Defining your pricing plan

Submitting tax and EFT forms

For services that you offer on IBM Cloud with a paid, usage-based pricing plan, you receive disbursements based on the usage in accordance with your pricing structure. To receive disbursements, you must complete and submit the EFT form and tax documentation.

To provide tax and EFT information, complete the following steps:

1. In the IBM Cloud console, click the Navigation Menu icon > Partner Center > Payments to me.

2. Download the relevant EFT form, and complete it.

   One of three types of bank documents is required to be submitted with the form. You can submit a scanned copy of a voided check or a bank letter that is signed and stamped by the bank. If you are outside of the United States, you can alternatively provide an online bank statement. The document that you provide must include the bank name, account number, routing number (or bank key or ABA), and the account holder's name.

3. Download the relevant tax documentation, and complete it.

4. Submit the completed documentation and bank document by email to apremit@us.ibm.com. You must include cloud.onboarding@ibm.com on the email.

5. Select I confirm that I completed and emailed all of the required documents..

Providing the ECCN

To start defining your pricing model, you must provide the Export Control Classification Number (ECCN) that applies to your product. If you don't have your ECCN, you can find it on the Commerce Control List.

You must submit your tax and EFT documents and receive approval before you can provide the ECCN if you're using a usage-based pricing plan.

1. Go to Partner Center > My products.
2. Select the service that you're onboarding and go to the Pricing page.
3. Click Add ECCN and provide the ECCN for your service.
4. Click Add.

If you need to update your ECCN after you add it, you must contact IBM Cloud Support. To contact support, you can use the following methods:

• If you have a valid Pay-As-You-Go or Subscription account, you can click Chat with IBM to connect with a support engineer.
• Pay-as-you-go or subscription accounts can also contact support by phone: +1-866-403-7638.

Providing the UNSPSC

You must provide your ECCN before the UNSPSC.

In addition to ECCN, you must provide the UNSPSC that applies to your product. The UNSPSC is required for both free and usage-based pricing plans. If you need help with selecting the UNSPSC for your service, see How to select UNSPSC codes?. Providing your UNSPSC is a required step in the onboarding process.

To provide the UNSPSC code that applies to your product, complete the following steps:

1. Go to Partner Center > My products.
2. Select the service that you're onboarding and go to the Pricing page.
3. Click Add UNSPSC and select the UNSPSC code for your service.
4. Click Add.

Accepting agreement terms and conditions

Depending on the type of plans you are adding for your product, you must sign the agreement that outlines the terms and conditions of providing a product in the IBM Cloud. Or, you can upload a custom digital provider agreement in .pdf, .doc, or .docx file format.

Custom digital provider agreements must be reviewed and approved by IBM, which increases the time it takes for you to complete the onboarding process. The uploaded files are scanned for viruses, which might take a few minutes to complete. If a virus is detected, it is recommended to run another virus scan on your file, and then try uploading it again.

Adding a free plan

By adding a free plan, you are indicating that your product does not require any payment or license to use. To add a free plan for your service, complete the following steps:

1. In the IBM Cloud console, click the Navigation Menu icon > Partner Center > My products.

2. Select the product that you're onboarding, and click Pricing.

3. Click Add plan.

4. Select Free from the Type section.

5. Enter a name for your new plan.

6. Describe the details of your plan.

7. Choose the locations where your plan is available. All plans for a product use either global or per location. By selecting per location, you can specify different regions or data centers for each plan that you add.

8. Link a broker to the plan.

   If you haven't finished adding a broker to your account, you will not see this option, and you can continue and save your pricing plan. However, you can't complete your pricing plan until the broker is added and linked to your plan.

9. Click Save.

Adding a paid pricing plan

By adding a usage-based pricing plan, you are indicating that you offer your product as a paid integrated product, and customers need to pay to use it. All information that is entered on the Add plan panel is displayed to customers in the IBM Cloud catalog to help them purchase your service.

When you add a usage-based pricing plan, you provide your suggested retail pricing information. However, IBM reserves the right to set the final pricing for any product that is offered to customers in the IBM Cloud catalog.

To add a paid pricing plan for your service, complete the following steps:

1. In the IBM Cloud console, click the Navigation Menu icon > Partner Center > My products.

2. Select the product that you're onboarding, and click Pricing.

3. Click Add plan.

4. Select Usage-based.

5. Enter a name for your plan.

6. Describe the details of your plan.

7. Choose the locations where your plan is available. All plans for a product use either global or per location. By selecting per location, you can specify different regions or data centers for each plan that you add.

8. Select a broker to link to the plan.

   If you haven't finished adding the broker to your account, you will not see this option, and you can continue and save your pricing plan. However, you can't submit your pricing plan for approval until the broker is linked.

9. Click Save.

Before you can submit your pricing plan for approval, you must complete the following tasks:

• If you had to skip the step to link your broker to the plan because you didn't have one yet, start to develop your broker, and come back to link it to your plan when you're done.
• Add metrics to your plan to determine how customers are charged, and request pricing approval.
• Add plan features to describe why a customer might want to choose a specific plan.
• Test the pricing and usage from a customer's perspective and provide evidence from your testing to get the final approval for your pricing plan.

Listing pricing plan features

If you completed the steps to define your pricing plan, you can add a list of features for the plan. These features uniquely identify your product's attributes and differentiate your pricing plan from others. By providing a list of features for your product, you can help customers choose the most suitable pricing plan for their use case.

You can add up to five features for your product, but you must add at least one. The first feature that you add appears more prominently. Include the most important and differentiating details as the first feature.

To add features for your service, complete the following steps:

1. In the IBM Cloud console, click the Navigation Menu icon > Partner Center > My products.
2. Select the product that you're onboarding, and click Pricing.
3. Click Add metrics.
4. Click Add feature.
5. Enter a feature description that uniquely describes your product and differentiates the pricing plan from others.
6. Optional: Click Add feature to add up to five additional feature descriptions.
7. Click Save.