by Chinmayi Bhavanishankar, US Partner Experience Manager
We are all racing against time to get work done—meet customers, send and answer emails, find leads, close business, write a blog post, market our businesses, find time for friends and family, etc. Whew!
If you’ve been meaning to get up to speed on how to obtain, access, and activate the Internal Use Rights benefit offered in the Microsoft Partner Network, but it keeps moving down on your to-do list, I’ve put together a quick guide to help find the information you need and get started. Check it off your list today!
What is the MPN Internal Use Rights benefit?
Internal Use Rights (IUR) is a cloud services and on-premises software benefit in the Microsoft Partner Network for Microsoft Action Pack subscribers and partners with a Silver or Gold competency. Microsoft offers internal use licenses to its latest software and cloud services, giving partners the opportunity to use them in their businesses and experience it themselves.
When you qualify for the Internal Use Rights benefit, you have access to:
- World-class productivity solutions such as the Windows desktop operating system and online or on-premises versions of Microsoft Office, Microsoft Lync/Skype for Business, Microsoft SharePoint, and Microsoft Exchange
- Rich business solutions like Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online
- Flexible, cross-platform infrastructure management products like Microsoft Systems Center and Microsoft Intune
- On-premises and on-demand infrastructure with Windows Server and Microsoft Azure
Overview of the Internal Use Rights cloud and software benefit
Why should I use my Internal Use Rights benefit?
Microsoft research indicates that partners that use their internal use right benefit sell three times larger deal sizes than partners that don’t use their IUR benefits. Sales enablement aside, here are four reasons to activate and use your benefit:
- Get firsthand knowledge of features and capabilities
- Perform internal development and testing on the latest technology
- Reduce the cost of running your internal business
- Increase productivity of your internal teams
More about the importance of your internal-use benefits to your business
Where can I see my company’s IUR benefit eligibility and utilization?
Your company’s Primary Program Contact is typically the person who has access to information about MPN membership and benefits eligibility and utilization. The name of your company’s Primary Program Contact is in the Organizations tab on your Individual Account home page in the Partner Membership Center.
Here are two resources your Primary Program Contact can use to access internal-use benefit information:
- View your company’s cloud IUR and on-premises IUR software through your license statement
- Get a snapshot of your IUR benefit eligibility and consumption in your Partner Summary Report (from any page on the MPN portal: Membership > Reports > Partner summary report)
How does my company get started with the Internal Use benefit?
If your company has purchased a Microsoft Action Pack subscription, or earned a competency, internal use rights for a wide variety of current Microsoft products and services are part of your benefits:
Action Pack | Silver competency | Gold competency |
Up to 10 licenses per product | Up to 25 licenses per product | Up to 100 licenses per product |
The step-by-step guidance in these Support articles will help you access and activate your internal rights software:
- Sign up for Office 365 using your internal-use rights
- Activate and assign Office 365 internal-use rights licenses
- Activate and assign Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Professional internal-use rights licenses
- Activate Microsoft Azure internal-use rights licenses
Activate your Office 365 internal-use licenses today with the SkyKick partner offer
Partners that use Office 365 in their own businesses sell three times larger deal sizes, on average, than partners not using Office 365 (Microsoft, 2014). Using Office 365 internally gives your employees first-hand knowledge to share with customers who are considering migrating to the cloud.
To help you make your move to the cloud, take advantage of our offer to use SkyKick Migration Suite to migrate your business to Office 365 for free on up to 500 seats. Offer ends June 30.
How to obtain support
The Downloads and software section of the Top partner questions library provides answers to the most common questions about internal use rights access and activation. If you need further assistance, here are a couple of ways to engage MPN Support:
- Sign in to the Partner Support Community, and post your question in the Internal Use Rights thread of the Partner Membership forum
- Sign in to your support benefits and activities page on the MPN portal to see the support options available to your company
The bottom line
Now that you have the information you need, I hope you’ll start today to make the most of this benefit. You’ve earned it—why not use it?
If you have feedback or comments about this post, I’d like to hear from you! Connect with me in the MPN 101 Yammer group on the US Partner Community network.