PRESS-RELEASE | JANUARY 25, 2021
New 4.9 version of ActivePlatform is released
January 25, 2021: ActivePlatform, the market player in automated cloud service brokerage systems, announced today that it launched a new 4.9 version of ActivePlatform platform with implemented billing of the Microsoft Azure Plan service, support of new Google Workspace editions, and tons of cool features to improve your cloud sales.
Microsoft Azure Plan billing
Obtaining and processing the consumption statistic for the Microsoft Azure Plan service are performed in three steps:
- The platform daily collects non-detailed (without information per resource category and resource) consumption data for a subscription, creates a draft charge, and blocks the preliminary amount of funds on the account balance.
- After the billing day, the platform collects detailed consumption data for the previous month, creates a final charge, deletes all draft charges for the corresponding period, and blocks the final amount of funds on the account balance.
- The platform creates an invoice for the customer for the period covered by the detailed consumption data and final charge. Only after that, for the "Postpay" model, the payment expiration period is started.
Customer Control Panel — Analytics
Support of new requirements issued by Microsoft about customer's organization registration number
For subscriptions to the Microsoft services ordered for new customers, the platform now sends to the Partner Center the customer's organization registration number (also referred to as INN) specified for an account.
Support of purchasing Azure RI by customers via the Azure Portal
During the Microsoft Azure Plan service provisioning, the platform activates in the Microsoft Partner Center the permission for an account to purchase Azure reservations.
Support of new Google Workspace editions
It is now possible to order a new subscription, switch the plan, and migrate an existing subscription for the following Google Workspace editions (formerly G Suite):
- Google Workspace Business Starter.
- Google Workspace Business Standard.
- Google Workspace Business Plus.
- Google Workspace Enterprise Essentials.
- Google Workspace Enterprise Standard.
- Google Workspace Enterprise Plus.
- Google Workspace Essentials.
Improved the Google subscriptions migration wizard
For migrated annual yearly subscriptions, it is now possible to automatically close charges if the customer orders additional resources.
Validation for changing the amount of resources in a subscription to the vCloud Director service
When changing the amount of resources, validation of the new amount is performed as follows: the new amount of resources should be greater than or equal to the amount of resources in use on the vCloud side. Validation is applied to the Change, Renewal, Prolong, and Switch orders for subscriptions to the vCloud Director service.
The ability to change the amount of resources in the renewal orders for the "Pay in full" and "License-based (Monthly)" billing types
Changing the amount of resources is available for manually created orders for the delayed renewing of a subscription. Previously, the functionality was available only for the "CSP monthly" and "CSP annual" billing types.
Also, in the renewal orders for subscriptions based on the Manual Provisioning plugin, it is now possible to specify the set of values of the parameters for every added or excluded unit of the resource.
Additionally, for the renewal and prolong orders of postpaid subscriptions, the subscription credit limit check has been added. If the total amount of an order exceeds the applied subscription credit limit (the blocking threshold — in terms of the Customer Control Panel), the order cannot be confirmed, and an explaining message is displayed for a user.
The new abilities are available both in the Operator Control Panel and Customer Control Panel.
Also, in the renewal orders for subscriptions based on the Manual Provisioning plugin, it is now possible to specify the set of values of the parameters for every added or excluded unit of the resource.
Additionally, for the renewal and prolong orders of postpaid subscriptions, the subscription credit limit check has been added. If the total amount of an order exceeds the applied subscription credit limit (the blocking threshold — in terms of the Customer Control Panel), the order cannot be confirmed, and an explaining message is displayed for a user.
The new abilities are available both in the Operator Control Panel and Customer Control Panel.
The ability to change the amount of resources in the prolong orders for the "CSP monthly" billing type
Changing the amount of resources is available for manually created prolong orders. If a prolong order with the changed amount of resources is created before the "Paid to" date of the subscription, provisioning the order is delayed until the "Paid to" date. In other cases, provisioning the order starts right after completing the payment.
Validation service for checking resellers and customers for restrictions imposed by a distributor
The validation service restricts ordering subscriptions for resellers and customers if their INNs are included in the restrictions lists. For validating, the restrictions lists are retrieved from a third-party service. Restrictions are applied to ordering a new subscription linked to any product not included in the exceptions list. The exceptions list is applied on a reseller level and all downstream resellers levels where the products were delegated.
Extended information about a manager of a reseller
In the Operator Control Panel, it is now possible to specify the phone number of a manager and attach the manager's photo.
Added the key of an application template (connector) to sync data with third-party systems
In the Operator Control Panel, it is now possible to specify the key for of application template (connector). The key allows syncing data of a subscription based on the application template (connector) with third-party systems like NetSuite.
Improved user experience in the platform
Improved user experience in the Customer Control Panel:
Improved user experience in Customer Store:
- A message displayed for subscriptions with the "Pay in full" and "License-based (Monthly)" billing types with the unprocessed renewal order has been improved.
- A message displayed of the first step of ordering a subscription with the "License-based (Monthly)" billing type has been improved.
- A message displayed for stopping a subscription has been improved.
- Messages related to accepting the terms and conditions have been improved.
Improved user experience in Customer Store:
- The reseller can select the currency used for prices in Storefront: the original plan currency or reseller currency (the actual exchange rate is applied).
- Automatic synchronization of Customer Store with ActivePlatform is now performed several times per day.
Extended API
The following new API v3 methods have been implemented:
For the "Create a prolong order" method, the subscription credit limit check has been added.
For the "Create a sales order" method, support of the service for checking resellers and customers for restrictions imposed by a distributor has been added.
Support of information about reseller's managers has been extended:
A single module for checking operations available for a subscription has been implemented. The list of available options is included in the information about a subscription in the response models of the API v3 methods. The API v3 methods for stopping, activating a subscription, and creating an order for a subscription can now check the availability of the requested operation.
The response models of the existing API v3 methods for working with charges the following information has been added:
- Creating a sales order to purchase a new subscription.
- Creating a new account of the reseller.
- Updating information about an account of the reseller.
- Getting the list of attributes of the reseller's account.
- Getting the list of additional attributes required for the service provisioning by the given plan ID.
- Validating the values of additional attributes required for the service provisioning by the given plan ID.
For the "Create a prolong order" method, the subscription credit limit check has been added.
For the "Create a sales order" method, support of the service for checking resellers and customers for restrictions imposed by a distributor has been added.
Support of information about reseller's managers has been extended:
- The response model of the existing method for getting information about a reseller has been extended with information about an upstream reseller's manager attached to the current reseller.
- The response models of the existing methods for getting the list of reseller's managers and getting information about a reseller's manager have been extended with information about the phone number of a manager and a link to the file of the manager's photo.
- An API v3 method has been implemented for creating a reseller's manager.
- An API v3 method has been implemented for updating information about a reseller's manager.
A single module for checking operations available for a subscription has been implemented. The list of available options is included in the information about a subscription in the response models of the API v3 methods. The API v3 methods for stopping, activating a subscription, and creating an order for a subscription can now check the availability of the requested operation.
The response models of the existing API v3 methods for working with charges the following information has been added:
- The key of an application template (connector) used for a subscription.
- Additional parameters of a subscription based on the manual provisioning plugin.
About ActivePlatform
ActivePlatform is a full-service automated cloud brokering solution for cloud service providers and internal IT hubs that makes it easier to manage and control the cloud delivery and profitability. ActivePlatform unites vendors, providers, developers, and resellers into a single ecosystem for buying, selling, and managing cloud services. With its open vendor integration framework ActivePlatform creates a vibrant catalogue of cloud services ultimately helping businesses gain access to the services they need to thrive.
ActivePlatform enables SaaS, PaaS, IaaS aggregation, delivery, and monetization, provides simplified administration through central management, and enables critical visibility into resellers and cloud services consumption and usage. The platform has implementations with distributors, cloud solution providers, and telecom operators. ActivePlatform is headquartered in Europe.
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