To sell your software as a service (SaaS) product in Alibaba Cloud Marketplace, you must publish it in Alibaba Cloud Marketplace first. After a customer purchases your SaaS product, Alibaba Cloud Marketplace instructs you to produce an SaaS instance in service provider interface (SPI) or license mode. This topic describes how to publish an SaaS product.

Prerequisites

  • Produce SaaS instances in SPI mode

    If you use this mode, make sure that the SPI operations are developed and debugged.

  • Produce SaaS instances in license mode

    If you use this mode, make sure that the product activation page is developed.

Background information

Production is an important step of selling SaaS products. After customers place orders, Alibaba Cloud Marketplace sends customers' purchase information to independent software vendors (ISVs) to produce SaaS products.

SaaS products can be produced in the following modes:

  • SPI

    The SPI mode is applicable to SaaS products that are activated immediately after customers purchase them.

    To use the SPI mode, an ISV must develop SPI operations based on the SPI specifications provided by Alibaba Cloud Marketplace. The ISV must provide the endpoint of the SPI when publishing an SaaS product. After a customer purchases or renews the SaaS product, Alibaba Cloud Marketplace calls the SPI provided by the ISV to instruct the ISV to produce or renew the SaaS instance for the customer. After the ISV produces or renews the SaaS instance, the ISV returns relevant information to Alibaba Cloud Marketplace.

    SPI-related documents and links:

  • License

    The license mode is applicable to SaaS products that must be activated by customers themselves at the official websites of the SaaS products after purchase.

    To use the license mode, an ISV must develop a product activation page. The ISV must provide the URL of the product activation page when publishing an SaaS product. Alibaba Cloud Marketplace generates a license for each SaaS product that a customer purchases, and displays the license to the customer in the Alibaba Cloud Marketplace console. After obtaining the license, the customer can go to the product activation page and enter the license. Then, the ISV calls the license query and verification operations provided by Alibaba Cloud Marketplace to verify the validity of the license. If the license is valid, the ISV activates the SaaS product for the customer.

    For more information about the license query and verification operations, see DescribeLicense and ActivateLicense.

Create an SaaS product

  1. Log on to the ISV portal of Alibaba Cloud Marketplace.
  2. In the left-side navigation pane, click Listing. On the page that appears, click Create Product in the upper-right corner.
  3. Enter information about the SaaS product to be created in the configuration wizard.
    1. Enter access information about the SaaS product and click Next.
      Parameter Description
      Choose Your Product Type Select SaaS.
      Product Name Enter a custom product name.
      Provisioning Model Select a production mode for the SaaS product as required.
      Product URL You must set this parameter when the Provisioning Model parameter is set to SPI.

      Enter the endpoint of the SPI that you have developed based on the SPI specifications provided by Alibaba Cloud Marketplace. Alibaba Cloud Marketplace uses this endpoint to call the SPI. If the endpoint is incorrect, the SaaS product cannot be activated.

      License Active URL You must set this parameter when the Provisioning Model parameter is set to License.

      Enter the URL of the product activation page.
    2. Enter basic information about the SaaS product and click Next.
      Parameter Description
      Product Logo Upload product images to show on the product list page and product details page. The recommended image size is 200*150 pixels.
      Short Description Enter the short description of the SaaS product. This description appears on the product list page in Alibaba Cloud Marketplace. We recommend that you enter no more than 200 characters.
      Product Highlights Enter the detailed description of the SaaS product. This description appears on the top of the product details page. We recommend that you describe your SaaS product as detailed as possible.
      Product Description Describe your SaaS product in detail with rich text. If you want to use an image in the product description, drag the image to the rich text editing box.
      Product Certifications Optional. Upload certificates of the SaaS product, such as the intellectual property certificate, patent certificate, and special certificates, to increase customers' trust in the SaaS product.
      User Guide Upload the help document of the SaaS product. The operational staff of Alibaba Cloud Marketplace will check the user guide when reviewing your SaaS product. The user guide must be in PDF format and cannot exceed 10 MB.
      Refund Policy Enter the refund terms and contact information.
      Support Offered Enter after-sales support information, such as the support that you can provide and the time period during which the support is available.
    3. Enter business information about the SaaS product and click Next.
      Parameter Description
      Product Category Select the category of the SaaS product.
      SEO for Your Product Specify the search keywords and description for the SaaS product. This increases the visibility of the SaaS product in search results of third-party search engines such as Google.
    4. Enter sales information about the SaaS product and click Next.
      Parameter Description
      Sales Mode
      • Package: The SaaS product is sold in a one-off manner and does not require renewal in the future. Within the validity period of the SaaS product, customers can log on to the Alibaba Cloud Marketplace console to use the SaaS product.
      • Subscription: Customers subscribe to the SaaS product and are billed periodically. They receive renewal notifications before their subscriptions expire. If a customer wants to continue using the SaaS product, the customer must renew the subscription.
      SKU Name Enter a custom name.
      SKU Price Enter a price based on the pricing policy.
      Duration of Validity You must set this parameter when the Pricing Plan parameter is set to Package.

      Enter a validity period based on the validity policy.
      Free Trial You must set this parameter when the Pricing Plan parameter is set to Subscription.

      Specify whether to allow users to try the SaaS product for free based on the sales policy.

    5. Enter the user agreement and click Next.
      Customers must agree to this agreement before purchasing the SaaS product.

Review an SaaS product

After you enter the product information and submit the SaaS product, the operational staff of Alibaba Cloud Marketplace review your SaaS product. The review process includes category review, ISV self-test, and feature review.

  1. The operational staff of Alibaba Cloud Marketplace review the category selected for the SaaS product.

    The operational staff of Alibaba Cloud Marketplace check whether your product information is configured properly, whether the price is reasonable, and whether the category is correct.

  2. You self-test the SaaS product.

    After the category review is passed, the SaaS product enters the Hiding state. Alibaba Cloud Marketplace sends you an email, instructing you to self-test the SaaS product. For more information, see Self-test SaaS products.

  3. The operational staff of Alibaba Cloud Marketplace review the features of the SaaS product.
    After you self-test your SaaS product, the operational staff of Alibaba Cloud Marketplace review the features of the product. After the feature review is passed, the SaaS product is published.