Star2Star, Citrix Team Up for Virtual Desktop

CHANNEL PARTNERS CONFERENCE & EXPO — Star2Star Communications is now a Master Citrix Service Provider (MCSP), offering new sales opportunities for partners of both companies.

The announcement was made Wednesday at the Channel Partners Conference and Expo in Las Vegas. Star2Star will package its StarCloud system, including multiple UCaaS applications such as video conferencing and messaging, with the Citrix virtual apps and desktop solution. Both Star2Star and CSP partners will be able to offer this package to their customers.

The bundle also will be available through Citrix Ready, which hosts more than 30,000 verifications and an extensive list of verified products, trusted solutions and enterprise-enabled apps.

Michelle Accardi, Star2Star‘s president and chief revenue officer, tells us that partnering with Citrix will provide her company’s partners with an opportunity to go back into their current customer base and up-sell them a new solution and pursue new types of customers.

Star2Star’s Michelle Accardi

“As we are a 100% channel company, we are always looking for ways to give our partners additional recurring revenue streams,” she said. “Partners will now be able to go into customers who are looking for a virtual desktop solution and use that as a trojan horse for UCaaS and vice versa. This will provide another lane for our partners to move up market and provide more value-add.”

Star2Star is the only UCaaS provider that has been named an MCSP, and its partners are “chomping at the bit” to offer both current and new customers the joint solution, Accardi said.

“I know our partners are going to love it as they now have the industry-leading desktop-as-a-service offering to layer onto their UCaaS customers and we get access to sell our UCaaS into the Citrix base of partners who need a reliable UCaaS solution that includes quality voice,” she said. “From a business strategy standpoint, this is exactly the sort of partnership we are looking for. It’s a win-win for both sides and we couldn’t be more excited to get this off the ground.”

As Star2Star continues to expand its business globally, “we will definitely keep our eyes and ears open to new opportunities in different sectors that will help Star2Star shine and our partners’ businesses grow,” Accardi said.

“Working with Star2Star was a 2019 priority,” said Carlos Blanco, Citrix‘s senior director of CSP and MSP. “Master Citrix Service Provider designation is reserved for only a select few, and we are honored to welcome Star2Star to this initiative. We are very much looking forward to launching this new pilot program with Star2Star.”