Microsoft Licensing Programs
Leverage rhipe’s expertise in CSP, SPLA, LSP and Not-for-Profit licensing programs
Licensing for the hybrid cloud
Our business was born as a cloud-first, cloud-dedicated distributor. The strength of our longstanding relationship with Microsoft has helped hundreds of partners across the region to access the explosive demand for cloud technology. rhipe continues to expand and strengthen our already unparalleled Microsoft expertise, and at the heart of this is licensing.
Microsoft CSP
Own the end-to-end customer relationship and drive your managed services business further by providing Office 365 solutions in a monthly subscription with the Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program.
The Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider Program (CSP) enables partners to directly manage their entire Microsoft cloud customer lifecycle. Partners in this program utilize dedicated in-product tools to directly provision, manage, and support their customer subscriptions. Partners can easily package their own tools, products, and services, and combine them into one monthly or annual customer bill.
This program helps Microsoft partners become their customers’ trusted advisors. With Microsoft CSP, partners can own and manage the end-to-end relationship with their customers.
As a rhipe partner on Microsoft CSP licensing program, you benefit from:
- Additional Professional Services to your Microsoft cloud projects, including Azure migrations, Business Central implementations, and Support-as-a-Service
- A team of experts with deep domain knowledge in all Microsoft platform offerings to provide you with advice on developing your Microsoft cloud practice and assist with technical requirements
Use of the rhipe PRISM platform for integrated procurement, billing and provisioning, to simplify management of your recurring subscription revenues.
Microsoft CSP seat-based cloud offers on new commerce experience (NCE) for Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, and Power Platform, as well as Windows 365 are available from January 2022. Read the blog post for more information on the key differences and benefits of the NCE.
Microsoft SPLA
The Microsoft Services Provider License Agreement (SPLA) is the licensing agreement under which you can grant access to your Microsoft apps to users outside internal staff and direct customers in many cases.
This licensing program will benefit your business if your company provides one of the following:
- Hosts websites using Microsoft software for other organizations
- Rents out PCs, servers or laptops with Microsoft software installed on them
- Delivers managed services utilising Microsoft software on customer servers on customer premises
- Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft Dynamics ERP
- allows other organizations to use any of your applications that are built on Microsoft software such as Windows Server or SQL Server
- Provides services to customers that make available, display, run, access, or otherwise interact, directly or indirectly, with Microsoft licensed Products. rhipe will help you by:
SPLA Program Benefits:
- No upfront costs for software
- Pay monthly only for what you use
- Licensing per user, per core or per processor
- Global reach with services delivered around the world
- Latest versions of demos, tests and evaluations
As a rhipe partner, we can help you by:
- Facilitating the formal agreements between you and Microsoft
- Providing you with ongoing licensing scenario advice
- Helping you network with other service providers to explore opportunities to deliver joint offerings
- Escalating complex issues to Microsoft on your behalf
- Collecting your monthly usage reports and submit them to Microsoft
Microsoft LSP
Microsoft appoint edrhipe as the world’s first pure play Cloud LSP (Licensing Solution Provider). rhipe is able to provision Enterprise Agreements in addition to the SPLA licenses it already supplies.
Leveraging rhipe’s Microsoft LSP status is a benefit to partners that want to be able to resell Microsoft products but are not ready to/do not plan to build a comprehensive licensing management practice.
With our ability to offer programs as an LSP, our team of licensing specialists can assist service providers through the software procurement lifecycle, vendor comparison, product selection and contract analysis to interpretation of agreement options and compliance assurance.
Our role is to facilitate your sale, ensuring that the correct licensing program is purchased by the right party and then to provide the ongoing management and renewal of those licensing agreements. This is traditionally managed directly with the end customer business on behalf of the partner, for the lifetime of the initial license deal. Thereafter, if the Partner negotiates renewals, ongoing revenue is shared.
LSP Program Benefits
Partners can offer their customers the Microsoft solution licenses they need, even if your business does not have a fully-fledged license management practice. This can assist your business in retaining customers that might otherwise seek out another Service Provider than can support their full licensing requirements.
Non-competitive: rhipe does not compete for services. Your business relationships with your customers are sound and secure. rhipe offers the complete Microsoft platform of products and can license customers for on-premises, cloud and hybrid licensing solutions.
Referral Program: the rhipe Referral Partner Program for Enterprise Agreements (EA) is available to all service providers. By working with rhipe to meet your end customer licensing needs you will be able to protect your relationship with your enterprise customers instead of having to use a potentially competitive channel. This is an opportunity for service providers to enable an additional revenue stream.
Licensing Expertise: We have experienced and certified Microsoft Licensing specialist that can support your sales teams and customers with all their licensing questions
Server and Cloud Enrolment
In the past, to have an Enterprise Agreement (EA), an organisation had to cover at least 250 Devices or Users for Desktop software and/or Online Services. There was no EA like solution if you just wanted to cover your Server and Application Platforms.
To address this Microsoft introduced three new agreement types. These were Enrollment for Application Platform (EAP), Enrollment for Core Infrastructure (ECI), and Enrollment for Windows Azure (EWA).
These Enrollments have now been consolidated and replaced with the Server & Cloud Enrollment (SCE). SCE offers programmatic discounts, favourable EA terms, flexible licensing options (mix of subscription and perpetual licensing) and the ability to purchase Azure Cloud Services. SCE is designed with Hybrid Cloud in mind.
SCE is the ultimate licensing agreement for End User Customer, Independent Software Vendors (ISV), and Managed Services Providers.
Microsoft TSI and rhipe For Change
Microsoft Tech for Social Impact (TSI) is a unique initiative dedicated to supporting Not for Profit organisations and the rhipe partners that enable them.
This initiative is accessed through the rhipe for Change program, which provides affordable and accessible technology and tools to help nonprofits of all sizes achieve their missions.
Partners that join rhipe for Change are empowered to develop solutions to serve non-profits, by working with Microsoft custom solutions that serve nonprofits, such as Nonprofit Operations Toolkit, Fundraising and Engagement for D365 Sales and Volunteer Management and Volunteer Engagement.
All profit from Nonprofit SKUs is re-invested into the Microsoft TSI initiative.
- Innovative cloud solutions to help you accelerate your impact
- Connect people and information in an intelligent new way: get Microsoft 365 Business Premium free for up to 10 users.
- Start your move to the cloud with Azure cloud services: get Azure services credit annually.
- Engage with donors and volunteers, connect with beneficiaries, and manage finances: leverage Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform to drive deeper engagement with constituents, modernize your financial systems, and build agile business processes
Frequently Asked Questions
CSP and SPLA are both monthly, pay-as-you-use subscription programs. Choosing between these programs depends on several other factors such as the deployment location, MSPs sales and service model, as well as the short-term and long-term cloud strategy.
Public cloud: if the solution is based on Office365 or could run in Azure, CSP would be a good fit.
Private or hosted cloud: if the solution needs to stay onsite for the customer or in a hoster’s data centre and requires more control and management by the service provider, SPLA would be a good fit.
Note that CSP licenses may also be deployed on the customer’s site.
See the comparison between SPLA vs CSP below:
SPLA
- Monthly, pay-as-you-use, no minimum term
- Upgrade and downgrade rights included
- Fail-over and disaster recovery rights included
- Products: Most traditional Microsoft software except Windows desktop OS licenses
- Rights to use in Azure: All “user” licensed SPLA products.
- CSP Perpetual licenses
- Upfront payment
- No upgrade rights; downgrade rights included
- No Fail-over rights; No disaster recovery rights
Products: Most products, but excluding all Dynamics 365 on-premises products, System Center products, and Azure DevOps Server.
No rights to use in Azure.
CSP Subscription licenses
Upfront payment; 1 or 3 years minimum term
Upgrade and downgrade rights included
Fail-over and disaster rights included
Products: Windows Server Core licenses and CALs, SQL Server Core licenses
Rights to use in Azure: Yes.
There are a few things to check before you move your customers’ licenses from other licensing channels or from other partners to rhipe CSP.
- To move a tenant with subscriptions from Open program: First check the expiry date of your customer’s Microsoft online subscription. Move to rhipe CSP program within 30 days upon expiry of your customer’s subscription.
- To move a tenant with subscriptions from Web direct (direct purchase from Microsoft): First follow the instructions below to transition the tenant and purchase the subscriptions through rhipe. Then, raise your service request online in the Office 365 admin center and ask the billing support team to cancel the subscription, stating that the customer is moving to CSP program so that Microsoft will waive the early termination penalty equivalent to 1-month subscription.
- To move subscriptions from other CSP indirect providers or other CSP direct resellers to rhipe CSP: Follow the steps below to transition the tenant and create a subscription with the correct license quantity through rhipe CSP. Then, cancel the subscription with the existing CSP partner. You will need to ensure that your customer’s contractual obligation with the previous reseller is fulfilled to avoid any dispute.
- To move subscriptions from another rhipe CSP reseller to you: Please raise a support case @assist@cloudsupport.help. You will need to ensure that your customer’s contractual obligation with the previous rhipe CSP reseller is fulfilled to avoid any dispute.
To move subscriptions and licenses to rhipe CSP, you first need to Connect a tenant to rhipe CSP.
First, log into rhipe PRISM Portal @www.prismportal.online, and go to Programs -> CSP.
- Click Connect Tenant to begin the process of connecting rhipe with your customer who has already purchased Microsoft Online services through other programs or partners before to rhipe CSP. Connect tenant only establishes a relationship between rhipe and your customer tenant. The existing subscription with the previous subscription provider will remain as in place until you suspend or terminate the subscription.
- Enter the Enter the name, email and billing address of your customer.
Simple answer is YES. Longer answer (including caveats) is:
End user demos
A customer may demonstrate its software services for up to 50 prospective end users.
The customer must keep records of all demonstrations including names, and user id’s.
The end user demo period is 60 days.
Further information can be found on Page 5 of the SPLA agreement, & page 4 of the SPLA program guide.
Yes, Microsoft SPLA requires you as hosting partner to maintain End User Agreements with all your end-customers. You must include terms that are substantially similar to, but no less restrictive than, the document titled “End User License Terms,” which is provided to you along with the SPLA contract.
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