The idea of starting a new business is hotter than ever. The rapidly growing segment of small to medium sized businesses are contribute significantly to economic recovery and the adoption of Cloud Services. At the same time, margins on Cloud Services may be low, while competition for new Cloud business is relatively high. What can a Cloud Service Provider do to build a profitable and scalable Cloud business? Use these three tips to help grow your Cloud Business.
Land and Expand Inside New Cloud Customers
Many Cloud Service Providers are using email deployment as low hanging fruit to get new accounts. A Cloud Subscription for email may not appear profitable until you consider the many upselling opportunities that may follow the initial deployment. Follow on migration of files and application data to the Cloud and you will quickly grow the profits around a new Cloud Customer. Remember not to overdo the initial install. Get your new customer onboarded and consider a phased approach to moving IT Services to the Cloud.
Expand Cloud Services Into New Markets
The remote nature of Cloud Infrastructure can make it easier to enter new geographies. Because you have the ability to monitor services remotely with fewer need for onsite service calls, a small office or no office in a new geography could support local customers. The lower barrier for Cloud adoption may make it easier to expand your geographic coverage, keep in mind, you may also have more competition. Finding a vertical niche (e.g. non profits) or Application Speciality (e.g. CRM) may help your business gain advantage and open new doors.
Add Value Added Services to Increase Cloud Revenue
Resist the temptation to only sell seats. Look for opportunities to Migrate, Integrate and Automate Cloud Services in your portfolio. Additionally, adding monitoring and management services to ensure compliance, support requests for “moves/adds/changes” not only adds revenue, they give you an opportunity to differentiate based on your unique abilities to provide services.
If you want to build a profitable Cloud Service Provider business, you need to do more than resell Cloud Services. Cross sell and upsell, geographic expansion and value added services are your keys to growing a profitable Cloud Service business.
Recent Comments