Bridging the gaps to become a successful Microsoft CSP

Partners are striving to meet the requirements set by Microsoft for Microsoft CSPs all over the world. The cloud and the Edge are two powerful components of how businesses make use of the internet today. A Microsoft CSP Program is needed to make sure you are right on spot and updated with the latest happenings from Microsoft. 

How many Partners Types are there?

There are three different types of Partners under the Microsoft CSP Program:

• CSP Direct Bill Partners

CSP Direct Bill Partners have been able to purchase third-party and first-party offers from Microsoft Marketplace. Once purchased, you can now sell them further to your customers. There are a few requirements to become a direct Bill Partner like the ability to provide first-level cloud support to your customer and have an infrastructure in place for customer billing management.

• CSP Indirect Providers

These are also called Distributors. They can also purchase first and third-party offers from Marketplace, however, they can also integrate these offers into their own and resell them to their clients. Again, customer support and billing infrastructure requirements are there for Indirect Providers.

• CSP indirect resellers

These Partners do not have a direct relationship with Microsoft, rather, they depend on indirect providers for transactions in Microsoft CSP Program. They are able to offer managed services and billing services to customers. 

ALSO READ: GETTING STARTED WITH REMOTE DESKTOP SERVICES 2019 DEPLOYMENT

How MachPanel helps CSPs with its Automation Module for Microsoft CSP?

MachPanel is a great place for CSPs to learn ways to master CSP requirements. MachPanel makes your CSP journey easier and manageable. 

• Enjoy End to end Automation for your CSP business

To work smart, you need to know where to invest. Automation is one key element that makes your business journey smooth and easy. MachPanel offers the entire lifecycle automation of your CSP business including Microsoft Office 365, Azure Provisioning, Microsoft Hosted Exchange offering, SharePoint deployment and much more!

• Smooth showcasing, bundling, and selling of your offerings

With a Marketplace at hand, it’ll be a lot easier for you to showcase your products and offerings to your clients. Get complete control over subscriptions and plans with MachPanel through the white-labeled customized storefront. 

• Easy Billing setup and management

Financial operations are streamlined via MachPanel’s billing automation. You can directly bill to customers alongside consolidated and unified invoices to make the billing process going smoothly.

With an intuitive user interface, MachPanel is easy to use and manage. Start your CSP journey with MachPanel today and take your CSP business to greater heights.

Lets TalkRequest a Demo

The post Microsoft CSP | Types, Programs, what to expect? appeared first on MachSol Blog.

Office 365 has come a long way

In reality, Office 365 is just more than just Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. It has become a lot more like a Project collaboration system enhancing business productivity with all the right tools in place. The apps are now equipped with AI and other cutting-edge innovations to give businesses a strong foundation to carry out their operations. The different Office 365 plans are there for companies of different sizes. The plans like Office 365 E1, Office 365 E3, Office 365 E5, and Office 365 subscriptions for Government and Education will remain unchanged under this rollout of changes in Microsoft 365.

The new changes facilitate the SME’s with newer subscription plans

At least, this is what Microsoft says officially. Microsoft has now evolved every module of O365 with cloud and AI, thus, providing modern SME’s with a lot of opportunities already. The Office 365 plans like ProPlus has been very popular with businesses and with the Addition of Teams into Office 365, they get a chance to host rich virtual meetings utilizing the cloud storage and other cutting-edge innovative components to make them do more with less.

Summary of changes

To cut the Long story short, here is a summary of the name changes:

• Office 365 Business Premium > Microsoft 365 Business Standard
• Office 365 Business > Microsoft 365 Apps for Business
• Office 365 ProPlus > Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise
• Office 365 Business Essentials > Microsoft 365 Business Basic
• Microsoft 365 Business > Microsoft 365 Business Premium

Also Read: 5 processes to automate for better Microsoft CSP Productivity

MachPanel – the one-stop cloud automation Control Panel for productive business operations

MachPanel provides end-to-end automation Solutions for Microsoft Enterprise Applications & the Cloud. It’s the favorite Multi-Cloud Service Orchestration Platform for (Managed) Service Providers, Enterprises, and Governments to Automate and Manage On-Premise and Multi-Cloud end-to-end Service delivery. The various modules include the Automation module for Remote Desktop Services, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft CSP, Microsoft Skype4B, Microsoft Hyper-V, Active Directory, Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Dynamics 365.

Get onboard with MachPanel and experience the best cloud automation for your business to take your business to a Next Level.

Lets TalkRequest a Demo

The post Microsoft announces name changes in Office 365 business plans appeared first on MachSol Blog.

Microsoft Teams was launched to cater the needs of Team management and for the management for business-critical processes that use Microsoft Office 365. It is a digital hub that combines all conversations, discussions, apps, documents, content and other project related entities at one place for better team work. It can be thought of as a shared workplace where discussions and communications are carried out.

Before further ado, let’s have a look at the eminent features of this app and how Teams Mobile App benefits the cloud business users.

Effective Communication

online meetings and group chats make the communication within team very smooth and effective. With extended features like web conferencing and audio and video chat, this provides the necessary team communication that is the requirement of the next level businesses communication to stay on top.

Next-level Collaboration

Teams Mobile App benefits Teams by providing new ways to collaborate. Collaboration is seamless by team management using Office 365 tools such as PowerPoint, Microsoft Word, SharePoint and Excel. In this way, project management is also done from the Teams Mobile App which is beneficial for every cloud business.

Dedicated Communication Channels

With dedicated channels, the whole team can communicate over a shared workspace. In addition to that, private chats are also available amongst teammates as an extra communication channel. Channels can be organized on the basis of location, topic, project or discipline. Managers can easily add teammates to channels once the team expands.

High-end Security

Microsoft Teams Mobile App benefits the managers with an end-to-end administrative control and compliance from Office 365. This also provides security in order to keep teams secure from outside intrusion. Users can join a team using Team code that adds extra security layer to every team channel.

Find and Recall

Recalling business conversation becomes tedious if needed. Using the Teams app, you can save time by recalling conversations using a searching interface. There is also a handy feature of saving business-critical conversations. The feature of customization is also important. In this way, the business-related communication is always up-to-date.

Manage Myspace

With Myspace, there is an option to create a status, personalize Myspace with favorite teams, important chats and channels and keep them on top of others. In this way, the digital workspace is customized. You can add emojis, Gifs and other digital expressions.

Manage Notifications

This feature comes in handy when you are much focused on the task at hand and need to avoid unnecessary notifications. You can customize them based on priorities. Notifications can be turned completely off for unwanted or older chats that are no longer needed. With @ mention, the recipient gets the notification within a team chat, and surprisingly, only the mentioned person will be notified, not the whole team instantly! Whenever a channel gets active, you get a notification for that too.

Plugins

The digital workspace can be totally customized using the Microsoft apps and third-party services. In this way, plugins can be added and teams/projects can be managed more efficiently with third party tools. In this way, co-workers can discuss projects in a more efficient manner.

Hence Microsoft Teams Mobile App benefits the cloud business users and managers with its up-to-date features that cater state-of-the-art cloud business collaboration needs.

The post An insight into Microsoft Teams Mobile App benefits for Cloud business appeared first on MachSol Blog.

There are many Microsoft 365 features that help to reduce complexity from cloud solutions. Simplifying cloud complexities is a challenge in today’s business space. For this, there are various ways like the deployment of Infrastructure-as-a-service to make things lesser complex. Deploying Cloud solutions and Tools within your business, gives you efficiency and good results. In this way, CSPs and cloud customers  are able to get maximum benefits of cloud with the existing tools at hand. Choosing form a variety of such solutions available is a difficult choice. Hence, Microsoft has put forth various solutions out of which, Microsoft 365 is a promising one. In the following text, we highlight how complexities can be reduced by implementing Microsoft 365 features in your business.

1. Cloud-connect everything you have

If the approach of Cloud-connect is adopted earlier, there are chances your business would stay ahead of the curve in future. This approach makes tasks easier. This process starts with linking the current on-premises infrastructure to Active Directory with Azure Active Directory (Azure AD). This brings security and better mobility to the enterprise’s identity. We showed you how Azure Migrations are simple with 4 steps earlier. If you use cloud-connect ConfigMgr with Intune, you even get access to features such as remote wipe and conditional access. In this way, there is more security to your systems at the same time you can work from anywhere.

1. Gain control and clear visibility

Microsoft 365 admin center is one for the best Microsoft 365 features introduced to date. There is a lot more to offer in the admin center apart from simplicity, compliance, device management and specialist work-spaces. Enabling Conditional access makes the users able to better understand the way device gain access to corporate data. The process of configuration is also not complicated. Hence it reduces complexity to a huge extent.

1. Implement Modern desktop apps

Modern desktops offer Desktop Analytics in a much sophisticated manner than ever before. This very promising if you wish to simplify IT with Microsoft 365 features. It is a powerful tool that provides insights needed to deploy and manage service apps. It also makes IT teams’ work easier by eliminating several days’ work which is done by a few clicks.

ALSO READ
Deep dive into Azure: The consistent Hybrid Cloud

How MachPanel helps you to simplify IT with Microsoft 365 features

There’s nothing better than an Infrastructure providing service that simplifies complexity and give you as best service as it were your own. And MachPanel is exactly that, not really, it’s much more than that! MachPanel is a Multi-Cloud Service Orchestration & Delivery Platform (MSOP) that is trusted globally by best Service providers in the market. It simplifies your cloud solutions and automates your business by offering a complete CSP Automation platform, the prime offerings being Microsoft Office 365 & Azure.

Once you get your hands on MachPanel, it’s your time to simplify IT with Microsoft 365 features. If you still haven’t got MachPanel for business automation, what are you waiting for?

Lets TalkRequest a Demo

The post A deep dive into promising Microsoft 365 features for business automation appeared first on MachSol Blog.

Cloud operations are mandatory for Cloud business success. Free SharePoint Migration is a dream come true for CSPs, since they are always in search for best solutions all over the web that can facilitate their Cloud business on-goings. This free tool is provided by Microsoft for its SharePoint Migration for business.

In a nutshell, the free SharePoint Migration tool lets the SharePoint users migrate their lists or files from on-premises files and document libraries to either OneDrive in Office 365 or SharePoint Online. This free SharePoint Migration tool makes the users able to take advantage of collaboration, security and Intelligence solutions with Microsoft Office 365.

In addition to that, here are a few areas which we find interesting about the free SharePoint Migration tool by Microsoft. Let’s have a look:

Status of File permissions upon migration

Technically speaking, once you synchronize Active Directory accounts to Azure Active Directory (AAD), file permission settings are changed once they are migrated to SharePoint online. However, if there is a corresponding user in SharePoint Online, syncing accounts from Active Directory to AAD shall not disturb the on-premises file permissions.

Location of Data

It is best to decide data storage destination in advance because you will be prompted for current location of data files and the location where you wish to move the data files in SharePoint Online site collection, once you are using the free SharePoint Migration Tool (SPMT). You can either select the source to be an on-premises SharePoint Server 2013 site, plus there is also an option to choose from a local file share or any current network path.

Monitoring and resuming migration jobs in free SharePoint Migration tool

Once you perform the migrations, you can always monitor and check the status of migration jobs. A View Task Report option is available which shows reports like ItemReport.csv, ItemSummary.csv and ScanSummary.csv. The tool gives the option to resume migrations from any device, if the tool needs to be closed before the job is submitted.

Incremental Migration

To speed things up for future migrations, Microsoft has enabled a feature in the free SharePoint Migration tool where a migration can be saved after it is completed so it can be re-run at a later stage and only those files or updates shall be migrated from source location that are changed after the initial migration is completed.

ALSO READ
Insight to Backup SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business

MachPanel and professional SharePoint offerings

Cloud Experts are always in need for best services for their business automation and our experts cater this need in an exceptional manner with the unique Multi-Cloud Service Orchestration & Delivery Platform (MSOP), MachPanel. Trusted globally by its partners, it provides you to Sell Active Directory Objects as a Hosted Service, perform automated backups and offers easy installations and up gradations to SharePoint users. It also offers support for latest SharePoint Server 2019 along with previous versions like 2016 and 2013.

Here’s your chance to get your business on a smooth journey towards success with MachPanel. Get started now!

Lets TalkRequest a Demo

The post How to make the best use of the Microsoft’s free SharePoint Migration Tool appeared first on MachSol Blog.

The final release is available to download form Volume Licensing Service Center. The latest release of Microsoft Exchange Server has been designed to deliver attributes that the valued on-premise exchange online customers expected the most. These features are: improved performance and improved administration, security and management capabilities.

The new and improved search technology and scalability improvements have been highlighted. Its architecture has improved with the feature of security in mind. Further, the failovers are made more reliable, connectivity is simplified and calendar man agent is made easier. Microsoft Exchange Server 2019 supports EAI/ IDN email routing and uses Windows Server Core with less code churn with more stability. All these features are ultimately delighting the end users and Microsoft enthusiast even more.

Here is a detailed overview of the key features of Microsoft Exchange Online:

1. Security

It is recommended to install on Windows Server 2019 Core to use Microsoft Exchange Server 2019. However, the basic requirement for latest release of Microsoft Exchange is Windows Server 2019, hence providing the right level of security that the system need in todays’ demanding security requirements. Together Windows Server Core and MS Exchange makes the most secure platform for you to work. Further, the latest build of Exchange Server uses only TLS 1.2 out of the box, plus all the legacy ciphers along with hashing algorithms to remove any chance of security compromise.

1. End-user Experience

Microsoft Exchange Server is heavily used for calendaring and hence large enterprises are immensely dependent on slandering to proceed with their proceedings. A new feature of calendar is introduced in MS Exchange 2019 that is the restricting the forwarding of a meeting request. It also provides better control over OOF settings. A few such new calendaring features are there for Administrators too like managing events in users’ calendars and assigning delegate permissions with much ease-of-use for Microsoft Exchange Online users.

The feature of Unified messaging is deprecated in Microsoft Exchange Server 2019. Customers connecting a third-party PBX or Skype for Business Server with Exchange Server are not able to continue this with Microsoft Exchange Server 2019. As an alternate, Microsoft provides such communication to customers with Skype for Business Server 2019 and using Cloud Voicemail or with Microsoft Office 365 with Cloud Voicemail.

1. Performance Improvements

Major performance improvements in the latest release of Exchange Server are faster search, using improved Bing technology which provides better results in exchange online, easier administration easier and database failovers have been made much faster. The latest Solid State Drive (SSD) technology is used to add dual storage read/write capabilities in Microsoft Exchange Server 2019. Database caching is improved in order to allocate more memory to active databases and their copies for faster loading. More number of users can be scaled up per user with larger disks and client operations latency reduced to half. With this release, Microsoft Exchange Server can now use 48 processor cores and a total of 256GB of RAM.

MachPanel and Automation Module for Microsoft Exchange

MachPanel is Microsoft Validated Exchange Control Panel, where you find trusted support for Microsoft Exchange 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010. Trusted globally with on-premise deployments and Automated solutions, MachPanel provides complete automation for standalone, highly available or multi-datacenter Exchange deployment in your environment in a simplified manner. MachPanel offers you fully segregated self-service tools, and the management, selling and billing of fully segregated and multi-tenant hosted exchange. Hence all the Hosters and Partners can avail the features of Microsoft Exchange Server 2019 through MachPanel and stay ahead of others in the market. You can utilize Migration utilities in a better way, as you are able to save time in the process of importing your existing customers to MachPanel.

Go ahead and get your hands on MachPanel Automation Module for Microsoft Exchange for a better improved business experience.

Lets TalkRequest a Demo

The post The All New Microsoft Exchange Server 2019 is Here appeared first on MachSol Blog.

Cloud Providers take benefits from Microsoft directly and resell their services from Office 365 and Azure. Both these products offer a lot more services that CSPs perceive at the time of subscription. Given below are a few distinct ways to use these products and benefit your business.

1. Secure Remote Access to Network

Azure’s Active Directory has benefitted millions off business users. Employees that work away from their desk, get access control of the whole portfolio, SQL databases, basic cloud and storage space. Different devices can access resources remotely

1. Connect Globally

Azure AD is already integrated with a lot of third party SaaS applications like Salesforce, Google Apps, Dropbox, Office 365 etc. Even custom applications can be added for business use if it is not already integrated with AD.

1. Seamless Migrations

Business fear to move to cloud only because of many obstacles in the process of migration. Not only there is a chance of data loss, there is a lot of complexity in the process as well. Azure AD e 365 offers seamless integration over to the cloud. Apart from that, Microsoft and CSPs also provide on-site customer support for better and smoother migrations and to tackle any run-time issues.

1. Expert Support

Cloud Providers provide excellent customer support. If there are any technical issues at CSPs’ end, they also tackle those in no time. The technical support is present there 24/7.

1. OneDrive Storage

OneDrive offers collaborative document sharing between colleagues and employees and also makes management of digital assets possible. While businesses grow, the storage needs also grow with it. OneDrive offers a scalable solution so that your Storage needs are always fulfilled along with business growth.

ALSO READ
Business cover for Microsoft Azure Offerings via CSP

MachPanel: Providing Maximum Business Benefits to CSPs

MachPanel is a Multi-Cloud Service Orchestration & Delivery Platform for Resellers and Providers. It provides you with Microsoft Office 365 and Azure services for better profits and flexible margins.  MachPanel offers easy billing and reporting, a Hybrid Marketplace and integration of Salesforce flow for its resellers. It also provides hassle-free migrations and integration of third party apps. It also offers consolidated Management of Microsoft Office 365 along with On-premise Hosted Subscriptions.

MachPanel Automation Platform for Microsoft CSP makes you able to take maximum benefits of O365 and Azure.

Lets TalkRequest a Demo

The post Unlocking the benefits of Microsoft O365 and Azure appeared first on MachSol Blog.

Content management is the core of every business. There is a dire need to have a content management system through which the creation, sharing, collaboration and storage of content can be centralized. A full fledge content management system is required to manage the above mentioned functionalities. However, there is no point having a cloud service if it can’t be handled smartly. Most of the times Hybrid is a more feasible solution for business today because of the innumerable benefits like:

1. Apps can be kept on-premises and when they are needed, they can be accessed from app launcher
2. The sensitive data can reside on-premises and need not be sent up to the cloud for storage. It can later be searched through hybrid taxonomy and a unified search
3. Content security is ensure by authenticating users accessing form different locations through a multi-factor authentication system
4. Collaboration gets effective by using business to business sites through extranets.

SharePoint Online and SharePoint server (On Premises) fulfill the essence of going hybrid.

SharePoint Online vs SharePoint Server (On Premises)

With SharePoint Online, services are offered as a SaaS model. Disaster recovery is handled by Microsoft Data Centers. There are annual subscriptions and Pay as you go model. Customizations are limited. In case of SharePoint Server, the whole system resides within the corporate network. Going hybrid with SharePoint hybrid model gives you the best of both the worlds.

ALSO READ
Recover Deleted Sites Collection in SharePoint Online

The Hybrid Model

With the hybrid SharePoint option, you need not get concerned for the scalability and security of systems; Microsoft takes care of that. Going hybrid combats Shadow IT making the environment securer. This way, the data and other content specific to business remains with you and is not sent to O365 (SP online). This is more important for companies who don’t want to share their data with a third party cloud providers due to its sensitive nature, or other legal terms. In such cases, Hybrid model is the solution. With its intelligent intranet and cool features of OneDrive, the collaboration and storage is not a problem anymore.

Hybrid federated search is a convenient way to implement, if multiple users are working in the same environment. The results are fetched from the index from the SharePoint Server and from the search index in Microsoft Office 365. The search Center displays search items in two different result blocks resulting in two different ranks being displayed to the user.

The MachSol way

MachPanel Automation Module for Microsoft SharePoint is the most trusted hosted solution on the cloud. The setup of infrastructure on premises is simplified by experts. There is no need to be concerned about the growth of the system as the business continues to grow. With MachPanel, your services to customers can never be down as it ensures maximum uptime. MachPanel SharePoint makes the hassle of cloud computing smooth and easy.

The post SharePoint Hybrid – The Solution to your Cloud computing problems appeared first on MachSol Blog.

The two tiers

Microsoft has introduced its reselling into two tier models. In Tier 1 model, you partner directly with Microsoft to gain access to its products and services and resell them to your clients, like resell Microsoft Azure and Office 365 Packages. In case of Tier2, the services and products of Microsoft are distributed by whole sellers and Distributors and through other sellers. These distributors are Partners with Microsoft and also work as a middle man. They deal with Microsoft at one end and give their services like Microsoft Office 365 and Azure to thousands of 2 – tier resellers at other end. There are a limited number of authorized distributors by Microsoft around the world. The tier 1 sellers however get a chance to be engaged with their customers at a deeper level and make more profit out of it. Not only you will be able to add value to customer’s customized solutions, you will also be able to provide managed services upon customer’s demand.

Challenges in reselling Microsoft Azure and Office 365

Tier 1 CSP Partners have to take care of a number of challenges and certain requirements. All of them revolve around the increasing business demands of today by consumers. Some of the basic challenges are:

1. The availability of salesforce flow in the cloud where user centric business processes are deployed without any development to increase agility
2. A proper integration with Storefront where consumers would showcase their brands and other products. AI based suggestions customized for each customer is the next trend in the cloud marketplace as provided in Microsoft Azure.
3. Increasing E-commerce requirements where there is a need to provide Predictive Intelligence and a personalized shopping experience as per the growing demand from consumers.
4. A seamless support system on which consumers can rely on is a basic requirement of every tier 1 CSP.
5. A decent customer management system is necessary to take care of the Operation Management Suite (OMS) requirements for hybrid cloud.
6. An all-in-one Billing system and invoicing management system is necessary to make managing of recurring billing and subscriptions seamless as handled in Office 365 Packages.
7. Reports and Analytics are an integral part of any CSP. A reliable system that caters this requirement and provides easy method to create on demand Reports with just a few clicks is a basic requirement.
8. Many a times, Third Parties have to integrate their modules into the system. So a reliable API integration method needs to exist which can take care of the third party tools and plugins in order to work seamlessly with in-house systems.

ALSO READ
Reasons Why You Should Consider Moving to Azure in 2018

To all these major challenges, MachPanel offers a complete solution. Not only there is a built-in Marketplace to showcase the products, there is a robust reporting and Analytics system that has been developed keeping the current needs of reporting in mind. Billing and invoices are managed with its automatic subscription and recurring billing options. All this is present in one neat interface where there is less hassle and with just a few simple steps it makes the challenge of selling seats quite easy along with running a smooth automated system as a CSP tier 1 partner.

The post All you need to know about Reselling Microsoft Azure & Office 365 appeared first on MachSol Blog.

The post SharePoint 2016 and Office 365 Management Made Easy with MachPanel appeared first on MachSol Blog.