We understand that it is vital to have a seamless portal usage experience and our team is working round the clock to improve and evolve the platform constantly. Additionally, we have prepared several tips&tricks that can be used to ensure our partners have a smooth experience while using the platform. 

1. Browser choice

The platform is compatible with the most popular internet browsers, but it is advised to use Google Chrome for the best experience.

2. Incognito mode

Use Incognito mode by clicking on browser settings and choosing Incognito mode. 

3. Clean cookies

Sometimes there can be information from your previous session stored in the browser cookies that might interfere with some of the functionalities. It is best practice to clear the browser cookies regularly or perform a hard refresh of the page by pressing F12 and right-clicking the browser refresh button.

4. One organization at the time

If you are working with several organizations, multitasking is not your friend. Keep only one organization profile open on your browser and close it, before logging in as other organization.

5. Give it some time

Large updates, such as, adding items to catalog are heavy processes and can take some time. Wait for some minutes before refreshing the page to see your changes applied.

What's new

Detailed invoices

Improved order provisioning

Tweaks and bugfixes

• Fixed incorrect quantity change displayed under "requested change" in order details.
• Fixed 500 error when activity history section fails to load the full list of change events.
• Fixed an issue that prevented users with distributor admin role from seeing activity history.

These updates went live on 02.02.

What's new

New APIs

• Subscription prices API - get prices for each subscription. A lightweight alternative to retrieving full subscription details for when you only need to display the price in your marketplace, ERP or another system.

Updated APIs

• Cancel order API - extended this API with the ability to cancel specific item in any eligible order directly from your ERP.
• Removed redundancies (e.g., unnecessary X-Referrer header) from various APIs to simplify requests.
• Fixed Unblock Customer API to work correctly.
• Documentation update:
  • Extended Customers API docs with examples how to filter organizations retrieved based on ID in your third-party system, full name and country. This will simplify integrations with your CRM or ERP system.
  • Published a short guide on how to manage subscriptions from your ERP/CRM or marketplace. It includes instructions how to list all subscription, retrieve and display subscription details and update the subscription in various ways.
  • Published a guide on how to use APIs to manage specific tenants your customers may have with Microsoft.

!Note you have to be logged in AppXite Developer site to explore the mentioned APIs.

The release was shipped on 19.01.

Platform updates

Some of the major developments from the last weeks include the release of the new APIs, subscription upgrades that allow fully upgrading NCE subscriptions to higher-tier offers,and extending MFA to Custom User Database accounts thus harmonizing the access control features across all Identity Providers.

Featured articles:

• Navigating platform APIs
• Reporting API - detailed invoice line items
• Get catalog and prices
• Manage subscriptions via APIs
• Manage Microsoft customer tenants
• Place and provision orders via API
• How can I invite a user of Microsoft partner?
• How to log in to the catalog on behalf of the customer
• How do I access CPQ/SKU builder?
• How to add products to the catalog
• How to assign users with email policies on Business Central
• How to cancel and undo orders
• How to distinguish between NCE and non-NCE offers
• How to re-post invoices
• A blog: Are you GDAP-ready? All about Microsoft DAP-to-GDAP transition

Release notes:

• Release notes 130
• Release notes 129
• Release notes 128
• Release notes 127
• Release notes 126
• Release notes 125

New APIs released

AppXite is happy to announce the release of the new APIs that provide faster and more comprehensive interaction with the platform data and support external marketplace integration. The new APIs will enable partners to interact with the Catalog, Offer Prices, Subscriptions, Microsoft Tenants, and Custom Properties.

Reporting API - detailed invoice line items

Reporting API can return detailed invoice line items. With this functionality, you can have the flexibility to leverage a simplified view with consolidated invoice line items and when necessary, switch to granular invoice details. As such, it is easy to obtain an overview of charges across different subscriptions and access details of pro-rated charges when needed.

Get catalog and prices

These APIs will allow you to get your platform catalog of offers and display it outside the platform. For instance, you can build your own marketplace as a customer-facing UI with the catalog of offers being displayed and available for purchase, whereas the platform will be used as a back-end functionality. 

Place and Provision Orders

These APIs will allow you to place and provision orders programmatically. As a result, you can use your own marketplace and/or CRM/ERP to place and provision orders on the platform.

Manage subscriptions via APIs

These APIs will allow you to collect subscription data and manage subscriptions outside the platform (e.g. in your ERP/CRM and/or marketplace). 

Manage Microsoft customer tenants

These APIs will allow you to validate and create Microsoft Tenants programmatically. This will allow you to incorporate the Microsoft tenant management functionality in your offer purchase flow.

Welcome to AppXite Academy

Some of the major developments from the last weeks include the catalog uplift with the addition of new Adobe offers, our new reports landing page to help you navigate your dashboards better, and AppXite's own GDAP migration solution that will help Microsoft partners transition from DAP to GDAP painlessly.

Featured Use Case articles:

Going forward we want to emphasize different outcomes partners and customers can achieve from using our platform. For that reason, our newsletters will focus to highlight different Use Cases that partners can leverage in the business.

• How to provide Special Price for select deals?
• How to configure different Price logic for Microsoft CSP license-based and usage-based offers?
• What do different price sources mean? 

Featured platform articles:

• AppXite GDAP API Reference Guide
• GDAP - Customer Transition and Synchronization
• GDAP - CSP Roles / Template Management / Security Group Provisioning
• GDAP - User Account Registration & Activation
• GDAP - Software Client Setup
• Release Notes 125
• Release Notes 124
• Release Notes 123
• Release Notes 122
• Release Notes 121
• Synchronize Organization with existing MS Tenant
• Automatic offer provisioning
• Adobe seller guide

AppXite's GDAP Migration Solution Is Available Now

1. GDAP - Software Client Setup
2. GDAP - User Account Registration & Activation
3. GDAP - CSP Roles / Template Management / Security Group Provisioning
4. GDAP - Customer Transition and Synchronization

The Consolidation of Developers Portals

AppXite is consolidating the existing Sandbox API and Production API portals into a single Developer portal to remove the complexity of operating two portals for different environments. 

What is required from all partners who use API management?

• Sign-up here if you do not have an account yet. All user accounts will be valid after unification. 
• After the consolidation, you will be required to use an additional header "Environments" to select the environment you want to use. API Documentation on the portal will contain additional guidelines.

If you have any questions, please contact api@appxite.com.

Release highlights:

Start selling Adobe Pro and Enterprise offers today. More than 70 new Adobe VIP Marketplace offers were integrated into the AppXite catalog and are ready for your transactions. Volume discounts based on the customer's Account Level are enabled for these offers.

Navigate your Reports section effortlessly. To encourage the broader adoption of our insightful reports, we launched a new menu page that gives a comprehensive overview and short descriptions of all reports available to you.

Verify NCE offer prices and easily share them with customers. To improve NCE price and billing tracking, the Price list report now includes NCE offers. With this update, customers' NCE commitment is also more clearly visible.

Latest news from your vendors:

Extended timelines: Securing the partner ecosystem by transitioning to GDAP

Microsoft is extending the previously announced timelines for key actions partners need to take to secure their ecosystem.

VIP Marketplace changes 

Adobe updated its VIP Marketplace roadmap which will postpone the release of the 3-year license commitment to Q1 of 2023, and the release of the VIP Marketplace offers for education and government for Q2. Contact Adobe for more information. 

Configuration

You may want to have an industry-specific offer or pricing plan available for some of your offers. In order to have those available, there are two steps to perform:

1. Configure your offer by adding the desired industry in the Availability section;

2. Organization profile must indicate that it belongs to the chosen industry. Currently, there are 4 types of industries available:

• Private Business (Commercial)
• Government
• Educational
• Nonprofit

Industry-specific Microsoft offers

Industry specific orders for Microsoft offers are available for eligible customers only. 

How to make the customer eligible? 

1. Make sure that the correct industries are displayed in customers card of their Microsoft Partner Center (MPSC) profile. !Note if the respective industry is not displayed in Microsoft Partner Center, Microsoft might reject the order or provision it by default (Commercial) price.

2. Organization profile in platform must indicate that it belongs to the respective industry. 

!Note Currently, there are industry-specific offers only for Microsoft available on the platform, but it is expected that there will be other vendors adding their industry-specific offers in the future.

Purchasing 

To purchase an offer for industry-specific price, select the eligible segment for the offer when placing the order. The price will update automatically.

In the Catalog Customer segment section, you (Seller Admin) can add products in the Catalog.

NOTE! If the product is not added to any of the categories, it will not be available for the customers.

1. Select "Catalog"→"Customer segments", choose an existing segment from the list, or create a new segment.

2. Select the "Edit catalog" button. 

3. By the drag & drop option you can sort the products into categories.

4. A pop-up will appear allowing you to select some or all offerings. By default, all offerings are selected. You can choose not to include all the offerings by deselecting the check-box. Repeat this step till you have made all the desired changes to the selected seller segment catalog.

Note! Products having a prohibition sign will not appear in the Product Catalog, as it is "Not available in your country or for your industry". In more detail read the article "Product unavailable“ badge description.

Note! Products having the message "This offer is not provided, please contact the seller to get more information about this offer" means that Seller has not added this Product to Categories available for Customer. In order to enable this Product, it should be added to one of the Categories.

5. After saving the changes the platform will ask again to confirm or cancel all the performed changes in the catalog.

6. After confirmation to save the changes, the platform will offer to populate the product to all end-customers automatically or to let your partners to hand-pick for which customers to enable it. Choose the desired outcome and Confirm the catalog change.

A. All new products are added to catalogs of all end-customer segments of all sellers in the current seller segment:

• If category with the matching name already exists in the target catalog, add to that category. The new product takes the first position in the matching category.
• If category with the matching name doesn't exist in the target catalog, create it and link the product to it. The new category takes the first position in the catalog.

B. All changes are saved for the catalog of the current segment only

In order to see detailed invoice lines as issued by the Vendor on AppXite platform, it can be enabled via UI and by using API.

When enabled, invoice rows for each subscription are broken down into separate fees that more accurately reflect subscription changes during the billing period.

For example, you will be able to see the amount charged for 30 licenses in the first 10 days of the month before the quantity change, and the amount charged for 40 licenses in the remaining 20 days of the month.

This helps partners and their customers to more easily understand and explain the amount in the invoice with full confidence.

Users can choose if they want to see invoice data in aggregated or detailed format. Additional invoice details that are displayed are based on the data directly from the vendor. 

On UI level:

In order to see the prorated invoice details on UI for incoming or outgoing invoices, you should go to the invoice section and open the respective invoice to see details:

In the invoice details as per screenshot above, on the right side is the toggle button "Show details" (off by default), which is used to see the prorated fees:

• When enabled, the subscription invoice data includes a row for each interval of prorated fees, with actual dates and quantity. The details will be present in the table of the respective invoice page and in the downloadable excel file.
• When disabled, the subscription details will show the quantity and the final amount of the changes within the billing period in one consolidated amount. The subscription line will be accordingly present in the table of the respective invoice page and in the downloadable excel file.

On API level:

It is possible to request detailed invoice rows via our Reporting API using an optional parameter, where the API can return data with or without prorated invoice details.

For returning detailed invoice lines via API, please refer to Reporting API - Detailed Invoice Line Items Knowledge Base article and the "Platform API Integrations" section for more information. 

It is important to know that invoice details are available only for invoices that are from December 2022 or newer, in both - API and UI level.

1. Select the time period for which you would like to see the subscription changes;
2. Use filters to filter required data - Resellers, Customers, Vendor, Auto-renewal, and NCE/non-NCE;
3. Subscriptions with recent changes - previous quantity, new quantity, total commitment changes, and subscription type;
4. Remaining commitment for the selected customers;
5. Order items with recent changes for the selected subscriptions.

I. Setup Email Body layout for custom PDF invoice

1. Open “Report Selection - Sales” page and select Invoice in “Usage” dropdown field:
2. Check mark “Use for Email Body” field:
3. Click on “Email Body Layout Description” field to open “Custom Report Layouts” page:
4. Click on tree dots […] to open menu and select “New” > ”New…
5. Toggle on “Insert Word Layout” switch and click “OK” on the “Edit - Insert Built-in Layout for a Report” page:
6. Click on three dots […] and select “Layout” > “Import Layout” in menu:  
7. Select word document related to modifying report and click “Open”
8. Click “OK” in “Custom Report Layouts” page
9. Close “Report Selection - Sales” page

II. Add a language

1. Open “Languages” page

2. Add a new record

3. Fill in Code Name and fields.

4. In dropdown of the “Windows Language ID” field, select the language: 

5. Update Customer Language Code. In the Customer Card: 

From the Subscription tab, click on the questioned offer.

1)NCE offer will have fields Term Duration and Billing Cycle, where Legacy offer will have only the Billing Cycle

2)Legacy offer will also include field called Unit price

When looking at the product catalogue, you can easily distinguish NCE offers from non NCE by looking at the icon. All NCE offers have "NCE" written on the upper left corner of Microsoft icon. See the examples below.

NCE offer: 

non NCE offer:

How to distinguish between offers by contract type?

Open Invoice section and look at the contract type. "Azure Plan & One time"  contracts are for NCE offers.

How to distinguish between offers in Invoices?

Open Invoice section and choose any invoice you would like to verify

Once you have the invoice details, slide the ruler to the right side till "Vendor offer ID". For NCE offers the vendor reference number starts with capital or lower case "CFQ". 

!Note if you do not see "Vendor offer ID" tab, it can be enabled on the upper right corner of invoice view

How to distinguish NCE offers in Subscription report?

Subscription report contains filters to distinguish NCE offers from non-NCE. If "Is NCE" tab record displays "true", the selected offer is NCE. You can filter the subscriptions on the left side in "Microsoft NCE" section.

How to distinguish between offers while using "Search" in catalogue?

At the moment there are situations where duplicate offer names appear in the search results as one of them is NCE and the other is non-NCE. This is because the product names are imported from Microsoft directly and the titles are not distinguishable. This situation is going to solve itself in few months once the all the legacy offers will be discontinued. In meantime we are preparing a workaround to amend the situation - tags will be added to the product names. Follow the product releases to not to miss this update!

This article will describe Microsoft 365 Business offer Promotion, basics, and Terms & Conditions.

Note! Microsoft 365 Business promotion is valid only until 30.06.2020

If you plan to offer promotional pricing to government and state-owned entities, you’ll need to first ensure that the price you offer to these customers doesn’t exceed the maximum resale price. The maximum resale price is the applicable ERP minus the promotional discount.

Learn more on how to add a Special price tag, and how to change markup/discount.                        

Offer basics:

What is the Microsoft 365 Business Offer?
The Microsoft 365 Business offer is a 1-year discount of 20% for Microsoft 365 Business with an annual commitment, for up to 300 licenses. New and existing customers are eligible for this offer.

This offer is available through the Cloud Solution Provider program only.

This offer is available in Germany, France, Austria, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland & Portugal.

What is the purpose of the offer?
Given the prevalence of cybersecurity concerns for SMB customers, it’s critical that SMB customers have the right tools to protect themselves. With Microsoft 365 Business, customers can get access to tools to help fight against threats, protect data and secure devices today.

What partner incentives are available to complement this to-customer offer?
If eligible*, partners can continue to qualify for standard CSP incentives through transacting this offer, including base rebates, global accelerators, and local accelerators.

Note! You must be eligible to receive CSP incentives. Learn more about CSP incentives: aka.ms/partnerincentives

What materials and training are available for me to leverage?
Updated sales and technical training materials are available on aka.ms/m365bpartners. These materials will outline how to approach the security opportunity in SMB, how to deal with common objections and how to overcome technical blockers.

Offer details:    
What are the offer terms and conditions?

By transacting this discounted offer, partners agree to abide by the below offer terms.

Terms and Conditions:

• The offer: 20% off one year of Microsoft 365 Business subscription for up to 300 licenses when purchased through a Microsoft Authorized Cloud Solution Provider. The discount requires a 12-month commitment but can be billed monthly or annually.
• Offer valid between December 1, 2019, and June 30th, 2020.
• Eligible customers: Both new and existing customers are eligible.
• At the conclusion of the 12-month promotional term, the customer will be billed at then-current market prices every year. The subscription will continue until the customer cancels with their Microsoft Seller.
• May not be combined with other offers for the same product.
• Microsoft 365 Business is subject to the Microsoft Cloud Agreement.
• Partner-specific conditions.
• Transacting partner is a Microsoft Authorized Cloud Solution Provider. 

PRICE PROMOTION PASS-THROUGH REQUIREMENTS
Microsoft is pleased to offer you this promotional price on Microsoft Products and Services, which represents a discount on your standard price (“Promotional Discount”). Please note that this Promotional Discount is intended to benefit end customers. For Government and State-Owned Entities, you must ensure that the customer price for Microsoft Products and Services does not exceed the Maximum Resell Price, including if you are selling as a distributor. “Maximum  Resell Price” means the applicable ERP less the Promotional Discount.

What happens at renewal?
The billing for these subscriptions will continue beyond the promotional 12-month term unless the customer cancels the subscription through their seller. At the conclusion of the offer term, the customer will be billed the current market price every year. Microsoft will make this pricing adjustment automatically. There is no action for partners.

What does annual commitment mean?
Annual commitment means that by purchasing this SKU, the customer commits to a twelve-month term. This includes monthly and annual billing options and is standard for all CSP offers.

Customer examples:
The customer currently owns 50 Office 365 Business Premium seats and wants to move to Microsoft 365 Business in the promotional period. The customer would be eligible for the 20% discount on Microsoft 365 Business for all 50 seats in their subscription.

The customer adds 10 seats at the start of the promotion, however, want to add additional seats in the promotion time period. This is allowed if the seats are purchased in the promotional period. These additional seats will be eligible for the 20% discount and subject to the terms of the offer.

The customer then wants to add seats out of the promotion period to a tenant created in the promotion period. The seats purchased in the promotion period will be eligible for the 20% discount. The seats purchased outside of the promotional period are not eligible for this discount and will be priced at the current market rate.

The customer wants to renew the subscription after 12 months.

The subscription will continue until customer cancels with their Microsoft Seller. However, at the end of the 12-month promotional period, the discount will no longer apply, and the customer will be moved to the current market price automatically by Microsoft. There will be no action for the partner or the customer.

Offer ID
Microsoft 365 Business: Secure Productive Business Buy CSP_61795cab-2abd-43f6-88e9-c9adae5746e0 

On June 28 Microsoft has sent a non-renewal notice to all Indirect Sellers, that are onboarded to Partner Center, informing of the expiration of the existing seller terms (“Terms and Conditions Governing Indirect Sellers” (the “Indirect Seller Terms”)) which will be replaced with the Microsoft Partner Agreement starting September 1, 2019.

Q: What does it mean?
A: Starting September 1, 2019, the new Microsoft Partner Agreement will be available for all partners in the CSP program including indirect sellers. The existing seller terms and conditions governing indirect sellers will be replaced by the Microsoft Partner Agreement when it is becoming available on September 1, 2019. The expiring existing seller terms will be replaced with the Microsoft Partner Agreement.

Q: Where can I sign the new MPA?
A: Microsoft Partner Agreement will be available on Partner Center starting September 1st, 2019.

• Review Microsoft Partner Agreement (starting July 31, 2019).
• Accept Microsoft Partner Agreement on Partner Center (between Sep 1, 2019 Jan 31, 2020).

Q: Will that impact the way of working with AppXite?
A: No. 

Microsoft Partner Agreement Term Enforcement Timeline:

• September 1, 2019 – January 31, 2020: Indirect Sellers must accept the terms of the Microsoft Partner Agreement.
• After January 31, 2020: Indirect Sellers who have not accepted the Microsoft Partner Agreement will have their CSP transactions blocked.
• From August 31, 2020: Indirect Sellers who have not Accepted Microsoft Partner Agreement will be off-boarded from the CSP Program.

Read more here.

This article outlines the main questions that arise while reviewing the Cloud Commerce Platform as-a-Service Agreement.

The Cloud Commerce Platform as a Service Agreement describes:

1. How AppXite provides users with the Platform
2. The rights and obligations of involved parties

1. When will the Platform become available?

AppXite Platform will be available right after a user (1) completes the onboarding step and (2) confirms that the Platform is configured according to their preferences.

2. What is White-Label Branding? 

This means that a user's Platform is branded under their logo, name, and other relevant designs accessible via URL.

3. What is White-Label billing?

When a Platform is set up and begins scaling sales, users often consider reducing administrative workloads by having AppXite take over customer billing. This means they utilize AppXite's White-Label Billing as-a-Service. This service generates invoices on behalf of the data generated in your Platform and sends it to customers. 

4. What is the Platform's availability?

AppXite's ultimate goal is providing full platform functionality 24/7/365.

This means effecting updates in a manner that affects business using the platform as little as possible. Now, the platform may have downtime consisting of two service windows per month - for a total of 4 hours. AppXite will notify sellers 2 (two) business days in advance of such service windows via e-mail. Additionally, AppXite takes commercially reasonable efforts to minimize everyone's risk exposure by making these service windows Saturday mornings 8:00 - 10:00 GMT +3. 

5. My business collects customer data, including personal data. What should I do to ensure compliance with data protection laws, including GDPR?

First, ensure there is a valid legal basis for processing. Then, maintain an appropriate level of information security within your company. This means that processing activities must be transparent; sufficient information is regularly provided to customers regarding the processing of their data. For further information visit our Privacy Hub.

This way, we ensure that we can collect payments from resellers.

6. Can I sell my own solutions via the AppXite platform?

Yes. Additional offers can be added to the Platform by using Platform functionalities for configuring offers. You can also appoint AppXite to act as your distributor; launching your products through our network of resellers connected to the Platform.

7. What happens to my customer data when I end the agreement?

Your data will be returned in a reasonably requested format. If the law requires, we will keep records of this data.

8. I want my own terms and conditions to govern my marketplace. Can I use my own terms on the Platform?

Platform functionalities allow users to upload and update terms and conditions related to its white-labeled capabilities.

9. What is the subscription term?

The standard term is 1 (one) calendar year. However, users have the ability to choose their own subscription terms.

10. Can I make modifications to the Platform?

No. However, you can request that AppXite carry out some modifications that will improve functionality.

11. Can AppXite make modifications to the Platform?

Yes. AppXite may change the functionality of the Platform by adding new features and improving various capabilities. AppXite will make its best efforts to notify users of any modifications before such modifications are implemented.

12. What happens if a customer changes information in the Microsoft Partner Center?

There is a 2-way synchronization between the Microsoft Partner Center and the AppXite Platform. Therefore, certain information can be edited in either location with both being updated. However, it is important to understand that once customer information has been synchronized with the platform, the only Billing information should be updated in Microsoft Partner Center. All other information must be updated on the platform to avoid problems with synchronization.  

13. Can I have my Platform support different currencies?

Yes. The platform does support different currencies. However, the settlement between a seller and AppXite should be consistent in one of the currencies provided below:

• Euro (EUR)
• Norwegian Krone (NOK)
• Swedish Krona (SEK)
• Danish Krone (DKK)
• Swiss Franc (CHF)
• Polish Zloty (PLN)
• British Pound (GBP)
• US Dollar (USD)

16. Who to contact regarding legal issues?
E-mail: appxite.legal@appxite.com

17. Who to contact regarding financial issues?
E-mail: fa@appxite.com

18. Who to contact regarding data protection?
E-mail: dpo@appxite.com

This article will describe, how to accept Microsoft Customer Agreement (MCuA) through the platform. Microsoft Customer Agreement in CSP program will replace Microsoft Cloud Agreement starting from January 31st, 2020. Read more here.

 ----------------------------------- 

Q: What is the new process for confirming customer acceptance of the Microsoft Customer Agreement?

We have enabled function for sellers and their customers to accept new terms of MCuA.

When purchasing new MS subscription or renewing existing, or adding additional licenses for existing subscriptions seller and/or customer will have to accept terms, there will be pop-up window in the portal where one will enter their contact details – email, name, surname, phone number (optional) and click on "I Agree":

NOTE! We do not provide these terms on the platform. The platform acts only as a place of acceptance, therefore, terms should be read before they are accepted in our platform. To find region-specific Microsoft Customer Agreement customer templates in all supported languages, see Microsoft Customer Agreements by region and language.

The first step is to log in to the platform and starts purchasing and/or renewal. Before BUY, a pop-up will appear where one will need to accept the terms. If terms have not been accepted in the platform, sellers and/or customers will not be able to purchase, renew and add licenses.

----------------------------------- 

Things to keep in mind:

1. MCuA should be accepted in the portal by end-customer;
2. MCuA can be accepted on behalf of the customer only when a customer has given his acceptance to do so;

To see more information about the MCuA, click here and here.