A story about our journey on the marketplace. I hope it will inspire and help on your journey

I would like to share my experience with publishing transactable apps on the Microsoft commercial marketplace, the Microsoft 365 App Certification Program, Marketplace Rewards, and certified software designations.

 

Starting with publishing our apps on to the marketplace: We have several apps that operate within the context of Microsoft 365, including apps for Outlook, Microsoft Teams, Copilot Agent, Office, and SharePoint. We have been in AppSource for many years and have customers worldwide. We developed an in-house license application to manage our customers' licenses. Before the commercial marketplace, we managed all invoicing and license management manually. Now, everything has become much easier. We have published monetized SaaS apps connected to the AppSource apps. Using the SaaS Fulfillment API, we integrated the purchasing process with our in-house license application. We have gained numerous benefits, including:

• Significant time savings in the invoicing and billing process, as purchasing, adding, removing, or cancelling licenses is automated and managed by Microsoft
• Customers appreciate the ability to manage licenses themselves, finding it easier
• Improved market awareness due to promotion in the marketplace

And new customers are joining regularly.

 

It is also important to mention Marketplace Rewards, which offer various benefits. For example, customer case stories can be published through Marketplace Rewards on Microsoft customer case stories. Here is a link to our latest story:https://customers.microsoft.com/en-us/story/1820562770190814501-designforleisure-excel-retailers-en-germany.

 

Additionally, the Transact & Grow Incentive Campaign has provided us with financial incentives through marketplace sales, as well as Azure sponsorship credits to offset deployment costs.

Considering these advantages, there is potential to make the apps CSP Ready as well: https://aka.ms/P2PeBook.

 

Equally important is obtaining the https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365-app-certification/docs/certification. Certification confirms that an app solution is compatible with Microsoft technologies, compliant with cloud app security best practices, and supported by Microsoft. This is significant because:

• It provides certification from Microsoft, confirming app security and compliance
• It saves time in the sales process, as security and compliance are already verified
• It makes the app easier to find on AppSource, the Commercial Marketplace, and in the Teams App admin portal, where it will be listed in a special category

Achieving sales in the marketplace, having customer case stories, and obtaining the Microsoft 365 App Certification provides the foundation to obtain https://aka.ms/CertifiedsoftwarepartnerFAQ, which come with additional benefits and opportunities for co-selling with Microsoft.

Today two of our apps have achieved the Certified Software Designation for Modern Work.  

Soon iPlanner Pro for Teams that includes a Copilot Agent will follow as well.

I share this story not to boast but to inspire and motivate others. There is nothing exceptional about us or our experience here – it can be completely replicated by leveraging the resources that Microsoft provides. Was it all very easy…. No.  Is it doable? Yes!