This is a rough FAQ for partners around the Office 365 beta

2. Partner who sign up for the Microsoft Cloud Essentials Pack and meet the program requirements can take advantage of many benefits which include IUR for 250 seats of Office 365 Enterprise plan.

4. The Office 365 IUR benefit is for Plan E3, which includes the Office Professional Plus suite of desktop applications

5. Office 365 brings your IUR and partner features into a single portal – you only need to remember one login ID for everything—from trial invitations and purchase offers, to your team sites, to your inbox.

7. Yes. Partners should sign up for beta now, as Partner features will be tied to your Office 365 account. Microsoft will send an email prior to the announcement of Office 365 general availability to all Microsoft Cloud Essential Pack partners, which any partner is already subscribed to if they are using BPOS IUR, which will provide instructions on how to turn on Office partner features in your Office 365 beta account so you can utilize them.

9. Customers will not need to manually migrate data as part of the transition from BPOS to Office 365. Microsoft will work with customers to determine a mutually agreeable transition schedule, and will handle data continuity in the background during the transition. Partners are a special case because they need to exist in both worlds – BPOS and Office 365 – at once. This period of overlap introduces special challenges.

10. When should I transition to Office 365? Now? After it is commercially available?

11. If you have not taken advantage of BPOS IUR, or did not depend on it for day-to-day use, you should discontinue your BPOS account and start fresh in the Office 365 beta account. If you do use BPOS IUR for your day-to-day e-mail and collaboration system, you should transition as soon as practical after the manual data migration guidance becomes available.

12. If I want to start fresh in Office 365, should I throw away my BPOS IUR account?

13. You should forego your BPOS IUR account and start fresh on Office 365 if you have not used your BPOS IUR account as your day-to-day “production” communications and collaboration solution. On the other hand, if you have been depending on BPOS IUR for your daily business needs, you should consider manually migrating your emails, users, and SharePoint sites to Office 365 once Microsoft publishes guidance to help you perform a manual self-transition. Microsoft will publish this guidance prior to the announcement of Office 365 general availability.

14. If I don’t want to wait for Microsoft to transition my IUR account from BPOS to Office 365, will there be tools available for self-transition?

15. Microsoft will publish guidance to help you perform a manual self-transition. Microsoft will publish this guidance prior to the announcement of Office 365 general availability.

16. Will Microsoft fund my self-transition of e-mail and SharePoint data?

17. At present time, there is no funding available for self-transition.

18. My BPOS IUR is scheduled to expire soon. Will the expiration date be the same after I sign up for Office 365 IUR?

19. The BPOS IUR expiration date does not impact your Office 365 IUR. All partners that have a BPOS IUR accounts, are Microsoft Cloud Essential Pack partners, and as such will receive the benefit of 12 months of Office 365 IUR.

20. Will I have to transition from BPOS IUR to Office 365 in order to take advantage of Office 365 partner features such as trial invitations and purchase offers, or delegated administration?

21. The use of partner features for Office 365 are entirely separate from anything related to BPOS, The transition of BPOS IUR has no impact on your ability to use Office 365 features. Partners should sign up for beta now, as Partner features will be tied to your Office 365 account. Microsoft will send an email prior to the announcement of Office 365 general availability to all Microsoft Cloud Essential Pack partners, which any partner is already subscribed to if they are using BPOS IUR, which will provide instructions on how to turn on Office partner features in your Office 365 beta account so you can utilize them.

24. Prior to announcement of Office 365 general availability, Microsoft will send an e-mail to Cloud Essentials and Cloud Accelerate partners with information on how to turn on partner features.

26. You need to sign up for and meet the program requirements for the Microsoft Cloud Essentials Pack. All Microsoft Clouds Essentials Pack partners will receive an email prior to Office 365 general availability with information on how to turn on partner features within their Office 365 account, including: beta invitations, trial invitations (after general availability announcement), and purchase offers. When these partner features are turned on, they will include the ability to send beta (& trial after general availability) invitations to customers. Partners will automatically be attached as Partner of Record to customers who accept the invitations. Microsoft Cloud Accelerate partners get access to an additional partner feature: delegated administration. This enables those partners to perform administrative tasks on behalf of their customers.

27. If I currently have access to the delegated administration in BPOS, is that affected by the Office 365 beta and my IUR transition?

28. You will continue to have access to the BPOS delegated administration feature, and can continue to use it to manage your customers who are on BPOS. Access to and usage of the delegated administration feature for BPOS is completely separate from anything related to Office 365, and is not impacted by your Office 365 account of your IUR transition.

29. If you want to use delegated administration to manage your new customers on Office 365, you will first need to set up an Office 365 account as partner features for Office 365 are now tied to your Office 365 account. Microsoft will send all Microsoft Cloud Accelerate partners an email prior to Office 365 general availability with information on how to turn on partner features, including Office 365 delegated administration, within their Office 365 account to manage your customers who are on Office 365.

30. How do I get the delegated administration feature of Office 365?

31. Delegated Administration is available exclusively to Microsoft Cloud Accelerate Partners. If you have signed up for and meet the program requirements to achieved Microsoft Cloud Accelerate partner status, you will first need to set up an Office 365 account as partner features for Office 365 are now tied to your Office 365 account. Microsoft will send all Microsoft Cloud Accelerate partners an email prior to Office 365 general availability with information on how to turn on partner features, including Office 365 delegated administration, within their Office 365 account to manage your customers who are on Office 365. Instructions to turn on the delegated administration feature in your Office 365 account will also be posted prior to announcement of office general availability at www.microsoftcloudpartner.com...

32. Is there training on the partner features for Office 365?

33. Trainings will be available in May thru a Partner Academy Live session and through www.QuickStartOnlineServices.com

34. I am a Cloud Accelerate partner. Once I sign up for Office 365 and turn on the partner features, can I use Office 365 delegated administration to manage my BPOS customers?

35. To manage BPOS customers with delegated administration, you will continue to use the same BPOS delegated administration portal you use today: the Microsoft Online Services Partner Administration Center. For any customers using Office 365, you will use the Office 365 portal to perform delegated administration.

37. Yes - If you use the trial invitation and partner offer partner feature found in the Microsoft Online Portal, available to Microsoft Cloud Essentials Pack partner. This feature enables you to create a link (URL) to be sent to customers. When the customer clicks the link, he or she will be encouraged to sign up for a trial or purchase. Once the sign up is complete, you are automatically associated to that customer as Partner of Record, ensuring that you get paid the Advisor fees you are due.

39. Yes, you can be selected as Partner of Record even if you do not have an Office 365 account. However, if you want to send customers trial invitations or purchase offers, you will need to have an Office 365 account.

40. When Office 365 general availability is announced, what happens to all the BPOS quotes for purchase and trial that I sent to customers or put in my marketing materials?

41. Prior to or at the announcement of Office 365 general availability, BPOS trials will no longer be offered. When that occurs, customers following a BPOS trial quote link will receive a message stating that BPOS trial is offering is no longer valid. When Office 365 general availability is announced, customer will no longer be able to purchase BPOS. At that time, customers following either a purchase or a trial quote link for BPOS will receive a message stating that customers will no longer be able to purchase BPOS.