Article How a digital marketplace can boost the service provider business
By Insight UK / 14 Apr 2022 / Topics: Cloud
By Insight UK / 14 Apr 2022 / Topics: Cloud
New disruptive digital business models are mushrooming. One is the rise of digital marketplaces. What is the opportunity for service providers to generate new business and revenue through a cloud marketplace?
A digital marketplace is a 3rd-party platform where service providers, ISVs and MSPs can sell products and services to buyers. Well-known marketplaces are Azure, AWS and Google, but there are many more, like SAP, Salesforce or other (vertical) marketplaces. The marketplace model is rapidly gaining momentum. According to Forrester, 17% of the $13 trillion in B2B spending will flow to marketplaces by 2023, probably accelerated due to the pandemic.
For new cloud-native tech companies, developing, building and selling through a digital marketplace is as normal as breathing. However, the benefits here are by no means exclusive for them, but available to any service provider.
For example, a marketplace offers a wide range of development tools to deliver low-code or no-code cloud applications. Imagine how this can speed up agility and deployment… It also creates an additional sales channel that is always on and available, offering a wide sales reach through the power of the platform.
Big vendors in particular offer marketing and sales support programmes to follow once you are a partner in their marketplace. And opportunities abound to collaborate with partners in the marketplace ecosystem to create packaged customer solutions. And what about the ability to launch POCs, conduct assessments or launch pilot projects as a steppingstone to larger projects?
So, could this mean that marketplaces also interesting for customers? Absolutely! Many solutions together mean convenience and a wide range to choose from. Moreover, the threshold is low to explore new products or services without prior investment.
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel to start selling services in a digital marketplace. Solutions can be about remote workplaces, backup & disaster recovery (BDR), cloud transformation for end customers, like implementation, deployment, managed services. It doesn’t have to be cloud-only: you can think of a hybrid offering, for example a data storage solution that combines cloud and on-premise, depending on the privacy and security levels customers require. Or think of a service that can act as a steppingstone for follow-up business, such as cloud readiness assessments, technology quick scans, pilot services.
First of all, you should be aware that each marketplace has its own tooling: services on one platform are not simply transferable to another. But knowing that and taking the following suggestions on board, nothing will stand in your way of successfully exploring the digital marketplace.
At Insight, we help service providers in realizing their business ambitions in a multi-cloud world. As a multi-vendor software licensing, workload, and cloud platform specialist, we can guide you through all stages of your strategic cloud journey. No matter where you are in your journey, we help you to find new ways forward and accelerate your business. Contact one of our cloud specialists for a talk.
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