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Westcon boosts cloud offering by buying developer

Having worked on developing a cloud system for resellers for the last eighteen months, distributor Westcon has bought the developer. The assets of Verecloud, including the CEO John McCawley (below). will be incorporated in Westcon Group’s Cloud Solutions Practice.

Having worked on developing a cloud system for resellers for the last eighteen months, distributor Westcon has bought the developer. The assets of Verecloud, including the CEO John McCawley (below). will be incorporated in Westcon Group’s Cloud Solutions Practice.


Founded in 2006, privately-held Verecloud has developed a cloud services aggregation and brokerage platform with the ability to process millions of concurrent transactions in real time, including subscription and usage-based services delivered by multiple third-party services providers. The platform will form the foundation of Westcon Group’s cloud digital distribution solution.

“Weston Group and Verecloud have been working together during the past 18 months and co-developed a truly differentiated cloud go-to-market capability for the channel. Our services distribution solution sets us apart from the industry, hence we decided to ‘in-source’ that intellectual property through this acquisition. Coupling our channel cloud enablement services with Verecloud’s acquisition will position Westcon Group Cloud Solutions to drive the business models of tomorrow,” said Dolph Westerbos, Chief Executive Officer, Westcon Group.

“Practical obstacles such as fulfillment, billing and monitoring - as well as a lack of channel enablement services - have prevented the new IT consumption business models from fully taking off. Westcon Group Cloud Solutions is building the go-to-market blueprint for IT-as-a-Service; our distribution solutions for consumption-based services provide the tools for our resellers and vendor partners to win in the cloud.”

Westcon will use it to link third-party cloud offers to resellers and their end customers, now with an additional go-to-market channel for the resellers’ own services offerings.

Continued Westerbos: “Ownership of our digital distribution platform allows us to bring differentiated, exclusive solutions to the channel without relying on third-party software development. Furthermore, having cloud services distribution fully integrated with our hardware and software distribution systems and operational processes allows us to seamlessly transact cloud and hybrid solutions as business-as-usual.”

“Cloud solutions have become particularly intricate,” said John McCawley, Chief Executive Officer, Verecloud. “That’s why our mission is to provide a single source for technology resellers and their customers to discover, buy, monitor, and manage their cloud services eco-system. No other provider can match the flexibility, efficiency and savings provided by our platform.

Westcon Group’s cloud and services distribution platform delivers the following core capabilities:

· Cloud/Service Offer Catalogue: Featuring compelling bundled and stand-alone offers, including demo capabilities from best of breed vendors and Cloud Service Providers -- tailored by industry, by vendor community, or by technology eco-system.

· Solution Bundling:Aggregating best-of-breed cloud and service offers across multiple vendors -- ranging from more traditional technology OEMs to Cloud Service Providers to Value Added Reseller solutions. The solution also provides consolidated purchasing and billing data.

· Multi-Tier Cloud Syndication: Selling service, software and hybrid technology solutions through a channel-optimized architecture, and full lifecycle management across multi-tiers. Channel tiers include the technology vendor, service provider, distributor, reseller, and ultimately to the end customer and their employees. Each party in the channel can procure, deliver, bill, monitor, and adjust usage and services -- whether that service has been purchased through the platform, or direct via the vendor’s/CSP’s portal.

· White-Label/Reseller-Branded Web Stores:Cloud and service solutions can be offered as a standalone reseller-branded Web store or fed into their existing marketplaces. Service offers can likewise be reseller-branded, allowing the VAR to broaden its go-to-market position.

·Automated Services Delivery Lifecycle:Including inventory discovery and service fulfilment – real-time and across multiple vendors; Visibility into services purchased, used, and modified – at any level in the channel ecosystem; Real-time service rating and billing through  scalable micro-transaction engine; Service level assurance including real time monitoring, compliance and remediation; Identity management and account synchronization, as well as end user change management.
Westcon Group is building a set of critical Operational Support Services (OSS) and Business Support Services (BSS) to help VARs become successful cloud partners. Over the next year, these white-labelled/reseller-branded offerings will include:

· Billing-as-a-Service, allowing resellers to bill for usage-based micro-transactions
· Up- and cross-selling to monetize the initial contract sale and broaden service adoption
· Marketing and campaign management to broaden customer reach
· Legal contract creation services to create a legal framework and contracts for multi-tier service management
· Contract renewal /subscription management to help secure ongoing revenues
· Reseller Sales Enablement and training, including a cloud transformation playbook
· Return-On-Investment analysis, including Westcon Group’s Cloud ROI model and executive presentation tool for reseller training or joint end customer modeling
· Technical Support for cloud services, migration, implementation and SLA management, including training of reseller’s technical staff.

 

IT Europa and Angel Business Communications will run the Managed Services & Hosting Summit 2014 on 25 September 2014 at the Pullman St Pancras Hotel, London.

Resellers and integrators wishing to attend the convention and vendors, distributors or service providers interested in sponsorship opportunities can find further information at: www.mshsummit.com

 

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