Parallels Automation. Overview of New Features and Enhancements in Version 6.0. White Paper.

Transcription

1 Parallels Automation White Paper Overview of New Features and Enhancements in Version 6.0

2 Table of Contents Introduction... 3 New Feature Highlights... 3 Transfer Subscriptions between Customer Accounts... 3 Transfer Customer Accounts between Vendors... 5 Tiered Volume Pricing... 6 External Tax Service Integration for the US and Canada... 7 Parallels Identity Manager (Single Sign-On)... 8 Migrate Subscriptions from Microsoft Exchange 2007 and 2010 to Exchange Support for Microsoft Windows Server 2012 and Windows Shared Hosting... 8 Account-Wide Services... 8 Improved Trial-to-Paid Wizard... 8 Easier Processing of Failed Orders... 9 Additional Information... 11

3 Introduction Parallels Automation version 6.0 is a highly anticipated product update that elevates the platform s capabilities with partner-requested features and enhancements to improve operations and enhance the overall customer experience. The new release also supports the latest versions for Microsoft service offers. Parallels Automation version 6.0 delivers: Operational Improvements for Service Providers Transfer customer accounts between resellers without disruption of connected services Transfer subscriptions between customers without disruption of connected services Implement more sophisticated pricing models with tiered volume pricing Simplify tax issues for accounting and finance with integrated EZtax service Improve order-to-cash processes with prescriptive indicators for suspended or failed orders User Experience Improvements for End Customers Improve trial conversions with visible reminders and an updated trial conversion wizard Simplify the user log-on experience between multiple services with SSO Reduce the complexity of employee and service management Increase performance for provisioning, task management, and UI by up to 50% Updated Service Offers Launch Windows Shared Hosting with the latest versions of Windows Server 2012 and SQL 2014 Migrate old customers from Hosted Exchange 2007/2010 to 2013 New Feature Highlights TRANSFER SUBSCRIPTIONS BETWEEN CUSTOMER ACCOUNTS It is now possible for providers and their resellers to transfer subscriptions between customer accounts without affecting services. This helpful new feature will save time and improve operation efficiency in a variety of scenarios, including: A customer creates a separate account by mistake when trying to buy additional services through the online store Two customers merge their businesses and ask the vendor to move all of their subscriptions to a single account Parallels Overview of New Features and Enhancements in Version 6.0 3

4 A customer s department or business unit spins off from its mother company to become a separate new company A subscription gets created under the wrong customer account by mistake Domain ownership is transferred from one customer to another Transfer Subscriptions between Customer Accounts The ability to transfer subscriptions between accounts is accessible from the provider and reseller control panels. Subscriptions linked to a common object (such as a service user, domain, etc.) will be moved together to prevent user data loss. This feature can only be used by a provider s or reseller s staff, and is not available to customers as a self-service. Transfer Subscriptions between Customer Accounts Confirm Transfer Parallels Overview of New Features and Enhancements in Version 6.0 4

5 TRANSFER CUSTOMER ACCOUNTS BETWEEN VENDORS It is now possible to transfer customers with all of their subscriptions between resellers (if delegated service plans are used). This time-saving feature simplifies the process of transferring customers: From one reseller to another From a service provider to a reseller; and From a reseller to their service provider Transferring customers between vendors is useful in a variety of circumstances, including when: An operator erroneously creates a customer account under the incorrect vendor A customer wants to switch from one reseller to another A reseller goes out of business and the provider needs to onboard all of the orphaned customers A reseller closes a line of business and decides to pass related customers to the provider A provider decides to sell a subset of services through a reseller and to stop selling those services directly to customers A customer can be transferred between vendors via the provider and reseller control panels. Transfer Customer Accounts between Vendors When a customer account is moved to a specified vendor, all of the services belonging to the account are rebranded to the new vendor. Parallels Overview of New Features and Enhancements in Version 6.0 5

6 TIERED VOLUME PRICING To help service provider and reseller product managers create more attractive product offers, as well as to provide discounted pricing at designated thresholds, a tiered pricing resource model is now available in Parallels Automation. Tiered pricing allows a provider or reseller to charge different prices for different ranges of resource amounts within a single subscription. Tiered Volume Pricing Tiered pricing also applies to resource upgrades within existing subscriptions. For each tier, Parallels Automation adds a separate line item in the order/invoice. Parallels Overview of New Features and Enhancements in Version 6.0 6

7 EXTERNAL TAX SERVICE INTEGRATION FOR THE US AND CANADA With Parallels Automation it is now possible to calculate taxes using the external tax service EZtax (formerly BillSoft). Configure External Tax Service When configuring a taxation rule, you can configure the tax zone/tax category pair to be calculated by EZtax, instead of linking to a predefined tax. Select EZtax for Automatic Tax Calculation The automation and accuracy that EZtax offers eliminates the need for tax research and tax processing by your finance and accounting teams. EZtax integration also supports resellers who use their own Billsoft account, or it can be delegated to use the service provider s account. Parallels Overview of New Features and Enhancements in Version 6.0 7

8 PARALLELS IDENTITY MANAGER (SINGLE SIGN-ON) Parallels Identity Manager (PIM) offers the ability to link user accounts to external identities of registered authentication providers. This enables users to log into your control panel and your online store using their Google, Facebook, or corporate domain accounts, or by using a simple 4-digit PIN from Certivox. It also allows APS-enabled services to integrate with Parallels Automation using the standard SAML protocol which enables users to login directly to cloud services using their Parallels Automation credentials. MIGRATE SUBSCRIPTIONS FROM MICROSOFT EXCHANGE 2007 AND 2010 TO EXCHANGE 2013 Now Microsoft Hosted Exchange 2007 and 2010 subscriptions can be migrated to Exchange 2013 deployed in the same Active Directory (AD) domain and managed by Parallels Automation. SUPPORT FOR MICROSOFT WINDOWS SERVER 2012 AND WINDOWS SHARED HOSTING Starting with Parallels Automation 6.0, Windows Shared Hosting nodes can be deployed on Windows Server 2012 R2. This allows providers to offer Windows Shared Hosting to their customers using the most up-to-date Windows Server operating system which also supports Internet Information Server (IIS) 8.5 and.net 4.5. Release 6.0 also adds support SQL Server 2014 and PHP 5.4. ACCOUNT-WIDE SERVICES Enabling services for users has been improved to allow consumption of services from any subscriptions on the account. Services in subscriptions can either be account-wide or local, depending on whether the account-wide services option is enabled or disabled for the subscription. If a user has no service assigned, any service from any subscription can be assigned to the user. If a user already consumes account-wide services, only account-wide services can be added for that user. If a user consumes subscription local services, only services from that subscription can be additional assigned to that user. IMPROVED TRIAL-TO-PAID WIZARD Because converting customer accounts from trial-to-paid is one of the most critical scenarios in selling cloud service, these capabilities have been greatly improved in Parallels Automation 6.0. Customers are now reminded of a pending expiration of their subscription trial period directly on the home screen of their control panel with the message Your trial subscription will expire in N days. Click here to upgrade. In previous versions, customers had to hunt for the trial subscription management screen and then decide between multiple options in order to upgrade to a paid subscription. In Parallels Automation 6.0, the upgrade process is simplified by removing all unnecessary information from the process and replacing it with a single Upgrade to Paid Service button. With the help of the same-name wizard, a customer can switch to a paid service easily. Parallels Overview of New Features and Enhancements in Version 6.0 8

9 Improved Trial-to-Paid Wizard EASIER PROCESSING OF FAILED ORDERS To reduce time spent on order processing by a provider s or reseller s support staff, an additional detailed status message is now shown in the upper portion of an order details screen. This additional message provides all of the necessary information on the order status without the need to leave the order details screen. Also, depending on the order status, additional hints are shown with recommended actions. For example: When the Waiting for Payment status message is displayed, the following hint is also provided: There are not enough released payments attached to order. Please open the Documents tab and resolve the situation by releasing blocked payments and/or adding new ones. When the Provisioning Failed status message is displayed, the following information is also provided: The error message with a detailed description of the reason A link to the associated subscription which navigates to the subscription s service status history A link to Parallels Knowledgebase articles related to the specified error Parallels Overview of New Features and Enhancements in Version 6.0 9

10 The hints are predefined for the most common issues, but the text of these warnings can be customized by the provider via the control panel. Easier Processing of Failed Orders Parallels Overview of New Features and Enhancements in Version

11 Easier Configuration of Domain and SSL Offers Additional Information To find more detailed information on new features and capabilities in Parallels Automation 6.0, as well as features and changes since version 5.5, refer to the following documents: Parallels Business Automation 6.0 Release Notes pba/release%20notes/pba_6.0_release_notes.pdf Parallels Operations Automation 6.0 Release Notes poa/release%20notes/poa_6.0_release_notes.pdf Parallels Overview of New Features and Enhancements in Version