Introducing Reseller Store: a self-service portal for small- and medium-sized resellers in ActivePlatform

June 30, 2021: ActivePlatform, the market player in automated cloud service brokerage systems, announced the release of Reseller Store. With Reseller Store, partners of larger resellers can automate their indirect sales of cloud services without billing customers. The cloud services catalog, automatic provisioning, and consumption analytics in Reseller Store are ready for use out-of-the-box as a part of the ActivePlatform ecosystem.

We designed Reseller Store for resellers who do not need the extensive functionality of the Operator Control Panel and whose customers do not require access to a customer self-service portal. Our new solution allows small- and medium-sized resellers (so-called partners) to order and manage subscriptions to cloud services offered by the larger resellers. Within this model, Reseller Store charges the partners, not their customers.

Reseller Store is intended to be simple and powerful. Resellers who use the classic Operator Control Panel can now empower their partners with a slick self-service portal with a modern and adaptive view. The main idea of Reseller Store is to keep all complicated but necessary configurations and setting under the hood and let resellers' partners focus on operations with subscriptions.

Small- and medium-sized resellers can sell cloud services to customers as fast as possible. The subscription ordering process in Reseller Store includes 4 quick steps:

1. Configuring a subscription: selecting the plan period and resources. The primary resource, like the number of licenses, is highlighted for more convenience.
2. Selecting a customer or creating a new one with the least input of information.
3. Optionally, entering service-specific extra data about the customer.
4. Formal confirming the purchase.

Moreover, all payments are processed and completed automatically without actual billing of customers or manual approval. However, partners can download detailed reports for closed charges, including applied discounts.

Reseller Store is ideal for reselling Microsoft CSP, including Office 365, Azure Plan, Perpetual Software, and other services integrated with ActivePlatform. The cloud brokerage platform takes care of all notifications and activation instructions. As a result, managers receive required information about ordered subscriptions to their emails. In addition, Reseller Store works fine with different currencies and relays on the reseller's exchange rates effective in ActivePlatform.

Once invited to Reseller Store, a manager of a partner has access to the following sections:

• Main page — the starting point with widgets full of the most recent information. On the main page, a manager can spot and go to the consumption dynamics, the lists of subscriptions that are about to expire or just ordered.
• Catalog — the list of available services that can be purchased for customers of the partner. The catalog inherited the best from Storefront in Customer Store — clear hierarchy and multimedia description of products. Plus, it has a smart search from any page of Reseller Store.
• My subscriptions — the list of subscriptions purchased by any manager for customers of the partner. Right in the list, there are convenient quick actions for subscriptions: stopping, activating, and changing the number of the primary resource units. Diving in, it is a detailed subscription page with the resource management table, operation history, and the information section. The information section is much like the one in the Customer Portal Panel and includes instructions and credentials for using the cloud service.

Reseller Store counts on the ActivePlatform functionality that guarantees a smooth and flawless operation. The catalog of cloud services represents products and their trial and commercial plans of the upstream reseller available for partners. The catalog follows the same structure and re-uses descriptions and media files from ActivePlatform.

The critical logic of automatic provisioning and charging for consumed resources works entirely on the ActivePlatform side. The reseller's partners no need to worry about the process. In case of any questions, partners are free to contact the support team.

Unlike larger resellers, their partners do not provide customers with access to the Customer Control Panel. All data is stored in ActivePlatform, but analytics tools work directly in Reseller Store. For instance, the "Analytics" section in Reseller Store mainly replicates the "Analytics" section of the Customer Control Panel. When required, partners track consumption details on several levels: per customer, subscription, or resource.

From now on, the ActivePlatform ecosystem includes the following components:

• Vendor Portal — a single point-of-integration with ActivePlatform for cloud and SaaS vendors.
• Customer Store — a white-labeled customer storefront of a reseller.
• Operator (Reseller) Control Panel — a unified portal for managing multi-tiered channels of resellers and their users.
• Customer Control Panel — a customer self-service portal for managing subscriptions and cost analyzing.
• Reseller Store — a self-service portal for small- and medium-sized resellers without billing customers.

Contact us, and we will consult you on how ActivePlatform can suit your business and raise its profits.

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 catalog 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.