Weston-Comstor has been appointed a tier-2 Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) in Philippines, directly working with resellers to set product prices, negotiate procurement terms and locally bill customers.
"The addition of the Microsoft CSP programme to the Westcon-Comstor Cloud Solutions Practice enables our customers to own the end-to-end engagement of their clients’ Microsoft cloud solutions,” said Darryl Grauman, vice president of cloud and services delivery at Westcon-Comstor.
"By being able to directly provision, bill and support Microsoft Cloud Services, our local partners have a deeper insight into the trends taking shape within their accounts."
As a value-added technology distributor, Westcon-Comstor will work with local resellers in the Philippines, acting as a first point of contact for all customer support, boosting cloud service delivery efforts in the process.
"We believe that the appointment as a local CSP will enable us to further our provision of a host of value-added Microsoft services to our resellers,” added Jessica Powell, country manager of Philippines at Westcon-Comstor.
"This enables us to help them accelerate the cloud journey of their customers and sets us apart from other distributors in the region."
Microsoft sees CSP as an important tool in moving both partners and customers towards cloud-centric products and services.
"If the cloud has taught us anything, it is that the customer wants flexibility from their partner relationships as well as their software and solutions,” Powell added.
"With CSP we will provide our customers with the ability to scale solutions up or down on a monthly basis, build effective cloud subscription models as well as provide a platform for partners to leverage cloud subscription models wherever appropriate."
The appointment comes days after Microsoft posted quarterly profit and revenue that beat analysts' estimates, as more businesses signed up for its Azure cloud computing services and Office 365 productivity suite.
As reported by Channel Asia, the vendor's flagship Azure cloud product recorded revenue growth of 89 per cent in the fourth quarter ended 30 June - its shares were up slightly in after-hours trading.
Much of Microsoft's recent growth has been fuelled by its cloud computing business, which has benefited from companies rushing to shift their workloads to the cloud to cut data storage and software costs.
"With their commitment to uplift customer engagement through cloud solutions and services, we are proud to partner with an organisation such as Westcon-Comstor Philippines in enabling customers to embrace an ‘intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge’ world,” added Eileen Ong, small medium corporate and one commercial partner director, Microsoft Philippines.
"We hope that this is the first of a long and successful partnership in empowering customers and partners through their digital transformation journeys."
