Azure Marketplace - Setup for ISVs with a Global Scope

This article is part of my "Azure Marketplace without filter" series, which now includes one video and three articles.

First, you can watch this video "Azure Marketplace without filter" to see the end-to-end process and user experience for both a publisher/ISV and customer.

Second, the article Azure Marketplace - Start Simple but Start Now will focus on the HOW part, illustrating how to create Public and Private offers for a single Publisher.

Third, this article will demonstrate how to set up multiple publishers in Partner Center for an ISV with a global scope.

Fourth, the article "Procurement Best Practices!" will describe how a customer can have full control of all purchases on Azure Marketplace and implement a cost allocation process.

Facts on ISVs and SaaS

Fact #1: The majority of customers prefer a "Buy before Build" approach and SaaS ISV solutions are experiencing rapid growth on Azure.

Fact #2: Given that Azure is a global platform, virtually all Azure SaaS ISVs are global in nature.

Fact #3: Many ISVs have already a worldwide presence, with various subsidiaries and sales offices spread across different countries.

The purpose of this article is to illustrate how ISVs can replicate their existing global setup while selling via the Azure Marketplace.

The Marketplace Journey - The Short Version

Assumption

• T&Cs and price agreed between ISV and customer
• Contract signed outside Marketplace
• Invoicing agreed to go through Azure Marketplace

Initial Setup – only done once!

1. Create first Publisher (typically HQ country) including payout & tax profile
2. Create one Offer with two plans- 0$ Public Plan in ALL markets (“Contact Me” Offer - see Sample 1 below)- 1$ Private Plan to own Azure tenant id (required for MACC Eligibility)
3. Publish both plans to Marketplace
4. Upload Co-sell documents (architecture etc.) to make Offer MACC Eligible

Publisher setup – done once for every “Sales location”

1. Create Publisher in sales country including payout & tax profile – if not done
2. Create Offer (Copy & Paste from “Contact me” Offer from initial Publisher)
3. Important: Do NOT create or publish Public Plan!

Offer setup – done once per Publisher and Offer

1. Add 1$ Private Plan to own Azure tenant (required for MACC Eligibility)
2. Publish 1$ Private Plan to Marketplace
3. Upload Co-sell documents (architecture etc.) to make Offer MACC Eligible

Private Plan Setup – done per contract

1. Create a Private Plan with agreed price
2. Assign Private plan to Customer tenant id
3. Refer to contract in Plan Description field (see Sample 2 below)
4. Publish customer Private Plan to Marketplace

The Marketplace Journey - The Long Version

Below I will describe in details how a global setup for Azure Marketplace journey could look like.

Part 1: The Marketplace Journey - Getting Started

Contoso Denmark wants to transact on Azure Marketplace, creates a Partner Center account and enrolls in Commercial Marketplace program in Partner Center.

Contoso sees that a new Partner Global Account (PGA) has been created for them with a new Partner ID. They now add a Publisher "Contoso A/S", based on the headquarter in Denmark and with a Publisher ID as "contoso".

Hint: I strongly recommend to update the Publisher ID as it will be used both internally and externally.

Contoso also creates

• Payout profile, including a Danish bank account and DKK as payout currency where the Marketplace revenue should land
• Tax profile, including information similar to a W8BEN form (for sales in US)

Contoso is now ready to build transactable offers in Partner Center - as described in Azure Marketplace - Start Simple but Start Now!.

After successfully closing a few deals in Denmark, Contoso has started receiving interest from its global customers, particularly larger customers with an Azure MACC agreement with Microsoft in Europe (EU), the US, and Australia.

However, Contoso does not wish for the revenue from its global transactions to be deposited in Denmark (in DKK). Instead, it aims to replicate its global organization, including its revenue, tax, and foreign exchange perspectives.

In other words, Contoso intends for revenue generated from transactions with US customers to be deposited in a US bank account (in USD), while transactions with Australian customers should be deposited in an Australian bank account (in AUD).

Part 2: The Marketplace Journey - Getting Global

Contoso creates two new "Business Locations" in Partner Center to represent their sales offices in the US and Australia, named Contoso US and Contoso Australia, respectively. They also create a business location for their Danish headquarters for future transactions in the EU, ensuring consistency across their organization.

During the business location setup process, Contoso is asked to provide legal information such as company name, address, and DUNS number (where applicable) for their sales offices in Australia and the US. Microsoft will verify and approve this information.

Note: You need to have a legal entity in a country to create a Business Location in Partner Center.

Consequently, Contoso will now see three new Partner Local Accounts (PLAs), each assigned a new Partner ID, associated to the new business locations.

Finally, they also add a Publisher to each new PLA, while keeping their initial Publisher for legacy purposes. Each Publisher will have a unique Seller ID.

This is their new organization setup in Partner Center

They now see this in Partner Center, and each Publisher has a unique Seller ID.

Part 3: Marketplace Journey - User Access

As Partner Center is integrated with Contoso's Azure Active Directory (AAD), they now want to setup user access, including

• A global admin (here named "globaladmin")
• A Marketplace owner (here named "MPAdmin")
• One Marketplace Manager for each Publisher (here named "mpuser-XX")

This is what the Global Admin sees when logging into the Australian Publisher account "Contoso Australia-contoso-au"

The Global Admin

The Global Admin can access all Publishers, or "Accounts", as shown in the picture. Each Account is identified by a combination of the Location Name and Publisher ID.

It's worth noting that this view displays all Accounts, including those that may not be relevant to the Marketplace setup in your particular environment.

The Global Admin has the ability to create new locations and add new Publishers. They can also manage user roles and access rights.

The Marketplace Owner

The user that enrolls your partner into the Commercial Marketplace program will become the owner of the your Partner Global Account (PGA).

The Manager of a Publisher

Any user in your Azure Active Directory who is linked to your Partner Center account can log in, but with restricted user privileges.

In the example below, the user "mpuser-au" - who will eventually take ownership of marketplace offers in Australia - has logged in for the first time. As you can see, the user currently lacks access to the Marketplace.

The Global Admin can now log into the account for the Australian publisher ("Contoso Australia-contoso-au") and assign the Manager role to "mpuser-au".

The user "mpuser-au" can now see the Marketplace Offer tab and is able to work with "Marketplace offers" as described in Azure Marketplace - Start Simple but Start Now!

Note:

• The Global Admin and the Marketplace Owner will also need the Manager role in order to work with offers for a specific publisher.
• All users (except a global admin) will need to be assigned a role for a specific Publisher Account in order to be able to log in to that account.

The Payout and Tax profiles for a Location

Each business location - as well as the associated Partner Global Account and Partner Local Accounts - is limited to a single payout profile and a single tax profile.

To create or modify the payout and/or tax profile for a particular location, a user must be assigned the "Financial Contributor" role for that specific business location.

The user "mpuser-au" does currently not have the "Financial Contributor" role and, therefore, cannot see the payout/tax profile options in the Account Settings section.

After the Global Admin grants the "Financial Contributor" role to the user, the Payout and Tax menu items become accessible, allowing the user to create or modify these profiles.

Part 4: Marketplace Journey - Offers for multiple publishers

Manager of a specific Publisher

The user "mpuser-au" is now able to create new Public and Private offers for the Australian Publisher account after being granted the Manager role.

Likewise, if "mpuser-dk" is granted the Manager role for the Danish/EU Publisher, the interface will appear as shown below.

As expected, you are able to delegate ownership of Marketplace offers for a specific Publisher to specific people.

Manager of a multiple Publishers

In order to streamline the management of multiple Publishers, it may be useful to grant certain users access to view all offers for all Publishers and to serve as Manager for multiple Publishers.

For instance, consider a scenario involving the US and Australian Publishers.

In the example shown below, both "mpuser-au" and "mpuser-us" have been given Manager privileges for the Australian Publisher "Contoso Australia".

Similar, they also both have access to the US Publisher "Contoso US".

After being granted the Manager role for the Australian and US publisher accounts, both "mpuser-au" and "mpuser-us" can log in to both accounts and they will now have access to all Public offers, not only the Australian and US offers.

It is important to note that they can see all offers but only edit offers for the publishers they have the Manager role for.

As shown below, "mpuser-au" has the ability to edit "AU Offer-1" published by the currently logged-in account, "Contoso Australia," as well as the offer "US Offer-1" published by "Contoso US."

If "mpuser-au" clicks on "US Offer 1," they will be automatically logged in to the "Contoso US" account.

Azure Marketplace Terminology

This section will give an overview of the most important terms in Azure Marketplace.

Azure Marketplace

Azure Marketplace is a centralized online store that offers a variety of cloud-based software applications and services for customers to easily discover, try, purchase, and provision on the Azure cloud platform. It provides a simplified deployment process, cost-effectiveness, flexibility, integration, security, innovation, and support for both customers and independent software vendors (ISVs).

Partner Center

Partner Center is a Microsoft tool that allows companies to publish and manage their software offerings on the Azure Marketplace. It provides a platform for partners to create and manage product listings, set pricing and terms, and track their performance through analytics and reporting tools. Essentially, Partner Center helps companies reach customers on the Azure Marketplace and grow their business on Microsoft's platform.

Partner Global Local Account

The Partner Global Account is the top-level account for a partner organization, which is used to manage all of the partner's activities and resources across the Microsoft Partner Network.

Business Location

Business Locations - or in short Locations - refer to the geographical regions where a partner may publish their solutions on the Azure Marketplace.

Each Location can have a Payout profile and a Tax profile.

Partner Local Account

Partner Local Account is a sub-account of Partner Global Account that is used to manage activities and resources specific to a particular location of the partner organization. The Partner Local Account is created automatically when you create a new business location.

Partner ID is a unique identifier assigned to each global/local partner account in the Partner Center.

Publisher, Seller ID, Account

Partners can choose to add one or more Publishers to each location in order to able to publish ("sell") their offerings in that region, depending on their target markets and availability. Each Publisher will have a unique Publisher ID.

Seller ID is a unique identifier assigned to each Publisher on the Azure Marketplace. It is used to identify the publisher ("seller") of the offerings and is displayed to customers in the marketplace. The Seller ID is created automatically when you create a new Publisher for a specific global/local partner account.

Partners can give users access to specific Publishers - or Accounts - identified with Location name plus Publisher ID.

Marketplace Roles

Users can be assigned specific roles to handle Marketplace related tasks.

See picture or click here for more details.

Users with "Manager" role for a specific Publisher can create Public/Private Offers for that Publisher as described in Azure Marketplace - Start Simple but Start Now!

Want to hear more, have feedback/suggestions or need help?

As always, I am very interested on your feedback. Please feel free to add a comment to this article, reach out to me ([email protected]).

Last, but not least: If you have a customer that wants to buy your Azure SaaS solution on Azure Marketplace and you need?any?help, reach out to your Microsoft contact - or to me ([email protected]).