SADA SaaS Alliance Aims to Give Members ‘the Best Opportunity to Grow’

SaaS companies and independent software vendors looking to launch in a competitive market have a new resource: the SADA SaaS Alliance Program.

SADA, the Los Angeles-based managed service provider that partners only with Google Cloud Platform, debuted the initiative this week. The MSP positions the alliance as a resource for helping members find sales leads, close deals, generate awareness and work effectively with Google Cloud. Indeed, the effort goes beyond mere technology provisioning and extends into the realms of strategy and success.

SADA’s Tony Safoian

That appeals to the target population for the SADA SaaS Alliance, says Tony Safoian, CEO of SADA. Many of these digital natives want options beyond Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure – the two main games in town back when SaaS was becoming a thing. Now, too, SaaS newcomers are searching for capabilities the first- and second-largest public cloud vendors may not offer, Safoian says.

Altogether, “they’re choosing Google Cloud because they find the technology is superior, the price for performance is better [and] they like the latency and global network,” Safoian told Channel Futures.

At the same time, these SaaS developers and ISVs “don’t just want the best technology stack but the best opportunity to grow, to increase revenue, to create awareness,” Safoian said. “And that’s really when this idea started coming together — what could SADA offer as an MSP to help them on the business side, not just the technology side.”

Bringing Value in Unique Ways

To that end, the SADA SaaS Alliance delivers a range of services. For starters, SADA assigns a dedicated account manager to each SaaS partner. That person helps with everything from planning to execution, including business reviews, promotional opportunities, “thought leadership” content and more.

Further, SADA trains alliance members on Google Cloud Platform, and offers cost-optimization whiteboard sessions. They also get around-the-clock support and co-branded marketing materials; plus, a guest appearance on its podcast, sales enablement and co-selling, among other benefits.

“Even though we’re all Google – and that’s fantastic – we can do and say things Google won’t. And I think that’s a great value we’re bringing to the ecosystem,” Safoian said.

Nikki Harley, strategic alliance manager at SADA, agreed.

SADA’s Nikki Harley

“The goal is to make those members as successful as possible … to help them get their names out there,” she said. “These are startups, not incredibly well-known solutions.”

Make that not well-known yet.

Quantum Metric

Case in point: Quantum Metric, which last week said it had raised $200 million in series B funding on a valuation of $1 billion. Its software shows organizations where they could lose revenue, highlights issues with customer frustration and sheds light on segments that may be under- or overperforming.

“They’re not going to be not-well-known for too long,” Safoian said.

Quantum Metric has committed to five years on Google Cloud through SADA. Now Quantum Metric and SADA are “working together to identify new opportunities for our field teams,” said Quantum Metric CEO Mario Ciabarra.

That’s the aim – for the alliance to advance participants’ growth, said SADA’s Harley.

“If all of these SaaS companies end up going public or getting acquired … then that’s a huge win,” she said.

The three other founding members of the SADA SaaS Alliance are Cysiv, PacketFabric and Virtu. Cysiv specializes in threat detection and response; PacketFabric does Ethernet-based cloud networking; and Virtru encrypts email messages and attachments.

‘A Win for the Ecosystem’

Meantime, while Google Cloud may continue to rank third worldwide among cloud computing vendors, SADA hopes to change that — in large part through its SaaS Alliance.

“The more successful [members] are, the more Google Cloud they consume,” Safoian said. “We benefit and Google benefits from their success.”

The entire MSP sector stands to gain from the creation of the SADA SaaS Alliance as well, he added.

“The more unique things partners can bring to the table that Google can’t do … helps Google win more. It’s a win for the ecosystem.”