The Empire Strikes Back: Reselling Google Apps

Another vendor has entered the channel with promises and optimism, this time its the search king Google. Yesterday Google introduced their new Reseller Program focus solely on gApps Premier Edition (email, chat, word, spreadsheets, presentations, and security). Until now Google only cooked up the menu to resell Google enterprise search appliances, Apps and Maps to enterprise customers. Key word 'Enterprise' partner program.

And now Google is ready to grow their channel during this economy knowing Microsoft is consolidating with web-based Office Web Applications not ready until 2010.

Google and Microsoft solutions can actually coexist depending on each customer on a case-by-base basis since Google has a slightly different approach to their channel. Solution providers or VARs may even combine the two but ultimately Google App is more appropriate as a cloud-based solution at lower cost than say an on-premises solution from Microsoft. Microsoft is restructuring its channel while Google has just begun, the perfect storm's thunder and lighting.

I am not surprise that Google doesn't having a deal registration because they spend years building their brand and offer free tools directly to customers. So the customers are already trained and used to their brand while Microsoft spend trillions creating products to build a service around their brand.

VARs and solution providers should focus on the business drivers: Continue to foster your relationship with your customers, look for ways to add value to their business, strengthen your brand, and deliver flexible solution (SaaS) that you can build your business on for the long haul. That translates to high customer retention, brand recognition and recurring revenue with real margins!

Margins + Branding + Process Automation = Pointivity's Partner Program

Over the past few weeks I wrote about the changes in the industry and the shifts in perception from IT consultants, vendors to solutions providers. It is easy to see why we've designed the partner program to focus on developing the the weaker areas for VARs: branding, margins, process automation, and product offerings. Here is the value proposition for our program:


Leveraging Pointivity's superior private label hosted services (with storefront!) allows VARs to offer a wide range of products without having to pay for hardware, software, licensing and maintenance.

One of the fastest way to start is to expand your offering to your customers providing a complete set of services such as hosted Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint, Dynamics, and wireless emails to earn additional business process outsourcing revenue.

Majority of the businesses needs emails and offering enterprise email solutions such Microsoft Exchange and Blackberry services creates added value from a cost saving(CapEx to OpEx) and infrastructure management perspective(overhead and risks). If you are able to offer the basic IT needs to your customer, it will create future opportunities for additional services while lifting you towards the trusted advisor role. We're working on additional services such as email archiving or efax to complete the email offering.

Our program includes “on-demand” provisioning automation, ecommerce engine (online store), integrated billing (payment gateway options), and feature-rich control panel for administration and private label control panel for end-users.

Your own private label online store allows your customers to sign up (self-service checkout) then the system automatically provisions and deploy the services immediately. It is all about streamlining your business process while providing a branded solution. As the store grows we will be adding more business essential applications such as accounting, CRM or even dedicated servers to strengthen your hosted services offering.

In addition, the solutions is being offered on a wholesale pay-as-you-sell basis allowing your own pricing structure to adjust to the way you sell. You can sell them in packages or include it in your other solutions such as managed services, backup/disaster recovery or even application hosting depending on how you bundle and deliver them.

The more hosted services you offer the higher chance of customer retention because you’re able to provide a wider range of products while aligning both you and your customer’s overhead to revenue via SaaS. Creating value for your customers is the key for high customer retention and it can be done easily with our partner program.

Step Right Up: Microsoft App Store Now Selling at a Online Store Near You

Microsoft today launched their first online store in the US (already available in the U.K., Germany and Korea). With the launch, US customers can buy first-party software and hardware directly from the internet. Products include software, devices and hardware, after payments are confirmed, customers can immediately download products and install them right away.

As we continue to see the "going direct" strategies implemented by Microsoft, VARs will need to act rather than compliant in adapting the inevitable - MSP will have a tough time competing against the big daddy (that used to make them money) for what will become the future of the channel, wait a minute what channel? According to ChannelWeb, Allison Watson, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Group, made no mention of the Microsoft Store and said that there were plenty of opportunities (hmmm...really?) for VARs to grow, as long as they stay focused on projects that improve energy efficiency, boost productivity and drive down costs.

I wonder what sort of margins can you continue to profit from Microsoft? How long can VARs sustain to this rate of change? Don't you have to survive so you can continue to deliver value?

In addition, they are rolling up the end-user customers with deals like going direct aggressively with 0% finance for Dynamics for 36 months (launched today as well) or the BizSpark program offering Web startups free software before becoming profitable. If any of these pilot programs are wildly successful (which I don't see why not), more products and services will be rolled out with even more aggressive offerings, don't forget even in this recession Microsoft is one of the few companies that's got a ton of cash in the bank, $26 billion to be exact.

You can't fight the trend as VARs or MSPs and you must live to fight another day by transforming your business to deliver IT smarter.