Ingram Micro integrates Microsoft’s new billing options into cloud marketplace

Ingram Micro Cloud has added Microsoft’s new commerce experience (NCE) to its marketplace.

The Microsoft NCE was launched at the beginning of the year and offers cloud service providers the opportunity to sell Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Power Platform and Windows 365 on a per seat per month basis.

Ingram Micro Cloud ANZ boss Trent Gomersall said the distributor was “focused on providing the right preparation for ANZ partners”.

“We take the time to have that one-on-one discussion and articulate what the new commerce experience means for our ANZ partners,” he said in a statement sent to CRN.

“Leading up to this launch, we educated our partners with a series of webinar trainings, provided them with resource materials and have our modern support team ready to assist with their queries.

“Once we established a clear path for our partners, this then allows for us to begin the process to migrate from our existing legacy CSP to a new commerce experience.”

Ingram Micro also teamed up with legal provider ITagree, a company that offers IT agreements as-a-service and legal advice.

Ingram said the new billing models were all about term flexibility, revenue predictability, long-term stability and offering more options.

Ingram will extend to partners Microsoft’s incremental monthly, annual and multi-year purchasing terms and fixed rates. It said the model equips customers to more accurately forecast recurring revenue and gives greater access to term customisation.

“We are delivering a consistent, simplified, and flexible purchase experience for customers and partners with the new commerce experience,” Microsoft’s global channel chief Rodney Clark said.

“Our collaboration with Ingram Micro Cloud has helped make this transition seamless and efficient for numerous partners and customers.”

The distributor also offers its own financial solutions which it said were built to alleviate potential credit risks associated with lengthy subscription terms like the model’s multi-year fixed
rate offers.

Ingram’s global cloud boss Victor Baez said there may be some challenges that arise from transitioning to the Microsoft new commerce experience structure.

“We’ve worked very closely with Microsoft’s engineers and sales teams to streamline the transition for our MSP and reseller partners.

“We took the necessary steps to prepare the Ingram Micro Cloud Marketplace to transact with Microsoft’s new commerce experience and actively supported our channel partners ahead of time to ensure they were on the leading edge of this transition.

“The great news is this transition should ultimately free up more time for channel partners to grow their cloud businesses.”