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March 2026 announcements

This page provides the announcements for Microsoft Partner Center for March 2026.

Promotions are now available to download in the Pricing workspace

  • Date: March 11, 2026
  • Workspace: Pricing
  • Impacted audience: Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) direct bill partners and distributors.

Promotions are now available directly through the Pricing workspace to download in Partner Center.

What's new

Partners can now download active promotions alongside pricing information from the Pricing workspace, making it easier to discover and evaluate available offers during the pricing and planning process.

Partners can download list of active commercial promotions for a given market (country/region) and segment. For example, if a partner wants to get promotions for products sold to a German (DE) Commercial customer, then select the German (DE) market and Commercial segment to download the promotion list.

Screenshot of the Benefits (Beta) page to download promotions on Partner Center.

Where to find promotions

Why this matters

  • Centralized access to pricing and promotions in one place.
  • Improved visibility into eligible offers during deal planning.
  • Reduced dependency on separate promotion reference sources.

Partner impact

  • No changes to existing purchasing or transaction flows
  • Promotions visibility is enhanced; eligibility and application rules remain unchanged

Next steps

  • Clear the cache (Ctrl+F5) to ensure Benefits (Beta) is showing up on the left navigation.
  • Partners are encouraged to review available promotions in the Pricing workspace and incorporate them into their pricing and sales planning activities.
  • For more information on this feature including the details of each field, go to Download promotions.

Extended promotion on Microsoft Sentinel 50-GB commitment tier in public preview

Extended Microsoft Sentinel 50-GB commitment tier and promotion.

  • Date: March 12, 2026
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: Security Partners: EA, CSP, and Direct Resellers

On October 1, 2025, Microsoft launched a new 50-GB commitment tier for Microsoft Sentinel, available in public preview with promotional pricing from October 1, 2025, through March 31, 2026. We're pleased to share that this promotional offer has now been extended to June 30, 2026. Customers who purchase during this window will lock in pricing until March 31, 2027.

This offer provides a cost-effective and more predictable pricing model for the small and medium enterprise customers—ideal for indirect resellers who serve this segment. Get up to 32%* off pay-as-you-go price with Microsoft Sentinel 50-GB commitment tier promotion.

The 50-GB promotional tier is available in all regions where Microsoft Sentinel is sold. The promotion can be used with existing or new purchases of Microsoft Sentinel. The promotion can't be combined with other Microsoft Sentinel discounts.

*Maximum discount available is region dependent.

Next steps

Review these resources:

Final reminder: MFA enforcement for Partner Center APIs begins April 1

Enable multifactor authentication before April 1, 2026, to avoid blocked API calls and service disruptions.

  • Date: March 12, 2026
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: All partners

To strengthen security across our platform, we’re enforcing multifactor authentication (MFA) across all Partner Center app+user APIs. Any app+user API calls made without MFA after full enforcement on April 1, 2026, will be blocked. We're currently enforcing requests from sandbox tenants.

Requests without a valid MFA claim will receive a 401 response code and 900421 error code.

All APIs are already MFA-enabled and available for testing. If you haven’t already, update your systems as soon as possible to:

This enforcement follows the MFA requirements implemented in September 2025 for the Partner Center portal and extends those protections to API access.

Next steps

Upcoming change to ReferenceId attribute in Reconciliation files

  • Date: March 11, 2026
  • Workspace: Billing
  • Impacted audience: Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) direct bill partners and distributors.

Effective April 15, 2026, the ReferenceId attribute in Billed Reconciliation and Unbilled Reconciliation files will be updated to use a structured JSON format.

What's changing

  • The ReferenceId value will be updated to the following structured JSON format:
{
  "id": "ab12CdefGiJ3",
  "v": "2"
}

This change applies to:

  • Billed Reconciliation files
  • Unbilled Reconciliation files

Why this change is happening

This update standardizes the ReferenceId to include both an identifier and version information, improving consistency and reliability when correlating reconciliation records across billing systems.

Partner impact

  • Partners who parse or process ReferenceId as a string must update their logic to handle the JSON structure.
  • No other reconciliation file schemas or attributes are impacted.
  • Download locations and access methods remain unchanged.

Required partner action

  • Review and update any reconciliation processing or reporting solutions to support the new ReferenceId JSON format before April 15, 2026.

Reminders and updates to extended service terms (EST)

New EST download capability and update to specialized offer EST availability dates.

  • Date: March 9, 2026
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: All cloud solution providers (CSPs), distributors, indirect resellers, direct bill.

Extended service terms help partners avoid immediate service disruption for their customer's expired license-based subscriptions by providing a flexible, month-to-month, paid continuation option. Partner Center made available the new EST options on February 16, 2026. In preparation for enforcement, commencing on May 4, 2006, partners can now update their subscriptions to renew to term, go to EST, or cancel.

Partner Center made available a download EST feature on February 27, 2026, to help partners manage the transition to EST. The feature enables partners to download subscriptions set to EST across all their customers. This capability helps partners identify EST subscriptions they may want to reevaluate to other end of term options. Partners can make updates if they want to decide to change their subscription's end of terms to renew or cancel instead of EST. Partners can find details about the EST download in the EST download learn topic.

The new EST options availability for specialized offers changed from March 9, 2029, to March 13, 2026. This change doesn't impact the May 4, 2026, enforcement date for all EST eligible subscriptions. More information about EST and how it works can be found in the extended service term learn topic.

Questions

Next steps

  • Be aware of the revised timelines and share within your organization as required.
  • Review the coming change with your customers and discuss the best option for their business needs before the end of their service terms to avoid unexpected billing.
  • Prepare for technical implementation. Coordinate with your technical teams to schedule and test the necessary updates.

Introducing Microsoft 365 E7—a new productivity suite designed to drive Frontier transformation

Unlock new, repeatable revenue and monetization streams for your business.

  • Date: March 9, 2026
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: GSI/SI, SDC, Distributors, SSP/LSPs, Direct Bill, and Indirect Resellers

Customers are focused on deploying AI securely, governing it consistently, and delivering measurable outcomes. As many stall between pilots and scale, partners play a critical role in turning AI experimentation into secure, governed deployments that drive frontier transformation.

Introducing Microsoft 365 E7, the Frontier Suite

Built to help customers seize the agentic moment and drive frontier transformation, Microsoft 365 E7 and Microsoft Agent 365 will be generally available as of May 1, 2026.

Microsoft 365 E7 is the productivity suite for a human-led, agent-operated enterprise, turning human intent into AI action that functions securely and at scale. To accomplish this, Microsoft 365 E7 brings together Microsoft 365 E5, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft Entra Suite, and Agent 365, grounded in shared intelligence from Work IQ and built with trust to protect the organization. You can help your customers make the most of the agentic AI opportunity and unlock new monetization streams with the premium Microsoft 365 E7 plan.

Beginning on April 1, 2026, to accelerate Microsoft 365 E5 to E7 upsell and Agent 365 adoption, Copilot + Power Accelerate will include Agent 365 across Immersion Briefings, Envisioning and proof of concept (PoC) engagements, and Deployment Accelerators. Microsoft 365 E7 and Agent 365 will also be included as eligible workloads for the core strategic product accelerator and growth levers in Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) incentives.

The AI future is here. Encourage your customers to upgrade to Microsoft 365 E7 to take advantage now so they can move faster and deploy AI with confidence.

Next steps

  • Read more in our blog post.
  • Register for the Digital Partner Airlift for CSP authorized partners and SI partners on March 31, 2026, to find out more about the Agentic System of Work.
  • Learn how the Microsoft vision for Frontier transformation brings intelligence and trust directly into the flow of work by viewing our on-demand webinar. Tune in on LinkedIn, X, or YouTube to hear from product and engineering leaders Jared Spataro, Charles Lamanna, and Sumit Chauhan as they share how Microsoft is delivering AI built for work with the latest Microsoft 365 Copilot innovations.
  • Learn more in the incentives guide.

Security Dashboard for AI: Now in Public Preview

Security Dashboard for AI is now in public preview.

  • Date: March 4, 2026
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: All Security partners

The Security Dashboard for AI is now available in public preview. Current Microsoft Security customers can access it without any extra licensing fees, offering partners a robust tool to help clients manage, evaluate, and mitigate AI risks at scale. The dashboard gives CISOs and AI risk leaders a unified, real-time view of AI threats across agents, apps, and platforms by connecting signals from Microsoft Defender, Microsoft Entra, and Microsoft Purview, all within a single interface. This creates an immediate opportunity for partners involved in AI security and governance conversations.

Security Dashboard for AI enables partners to:

  • Lead AI governance conversations with customers as AI adoption accelerates
  • Help customers discover and assess AI risk across their environment using unified visibility
  • Prioritize and drive remediation by connecting identity, threat, and data risk signals into actionable insights
  • Differentiate trusted security advisory services—without requiring customers to buy new security products

Next steps

Partner resources to get started:

Monthly Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program update

This month’s updates continue to enhance partner differentiation and readiness across high-demand solution areas. Key changes include specialization updates that integrate AI capabilities, revised skilling and performance requirements, and streamlined qualification frameworks to support partner growth and agility.

  • Date: March 4, 2026
  • Workspace: Membership
  • Impacted audience: Partners enrolled in the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program

Changes to Specializations and Solutions Partner Designations

As of February 13, 2026, Specialization percentage growth calculations round to the nearest percent. This means that a partner with a growth rate of 34.52% rounds to 35%. This will positively impart partners in meeting the performance criteria for the following specializations:

  • Microsoft Low Code Application Development
  • Intelligent Automation
  • Business Intelligence
  • Small and Midsize Business Management
  • Adoption and Change Management
  • Teamwork Deployment

As of February 27, 2026, the customer success - usage growth metric user interface for the Business Applications Solutions Partner designation is updated. When you select View Details in Partner Center, you'll be able to see the score calculation and if the baseline threshold is met. This enables you to gain a better understanding of where their performance is in line with the criteria. This isn't a change to the metric, just the visualization.

Specializations: Frequently Asked Questions

To help partners more easily find answers to common questions related to Azure Specializations, we’ve published the FAQ in the Specializations overview site on MS Learn.

This FAQ brings together guidance on common procedural topics such as scheduling, eligibility scenarios, and what to expect at different stages of the specialization process. It's intended to complement existing documentation and help partners quickly self-serve answers without needing to open a support request.

Partners are encouraged to review the FAQ before submitting questions, as it addresses many of the scenarios that commonly come up during specialization planning and execution.

Sri Lanka VAT ID Submission for Microsoft Invoicing

A new regulation is in effect for nonresident companies that provide services and digital products to customers in Sri Lanka. Beginning April 1, 2026, all digital service invoiced from nonresident companies will include 18% VAT.

  • Date: March 4, 2026
  • Workspace: Taxes
  • Impacted audience: Customers and Partners in Sri Lanka that purchase services from nonresident Microsoft entities.

As per the Sri Lankan government’s VAT regulations (Value Added Tax Act (Amendment) No.4 of 2025 Act), effective April 1, 2026, all invoices for digital services provided to Sri Lankan customers by any nonresident must include 18% VAT.

Actions and timeline

Submit your Sri Lankan valid VAT ID number to Microsoft on or before February 20, 2026 or update on Microsoft partner central in the Section:

CSP

User Link
Partner-Billing profile Billing profile
Reseller-Billing profile Legal information
Partner- Adding new billing profile Billing profile
Developer- Establishing Marketplace/Hardware Billing profile

Why this matters:

  • Sri Lankan law mandates VAT compliance for remote sellers.
  • Invoices without VAT ID will still include VAT, but customers won't be able to claim credits.

Note Microsoft relies solely on the information and documents submitted and won't independently validate the VATID.

Next Steps and Actions Required

Submit your Sri Lankan valid VAT ID number along with the softcopy of the VAT ID to Microsoft on or before March 20, 2026.

Questions?

Should you have any questions related to operations, contact your Microsoft representative.

Contact your tax advisor or local tax office if you have any questions related to the tax and business impact of this change. Microsoft can't provide guidance on your tax matters.

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