CloudBlue Commerce delivers a flexible architecture which supports multiple reseller models. The models differ by the required configuration efforts, reseller branding capabilities, provider-to-reseller billing scheme, and other aspects.
Power Reseller
It is the most customizable reselling model. Power reseller operations are essentially the same as those of a provider. Power resellers purchase a bulk amount of resources (traffic, disk space, IP addresses) from a service provider, then package and price them according to their needs. A power reseller can allocate resources to customers within the limits imposed by a provider. Power resellers create their own service templates and service plans.
Providers can create power resellers for their own usage. For example, the provider owns a number of brands, and a separate power reseller is created for each brand. Another usage scenario is where the provider does business in different countries and needs another currency for settlements with customers.
All transactions with a provider are made within the reseller subscription in Billing.
Value Added Reseller (VAR)
It is a turnkey reselling model and is the easiest way to start being a reseller. Once enrolled, VARs can begin to market service plans that are delegated to them by the provider. Delegated plans have pre-configured pricing, description, and refund settings. VARs are not allowed to modify plan structure (add, configure, or remove subscription periods or resources), but they are allowed to adjust prices, description, and refund settings. VARs purchase plans and resources as they are used by their customers and make money on the margin between the wholesale price (charged by the service provider) and the retail price configured by them.
When a customer buys a subscription from the reseller, they pay their subscription fees to the reseller. Then, the reseller pays the sum to his or her provider according to the provider's negotiated price. Resellers benefit from the price difference. Providers commonly discount the services they provide to their resellers. This means that the reseller can sell service plans cheaper than the provider, enabling the reseller to attract customers and increase sales.
Both reselling models can be used within the same reseller account. A reseller may resell the delegated plans along with purchasing a bulk of resources (so-called "Power Pack") from their vendor and creating their own plans to sell.
Departments of Your Company Working as Resellers
In some cases, service providers decide to configure resellers that do not represent separate legal entities. Such resellers do not need to be charged by their providers because they represent the same legal entity, and no financial transactions occur between them in reality.
By default, CloudBlue Commerce performs the additional actions and creates the additional objects associated with resellers' transactions below, which are not necessary in the case of such pseudo-resellers:
- Creates charges between a provider and a reseller and tracks the reseller's account balance whenever a reseller's customer purchases a service. In CloudBlue Commerce, it can be observed in the Billing provider control panel on the Operations > Resellers > Reseller Activity tab of the reseller's account, which shows the reseller's balance.
- Tracks the reseller's payments, which are processed through the provider's merchant account (if the reseller does not use his or her own one). In Billing, it can be seen by following the Payments processed through Provider link in the provider control panel on the Operations > Resellers > Reseller Activity tab of the reseller's account.
Note: By default, CloudBlue Commerce excludes the reseller's revenue from the Revenue Report used to collect revenue statistics for the Revenue Share program (not to be confused with Billing reports designed for provider's staff). Thus, for providers that participate in the Revenue Share licensing model, it is required to mark such resellers as an Operating Unit (so that revenue share could be correctly calculated by the system). For other providers it is not necessary, but we recommend that you eliminate redundant objects in the system.
Hence, in order for Billing not to create any redundant objects for provider's own brand configured as a reseller, and to include such resellers' transactions in the revenue reporting for the Revenue Share program, the corresponding reseller must be marked as an Operating Unit.
Marking a reseller as an Operating Unit does not affect documents of the reseller’s customers, or the way they are going to be billed; it also does not affect any services running under such a reseller.