The Cloud-based market is being challenged to accommodate an exponential surge in clients, needs, and different solution’s architecture. As we’ve alluded in our article “Back to the Office: New Perspectives, Challenges & Strategies for Your Cloud Business”, the last 3 quarter growth- rate on Cloud solutions presented some real life tests to both your Team’s capabilities and Technology as it is.
Perfectly knowingly this, most manufacturers are starting to come out with new strategies to better reflect the rapid changes, and to be able to start leveraging a better model and framework to both the Partners, resellers, and clients. The Cloud is rising!
Example given: Microsoft is changing their Open License scheme. The Microsoft OL was created over 20 years ago for small and midsized customers to buy multiple perpetual software licenses at a volume price but is no longer in-line with current trends of Perpetual approaches, and it is starting to show.
From 2022 onwards, clients will not be able to buy new or renew software licenses or online services through Open Licence program.
Thus, small, and midsize customers will benefit from a simplified approach and greater flexibility in how they purchase software licenses, in a way that is easy to understand, that directly improves licensing asset management, and with predictable costs. This puts you at their Line-of Sight.
Predictably, this change consists of a great leverage for both clients and resellers/partners to benefit greatly from a CSP model:
- Enables your Team to Create unique solutions, integrating your own value-added services to the Microsoft offer.
- Expand your cloud revenue and cross-sell/up-sell with unmatched technology portfolio in one program.
- Own end-to-end customer lifecycle, ensuring a 1-point-of contact strategy that will benefit the Troubleshoot & Customer Care for your client, streamlining a better and faster experience.
- Drive deeper engagements: Accelerate customer digital transformation by owning and managing end-to-end customer lifecycle with deeper engagement
By including the Perpetual Software concept in the CSP program, Microsoft is expanding the partner/distributor possibilities.
Your customers will benefit also, by having access to a simplified purchasing experience with accelerated sales and delivery cycle.
What should you do, then?
These changes do not come freely and need to be addressed in 2021 in your strategy. It is highly advisable to start preparing and informing your clients: gather their opinions, inform them how they can benefit, and start to organize a time-table of deployment of Perpetual Licences for each customer of your choice/priority.
Design processes that enable your team to offer a Value-added service on top of the new licencing is a must in Value Proposition and differentiation. It also enables you to anticipate and Forecast growth; shifts in expertise, lack of technical skills or Go-To-Market initiatives: live events, webinars, newsletters, How to Videos; social media.
Is critical to be Cloud-Born: analyse the current licencing of your clients and see how they can benefit of a more Modern offer, integrating your services and centralize their purchases. Be the simplicity and centrality that they need.
At CloudCockpit we have been on the forefront of this changes, by helping VAR’s, Partners and Resellers to anticipate and adapt their selling strategies of Cloud-driven solutions. Our main finding is that it is becoming more and more crucial to visualize, anticipate and centralize your clients’ needs and purchases, in order to stay relevant and to cross-sell.
The very nature of the Subscription model demands a greater focus on every client to not miss renovations, cross-selling opportunities, and additional Services that might be relevant.
Our CloudCockpit dashboard is precisely that: a unique focal point for all your CSP licensing ( that can also integrate with other Cloud-based solutions manufacturer aside from Microsoft) that enables your team to see at any point on the day, wherever they are, the State of the Art of your Cloud business:
- Total revenue and from which client; solutions / licencing is coming from.
- Notifications of Soon-to-Expire licenses.
- Be preventive and proactive: anticipate Business dips or rises, and act accordingly. Making the decision-making process a lot easier and smoother.
- Forecast and Inform: visualize where your Business is going and if your Team can handle it or need additional Training.
- Plan your Marketing initiatives and Go-To-Market strategies based on where you are now and where you want to go.
