Lenovo Device Manager enables organizations to be converted to Managed Service Providers (MSPs). MSP provides parent/child organization management support where Organization Admins can manage their own organization and other organizations. These organizations could be separate divisions of the same company or their customers.
Converting the Organization to MSP
Once an organization is converted to MSP, it is an irreversible option.
To convert the organization to a MSP,
- Click on Organization Settings option under your User Icon in the top ribbon.
- Under the Feature tab, click the button to convert the business to MSP and perform the services on behalf of the organization's end customers.
- Accept the MSP Specific Terms and Conditions and click Continue.
After few minutes, the organization will be converted to a Managed Service Provider organization. The immediate difference you'll see between a normal organization and an MSP is an additional Managed Organizations section and Licenses section on the left navigation menu.
The organization must have active licenses in order to convert to an MSP.
Make sure that the Org Owner role is available in the portal before converting the organization to MSP. Failing to have the Org Owner role will abort the conversion process.
MSP User Roles
When an organization is converted to MSP, the user roles will also be updated automatically. In addition to Organization Admin and IT Admin roles, MSP also has two different user roles - MSP Admin and MSP Technicians.
- MSP Admins have the same permissions as Organization Admins but can also see child organizations (similar to LDM Admin)
- MSP Technicians have the same permissions as IT Admins, but can see all the child organizations they are assigned to as well.
When MSP Technician does not have any sub-organizations assigned, they cannot click the Home link at the top left of the screen and navigate away from the current screen.
- MSP External Technicians only have read-only access for the child organizations to which they are assigned
MSP Admins can add new users to the organization through the Users section under User Management. The user creation process is the same as explained in this KB article. The below table shows the access capabilities for MSP Admins, MSP Technicians and MSP External Technicians in the LDM portal -
Creating a Managed Organization
Once the organization has been switched to MSP, the MSP Admins can create a new managed organization by clicking Managed Organizations from the left navigation menu. The process to create a managed organization is the same as creating a (normal) organization in the LDM portal.
- In the Managed Organizations screen, click + Create Managed Organization
In the Profile tab, enter the organization information such as organization domain, organization display name, country/region, authentication type (Lenovo ID/Active Directory/Azure Active Directory/OKTA). Next, enter the organization contact details (address, website), organization logo.
- Click Continue. In the next step, under Assigned Users tab, you can assign users to the MSP organization. If there are no users listed below, you will see a message as "No results found". You can switch to User Management > Users section to create new MSP users. Once done, return back to creating a MSP organization. Select the user from the list. Click Continue.
Select the check box next to the license type with active licenses. In the Quantity field, enter the number of licenses to transfer to the managed organization. Click Submit.
After few minutes, the managed organization will be created and listed in the Managed Organizations section.
Once a managed organization is added to LDM, admins can view the managed organization information and perform basic actions through the Managed Organization Tray. You can access this tray from Managed Organizations > Managed Organizations List > (Click on the Managed Organization) > Managed Organization Tray. The Tray contains the following tabs:
- Organization Info
- Subscription Info
- Activity History
- Assigned Users
Organization Info Tab
The following features are available on the Organization Info tab:
- Organization information such as domain, domain URL
- Option to update Organization Display Name, Country/Region
- Authentication Provider
- Option to update Organization Contact Details (website, address)
- Upload/update the organization Logo
- Organization ID, Domain ID, Created date and Modified date
- Option to delete the organization (available on all the tabs)
- Save the changes, if any (available on all the tabs)
Subscription Info Tab
The Subscription Info tab provides the following read-only information:
- Subscription Services
- Subscription Term
- Date when the Managed Organization subscription started on
- Licensing details (link to Organization Account section) to view and manage the licenses
Activity History Tab
The following options are available on the Activity History tab:
- View the organization Activity History
- Export organization activity history as CSV file
Assigned Users Tab
The following options are available on the Assigned Users tab:
- List of users assigned to the managed organization
- Option to Add MSP Technician to the managed organization
Deleting a Managed Organization
To delete a managed organization:
- Navigate to Managed Organizations page. Select the checkbox next to the organization(s) you want to delete from the portal.
- Click on the Delete button.
- Click Yes in the confirmation pop-up to delete the Managed Organization or Cancel to go back to the organizations list.
Transferring Licenses
When an organization is converted to MSP, you will see a Licenses section on the left navigation menu. You will see the list of Active and Expired licenses along with the Billing term and an option to transfer the license(s) to managed organizations. To transfer the licenses -
- Navigate to Licenses page from the left navigation menu.
- Click Transfer to transfer additional licenses to the managed organizations.
- In the Transfer licenses screen, select the Managed Organization from the drop down. Selecting the organization will display the details of the current active licenses in the managed organization.
- Under the Licenses to Transfer section, enter the quantity of license(s) you want to transfer to the managed organization.
- Click Transfer. The license will be transferred to the managed organization.
Viewing the License Details
Once a managed organization is added to LDM, MSP admins can view the license details and perform basic actions through the License Details Tray. You can access this tray from Licenses > Licenses List > (Click on the License) > License Details Tray. The Tray contains the following information:
- License details such as Purchaser email address, Organization Name, Licenses Type, Number of Licenses Available, Offer Type, Billing Term, Start and End Date, Sales Order Number
- Transferred License Details shows the number of licenses that have been transferred to the Managed Organization
- Click Transfer to initiate a license transfer from the License Details tray