Office 365 via GoDaddy?
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@Carnival-Boy said:
I wouldn't buy through a reseller.
Remember, we are partners, not resellers. You still buy from Microsoft. You can always shut us out. You are in control. We are the "Partners of Record" and only add value, we have no means of subtracting it (we could do nothing and just sit there too, that's always possible.)
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@Carnival-Boy said:
Reading that article, I'd be particularly concerned that GoDaddy appear to be offering exclusive subscriptions that Microsoft don't offer. If you sign up to one of those how easy is it to move away from GoDaddy if things go awry?
GoDaddy is, I believe, a reseller. Only resellers, AFAIK, can lower the price because they get a margin. The partners have zero say in the price. No matter what happens through a partner, the price is the same and it is all through Microsoft directly. We never get your financial information, credit card or anything like that.
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@Dashrender said:
What I don't know is, if I didn't want to use them anymore, how do I revoke access to them? or more it to another vendor?
Yup, just contact Microsoft and either request to move to another partner or to remove the partner of record.
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@thecreativeone91 said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
Other than providing the reseller access to your account, supposedly so they can provide first level support to you, I don't think there is any difference in buying O365 from MS vs a reseller.
Am I right on that Scott?
Getting your account through a reseller is a free way to get an extra layer of support. This might mean nothing, might mean real value, depends on the partner.
With Premier Partners you ALSO get an additional level of support from Microsoft. The top level of support is exclusively with premier partners. So with those (and we are one, that's how we found out about this) not only is the partner your first level of support, but the partner has assigned account teams at MS and has concierge service. So both the partner and Microsoft provide additional value if you buy the recommended way.
There is a reason why you should never buy directly from MS, you simply throw away benefits that are otherwise free (included in the base price.) You pay nothing extra for the upgraded service. Microsoft provides it as an incentive to work with their preferred partners.
Are there any providers that aren't giving you full access to O365 though. Like say they create the o365 account for you, but you don't get admin access to the panel. Then use an API (with powerhell) to provide customers with slimmed down options? like them providing office 365 services rather than reselling.
Partners can't do that. Don't know how much the resellers have options to reduce things.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Carnival-Boy said:
I wouldn't buy through a reseller.
Remember, we are partners, not resellers. You still buy from Microsoft. You can always shut us out. You are in control. We are the "Partners of Record" and only add value, we have no means of subtracting it (we could do nothing and just sit there too, that's always possible.)
Yeah, that's what I like. Partner on record. I'm fully on board with that.
So I'm not sure what you mean by "There is a reason why you should never buy directly from MS"?
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@Carnival-Boy said:
So I'm not sure what you mean by "There is a reason why you should never buy directly from MS"?
Because going direct to MS without having a Premier Partner making the introduction and registering the relationship bars you from MS' top level concierge service and bars you from getting a PoR's extra support benefits. Once you go direct to MS and initiate the relationship, those options are permanently gone. MS expects and encourages everyone to go through a partner, and especially a premier partner, to get maximum benefits.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Carnival-Boy said:
So I'm not sure what you mean by "There is a reason why you should never buy directly from MS"?
Because going direct to MS without having a Premier Partner making the introduction and registering the relationship bars you from MS' top level concierge service and bars you from getting a PoR's extra support benefits. Once you go direct to MS and initiate the relationship, those options are permanently gone. MS expects and encourages everyone to go through a partner, and especially a premier partner, to get maximum benefits.
And how is MS promoting this desire of theirs? It's not on plain enough on the o365 pages that I've noticed.
Heck I only know about it because being here.
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As someone using Office 365, I'm open to the idea of buying it through a partner because there have certainly been times where some extra support outside of MS would have been nice to have.
The question is whether or not I would expect GoDaddy to provide consistent, quality support on a part of my infrastructure as critical as Office 365. The answer for me personally is... very no. Not at all.
Do they mention how much it will cost you after the first year?
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I've done partner based support for 365, from migrations to weird support issues.
If you are a Microsoft 365 partner, you get access to something called "The Microsoft Partner Support Team"
You skip a lot of the bobbins, and just get pure MS tech support.
Microsoft know that to become a partner you have to go through the training, the certifications, ect. So they give you better access to their technicians.
@scottalanmiller said:
Once you go direct to MS and initiate the relationship, those options are permanently gone. MS expects and encourages everyone to go through a partner, and especially a premier partner, to get maximum benefits.
....? How are they permanently gone? We went in and took over clients who had no partner before.
Can I ask what is a premium partner?
You might be a registered partner with no competencies, or you might have every gold partner competency under the sun, but you are still a Microsoft partner.
I've never heard the term Premium partner.https://technet.microsoft.com/en-GB/library/office-365-partners.aspx
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@Breffni-Potter said:
Can I ask what is a premium partner?
You might be a registered partner with no competencies, or you might have every gold partner competency under the sun, but you are still a Microsoft partner.
I've never heard the term Premium partner.Separate track than the MS Partners. It's an Office 365 Partner level. We've been an MS Partner for forever. Your MS Partner, Silver and Gold status is unrelated to your O365 levels. When we went Premier is when we first heard about it. We got upgraded service offerings when we did.
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@Breffni-Potter said:
....? How are they permanently gone? We went in and took over clients who had no partner before.
AFAIK switching after the fact does not give you the concierge service. Maybe it does and we just haven't seen it.
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@Dashrender said:
And how is MS promoting this desire of theirs? It's not on plain enough on the o365 pages that I've noticed.
Heck I only know about it because being here.
Same in here. In all my time spent researching and using O365, this is the first I've heard of it.
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@WingCreative said:
Do they mention how much it will cost you after the first year?
Yeah... $14.99 / mo
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Carnival-Boy said:
So I'm not sure what you mean by "There is a reason why you should never buy directly from MS"?
Because going direct to MS without having a Premier Partner making the introduction and registering the relationship bars you from MS' top level concierge service and bars you from getting a PoR's extra support benefits. Once you go direct to MS and initiate the relationship, those options are permanently gone.
So what is the difference between me registering NTG as my partner for my existing O365 account and getting NTG to "make the introduction" for a new account. I never realised there were two tiers of support.
I was thinking of adding NTG as my partner but to be honest I don't like the sound of becoming some kind of 2nd class customer simply because NTG didn't make the introduction.
It's particularly annoying that some customers will be getting special benefits that are now "permanently gone" for me for eternity, simply because I had no idea that this two tier support arrangement existed.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Carnival-Boy said:
So I'm not sure what you mean by "There is a reason why you should never buy directly from MS"?
Because going direct to MS without having a Premier Partner making the introduction and registering the relationship bars you from MS' top level concierge service and bars you from getting a PoR's extra support benefits. Once you go direct to MS and initiate the relationship, those options are permanently gone.
So what is the difference between me registering NTG as my partner for my existing O365 account and getting NTG to "make the introduction" for a new account. I never realised there were two tiers of support.
I was thinking of adding NTG as my partner but to be honest I don't like the sound of becoming some kind of 2nd class customer simply because NTG didn't make the introduction.
It's particularly annoying that some customer will be getting benefits that are now "permanently gone" for eternity, simply because I had no idea that this two tier support arrangement existing.
It might work. We've never had anyone try to switch to us that wasn't with another partner before. At least not that I know of. Let me get @Minion-Queen to answer that for you once she is back from her surprise trip to Canada. She is on the road back now, I believe. @jenuinecase might know as well.
I get the info second hand from the account team. Best to have them answer specifics.
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I wouldn't be switching as I don't currently have a partner specified. NTG would be my first.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
I wouldn't be switching as I don't currently have a partner specified. NTG would be my first.
That's what I meant. We've had people currently with other partners who didn't like them (they didn't like the partner, no idea about the partner's opinion of the client) that switched to us. That works. But switching from MS direct to us I am pretty sure would be a first. But there are tons of clients I know nothing about. I probably know under 10% of clients even just by name or reputation.
But @Minion-Queen will definitely either know or be able to find out.
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We have about half of our customers that have come to us because they didn't want to stay with their current partner. Most of the time cause the partner sucked
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It makes no sense to me that Microsoft would operate a two-tier system for its customers that have a partner of record. If NTG was my POR, why would Microsoft care how I originally signed up for O365 all those years ago? They're still getting paid, NTG are getting paid, why bar me from 1st class support? For eternity.
And as for that being Microsoft's preferred sign-up route, that can't be true. Where did you hear that? There is nothing on their website about being 'introduced' by a partner. Quite the opposite, they are encouraging you to sign-up straight away directly with Microsoft, or at least take out a trial directly with Microsoft.
Anyway, sod it. I'll go it alone as a 2nd class customer if that's the way it's got to be. I've survived thus far
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The "Preferred Partner Route" is more of a if you go with a Partner you are working with someone who has experience and if you are a high enough level of partner they you also have a dedicated Support Team from Microsoft themselves. We have an Account Manager, Technical Account Manager and Support Engineering team that we have direct access to if we need something. However I don't remember the last time we actually had to reach out to them because, well we are good and generally know how to fix most everything ourselves.
