Reselling cloud: the two myths worth dispelling

Reselling a cloud solution gives IT providers access to a lucrative market.

A cloud solution lets a company of any size, an SME included, use powerful technology and services on a subscription basis, and therefore pay for what it uses. Tools like these would have been out of reach through licence purchases or in-house development, for want of the financial and human resources.

Thanks to the cloud, companies have the chance to use powerful solutions to improve how they perform and to give themselves room to innovate. More and more of them want to use SaaS solutions, which represents a new source of revenue for IT partners. They improve client satisfaction, reach a wider pool of prospects and increase their profits.

There are, however, some persistent misconceptions about reselling cloud solutions. Here are the two main preconceptions about IT resellers, and why neither of them holds up.

Resellers cannot make a profit from the cloud

Quite the opposite. Every year, new companies of all sizes and in every sector move to the cloud. IT integrators should see SaaS as a fresh opportunity to satisfy and retain their clients, and to win new ones in a lucrative market. On top of that, and despite wanting to move to this new model, most companies and organisations do not know how to put a cloud solution in place. That opens up a whole range of added services an IT provider can offer: setting up the solution, managing users, organising the folder tree, supporting users, and so on.

Vendors also frequently run reseller programmes to support IT integrators in distributing cloud solutions. Partners who join these programmes get several benefits, including discounts on service pricing and training that deepens their cloud knowledge, so they can stand out from competitors while answering their clients' needs more closely.

Vendors overshadow cloud resellers

The second misconception is that cloud resellers are unnecessary, since clients can go straight to the vendor. Even though that is an option for companies looking to adopt a SaaS tool, the value of resellers is not in doubt. Through their training, their knowledge of the market, their proximity and their expertise, they are the best placed to guide their clients into the cloud.

Companies may well want a cloud solution, but they do not always have the time or the skills to see a project like that through. As the bridge between the cloud provider and the client, resellers help companies put new technology in place while maintaining the relationship of trust already built. On their clients' behalf they test the options, choose the most suitable one, set it up and support it.

Would you like to resell NetExplorer? Join our partner network.