Distributor Rhipe hunts place in Microsoft's exclusive CSP club

Rhipe is hoping to score a place on Microsoft's Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program, potentially becoming the first Australian distributor to join the exclusive group.

In its investor presentation this week, Rhipe – formerly known as NewLease – revealed that it is presenting to Microsoft in the first quarter of 2015 in a bid to become an approved CSP.

So far, seven Australian Microsoft partners have become CSPs, none of which are in the second tier of the channel.

Microsoft director of partner business & development Philip Goldie told CRN that Rhipe was one of a number of partners currently in discussions about the program.

CSPs are allowed to bundle Microsoft cloud services along with their own offerings and services; they also own the complete customer lifecycle through direct billing, provisioning, management and support.

In December, Microsoft revealed that Melbourne-based OBS, Queensland's CloudFirst, OzHosting and Nimbal – which is a partnership of award-winning partners Kloud and XCentral – would join three other partners who were part of the pilot stage: Sydney-based Ensyst, internet service provider iiNet and web hoster Melbourne IT.

At the time, Goldie hinted at plans for a two-tier model for CSPs.

It wouldn't be the first time that Rhipe – which bills itself as an aggregator rather than traditional distie – stood out among the Microsoft channel. Last June, Rhipe became the first pure-play cloud distributor in the world to enter Microsoft's Licensing Solution Provider (LSP) program.

Rhipe saw a significant surge in revenue in its first-half results, rising 45 percent to reach $48.2 million for the six months to 31 December 2014.

However, despite more than doubling its underlying earnings to $1.56 million, Rhipe's bottom line was dragged to a $317,000 loss after factoring in the cost of its acquisition of nSynergy, as well as its tax bill and share-based payment expenses.