"Buy a Reservation" Action

The ordering process can be initiated from the "Buy a Reservation" action that is available from the "I want to.." menu of an Azure subscription (in both the subscriptions list and the subscription details page).

This action is available:

1. Only for active or "pending for cancellation" azure subscriptions that have been successfully provisioned in Microsoft partner center (i.e. their provisioning synchronization status is "synchronized"). 
2. When the Azure Reserved Instance product is published to Storefront.

Azure Reservations Ordering Wizard

The ordering wizard consists of two steps:

1. The 1st step is for selecting the Azure Reservation you want to purchase.
2. The 2nd step is for defining the scope of the Azure Reservation.
   
   

Catalogue Preparation

Initially, the system will prepare the catalogue of the available Azure Reservation. This step may take a few minutes.

Selecting the Reservation Type

The user must first select the type of the Azure Reservation he wants to buy. There are many available types, such as: Virtual Machine, SQL Database, Cosmos DB and SQL Data Warehouse.

Search Filters

Upon selecting the reservation type, a list of search fields will be displayed for helping the user to identify the Azure Reservation he is looking for. The list of filters vary depending on the reservation type:

• Virtual Machine Reservation Type. The available filters are Data Center, Terms, Category, Cores and RAM.
  • Data Center: A list of Microsoft data centers. It is a compulsory field and upon defining it, the system will load a list with all the available Azure Reservations for the selected data center.
  • Terms: 1 or 3 years term.
  • Category: The Azure Reservation categories like "compute optimized", "general purpose" etc. 
  • Cores and RAM. Filters for defining the Cores and RAM of the Azure Reservation.
    
    
    
• SQL Database Reservation Type. The available filters are Data Center and Terms. 
  
  
  
  
• Cosmos DB Reservation Type. There is only the Terms filter. Upon selecting this reservation type, the system will load also all available Azure Reservations.
  
  
  
  
• SQL Data Warehouse. The available filters are Data Center and Terms. 
  
  
  
  
• Azure Databricks.  The available filters are Terms.
   

List of Available Azure Reservations

The list of available Azure Reservations is loaded based on the filters the users selected and the country of the customer. Since Microsoft has rules where some Azure Reservation SKUs can be sold only to specific countries, we filter the list of the available reservations based on the country of the customer. Our system is aware of the customer country from the Azure subscription the Storefront user selected for initiating the ordering process.

For each Azure reservation we display the following information:

• The product description which is Microsoft SKU title and description
• The unit price that is calculated dynamically based on the margin you have defined for your Azure reservations. If you have selected the taxation to be included in the Storefront prices, the unit price will include also the taxes.

Searching for a Specific Azure Reservation

The ordering wizard includes a search box where the user will be able to search for a specific Azure reservation. This search works in combination with the selected filters meaning that the search will be executed against the displayed set of products.

Selecting the Azure Reservation

You can purchase only one Azure Reservation by selecting the radio next to the item and defining the quantity you want.

Depending on the Azure Reservation Instance that you have selected, there is a possibility that the product will enable the Microsoft's "Billing Frequency" feature addition, which is analyzed in the coming section.

Selecting Billing Frequency (when applicable)

The Billing Frequency option in Marketplace's Reserved Instance ordering wizard appears only if the product allows monthly payments and the selected Azure product (SKU) is supported for both One-Time and Monthly billing frequency by Microsoft, otherwise, the reservation will get paid by a one-time upfront payment. In case the "Billing Frequency" checkbox, located within the chosen Azure products' options is set to false, then the option Billing Frequency will not be displayed on the Storefront Reserved Instances ordering wizard.

Once the user selects a specific product that supports "Monthly" payments, a new section with title "Please, select the preferred billing frequency" is displayed having the Billing Frequency drop-down menu. By default, the "Billing Frequency" drop-down is set to "One-Time".

As the names suggest, the One-Time Billing Frequency option is used for paying the whole order cost of a chosen Azure Reserved Instance product (SKU) in advance, whereas the Monthly Billing Frequency option is used for dividing the whole order cost of a chosen Azure Reserved Instance product in equal monthly parts(called terms).

For example, if the chosen Azure RI product (SKU) has a billing period of one year and the monthly billing frequency is allowed by Microsoft and enabled for that product in BSS billing options, then by choosing the Monthly Billing Frequency, the product cost price (i.e. 1000 USD) will be divided into 12 months (terms). 

When you finish with the choice of Billing Frequency, you are presented to the last section of the ordering page, named "What You Pay".

Payment Analysis of Azure Reservation

The analysis of what the user will pay is displayed in the "What You Pay" section, after you have chosen the Azure reservation as well as its quantity and Billing Frequency(when applicable).

If you want to purchase more Azure Reservations you need to run this process for each reservation.

In the following two tabs you can examine both cases (One-Time & Monthly Billing Frequency) of the results being displayed inside the "What you Pay" section.

• One-Time Payment
  

  In the following exemplary case the One-Time "Billing Frequency" is used, which depicts the Total cost that will be charged once based on that order, after the discounts and VAT have been applied.
  
  

• Monthly Payment
  

  In the following exemplary case the Monthly "Billing Frequency" is used (when applicable), which depicts the first monthly installment from the twelve(1 year) or thirty six(3 years) installments(terms) of the total cost that will be charged based on that order, after the discounts have been applied.
  
  Upon clicking the  icon you are introduced to the Unit Price - Analysis in which there is an explanation of how the derivative (term) number came from the total cost; (by dividing the total cost with the number of SKU terms [months]).
  
  

  Viewing the Full Monthly Fixed Charges Plan Before Purchasing

  If you have chosen the Monthly "Billing Frequency" option then, within the "What You Pay" section of the ordering page there is a link named "view the charges plan" (located above the "Total Reservation's Cost" amount) which by clicking it a popup window opens illustrating all the scheduled charges (Date + Amounts).
  
  The two columns are: one for charge date and one for charge fixed amount. The date reflects the charge dates and the amount is the monthly fixed charges. The date format is displayed according to logged in user's date format while the amount is displayed according to the account's culture.

After you have verified your choices you may proceed towards the next step by clicking the "Next Step>>" button.

Setting the Scope of the Azure Reservation

By pressing the "Next Step" button the user will be redirected to the 2nd step of the wizard, the "Product Settings" step, for defining the scope of the selected Azure reservation. The scope can be:

• Single. If the user selects this option, the Azure reservation will be linked with the Azure subscription that the user selected for initiating the ordering process.
• Shared. If the user selects this options, the Azure reservation will be provisioned with shared scope in Microsoft systems.

Setting a Friendly Name for your Azure Reservation

In Product Settings" step you can also define a friendly name for your Azure Reservation. Since this name will be used also for the creation of the Azure reservation in Microsoft system, it must comply with Microsoft naming rules: It must be between 1 - 55 characters and to include only alphanumeric characters, underscores (_) and hyphens ( - ) characters are allowed.

By default we suggest a friendly name that complies with Microsoft rules, but if you change it and you enter an invalid name you will receive the following warning:

Checkout Process

By pressing "Add to Basket", an item will be added in the basket for the selected Azure Reservation.

Azure Reservation Basket Item

The information we display for an Azure Reservation in the basket is presented within the following two examples, for both cases (One-Time & Monthly Billing Frequency):

For both Billing Periods, the "Unit Price" column appears in the form of Amount / Instance, as illustrated by the green highlight. Apart from that, there are some differences that are demonstrated in the following two tabs.

By clicking the "Checkout>>" button you proceed towards the provisioning as well as the invoice creation of the chosen Azure Reservation Instance.

Basket Rules and Checks

• The "change" action is not available for Azure Reservation items. You can only remove it from the basket and re-start the process from the beginning.
• The "end customer" step is not displayed if  you have added an Azure Reservation in your basket, since from the related subscription the end customer is known. 
• If your reseller has added in the basket two or more reservation instances for different end customers, he will receive the alert "Your basket items are associated to subscriptions of more than one customers. Checkout is disabled" and he will not be able to complete the checkout.
• Your reseller can have more than one Azure reservations  in the basket if all items are for the same end customer.

Provisioning an Azure Reservation

Before completing the checkout, we will do again a check if the selected Azure subscription has been registered for purchasing an Azure Reservation. If it is successfully registered, we will proceed with the provisioning of the Azure reservation in Microsoft systems. We will also create an asset record that will represent in our system the purchased Azure Reservation.