How will Microsoft NCE help partners?
Microsoft’s New Commerce Experience (NCE) in the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program was launched to provide customers a greater choice and flexibility in how and where they purchase and offer the partners more opportunities to sell to a growing base of existing and new customers. The NCE platform will help partners guide their customers and drive growth by:
- Scaling their business with continuous selling.
- Developing a long-lasting business through value-added services.
- Reducing costs while expediting their customers’ success.
The NCE will transform the way partners interact with their customers. Through a simplified licensing and purchase journey, Microsoft’s New Commerce Experience in the CSP model will help partners build and deliver more managed services and expand the existing customer base. The NCE is a multi-phase and long-term investment, built on the strong foundation of the CSP program, designed to help partners extend the cloud benefits to their customers. It will simplify the buying and selling process and help partners grow their business and improve GTM (go-to-market) strategies. Microsoft introduced the NCE for Azure plans in November 2019. In October 2021, Microsoft introduced seat-based offers in CSP for Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Windows 365, and Power Platform.
Read more about NCE here: Ins and Outs of the Microsoft’s New Commerce Experience (NCE) in CSP
Why must partners use RackNap for NCE adoption?
Customers can address difficulties and obstacles on their own rather than relying on or dealing with the service provider, hence CSP and MSP who want to create a unique experience for customers generally use a self-service portal.
RackNap is a leading platform for automated subscription billing and provisioning. RackNap helps businesses with a recurring revenue earning model automate the key aspects of their business operations which are sales and marketing, billing automation and order provisioning, and customer management and support. It provides business intelligence and smart reporting for helping businesses improve their strategic business decision-making skills and increase revenues.
RackNap being a cloud automation services provider and a Microsoft preferred solution can help you prepare and leverage the most out of the NCE model.
How partners can import NCE Microsoft offer names for CSPs
Partners can import the NCE Microsoft CSP services using the automation platform by following the below steps.
Step 1: Go to Settings and select Basic Configuration under the Offers section.
Step 2: From the list of categories that appear, choose the MSCSP NCE offer category.
Step 3: Select Microsoft from the list of vendors that appear on the screen.
Step 4: Choose Office NCE from the list of offer groups.
Now you will be able to see the below screen in which you edit the offer group. On the left side, you will be able to configure the offer group settings from the left tab.
Step 5: From the left panel, choose the Offer Name Import tab. A form opens with the latest NCE Office 365 plan(s) will open as shown in the below image. In the NCE Microsoft 365 Offer Group section, the Cloud Reseller Offer Matrix details are given at the bottom of the offer name import form in the order – S. No – Offer Name – Change Offer Name – Is Addon – Segment – Offer ID – SKU ID – Monthly Price – Annually Price – Triennially Price.
Step 6: Now you can fill-up the form as per the requirement and modify the Cloud Reseller Offer Matrix details to create a new offer name.
Step 7: Click on the Save button provided at the end of the list to create the offer name. Your Offer names will be imported and will appear in the Offer Name section under the Office 365 Offer Group.
How partners can integrate NCE Microsoft 365 service for the CSPs
To integrate NCE Microsoft 365 with the cloud automation platform, partners need to follow these steps:
Add Offer Category>>Add Vendor>>Add Offer Group>>Add Offer Name>>Configure Offer Name>>Order NCE Microsoft 365
Step 1: Add Offer Category
To add an offer category: Go to Home >> Settings >> Offers >> Basic Configuration.
There are five default offer categories in the automation platform – Cloud, Dedicated Server, Domain, VPS and Hosting.
If your offer does not fall into any of these categories, then click on Add Offer Category option under the Important Links of Basic Configuration page. This will open the Add New Offer Category window as shown below.
Enter the required category name and click the Save button. You can see that your offer category is listed on the Basic Configuration page.
Step 2: Add Vendor
On the Basic Configuration page, click on the Offer Category you just created and click on the Assign Vendor link under the Important Links section.
If you wish to create a vendor, click on Add Vendor link under Important Links to create a new vendor. Clicking on Add Vendor will open the Add New Vendor window like shown below:
Complete the form with all the required vendor information and Save it to create the vendor.
If you have already created a vendor, go to the Assign Vendor section, and select a vendor from the list.
Step 3: Add Offer Group
There will be offer groups under every vendor. You can add offer groups to any vendor.
If you want to create a new offer group, on the Vendor page, click on the Vendor you just created. You will see the Offer Group page. Click on the Add Offer Group link under the Important Links section. The Add New Offer Group window will open as shown below.
Fill up all the required offer group information.
Under the Module Name, choose ‘MSCSP Office NCE’ from the drop-down list and click on Save to create the offer group.
Step 4: Add Offer Name
Once you create an offer group, you can add new offer names under it. Go to the Offer Group page and click on the Offer Group you just created.
Clicking the Add Offer Name option under Important Links will open the Add New Offer Name window as shown below.
Complete the form with all the required offer name information and click on Save to create the offer name.
Step 5: Configure Offer Name
To configure the Offer Name, click on the edit button located in front of the Offer Name which you want to configure.
A window with complete details of the offer name will open as shown below.
Following are the configuration options:
- In the Offer Detail section, you can view complete details about the offer name and edit as per your need.
- In the Offer Pricing section, you can set up the pricing for the offer name. Click on the Pricing Tab. Here, you can edit the pricing of the Offer Name and define the setup fees of the offer and the Price. Update the price and click on the Update button.
- In the Module Settings section, you can add module details. Here, select the module name “MSCSP Office NCE” from the dropdown. Mention the details and click on Save.
Step 6: Order NCE Microsoft 365
The unique order URLs will be generated as soon as the module settings related to the offer are done and saved.
You can use this and hyperlink to this through your website enabling your customer to place the order directly from your marketplace/website.
Tier 2 NCE Microsoft 365 CSP service integration
In the case of Tier 2 NCE Microsoft 365 CSP service, the process of integration will be the same. However, in a few cases, the integration process might become different.
The partners may be able to sell only those offers that the service provider allows them to sell. In such cases, the service provider admin needs to select the checkbox Partner Admin on the offer section.
If enabled, the offer name will be available for the partner to sell and if disabled, the partner will not be able to sell that offer name.
The partner can edit the discount on the offer group or offer name and set his markup. Select any offer name to configure by clicking on the Edit icon located in the action column which is in front of that offer name. In the markup text box under the pricing tab, the partner can define the markup which the Partner’s end customers will pay him (Offer cost + markup). The Order URLs will be generated as soon as the module settings related to the offer group or offer name are done and saved. The partner’s end customers can directly go to the partner’s marketplace and place an order from there.
If the partner wants, he can place an order on his customer’s behalf too. After the order is placed and approved, the service is created in the automation platform under the Subscription in the customer area.
How partners can benefit from RackNap
RackNap newest self-service portal has been updated to match the new commerce experience.
With the launch of Microsoft’s New Commerce Experience, the ability to adjust quantities for customers who have signed an annual contract will be limited. RackNap, on the other hand, has made major enhancements to its self-service portal capabilities, allowing partners to continue to profit from self-service.
With RackNap’s next-generation automation capabilities, you can simplify cloud subscriptions and optimize revenues. RackNap eradicates the billing complexities of your recurring business model by supporting multiple billing options, auto-provisioning, billing intelligence, tiered subscription pricing management and single-click order provisioning. RackNap empowers your team and your customers by giving your customers complete visibility into their service usage backed with automation.
With RackNap, accelerate your subscription business with automation and amplify your service offerings and delivery.
- RackNap helps you configure plans, pricing, discounts and has built-in support for multiple billing and pricing models. Hence, it lightens your administration burdens and helps optimize costs and maximize revenues.
- With its seamless automation and powerful management, RackNap helps reduce your go-to-market time and operational expenses. You can also take faster strategic decisions based on the business intelligence and analytics insights of your business offered by RackNap.
- The self-service customer panel reduces the gap between you and your customers, and the customers can view and manage their payments and raise support from within their panel. As a result, they can gain a sense of satisfaction and trust.
- RackNap helps you cross-sell and upsell services to your existing subscribers. It also enables you to create bundled offerings and apply discounts to attract more customers and onboard new customers quickly.
Do you want to know how RackNap can assist you in dealing with the Microsoft New Commerce Experience changes? Talk to our experts today.
Read next: Is it too expensive to manage your cloud subscription billing?
