How the IT-partner directory works
ClearSource lists Swiss IT partners that sell Microsoft licences. Every listing is checked against the same seven criteria, from public sources. Below: who is listed, what a listing shows, the monthly re-check, and how to correct, claim or remove a listing.
Claim your listing
Requests are coming in
ClearSource now takes requests for offers from Swiss companies.
Until the first IT partner for a language has joined, ClearSource handles these requests itself. Join now to receive matching requests directly, in your canton and language.
Join and receive requests
Who is listed
A company is listed when it meets all seven criteria, each checked from a public source:
- An active entry in the Swiss commercial register (Zefix) under a matching name.
- A working website.
- Its own website states that it sells Microsoft software or licences. That page is linked on the profile as evidence.
- A published company phone number, or a company email address together with a profile in Microsoft’s partner directory.
- A Swiss street address with postcode.
- A company email address or contact page.
- Not closed, merged or absorbed into another company.
A profile in Microsoft’s partner directory is not required, because many partners buy through a distributor; only a company that publishes no phone number needs one (criterion 4). Where Microsoft lists the company, the profile links there; where no profile was found, the profile says so as a plain fact.
Distributors that sell only to IT resellers are listed too and marked as distributors. The directory hides them unless visitors choose to show them, because they do not sell to end customers.
A partner is tagged FinOps when its own website offers FinOps, the management and optimisation of cloud costs, as a service; the profile links that page. To be tagged, send the page through “Suggest a correction” on your profile.
What a listing shows
- Facts from the company’s own website, the commercial register (Zefix) and Microsoft’s partner directory, each linked to its source.
- Company contact details only: the switchboard, a role email address or the contact page. Never named people.
- No ratings: reviews are only linked on Google Maps, never copied.
- “Not stated” means the source does not say, not that the answer is no. A check that could not be verified is marked on the profile.
How entries stay current
- Every month, each listed partner is re-checked automatically: the website answers and is not parked, the commercial-register entry is still active, the licence-sales page still talks about licences, and the company’s own pages still name Microsoft.
- A website that blocks automated visits counts as “not checked this month”, not as failed. Two months in a row lead to a manual review.
- A person reviews every change before it goes live. Nothing is removed or changed silently, and each profile shows the date of its last check.
- When the re-check finds something a person has to look at, the profile shows “Under review” instead of “checked” until it is resolved: the facts are corrected from the company’s own pages and checked again, or the listing is removed with its reason.
- Prices: Microsoft’s Swiss list prices are re-read from microsoft.com/de-ch twice a month (on the 2nd and the 16th, again on the 5th or the 19th if needed). A read without unusual changes goes live the same day; a read with a price move over 5%, a product added or dropped or a source that could not be read waits for a person’s review, and until then the site keeps the previous prices with their dates.
Requests for offers: free during the launch phase
Visitors can ask checked IT partners for offers. ClearSource sends the request to the participating partners that fit it (all of them when only a few fit, otherwise the 3 that fit best by products, response history and fair rotation), or the visitor chooses them. Participating partners are those that claimed their listing and accepted the partner terms and the lead data-sharing terms.
Free during the launch phase: IT partners pay no fees for their listing or for requests. Any future fees will be announced at least 30 days in advance and apply only with the partner’s consent. Payment never affects who is selected: plans, sponsored slots and billing are not part of the selection.
Partners see the requester’s contact details only after they accept.
Plans and fees
The basic listing stays free for every IT partner that meets the criteria, and payment never affects who is listed, in what order, or who receives a request.
Corrections, claims and removal
A listed company, or anyone who spots a mistake, can ask for:
- a correction of a wrong or outdated fact, such as the address, phone number, offices, languages, size or products;
- a claim of the company’s listing, for example to replace the logo;
- removal of the listing, or re-listing after a removal.
Every request is checked against a public source (the company’s website, the commercial register or Microsoft’s partner directory) before anything changes. A fact is never published only because someone asked for it. Requests are reviewed together with the monthly check.
Use “Suggest a correction” or “This is my company” on the profile, or write to us through the contact page. Contact page
Show that you are listed
Add the badge to your website: it links to your profile on ClearSource, so customers can check your listing for themselves. It is free and optional, and it has no effect on whether or where you are listed.
Replace your-profile with the last part of your profile’s address on ClearSource.
The badge’s words and the link follow the language of this page.
When a listing is removed
A company that no longer meets the criteria is removed. Its old profile address then shows a “no longer listed” page with the reason and the date instead of a silent redirect, and that page is kept out of search engines. A company that meets the criteria again is listed again after a check.