What's New in CloudBlue in August 2024
Key Changes
This month, core CloudBlue components were updated adding a number of improvements described below.
Support for referral products
CloudBlue now supports referral products. It is a product type that helps you capture potential customers' information. Referral products can be launched on a marketplace with much less effort than a transactable product.
The following components were updated to support referral products.
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CloudBlue Connect.
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A new module was added: Leads Management. This module allows Vendors to create Lead Forms that can be displayed or integrated with different marketplaces and manage the captured leads. Read more at:
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A new product type was added: Referral. Use these products with Lead Forms to create the relationship between a lead and a product.
With these changes, a Vendor can create a referral product and list it in their distributor's marketplaces. The information that the interested customers send can then be accessed using the associated lead.
To get more information, visit this page.
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BSS component.
For better account identification, the following account attributes were added:
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Tenant. This attribute is intended for CloudBlue SaaS and is used to identify tenants in a multi-tenant configuration. In dedicated CloudBlue instances, only the provider account with ID 1 can be marked as a tenant.
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Marketplace. Providers using multiple reseller accounts to sell in different currencies and countries can use this attribute to mark resellers as marketplaces. Typically, such resellers are also marked as operating units. Child accounts under that reseller are actual resellers and customers.
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Marketplace ID. This text attribute allows mapping a marketplace account in CloudBlue Commerce onto a marketplace in CloudBlue Connect.
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Product Lifecycle Manager.
Resellers that act as marketplaces can now see referral products available for their marketplace in the Exteral Catalog and publish them to customers without a need to create a plan.
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UX1 Marketplace
When a referral product is published in a marketplace, a customer can see it in the catalog and request more information, providing the information requested by the Vendor if they are interested in buying it.
Limitations
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Referral products are only supported in the End-customer Marketplace.
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Referral products are not displayed in a marketplace in the vendor catalog mode.
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Filters are not applied to referral products in the search result page.
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Components required for this feature
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CloudBlue Connect: 33 or higher
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BSS: 21.17 or higher
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Product Lifecycle Management: 2.4.1469 or higher
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UX1 Marketplace: 8.3.2705 or higher
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UX1 Subscription Management: 5.9.1884 or higher
Sales-assistant mode for end-customer marketplace
The end-customer marketplace can now be improved with sales assistant mode.
With this mode on, the sales staff of an operating unit sees the same marketplace as their customers see and can use it to sell to the customers with extended features:
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Price adjustments
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Promo assignment
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Selling products invisible for self-purchase by customers.
Components required for this feature
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UX1 Marketplace: 8.3.2705 or higher
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UX1 Subscription Management: 5.9.1884 or higher
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BSS: 21.16 or higher
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OSS: 21.16 or higher
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UI and Branding: 21.16 or higher
Learn More
Extended support for Adobe 3-year commit program
Now, it is possible to enable placing change orders to change ordering parameters without changing resource limits. This allows users with Adobe subscriptions to switch to 3-year Commit program without changing the number of licenses.
Components required for this feature
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BSS: 21.17 or higher
Support for Adobe Stock Credit Packs
Now, it is possible to configure upsize policies and prohibit upsize within a subscription period. This enables support for credit packs that let users purchase assets on Adobe Stock, such as premium images, videos, and editorial images, in a flexible and cost-effective way.
Components required for this feature
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BSS: 21.17 or higher
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Product Lifecycle Management: 2.4.1469 or higher
Support for Adobe Extended paid up-front subscriptions
CBPFR-666 A new co-terming mode has been added: to a custom date. During subscription purchase or change, a customer can decide to align the expiration date of the subscription to a specific date. This change enables support for extended terms for Adobe subscriptions which allow users to pay upfront for extended terms of up to 36 months, receive extended license periods, and select an anniversary date that aligns with their organization’s budget schedule.
Components required for this feature
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BSS: 21.17 or higher
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Product Lifecycle Management: 2.4.1469 or higher
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UX1 Marketplace: 8.3.2703 or higher
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Order Management: 1.18.731 or higher
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Rating Engine: 1.31.3831 or higher
Support for daily invoicing for resellers
it is now possible to issue reseller invoices on a daily basis. By default, the feature is disabled and there are no changes in the invoicing process. If the feature is enabled, it can run in two modes:
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Include only pre-paid orders to the daily invoice and the rest into the monthly invoice.
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Include all orders to the daily invoice.
Components required for this feature
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BSS: 21.17 or higher
Extension of the /deals API response
To support UX1 Marketplace and UX1 Subscription Management scenarios, the /deals API was extended to return regular price and MSRP (if applicable) in addition to the discounted price.
Components required for this feature
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BSS: 21.17 or higher
Complete removal of C++ fraud plugins and KAGATE from code
As a continuation of the end of life procedures, starting from this version, KAGATE and C++ fraud plugins functionality has been completely removed from CloudBlue.
New Releases and Updates
Released this month:
| Component name | Version | Release date |
|---|---|---|
| BSS | 21.17.311 | August 30 |
| OSS | 21.17.171 | August 30 |
| UI and Branding | 21.17.116 | August 30 |
| Payment Management | 21.17.1696 | August 30 |
| PLM | 2.4.1469 | August 30 |
| UX1 Subscription Management | 5.9.1884 | August 30 |
| UX1 Marketplace | 8.3.2705 | August 30 |
| Order Management | 1.18.731 | August 30 |
| Rating Engine | 1.31.3831 | August 30 |
| Identity Service | 4.1.353 (patch) | August 29 |
| CloudBlue Store | 2.1.696 (patch) | August 15 |
| BSS | 21.16.615 (patch) | August 1 |