The 10-minute guide

to adding Azure to
your MSP product
line up with Giacom

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For several years, the cloud computing market has been dominated by one single
vendor. Not only did it hold the largest market share, but it was also crowned the
“vendor of choice” by enterprises far and wide. Yet something changed in 2017.
Amazon Web Services still took the biggest slice of pie, but it was challenged by another
vendor. Reporting a 93% jump in sales during the first quarter, Microsoft Azure became
the new cloud platform of choice for companies of all sizes.

This is fact, not fiction

Microsoft Azure is growing fast. And with an ever-expanding customer base and
geographical footprint, it’s only going to get bigger.

This presents a big opportunity for resellers and IT specialists, especially those in a
position to offer managed services alongside an established product line up. Taking
advantage of the Azure opportunity is your ticket to added growth and increased
profitability.

In this white paper, we’ll explore:

• The business case for Azure and how adding it to your product lineup can increase
revenue and long-term profitability;
• What adding Azure means for customers and how it can create added value; and
• How you can add Azure to your product line up with giacom in a few easy steps.

You’ll gain a deeper understanding of how to include Azure in your portfolio and aid
business growth to better serve your customers.

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Why you need to add Azure to your
product line up
Microsoft Azure is arguably the leading cloud platform on the market. It’s used by 90
percent of Fortune 500 companies, has the most comprehensive compliance coverage
of any provider and is available in nearly forty regions worldwide, now with three data
centres in the UK.

With those credentials, it’s easy to see why Azure attracts 120,000 new customer
subscriptions per month.

You need to add Microsoft Azure to your product line up for three main reasons:

1. It’s better for your customers and can help them solve common business problems,
broaden the scope of projects and more.
2. It future-proofs your business and adds a source of long-term, consistent revenue.
3. Customers are demanding it.

In his section, we’ll explore the business case for Azure by discussing what adding it to
your product line up means for both your customers and your business.

Which Azure services can you add to your line up?

The short answer: any of them. Whether you’re completely new to Microsoft products
or building upon your Office 365, Dynamics 365 or EM+S services, adding Azure to your
cloud services portfolio doesn’t have to come with a huge learning curve.

Here are some popular Azure services for you to consider:

• Cloud backup and disaster recovery with Azure Backup, which enables scalable
data protection for on-premises data.
• Identity and access management with Azure Active Directory. Your clients benefit
from features like secure, single sign-on while you can deliver on real-time security
monitoring, machine-learning based reports and more.
• On-demand flexible computing with Virtual Machines. You can move virtual
machines (VMs) from physical servers to the cloud IaaS, create new Windows and
Linux VMs in minutes and run data-intensive workloads like SQL, Oracle and SAP.
Speed to market is key on an open source platform.

Every customer has a problem they’re trying to solve, and with Azure in your line up
you can offer them a viable solution to that problem. From virtual machine
deployment and hosting to data backup and disaster recovery, Azure can help you
solve common customer problems.

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What it means for your customers
Your customers always come first. And with Azure in your toolbox, you can provide the
technology and service they need (and expect) from you.

Let’s break that down and look at what this means for your customers, from their
perspective:

They can have all of their needs met.

Adding Azure to your product line up means you can provision resources in mere
minutes, making it possible for your customers to scale and build their projects to any
size - without worrying about complex infrastructure.

They receive a service that’s tailored for them.

Instead of simply reselling them an off-the-shelf product from one vendor, you can offer
them a range of cloud technologies and services that meet their specific needs and wrap
a managed service around them to make them more valuable for your clients (and more
profitable for you).

They have their pain points spoken to directly by you, a trusted provider.

You’re not just a reseller: you’re a trusted advisor and a service provider. For your
customers, this means you understand their business and their problems, and you have
the solutions for them.

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One is the loneliest number: a case
study
Customers want choice and, by selling Azure as one part of your whole service offering,
you’re letting your customers know that you respect that - and that you’re not
constrained to one vendor. This is what motivated a Paris-based digital solutions
provider to add an Azure practice to its business.

For the company’s Azure Practice Manager, adding Azure to the product line up was
about being responsive to customers and giving them the freedom to choose a solution
that best meets their needs - not one that the company prefers or sells exclusively. With
Azure in its arsenal, the company can serve customers regardless of their preferences in
platforms or products.

The decision has been good for business too. In just one year, Azure has grown to
account for a significant portion of the company’s cloud-based revenues. Furthermore,
they’re finding that far more of their customers are choosing Azure when they want
new, cloud-first and mobile-first solutions due to the platform’s elasticity and speed to
market.

What it means for your business

Your customers benefit from having access to Azure, but your business does too.

Adding Azure to your practice lets you go beyond simply reselling licenses. As a
Microsoft Partner and a Managed Service Provider (MSP), you can be more involved in
your customer’s business. Here’s what that means for you:

• Deeper engagement. On a monthly billing cycle, you interact with your customers
regularly and get an inside view into their business. With that kind of insight, you’re
well placed to assess their needs, identify viable opportunities for Azure and unlock
new sales opportunities.
• Increased profitability. You open the door to new revenue streams when you offer
managed services with Azure. In fact, MSPs see a 45 percent increase in gross profits
- that’s significantly higher than profits from just resale. When Generation-e added
managed services to its portfolio, cash flow improved almost immediately; managed
services now accounts for 36 percent of the company's revenue.
• Meet demand. Eighty percent of businesses are deploying or embracing the cloud,
and the demand for managed services is increasing. With Azure in your line up, you’re
in an excellent position to meet this demand as the cloud market soars.

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But here’s the thing: adding Azure to your product line up does more than just increase
your margins and generate long term year-on-year profit. It also differentiates your
business, giving it that all-important edge in a competitive market. You decide which
Azure functions to specialise in, you own your relationship with your customers and you
have the ability to develop your Azure service offering to scale your business and meet
demand.

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How to add Azure to your product line
up with Giacom
You can purchase Azure from the Giacom Cloud Market. A cloud marketplace is a
reseller-only hub for IT professionals and service providers, and it allows them to
quickly easily by cloud services for their clients.

More than 4,000 partners use the Giacom Cloud Market instead of buying direct
from vendors, and here’s why:

• It’s cheaper. Giacom offers Azure at an exclusive discount below Microsoft’s retail
price, and without any complicated commission structures.
• It’s easier. With a flexible easy on, easy off billing structure, Azure is a service
designed to fit around your clients' needs. Giacom's end of month billing means
you'll only ever get billed for active services.
• It’s stress-free. You don’t have commit to sales targets or minimum users. Just pay
for what you use at the end of the month.

4 steps to adding Azure

Adding Azure to your product line up with Giacom is straightforward. The process
looks like this:

1. Join Giacom
Once you’ve signed up, we’ll have you set up on the Giacom Cloud Market and ready to
start within the hour.

2. Set up your control panel

This is where you’ll manage your clients and your licenses. It’s private-label so your
customers see your branding, not Giacoms's or Microsoft’s.

3. Set your prices

As a reseller, you have autonomy over your pricing. Take some time to do some
research and find the right price-points to position your service offering.

4. Begin planning and enablement

You’re on your way. Now you can assess your customer’s IT environment and business

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goals to identify viable opportunities for Azure, and work with them to develop a
roadmap for Azure adoption. You can even begin transitioning appropriate workloads,
or help them with staging and testing first. Where you go from here is entirely up to you
and your customer.

Get there with a little help from your friends

When you join Giacom, you become a partner. That means you have access to
resources, guidance and help when you need it.

Giacom Academy
The Giacom Academy is a dedicated marketing support portal available to all partners.
It includes a library of branded documents, PowerPoint sales presentations, HTML
email templates, PDF guides and video tutorials to help market your product line up to
your customers and the wider market.

Knowledgebase
This how-to library contains everything you need to know about using the Giacom
Cloud Market platform, how to set up services on multiple devices and more.

On-demand technical support

Partners based in the UK can access round-the-clock technical support, every single day
of the year. You can reach tech support by phone, email or directly from your control
panel.

Microsoft Partner Network

If you’re not already a Microsoft Partner, becoming one will give you access to an even
greater range of support networks and materials. The Partner Next programme is
worth looking into as well; it’s custom-built and designed as a fast track to help you get
started with Microsoft cloud services, improve your profitability and grow your cloud
business.

Ready, set, go
Adding Azure to your product line up with Giacom is easy, profitable and - most
importantly - good for your customers. They get choice and best-in-class cloud
technology, and you get to help them use it while boosting your income in the process.
It’s a win-win.

Ready to get started?