Microsoft is shaking up how its partners sell SaaS, starting by allowing partners to create their own seat-based subscription services.
The company will let partners sell per license for individual users using the Azure Active Directory for single sign on for identity management and SaaS Fulfillment API.
Partners will have to use both of these services in order to sell their custom services on either Microsoft’s commercial marketplace or the Azure Marketplace.
The announcement builds on Microsoft’s decision last year to allow partners to offer a flat fee for SaaS offerings on a monthly basis, which was followed up in March this year with added annual billing capabilities.
Microsoft is also shaking up its partner hubs by transitioning from the Cloud Partner Portal to the Partner Centre. All new publisher accounts that are created will go through a new streamlined process within the Partner Centre, which the vendor said would make it easier to register as a Microsoft partner, get a partner network ID and create a profile for the commercial marketplace.
Existing Cloud Partner Portal users will receive an email inviting them to activate a Partner Centre account, which will then synch with each other.
“Whether your organisation is new to Microsoft’s commercial marketplace, is well-established, or evaluating it’s options, the updates to sign-up, publishing, and offer management experiences will make life much easier,” Microsoft business program manager Brian Levenson said.
Microsoft said it will announce more features of its commercial marketplace roadmap at Inspire next month.
-1.jpg&w=100&c=1&s=0)
.png&w=100&c=1&s=0)
