Stratodesk Partners Help Create 3x Increase in EUC-DaaS Pipelines

Stratodesk partners generated over half of the company’s revenue last year, up from a paltry 5% before the pandemic. Moreover, most of those channel sales were orders sold by the end user computing (EUC) provider but fulfilled by partners.

Ironically, Stratodesk’s highest profile competitor, Igel, has long emphasized that its sales are entirely generated by channel partners. Both compete in the desktop as-a-service (DaaS) market, providing Linux-based operating systems that run on premises-based or cloud-hosted VDI instances.

Stratodesk’s fast-track pivot to the channel, revealed on Wednesday, is already paying off, the company said. The new partner focus helped create a 300% surge in Stratodesk’s NoTouch OS and Stratodesk NoTouch Center software pipelines.

Founder and CEO Emanuel Pirker, who launched Stratodesk in 2010, claims his company developed its Linux-based OS before Igel’s. Looking beyond the pandemic, Pirker said he believes demand will continue, as remote or hybrid work arrangements become routine. Based on those expectations, Pirker said he prepped an aggressive growth plan.

The company started doubling down on its Stratodesk Edge partner program in 2020. To get from nearly zero to 50% of channel led sales, the company began a major partner recruitment effort. Since last year, Stratodesk has signed on 10 new partners each month. Among those disclosed by the company include Centre Technologies, CDW, Computer Products Corporation (CPC), Dell, ITsavvy, SLMIT Innovation Technology and SHI.

Planning for EUC Growth

Even before COVID-19 arrived two years ago, the signs of opportunity for sustained DaaS growth were apparent, Pirker said. The release of cloud VDI solutions from all the major players have validated those signals. Microsoft has become a catalyst with Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) and Windows 365.

Stratodesk’s Emanuel Pirker

“This is a hot market,” Pirker told Channel Futures. “I’ve been doing this for over 20 years, even before I started Stratodesk [in 2010]. Right now, this is the best time ever.”

Green Qube, a managed service provider (MSP) in Monroe, Louisiana, has offered Stratodesk’s software for DaaS customers for several years. CEO Hunter McFadden told Channel Futures that Green Qube saw a 300% increase in subscriptions for Stratodesk’s software.

“Due to COVID, everybody wanted to work from home or virtually,” McFadden said. “We’ve had an explosion of growth and we’ve been using Stratodesk more and more.”

As a private company, Pirker said Stratodesk has no debt and funds the business from revenues.

Stratodesk’s Steve Thompson

“Emanuel has aggressive global growth in revenue plans,” said Steve Thompson, Stratodesk’s VP of sales and channels. You can go about that one or two ways. Either take tens of millions from [an investor] or hire as many salespeople as you can and put them on the street. But we enjoy being a privately funded, profitable company it allows us to be more agile and flexible; therefore, we can serve our customers better.”

Sharing Margins with Partners

Instead, the company built out the Stratodesk Edge program, and decided to fund it by giving up some of its margins to its channel partners.

“In the few past months, we’ve seen the results of those efforts and we’re getting exponential returns on those efforts in the money spent in the margin and revenue that we’re sharing with these partners across the globe to help us do that,” Thompson said.