Idenprotect Launches Multi-Cloud Marketplace Strategy to Capitalize on Untapped Committed Spend Budgets
Idenprotect delivers tailored cybersecurity solutions for the financial sector. Their passwordless authentication and secure browsing technologies help organizations mitigate risks, simplify compliance, and foster a productive, secure environment. Idenprotect discovered that their customers all had something in common: major financial institutions were sitting on hundreds of thousands of dollars in unused committed cloud spend on the cloud service providers (CSPs) – AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.
Committed spend is the allocated amount of budget that organizations set aside for IT purchases when signing contracts with CSPs like AWS and Azure to cover cloud compute costs, primarily. Committed spend offers incentives like upfront discounts, but many IT departments don’t end up using all of this budget, since it’s hard to know exactly how much compute will be used year over year. Key stakeholders across an organization are unaware that their business is sitting on money that’s due to expire if not used within the designated contract timeframe.
For a vendor like Idenprotect, listing on multiple marketplaces (AWS, Azure) opened up opportunities but also meant navigating multiple sets of requirements – building APIs, navigating bureaucracy, and developing a co-sell strategy that works for both AWS and Azure.
If you could find the money from elsewhere, which means you don't have to find an additional budget, would that be of interest? Oh, well, then of course that's of interest to us. Now, they see the potential of our products. And you can see in their eyes, when you describe [committed spend] it's like, whoa!
In an interview with Invisory, Andy shared the story of why Idenprotect partnered with Invisory to get transactable on Azure and AWS, tap into help navigating the Microsoft and AWS ecosystems, and launch a multi-cloud marketplace strategy to unlock new sales opportunities with other cloud marketplaces like Google.
Why Cloud Marketplaces
Idenprotect realized they could benefit from selling on Microsoft’s Azure Marketplace, especially given that their solution extends the functionality and security of Microsoft’s Intune, a cloud-based endpoint management solution. While Idenprotect was able to get their solution on the marketplace as an Intune managed app, it was difficult for them to get Microsoft’s attention, let alone transact, co-sell with Microsoft sales reps, and leverage committed spend.
They quickly realized they needed to build APIs to start transacting on the marketplace, as well as develop a robust co-sell strategy to navigate marketplace selling. Hence, partnering with Invisory, the cloud GTM marketplace experts.
By choosing Invisory, Idenprotect was able to get transactable on Azure Marketplace, as well as launch their AWS Marketplace listing in a matter of business days.
Why Invisory for Azure and AWS Marketplace
On Azure, as well as AWS and Google Cloud, being transactable is often a requirement to co-sell with the tech giants. Simply put, becoming transactable allows you to run a deal through the cloud marketplace. The topic of transactability was top of mind when Andy read a piece of Invisory marketing, linked here.
For Idenprotect and many other organizations, the process of navigating the Microsoft and AWS partner programs, building APIs to transact on the marketplace, and reaching go-to-market co-sell success can be challenging without the guidance of experts.
“There’s no way we would have gone through it [without Invisory] because it was too much. And for an organization our size we don’t have the time to dedicate to navigating that ourselves,” Andy explained.
With Invisory’s pre-built API integrations, Idenprotect was up and running on Azure and AWS Marketplace in just a few business days. WIthin two months, Invisory had enabled the Idenprotect sales team with marketplace training and best practices, which allowed the company to start engaging with prospects who had committed spend to burn and make faster progress on their Microsoft and AWS Partner Status.
Leveraging committed spend on Azure and AWS
As Andy and his team began digging deeper into the world of cloud marketplaces, they discovered that their ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) – IT and security folks at large financial institutions – were unaware that their organization was sitting on underutilized cloud commitment credits that were due to expire.
In today’s challenging selling environment, business leaders need to “take advantage of every single potential you have,” including cloud marketplaces, Andy explained. By selling through cloud marketplaces, you can take away key objections like “we don’t have budget.”
It’s no surprise, then, that Andy sees the biggest opportunity in untapped cloud consumption credits: “Now joining the Cloud Partner Program allows Idenprotect to take advantage of money that has been previously paid to other licenses and effectively capitalize on the underutilization that these organizations have.”
Other benefits of selling with Azure and AWS
Selling with Microsoft and AWS also comes with other benefits for Idenprotect. As Andy noted, being listed on the Azure Marketplace is a stamp of approval that expedites the procurement process, since Microsoft has already vetted the solution. Getting the contract on Microsoft and AWS headed paper is a small but mighty selling point for organization’s purchasing solutions from a vendor for the first time.
The move towards a multi-cloud marketplace strategy
Idenprotect is currently listed on Azure and AWS. They plan to continue expanding into other cloud marketplaces, including Google Cloud Platform, using the experts at Invisory to quickly design a go-to-market strategy to enable and see co-sell success faster.
