Parallels Business Automation Overview

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Scaling your Hosting Business Using Parallels
Automation
Brian Shellabarger Chief Architect - SaaS,
Parallels
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Agenda

1. The 5 major challenges of growing a hosting
   business.
2. The technology solutions available to address
   those challenges.
3. The future of Parallels Automation (Road map)

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The 5 Challenges of Scaling a Hosting Business
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Automating Complex Processes
4
The 5 Challenges of Scaling a Hosting Business
1. Automating Complex Processes
Keys to Success
Automate End-to-End Provisioning
Using Workflows for Process Automation
Single Console for Data-Center Management
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Automate End-to-End Provisioning

• Orders for a plan are translated into service
  requirements
• Individual services are provisioned automatically
• Full support for roll-back on failure
• Provisioning events are customer driven
• Complex service bundles can be delivered in
  seconds

Provisioning Gateways
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Using Workflows for Process Automation

• Ordering workflows act as a logic tree for
  order-handling
• End-result of workflow is either a
  fully-provisioned customer or a rejected order
• Transitions between steps can be automatic,
  manual, or based on an automated decision
• Separate workflows can be defined for all order
  types Billing, Cancellation, Downgrade,
  Payment, Resource, Renewal, Sales, Transfer,
  Upgrade
• Resellers can have their own customized
  workflows, independent from their parent service
  provider

Order Placed
FraudScreening
Success
No
Yes
Charge Credit Card
Mark OrderAs Suspect
Wait For Approval
Provision Services
Approved
Yes
No
Notify Customer
Reject Order
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Single Console for Data-Center Management
Manage Physical Servers
IP Address Allocation Pools
IP Address Translations
Capacity Management
Updates and Upgrades
Users, Staff Members, and Roles
Background Periodic Task Management
Reseller Management
Resource Management
DNS
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The 5 Challenges of Scaling a Hosting Business
1
Automating Complex Processes
Keeping up with Billing
2
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The 5 Challenges of Scaling a Hosting Business
2. Keeping Up With Billing
Keys to Success
Allow Customers to Manage their own Billing
Automate the End-to-End Billing Process
Flexible Billing Terms
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Allow Customers to Manage Their Billing
Billing Self-Service is the key to

• Happier Customers Services can be ordered and
  delivered in real time
• More revenue Up-sells and add-ons can be sold as
  impulse items
• Lower Costs Service providers using automated
  billing self service save significant amounts of
  money on people and resources
• Compete Effectively Customers are more likely to
  choose a service provider that keeps them in
  control

• Customers Can
• Make Payments
• Subscribe to additional plans
• Renew plans
• Buy more domains
• Renew domains
• Buy additional resources
• Upgrade / downgrade plans
• Make a payment
• Modify payment method
• View payment history
• View invoice history
• Submit support tickets
• Create users (delegate billing mgmt)

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Automate End-to-End Billing Processes

• Parallels Business Automation is a true
  carrier-grade ordering billing system
• Major accounts-receivable capabilities are
  included.
• Full support for multiple payment processing
  centers (including Paypal, direct-debit, checks,
  and more)
• Full underlying API for integration with external
  systems

Manage / Approve Orders
Create Service Plans (Products)
Manage Pricing and Overage Fees
Manage Marketing Campaigns
Communicate with Customers
Manage Resellers Sub-Resellers
Manage Market Brands
Manage Payments, Invoices, Credits
Run Reports and Forecasts
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Flexible Billing Terms
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The 5 Challenges of Scaling a Hosting Business
1
Automating Complex Processes
Keeping up with Billing
2
Reacting to the Market
3
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The 5 Challenges of Scaling a Hosting Business
3. Reacting to the Market
Keys to Success
Deliver Products as Modules
Manage Reseller Channels
Comprehensive Product Catalog Management
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Deliver Products as Modules

• Hosted services are delivered as modules.
• Choose the modules you need now. Leverage your
  investment to add more modules as your business
  expands.
• Future hosted services will be deployed as
  modules for Parallels Automation
• Service Gates can be leveraged to provision other
  services.

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Manage Reseller Channels
Affiliates
Basic Resellers
Advanced Resellers

• Affiliates receive a commission (or referral fee)
  for bringing customers to the hosting company.
• System tracks affiliate referrals and reports on
  payments due.
• Does not own relationship with customer.

• Fully white-labeled product offering including a
  custom store-front
• Sells the products defined by the parent provider
  at set prices.
• Owns the relationship with the customer
• Collects payments using the service providers
  payment gateways
• Manages their business using the same screens and
  interfaces as the service provider (limited
  control).

• Creates their own products and manages their own
  pricing
• Pays parent service provider based on resource
  consumption or pre-purchased bulk resources
• Uses their own payment gateways
• May even have dedicated hardware.
• Manages their business using the same screens and
  interfaces as the service provider

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Comprehensive Product Catalog Management
Create a Service Template
Attach Plans to Service Templates
Define Resource Rates
Define Resources

• Resource rates define the cost to the customer
  for going over the limits in their service
  template.
• Resource rates are attached to individual
  resources
• Rates include setup fees (for buying more),
  subscription fees (for a-la-carte purchases), and
  overage fees.

• A resource is any individual item in your data
  center that you want to provide to your customers
• Examples include Mailboxes, disk space,
  bandwidth, IP addresses, mobile devices,
  application licenses, CPU time, memory,
  applications, and more.

• Service templates are a bundle of resources
• Templates define limits on the number of
  resources the customer can consume (e.g. disk
  space limits, mailbox limits, etc.)
• Templates also define what parameters must be
  collected in the order form to deliver the service

• Service Plans are the pricing terms on top of a
  template.
• Subscription periods are defined here (1-month,
  3-month, 6-year, 1-year, etc.) with each period
  having different setup, recurring, and renewal
  fees
• Trial plans can also be created

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The 5 Challenges of Scaling a Hosting Business
Automating Complex Processes
1
Keeping up with Billing
2
Reacting to the Market
3
Managing Customer Requests
4
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The 5 Challenges of Scaling a Hosting Business
4. Managing Customer Requests
Keys to Success
Automate Order Processing
Deliver Comprehensive Self-Service
Automate Communications
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Automate Ordering Processing
Design Your Screens Templates
Define Product Ordering Scenarios
Publish Products to Store
Create a new Store-Front
1
2
3
4

• Service providers can create multiple
  store-fronts, each with a different brand,
  language, currency, or product focus.
• Design your own templates, screens, layouts
• Embed product ordering into your existing
  web-site
• Define the ordering steps and product-specific
  data collection
• Choose which products should be published in your
  various stores

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Store Front Final Result

• Full support for in-line domain registration
• Full support for payment collection
• Real-time invoicing and provision while you
  wait capabilities.

2
2
1
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Deliver Comprehensive Self-Service
Resellers
Customer Admin.
Service End-User

• Manage stores, products, pricing, and branding
• Manage customers
• Full payment and invoicing
• Full sub-reseller management

• Manage users privileges
• Manage applications
• Delegate service management to other employees
• Manage billing and payments
• Purchase more services

• Change password account information
• Manage application settings
• Adjust preferences (e.g. display language)

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Automate Communications

• Create notification schedules that define when
  customers should be alerted about events
  pertaining to their accounts.
• Create notification templates to customize the
  formatting and wording of the communications to
  your customers (Resellers can create their own).
• Send automated alerts to customers based on their
  account activity reaching certain thresholds

Bandwidth usage warning HTML version
Order Accepted
High Bandwidth Usage
Notify Customer (email)
Notify Customer (email)
Manua Process Complete
Automated Process Complete
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The 5 Challenges of Scaling a Hosting Business
Automating Complex Processes
1
Keeping up with Billing
2
Reacting to the Market
3
Managing Customer Requests
4
Integrating with Other Systems
5
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The 5 Challenges of Scaling a Hosting Business
5. Integrating With Other Systems
Keys to Success
Integrate with Processing Centers and Registrars
Standard API Interface to Service Delivery
Platform
Event Management
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Integrate with Processing Centers and Registrars

• About 30 plugins are supported out of the box
  with the platform
• Full SDK for creating domain registrar plugins
  and payment processing plugins
• Plugins support complex scenarios, such as
  multiple payment processing centers (e.g. sending
  all Visa requests to one processor and all Amex
  requests to another).

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Standard API Interface

• Full underlying API interfaces are provided to
  connect to Parallels System Automation and
  Parallels Business Automation
• APIs are well documented and easy to integrate
• Allows for full connectivity to third party
  systems

Customer Control Panel
Reseller Control Panel
Online Storefront
SOAP
Plesk Control Panel
Provisioning System
Virtuozzo Containers
Ecommerce
Billing
Marketing
Reseller
CRM
Support
Trouble Ticketing System
SOAP
SOAP
Custom Application
Accounting System
Parallels Business Automation
In-House System
Domain Registrar
Core Services
3rd Party Application
Payment Gateway
SOAP
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Event Management

• Event-management can be used for real-time
  integration with third-party systems
• Events are triggered in the provisioning or
  billing systems (71 possibly events on the
  billing side, 47 possible events on the
  provisioning side)
• Events trigger one or more actions (sending
  notifications or launching external scripts on
  remote systems).
• All actions are logged as tasks and tracked by
  the system.

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Summary
Automate Complex Processes
Keep Up With Billing
React to the Market
Manage Customer Requests
Integrate With Other Systems
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Future Roadmap

• Parallels Roadmaps not available online
• Parallels Partners may contact their sales
  representative regarding roadmap availability