SPLA fun to make money on the clouds

2015 Almost all technologies move to the clouds: office applications, payment systems, databases, CRM / ERP, IP-telephony and even highly specialized software. On cloud computing and technology, companies are built, startups unfold, new portfolios of old vendors are being developed. Large corporations are increasingly turning to partner schemes and developing solutions that make cooperation with other companies mutually beneficial. In fact, many companies have the opportunity to build a new business as a partner or to develop an existing one by expanding the package of services provided. At the forefront are the skills to use a group of software, exceptional administrative skills and some commercial vision. This allows you to earn, build long-term relationships with customers and be in constant development. We propose to consider one of the popular partnership schemes and evaluate its benefits.

Endless cloudy distance

According to analysts, the public cloud computing market will grow by 34% per year and in 2016 will increase to $ 98.4 billion. The growth rate of the cloud services market is 5 times higher than the growth rate of the information technology market as a whole. Recently, the tendency to work in the cloud and create a cloud infrastructure for business has come to the countries of Eastern Europe, the growth in the markets of which was 48%. You must admit that quite good growth indicators are taking into account that the world economy as a whole and many regional economies in particular are affected by local and global crises.

Why were clouds able to gain such popularity? According to the RightScale 2014 State of the Cloud study, business representatives distinguish among the effects of the introduction of cloud infrastructure as the most significant:

• scaling - when working in the cloud, it is easy to adjust to the situation and change, for example, the amount of necessary licenses based on the number of employees;
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• quick access to infrastructure - the cloud allows you to deploy the necessary software at the right time and with the right parameters (for example, you can rent programs for the life of the project or for a certain period, and then refuse them and not overpay);
  
  
• high availability - cloud operation is guaranteed by providers, each of whom strives to maintain stable availability for 99.9% of the time;
  
  
• quick entry to the market - in the absence of the need to spend a huge amount of time on the introduction of software, it is possible to redistribute efforts to important business processes;
  
  
• cost reduction - an opportunity to save on licenses, competently managing software licensing and using only infrastructure elements necessary for the current situation.
  

Many companies around the world use Microsoft solutions for their work - and this is not only office applications and operating systems. These are the most important elements of the infrastructure like Exchange Server, Sharepoint Server, SQL Server, Lync Server, corporate solutions of Microsoft Dynamics, and so on. That is why the corporation could not get past the cloud technologies and not only brought all its products to the cloud, but developed a unique and very profitable partnership system - the licensing system SPLA (Services Provider License Agreement) . This is a special type of license agreement that allows service providers and independent software developers to license Microsoft products and provide them to customers as services.

Who needs this and how to join the SPLA program?

Signing up with SPLA is easy - just join the Microsoft Partner Network. Additionally, you should enter into a partnership agreement with Microsoft and an agreement with Softline, which has the status of SPLA Reseller.

As a SPLA reseller, Softline takes on all the responsibilities of interacting with Microsoft and helps the company to launch its business faster, receiving the most detailed and professional advice on licensing issues. Also, an irreplaceably valuable reseller assistance will be in the process of preparing reports and filling out forms that Microsoft requires from SPLA providers. Softline strongly supports partners at all stages of relationships and provides comprehensive information and consulting support, including product consulting and training. Such support, especially at the start, makes life easier and saves time, because getting concentrated experience from the donor of this experience is much more convenient, more profitable, and, finally, more reasonable than collecting knowledge and skills bit by bit by trial and error. The released time and resources can be directed to the development of advertising and marketing initiatives and work with the client base.

What companies might be interested in participating in SPLA? In short, everyone whose clients are interested and need Microsoft solutions. Separately, target groups that have already successfully used SPLA to generate ever-increasing income should be identified.

• The IT department of the holding that supports the work of affiliated unaffiliated structures. That is, in fact, a service center appears inside the holding, which develops and supports the entire IT infrastructure of the companies belonging to the holding. The main advantage is savings on software and the ability to save a pool of rented software in the event of a change of legal entity or another reorganization.
  
  
• Telecommunication company, telecom operator - you can offer Microsoft corporate solutions to the existing client base and receive additional income.
  
  
• Internet provider, provider of web-hosting and rental of applications, data center service provider - you can retain customers and process the existing customer base by deploying a private or public cloud for them with pre-installed Microsoft product licenses necessary for the company. Virtualization available to this group of partners provides tremendous opportunities for profitability growth.
  
  
• System integrator - the ability to build a complete IT-infrastructure of customers, including the creation of a hybrid cloud for business. In addition to the services and licenses that the integrator already supplies to its customers, it can also supply Microsoft solutions, being an SPLA provider and combining various models based on customer needs. This is a fairly flexible approach to managing client software portfolios, which creates an additional source of income.
  
  
• Outsourcing companies can use the SPLA to expand the list of services provided by installing and maintaining Microsoft software on the customer’s servers. This is a profitable solution, since the client will not apply for the purchase of licenses to a third party, but will receive the full range of services from its outsourcer.
  
  
• An independent software developer who sells his SaaS solutions - the ability to provide his solutions as a service and get additional revenue from working with Microsoft product licenses.
  

Benefit from a customer of a SPLA member company

Participation in the SPLA program is a profitable solution for organizing an additional business line. In fact, the company earns on world-famous products and on impeccable knowledge of these products. In this case, the company itself may not be engaged, for example, in developing or refining software. We will tell you about the main advantages of SPLA, which we managed to highlight together with numerous partners who have long been active in the program.

As a rule, the client is an unconditional expert in his business, but he needs help in building a high-quality and reliable IT infrastructure. The customer may know something about the cloud and desktop software, perhaps even a superficial understanding of their differences, but he is unlikely to fully understand all the advantages of renting software. Therefore, the SPLA provider always has a set of arguments that reveal all the advantages of the software implementation model.

• Cost optimization - only those licenses are paid that were actually used in the reporting period. This is especially valuable if the software suite used depends on the seasonality factor or the needs of discrete projects. Also, such optimization will be appreciated by growing companies in which the number of employees is constantly changing.
  
  
• Usually, purchased software falls into capital expenditures, and this is an extremely inflexible budget section - in case of need, additional licenses may sometimes have to wait for the next budget period in order to avoid deterioration in financial performance. In the case of payment for software as a service, the costs are incurred in the operating systems and this ensures rapid scalability when needed.
  
  
• Availability of IT-tools: the client can quickly obtain the necessary IT-solutions and capacity for the business, as well as those IT-tools that were previously unavailable due to the high cost. Firstly, this is due to the fact that the client does not need to buy licenses, you can rent the software for a while. And secondly, the company does not need to set up and administer the installed software - this is a significant argument for small or young companies that have needs in fairly complex corporate software, for example, MS Dynamics CRM or MS Project.
  
  
• Efficiency and availability: the client gets access to the required software from anywhere in the world where there is Internet, that is, the client of the SPLA-provider is not limited geographically and can manage business processes wherever he is. This cloud advantage extends to all software.
  
  
• Opportunity to focus on business: through the use of cloud services, a client can fully concentrate on business, without being distracted by maintaining the infrastructure, studying constantly updated products and training their staff - the provider company participating in the SPLA takes care of it.
  

Thus, all participants in the process receive a set of benefits, which, in general, greatly facilitates the client's IT infrastructure, on the one hand, and guarantees a stable income for the contractor, on the other.

You need to understand that the provider can offer software delivery in a private, public cloud or by its hybrid or industry model. The public cloud provides maximum savings due to the joint payment by several companies of infrastructure capacity, as well as quick connection to the required programs. Private cloud provides maximum privacy, complete manageability of the IT infrastructure, significant customization.

The whole philosophy of SPLA is built on a service-oriented software consumption model. This concept provides flexible IT-infrastructure management, reduced cost of support for employees' workplaces and significant savings on software licenses. In addition, it is also an opportunity to get convenient access to Microsoft products and solutions based on them, without which almost no company can do. And renting infrastructure, in turn, is a great way to save power for a powerful breakthrough that will bring your company to the market, while competitors will be unsuccessful in setting up and spending money on purchasing expensive licenses.