Dear Partner Community,
It’s time for your next Edge monthly update! Our Partner Community have collected a significant number of positive customer intent and are now supporting Deployment. Many of you have also been fully embracing the App Assure promise for Edge, but for those who are not familiar, more details are included below. In fact, we will have an App Assure focused session on day 2 of the Connections Event coming up in April.

Now our energy will also need to shift towards End user Adoption & Change Management of browser usage and Microsoft Search in Bing (MSB). Below you will find reference to multiple resources that can help you drive adoption with your Customers.

If you have any Edge Deployment, Product Gaps or Program feedback - please leverage the new Insights process (https://aka.ms/frp-insights) For any Partners who would like to do a 1-1, please connect with me through your FPM.

And THANK YOU once again for all the incredible support driving Edge Adoption!!

In this Issue

• Edge Press coverage
• App Assure for Edge
• Intent, Deployment and Adoption Resources
• Microsoft Search in Bing (MSB)
• IE 11 Support Deprecation & Spartan/Edge Legacy Campaign
• M365 Support Deprecation for IE11 and Edge Legacy End of Support
• Clarification around POE submission requirements
• Resources: Automation in M365 Admin Center
• Resources: Refreshed Core Resources Guide
• Customer Success Stories

●Edge News

Edge Press Coverage

Sharing some recent Edge coverage!

• Microsoft Edge is gaining users and outpacing other browsers | Windows Central
• Microsoft Edge user numbers keep growing as Firefox falls | TechSpot
• Why you should use Microsoft Edge on your Mac (theladders.com)

App Assure for Edge

App Assure can help with the transition to Microsoft Edge by providing FastTrack-eligible customers with compatibility assistance for business-critical apps and sites.

The App Assure promise: If your web apps or sites work in Internet Explorer 11, on supported versions of Google Chrome, or in any versions of Microsoft Edge, they’ll also work in the latest Microsoft Edge. If you encounter compatibility issues, we provide remediation assistance at no additional cost.

Resources: App Assure service request

Additional resources:

• YouTube Ignite March 2021: Bring your apps to Microsoft Edge with App Assure: Hear tips and tricks
• Ask Microsoft Anything with App Assure
• Twitch Stream on Windows Insider Preview Channel

Intent, Deployment & Adoption Resources

Demos to generate customer intent: https://aka.ms/FRP-EdgeDemoVideos (PowerPoint download)
A set of automation resources s in the M365 Admin Center to accelerate deployment and adoption of Edge for your customers

• https://aka.ms/setupguidance
• https://aka.ms/EdgeAdvisor
• https://aka.ms/AdminEmailTemplates
• https://aka.ms/MicrosoftSearchSetup

Additional assets to drive adoption

• End-user focused interactive demo. Viewers can click through this demo to learn about Edge features and see how they work https://aka.ms/EdgeWorkDemo
• End User / Information Worker Adoption Kit http://aka.ms/Edge/FTAdoptionContent

Microsoft Search in Bing / Microsoft Edge Incentive Pro-tips

Boost end-user adoption with Internal search.
Did you know you Edge comes with built-in internal search? That’s right, you can search across your company for your files, coworkers, or company SharePoint sites directly from the Edge browser. Forrester Consulting estimated it saves each employee up to 2 hours every week! * No wonder it’s a user favorite and one of the best ways to earn more incentive.

To get started, users just need to sign in to Edge with a work account (Azure Active Directory) and make sure to keep Bing as the default search engine. That’s it. Now search from either the address bar or the primary search box to get both web and work results. Try it yourself by searching “My files”, “My Team” or even “Myself”, it could save you some time.

Search as an added value Service.
No admin configuration is needed to get started. However, partners should consider administration of custom experiences such as bookmarking and acronym definition as an added-value service.

Resources to get started:

• Edge for Information Workers Website
• Getting started with Microsoft Search

Call to Action: IE 11 Support Deprecation & Spartan / Edge Legacy Campaign

Research tenants with high IE11 and Spartan usage to reach out about deploying Edge as a secure, single browser solution, that comes with the promise of App Assure support to their Legacy Apps. 

Campaign email template: https://aka.ms/IE11toEdgeCampaign 

Edge Overview & Security Brochures: 

• FRPedgeoverview
• FRPedgesecurity

Reminder: M365 Support Deprecation for IE11 & Legacy Edge End of Support Announcements + Campaigns

• Microsoft 365 web apps and services will no longer be supported on Internet Explorer 11 as of August 17th, 2021
• Teams ended support on November 30th, 2020
• Internet Explorer is still a component of Windows and follows the support lifecycle of the OS on which it is installed. For details, see https://aka.ms/IElifecycle
• Microsoft Edge Legacy (aka Spartan_ desktop app will no longer be supported or receive security updates on all versions of Windows 10 on March 9th, 2021

We want to be clear that IE 11 is not going away, and that Customer’s own legacy IE 11 apps and investments will continue to work. They have made business critical investments in IE 11 legacy apps and we respect that those apps are still functioning; the new Microsoft Edge supports those through IE mode so their end users can access them from a newer browser.

Reminder: Microsoft Edge Legacy End of Support Update

Microsoft Edge is replacing Microsoft Edge Legacy with April’s Update Tuesday Windows 10 release.

In August 2020, we announced that support for the Microsoft Edge Legacy desktop application ends on March 9, 2021. After this date, Microsoft Edge Legacy will no longer receive security updates. To replace this out of support application, we are announcing that the new Microsoft Edge will be installed, and Microsoft Edge Legacy will be removed, when customers apply April's Windows 10 Update Tuesday release. This will be available on April 13, 2021.

This update will also be available as part of the optional Windows 10 March Preview release targeted for March 16.
Yammer Announcement: Microsoft Edge Legacy End of Support Update

Clarification around POE submission requirements

Partners are welcome to use their own templates OR the latest POE Template from Partner Center (New POE Template Now Available in Partner Center) or the Edge POE email template, if that is convenient. Our goal is to simplify the communication with your customers.

1. Modify template to include Edge as a workload
2. Obtain customer signature as per your normal Customer POE approval process (e.g. customer may be signing off on multiple workloads, including Edge)
3. Follows Registration steps (below) without needing the customer to separately reply just to approve Edge

To qualify for Incentives:

1. Step 1 – Secure Edge Intent with customer
2. Step 2 – Register Edge Customer claim at https://aka.ms/frpedgeincentive (this form)
3. Step 3 – Obtain signed Edge POE from Customer and forward to RegPOE@microsoft.com  within 5 business days of claim submission (your email must clearly mention TenantID & Tenant Initial Subdomain for the customer you are claiming)

Missing or Late POE: Any claim that does not have POE submitted by the specified date will be revoked and the partner association for that service removed in FTOP.

Edge Core Resources Guide

https://aka.ms/FRPEdgeIncentiveCoreResources
FY21 Q4 Updates:

• Updated References in Notes section
• Consolidated slides into 3 sections – Edge Motion Details, Readiness Assets & and Adoption Resources.
• Refreshed Partner Go-Dos
• Updated Targeting Criteria

Customer Success Stories

Share Customer Feedback & Success Stories aka.ms/frpstories (or via your FPM)