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Nine Things to Verify Before Choosing a CSP Automation Platform

Author: Robin Sharma
by Robin Sharma
Posted: Dec 11, 2022

How can you be certain that you've selected the best CSP automation solution to support your business operations?

The majority of Microsoft Cloud Solution Providers (CSPs) investigate the various online automation solutions before choosing a platform. Then they choose the two or three who they believe have what it takes, and they set up demos to gauge how well each performs the job.

Tasks include:

  • Control sales margins and pricing.
  • Manage and simplify Office 365 and Azure billing.
  • Continually handle clientele who self-serve
  • Provide clear analytics on cloud usage and consumption
  • Provide reliable reporting tools that allow an insightful analysis of costs, spending, user engagement, business profitability, and other factors.

It's crucial to understand the numerous problems that can be encountered with various solutions, or, to put it another way, what to keep in mind before you make that decisive purchase.

We were able to gather these top nine considerations for purchasing a CSP automation solution using the comments from our customers:

1. Receive a 100% Guarantee of Billing Accuracy

Most IT providers seek a CSP automation solution to streamline the typically complex, drawn-out, and error-prone Microsoft billing process. The objective is to eliminate all faults so that there is no income leakage, not simply part of them. Even though it might seem simple, it's crucial to get a guarantee of billing accuracy. 100% is possible. Additionally, make sure this promise is applicable to all your services and solutions—not just O365 and Azure (more on this in point 4).

2. Verify That Your Bi-Directional Sync with Microsoft Is Maintained

There's no reason why it shouldn't still be feasible for your teams to make modifications on behalf of clients straight from the Microsoft Partner Center. Make sure the CSP automation system you choose has a developer-maintained, bidirectional API sync. As a result, whether changes are made in your new solution or the Partner Center, they can all be recorded and transmitted (back and forth). This is essential for proper billing. For the changes, you make in the Partner Center or with your selected solution to take effect immediately across the board, the bi-directional sync must also happen in real time.

3. Verify that setup is simple and fast.

It shouldn't be difficult to get started with a new CSP automation solution, and no hardware or software installation is necessary. After all, this is the age of the cloud. Learn more about the import process. It should only take a few hours to populate your new solution with your current CSP customer data, including customer records, service details, active subscriptions, and historical billing data. This will allow you to start marketing and administering your Microsoft CSP services right away.

4. Research Your Portfolio Growth Options Outside of CSP

Make sure there are no limitations on the products and services that your new platform can manage and future-proof your organization. Make sure your new platform can dependably manage not only Azure and Office 365 but also other cloud services and your own unique set of services. In your new platform, you should be able to offer everything and anything, including software and hardware, one-time purchases and subscriptions, packages, and stand-alone things.

5. Check to see if the user interface is intuitive

Your clients and workers will require a user-friendly solution that offers a seamless experience. Naturally, the only time you can find out how user-friendly a solution is at the proof-of-concept phase. Before making a longer-term commitment, make sure you carefully consider and test various business scenarios for each automation platform. After you've transferred your clients and services, this might assist you to avoid any potentially expensive setbacks.

6. Check to see if SLA and privacy documents have been published

Examining whether a possible CSP automation provider has posted online copies of their service-level agreement (SLA) and corporate privacy policy paperwork is one approach to tell them apart from other candidates. You'll be able to comprehend the nuances of each solution with the aid of a well-defined SLA.

quality, effectiveness, and dependability. This makes it easy to compare two things. Each company's dedication to the protection of your data in accordance with the applicable privacy regulations will be demonstrated by a thorough corporate privacy policy.

7. Verify that Customer Success and Ongoing Support are Included

You probably don't want to have to deal with any unforeseen expenses after setup. Make sure your new CSP solution provider uses a transparent pricing plan so that fees for things like consultation, customized services, and support don't appear anywhere.

8. Discover whether the CSP Use-case is the Main Priority

Always make sure your solution provider gives the CSP use-case priority. This implies that your new platform will be actively updated to stay on the cutting edge of CSP automation development and maintained to keep up with Microsoft's constantly evolving APIs.

9. Check Your Answer Provider's Real Name

Finally, find out who is responsible for the product you intend to purchase and consider their bigger commercial objectives. For instance, are they financially secure and autonomous, or possibly do they belong to a wider group with varying interests? They can be concentrating on a certain group of clients, or they might be recouping internal costs by selling the platform. In the end, you want to be certain that your new provider is committed to you and has the capacity to offer continuous upgrades and management to support all the goods and services you want to sell on the platform, not just a rapidly evolving CSP program.

Work 365 is an automated billing system and subscription billing software for Microsoft Partners, Software vendors to streamline recurring revenue and improve customer engagement.

About the Author

Work 365 is a CSP Customer Experience Platform built on the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Platform. get Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM Apps, add-ons and extensions for all version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform. Report Scheduler, Record Clone, Email To Cas

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Author: Robin Sharma

Robin Sharma

Member since: Jun 12, 2018
Published articles: 8

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