Reseller Management: How Cloud Distributors Can Make The Most Of It

The cloud market is bigger than ever before, and many companies are jumping in to make a profit by reselling cloud services. For cloud distributors, managing their resellers presents a challenge. With more companies to onboard from multiple territories, cloud distributors need to optimize the visibility and performance of their reseller network. This is why effective reseller management becomes so crucial as it helps cloud distributors simplify the onboarding process and manage their resellers lifecycle, streamline their distribution channels, and improve their bottom line. 

What is Reseller Management?

The cloud market is growing by leaps and bounds. According to an article in PR Newswire, the global cloud market is expected to grow by 20.37% in 2021. A study predicts the growth of the global cloud management market at a rate of 15% until 2023. Therefore, it makes sense for companies to look into reselling cloud services as a profitable business. Cloud distributors can empower their resellers and increase their revenue with automated reseller management. 

Reseller management in practice consists of the tools and techniques a cloud distribution business needs to manage indirect sales through third parties. Companies with reselling network create reseller packages that include sales enablement strategies, software provisioning & billing automation, customer onboarding material, support training and technical certification to attract new resellers.  As a cloud automation platform vendor, we play a significant role in transforming the B2B e-commerce landscape, and to do so, we work on ‘consumerizing’ our ecosystem. Our objective is to prepare and empower Cloud Distributors, Service Providers, Value-Added Resellers, and Independent Software Vendors to join forces and harness the new opportunities in the digital market by empowering their own reselling network.

• What is the difference between a cloud distributor and a reseller? 

A cloud distributor buys the cloud services directly from the software vendor to sell and deliver them to their reseller. A cloud distributor manages their sales channel, product education, logistics, and credit lines. Commonly, cloud distributors build long-term strategic relationships with software vendors. 

A reseller offers the cloud services bought by a cloud distributor and can integrate various cloud offerings into a bundled value-added product. Reselling gives companies the opportunity to offer added value services or bundle services and provide complete solutions to their customers without having to build a distributor engagement with multiple Software Vendors. 

• What is the difference between a Service Provider and a Reseller?

Sellers offer cloud services purchased from a distributor or offered by them directly. A Reseller purchases cloud services usually from a Cloud Distributor and then sells directly to end Customers or Service Providers. Sometimes, Resellers offer cloud services under a white label agreement, under their own brand. Resellers can also expand their business through referral programs, thus promoting cloud services and earning a commission for each customer earned.  Service Providers implement and support cloud solutions, having trained personnel, such as solution architects, sales specialists, and tech experts and engineers. They are the ones responsible for the actual implementation and maintenance services of the cloud offerings, offering their services on top of the products. 

What interworks.cloud can do for your business 

The interworks.cloud platform is an all-in-one cloud automation platform, currently supporting all channel level partners, offering several editions to address the specific needs, also serving their n-tier channel needs, according to the position that the cloud company holds within the ecosystem.

Benefits for Cloud Distributors

To make the most of their reseller network, cloud distributors need to have visibility over the ecosystem while giving them value to grow their businesses. By supporting the reseller network, distributors also increase their sales. The interworks.cloud reseller management system enabled by our platform allows you to:

Empower your resellers: The system allows you to onboard almost unlimited resellers and expand your ecosystem. By providing a state-of-the-art tool system and monitoring, distributors empower resellers in managing their networks.

Obtain complete visibility: As a distributor, it is important that you get a full overview of your resellers’ business performance. This includes viewing the invoices and subscriptions, so you can support your resellers’ efforts. The interworks.cloud reseller management system allows you to work from a centralized dashboard with the convenience of a single sign-on.

Manage resellers from multiple countries: The central dashboard allows distributors to onboard and manage resellers regardless of the country they are in, and in multiple languages. This allows you to grow your network with multi-tenancy.

Grow into global sales, local offers: A centralized reseller management system enables you to scale up your business globally.  Sell in multiple currencies while keeping in line with local taxation and pricing. You can also control credit offers and lines.

Reseller Dashboard

The interworks.cloud reseller dashboard gives distributors an overview of a reseller’s business performance. You can view their key performance indicators and see at a glance the number of sales and subscriptions they’ve achieved. With this data, you can help the reseller identify accurate revenue projections. This tool also reduces the reseller’s operational costs by automating the performance analysis, ultimately improving productivity, and increasing ROI.

Expand your channel sales with the new Standard Edition for MSPs and Resellers 

A few months ago, interworks.cloud announced the launch of a new platform functionality that allows distributors to easily upgrade their resellers to the Standard Edition and provide them with valued autonomy to set up and configure their very own Marketplace. Therefore, as a cloud distributor, you are now equipped to empower your resellers by providing them with valued autonomy. When you upgrade your resellers to the Standard Edition, they can set up and configure their own branded marketplace. From there, resellers can automate orders and cloud provisioning, manage subscriptions, and update catalogs and pricing, while also expanding the reach of their customer base and increasing their sales.

The interworks.cloud Standard Edition gives you a competitive edge by enabling you to expand your sales channel and scale up easily and significantly. The automation features make reselling more efficient and profitable while giving an incentive to new resellers to join your network. 

Learn how interworks.cloud Standard Edition can take your cloud distribution network to the next level by contacting us.

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