All you need to know about interworks.cloud and the cloud industry
31/07/2020
Take control of your business by setting up your customer’s Credit Limit
Most industries and businesses share a common goal, to build long-lasting relationships with the customers. Working in the CSP business accelerates the necessity for a safe and trusted environment. Various billing cycles, managing subscriptions and controlling all payments, are common challenges people face in the business. Those challenges redirect the attention from the end goal.
The interworks.cloud platform provides all the necessary tools to clear out the confusion. The first step is a financial relief, reassuring that transactions are seamless, fast and secure, facilitating both sides. The complex and challenging transactional framework in the CSP business increases the need for enhanced monitoring and control.
What should Service Providers do?
Leverage the Credit Limit feature!
It’s a capability for the service providers to separate their customers in different segments and financial models that suit them best.
Applying credit limits can build customer loyalty, encourage clients to place larger orders, and provide a competitive advantage. You can define the amount each customer has available for spending and have overall control on each customer’s orders.
For example, your customers may consume Azure resources that they cannot afford. With the interworks.cloud Credit Control feature you can dramatically reduce any financial risks, by setting up a credit limit that meets up with the financial capabilities of each of your customers. If your customers’ credit limit is exceeded, they will be warned during checkout that the order will not be executed.
Let’s see how the credit limit works and what extra features the interworks.cloud platform offers!
Setting Customer’s Credit Limit
When a new customer registers in the marketplace, the credit limit is by default 0 (this means that the customer can never owe you). You can either change that account’s credit limit later or create a new account in the BSS. From the billing options, you can enable the feature and set a credit limit for that customer:
Navigate to BSS -> Office -> Accounts and select an existing account or add a new one.
Check the box “Enable Ordering”
Type the amount of the Credit Limit best serves your needs.
Tip: By checking the “Unlimited” box, all orders will be executed, no matter how much your customer might owe you.
The available credit is visible to the customer at any time from the Billing section in the Marketplace.
Handling an Order that Exceeds Customer’s Available Credit
Sometimes a customer may place an order that exceeds his available credit. In that case, a message will appear in the basket, informing him about the exceeding amount. He can place the order, but it will not be executed and the services will not be activated (thus no subscriptions or invoices will be generated).
By clicking the Checkout button, the order will be submitted, and an automated email will be sent to the customer and the account manager of the customer.
An example of the email might be the following:
Adding a Payment for Increasing the Credit Limit
For customers that are not paying by default using a credit card, you can allow them ad hoc payments for increasing, when necessary, their credit limit and proceeding with the checkout of their order.
Navigate to BSS Setup -> Administration -> System Options -> Payment Methods.
Define which payment gateways can be used for ad hoc payments in your Marketplace. You can select your gateways by checking the “Storefront Use” option.
When the customer is in your Marketplace, he can make an ad hoc payment with one of the following ways:
✔ By adding a payment from the Billing section.
Underneath the “available credit” indicator, the customer can find the link for making and ad hoc payment. (This option is not available to customers with unlimited credit limit.)
✔ By adding a payment during checkout
If the customer places an order that exceeds his available credit, in basket’s first page he will have the option to make a payment for increasing his credit limit.
Notify Customers for their Available Credit
The Credit Limit Notification Plan is a means to schedule the dispatch of email notifications to the customer when his available credit is decreased below a specific threshold
Tip: Apart from notifying the customer for his available credit, you can also suspend the customer if he exceeds his credit limit.
In the “General” section of the notification plan details page, enter the following information:
Notification Plan Name: The name of the plan
Description: A description that explains the purpose the plan serves
Entity: Select Credit Limit
Default Plan: If you want by default this plan to apply to all new customers, check this option.
Under the “Reminders” section, you define how many reminders you want to be dispatched to the customer and when. You can send the customer up to 4 reminders. For each reminder, you must define:
When the reminder will be sent. (at what percentage of the credit limit, the available credit will reach)when their available credit drops to the credit limit percentage you have defined.
Which email will be dispatched to the customer. For each reminder, you must create a notification and relate it with this step.
Decide if you want the customer to be suspended if he exceeds his credit limit. This is defined in the Account Suspension section. The “Suspend Account” rule has the following parameters:
The percentage of the credit limit exceeded. Suppose that a customer has 1.000€ credit limit and you want to suspend him if he exceeds his credit limit by 150€. In this case, you must set the percentage to 15%. If you want to suspend him as soon as he consumes all his credit limit, the percentage must be set to 0%.
For how many days the credit limit has been exceeded above the specified percentage. If for example, you have setup the account to be suspended after 3 days, the customer will be suspended only if for 3 consequent days his credit limit has been exceeded above the specified percentage.
Exclude or not the Azure estimations. If you select to exclude the Azure estimations, then only the actual amount of an Azure subscription will be used for the calculation of the remaining credit.
Which email will be dispatched to the customer.
Decide if you want the system to automatically un-suspend the customer when his credit limit drops within the limits you have defined.
Don’t forget to watch our Use Case about the Credit Limit feature. How to set it up for your customers and how are they notified when they exceed the amount with an order.