Sprint Unveils SMB Cloud Services Offering for VARs

Sprint (NYSE: S) announced a new Wholesale Cloud Services program aimed at VARs to help small businesses get the cloud services they need without all the overhead.

The service, offered by Sprint Wholesale and Emerging Solutions, is ideal for VARs that target small to medium-size businesses (SMBs), regardless of whether they’re a Sprint Wholesale partner, by helping them complete their cloud offerings with a multivendor software selection, as well as web-based service management portal (so popular these days).

The portfolio offers VARs Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Communications-as-a-Service (CaaS) solutions, plus Sprint is providing one-on-one support to smooth deployment of applications to a VAR’s small-business customers. Ben Vos, Sprint’s vice president of Wholesale Business Operations, said the program is all about reducing the number of contracts VARs are required to manage.

“Wholesale becomes the single provider, eliminating the need for VARs to work out complex contracts with multiple vendors,” he said. “Bundling with Sprint Core telco services they are already reselling gives a comprehensive portfolio to better sell to reseller’s customer base.”

The company announced it would be sharing more information on the of program during the COMPTEL PLUS Spring 2012 Convention & Expo, this week in San Francisco, in case you find yourself in Fog City.

With IDC predicting worldwide public IT cloud services revenue to hit $45.5 billion by 2013 and with cloud capabilities to be an increasingly top technology spending priority, VARs with cloud offerings have plenty of room to build their portfolio and provide add-ons, if they have the right partner to support them.

Other network operators including Verizon, which launched its cloud services program last year, and Comcast (in partnership with Microsoft), have already poked around in this space, and now it looks as though Sprint, the nation’s third largest telecommunications provider, has its head in the clouds as well — and VARs should, too.

Vos pointed out SMBs are showing increased interest in outsourcing IT services and looking to VARs as the trusted source for providing cloud services. “Not having cloud services in the portfolio will hurt resellers who are trying to increase their share of wallet from SMB customers and reduce churn,” he said.