Challenges Business Users Face with Microsoft's Transactable Offers in the Marketplace
Here’s a summary of the challenges faced by business users when purchasing solutions through Microsoft's transactable offer setup in the marketplace: Limited Pricing Flexibility: Business users may find it challenging to secure multi-year or customized pricing as AppSource primarily supports monthly or annual subscription plans. This limits their ability to negotiate bulk discounts or tailored pricing, common in traditional procurement. Complex Procurement Processes: The setup of transactable offers on Azure Marketplace often requires coordination with IT departments for deployment, making it cumbersome for non-technical business users to manage purchases independently. The process may feel less intuitive compared to traditional software procurement methods. Integration Issues with Existing Systems: Many businesses have third-party procurement platforms or internal systems for billing and spend management. The reliance on Microsoft’s native billing system may not align with these existing tools, leading to difficulty in reconciling purchases, tracking invoices, and managing budgets efficiently. Lack of Contract Negotiation: Business users often rely on personalized contract negotiations for larger purchases. Microsoft’s marketplace setup offers standardized pricing without room for customized contracts, making it hard for customers to negotiate terms, volume discounts, or extended payment plans. Limited Cross-Platform Compatibility: Since Microsoft’s marketplace is primarily focused on the Microsoft ecosystem, it may not be the best fit for organizations that operate in multi-cloud environments or use non-Microsoft tools. This limits the flexibility for businesses looking for cross-platform solutions. Lack of Detailed Usage Reports for Business: Business users may find it difficult to get granular visibility into usage and costs, which can make it harder to track software ROI or align expenditures with department budgets. While basic reporting is available, it may not provide the level of detail needed for large organizations. Summary: The way Microsoft’s transactable offer setup is structured presents challenges for business users, including limited pricing flexibility, complex procurement coordination, and difficulty integrating with existing systems. These issues can create friction for organizations seeking more customized contracts, clearer usage visibility, and better alignment with multi-cloud environments.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/nv6EPTfYFhStreamlining the Process: Building and Publishing Apps Across the Microsoft Cloud
Publishing apps across the cloud can be a complex endeavor. In our recent webinar "Building and Publishing Apps Cross the Microsoft Cloud" attendees had the opportunity to gain insights from guest speaker James Anderson, CEO of Akouo. Attendees also had the opportunity to hear about some of the ways Microsoft is looking to improve the experience.Partner Spotlight: Building Cross-Cloud to Enable Global Collaboration
In this edition of our Partner Spotlight series, we continue highlighting partners at the forefront of app innovation on the commercial marketplace. Throughout the series, we will be telling the unique stories of partners who are leading the way with AI in app development, who are building using multiple Microsoft products, and who are publishing transactable applications on the marketplace. In this article, I sat down with Akouo CEO James Anderson to learn more about their story and partner journey.
