Overview of the Microsoft commercial marketplace for customers

The Microsoft commercial marketplace is a cloud marketplace where organizations can easily find, buy, and manage the right solutions for their changing needs. Independent software vendor (ISV) members of the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program can create, publish, and manage their commercial marketplace offers in Partner Center. ISV solutions are listed together with our Microsoft solutions, which are made available to customers like you - businesses, organizations, and government agencies around the world.

For our customers, the Microsoft commercial marketplace connects you to thousands of solutions so that you can manage your cloud estate from one single location and maximize the value of your cloud solution investments.

For more information on navigating the Microsoft commercial marketplace, watch this video:

Why buy from the Microsoft commercial marketplace

The Microsoft commercial marketplace is a cloud marketplace that supports your organization's needs to purchase innovative vendor solutions, while satisfying your organization's business requirements.

When you purchase cloud partner solutions through the Microsoft commercial marketplace, you can:

• Increase efficiency: Shop for all your cloud solution needs through a single trusted marketplace catalog. Find, buy, and manage solutions for all your business needs with a simplified purchasing flow.
  • Meet all your business needs in one place: Shop one catalog of Microsoft partner solutions that include everything from infrastructure, AI solutions, to industry-specific applications, and many more.
  • Simplified procurement: Streamline your purchases as your cloud portfolio grows. Forrester consulting found that the marketplace reduced employee effort required for each procurement engagement by 50%.
  • Reduced vendor onboarding time by 75%* - Onboard vendors through the marketplace more quickly.
  • Get flexible terms and pricing: Use private offers to get exactly what you need, including custom terms and conditions, negotiating pricing, and prototypes for proof of concept. You can secure optimal pricing for up to three years.
• Buy with confidence: Access a most comprehensive catalog of Microsoft certified cloud solutions and know that your business is protected with Microsoft (security?). Buy directly from Microsoft by onboarding Microsoft partner solutions and adding to your Microsoft agreement.
  • Try before you buy: Shop with confidence and try before you buy. Try out solutions through trials or request proof of concepts with a private offer to ensure the solution aligns to your cloud solution needs before investing.
  • Access the most comprehensive catalog of Microsoft certified solutions: Choose confidently, when you've evaluated and found the best solution for your needs, know that it's certified by Microsoft.
  • Get solutions that work with your technology: Save time knowing that solutions are preconfigured to deploy and run on Azure seamlessly.
  • Keep channel partner relationships: Buy how you want. Multiparty private offers empower your channel partner to find cloud solutions on your behalf. Eligible purchases count toward your cloud consumption commitment.
• Spend smarter: Apply eligible purchases to your organization's Azure cloud commitment and get faster time-to-value with solutions that work with your current technology.
  • Maximize your investments: Count eligible commercial marketplace purchases toward your Azure consumption commitment to get more value. Forrester Consulting found that marketplace adoption optimizes customers' Azure cloud budget by recapturing up to 50% of at-risk spending.
  • Balance agility and control: Maintain high levels of governance. With a private Azure Marketplace, you can preselect approved solutions so your team can access what they need with compliance.
  • Focus on what matters: Alleviate the burden of administrative overhead by purchasing through commercial marketplace. Forrester Consulting found that adopting the marketplace improved time savings for the payments and finance purchasing teams by 30%.
  • 587% ROI with the marketplace: Forrester Consulting found that using the marketplace led to 587% ROI over three years with less than a six-month payback time.

The commercial marketplace is most valuable when an organization aligns its Azure strategy to the marketplace. This alignment can help you accelerate innovation, simplify your organization's procurement process and reduce time-to-value for your cloud solution deployments.

How to use the Microsoft commercial marketplace

The marketplace meets you where you are. Whether you're a small business looking to get a few solutions or an enterprise with a Microsoft contract, the marketplace supports the following buying scenarios:

• Digital direct: Shop across the digital storefronts, Microsoft AppSource, and Azure Marketplace. Microsoft AppSource is best for independent purchasing or for Microsoft 365 or Power BI applications. The Azure Marketplace is a front-end to the Azure portal, where you can buy prevetted vendor solutions to deploy seamlessly.
• Through-partners: If you rely on a channel partner to manage your Azure cloud estate, your partner can use multiparty private offers to source solutions on your behalf. Direct your selling partner to the multiparty private offers partner documentation to learn more.
• Enterprise buying: Negotiate pricing and customer terms through private offers that count toward a Microsoft Azure consumption commitment, and safeguard your investments with governance tools by creating a private marketplace.

Next steps

Understand the digital store fronts:

• Azure Marketplace
• Microsoft AppSource