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: Microsoft Customer Story - Design for Leisure improves efficiency 30% with iGlobe solutions and Microsoft Planner. 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 Microsoft 365 App 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 Certified Software Designations, 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!
Partner Opportunity to Contribute to the Copilot Roadmap
Microsoft Partners - We're sharing an opportunity with you to contribute to the Copilot roadmap. Voice your company's thoughts on what features and capabilities Microsoft should build to help ISVs build, deploy, and monitor Copilots. Complete this survey (5-10 mins) by EOD 11/22 to influence the Copilot roadmap: https://forms.office.com/r/nv6EPTfYFhMore marketplace webinars available in November
Whether you are brand new to the marketplace or focused on growing sales of your apps that are already published, our Mastering the Marketplace webinar series has a broad range of offerings available to help accelerate your marketplace success. Check out these offerings coming up soon: ▪ Using Marketplace Rewards benefits to increase your app sales (11/18): this session covers the availability and eligibility requirements for Marketplace Rewards; the tier-based model based on marketplace performance; highlights of partners' success with Marketplace Rewards and the ROI of activating benefits; advice for integrating benefits into marketing efforts; and, tips on optimizing each benefit. ▪ Billing & Payouts (11/19): Learn about the payouts process lifecycle for the Microsoft commercial marketplace, how to view and access payout reporting and what payment processes are supported within Partner Center. This session also covers how to register and the registration requirements; general payout processes from start to finish; and, how to view and access payout reporting. ▪ Supercharge your marketplace offer with the SaaS accelerator (11/20): Learn how the SaaS accelerator project can help partners go to market quicker by accelerating creating the technical implementation to publish their transactable SaaS offers on Azure Marketplace. ▪ Developing your virtual machine offer (11/26): Join for a review of the required technical configurations to make Virtual Machine apps and how to publish virtual machines offers to the Azure marketplace. Learn how to publish a VM offer and integrate the solution from the Azure Portal tool to Partner center; how to setup Tenants; how to create different plans to best suit your customers’ needs; how to use Cloud-init within the Azure Portal, and more! Find our complete schedule here: https://aka.ms/MTMwebinarsFAQ: Solutions that run on old data centers
Q: Can a solution be on the marketplace if it runs on Microsoft software but in the partner's data center? I have a number of other solutions fully on Azure and in the Marketplace but have an outlier solution that is still in my old data center. I imagine we will move it over eventually but we want to list it now. A: The solution must be primarily platformed on Azure. Refer to this documentation for the official policy: Commercial marketplace general listing and offer policies | Microsoft Learn Follow up Q: If a marketplace solution is only going to be used for transacting purposes and not for full provisioning/deployments and self-serve, is it a requirement to interact with the API's in order to be transactable? In other words, can a solution be transactable without using the API's? 100% of the solution will live in Azure but the solution would only be sold as a private offer and it needs to be deployed with a services team, as each deployment is customized. The fees are paid annually on a three year term. A:in order to be sold even as a private offer, the Fulfillment APIs need to be implemented. The customer will still need to accept the private offer and then subscribe to the offer for billing to happen. That subscription process requires the API integration. That's always been the case for a transactable SaaS offer. For Azure Managed apps (that live in the customer tenant) you don't need API integration (unless you use Custom Meters). For simple implementation of the API, we recommend the SaaS Accelerator: Azure/Commercial-Marketplace-SaaS-Accelerator: A reference example with sample code for developers interested publishing transactable, Software as a-Service offers in the Microsoft commercial marketplace. (github.com))FAQ: Professional Services Offer on a Contact Me Offer
Q: I have a Contact Me SaaS offer. Can I extend a Professional services offer (private offer) on this Contact Me offer? In other words, would it be possible to extend a transactable professional services for a Contact Me SaaS listing, or do I need to have a transactable SaaS listing to extend the transactable professional services offer? A: Services aren’t MACC eligible, if that’s what you are asking. Additional information about professional services can be found here: More ways to sell through the marketplace with professional services | Microsoft Community Hub Create a professional service offer for the commercial marketplace - Marketplace publisher | Microsoft LearnFAQ: ARM-based deployment package for Managed Application offers
Q: I am working on a Managed Application offer. If I don't do metered billing, and only offer flat rate billing, is the ARM based deployment package necessary? Or can I supply a deployment package using alternate mechanisms? A: All Azure applications must include a Resource Manager template file named mainTemplate.json and a user interface definition for the Azure application creation experiance named createUiDefinition.json. Refer to this article for additional information: Plan an Azure managed application for an Azure application offer - Marketplace publisher | Microsoft LearnFAQ: Early billing for a multiyear deal
Q: I have a customer who wants an early billing for the anniversary billing for a multi year deal. It is a three year deal with yearly payment, first time in February 2024. Now the customer wants the second payment in 2024 as well, not at the anniversary in February 2025. Is this possible? A: No. Billing dates and amounts are locked when the multi-year commitment is purchased. Future scheduled charges cannot be pulled forward or modified. Follow-up Q: After further discussion with the customer, it is a different scenario: The customer signed a 2 year deal with yearly payments on Oct 27, 2023 and the first payment for the period 10/17/2023 to 10/16/2024 landed in November 2023. However, I do NOT see the 2nd payment yet as I would have expected. The (new) customer ask is to continue the 2 year deal as planned but postpone the 2nd payment to 2025 - which of course will be difficult if it is already done. If it is NOT done for whatever reason, I assume the ISV should ask to cancel the 2nd payment (and the offer) and then create a new offer, starting now, but with a custom meter payment in 2025. Agree? A: Did the customer actually purchase a plan with 2-year term? If it was instead only 1-year with recurring billing off, then subscription may have expired - hence you do not see a second charge. I'd encourage customer to check their Cost management for Azure Marketplace purchases - Microsoft marketplace | Microsoft LearnFAQs from ISVs – learn how to use the Multiparty Private Offers Campaign in a Box
ISVs – learn how to use the Multiparty Private Offers Campaign in a Box is a webinar offered regularly through theMastering the Marketplace series. In this webinar, Alliances, Marketing, and Sales leaders can learn more about how to use this campaign to: Educate internal sales and channel teams on multiparty private offers Recruit and enable channel partners to sell with multiparty private offers Promote your marketplace capabilities to your Microsoft contacts Market your applications to customers through channel partners Attendees can also participate in a short Q&A following the session. Below is a list of recent and frequently asked questions on this topic. Please add your additional questions related to Campaign in a Box in the comments section! _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Q1: is there a difference in the experience for direct or indirect partners? will the offer show up the same way for the direct partners and the indirect partners in PartnerCenter? A1: There is no difference between direct and indirect providers in how the offer shows up in Partner Center. Q2: Where can we learn more? A2:https://aka.ms/PartnerMPOCampaign Q3: How do we know MPO availability by EMEA country? A3: It is currently (as of November 2024) available in the UK, Canada, and USA. EU and Japan are coming next, but there are no specific dates at this time.) Q4: Where can I access the MPO Partner list? A4: You can access it here after signing in to your partner account. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Resources: Multiparty private offers overview - Marketplace publisher | Microsoft Learn Multiparty private offers (for ISVs) - Marketplace publisher | Microsoft Learn Multiparty private offers (for channel partners) - Marketplace publisher | Microsoft Learn
