Checklist for selling services on IBM Cloud
Use the following checklists to track all the tasks required to define, develop, and publish your third-party service.
Register your product
| Task | Description | Environment |
|---|---|---|
 Provide your company name |
Specify the legal name of your company. | IBM Cloud console |
| Create a test environment |
The test environment is not needed for services, but is necessary for software. If you onboard software in the future, you will use the test environment to validate that 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 service. | 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 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 |
For more information, see Getting set up to sell services.
Defining your service
| Task | Description | Environment |
|---|---|---|
| Confirm your display and programmatic names |
Review the programmatic name that was generated for you and make any needed updates. | IBM Cloud console |
| Verify your partner details |
Review the company and team information and make sure that everything is correct. | IBM Cloud console |
| Create your service ID |
Create your service ID that is used to identify your service when communicating with other IBM Cloud services. | IBM Cloud console |
| Create your API key |
Create an API key that is used to authenticate your service ID. | 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:
Defining 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 |
| Add your pricing plans |
IBM Cloud supports two pricing models: free or usage-based. | 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 |
For more information, see the following links:
Developing your broker
| Task | Description | Environment |
|---|---|---|
| Learn about the Open Service Broker specification version 2.12 |
Service brokers manage the lifecycle of services. The IBM Cloud platform interacts with Open Service Brokers to create and manage service instances and service bindings. For more information, see Open Broker API spec. | Documentation |
| View the IBM Cloud broker samples |
Clone the repo, browse the broker samples, and use these samples to start development. For more information, see Sample Resource Service Brokers. | Code examples |
| View the IBM Cloud Open Service Broker API documentation |
Review the criteria that the broker must meet. The IBM Cloud Open Service Broker extends the Open Service Broker 2.12 specification. For more information, see Open Service Broker API. | Documentation |
| Develop your service broker |
Use your development environment and IBM Cloud resources to develop your broker. | Development environment and documentation |
| Host your Open Service Broker |
The hosted location of the service broker must follow Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol version 1.2. The service broker must be hosted as part of an app that can respond to REST API calls, and it must meet IBM Cloud security guidelines. | Development environment and documentation |
| Test your hosted Open Service Broker |
Validate each of the API endpoints your service broker supports by running curl commands against your hosted service broker. Validate your service broker by running curl commands against the different endpoints you’re enabling. | Development environment and documentation |
| Set up IBM Cloud SSO and redirect URLs |
You can enable single sign-on and add redirect URLs that can handle authentication and authorization. | IBM Cloud console |
| Add your broker |
Add your broker to your product and link it to your pricing plans. | IBM Cloud console |
For more information, see the following links:
Publishing and testing your service
| Task | Description | Environment |
|---|---|---|
| Verify that all tasks are completed |
Confirm that you completed the getting started tasks, defined your service details, and added your broker. | IBM Cloud console |
| Request to publish your service |
Submit a request for IBM Cloud to review your product details and approve it's ready for publishing. | IBM Cloud console |
| Publish your service |
After your publishing request is approved, publish your service to the IBM Cloud catalog. | IBM Cloud console |
For more information, see the following links:
As a third-party provider, you're responsible for maintaining all assets of published services in the IBM Cloud catalog and deprecating outdated versions.
Publishing your service documentation
| Task | Description | Environment |
|---|---|---|
| Populate the Docs link |
Provide a link to documentation from the IBM Cloud catalog page that helps users understand and learn more about how to use your service. | IBM Cloud console |
| Publish usage documentation for your service |
Provide information about how to use your product. | Documentation |
| Publish getting started information for your service |
Include any customer onboarding timelines or steps as part of your Getting Started topic. | Documentation |
For more information, see the following links: