With budgets for unreality services expanding and the complexity of infrastructure rising, marketplaces are positioned arsenic the aboriginal of B2B commerce. Industry analysts are taking note—most precocious IDC published its first-ever IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Cloud and Applications-Centric Marketplaces 2023 Vendor Assessment (doc # US51037123, December 2023). The Microsoft commercialized marketplace was named a Leader successful the report.

As the IDC MarketScape notes, buyers and sellers privation integer ways of interacting that person the aforesaid easiness and consciousness of assemblage arsenic accepted marketplaces. With integer technologies becoming much advanced, there’s a earthy payment to standard successful enactment of innovation portion simultaneously offering the due controls to negociate the business. Microsoft customers that align their organization’s Azure unreality strategy to the marketplace are seeing tremendous benefits. By purchasing third-party solutions done Microsoft Azure, customers tin maximize investments portion balancing costs with fast, click-to-deploy, solutions that are validated for compatibility with Microsoft applications for virtually immoderate unreality scenario.

“Consider the Microsoft commercialized marketplace for each your Azure cloud-based Microsoft products and services to beryllium capable to seamlessly gully connected your committed unreality walk and easy instal vetted and compatible solutions.”

—IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Cloud and Applications-Centric Marketplaces 2023 Vendor Assessment, December 2023.

Pre-committed unreality budgets driving lawsuit adoption

The IDC MarketScape recognizes that with unreality budgets increasing, organizations are looking to get much from their investments. Most ample unreality providers connection depletion commitments—contracts providing discounts connected unreality infrastructure erstwhile a lawsuit meets a definite spending threshold. According to the IDC MarketScape, “One of the astir fashionable benefits of the marketplace is that 100% of eligible purchases number toward buyers’ Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC), which greatly streamlines procurement and walk absorption for organizations.”

Customers tin rapidly filter successful the marketplace to browse thousands of eligible solutions that number towards their commitment, making it casual to unlock discounts connected Azure infrastructure. Already much than 85% of customers with commitments are buying spouse solutions via the marketplace to maximize their investments.

Balancing customizations versus “one-size-fits-all”

The IDC MarketScape study besides recognizes the complexities of endeavor procurement. Despite the digital-first quality of unreality marketplaces, customers making ample investments request flexibility to negociate portion having the accidental to support spouse relationships. Cloud marketplaces are sometimes perceived arsenic a storefront constricted to ‘off-the-shelf’ options, but they tin supply highly customized solutions that vastly simplify the procurement process.

“Marketplaces person evolved from basal catalogs and commerce-enabled websites to feature-rich platforms for procurement transformation.”

—IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Cloud and Applications-Centric Marketplaces 2023 Vendor Assessment, December 2023.

To guarantee unreality portfolios stay consolidated portion simultaneously addressing the unsocial needs of some customers and partners, the marketplace present has enhanced backstage connection functionality. Through backstage offers, customers can: 

• Negotiate pricing
• Customize presumption and conditions
• Trial proof-of-concepts

The IDC MarketScape notes that “Marketplaces accelerate maturation successful ecosystem partnerships done web effects that pb to co-innovation and caller worth creation.” With a web of implicit 400K trusted partners, the Microsoft commercialized marketplace supports them successful selling unneurotic done multiparty backstage offers. Multiparty backstage offers empower transmission partners to procure solutions connected the customer’s behalf—giving customers the payment of maintaining their transmission relationships portion enjoying the advantages of buying done the marketplace. According to the IDC MarketScape, “Recent enhancements to backstage offers added a multiparty capability, which allows marketplace sellers to bring a 3rd party, specified arsenic a reseller oregon a services partner, into the transaction, expanding the scope of the marketplace and making it imaginable to collaborate connected much complex, higher-value deals.”

“The robust backstage offers and backstage marketplaces features, arsenic good arsenic the wide spectrum of products and services accessible done marketplace, marque it a preferred transmission for galore enterprises. The caller multiparty enactment for ISVs and their selling partners besides adds much flexibility and strengthens the Microsoft ecosystem to the payment of buyers.” 

—IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Cloud and Applications-Centric Marketplaces 2023 Vendor Assessment, December 2023.

Leading the aboriginal of B2B commerce

As the most-trusted unreality provider, Microsoft continues to put successful its marketplace arsenic the superior transmission to link customers to our robust spouse ecosystem to lick virtually immoderate concern oregon exertion challenge.

The IDC MarketScape notes that continuous innovation is the hallmark of today’s unreality marketplaces. The Microsoft commercialized marketplace roadmap is purpose-built to simplify unreality management. For example, Microsoft is gathering a caller AI-discovery instrumentality to assistance customers place the solutions they request instantly. The ChatGPT inspired acquisition intelligently surfaces solutions portion reinforcing suggestions by referencing trusted content. According to the IDC MarketScape, “A generative AI-based solution finder, presently successful preview, is apt to marque the bully idiosyncratic acquisition connected the marketplace adjacent better.” This instrumentality is presently successful preview for prime customers.

The Microsoft commercialized marketplace offers customers a equilibrium betwixt agility and control. With unreality budgets increasing and demands for innovation accelerating, unreality marketplaces volition proceed to marque their mode to halfway signifier successful B2B commerce.

• Read the IDC MarketScape excerpt.
• Learn much astir Microsoft commercialized marketplace.

The station Microsoft named a Leader successful unreality and applications-centric marketplaces: IDC MarketScape appeared archetypal connected Microsoft Azure Blog.