Microsoft Partner Network

Benefit Package Usage Guide

Updated May 2018
Introduction to the MPN Program Benefits Usage Guide
The intent of the Microsoft Partner Network is to enable partner organizations to learn about Microsoft
technologies, so that partners can develop and support solutions on Microsoft platforms, and promote
and sell Microsoft software and services.
This guide is intended to provide Microsoft Action Pack Subscribers and Competency Partners with an
overview of the benefits available through Microsoft Partner Network (MPN). The following benefits are
covered in this guide: Technical Presales and Deployment Services, Cloud Services and Software Licenses,
Visual Studio, Technical Support and Go-To-Market Services. All benefits provided to partners via a
Benefit Package are made available to the entire partner organization.
An administrator within a partner organization assigns these benefits to specific users within the
organization. Partners participating in the Microsoft Partner Network are responsible for tracking use
and consumption of licenses and benefits provided through the program. Partners are also
accountable for developing their own method of tracking license/benefit usage.

Technical Presales and Deployment Services

The Technical Presales and Deployment Services offer technical training based on real-world scenarios
through technical journeys offered via interactive webinars and personalized technical consultations to
help partners accelerate sales, deployments and app development of Microsoft Cloud solutions.
Partners can find out more about this benefit here. Partners must be active members of MPN and
benefit access varies depending on the type of engagement partner wishes to have with a Microsoft
partner technical consultant. Additional information available in Using Technical Presales and
Deployment Services.

Internal Use Rights (“IURs”)

Each Benefit Package offers a customized set of product on-premise software and cloud service licenses
for the latest released product versions. Specific license grants are provided in the following tables:
• License table for Microsoft Action Pack Partners
• License table for Competency Partners
Partner organization is responsible for tracking the consumption of software and cloud services license
entitlement. If partner organization is selected for a compliance audit, the organization is responsible
for presenting records regarding the active program licenses used by the organization and compliance to
the terms of use.
Partners can mix and match on-premise software and cloud services. Licenses do not provide
downgrade rights or any other Software Assurance benefits. Licenses granted under MPN can be used
for development, testing, internal business needs, customer demonstrations, and internal training
purposes:
• IUR for training can be used for training internal employees only. Use for customer training is
not permitted.

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 • IUR for demonstration purposes can only by used by partners. Sales and marketing employees
of the organization can use this software to showcase products to your customers, but
demonstration products cannot be installed on customer hardware or infrastructure and must
be used with partner supervision.
• IUR for internal use are for use in a development, test, demo, sandbox, or production
environment for general internal business purposes and not for any type of commercial
purpose. For example, installing the Windows Server operating system and Microsoft Exchange
Server to set up an email system that you can use to send business-related email is acceptable.
However, production use for external commercial purposes, such as hosting a commercial
website, is outside the scope of these rights.
Licenses granted to partners cannot be used for:
• Direct revenue-generating activities such as hosting a customer’s applications or development of
custom solutions for a specific client
• Employee personal use at home
• Installation at a customer site
• Customer training (except for learning partners)
• Resold or transferred to any third party.
If product keys granted under MPN IUR benefits are found to be out of compliance or were leaked
and/or being pirated, Microsoft reserves the right to block those product keys.

Visual Studio – Developer Tools

Competency partners earn Visual Studio Enterprise subscriptions. Microsoft Action Pack subscribers earn
Visual Studio Professional subscriptions. All Visual Studio subscriptions are licensed per user and must
be assigned and activated to be valid.
Sharing sign-in credentials is prohibited.
• Visual Studio subscriptions allow designated employees in the partner organization to use the
software and cloud services included within the Visual Studio subscription to design, develop,
test, and demonstrate internal applications.
The products included in these Visual Studio subscriptions cannot be used for direct revenue-generating
activities, such as providing consulting services, customizing a packaged application for a specific
customer, or building a custom application for a customer, for a fee. They can be used for indirect
revenue-generating activities, such as building a packaged application on the Microsoft platform, which
is then marketed and sold to customers

Sharing
License entitlements are defined per organization. For Microsoft Action Pack subscribers who manage
their membership in Partner Membership Center, only one subscription per qualifying country may be
purchased. Microsoft Action Pack subscribers who manage their membership in Partner Center can
purchase one subscription per organization. Your organization can share licenses across your
headquarters and associated locations. Note the following guidelines regarding the sharing of licenses:
• Action Pack subscribers who manage their membership in Partner Membership Center, may
share licenses within the subscribing country, but may not share licenses across countries.
Action Pack subscribers who manage their membership in Partner Center, may share licenses

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 across their organization. Partners cannot share licenses across separate organizations not
associated within the MPN membership profile.
• Competency partners may share licenses only within the organization that earns these licenses—
between the headquarters location and any of its associated locations in their membership
profile. Partners cannot share licenses across separate organizations not associated within the
MPN membership profile. Competency partners may share licenses across countries, but the
total number of licenses used within a partner organization cannot exceed per country and/or
worldwide maximum license caps.

License Maximums
Competency partners are subject to maximum limits per organization at both the country and
worldwide level for IURs and Visual Studio subscriptions. These limits define the maximum licenses
partner organizations can have via MPN, regardless of the number of licenses earned through the
combination of core benefits, competency benefits, and Additional Benefit Toolkits for qualifying
locations. These maximums cover all products and cloud services per partner organization.
Maximums are five times the initial grant for each product or cloud service within a single country, and
fifteen times the initial grant worldwide. License maximums apply to program granted licenses only. If
an organization has a combination of silver and gold competencies, the maximum cap is based on the
highest competency earned for the country or organization for the worldwide max cap. Competency
partners may share licenses across countries, but the total number of licenses used within a partner
organization cannot exceed per country and/or worldwide maximum license caps.
For example, if the maximum license grant is 500 licenses for a certain product, and a partner has
earned a total of 300 licenses in country X and 400 licenses in country Y for that product, the partner
cannot use all 700 licenses earned within a single country. A maximum of 500 licenses can be used in
country X or country Y. Hence, the partner could choose to assign 500 licenses to country X and 200
licenses to country Y. This same principle applies to the worldwide maximum license grant per partner
organization.

Product Keys and Tokens

Some products and cloud services require a product key for installation and/or activation. Product keys
for cloud services may also be referred to as tokens. Keys are issued per organization and not per end-
user of the organization.
Not all product and cloud services licenses require product keys for installation or activation. Partners
can use any combination of methods and keys they have acquired through various Microsoft programs
to activate machines, depending on their business and infrastructure needs, so long if the systems are
properly licensed and appropriate use rights are applied.

On-premises Software Installation and Activation

If a product requires a product key for installation, the end-user will be prompted to enter a product key
during the installation process. If a product key is not required, “Not Required” will be noted in the
Product Key column.

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Although some products require the entry of a product key during the installation process, not all
products require product activation. Product activation is required for Windows server and client
operating systems and all Microsoft Office client applications.
Some product keys issued via MPN are Multiple Activation Keys (MAKs). These products have finite
number of installations, activations, or seats. A product key will stop working when all installations and
activations have been consumed. Additional activations for these product keys will not be granted.
Consumption behavior of activations on a product key differs between Action Pack subscribers and
competency partners:
For Action Pack subscribers, the product key activation behavior is based on scenario:
• If the software is installed on a new machine, one product activation is consumed against the
product key.
• If the software is installed on the same machine with no significant hardware changes, product
activation is not consumed against the product key.
• If the software is installed on the same machine with significant hardware changes, product
activation is consumed against the product key.
For competency partners, each time a machine is activated, one of the product activations for that
product key is consumed. This includes situations in which the same machine is reimaged and activated.
Product keys may only be used in the license grant combinations as provided. For example, one 25 seat
key cannot be adjusted to 5 different 5 seat keys.
On-premises software licenses issued under MPN are not perpetual. Partners are entitled and have the
right to use these licenses only during their MPN membership. Partners who opt not to renew their
MPN membership will need to obtain license rights via Commercial Licensing or un-install any on-
premise software obtained via MPN,

Cloud Services Activation

Tokens are issued for cloud services. Partners may have multiple tokens for each online service. Tokens
must be used in the format provided. For example, a 25-seat token cannot be split into 5 different 5
seat tokens so that the cloud service can be consumed under different tenants. Program administrators
who manage MPN benefits must pay close attention during activation, because each token may only
be activated one-time. Once a token has been activated for seats on a tenant, those seats may not be
moved to another tenant. Replacement tokens for cloud service activations on wrong tenant will not
be provided.
Cloud services entitlement/license terminates at the end of Microsoft Action Pack
subscription/competency enrollment year. Although Partners may continue to have access to cloud
services benefits past their program enrollment end date, they will no longer have use rights through
the program.
Each year when an organization renews a subscription or re-enrolls into the subscription/program with a
competency, a new set of tokens will be issued based on the organization’s entitlement at the time of
re-enrollment. Partner program administrators are required to enter these new tokens on the Key
Redemption Portal each program year to avoid a lapse in cloud services. Partners who opt not to renew
their MPN membership will need to obtain license rights via Commercial Licensing,

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General Activation Resources
TechNet is available for IT professionals, and developers can access resources on MSDN.

Additional Licenses
If a partner organization requires more licenses than provided via MPN Benefit Packages, partners may
obtain such licenses via Commercial Licensing,

Azure Services Benefits

Azure is a comprehensive set of cloud services that developers and IT professionals use to build, deploy,
and manage applications through a global network of datacenters. Microsoft partners receive monthly
and/or lump sum bulk credit also known as Microsoft Azure Sponsorship, for Azure services. An
organization may activate only one monthly Azure credit per membership year regardless of how many
MAPS they have purchased in different countries. An organization may activate only one Azure Bulk
Credit per membership year regardless of how many Additional Benefit Tool Kits they may have
purchased. Partner organization can choose to activate these benefits on their production,
development or testing tenants. Azure benefits granted to partners cannot be used for:

• Direct revenue-generating activities such as hosting a customer’s applications or development of

custom solutions for a specific client
• Employee personal use at home
• Installation at a customer site
• Customer training (except for learning partners)
• Resold or transferred to any third party.
Microsoft Azure Sponsorship (Azure Bulk Credit) offer is available by e-mail invitation only, issued once
partner requests to redeem the benefit. If a partner is entitled to the Microsoft Azure Sponsorship offer
and requests to redeem the benefit, they will receive an e-mail invitation to accept the offer for their
organization on a specific Account ID they have provided to Microsoft. As per Terms & Conditions, unless
prohibited by applicable law or otherwise specified in writing, the special pricing will terminate and the
subscription under the Microsoft Azure Sponsorship offer will be converted automatically to the Pay-As-
You-Go offer upon the earlier occurrence of:
I. When total cumulative usage reaches s Usage Cap (as specified in the invitation e-mail) at standard
Pay-As-You-Go rates prior to application of any discount or
II. When the partner organization reaches End Date (as specified in your invitation e-mail).
Partners can spin up multiple Azure subscriptions on a single tenant and can add up to 200 subscriptions
per account, however, partners can only get one Azure Bulk Credit for their entire organization. Microsoft
will not provide multiple Azure Bulk Credits to partners for each country in which they plan to use Azure.
Additionally, Azure Bulk Credit offer has the same compliance guidance as Azure for most part (e.g. topics
like cryptocurrency have unique compliance guidance outside Azure accounts which is assessed on a case-
by-case).

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The cloud services entitlement/license terminates at the end of the Microsoft Action Pack
subscription/competency enrollment year. Although Partners may continue to have access to cloud
services benefits past their program enrollment end date, they will no longer have use rights through
the program.

Technical Support
As part of their MPN benefits, partners receive two types of tech support incidents: Product Support
Incidents and Signature Cloud Support (SCS) Incidents.
Product Support Incidents are subject to N-1 policy (see MPN Partner support N-1 policy for on-premises
products for policy details). The N-1 support policy enables only newer on-premises products. N-1
includes the current product (N) and the previous product version (N-1). Older (N-2) products and any
product where mainstream support has ended (see Microsoft Lifecycle Policy), are not covered by
Product Support Incidents.
Signature Cloud Support provides partners with cloud support to help keep their customers’ services
operating smoothly. SCS handles technical support scenarios for Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft
Dynamics CRM Online, and Microsoft Azure. You can find out more in Microsoft Partner Network
technical benefits summary.

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