Today I had a very interesting conversation with my customers cloud solution provider programm partner (https://partner.microsoft.com/en-US/cloud-solution-provider). It looks like not each and every cloud solution provider offers all possible souvereign clouds at the moment, so we had to clarify how we as a customer should start with our project.
first things first – disclaimer
I know there is many ways how you may get your Office 365 tenant. The description mentioned below is a process we used today to handle our customers way to Office 365 Cloud Germany. Depending on when you read this post and your individual situation this may be different for you.
step-by-step walkthrough
The solution is very easy: your customer can start his journey by using your offer. I personally think you should start registering your customers tenant as a trial Office 365 Enterprise E3 subscription at this link: Office 365 Enterprise E3 – Testversion.
Using that link, you will register for an Office 365 Cloud Germany Enterprise E3 subscription. So please think about your compliance requirements first. I personally feel that you should rather register for the global cloud than a souvereign cloud to get the best user experience for your users.
When done, ask your CSP partner for the registration link. They will go to the official partner center home page. At that page they can logon with a registered CSP partners account. When done, they will go to “Dashboard” at the upper right corner.
Please understand that I cannot provide you with a screenshot, as themigationwizard.com does not own a CSP partner subscription at Microsoft. This is why I refer to MSDN add licenses or services to an existing subscription.
From the Dashboard a CSP partner will get a menu at the left called “manage customers” (“Kunden”). Choose “Request a relationship with a customer” (“Vertriebspartnerschaft beantragen”). This will present you a text you need to send to your customer. (see also https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/partner-center/add-a-new-customer )
A link is included that will ask your customer to agree to the reassignment. When done, you can start manging your cusomer.
Resumee
Except for the requirements to enroll your sevices as a CSP to the souvereign clouds like Office 365 Cloud Germany or Azure Cloud Germany, this is the same process you’re using to manage your customers in the global cloud.
It’s all that easy.