Using OneDrive workspaces to maintain QBR history and monitor quarterly account performance changes
Hi Marketplace community, I wanted to share a practical Microsoft 365 agent pattern we have been working on for recurring account-review workflows. In merchant services, quarterly business review preparation often starts with the same basic ingredients: a CSV or TSV export, a set of merchant accounts, performance metrics, PowerPoint scorecards, and follow-up notes. The challenge is not just generating one review. It is maintaining a repeatable QBR history across many accounts and making it easier to spot what changed from one quarter to the next. With https://marketplace.microsoft.com/en-us/product/WA200010195, we are exploring a Microsoft 365-native workflow where the agent helps account teams: - Generate QBR scorecards for one merchant or multiple merchant accounts from CSV/TSV data. - Create PowerPoint outputs for each account. - Save each run into an organized OneDrive workspace. - Maintain an index of accounts and per-account status for the run. - Support follow-up workflows with draft email content. - Use sample workbook content to demonstrate quarter-over-quarter change detection across volume, authorization performance, acceptance cost, disputes, and refunds. The core adoption pattern is simple: use OneDrive not just as file storage, but as the persistent workspace for recurring business reviews. Each QBR run becomes easier to revisit, share, compare, and operationalize. For teams managing many customer or merchant accounts, this turns QBR preparation from a one-off deck-building task into a more durable account-performance workflow. I would be interested to hear how other Marketplace builders are approaching similar patterns: - Are you using OneDrive or SharePoint as the durable workspace for agent-generated outputs? - How are you helping users compare business performance across reporting periods? - Are customers asking for more “history and change tracking” rather than just one-time generated artifacts? The app is listed on Microsoft Marketplace here: https://marketplace.microsoft.com/en-us/product/WA200010195Could Marketplace Become an AI Discovery Agent?
Today, customers still find apps in Marketplace by searching keywords or browsing categories. In a large catalog like the Marketplace, that often feels like guesswork. Publishers describe similar solutions differently, and customers rarely know the exact keywords to use. Many customers end up scrolling through listings, getting tired, and leaving. When that happens, we as publishers never get the chance to connect with them. What if Marketplace used AI to change that? Instead of searching, customers could simply describe what they need: “I need a time-tracking app that works natively in Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams, has light project management, follows our security policies, and keeps all company data inside our tenant in line with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).” An AI agent could instantly suggest the best matching apps and guide the customer directly to Get it now. And maybe the next step is even bigger: What if Marketplace became an agent or coworker for Microsoft Copilot, helping users discover and install the right apps simply by asking? Curious what others think—could this be the future of Marketplace discovery?App ratings are not displayed when a Marketplace listing includes a free trial
Hi community! We’ve noticed that app ratings are not displayed on Microsoft Marketplace browse and search result cards when an offer includes a Free trial badge. For example, the one listing displays its rating of 3.6 (107 ratings) directly on the card. Youkeeps AI Scheduling Assistant listing has customer ratings, but its card displays the Free trial badge without any rating information. Could you please confirm whether this is expected behavior or a display issue? Is there a way to show both the Free trial badge and the app rating on the listing card?
GST/VAT in Microsoft-managed countries
Hi, I am in a Microsoft -managed jurisdiction and have a transactable offer in AppSource. I have only recently onboarded some customers and I don’t fully understand how GST is being managed. We are in Scenario 5 as described in https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/partner-center/marketplace-offers/tax-details-marketplace which means Microsoft collects from the customer at the list price + GST. Ignoring store fees for this purpose, Microsoft pays the (10%) GST to the tax authority then pays out the balance. Unfortunately, the way GST works here, we have to show the amount we receive from Microsoft as gross revenue and then deduct a further 10% to pay to the tax authorities. In other words, we get no credit for the tax Microsoft has paid. As I understand it, the publisher should invoice Microsoft for the sale price + GST then Microsoft invoices the customer at the price plus GST and claims an input tax credit for the GST it pays to the publisher. There may be some specific tax ruling that overrides this. Would be very grateful if any ISV in a similar jurisdiction has encountered this issue.
What changed for co-sell after QRP retirement — what ISVs should update now
Microsoft retired QRP last week and consolidated referrals into Partner Center. What most ISVs haven't caught yet is that the new AI-based matching reads your solution descriptions and industry tags differently than QRP did. If your listing hasn't been updated since early 2025, you may be getting matched to lower-quality leads or missed entirely. Three things worth reviewing now: your solution area tags, your customer segment fields, and your co-sell 1-pager format. Happy to share more detail on what I've seen reviewing several listings. Drop your questions below.Replicating solutions to Azure: The business case, the incentives, and how to get there fast
Johan Aussenac is CEO at WeTransact a Microsoft Certified Software company specializing in Microsoft Marketplace listing, co-sell activation, and cloud GTM strategy for software companies. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ When should Azure be part of your cloud strategy and what does Microsoft offer to help you get there? Most software development companies building on AWS did so for the right reasons. AWS is mature, well-documented, and has been the default for cloud-native companies for over a decade. This article is not an argument for abandoning that. It is an argument for asking a more strategic question: at what point does adding Azure to your infrastructure also open a fundamentally different commercial channel and what does it cost to get there? For a growing number of software companies the answer is clear. Azure is not just an alternative cloud. It is an entry point into Microsoft's commercial ecosystem: its seller network, its enterprise relationships, and a marketplace transacting billions of dollars of software annually. Understanding when and how to replicate your solution to Azure and add it to your strategy is increasingly a GTM decision, not just an infrastructure one. The business case: Why Azure belongs in a multi-cloud strategy Microsoft as a distribution channel When a software company lists in Microsoft Marketplace and enrolls in co-sell, Microsoft's own field sellers more than 25,000 globally, are incentivized to include that software company’s product in their customer conversations. This is not passive discoverability. It is an active sales motion, driven by a specific commercial mechanism. The mechanism is the Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC). Large enterprises increasingly sign pre-committed cloud spend agreements with Microsoft. Software transacted through Microsoft Marketplace counts toward these commitments, which means enterprise procurement teams actively prefer Marketplace-listed solutions they help burn down an existing budget obligation. For software companies, this translates to reduced procurement friction and shorter sales cycles inside accounts that already have a Microsoft relationship. By comparison, neither AWS nor Google Cloud offers this at an equivalent scale. Microsoft's footprint spanning Office 365, Teams, Dynamics 365, Azure, and now Copilot touches more business units and more decision-makers across an enterprise than any other vendor. Adding Azure to your stack means plugging into that network. Technical differentiators worth knowing Beyond the commercial case, Azure offers capabilities that are genuinely differentiated for certain software company profiles: Azure OpenAI Service. Microsoft holds an exclusive enterprise partnership with OpenAI. For software companies that need GPT-4o or o1 with private endpoints, data residency, and enterprise compliance certifications, this is only available on Azure. Microsoft 365 and Copilot extensibility. Software companies can embed products directly into Teams, Outlook, and Word via Copilot plugins and agents, which is a distribution surface with no direct equivalent on other clouds. Microsoft Entra ID. Most enterprise identity infrastructure runs on Entra ID (formerly Active Directory). Native SSO and RBAC integration is cleaner when you build on Azure. The .NET and Windows ecosystem. For teams and customers already in the Microsoft developer stack, Azure is simply where the tooling is best optimized. Microsoft's funding and incentives for software companies One of the most underutilized advantages of moving to Azure is the range of Microsoft programs designed to offset the cost and complexity of doing so. Both of the following are free to join and available to most software companies. Microsoft for Startups (Founders Hub). Provides up to $150,000 in Azure credits in the first year, plus access to technical advisory, developer tooling, and go-to-market support. Enroll before you begin any replication. These credits cover compute and storage costs during your build and test phases. ISV Success. Microsoft's program for software companies building on Azure. It includes technical architecture guidance, co-sell readiness support, and dedicated Microsoft contacts. ISV Success enrolment is also the prerequisite for co-sell eligibility, the commercial mechanism that unlocks Microsoft's seller network on your behalf. Both programs include access to Microsoft technical advisors at no charge. This is worth emphasizing: before spending on a replication partner or committing engineering time, software companies can get a scoped assessment of their replication from Microsoft itself, tailored to their specific stack and target architecture. How to get there: Partner-led or self-service There are two realistic paths to adding Azure. The right one depends on your engineering bandwidth, your timeline, and how much of the replication you want to own internally. The partner-led path (recommended for most software companies) For founders and CTOs, the real cost of replication is not tooling, it is engineering time diverted from product. Every sprint spent on infrastructure is a sprint not spent on customer value. A partner-led approach solves this directly. Enroll in a Microsoft program. Start with Microsoft for Startups or ISV Success (or both). This secures your credits, establishes your Microsoft relationship, and is the prerequisite for co-sell access. It is free and should be done before anything else. Book a free technical consultation. Use the technical advisory included in your program to scope your replication with Microsoft. Explain your stack, your target architecture, and your timeline. This session produces a documented brief which becomes your handoff document for step three. Engage a specialist partner. Take that brief to an Azure Expert MSP, Microsoft's highest-tier replication partners, certified for complex replications and incentivized by Microsoft to keep costs manageable, often including access to replication credits that offset engagement fees. Alternatively, Microsoft Certified Software companies (such as WeTransact) can handle both the replication and the parallel Marketplace listing and co-sell activation, so you arrive on Azure already set up to sell, not just to run. The self-service path For software companies with available engineering capacity and simpler workloads, a self-directed replication is viable. The tooling has improved significantly. The key tools are: Azure Migrate Microsoft's free hub for discovery, assessment, and replication. Maps AWS services to Azure equivalents, flags compatibility issues, and estimates costs. Start here for any self-service replication. Azure Storage Mover Built specifically for moving data from AWS S3 to Azure Blob Storage. Supports parallel transfers, preserves file metadata, and integrates with Azure Monitor for progress tracking. Azure Database Migration Service (DMS) Migrates SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB and others from AWS RDS or on-premises to Azure managed database services. AWS DataSync Useful for transferring large datasets between AWS and Azure storage during a phased replication. Azure Data Factory For complex ETL workloads: extracting, transforming, and loading data across clouds with scheduling and conflict resolution. Azure Well-Architected Framework Run this assessment against your current architecture before replicating it. It evaluates reliability, security, cost, performance, and operations. The goal is to land in a better architectural state, not simply replicate what existed on AWS. Whichever path you take, one step is non-negotiable: establishing a proper Azure landing zone before any workload moves. This means setting up your subscription structure, networking, identity, governance, and monitoring upfront. Microsoft publishes a software company-specific landing zone guide and a portal-based accelerator (no infrastructure-as-code expertise required) to make this straightforward. Skipping creates security and compliance debt that is significantly harder to fix retroactively. The bottom line Adding Azure to your cloud strategy is not primarily an infrastructure decision. It is a go-to-market decision. The question is whether your company benefits from access to Microsoft's seller network, its enterprise customer base, and Marketplace mechanics that reduce procurement friction for your buyers. For many software companies, the answer is yes and Microsoft's programs make the cost of getting there lower than most assume. The partner ecosystem exists to take the technical burden off your engineering team. The self-service tools are capable enough for simpler replications. The commercial opportunity on the other side, co-sell, MACC alignment, Marketplace distribution is real and growing. To learn more join us on April 2, 2026, at 8:30 AM PDT for Why Azure belongs in your multicloud strategy - Microsoft Marketplace Community and live Q&A. If you miss the session, you will be able to watch it on demand through the same link. Where to start → Microsoft for Startups → ISV Success → Azure Expert MSP directory: partner.microsoft.com → Software company-specific Azure landing zone guide: Independent software vendor (ISV) considerations for Azure landing zones - Cloud Adoption Framework | Microsoft Learn This article was produced in partnership with WeTransact, a Microsoft Certified Software company specializing in Microsoft Marketplace listing, co-sell activation, and cloud GTM strategy for software companies.Upgrade plan for Marketplace offers in admin center
Hi Community, I’m reaching out here after spending nearly 6 months discussing an issue with Microsoft Support, without getting a satisfactory answer. We have published transactable SaaS apps in the Microsoft Marketplace. Each of our SaaS offers includes multiple plans (e.g., Premium, Pro, Leader). About six months ago, our customers started reporting that they could no longer upgrade their plan via the Microsoft 365 Admin Center. We were able to reproduce the issue ourselves. Symptom: when attempting to upgrade, the dropdown list that should display available upgrade plans is empty. This functionality worked correctly before. After multiple discussions with Microsoft Support engineers, their supervisor, and their manager, the official response we received is: “change to different plan functionality (for marketplace offers) in Admin Center is by design not enabled, which is why the dropdown does not display available plans.” This directly contradicts Microsoft documentation, which indicates that plan changes should be supported: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/partner-center/marketplace-offers/pc-saas-fulfillment-life-cycle Despite sharing this documentation, Microsoft Support maintains that this behavior is by design and that customers cannot upgrade plans from the Admin Center. My questions to the community: Are there ISVs here who have published transactable SaaS offers with multiple plans? If so, can your customers upgrade plans through the Microsoft 365 Admin Center? Are your customer experiencing the same issue? Can any SME confirm or contradict Microsoft Support’s statement that “by design, customer cannot upgrade plans using M365 Admin center”? For reference, here is our Microsoft Support ticket ID: 2508260010000694. I’m happy to share additional information upon request. Thank you in advance for any insights or confirmation. Sang, ps: I recently notice change of domain name in M365 admin center and the log showing this. Weird coincidence.How do you actually unlock growth from Microsoft Teams Marketplace?
Hey folks 👋 Looking for some real-world advice from people who’ve been through this. Context: We’ve been listed as a Microsoft Teams app for several years now. The app is stable, actively used, and well-maintained - but for a long time, Teams Marketplace wasn’t a meaningful acquisition channel for us. Things changed a bit last year. We started seeing organic growth without running any dedicated campaigns, plus more mid-market and enterprise teams installing the app, running trials, and even using it in production. That was encouraging - but it also raised a bigger question. How do you actually systematize this and get real, repeatable benefits from the Teams Marketplace? I know there are Microsoft Partner programs, co-sell motions, marketplace benefits, etc. - but honestly, it’s been very hard to figure out: - where exactly to start - what applies to ISVs building Teams apps - how to apply correctly - and what actually moves the needle vs. what’s just “nice to have” On top of that, it’s unclear how (or if) you can interact directly with the Teams/Marketplace team. From our perspective, this should be a win-win: we invest heavily into the platform, build for Teams users, and want to make that experience better. Questions to the community: If you’re a Teams app developer: what actually worked for you in terms of marketplace growth? Which Partner programs or motions are worth the effort, and which can be safely ignored early on? Is there a realistic way to engage with the Teams Marketplace team (feedback loops, programs, office hours, etc.)? How do you go from “organic installs happen” to a structured channel? Would really appreciate any practical advice, lessons learned, or even “what not to do” stories 🙏 Thanks in advance!Excited about the Microsoft Marketplace?
Good morning, as the former BizApps PDM at Microsoft driving 100's of ISV solutions to the marketplace I wanted to ensure the community realized that the marketplace is now driving leads directly to partners from customers around the world exploring the marketplace. If you have been in the marketplace for a few months and are seeing little interest or leads it should guide you to further optimize your listing and also do a competitive analysis of other solutions in the marketplace. I am and have always been excited about the Microsoft Marketplace and hope you are too! - John O'Donnell https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnodonnellmsft/
