Microsoft Azure Plan Reservations

Activating the Azure Plan Reservations

The Azure Plan Reservations are managed by the same service manager we have implemented for the rest of Microsoft cloud services. So, you must run the Updating the Microsoft Cloud Services Catalogue process for activating the Azure Reservations in your BSS. This process will create the "Azure Plan Reserved Instances" product type, a single product that will be used for the ordering process, and any other configurations setting necessary for the management of the Azure Plan Reservations.

Billing an Azure Plan Reservation

Azure Plan Reserved Instances are charged once (for now) on purchase date. The pricing information we are collecting from Microsoft via the pricing API is the cost price (i.e what Microsoft charges you as a CSP). For billing your resellers and your customers, you will need to define the margin you want for your RIs by adding in your price lists the "Azure Plan Reserved Instances" product. The system will automatically apply the margin you defined in the customer's price list every time he purchases a RI.

Ordering an Azure Plan Reservation from Storefront

For a customer or reseller to purchase an Azure Plan Reservation he will need first to have an active Azure Plan Subscription. The purchase process is initiated from the available action in Azure Plan subscription details page.

Ordering an Azure Plan Reservation from BSS

For a BSS user to place an order for an Azure Plan Reservation, the customer must have at least one active Azure Plan subscription. The purchase process is initiated from the available action in Azure Plan subscription details page.

Invoicing an Azure Plan Reservation

With the completion of the order execution, our system will generate an invoice for charging either in advance for one or three years or in monthly payments for twelve or thirty six months (depending which Azure Plan Reservation you selected). The reseller/direct customer will know exactly what he pays for his Azure Reservation(s) as there will be separate invoices for his Azure Reservation(s) and his pay-as-you-go Azure Plan subscriptions. In the following two examples, you can find the analysis of both Billing Frequency types (One-Time & Monthly).

Azure Plan Reservations Assets

The Azure Plan Reservations are represented in our system as assets. The assets are part of our Billing module and when your resellers or your customers place an order for an Azure Plan Reservation, a new asset record is created in our platform for managing and invoicing purposes. 
In this page, we explain what information we keep in the asset record for each Azure Plan Reservation, what actions you can do for your Azure Plan Reservations and how you or your customers can manage them.

Azure Plan Reservations Reports

A report for your Azure Plan Reservation(s) can be constructed either including in your report the asset records that are created for each Azure Plan Reservation or the invoice items that were used for billing them.