The 10 best tips & tricks for using Openprovider

Running a platform like Openprovider always creates tension between ever-extending functionality and maintaining usability. More functions (trust me: our customers are very creative in inventing new ones!) also means more menus, pages and buttons. Over the years, many features were added that we know about but which are rarely found by our customers. On numerous occasions, that could even be rephrased this to “features that some of us know about”, because sometimes even our colleagues don’t know about it.

Time for a roundup of some tips and tricks, then! After reading until the end, you’ll have gathered some new knowledge to make your life easier. And maybe you will even be able to turn this into a profitable case with your customers!

The tips and tricks are not numbered, as we don’t want to rank them from ‘best’ to ‘number 10’ or vice versa. The fun thing about these features is that each of them could be very valuable to a specific selection of our customers. Knowing that, who are we to judge their value?

Balance management

As we deal with dozens of registries that require prepayment, we know better than anyone else that tools to monitor the available balance are crucial. Even if you only work with Openprovider, balance management is important. We send some basic reminders, but did you know about the following?

Configure your own low balance warnings: as soon as your balance drops below a predefined level, you will receive an e-mail. You can set several watermarks, for example a “notify” at € 1.000 and an “urgent warning” at € 100.
Look ahead in time with the costs and payment forecast. A table and a visual graph show you the expected costs on renewals for the next 12 months.
Create your own tools by retrieving your account balance automatically through our API.
A less technical approach is followed by many customers as well: start with a “plenty” initial deposit which is sufficient for whatever you do in a month. Then, make a new deposit every time you receive our invoice. This way you can fake post-payment and have an easier match between payments and invoices. Note that you will always need to keep a close eye on your balance to ensure your business continuity!

Additional security

Your domain names and other products are valuable to you. That is why Openprovider supports several layers of security. We can write a lot about it – we already wrote a lot about it! Rather than repeating ourselves, I’d like to refer you to our previous blog post on this topic if you’re interested in securing your Openprovider account.

E-mail personalisation or white labeling

This is not really a “hidden feature” as we’ve written about it dozens of times lately and it’s present in numerous pages within the control panel. What is it all about? It’s about formatting the e-mails that Openprovider sends to your customers exactly the way you want: in your own style, with your own words, sent from your own e-mail address. Rather than stretching this blog post to extreme lengths, allow us to point you to our webinar on this topic.

Do you want to get some insights in how attractive new gTLDs are to your customers without the need to spend time on it? Put our pre-registration widget on your own website! With just a few lines of code you present your customers a nice two-step form in which they can express their interest in any new extension. Do you have a little bit time left? Use it to re-format the widget to your own website style through a simple CSS form.

30-day trial on SSL certificates

Unsure if an SSL certificate fits your needs? Accidentally ordered the wrong certificate? Or maybe you forgot to renew your EV certificate and urgently need protection with a quicker-issued DV certificate while the EV order is being processed? These are all examples in which it may be very useful to know that each SSL certificate can be cancelled within 30 days with a full refund of the paid amount. Just revoke it from your control panel, and the money is refunded as soon as the supplier confirms the cancellation.

Custom invoice information fields

In some situations your financial department may require additional information on an invoice, in order to process it correctly. This could be a purchase order number, department information or anything else. Through the Custom invoice information fields settings, you can put any information you want on the invoice as a separate note.

Find your prices

With thousands of products, 4 types of Memberships and multiple operations per product you won’t be surprised that the price scheme in Openprovider is pretty complex. For sake of speed, our complete price list contains the regular tier prices, based on new orders. Find your own, personal prices for each operation by clicking on a product on this price page. Do you have from a Membership? Find a complete list of cost prices under the Membership menu. Do you want to retrieve your prices automatically, including the price in your own currency? Use our API!

Gathering knowledge and getting updates

Openprovider provides you with knowledge on different levels:

We’ve gathered loads of technical information in our Knowledge Base. Do you have any question? Try a quick search first for the quickest answer possible!
Keep track of our LinkedIn page, our Twitter account, our Facebook page and our Instagram account for the latest news.
We also maintain a special Twitter account for any maintenance messages or notifications of disruptions.
Background information that helps you understand the market and the position of Openprovider in the market is available in our blogs.
Our monthly webinars provide you with an opportunity to interact with our product owners directly. All webinars are published on our YouTube channel.

Who to contact?

With a fully-equipped team, it’s always easy to reach Openprovider.

You can reach our sales team for commercial quuestions by creating a ticket here.
You can reach our support team with your technical and financial questions by creating a ticket here.

Plugins

For many software packages, plugins to Openprovider exist: Plesk, WHMCS, HostBill, HostFact, Atomia, ISP BillManager and Blesta. Use the strength of these packages to combine automation of your hosting business with the commercial advantages of Openprovider.