AWS: more Aussie partners adopting data, analytics and going global

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has seen its partner ecosystem in Australia and New Zealand adopt new capabilities and expand into new customer bases, according to its local channel leaders.

ANZ head of channel and alliances Davinia Simon and head of partner solutions architecture Matt Taylor told CRN that four trends were prevalent among local partners.

Throughout the year, partners started adopting data and analytics to bolster customer experiences, expanding their small and medium business clientele, engaging in deeper industry collaboration, and making the leap to become global companies, the executives said.

On the customer side, Simon said organisations are increasingly leveraging data and are looking at it as a more valuable asset. “It's certainly seen now as a more strategic resource than we've seen previously,” she said.

Simon cited an AWS-commissioned research from Deloitte Access Economics called “Demystifying data - The business benefits of improving data maturity in Australia and New Zealand”, where 60 percent of the respondents put their data maturity at basic or beginner level and that a slight increase would already drive millions of dollars in revenue per business.

The opportunity for partners also saw the introduction of the AWS data analysis competency, recognising those with really deep expertise and success in that capacity.

Simon called out one such partner to score the competency, Servian. The company worked with cosmetics retailer Mecca to replicate the in-store shopping experience by using data and analytics and machine learning to generate personalised email communications to customers.

Simon also highlighted AWS’ work in helping Australian partners go global, with “a lot” of them making the leap this year through AWS marketplace.

“Earlier this year in April, we announced that your local ISVs and service providers can actually provide their services on the AWS marketplace,” she said.

“When doing that they get access to about 300,000 active monthly users. So it provides all of sudden with this opportunity to extend their offering in a much bigger audience.”

Simon called out Brisbane’s Bigmate and its WARNY video safety and awareness solution, and Versent sister company Stax, which automates AWS to help businesses manage risks and optimise costs.

Speaking on Stax, Taylor told CRN that its inclusion in the AWS marketplace has helped the company scale globally.

“It's a great way for them to have solidified their expertise into a product and now being able to push that globally, and Versent themselves have scaled globally. So they're now got offices in Australia, Singapore and in the US as well.”

Taylor added that another key benefit of AWS Marketplace is that any customer that has a procurement channel open with AWS now has a procurement channel open with anyone in Marketplace.

“That is a big advantage to any of those software providers who are looking to get into some of the customers and this is like the procurement process which has been accelerated by this process,” he said.

“So if you're an independent software vendor and you have software that runs on an EC2 instance, or maybe it's a SaaS product, we help them onboard into Marketplace so they can begin selling to those 300,000 monthly active users.”

Simon also mentioned that a number of AWS partners also started working more with SMBs, helping them understand the value of modernising through cloud and benefit more from AWS’ services like AI and machine learning.

Simon cited examples with partners helping out a law firm and farmers: Sunshine Coast-based Optisol worked with law firm Blumers to develop a chatbot to automate some tasks and let their staff focus on billable work, while NZ-based Lancom helped SaaS orchard management software startup Hectre to develop a quality control feature through AI.

Another trend was increased industry collaboration, with Optus and US-headquartered cloud integrator Slalom among some of the partners that have signed strategic collaboration agreements.

Optus partnered with AWS to resell its solutions but also built a cloud academy to train 2000 employees in cloud-related skills. Slalom meanwhile launched its first AWS onramp outside the US in Melbourne last month.