Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc.

546 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10036 Tel: (212) 944-5100 Fax: (212) 944-2288 www.ami-partners.com

India SMB channel revenue for cloud offerings is projected to reach $7B by 2017
AMI highlights the segmentation of cloud channel partners and steady scoring matrix to allow cloud vendors to compare and benchmark their partners
Kolkata, India October 15, 2013 Offering cloud-based services provides SMB partners (partners deriving 50% or more revenue from small and medium businesses with up to 999 employees) with opportunities to gradually transform their productdriven business model to a more service-oriented one. According to AMI-Partners soon-to-be released study on Mapping of Cloud Vendor-Partner Engagement Model within India SMBs, India SMB channel partners have an optimistic feeling regarding the demand for cloud solutions/ services among their SMB customers. Keeping pace with the increased demand among India SMBs, there is a simultaneous strong growth in the number of partners moving to the cloud, particularly within the SaaS and IaaS spaces. When it comes to selling cloud solutions, there are various innovative route-to-market models that are coined by young startups as well as the traditional global vendors. In todays dynamic scenario, the cloud market is flooded with diversified offerings, starting from email solutions, website hosting services, and hosted productivity suites to advanced SaaS offerings like Business intelligence, CRM, ERP, project management and HR software. On one hand, vendors like Microsoft, IBM, Dell, Salesforce and HP are following traditional route-to-market strategies, while others like AWS, Tally, BigRock, Google and Yahoo are gaining major traction with their own ingenious business models. Despite the hype surrounding cloud solution adoption, cloud-focused channel partners experienced moderate revenue growth over the last year. However, as SMBs are gradually becoming more comfortable with the concept of the cloud, partners are realizing the importance of developing a cloud value proposition to satisfy customer demands; consequently they anticipate a strong growth of about 20% in their cloud business over the next year. From the partners point of view, while cloud awareness has substantially increased over the past years, lack of SMB understanding about cloud solutions and their inherent values are the major inhibitors for cloud growth in India. Though a number of SMBs have already opted for some form of cloud, a great number of SBs continue to be wary of the technology, requiring considerable support from partners for training and migration from an on-premise platform. Cloud partners are taking a proactive approach to address these issues by enhancing investments on providing training to cloud customer support executives and cloud sales representatives, noted Poulami Paul, Research Associate at AMI-India. This shows that cloud channel partners are beginning to use service differentiation to increase customer satisfaction. But partners look forward towards a full-fledged support from vendors, which will help them enhance their expertise when it comes to selling cloud services. Furthermore, as per AMI-Partners latest study, an important aspect that Cloud partners and vendors should remember is that - quality of solutions and post-sales service are the major drivers to accelerate cloud adoption among SMB customers in India. For a proper identification and evaluation of the cloud channel partners, AMI has come up with a segmentation model, based on the partners profile and business characteristics. It will help the vendors to partner with the right kind of channels to be successful in offering cloud services in India. . AMI has identified 4 major cloud business models: Cloud Resellers who primarily focus on reselling cloud applications without developing their own cloud apps or customizing apps (agent model), Cloud Infrastructure Providers who focus primarily on offering hosted server, storage and other infrastructural solutions (including Platform-as-a-Service), Managed Service Providers who primarily focus on providing remotely managed services, and Cloud Application Developers who primarily focus on developing their own IP-based cloud apps or customizing vendors cloud apps or integrating various cloud apps. However, selecting the right partner is not enough. Cloud vendors need to do their part in helping partners boost cloud sales they need to come forward with newer marketing initiatives aimed at the different partner segments and assist the partners so that in turn, they can convince SMBs of the value of cloud solutions.
SMB = Firms with 1-999 full-time employees across the country; SB = Firms with 1-99 full-time employees; MB = Firms with 100-999 full-time employees Channel = Channel Partners (VARs, SIs, ISVs, etc), Direct Market Resellers (DMRs), Retail Stores, Telcos/Service Providers/Hosters, Vendor Direct

Related Study AMI-Partners latest release, Mapping of Cloud Vendor-Partner Engagement Model within India SMBs is a groundbreaking study that provides in-depth analysis and intelligence on todays SMB Cloud Partner ecosystem, including competencies and best practices that enable partners to transform their cloud business. Today, almost two thirds of all channel partners provide some type of cloud-based services to SMB customers. Yet only a small proportion of these partners have been successful in transforming into a cloud service provider. The study highlights the skill sets, competencies, investments, business model, sales & marketing tools, etc., that are required to successfully transform and migrate a partner to the cloud. It also segments and profiles partners by their success and value in providing various cloud services. All types of cloud partners were surveyed for this study including cloud resellers, cloud application providers, cloud infrastructure providers, MSPs, cloud consultants, etc. The study coverage includes:

Routes to Market & Channel Engagement of vendors SMB Landscape ICT Spending & Outlook Market Size & Forecast of Cloud Partners Profile of Cloud Partner Types Cloud Business Transformation & Business Model Sales, Marketing & Compensation of Cloud Partners

For more information about this study, AMI-Partners, or our global SMB research, call 212 944 5100, e-mail ask_ami@ami-partners.com or visit our web site at www.ami-partners.com
About Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc. AMI-Partners specializes in IT, Internet, telecommunications and business services strategy, venture capital, and actionable market intelligencewith a strong focus on global small and medium business (SMB) enterprises and extending into large enterprises and home-based businesses. The AMI-Partners mission is to empower clients for success with the highest quality data, business strategy perspectives and go-to-market solutions. Led by Andy Bose, the firm has built a world-class management team with deep experience cutting across IT, telecommunications and business services sectors in established and emerging markets. AMI-Partners has helped shape the go-to-market SMB strategies of more than 150 leading IT, Internet, telecommunications and business services companies over the last ten years. The firm is well known for its IT and Internet adoption-based segmentation of the SMB markets, its annual retainership services based on global SMB tracking surveys in more than 25 countries, and its proprietary database of SMBs and SMB channel partners in the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific. The firm invests significantly in collecting survey-based information from several thousand SMBs annually, and is considered the premier source for global SMB trends and analysis. Media Contacts: Quoted Analyst: Poulami Paul. Phone: (91) 33 4003 3093 ext 228. Email: ppaul@ami-partners.com Media Relations: In US (New York): Nancy Carty. Phone: (212) 944 5100 ext 581. Email: ncarty@ami-partners.com In EU (London): Claudia Jachtmann. Phone: (44) 208 987 2756. Email: cjachtmann@ami-partners.com In Asia Pacific (Singapore): Abhilash Pillai. Phone: (65) 6220 5535 ext 101. Email: apillai@ami-partners.com In India (Bangalore): Rati Ghose. Phone: (91) 80 4148 2661 ext 37. Email: rghose@ami-partners.com In India (Kolkata): Jyoti Singh. Phone: (91) 33 4003 3093 ext 223. Email: jsingh@ami-partners.com In India (Mumbai): Neha Jalan Goenka. Phone: (91) 99300 20420. Email: njalan@ami-partners.com