---
name: sell-managed-professional-service-get-start
title: Getting set up to sell managed professional services
description: Welcome to IBM Cloud®! To start onboarding your managed professional services as an IBM Business Partner, you can use Partner Center to set up the offering. It process includes onboarding your product, configuring custom parameters and contact information, setting up new pricing plans, adding metrics to your pricing plan, providing support details, and managing resource provisioning. After your service is published, it becomes available in the IBM Cloud catalog, ready for clients to discover and consume.
last-updated: 2026-04-30
---

> ## Documentation Index
> The table of contents for this documentation set is at https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/sell?format=markdown
> The index for all IBM Cloud docs is at: https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use these files to discover more information as needed.

# Getting set up to sell managed professional services
{: #mps-getting-started}
{: toc-content-type="tutorial"}
{: toc-completion-time="10m"}

Welcome to IBM Cloud®! To start onboarding your managed professional services as an IBM Business Partner, you can use Partner Center to set up the offering. It process includes onboarding your product, configuring custom parameters and contact information, setting up new pricing plans, adding metrics to your pricing plan, providing support details, and managing resource provisioning. After your service is published, it becomes available in the IBM Cloud catalog, ready for clients to discover and consume.
{: shortdesc}

Managed professional services provide clients with end-to-end solutions delivered and maintained by expert Business Partners, eliminating the need for clients to manage technical complexity themselves. These services typically include setup, configuration, monitoring, compliance, and ongoing support, which can ensure reliability and scalability. By using tools like Partner Center for service creation and the IBM Cloud for seamless discovery and provisioning, businesses can access tailored, fully managed offerings that accelerate time-to-value and reduce operational burden.

## Lifecycle management of an engagement
{: #lifecycle-engagement}

Onboarding your professional services to IBM Cloud involves eight major steps. Check out the following workflow for a walk-through of the complete process.

![A diagram that shows how you can onboard managed professional services to IBM Cloud.](images/managed-professional-service-workflow.svg){: caption="Onboard managed professional services to IBM Cloud."}

1. The Business Partner registers the service in Partner Center
1. The client selects the service from the catalog and creates an instance
1. The Business Partner reviews and approves the professional service engagement request
1. The service engagement becomes active
1. The Business Partner manually bills the client for the service
1. The client submits a request to complete the engagement (optional)
1. The Business Partner approves or marks the engagement as completed
1. The engagement is complete

**Business Partner role**:
The Business Partner uses Partner Center to onboard and configure managed professional services. This process involves setting up the service offering, defining custom parameters, adding contact and support details, creating pricing plans with relevant metrics, and managing resource provisioning. For more information on how to manage published engagements as a Business Partner, see [Administering managed professional services as an IBM Business Partner](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/sell?topic=sell-consume-mps-partner&interface=ui&format=markdown).

**Client role**:
Clients access the IBM Cloud catalog to explore and select published managed professional services. They can review the available offerings and engage with the service as configured by the Business Partner, ensuring a streamlined experience for consuming professional services. For more information on how to manage published enagagements as a client, see [Consuming managed professional services as a client](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/sell?topic=sell-consume-mps-client&interface=ui&format=markdown).

## Before you begin
{: #mps-getstart-prereqs}

* Verify that you're using a Pay-As-You-Go or Subscription account. To check which type of account you're using, go to **Manage > Account > Account settings** in the IBM Cloud console.

   It's recommended that you use an account that was created with a [functional ID](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/iam?topic=iam-identity-overview&format=markdown#functionalid-bestpract) to help ensure your continued access to the products that are onboarded in the account.
   {: tip}

* Verify that you're assigned as the administrator role on all account management services and all IAM-enabled services. See [Assigning access to account management services](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/iam?topic=iam-account-services&interface=ui&format=markdown) and [Managing access to resources](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/iam?topic=iam-assign-access-resources&interface=ui&format=markdown).

## Onboard your product
{: #onboard-product}
{: step}

The Business Partner starts the onboarding process. Creates and onboards managed professional services in the IBM Cloud console.

1. In the IBM Cloud console, click the **Navigation Menu** icon ![Navigation Menu icon](../icons/icon_hamburger.svg "Menu") > **Partner Center > My products**.
1. On the **My products** page, click **Create**.
1. Click **Create a product**, and click **Next**.
1. Click **Start now**.
1. Select **Managed Professional service** and click **Next**.
1. Enter a display name for your product.
1. Enter a programmatic name for your product, and click **Next**. The programmatic name is used when you want to use CLI to manage a service.
1. Review your product details and click **Create**.

## Set custom parameters and contact information to your product
{: #catalog-details}
{: step}

The Business Partner sets custom parameters and contact information, and specifies the email address to route the request to. Define the team and brand identity as part of the onboarding process.

On the newly created product page, click **Product listing > Catalog entry** and enter the required details in the **Your catalog entry** and **Your product page** sections to preview the catalog tile.

## Set up new pricing plans for your product
{: #create-pricing}
{: step}

The Business Partner creates a new pricing plan. When a managed service is onboarded, pricing is defined through plans. Each plan represents a specific offering, such as Standard or Premium, and includes details like features and cost. For every plan, you can associate a set of usage metrics to track consumption and billing. This structure allows flexibility, enabling multiple plans under the same service to meet different client needs.

1. Click **Product listing > Pricing** and click **Add plan > Usage-based**.
1. Enter a name for your plan.
1. Enter a programmatic name.
1. Enter a description.
1. Click **Save**.

## Add metrics to your pricing plan
{: #add-metrics}
{: step}

The consulting Business Partner then adds metrics to measure usage with usage-based pricing plans.

To add metrics and submit or view usage in Partner Center, you must have the following roles:

- `Partner Pricing Viewer` and `Partner Pricing Submitter` on the Partner Center - Sell service
- `Editor` on the Software Instance service

If you complete end-to-end testing for usage submission and review, make sure that you have all the required access assigned.
{: important}

Complete the following steps to add metrics to your pricing plan:

1. From the **Pricing plan** table, click **Add metrics**.
1. In the **Usage metrics** section, click **Add metrics**.
1. Enter a value to state the charges per unit.
1. Select the unit for measuring metrics.
    * **Hours**: Represents the amount of time spent delivering the service during the engagement.
    * **Implementation**: Captures a one-time agreed upon cost for setting up or configuring the service.
    * **Unit**: Defines any custom measurement metric such as consulting units, managed services units.

    The **Hours** unit is the most frequently used measurement.
    {: note}

1. Optionally, specify the unit in which the value must be displayed.
1. Select the unit that the client is charged for.
    * Per unit: Price per single unit.
    * Tiered: Price varies based on the quantity. The more the quantity, the lesser the price.
1. Enter the price per unit based on the unit that is selected.
1. Click **Done**.
1. In the **Pricing approval** section, click **Request approval**. An IBM approver approves the request.

## Provide support information
{: #provide-support-information}
{: step}

As part of onboarding, it’s important to provide support information so clients can easily reach out when they have questions or need assistance. It includes specifying contact details, support channels, and response expectations. Clear support information helps ensure smooth communication between Business Partners and clients throughout the engagement.

1. Click **Product listing > Support** and enter the details in the **Customer support information** section.
1. Enter the details in the **Support escalation process** section.
1. Add support contact information.

## Next steps
{: #mps-getstart-next}

Now that you completed the onboarding tasks, you're ready to manage published engagements.

- To manage published engagements as a client, see [Consuming managed professional services as a client](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/sell?topic=sell-consume-mps-client&format=markdown).
- To manage published engagements as a Business Partner, see [Administering managed professional services as an IBM Business Partner](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/sell?topic=sell-consume-mps-partner&format=markdown).

To get an overview of all the tasks involved in the process, see the [Checklist for selling managed professional services on IBM Cloud](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/sell?topic=sell-checklist-mps&interface=ui&format=markdown).
{: tip}