AppRiver, a leading provider of email messaging and Web security solutions and an original Office 365 syndicator, has announced its participation in the Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider Program. The program is designed to strengthen customer relationships and expand cloud sales opportunities by enabling partners to provide direct billing, sell combined offers and services, as well as directly provision, manage and support products and services.

Under this program, AppRiver owns the complete customer lifecycle, allowing partners to easily sell Office 365 subscriptions and helping them take advantage of cloud services by owning the entire billing process and directly managing support.

“AppRiver’s channel partners advocated strongly for just such a program that would allow them to maintain and control their customer relationships,” said Scott Paul, senior director of Sales Operations. “We were fortunate to be one of just a few companies worldwide to pilot that two-tier program and the results have been phenomenal.  It’s exciting that more partners will now be able to take advantage of it.”

To illustrate, the company realized a 240 percent increase in the total number of partners engaged to sell Office 365 since introducing two-tier pricing last year. Revenue growth and total number of Office 365 seats sold also grew by 330 percent.

“The Cloud Solution Provider Program puts our partners at the center of the customer relationship,” said Phil Sorgen, corporate vice president, Worldwide Partner Group, at Microsoft. “Through their participation, Cloud Distributors have demonstrated dedication to helping the broad channel as well as our mutual customers successfully move to the cloud.”

Since inception, AppRiver has offered cloud-based security services that are available on a subscription basis and offered at a fraction of the cost of managing the same services in-house. In 2011, the company added Microsoft Office 365 to its security suite so to offer business clients around the globe more choices, enhanced functionality and greater overall value.

There are several reasons why partners choose Office 365 from AppRiver:

True on-demand, pay-as-you-go service: Office 365 from AppRiver allows partners to own the billing process, generate additional revenue and sell/service customers in a way that makes sense for their business. The company does not require minimum packaging spends or annual commitments, thereby allowing partners to mix and match services for specific users (and adjust customer consumption or user count) without penalty.Maintain renewal margin: With AppRiver, the margins are preserved even after renewal and throughout the life of the customer relationship.Account maintenance: Partners can manage all Office 365 services from a single console to add users, manage groups, and send maintenance reminders and notices. AppRiver will maintain the Microsoft Partner of Record status and will not interfere or break the record without first receiving partner consent.Partner certification: Partners can learn the ropes at AppRiver University and earn certifications in both the sale and support of Office 365.Phenomenal Care for partners: Certified AppRiver partners receive direct access to a dedicated Office 365 escalations team, Office 365 Internal Use Rights licensing, expert pre-sales and onboarding support. 

To learn more about Office 365 Plus from AppRiver or how to become a partner, please visit www.appriver.com/office365.

About AppRiver

AppRiver is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider offering award-winning email and Web security solutions to businesses of all sizes. Understanding the need to protect networks from today's increasingly complex IT threats, AppRiver offers businesses a comprehensive, yet affordable subscription-based solution that incorporates the latest spam and virus protection, email encryption and Web security on the market. In addition, the company provides a complete managed service for Microsoft Exchange, as well as a bundled Office 365 solution. Since its inception, AppRiver has sustained an impressive 93 percent customer retention rate while growing its customer base to more than 47,000 companies and 8.5 million mailboxes worldwide. The company maintains offices in Florida, Georgia, Texas, New York, Switzerland and Spain, and is led by an Ernst & Young Florida Entrepreneur of the Year award winner. For more information, please visit www.appriver.com.