Ordering an Adobe Product
- Panagiotis Papanastasiou
- Niki Rousaki
The ordering process for an Adobe product (add-on) is similar to the process of any other cloud application. The reseller can select the Adobe container product along with any one of the Adobe products (in the form of an add-on) that he has published in his Storefront and add them to his basket.
Ordering Rules
Below is a list of rules that our platform applies for Adobe orders:
- Partners: The Adobe integration currently allows orders only from synced partners (resellers).
- Container & Add-On Requirement: For an Adobe subscription to be valid, the ordering process requires the Adobe container product as well as one add-on to be added to the same basket, since the container product is just a shell for the add-on, which is the actual Adobe product.
- Quantity Limits: When creating an order for an Adobe product, the Quantity of the container product "Adobe Services" is always one and the Quantity of the single add-on can be one or more*.
*By more, we mean a maximum of:- Ten thousand (10000) for Team products
- Two hundred thousand (200000) for Enterprise products.
- Subscription per Email: Adobe products allow a single subscription per one unique email associated with an Adobe account. If the user tries to order another Adobe container product, an error message appears informing the user that the extra product cannot be ordered, since an existing subscription is already present.
- Subscription Type: Adobe Sign products can either be purchased as Licenses (NULs) or as Transactions, but these two types of licensing options cannot be combined since different Adobe Sign products and tiers cannot be mixed in the same VIP agreement or shared by the same users.
- Add-On Updates: Adobe add-on partial changes such as reducing the number of licenses is allowed.
- Add-Ons Quantity: Orders from either BSS or Storefront containing more than one add-on (product) per order are allowed.
- Upgrading & Downgrading: Upgrading and downgrading actions are not permitted.
- Renewal Update Window: New orders, quantity increases, and enabling or disabling the auto-renewal are only allowed up until 3 days before the anniversary date. For 3YC subscriptions, this restriction applies only in the final cycle.
- Cancellation Window: Cancellation of the Adobe product is only available during the first fourteen days (14) of an executed order.
- Self-Managed Cancellations: Since Adobe allows users to handle their subscriptions and add-ons, the platform allows automatic execution of add-on cancellations.
- Volume Discounts: Volume discounts are available.
- Trials: Trials are not available for Adobe Teams & Enterprise products, but are available for Adobe Sign products.
Reseller's Adobe Registration in Storefront Prior to Ordering
Your resellers need to be registered as Adobe Resellers before ordering an Adobe product in the Storefront for the first time. Therefore, resellers must navigate to the My Account page in Storefront, by clicking on the human-like icon at the top right corner of the screen, enable the acceptance checkbox found under the "Adobe Services" section, after reading and accepting Adobe's Terms and Conditions, and then click on the Register button.
That's it! Your reseller is now a registered Adobe Reseller. An account has been created in Adobe's systems, and from this point onwards, he can continue the checkout process, by clicking on the basket icon.
Ordering from Storefront
When synced resellers log in to the Storefront, they can purchase the Adobe container product along with one or more add-ons (actual Adobe products) by adding them to the basket. Adobe add-ons are available for purchase under the "Adobe Services" product. By selecting the "Add to Basket" button, resellers will be redirected to the following page, where they can proceed with the ordering process of the "Adobe Services" container product and compulsorily add one or more add-ons (actual products) and choose the number of additional licenses for each add-on, by increasing the quantity, as indicated by the following image. Remember that the more licenses you order, the better the volume discount will be.
- Please note that the "Adobe Services" container product will always have a zero "0" unit price since only the add-ons are the ones that are being charged.
After this step, by selecting "Proceed to checkout", the resellers land on the first step (Basket Items page) of the ordering process, where they can choose if the order is created for one of their end customers (and even create a new end customer) and proceed by clicking on Checkout. The actual calculation of the discounted prices happens in this step where the reseller has chosen the end customer for the order. In this example, the order is for an existing and synced end customer, where the Volume Discount Level/Tier is calculated and displayed.
The Service Details step appears depending on whether the checkout is for a new customer or an existing one. More specifically:
- For the new VIP MP customer: The Service Details step appears during the ordering process to allow the enrollment of that new customer to the Adobe three-year commitment (3YC) loyalty program. However, even though the Account of a new customer is unsynced, the system automatically retrieves the required information and as a result the customer's account is synchronized during the checkout completion, with or without its enrollment to the 3YC loyalty program.
More specifically, concerning the 3YC request for the Adobe royalty program, the synced reseller can choose to enroll the new customer to that program by filling in the two respective 3YC fields with the minimum license or transaction quantity or both.The 3YC Minimum License Commit Quantity field is non-compulsory and it allows the reseller to fill in the minimum license quantity that their customer wishes to commit to for the three-year period.
The 3YC Minimum Transaction Commit Quantity field is non-compulsory and it allows the reseller to fill in the minimum transaction quantity that their customer wishes to commit to for the three-year period.
A. When the reseller submits an empty 3YC request by not filling in any of the two fields, and then clicking on the Checkout button, then the order gets submitted and the checkout process is completed successfully, by reaching the last step of the checkout process, called Confirmation. This means that the Account is created in the BSS platform and the subscription is created and provisioned, while the invoice is generated.B. 1. When the reseller submits a filled-in 3YC request containing at least one of the two minimum quantities (be that Licenses or Transactions or Both) and then clicks the Checkout button, the following actions occur. The Checkout process is partially stopped. This means that the Account is being created for the new customer in the BSS platform. However, no subscription or invoices are created since the process is not completed fully, because of the 3YC request. Moreover, the 3YC request is dispatched to the Adobe Admin Console where the end customer must log in to it and accept the request. At this stage, the request is considered Requested until the end customer accepts it.
If they do not accept it within 7 days, the request gets Expired.
If they accept it within 7 days, the request gets Accepted.
B. 2. Afterwards, the reseller must communicate with the new end customer to inform them about the 3YC request and its required acceptance in order for the reseller to be able to re-run the checkout process in Storefront with the discounted prices, stemming from the 3YC loyalty program, so that the submission of the order can be completed successfully. Specifically, :B. 2. 1. If the acceptance of the 3YC request (from the new customer) happens after finishing the checkout process of new customer, the reseller needs to create a new order after the new end customer accepts the 3YC request. At this point, the account (new end customer) is already created in the BSS and synchronized with Adobe, which means that the Service Details step is not being displayed again for the same account.
B. 2. 2. If the acceptance of the 3YC request (from the new customer) happens before finishing the checkout process of new customer, the reseller does not have to create a new order for the new end customer. At this point, the reseller is redirected from the Service Details step back to the Basket Items page, so that the system can retrieve and calculate the pricing from the external system based on the 3YC levels (12, 13, 14). After the reseller has been redirected back to the Basket Items page an informative message appears informing the reseller for the reason of the redirection to that page. Also, you can witness, from the screenshot below, that the prices are calculated based on the selected quantity followed by the respective 3YC volume discount level.
After the reseller continues the checkout process, from the Basket Items page and finishes it, the account (new end customer) is created in the BSS and is also synchronized with Adobe.
After accepting (or declining) the 3YC request, the Storefront order will be able to be executed.
- For the existing VIP MP customer: The Service Details step does not appear during the ordering process since the account is synchronized. Also, the enrollment initiation for existing customers to the Adobe three-year commitment (3YC) loyalty program is done from the respective option found inside each active Adobe VIP MP subscription in the Storefront and in the BSS platform. For more information concerning the 3YC enrollment for existing customers, please check the Enrolling in the Adobe Three-Year Commitment (3YC) Loyalty Program page.
The order will be completed after all the Ordering steps, analyzed above, are passed.
Upon the final Checkout, the following process will be executed:
- A new subscription will be created in our BSS as well as in the Adobe Account of the end customer.
- The Adobe product(s) in the form of add-on(s) will be provisioned.
- Also, the add-on(s) license(s)/consumable(s) purchased will be assigned to the Adobe Account of the end customer.
If this is the first order your reseller placed for his end-customer of an Adobe add-on, the end-customer will receive a welcome email from Adobe containing his VIP number along with his organization name, and a link, that confirms and activates the Adobe account.
Ordering from Cloud BSS
A BSS user can also purchase one or more Adobe products in the form of add-ons on behalf of his end customers, by placing an order directly on BSS. For first-time Adobe orders via BSS, the reseller's BSS account must be synchronized with Adobe. The ordering process is similar to the rest of cloud applications, with one exception. The BSS user has to add in the order the Adobe container product ("Adobe Services") along with one or more add-ons (actual products), if he is ordering for the first time for that end-customer. Otherwise, he can just select the add-on(s) he wishes to order and it will be automatically added to the existing subscription of the end customer.
Moreover, if the customer wishes to enrollment to the Adobe three-year commitment (3YC) loyalty program, then the BSS account manager must first fill in the two respective 3YC fields inside the Account Synchronization Options during the creation and synchronization of a new BSS account.
Two 3YC fields are displayed in order to send the first 3YC request to Adobe. The extra two fields, analyzed below, will participate in the account synchronization process.
The 3YC Minimum License Commit Quantity field is non-compulsory and it allows the BSS account manager to fill in the minimum license quantity that their customer wishes to commit to for the three-year period.
The 3YC Minimum Transaction Commit Quantity field is non-compulsory and it allows the BSS account manager to fill in the minimum transaction quantity that their customer wishes to commit to for the three-year period.
The "Vendor Account ID" field is non-editable and it is used to display the actual value of the account ID of either the Reseller or Customer that their account receives in the Adobe portal upon synchronization with our platform. Specifically, when a platform account synchronizes with Adobe and creates the related entity, this unique ID (also known as external ID) is generated. Please note that the "Vendor Account ID" (custom) field is also depicted inside the Adobe VIP MP subscriptions of the BSS and Storefront portals under the "Additional Information" section, with the name "Account ID".
For the "Vendor Account ID" field to be displayed in the Account Adobe sync options, and the "Account ID" field to be displayed in the BSS and Storefront portals, it is required that the Get Services Process will run in every instance of the Adobe Service Manager.
The "Customer VIP ID" field is non-editable and it is used to display the actual value of the Customer VIP ID that the synced reseller used in order to migrate his end customers (via our Adobe Migration Tool) from the Adobe VIP Channel to the Adobe VIP MP Channel. **
Once the first 3YC request is sent to Adobe, when the Save & Synchronize button is clicked and while at least one of the two aforementioned fields has a numeric value, then the end customer has to accept it via the Adobe Admin Console and lastly inform the BSS account manager to place the corresponding order, which will contain the discounted prices from the loyalty program.
After accepting (or declining) the 3YC request, the BSS order will be able to be executed.
Upon creation of the order, the reseller must execute the order for the system to execute the following:
- A new subscription will be created in our BSS as well as in the Adobe Account of the end customer.
- The Adobe product(s) in the form of add-on(s) will be provisioned.
- Also, the add-on license(s)/consumable(s) purchased will be assigned to the Adobe Account of the end customer.
If this is the first order your reseller placed of an Adobe product, the end customer will receive a welcome email from Adobe containing his VIP number along with his organization name, and a link, that confirms and activates the Adobe account.
Ordering Adobe Sign Transactions Products
Adobe does not apply proration for the Adobe Sign Transactions products, and as such, they are charged for the whole billing period regardless of the ordering date. However, if the auto-renew option is enabled, adding more transactions inside the renewal window, Adobe will charge them only once as part of the renewal order. If the auto-renew option is disabled, Adobe will charge them instantly. Yet, if the user decides to renew this subscription afterwards, Adobe will charge them again as part of the renewal order (two times in general).
Ordering Adobe Sign Trial Products
The Adobe Sign Trial products, which are distinguished with the word “50 TRS INTRO NC” in the Excel column, are considered introductory offers. Those trial products are available for purchase only once by each customer. Since Adobe does not offer an automated check for trials; you (the distributor) are responsible for informing your customers regarding trials. Furthermore, trials should be automatically canceled at the end of the billing period. Similar to TLP add-ons, the users should always cancel trials/BSS add-ons by the end of the billing period to avoid renewal.
Error Messages During the Account Synchronization
Our Adobe Service Manager, in BSS, handles and displays internal errors messages regarding the reason why the BSS account failed to sync with Adobe.
More specifically, in the below table, you can find the reason as well as the indicated error messages displayed by the system.
Reason | Message |
---|---|
AccountIsNotDefinedAsReseller | The account is not defined as a reseller. |
CustomerIsNotActive | The customer is not active. |
CustomerNotBelongToReseller | The customer does not belong to the reseller. |
DistributorIdNotValid | The distributor id is not Valid. |
NoCitySpecified | No city was specified inside the address of the account. |
NoPostCodeSpecified | No postcode was specified inside the address of the account. |
NotAccountEmailSpecified | No account email was specified. |
RequestCreateCustomerRejected | The request to create a customer has been rejected by Adobe. |
RequestCreateResellerRejected | The request to create a reseller has been rejected by Adobe. |
ResellerIsNotActive | The reseller is not active. |
PostCodeNotValid | The postcode is not valid. |
CountryNotValid | The country is not valid. |
Also, two types of external error messages are returned from Adobe when during an Account Synchronization, there is an issue.
The first type is when there is an invalid field error(1) while the second type is when there are many invalid fields(2) which need addressing for the account synchronization to be successfully completed.
Error Types | Form of Error Message | Example |
---|---|---|
One Invalid Field: | Invalid Address (additionaldetails1) |
|
Many Invalid Fields: | Some Fields are Invalid (additionaldetails1, additionaldetails2, ...) |
|
Both these internal and external error messages appear inside the Provisioning Sync Status located inside the Account view page in BSS.