Technology Reseller v34

technologyreseller.co.uk 37 past: this company has grown at a CAGR of about 17%; this year we are going to be about $3 billion; internally, we say we have had something like 2,100% growth since the inception of Exclusive. That’s aggressive. We have doubled revenue every 2 or 3 years. TR: That is the benefit of acquisitions. JT: Of course it is. And it comes full circle, because it is a benefit when making acquisitions too. But to really make acquisitions work, you have to make them part of the culture, part of the company. That’s ultimately where you can help accelerate some of these local businesses that you acquire. TR: What was it about your experience professionally that attracted Exclusive Networks? JT: There are a couple of things. First of all, I have been in this business for 20 years. I have a pretty unique understanding of how countries work, how regions work, how different parts of the world work. I have lived and worked in Germany; I have lived and worked in France; I have lived and worked in Denmark; I have lived and worked in the US. So, I understand how business is done and how people think in each of these markets. That’s one. Two, I am coming out of a business that is four times bigger than Exclusive is today. There is a lot I have seen in the past that works really well and there is a lot I have seen in the past that doesn’t work well. The benefit in me having seen the movie before, to use that expression, is that it gives us a chance to go faster and to avoid some of the pitfalls that I have seen in other businesses. I think that was something they liked. As this company becomes bigger and bigger, we have to mature certain things in the company and make sure that it operates as well and as efficiently and as autonomously as it did when it was a smaller company. I bring that experience. www.exclusive-networks.com Distribution Everything as a service Exclusive Networks launches new delivery platform to accelerate transition to subscription model Exclusive Networks, the specialist distributor for cybersecurity and cloud solutions, is taking the as-a-service model to the next level with the launch of X-OD, its new ‘digital face’ and online distribution channel for its cybersecurity and infrastructure products and services. Standing for Exclusive Networks On- Demand, X-OD is designed to ease the transition to ‘everything-as-a-service’ by transforming CAPEX to OPEX payments and enabling resellers to buy and sell all technology assets – hardware, software, services, on-prem and in the cloud – on a subscription. The platform allows multiple products and services to be delivered within a single subscription – and not just those offered by Exclusive Networks. As Julien Antoine, EVP Strategy & Operations at Exclusive Networks, explains, it also gives resellers the flexibility to add in their own services, as well as those from vendors not distributed by Exclusive. “We designed the platform not for ourselves but for the channel. We give it away free of charge to resellers in a white label way, so they can fully customise it with their logos and their terms and conditions. They can run it with full autonomy to offer their own vendors and their own services. It is really a tool for them to fast forward their evolution into subscription at no cost,” he said. X-OD currently includes solutions from Palo Alto Networks, Proofpoint and Google Cloud’s Chronicle, but the intention is to offer the distributor’s entire portfolio on the platform and to make it available globally to meet growing demand for ‘everything as a service’, starting with the UK, Netherlands, France, Belgium, Spain, Germany, Finland, Ireland and Austria in 2020 and other regions in 2021. “Right now, subscriptions make up about 15-20% of our business and we can easily see this growing to plus 50% in the next couple of years,” explained Exclusive Networks CEO Jesper Trolle. Simplicity built-in X-OD is being introduced to meet increased demand for subscription-based IT consumption and a growing desire to procure defined business outcomes from technology rather than having to self-build and manage complex infrastructure and services. Antoine uses a car analogy to explain how X-OD simplifies procurement at a time when vendors and resellers are moving to a subscription model at different speeds. “Today, you can consume your cyber security as hardware, software and subscription,” he said. “Imagine if cybersecurity were a car. It would be like owning a CAPEX engine, leasing a tire and getting the rest of the car on a subscription. It doesn’t make any sense.” X-OD makes it easier and faster for resellers to make the transition to selling ‘as a service’, by converting all the varied procurement options offered by vendors into a single subscription and by making sure resellers don’t have to pay upfront for a three-year licence that the end user will be paying for on a subscription. As an end-to-end platform, X-OD doesn’t just convert almost anything into a subscription; it digitises the whole value chain, with automated ordering and fulfilment, one place for managing all subscriptions, an end user portal for customers, the ability for resellers to develop their own solutions/bundles and, coming soon, automated paperless billing, customised reporting and insight into up-sell and cross-sell opportunities. Ultimately, X-OD removes complexity both for resellers and vendors as they evolve to meet changing customer requirements. “Resellers are trying to address the complexity that vendors are creating through evolution. We solve this complexity for them. We bring simplicity and we empower them to buy like they sell. Today, they need to buy CAPEX and convert it into OPEX. We do it for them; we take the risk away,” explained Antoine. “Meanwhile, vendors are transitioning to full subscription. This could take them a couple of years, but we can transform their SKUs into subscription now, as we are doing with Palo Alto, Proofpoint, Chronicle. That’s the beauty of this model. They don’t have to change anything on their side; we do the transformation and we bring it to market, speeding up the sales cycle for them and creating value.” www.x-od.com EDITOR’S CHOICE AWARD Exclusive Networks: X-OD 0