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And buying O365 via a vendor is actually a huge liability. The vendor/reseller has full admin access to your O365 account ("subscription advisor"/delegated adm

And buying O365 via a vendor is actually a huge liability. The vendor/reseller has full admin access to your O365 account ("subscription advisor"/delegated administrators). They can also transfer this access. If your vendor gets purchased or otherwise decides to transfer your rep' they'll just unilaterally grant some unknown person/company admin access to your whole O365 account. But you're forced to work through a vendor for any discounts. You're penalized for working directly with Microsoft. And if you revoke this access, don't be surprised if your partner tells you they cannot support you until it is re-granted (even buying more licenses, because they need to "confirm your license allocation" or similar). It is a huge HIPAA nightmare.

xyzzy_plugh 7y ago
I'm surprised how infrequently this is brought up. Folks are either shocked or dismissive whenever I bring this up, but it keeps me from being able to recommend O365 at all.
- aksss 7y ago
  Because the concern comes across as a bit silly if you know how the platform works and you have experience changing your partner ID (say, from acquisition). A customer must deliberately grant a partner delegated admin privs for them to have that level of access to their tenant. If the company the customer works with gets bought out, the buyer doesn’t get access to the acquired client tenants automagically. They must go through and request delegate admin again under the different partner ID that’s bound to their partner tenant. A client can swap out (or dump) partners of record quite easily, and other service providers are happy to help you do it. Years ago, if you bought O365 licensing through a reseller, it was very hard to add licenses yourself with direct purchase. That hasn’t been the case for a while now though. You can use redeemed licenses from a reseller alongside directly purchased licenses. We encourage our customers to buy direct anyway, although I don’t see anything in the article talking about shutting down the reseller program anyway. They’re dropping internal use rights and support incidents for partners.
  - raintrees 7y ago
    I agree. My clients specifically expect me to be that admin, that is the value for value I offer.

xyzzy_plugh 7y ago

I'm surprised how infrequently this is brought up. Folks are either shocked or dismissive whenever I bring this up, but it keeps me from being able to recommend O365 at all.

aksss 7y ago
Because the concern comes across as a bit silly if you know how the platform works and you have experience changing your partner ID (say, from acquisition). A customer must deliberately grant a partner delegated admin privs for them to have that level of access to their tenant. If the company the customer works with gets bought out, the buyer doesn’t get access to the acquired client tenants automagically. They must go through and request delegate admin again under the different partner ID that’s bound to their partner tenant. A client can swap out (or dump) partners of record quite easily, and other service providers are happy to help you do it. Years ago, if you bought O365 licensing through a reseller, it was very hard to add licenses yourself with direct purchase. That hasn’t been the case for a while now though. You can use redeemed licenses from a reseller alongside directly purchased licenses. We encourage our customers to buy direct anyway, although I don’t see anything in the article talking about shutting down the reseller program anyway. They’re dropping internal use rights and support incidents for partners.
- raintrees 7y ago
  I agree. My clients specifically expect me to be that admin, that is the value for value I offer.