Microsoft Partner Network technical benefits summary

See below for MPN Sign-in, Support Activation, Microsoft Partner Support Community, Product Support Incidents, Technical Presales Assistance and Partner Advisory hours, Additional information


MPN sign-in
Partners need an MPN Sign-in associated with their partner organisation to access MPN resources


Sign-in problems
If you have an existing MPN Sign-in and problems using Internet Explorer. Open using InPrivate (press Ctrl+Shift+P) and / or add Microsoft.com to Compatibility View.


How to become associated
Please follow the 2 steps below.

Step 1: Association and authorization

You have 2 options, contact your administrator or use individual association

a) Contact your administrator: The administrator signs in to the Partner Membership Center, Requirements & Assets, Invite People to Associate, Invite Multiple People, enter email addresses, approve Invitees. The administrator copies the Invitation URL and they send an email to the contacts.

b) Individual association: Start to Enroll Now, associate as an individual, Find Your Organization, and Submit E-mail. If the email matches one of Your Organization E-mail Domains, specified by the Global Admin (Organization Profile), you will be automatically authorised. If the email does not match, click Contact Administrator and wait for their approval (Accepted) email.

Step 2: Complete your profile

When the individual receives an approval (Accepted) email, Sign-in with your Microsoft account (Live ID), then open the link in the email, update your individual profile and accept the MPN legal agreement.

More information


Microsoft Partner Support Community
All active partners can use the Partner Support Community for partner membership or technical product support. The Partner Support Community is a private community for partners only, so you can feel confident knowing that the public is unable to search and see your questions. Every post to the Partner Support Community has a guaranteed initial response time from Microsoft support professionals. Partners may also respond to posts.

Please see the Partner Support Community and the FAQ for more information.



Support activation
Partners with a single or multiple competencies are entitled to a single set of core benefits per organization. They are proactively activated within a month of enrolment completion or may be activated on request. Competency partners who earn an additional competency at the location level are eligible to purchase a duplicate set of core benefits, known as the Additional Benefit Toolkit (ABTK).

Action Pack partners need to request support contract activation before they use product support incidents.



Product Support Incidents
Use your Product Support Incidents to help resolve specific symptoms encountered while using Microsoft software (where there is a reasonable expectation that the problems are caused by Microsoft products). Product support incidents provide reactive support that focuses on a specific problem, error message, or functionality that is not working as intended.

For non-urgent requests, partners can save their product support incidents by using the Partner Support Community with a guaranteed initial response from Microsoft support professionals (see above.)

There are two types of Microsoft Partner Network product support incident benefits:

1. Product Support Incidents, for hybrid and on-premises competency partners, can be used for all supported products
2. Signature Cloud Support Incidents, for Cloud or Hybrid competency partners, can be used for Cloud products only

Using product support incidents
Create support incidents using online submission. Online submission saves time when you bypass the phone queue and enables you to enter a more detailed problem description (including attachments) to help solve the problem faster. For on-premises products and Microsoft Azure, the Access ID and Contract ID are only entered once and conveniently associated with your sign-in for future requests.
 

* From July 22 2017, Partner Product support incidents follow the N-1 support policy, for on-premises products. The N-1 support policy enables only the newer on-premises products. This includes all current (n) and the second most-current (n-1) versions of our on-premises products. Excluding any product where mainstream support has ended More information.

Advanced Support for Partners (ASfP) is a paid offering for Cloud-focused partners – More information


How to provision your Access ID and Contract ID
You can proactively associate your Access ID and Contract ID to your Microsoft account; without waiting until you need to create a support incident.

Take care to associate with the correct Microsoft account. The Azure Sign-in needs to be associated with your customer's Azure subscription. Therefore, it may be different from the Microsoft account used for your product support incidents.

See Map Access ID to this Microsoft account.


How to submit a Signature or Advanced Support for Partners incident
See Cloud support for Microsoft partners.


How to submit a product support incident
For product support or to buy support incidents go to the My benefits and activites page, use your MPN sign-in, click Submit a request, click Submit a product support incident. If you are not entitled to MPN support incidents, you may purchase an incident during the workflow. If you do not have an MPN Sign-in and urgently need to submit a request, use aka.ms/oas and any Microsoft account.

For more information, see Using Access ID and Contract IDs to create on-premises support incidents.



Requesting an Access ID and Contract ID
Contact the primary program contact of your organization's headquarters to request the Access ID and Contract ID. If they cannot find the Access and Contract IDs, they should contact the Regional Service Center to have the information sent via email. Alternatively, you may ask for the Access ID and Contract ID to be resent to the primary program contact.

If you are: 1. located in the same country as the benefits and 2. have an MPN Sign-in. You may request the Access ID and Contract ID yourself, via the Regional Service Center. This applies to the North American, Latin American, European Middle Eastern, and African regions only.

Partners can submit an RSC request online, go to the My benefits and activities page, use your MPN sign-in, click Submit a request, click Submit a program support case.

Important: On the contact information page, please make sure you select the relevant the country or region because this controls the routing of the request.

1. Click Program Support under My activities.
2. Then click the Create program support case button. On the contact information page, please make sure you select the relevant the country or region because this controls the routing of the request.
   

Technical Presales Assistance and Partner Advisory Hours
Gain a competitive advantage to win more deals through technical presales support. Request technical consultation and customized guidance throughout the presales process to help you position Microsoft solutions, overcome customer objections, demonstrate the value of solutions, and present solutions to your prospective customers.

• Silver and gold partners receive unlimited Technical Presales Assistance for cloud deals or for deals US$3,000+ for hybrid and limited on-premises products. Or they can use their allotted partner advisory hours.
• Action Pack subscribers can use partner advisory hours or get help through the Partner Support Community.
• Network members can purchase advisory hours or get help through the Partner Support Community.

Partner advisory hours
Use your partner advisory hours to help you develop better solutions, accelerate deployment, and increase consumption of Microsoft solutions throughout every stage of your customer relationships by leveraging technical training and personalized assistance to transform your business.

Technical Presales Assistance and Advisory Services are offered in the cloud, for hybrid scenarios and for limited on-premises only solutions, including Windows 10, Windows Server, Microsoft Dynamics AX, and Microsoft SQL Server.


Using Technical Presales Assistance and partner advisory hours
To create requests use your MPN sign-in and click Submit a request.
 *Windows 10, Windows Server, Microsoft Dynamics AX, and Microsoft SQL Server (more information).

**To qualify for the no-charge Technical Presales Assistance offering, you must provide the customer name and details of the project. The US$3,000 revenue minimum does not apply to deals made for cloud services or free software like Windows Internet Explorer. For smaller deals, you can also use your partner advisory hours to access this benefit.


How to Submit a Technical Presales Assistance or Partner Advisory hours request
Sign in to the My benefits and activities page and click Submit a request, then Submit and Advisory service request.
Important: On the contact information page, please make sure you select the relevant country or region, this controls the routing of the request.

For more information see Using Technical Presales Assistance and Partner Advisory hours.



Additional resources:

• My benefits and activities
• Using Technical Presales Assistance and partner advisory hours
• Using an Access ID and a Contract ID to create on-premises support incidents
• MPN Partner support N-1 policy for on-premises products
• Map Access ID to this Microsoft account
• Microsoft Partner Network membership benefits cannot be displayed
• Cloud support for Microsoft partners (Signature, Advanced Support)
• Azure Support Guide