This article will provide you end to end solution for setting up your brand for the Customer Control Panel.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Introduction
- Setting up Your Brand
- Customer Self-Management
Introduction
This guide will walk you through the steps that we recommend are completed before allowing your end customers to access their control panel’s and self-manage their account and subscriptions. At a high level you would need to go through the Branding steps for your own account and customize what features are available in the Customer Control Panel.
Steps:
- Complete Branding Setup for your Reseller Account
- Customize your Customer Control Panel
Setting up Your Brand
Setting up your brand is a vital step before you expose the customer control panel to your customers. Without your own brand in place your customers would be viewing the default Ingram Micro brand. They would encounter Ingram Micro logos and colors instead of your own. They’d also need to log into a control panel with a web address that uses an Ingram Micro domain name. By setting up your brand you can ensure that your customers see your logos and use a control panel with the same look and feel of your own website.
What do you need to do before you begin the process of branding your account? The items on the following checklist should be completed before beginning.
- Identify the domain name you will use for the brand. Determine what the sub-domain will be. Typically, the sub-domain used for the brand is something like portal.domain.com or cp.domain.com. This sub-domain is used for your customized URL for your login page and Customer Control Panel (CCP)
- Identify who can assist with making the necessary DNS addition on the domain you selected for your brand. This will require setting an "A" record that points to the IP address assigned to your brand.
- Register a Wildcard SSL certificate for the domain that is being used for the brand. If you already have one identify who can assist with installing the certificate onto your brand.
- Select a logo to be used for your login page and Customer Control Panel (CCP). The logo should be 300x100 pixels.
- If you wish to use a favicon for your login page and Customer Control Panel (CCP) the image selected should be 16x16 pixels.
Step 1: Add Domain
The first step in setting up your brand is to add your domain (sub-domain) into the system so that it will be available to be used to create a brand. Follow these steps to add a domain.
- Log into your control panel. Once logged in you'll need to switch to the Classic Panel. Click on the "Classic Panel" link at the top of the site.
- Once you're logged into the Classic Panel click on the "Domains" link on the left-hand side navigation tree. You'll find this link beneath the Services section.
- Then press the "Add Existing Domain Registered Elsewhere" button.
- This step is where you add the sub-domain that you will be using for branding. In our example we want to use https://portal.mybrandingdomain.com as our customized URL for our login page and Customer Control Panel. To accommodate this, we need to enter "portal.mybrandingdomain.com" as our Domain. The Hosting type for the domain needs to be set to "External". By default, this is set to "Internal" so ensure to change this setting to "External". After setting your sub-domain and hosting type to External press the "Next" button to continue.
- The next step is simply to verify the settings that were selected. Ensure that the spelling of the sub-domain is correct and that the hosting type is "External". Press the "Finish" button to add the domain.
- The domain is then added into the system. We'll be able to make use of this on the next step.
Step 2: Create Brand
Now that a domain is available it can be used to create a brand. Follow these steps to create a brand.
- While logged into your "Classic Panel" click on the "Settings" link on the left-hand side navigation tree.
- Next, click on the "Brands" link under the "Branding" section.
- Press the "Add New Brand" button. On the next screen you’ll see your domain name. Press the “Next” button to proceed.
- "URL Suffix" by default is set as "cp". This should be removed, and the field should be blank. Press the "Finish" button to create the brand.
- The brand is created. The next several steps will include adding the SSL certificate and doing customizations.
Step 3: Updating DNS
Now that the brand has been created it has been assigned an IP address. The sub-domain that you created for your brand need to be pointed to this IP. In our example we used portal.mybrandingdomain.com as our sub-domain. For us to point this domain at our brand we need to create an "A" record called "portal" on the DNS for the mybrandingdomain.com domain and point it at our brands IP.
To locate the IP address that you need to use you would follow these steps.
- While logged into your "Classic Panel" click on the "Settings" link on the left-hand side navigation tree.
- Next, click on the "Brands" link under the "Branding" section.
- Click on the link for your brand name.
- Details about your brand are displayed; including the IP address. When you create the "A" record on your DNS point it at this address. For assistance with managing your DNS records you would need to contact whoever hosts your domain.
Step 4: Add Logo and Favicon
During the creation of the brand there is an opportunity to add the Logo and Favicon. Typically, this is not done at brand creation and is done later on. When you're ready to set your logo and favicon to your brand it can be added easily. The following steps will walk through the steps needed to make the additions.
- While logged into your "Classic Panel" click on the "Settings" link on the side navigation tree.
- Next, click on the "Brands" link under the "Branding" section.
- Click on the link for your brand name.
- Press the "Edit" button.
- At this point you can use the "Browse" buttons to select the logo and favicon (16x16 pixels). Please note that the Custom Logo is now dynamically sized. For optimal results an image 300x100 pixels seems to work best.
- Once the images are selected for the logo and favicon press the "Submit" button to complete the process. These images will load when you visit your custom URL for the login page and customer control panel (CCP).
Step 5: Select Skin
The default skin or color scheme that is applied to the Customer Control Panel (CCP) can be changed to one of several different themes. To change the skin, follow the steps outlined below.
- While logged into your "Classic Panel" click on the "Settings" link on the side navigation tree.
- Next, click on the "Brands" link under the "Branding" section.
- Click on the link for your brand name.
- Press the "Edit" button.
- Click on the drop-down menu for the Skins field. This will show you the available skins that you can select.
- Select the skin you want to apply and then press the "Submit" button.
Default Control Panel Skins
There are several default skins that you can use for your brand. Below are the examples of how a control panel will look with one of the skins selected.
Option 1: Default
Theme Name: default
Example:
Option 2: Odin
Theme Name: skin-odin
Example:
Option 3: Green
Theme Name: skin-green
Example:
Option 4: Blue
Theme Name: skin-blue
Example:
Option 5: Red
Theme Name: skin-red
Example:
Option 6: Yellow
Theme Name: skin-yellow
Example:
Creating a Custom Skin
If you find that one of the default skins is not an adequate match for your brand it is possible to create your own with our assistance. We currently have an internal tool that is in Beta that we can use to create a skin for you and apply it to your brand. If you’re interested in setting up a custom skin, please contact support and request our help. We’ll provide you with an Excel file similar to the image below where you can specify the HEX codes of the colors you would prefer to use for each of the customizable sections.
Step 6: Add SSL Certificate
The following steps will take you through the process of setting up your SSL certificate for your brand.
- While logged into your "Classic Panel" click on the "Settings" link on the left-hand side navigation tree.
- Next, click on the "Brands" link under the "Branding" section.
- Click on the link for your brand name.
- Switch to the "Certificate" tab.
- From here you can manage your SSL Certificate. Press the "Install New Certificate" button.
- Enter the Certificate and Private Key then press the "NEXT" button.
- Check the certificate information and press the "Finish" button to complete the process.
Step 7: Configuring Notification Settings
Customizing Common Notification Settings
The email notifications sent to customers have some settings that can be edited. It’s possible for our Reseller Partners to add their own Logo, a link to the customer control panel (CCP), a link to their own website. Below are the steps that will guide you through the steps for managing these settings.
- Log into your Ingram Micro Cloud Marketplace account at https://us.cloud.im.
- Next click on the “Reseller Control Panel” link.
- After logging into your control panel click on the “Classic Panel” link.
- From the Classic Panel click on the “Billing” tab on the right-hand side of the site.
- Click on the “Settings” option under the System section on the bottom left-hand side of the site.
- Click on the “Notifications” link under the System section.
- Then click on the “Common Notification Settings” link.
- Press the “Edit” button at the bottom of the page.
- Enter the locations of your Control Panel, Web Site, and Logo. Then scroll to the bottom of the page and press the “Save” button.
Once the settings are set they’ll be used in any email notifications that you’ve enabled to be sent to customers.
Editing Notification Templates
The email notifications that are sent out by the system use templates. These templates can be edited if desired. The most common settings that are changed are:
- Changing / adding the text in a notifications message.
- Changing the Subject of a notification
- Adding a BCC address
The following sections will guide you through each of the processes.
Changing Text of a Notification
If the message in a notification template requires a change or additional detail you would need to follow the steps below to make an edit.
- While logged into your “Classic Panel” click on the "Billing" tab on the right-hand side of the site.
- Then click on the “Settings” option under the System section on the bottom left-hand side of the site.
- Click on the “Notifications” link under the System section.
- Click on the “Notifications Templates” link under the Notifications section.
- Click on the “Template Name” for the notification that you want to edit.
- Switch to the HTML tab.
- If you want to view what the current message looks like scroll to the bottom of the page and press the “Preview” button. To edit the content of the message, press the “Edit” button.
- If the “Edit” button is pressed the HTML Message text box will allow you to edit the contents of the message. Scroll to the bottom of the page and press the “Save” button when you’re done with the changes.
- Each notification has an HTML and a Plain Text version. When making changes to the HTML text make sure that you do the same for the “Plain Text” version under the “Plain Text” tab. When a notification is sent both versions are included in the email. It’s the recipients email client that determines which view they see. If you were to edit only the HTML version and the recipient only views email in Plain Text they would not see your updated message. The general rule is if you edit a templates message you need to do if for both HTML and Plain Text versions.
Changing Subject Line of Notification
If the subject line that is used in the email notifications for a template requires a change you would need to follow the steps below.
- From your “Classic Panel” click on the "Billing" tab on the right-hand side of the site.
- Click on the “Settings” option under the System section on the bottom left-hand side of the site.
- Click on the “Notifications” link under the System section.
- Click on the “Notifications Templates” link under the Notifications section.
- Click on the “Template Name” for the notification that you want to edit.
- Under the general settings section for the notification you’ll find the “Message Subject” setting. Press the “Edit” button to enable editing.
- Enter the new text to be used for the “Message Subject” and press the “Save” button.
Add BCC Address to a Notification
The notification templates that come with your Ingram Micro reseller account have the ability to be edited to include a BCC address. This comes in handy if you want to send an end customer a Welcome Email and receive a copy yourself of what they’ve been sent. To add an address into the BCC field, follow the steps listed below.
- From your “Classic Panel” you’ll need to switch over to the “Billing” side of your account.
- Click on the “Settings” link on the left-hand side navigation menu
- Then click on the “Notifications” link under the “System” section.
- Click on the “Notification Templates” link.
- Enter “Welcome” into the template name field and press the “Search” button.
- All of the “Welcome” notification templates will then be displayed. Click on the one you want to edit.
- Then press the “Edit” button.
- Enter in the email address into the BCC field and then press the “Save” button.
Whenever there is an order placed for this service plan and it becomes active the end customer will receive the Welcome Email and a BCC’d copy will also be sent to the address you added to the template.
Deactivating Notifications
It is possible to disable a notification from being sent. The following steps will walk you through this process.
- While logged into your “Classic Panel” click on the "Billing" tab on the right-hand side of the site.
- Click on the “Settings” option under the System section.
- Click on the “Notifications” link under the System section.
- Click on the “Notifications Templates” link under the Notifications section.
- Check the checkbox beside the “Template Name” for the notification that you want to deactivate. You can select more than one at a time. After selecting the notification(s) press the “Deactivate” button.
- You’ll then see a message that the selected notifications were deactivated.
Customer Self-Management
If you’ve decided to allow an end customer into their control panel to self-manage their subscriptions, there are a few things to consider after you’ve configured your brand. The brand you set up will allow your customers to log into a Control Panel that has the look and feel of your company.
What the brand doesn’t do by default is change the default configuration of the customer control panel. The typical questions you need to answer in regard to what customer control panel customizations are needed are outlined below.
- Do you want customers to have full access to their accounts? This would allow them to view the available cloud solutions and order new subscriptions on their own. They can manage existing subscriptions and add/reduce the number of licenses. If you decide to allow customers to order new subscriptions from the Cloud Marketplace, you might want to customize which services are available for purchase.
- Do you only want customers to be able to self-manage existing subscriptions? This would mean that they could add/remove licenses from a subscription on their own, but should they want to buy a new Cloud Solution they would need to contact you.
Depending on what level of access you want to grant customers you will want to follow some/all of the steps in the following sections.
Customizing the Customer Control Panel
This section of the guide will walk you through one of the advanced customizations that can be done to enhance the Brand you’ve created. We’ll be looking at managing the User Interface (UI) controls.
The default customer control panel can be branded with your logo and a custom URL but that’s not the full extent that can be done. Before you grant access to the control panel to your end customers you may wish to hide some of the tiles, menu items, and information that is in the default view.
This section of the guide will focus on the following tiles and menu items and how to hide them from your end customer’s view.
- Marketplace
- Account Balance
- Domains
- Acronis Backup
- Orders and Invoices & Payment Methods
- Cloud Orchestrator
Hiding Marketplace Tile and Menu Item
Branding the Customer Control Panel (CCP) will allow end customers to self-manage their own subscriptions. While allowing them to manage subscriptions might be beneficial you might want to prevent them from being able to purchase new services on their own. If you are looking to restrict this ability you could hide the Marketplace. This requires hiding both the Tile and Menu item.
To hide the Marketplace tile and menu item from the Customer Control Panel, follow these steps.
- Log into your control panel. Once logged in you'll need to switch to the Classic Panel. Click on the "Classic Panel" link at the top of the site.
- Once you're logged into the Classic Panel click on the "Settings" link on the left-hand side navigation tree.
- Next, click on the “UX1 Navigation”
- Use the search tool to locate the User Interface (UI) controls for the Marketplace. Type each of the following into the “Name of UI control” field and press the search button.
- After locating the control, check the checkbox beside it and press the “Hide” button.
- The control will be hidden. Repeat these steps for the other UI controls identified above.
- Once all four UI controls used for the Marketplace are hidden you will find that the Customer Control Panel no longer displays the tile or menu item.
- After the UI controls are hidden, the following setting must be turned off in the End-customer Marketplace section of UX1, as shown below.
Hiding Domain Tile & Menu Item
The “Domains” tile and menu item are commonly hidden from the Customer Control Panel (CCP).
To hide these UI controls the following steps need to be completed.
- While logged into the Classic Panel click on the "Settings" link on the navigation menu.
- Next, click on the “UX1 Navigation”
- Use the search tool to locate the UI controls that are used by the Domains tile and menu item.
- Check the checkbox for “http://www.parallels.com/ccp-domains” and press the “Hide” button.
- The “http://www.parallels.com/ccp-domains” UI Control is the root of all of the other controls used by the Domains tile and Menu item. By hiding this one control all of the others beneath it will also be hidden.
- With the “Domains” UI controls hidden you’ll find that the customer control panel no longer displays the tile or menu item.
Hiding Acronis Tile
The tile for Acronis Backup is displayed by default. If this is not something that you want to remain visible in your customers’ control panel it can be hidden.
To hide the Acronis tile, follow the steps listed below.
- While logged into the Classic Panel click on the "Settings" link on the navigation menu.
- Next, click on the “UX1 Navigation”
- Use the search tool to locate the “http://www.acronis.com/aps/cloud-backup-v1” UI control. You will receive quite a few results.
- Check the checkbox for the “http://www.acronis.com/aps/cloud-backup-v1” UI control and press the “Hide” button.
- The “http://www.acronis.com/aps/cloud-backup-v1” control is hidden and since it is the root control all the others beneath it will also be hidden.
- With the Acronis UI controls hidden the tile will no longer be visible in the customer control panel.
Hiding Orders and Invoices Menu Items
Typically, the billing of end customers tends to occur in an external system. Because of this many of our Reseller Partners would like to hide any details in their customers’ control panels that relate to invoices, orders, and payment methods.
On the home page of the customer control panel there is an “Invoices” tile that is frequently hidden.
Additionally, under the “Accounts” menu section there are other invoice, order, and payment method details that can also be hidden.
To hide these items there are several steps that need to be followed.
- While logged into the Classic Panel click on the "Settings" link on the navigation menu.
- Next, click on the “UX1 Navigation”
- Use the search tool to locate the “view-plugin@http://www.parallels.com/ccp-billing#balance” UI control. This is the UI control for the Invoices tile on the home page of the customer control panel.
- Check the checkbox beside the “view-plugin@http://www.parallels.com/ccp-billing#balance” UI control and press the “Hide” button.
- With this UI control hidden the “Invoices” tile in the customer control panel is no longer visible.
- The next step is to also hide the orders and invoices details that are beneath the “Account” section of the customer control panel. To do this we’ll use the search tool again. This time we’ll use the “Label” field. Type “Orders and Invoices” into the Label field and press the “Search” button.
- Select all the “Orders and Invoices” UI controls and press the “Hide” button.
- The “Orders and Invoices” UI controls will be hidden.
- The last UI control to hide relates to the Payment Methods. User the search tool one more time. Enter “item@http://www.parallels.com/ccp-users#payment-methods” into the “Name of UI control” field and press the “Search” button.
- Check the checkbox for this UI control and press the “Hide” button.
- The payment methods UI control is now hidden.
- In the customer control panel, the “Account” section no longer displays any details related to invoices, orders, or payment methods.
Hiding Cloud Orchestrator Tile
The Cloud Orchestrator tile is another feature that some of our Reseller Partners choose to hide from their customers’ control panel.
The tile can be hidden by following the steps outlined below.
- While logged into the Classic Panel click on the "Settings" link on the navigation menu.
- Next, click on the “UX1 Navigation”
- Use the search tool to locate the “http://ingrammicrocloud.com/aps/orchestrator” UI control.
- There are many UI controls associated with Cloud Orchestrator but you only need to deal with one of them. Check the checkbox for the “http://ingrammicrocloud.com/aps/orchestrator” UI control and press the “Hide” button. This UI control is the root control. That means the other controls will be hidden when you hide the root control.
- All the Cloud Orchestrator UI controls are now hidden.
- The Cloud Orchestrator tile is also no longer visible in customer control panels.
Hiding Action Log
Another items some of our Partners wish to hide from the view of their customers is the “Action Log”. This section of the Customer Control Panel houses all system messages. Some of these messages include system invoices, provisioning details, and other account actions.
If this information is something you’d prefer to be hidden the following steps will guide you through the process to do so.
- While logged into the Classic Panel click on the "Settings" link on the navigation menu.
- Next, click on the “UX1 Navigation”
- Use the “Label” search tool to find the UI Controls associated with the “Action Log”. In the “Label” field enter “action” and press the “Search” button. The search will locate 4 UI controls. Select these controls and press the “Hide” button.
- Hiding these UI controls will prevent the “Action Log” from being displayed in the Customer CP.
Adjusting Tax Display Settings in Customer CP
Many of our Reseller Partners choose to not set up taxation. This means their end customers won’t see taxes. Invoicing to end customers typically occurs from their own systems which is already set to collect taxes. However, if you’ve configured tax settings for your account, you may wish to change how it is presented to your end customers. By default, the Marketplace tiles in the Customer control panel display prices as the cost of the service plus the tax. While the tile doesn’t specify how much of the price on the tile is from tax the shopping cart display in the upper right-hand corner of the site does.
If you feel you would prefer that the tile be shown differently there are some options. There are three display options.
- Always calculate and display prices with tax (Default Setting)
- Display pre-tax prices but calculate and display taxes in order estimate and preview
- Display pre-tax prices and order estimate, calculate and display taxes only during final order preview
To switch from the default setting to one of the other options follow the steps outlined below.
- Log into your Reseller Control panel. Once you’ve logged in click on the “Classic Panel” link at the top of the site.
- Next, click on the “Billing” link at the top of the site.
- Use the “Search Tool” to look up “Customer CP” and click on that option.
- Here you can review the current settings.
- To adjust the tax display setting you’ll need to press the “Edit” button at the bottom of the page.
- Select the display setting you prefer and press the “Save” button.
Prices Displayed in Customer Control Panel
A customer that can purchase solutions from the Marketplace or place upgrade or downgrade orders to add/remove licenses from an existing subscription will encounter prices. By default, all pricing is set as the vendor’s MSRP. There are two options available to you.
- If you would prefer that no prices are shown, you can hide them.
- If you would like the default MSRP price to be replaced with the price you actually bill your end customers, you would need to set your prices.
Hiding all Prices in Customer CP
The quickest solution for dealing with pricing in the Customer Control Panel is to hide it. This way you can ensure that your end customers can manage their existing subscriptions or order new solutions without encountering any pricing that is not the same as what you bill. The following steps will walk you through how to hide pricing from the Customer CP.
- Log into your Reseller Control panel. Once you’ve logged in click on the “Classic Panel” link at the top of the site.
- Once you’re in the Classic Panel you will need to click on the “Settings” link on the left-hand side navigation menu.
- Then click on the “Security” link under the “Core” section.
- Click on the “Customer Roles” link.
- Then click on the “Account Administrator” role.
- Click on the “Privileges” tab.
- All of the privileges and their current settings are displayed. To locate the privilege you need to change to hide prices enter “Show” into the search field and press the “Search” button.
- The “Show Prices Everywhere in UX1” privilege is currently set as “Enabled”. This needs to be disabled to hide pricing. Press the “Edit” button.
- Uncheck the checkbox and then press the “Submit” button.
- That’s all there is to it. The “Show Prices Everywhere in UX1” privilege is now disabled.
Setting your Own Prices
If you're offering your customers, the possibility of managing their own subscriptions through their Customer Control Panel and allowing them to be able to place orders you will likely want to ensure that any pricing they see conforms to the price they should be expecting. Following these steps will help you with this.
- We're beginning this walk-through already logged into the Marketplace (https://us.cloud.im). Remember to log into the Marketplace we’re using our existing ingrammicro.com credentials. From the Marketplace we’ll need to access our Reseller Control panel. To do that we’ll click on the “Control Panel” link at the top of the site.
- Once you’re in the Control Panel you’ll need to click on the “Classic Panel” link at the top of the site.
- We'll need to switch over to the BILLING side of the control panel in order to manage the pricing settings.
- Now that we're in the Billing side of our control panel we need to access the service plans and their pricing. To do that we need to click on the “Service Plans” link under the “Products” section on the left-hand side of the site.
- Initially we'll see all of the plans that are delegated to our account. There's quite a few of them. We have the ability to set the pricing for all of them though. If there are certain plans that you want to quickly locate you can always use the search tools. For our example we'll be taking control of the pricing of the “Exchange Online Kiosk (monthly pre-pad)” plan. To locate all of these types plans we'll use the search tool and look for plans with “Exchange Online Kiosk” in their name. Next, we'll select the plan that we want to set the price for by clicking on its name.
- Right away we see a notice that the current plan is delegated to us.
This message just means that the current settings and pricing are inherited from the system. All we need to do is take ownership of the plan and then we'll be able to make the changes we need. We'll do that by pressing the "Manage by Myself" button at the bottom of the page.
- We'll receive a warning about this action to alert us that at this point forward we're responsible for the pricing and settings for this plan. We'll just click the "OK" button to acknowledge this change in responsibility.
- Now we're seeing the list of Exchange Online Kiosk plans again. This time there is a “Operation Successful” notice indicating that we successfully took control of this services plan. Click on the plan name again.
This time we do not see the alert about this being a delegated plan. At this point we have the control to make changing to the prices.
- There are two places within each service plan that we have the ability to set pricing; both are related to “Resource Rates”. Click on the “Resource Rates” tab to begin.
- Under the “Resource Rates” tab you will want to press the “Mass Edit” button.
- Then locate the resources that need a price change. In our case we want to change the monthly price for each Exchange Online Kiosk license. Initially the customer facing price for these licenses is $2.00
We will change that price to $1.95, place a check in the checkbox for this resource, and then press the “Save Changes” button.
- The first change is now complete. Next, click on the name of the resource you changed the price for. In our example that’s the “Exchange Online Kiosk” resource that’s now $1.95.
- The details for the resource rate are displayed. Switch to the “Resources Rate Periods” tab.
- Press the “Mass Edit” button.
- Change the price to match the price you set in the previous steps. Place a check in the checkbox and press the “Save Changes” button.
- The pricing for the resource rate period is now updated.
That's all there is to taking control of our prices. Note that this is not how you would set individual prices for each of your customers. That is something that can be done but it needs to be done in conjunction with setting up discounts. One last important point to be clear of is that this price that we just set ONLY shows up in the Customer Control Panel. It is a customer facing price. This price is not shown in your Reseller control panel.