Checklist for selling software on IBM Cloud
Use the following checklist to track all the tasks that are required to successfully onboard and sell your third-party software on IBM Cloud®.
Register your product
The following tasks are typically completed by a team member who is familiar with the business case for the product.
| Task | Description | Environment |
|---|---|---|
 Provide your company and product details |
Specify the names of your company and product. | IBM Cloud console |
| Create a test environment |
The test environment is used to onboard your software and validate it's ready for use. | IBM Cloud console |
| Assign team access |
With the correct IBM Cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM) access, members of your team can help onboard your software. | IBM Cloud console |
| Invite team members to your account |
Members of your account are assigned the IAM access that you set up in the previous task. | IBM Cloud console |
| Confirm your legal agreement with IBM |
Review and submit the IBM Digital Provider Agreement if you plan to offer bring your own license plans, review and submit the IBM Digital Reseller Agreement if you plan to offer free plans, or upload your custom digital provider agreement to be reviewed and approved by IBM. | IBM Cloud console |
For more information, see Getting set up to sell software.
Tell us about your product
The following tasks are typically completed by a team member familiar with the business case, marketing details, and customer support experience for the product.
| Task | Description | Environment |
|---|---|---|
| Review display name |
Review the display name of the product that was generated for you and make any updates to it if needed. | IBM Cloud console |
| Create and submit programmatic name |
Create a programmatic name for your product and submit it for review. | IBM Cloud console |
| Verify your partner details |
Review the Company and Team information and make sure that everything is correct. | IBM Cloud console |
| Define your product details |
Add details, such as your product logo, keywords, description, features, and documentation URL, for your product's entry and details page in the IBM Cloud catalog. | IBM Cloud console |
| Define your support details |
Provide your support site URL, contacts, escalation process, and the locations where your support teams are based. | IBM Cloud console |
For more information, see the following links:
Define your pricing plan
| Task | Description | Environment |
|---|---|---|
| Submit the Electronic Transfer Funds and tax form |
To receive payment disbursements for usage-based pricing plans, email the required documents. | IBM Cloud console |
| Add your ECCN |
Add the Export Control Classification Number (ECCN) that applies to your product. | IBM Cloud console |
| Add your UNSPSC |
Add the United Nations Standard Products and Services Code (UNSPSC) that applies to your product. | IBM Cloud console |
| Define your pricing information |
Add pricing plans to your product: free, usage-based, and bring your own license (BYOL). If you choose BYOL, provide details about your license. | IBM Cloud console |
| Add metrics to your pricing plan |
Add metrics to your usage-based pricing plan to determine how customers are charged. | IBM Cloud console |
| Test and submit resource usage |
Review how customers understand and experience your pricing plan, and validate that your metered plans are correctly configured by enabling and submitting a usage test. This usage test includes creating your metering JSON, calling the Usage Metering API and submitting metering evidence. For more information, see Usage Metering API. | Development environment and documentation, IBM Cloud console |
| Review and submit the IBM Cloud's Digital Platform Reseller Agreement |
Review and submit the IBM Digital Platform Reseller Agreement if you plan to offer free or paid plans, or upload your custom digital provider agreement to be reviewed and approved by IBM. | IBM Cloud console |
Usage-based pricing plans are available only for software that are onboarded with the virtual server image delivery method.
For more information, see the following links:
Onboard your product
The following tasks are typically completed by a technical member of your team.
| Task | Description | Environment |
|---|---|---|
| Set up your source code repository |
Create a release or tag in your source code repository to deliver and manage versions of your software. | Your GitHub, GitLab, or Azure repository |
| Upload a readme file |
Provide a readme file that describes how users can install your software and get customer support. | Your GitHub, GitLab, or Azure repository |
| Onboard your software |
Import a version, configure the deployment details, set any license requirements, and validate that the version can be successfully installed on the infrastructure that you require. | IBM Cloud console |
For more information, see the following links:
Publish your product
The following tasks are completed by any member of your team.
| Task | Description | Environment |
|---|---|---|
| Verify that all tasks are completed |
Confirm that you completed the getting started tasks, defined your software details, and onboarded your software. | IBM Cloud console |
| Request to publish your software |
Submit a request for IBM Cloud to review your product details and approve it's ready for publishing. | IBM Cloud console |
| Publish your software |
After your publishing request is approved, publish your software to the IBM Cloud catalog. | IBM Cloud console |
For more information, see Publishing your software to the IBM Cloud catalog.
As a third-party provider, you're responsible for maintaining all assets of published software in the IBM Cloud catalog and deprecating outdated versions.