PANCast™ Episode 49: How to Transfer Device and Secondary Market Policy

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Episode Transcript:

John: 

Welcome back PANCasters. Today Daniel is back to give us some more info on the admin side of support.

Daniel:

Hi Everyone and Thank you John for having me back so soon!Daniel is an Expert Customer Service Representative at Palo Alto Networks. He believes in the importance of understanding the customers’ issues. He possesses the ability to interpret customers’ concerns accurately and then deliver the most effective solutions for customers. As one of the SMEs for the CSR Loop page, he is responsible for revamping the CSR loop page as well as keeping abreast with all licensing matters, in order to deliver training and share with fellow CSRs.

Today I am going to talk about How To Transfer a device from a support account to another (via the customer support portal), as well as the Secondary Market Policy.

Now and then we receive requests from Customers and Partners to assist with device transfer. Most of the device transfer requests can be performed at the Customers’ end, over at the Customer Support Portal, while some require further verification.

First of all, to understand why customers and partners request to transfer a device to another account, when the device has already been registered. Here are some of the most common reasons:

• The first being the customer/partner has registered the device into the wrong account and would like to rectify it by transferring the device to the rightful account holder.
• The second scenario is that: the customer could be in a large organization with multiple support accounts created for different departments within their organization, and they would like to transfer the device to the rightful department account for management purposes.
• The 3rd most common reason is that: the customer could be in an organization which recently went through divestiture, a portion of their assets are being sold to another company. The new owner/company would therefore like to have the device transferred to their own Support account.
  

John: 

Great, thanks Daniel. So how does a customer go about doing the transfer?

Daniel:

So for the customer to do the transfer, they need the following information before they can transfer a device, they are:

The Serial number of the device, and the Email address of the recipient of the device.

There are 2 ways to do it from the portal.

The first method involves navigating to the Products section and going to the Assets page.

On the Assets page, Search for the Serial Number and click on the Transfer Asset icon on the left.

After which, Enter the Email address of the User that you want to transfer the device to.

For this, please take note that The user must be a registered support portal user with membership access in a support portal account. When you transfer an asset to a user email address, the user can accept (or reject) the asset in his/her accounts after logging in to the Customer Support Portal.

Also, If you are an Authorized Service Provider, ASC Partner of Palo Alto Networks, then You will have the option to transfer the device from your ASC Partner account to a Target Account ID, instead of transferring to a recipient’s email.

NEXT, The Second method To transfer a device, Go to the Products section in the Customer Support Portal, then select the Devices page.

Search and select the intended Serial Number. There will then be a Device Information pop-up window.

Click the Transfer Ownership button at the bottom of the window and enter the email of the user who will be receiving the device.

Also same as the first method, If you are an Authorized Service Provider, ASC Partner of Palo Alto Networks, then You will have the option to transfer the device from your ASC Partner account to a Target Account ID, instead of transferring to a recipient’s email.

 

John: 

Thanks Daniel. So what’s the process to accept or reject the transfer?

Daniel:

To accept or reject the transfer, the recipient has to Login to the Customer Support Portal.

Upon logging in, at the top of the landing page, choose the account that will be receiving the device transfer from the dropdown Account Selector.

The recipient can accept or reject the Device transfer from either the Assets or the Devices page.

To accept Device transfer from the Assets page:

Navigate to the Assets page, Hover to the top left Account Actions button in blue > and click on Incoming Transfers, then Hover to the right of the device to accept or reject the transfer.

To accept Device transfer from the Devices page:

Navigate to the Devices page, Click on the Review Pending Device Transfers button at the top.

In the Review Device Transfers window, find the appropriate device and click the Accept or Reject button.

If you Accept the transfer, the device is added to the account and can be seen in the device table.

If you Reject the transfer, the device stays in its current account and the message Transfer Rejected is displayed in the device table.

By the way, we have a knowledge based article on this topic aptly titled ‘How to accept or reject transfer of a device’, feel free to refer to it.

John: 

Good info Daniel. Any thing else to be aware of with transferring?

Daniel:

Yes, there are some limitations when it comes to transferring a device, and I am going to talk about them:

• Number 1) If there is a Strata logging service (previously known as Cortex Data Lake) subscription attached to the serial number, a pop-up screen will appear asking you to confirm that you wish to remove the logging storage prior to completing the transfer. When you confirm, the authorization code associated with that serial number will be removed from the database and the transfer will be completed as requested.
• Number 2) If the device has any cloud/tenant-based licenses (DLP, SAAS Inline and AIOps for NGFW) there would be no transfer option.
• Number 3) If you transfer a device which has IOT license, you will need to offboard IOT before transferring the device to the other CSP account.

Lastly, Prisma SD-Wan (CloudGenix / ION) devices cannot be transferred via CSP.

By the way, the steps to perform a device transfer can also be found in our Knowledge based article, titled “How to Transfer Device or Spare Ownership”.

John: 

OK, Are there any legal implications?

Daniel:

Good question John. It is important to know that Although transferring device ownership transfers the device from one Customer Support Account to another Customer Support Account. This process does not legally transfer ownership of the device from one Company to another Company.

The device is still owned by the Original End User and License renewals will still have to be processed under the Original End User account of the device, even though the device has been transferred.

To legally transfer the device from one Company to another Company, if both companies are no longer related, then the new company will have to follow the Secondary Market Policy process and have the asset recertified. 

The Secondary Market Policy allows previously owned Palo Alto Networks devices to be tested, certified and re-licensed for use under a new Ownership. 

This policy also applies to scenarios such as If the Original End User sold the device to their own employee. OR if the customer purchased the device from Secondary market platforms like ebay etc.

I will now give you an overview of how the Secondary Market Policy works:

Firstly, the new owner of the acquired device will contact a sales rep from Palo Alto Networks.

It will be a 2 step order process for the device to be successfully recertified.

The first step involves taking the device through the process of confirming the device is in proper working condition, making sure the device is functioning correctly / not stolen or damaged.  If the device does NOT pass, the process ends. 

If the first step passes, then the Sales team will take you to step 2 to purchase brand new licenses for the customer’s acquired device. This is because all the previous licenses attached to the device will be scrapped.

For More details, you can find it on the Palo Alto Networks web site if you search for secondary market policy.

https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/services/support/support-policies/secondary-market-policy

If you have any questions on the Secondary Market Policy, you can also reach out to your local Sales Representative.

John: 

Excellent! Thanks again Daniel for sharing this information.

Daniel:

It was great to be back. Thank you John!

John: 

PANCasters, as always you can find the transcript and the links Daniel mentioned at live.paloaltonetworks.com. Until next time.

Related Content:

• How to Transfer Device or Spare Ownership
• Secondary Market Policy

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