Multi-Tenant Commercial Model
Purpose
This page explains the CMS hierarchy and how ownership, visibility, and billing flow across Distributors, Partners, Tenants, and Subscriptions. It also clarifies the role of platform administrators.
Roles in the hierarchy
- Platform Administrators: Operate and configure the system. Own global settings, branding, pricing frameworks, commission frameworks, and region/usage processing.
- Distributors: Top commercial tier beneath the platform. Own one or more partners. See aggregate usage, billing, and
- commission outcomes across their partner network.
Partners: Customer-facing organizations that onboard and manage tenants. Can inherit or define their own commission structures. - Tenants: Consuming organizations (end customers or internal business units). Own subscriptions and users.
Subscriptions: The unit of consumption and billing within a tenant. Usage, rating, and invoicing are calculated at this level.
Ownership and visibility
- Distributors can see all Partner, Tenant, and Subscription activity under their umbrella.
Partners can see their Tenants and Subscriptions.
Tenants can see only their own Subscriptions and users.
Subscriptions are strictly tenant-scoped; they never cross tenants.
All layers are visible to Platform Administrators for governance and support.
Delegation and access control
- Administration is delegated by layer. Distributors manage partners; partners manage tenants; tenants manage their own subscriptions and users.
- This reduces cross-team friction and aligns access with commercial responsibility.
Data boundaries
- Billing and usage roll up from Subscriptions to Tenants, then to Partners, and finally to Distributors.
- Commission calculation operates on these roll-ups; partner/distributor payouts are tied to actual consumption for the period.
Typical journeys
- Service-provider sales: Distributor onboards a new Partner → Partner onboards a Tenant → Platform Admin (or Partner) creates a Subscription → Tenant users begin consuming services → Usage flows to billing → Commissions are calculated and attributed upstream.
- Enterprise IT “internal reseller”: Central IT acts as Distributor; divisional IT acts as Partner; departments are Tenants; projects/business lines are Subscriptions.
Out of scope for this model
- Native Azure resource provider internals (Compute/Storage/Network specifics) are not modeled here. The CMS focuses on commercial hierarchy, delegation, usage processing, pricing, and billing.