Cloud
Management
Platform
BCSG’s Cloud Management Platform offers you the power and flexibility to develop and deliver your cloud service proposition across multiple resellers, geographies and channels rapidly. Service Providers across the world use the Cloud Management Platform and the associated managed service solution to power their cloud service offering. The platform’s customisation capabilities enable you to build a unique catalogue of services, bundles and promotions, delivered by a fully branded marketplace with a user access + control environment that allows services to be purchased and managed. It is architected to support a roll out across multiple operating
companies, with the capabilities to handle different propositions, languages, regulations and billing arrangements depending on the jurisdiction.
The platform’s modular design allows you to choose either, to reduce dependency on internal IT systems integration as it can function on a standalone basis, or to keep specific functions, such as customer support and billing, in house using the range of integration web services available. The platform has two layers that provide control of the platform to:
Service Providers – providing you with the tools to build and manage your marketplaces and
integrate the platform within your organisation
Business End User – Giving your resellers, customers and end users the capabilities to manage the full service lifecycle from discovering and provisioning new services to
managing service access and deployment and cancelling them when they are not needed.
Service Provider layer Business End
Example services include
BCSG’s Cloud Management Platform has an extensive portfolio of hundreds of SaaS, IaaS and PaaS services integrated and ready to deploy to your customers.
Allowing you to offer the complete range of cloud services from one central platform and saving you time and effort in getting to market.
Giving your customers the capability to find the right services and launch them from the platform with one username and password.
Cloud services portfolio
Service Provider Layer
Being able to build and deliver your cloud service proposition quickly and easily is essential when you need to move faster than your competitors. BCSG’s Cloud Management Platform has a range of modules designed specifically to help you manage the cloud services you offer your customers, across resellers, geographic markets and sales channels.
Gives you the power to customise your marketplaces, allowing you to manage promotional content about your proposition and include
essential information like system requirements and key contract terms.
Fully customisable user interface allows you to white label the experience to create a seamless brand experience.
Bring your proposition to life: upload, edit and preview marketing collateral, such as
promotional copy, video, demos and imagery. Include the essential information your
The Provisioning Process Manager provides customisable
registration flows that can be designed around your sales channels, giving you flexibility on how your customers sign-up to the services.
A range of the pre-built provisioning flows that support telephony, face to face, reseller, online (self-serve) channels
Tailor the key information you collect from your customers and select the billing methods needed to set-up an account, ensuring the experience is
designed for each channel, reseller and jurisdiction. Include essential customer acceptances to service
contracts, privacy policies and marketing preferences.
Add scripts and prompts to ensure sales channels
keep your customers informed of key terms.
Being able to select the right products and services, price, and bundle them together is key to building a catalogue of services that will attract your customers.
Select the services you want to include in your proposition from the portfolio.
Add your core products and services. Define pricing for service and bundle
components.
Integrate with your core service offering by bundling cloud services with your products and services to create holistic packages.
Enable / disable upgrade recommendations
Control which services and bundles are published to specific marketplaces (channels, resellers, geographies).
Offers and promotions allow you to create campaigns and discounts that drive customer adoption. They provide a flexible way of targeting specific customer segments with incentives.
Choose from a selection of promotion types including:
o Discounts – for example give your customer 10% off for three months or 3 months free on service Y if they subscribe to service X. o Give customer credits on their account to put
towards their spending on cloud services Set redemption conditions that control who has
access to the offer (e.g. channel, customer type, number of customers) and how and when the voucher can be redeemed.
Distribute the promotions with voucher codes that can be unique or generic for customers allowing you to publish them in a variety of ways.
Front Office Systems
The flexible modular design of BCSG’s Cloud Management Platform allows you to use their range of leading font office systems or integrate your own systems using the Acceleration APIs available.
The billing module allows you to customise the way you take payments. BCSG can handle the billing using a range of methods e.g. direct debit, ACH, credit card, across multi-jurisdictions and resellers. Alternatively the platform will integrate with Service Provider OSS/BSS systems. We support multiple billing models such as PAYG, Subscription, Metered and pro-rated.
The marketing and comms automation module provides the capabilities to deliver customer operation, support and promotional communications across a range of methods such as email, SMS and outbound telephony. Comms are driven from the pre-integrated logic engine or Service Providers are able to integrate their own.
The Cloud Management Platform is not constrained by location and we have the flexibility to host it with our Tier 1 data centre providers across the world or allow it to be hosted on Service
Provider infrastructure.
BCSG employ a Hybrid-cloud approach to hosting using private and public virtualised models in
multiple geographies across the world.
Data can be segregated on different network segments allowing for management infrastructure
and consumer data to be held separately.
Our disaster recovery strategy identifies all systems involved in the provision of the service (BCSG directly or indirectly responsible for maintaining), implementing audited processes to ensure the worst-case scenario can be recovered from.
Data security is paramount - we perform white and black box penetration tests and data is encrypted at rest using encrypted volumes (AES-256) and in transit using 256-bit SSL (HTTPS). To understand how your cloud services proposition is
performing and make decisions, management information and reporting is fundamental. The Reporting and Insight module offers a range of
configurable reports and data exchange mechanisms.
View customer trends through web analytics, usage
behaviour and sales performance ready-to-use reports and dashboards.
Access data through a web platform, via batch transfers into your data warehouse, shared database view or API.
Reporting access and configuration can be
Business End User Layer
To deliver value from your cloud service proposition you must put it in the hands of the users that manage the full service lifecycle. The Cloud Management Platform is designed to give your sales channels, resellers and customers the capabilities to find, provision and manage the services with ease.
One size does not fit all. Specific geographies, resellers, channels and customer segments can access a cloud service proposition that you have tailored for them.
Each type of business user can access a
proposition that has been selected for them, with services and bundles that suit the type of sales environment and customer needs. Your customers will see one joined up
Finding the right services, quickly and easily, is essential for your
customers. Using the branded marketplaces they can identify the services they need.
View and filter the services offered by using categories and search functions.
See recommended and featured services based
on things they have viewed and purchased.
Understand what other customers think by
looking at service ratings and reviews. Check services are right for them by using
demos and diagnostics.
See the most recent promotions and special
offers available to them.
Once the customer has identified the services they want, the Cloud Management Platform makes it simple to subscribe.
Use a payment wallet allowing them to add services
to their one monthly invoice with the amount taken using their preferred payment method
They know what they are agreeing to, with the relevant service contract, terms and consents provided.
Enter voucher codes to receive discounts and
special promotions.
Provisioning flows are tailored for specific geographies, channels and resellers
We put your business users in control of their account allowing them to manage the services they subscribe to.
Get an overview of all the services they're subscribed to and the key service terms. See all the licences they hold and who has
access to them.
Upgrade and cancel services as needed.
Add other users, set permissions and assign
access to services.
Services can be removed from individual users
and user access suspended.
Configure resources to their business requirements.
The Cloud Management Platform gives each user their own portal allowing them to manage their profile and access functionality based on their role.
User roles give you and your customers control over the service lifecycle permissions.
Users can then sign in with one username and
password to access all their cloud services and platform functions.
Users can request access to new services from
their administrators.
Customers will receive useful information to get support and understand what offers are available to them, via a range of communication channels such as email, SMS and outbound telephony. The Cloud Management Platform includes a market-leading engagement programme that keeps customers up to date with the latest developments, tips and best practice.
Time is money. So we've streamlined our payment and subscription processes to allow customers to pay all subscription fees together in one monthly payment. Customers can select their preferred payment method using their account wallet which means billing methods need to be set-up once only, and they can then add or upgrade services as and when they choose.
