Academic customer

Any customer that meets the education customer eligibility requirements.

Anticorruption controls

When Microsoft applies additional requirements on the partner (by either requiring additional training or a meeting with a Microsoft employee) after an internal review process identifies specific or general concerns about the integrity or values of a partner.

Attestation

Confirmation or agreement that terms and conditions presented are understood and accepted.

Authorization

Process to grant permission or approval to engage in a particular activity.

Binding document

An enforceable document with the customer's written and unconditional acceptance of the partner's offer, including details that establish the customer's intent to be legally obligated to the terms of the offer. 

Business verification (BV)

Review through automated internal processes to determine if a specified organization's name matches their registered name and if the specified address is where the organization is officially located.

Company

The entity designated in an enrollment.

Concession

Anything granted that lowers the cost paid by the customer and documented through the contract package. This includes discounts, promotions, special offers, credits, reserved instances, spot pricing, and any other financial benefit that has been provided by Microsoft for the customer. All concessions are in scope for transparency and passthrough checks.

Consortium

An agreement between a group of companies to participate in a customer tender with the purpose of addressing the requirements of the tender (as the requirements are typically beyond the resources of any one member). This includes any subcontracting of any tender deliverables by a Microsoft Licensing Solution Partner, disti, or reseller.

Consultation

Knowledge transfer via a tailored conversation. Delivery would typically be via a meeting (virtual or in person) with a limited and known audience; could include multiple organizations, but similarity required amongst those organizations. Not designed for scale, but optimized for depth. Typically a one-off, planned meeting (pushed by the presenter); delivery ratio of 1:1 or 1:few.

Credit/rebills

A Microsoft process for revising a sales order. Typically, this includes crediting the original order, adjusting the order as per new instructions, and billing the changed order (credit and rebill); limited to our legacy programs. Also known as Order Revision.

Customer or end customer

The ultimate entity who will use the Microsoft products. Typically also the purchaser or buyer of the product.

Direct partner

In a direct partnership, Microsoft has the relationship with the end customer and pricing is provided by Microsoft. No additional margins are applied. Partners have a key role in the direct model to support the customer, but they do not influence the pricing.

Discount

Collectively, any promotional or negotiated discount offered by Microsoft to a company solely for the benefit of a customer. If Microsoft provides a company with a customer discount for a public sector customer, then the company must ensure that the customer discount is passed through for the benefit of the public sector customer. This also means that the resale price to the public sector customer for prices attributed to Microsoft products may not exceed the maximum resale price.

Discount passthrough

The policy and controls to ensure public sector customers receive the full value of all discounts, reductions, credits, and special offers; thus, a process to confirm that the customer has received the full financial benefit provided by Microsoft.

Discount transparency

A customer-facing communication to inform public sector customers of discounts and special offers provided through Microsoft that the customer is entitled to receive.

Domain verification (DV)

Review through internal process and system to confirm ownership of a domain (e.g., www.contoso.org); also used to match contact details to the business (e.g., BobB@contoso.com).

Early edition

Preview document released for socialization among a key set of engaged partners to collect feedback prior to wider distribution.

Education customer

See definition for "academic customer"."

Email verification (EV)

Review through internal process and system to confirm that an individual has ownership of a specified email address.

End customer (EC) or customer

The ultimate entity who will use the Microsoft product(s). Typically also the purchaser or buyer of the product(s).

Estimated retail price (ERP)

The published or list price for Microsoft products prior to any discount, change, or promotion.

Field

Term used to refer to Microsoft employees who have reporting lines outside of Redmond corporate hierarchy and/or live or work outside of the Puget Sound area. This is mainly our sales and marketing teams across the globe.

Government customer

Except as otherwise provided in a Channel Authorization, any "Eligible Entity" under Microsoft Qualifying Government Eligibility definition.

Government Partner Program

A program that authorizes Microsoft partners to distribute the Microsoft Select Plus and Enterprise Agreement volume licensing programs to government customers located in a limited number of authorized territories.

 Indirect partner

In an indirect partnership, partners have the same Microsoft SKUs available through a direct partnership. The final pricing to the end customer is provided by the indirect partner with margins. In this model, Microsoft can only provide the estimated resale price to the end customer.

  In-scope partners

Applicability of partners for a specific course of action or treatment.

 Legal entity

Status that confirms an organization is appropriately registered as a business (varies by country).

Maximum resale price (MRP)

The total estimated retail price for Microsoft products less the applicable customer discount.

Onboarding

The act or process of becoming ready and willing to participate as a partner; at Microsoft, this participation may be related to a new role or program.

Organizational classification

As part of internal process and system, confirmation that an entity exists and belongs to a certain organizational category, such as education, nonprofit, government, etc.

Partners

Individuals or organizations united or associated with each other in activities or spheres of common interest; commercial partners include our Licensing Solution Partners (LSPs), distributors ("distis"), and Cloud Solution Providers (CSPs).

Partner Accountability Management (PAM)

The Microsoft Operations execution arm of partner remediation, rehabilitation and, in the future, readiness services.

Partner Audit

A Microsoft business unit that is responsible for using a systematic, disciplined, technology-enabled approach to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of enterprise risk management, governance, controls, and company operations. Group within Internal Audit that applies a risk-based approach to review past deals and ask for contractually required evidence and support for the transaction. Typically, there are four audits conducted per year; each one includes eight to fifteen partners.

Partner Ecosystem Risk and Compliance (PERC) 

A Microsoft business unit focused on providing compliance oversight, streamlining the partner experience, and reducing internal churn to enhance Microsoft third-party risk management capabilities.

Playbook

Set of materials to help a partner improve their compliance maturity or capabilities; includes explanatory documents, training, FAQ, and/or how-to documentation.

Product

Means the Microsoft online services, tools, software, hardware, or professional support or consulting services with respect to which Microsoft grants a company certain rights or other benefits.

Public sector customer

Any customer that is an educational institution, government customer, or state-owned entity.

Rehabilitation

The process through which a partner will undertake a specific set of mutually agreed-upon governance and/or operational reforms to improve its ethics and compliance program.

Remediation

Actions taken by Microsoft to impose consequences and address the issues and risks resulting from a partner committing compliance infractions against its partner agreement.

Required training

Refer to the Required Training page to leverage the two required modules for partners: Integrity & Ethics Training for partners and Contract Compliance.

Secondary Review Desk

A centralized compliance desk that delivers proactive, transaction-level corruption risk management capabilities across Microsoft legacy and modern commercial licensing and services businesses. This team is empowered to require modifications to, delay, stop, or reject a deal in order to mitigate perceived risk.

 Special offer 

Any credits or other benefits (current or future) including previews and trials offered by Microsoft to a company for the sole benefit of a customer. If Microsoft provides a company with a customer special offer for a public sector customer, then the company must ensure that the customer special offer is passed through by the transference of the full value of such customer special offer to the public sector customer, as directed by Microsoft. 

State-owned entity (SOE)

An entity with sufficient financial links to government or controlled by the government, which also requires diligence when interacting with its employees. 

Training 

Knowledge transfer in a repeatable, standardized format. Delivery may be via slide deck, video, Word doc, FAQ document, or other mode. May be modularized and specific for depth, or scalable and optimized for breadth. Typically, available on demand (pulled by the recipient); delivery ratio is one to many. 

Vetting

Process to identify key details of an entity that wants to partner with Microsoft. At Microsoft this process is performed on a standard platform that identifies and validates if an entity meets the requirements to transact with Microsoft.

Volume licensing

A family of Microsoft licensing agreements offering packages for large numbers of users. Updated to "commercial licensing" to include Cloud Solution Partners and New Commerce Platform. Synonym: legacy programs.