Rhipe unearths hundreds of partners with Microsoft CSP

Rhipe is on track to recruit 500 partners to the Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (MSP) program – with many of them brand new.

The ASX-listed distributor was announced as a two-tier CSP partner – along with Ingram Micro in April – and began transacting with partners in July.

Rhipe recently cracked a significant milestone by onboarding more than 200 partners to CSP in Australian alone, and nearly 300 including Asia. Another 200 are in the process of signing up, said Warren Nolan, Rhipe's chief commercial officer.

What stands out for Nolan is how CSP is unearthing new, born-in-the-cloud partners. The number of net new partners is at 34 percent. "We thought if we got over 30 percent [net new partners] we would be ecstatic and it has consistently hovered between 30-40 percent," Nolan told CRN.

"They have never bought anything from us, not even Citrix, VMware etcetera. In some cases they may have been a customer that was transacting with one of our competitors but the majority are net new, born-in-the-cloud partners who are looking to sell these born in-the-cloud offerings."

He said the distributor was exceeding Microsoft's expectations "in terms of partners recruited and activated", adding that many of Rhipe's existing partners were opting for "premium" Microsoft SKUs.

"If 34 percent are net new, then 66 percent are experienced providers working in cloud. They are talking about solutions and outcomes that can only be provided by these premium SKUs. They are not selling on price – they are not selling Office at $2 a user. They are providing an outcome to the client using the premium-type SKUs, such as E3 and E4," said Nolan.