage fees will be applied to archived accounts. These changes do not apply to education (EDU), GCC or DoD customers.

Partners should identify which customers are using OneDrive without a license, assess their usage patterns, and inform customers about these changes and their potential impact. Be sure to advise customers on the benefits of upgrading to a licensed Microsoft 365 plan to avoid additional charges.

Microsoft Product Updates

As of January, Pax8 has made available three-year commitment terms for all eligible Dynamics 365 products in our Marketplace. Pax8 offers both upfront and annual billing term options; monthly billing terms are not available for three-year commitments.

Partners who want to take advantage of the Microsoft Bridge to Cloud promotion must still submit a manual request to their Pax8 rep.

Copilot Portfolio Updates

Introducing Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat

Microsoft has launched Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, which combines a free, secure AI chat, powered by GPT-4o; agents integrated into the chat experience and paid for on a consumption basis; and enterprise data protection and agent management. With flexible purchase and deployment options, Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat gives partners options that fit their clients’ individual needs. See the Copilot Chat and Agent Starter Kit for more information.

Renewal Strategy Options

Given these changes Pax8 recommends considering these four opportunities for your renewal strategy:

Secure on-time renewals so you can maintain revenue and seats and minimize churn while leveraging the opportunity to upsell and attach new productions.
Take advantage of high customer interest in Copilot by attaching Microsoft 365 Copilot to current subscriptions.
Leverage a secure productivity play to upsell to Business Premium, Microsoft 365 E3 or Microsoft 365 E5 and optimize customers for Copilot security, management and data governance.
Start getting clients Copilot-ready by getting them onto the prerequisite licenses for Copilot.

Go-to-Market with Copilot in CSP

Pax8 recommends a three-pronged strategy to approach your clients about Copilot:

Get them AI-ready: Assess their use cases, technical readiness and security posture, then deploy Microsoft 365 Premium SKUs.
Onboard and engage: Build packaged offers and position Microsoft 365 Copilot as an efficiency play, then drive organization-wide AI adoption with Copilot Chat, build and deploy agents, and execute end user training.
Deliver impact: Provide ongoing managed services and drive continuous Microsoft 365 upsell from Copilot Chat.