By samdizzy

manlio carrelli

The key questions… and answers…

Talkin’ Cloud: Will Intermedia continue to offer its own hosted Exchange and related hosted services?

Carrelli: Intermedia will absolutely continue to offer and heavily invest in our own hosted services and the enhanced customization they can offer around requirements such as security, compliance, and mobility. These services extend from hosted Microsoft Exchange to proprietary offerings such as our Outlook backup, anti-spam and anti-virus tools, hosted PBX, and additional cloud services coming to market. A crucial part of our customization is the private label capability. Partner ownership of billing, branding, and the overall customer is a core Intermedia value proposition – and a tool for MSPs to differentiate, create sticky customer relationships, and earn higher margins.

Talkin’ Cloud: Why did Intermedia decide to offer Office 365?

Carrelli: We are excited to participate in bringing Office 365 to market. Its combination of services is creating unprecedented visibility for the cloud – visibility that will benefit the industry, particularly the MSPs who are often the first phone call for business owners looking to understand the implications and find the right answers for their company. Intermedia’s aim in launching Office 365 is to – along with our partners – address an even broader spectrum of the market.

Talkin’ Cloud: Will Intermedia offer Office 365 to its partners?

Carrelli: Office 365 will be available to our partners under our Advisor program, and all other Intermedia services will continue to be available on both a private label and Advisor basis. Advisor partners earn monthly or one-time commission for reselling services – and Intermedia handles the billing, migration, and support directly.  We provide Advisor partners with sales and technical training, as well as marketing resources.

We’ll continue to work to deliver choice to our partners – in the services they can offer to their end customers, and the business model (private label or Advisor) they can use to work with us.

Next Moves

Talkin’ Cloud will be watching to see how Intermedia’s business potential evolves. Although Intermedia does not disclose revenue results, we’ll strive to learn how much of Intermedia’s growth comes from the company’s own cloud services vs. Microsoft’s Office 365.