En Pointe's Forms New Division Around Cisco Cloud Practice

En Pointe is creating a new division out of  its Cisco Systems-powered hosted solutions practice, in part to continue to build out its channel strategy. The previously-named En Pointe Collaboration Solutions is now known as collab9. Even with the name change, though, the newly renamed collab9 will continue to focus on cloud solutions based on Cisco (CSCO) technology.

This follows on to last year’s announcement regarding En Pointe Collaboration Solutions earning the Cisco Cloud Provider Certification designation in its growth of its cloud networking practice. At the time, En Pointe earned the right to carry the Cisco Powered Cloud Hosted Collaboration System (HCS) Service designation that was attached to its infrastructure and Cisco HCS solution.

As a cloud provider, En Pointe has taken a 100 percent channel focus. According to the company, that go-to-market strategy will continue in the new incarnation of its Cisco cloud practice. As collab9, the company will provide customers with a cloud-based communication solution that integrates voice, video, web conferencing, presence messaging, mobility and customer care in a package the company claims is predictable. It’s being offered on a per-user, per-month subscription model.

According to the company, the change means its offerings will be distributed through two global distributors, but it also means En Pointe will become its own customer. In the future, En Pointe will purchase the collab9 HCS service through one of the two distributors as if it was a partner.

Partnering with yourself. That’s an interesting strategy.