SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today at AppDirect ENGAGE, AppDirect’s annual summit and the industry’s only event dedicated to cloud service commerce, AppDirect announced that it has partnered with SoftBank Commerce and Service (C&S) Corp. to enable the ICT giant to distribute cloud services via its network of more than 10,000 resellers. SoftBank C&S resellers will now be able to sell cloud services from technology leaders, such as Microsoft, through a dedicated portal. This gives SoftBank C&S resellers the ability to manage application delivery, billing, customer information and more from a central location.
The SoftBank C&S cloud services marketplace currently includes a number of cloud services from Microsoft and will soon include additional ones for other leading software vendors, all of which are designed to help businesses be more productive and collaborative. SoftBank C&S and AppDirect will continue working together to bring many additional services to the SoftBank C&S marketplace.
“As our business has evolved, AppDirect has maintained a global focus to ensure businesses are able to find, buy, and use cloud services,” said Daniel Saks, President and Co-CEO of AppDirect. “SoftBank C&S is the leading distributor of IT services in Japan, and we’re excited to extend our reach to millions of Japanese businesses through its wide network of resellers. This partnership marks a major milestone for us as a company, and we are thrilled to be working with SoftBank C&S to help businesses all over Japan take advantage of the cloud services they need to thrive.”
“Businesses in Japan have made it clear that they want easy access to business-critical software, delivered and managed via a single cloud marketplace,” said Russell Cohen, VP of Business Development & Board Director of SoftBank C&S. “By working with AppDirect, we are able to empower our reseller network to deliver these tools to their customers via our marketplace. Businesses across Japan can now enjoy new cloud and subscription services from our software partners all over the world.”
According to research firm Gartner, end-user spending for public cloud services in Japan slated to approach $16 billion by 20201. With this trend, resellers in the Japanese market have an enormous opportunity to drive revenue and position themselves as trusted cloud partners as more businesses seek to achieve digital transformation. AppDirect’s momentum in the Asia-Pacific region, and in Japan in particular, has grown strongly in the last year following the opening of AppDirect’s Japan office in August of 2015.
Today’s announcement came during AppDirect ENGAGE, which featured speakers from Microsoft, Google, Dropbox, and many other leading technology companies, as well as industry experts and visionaries including Mike Dorosh, Research Director at Gartner Inc., and Maxwell Wessell, Vice President of Sapphire Ventures and member of the World Economic Council.
About AppDirect
AppDirect is the cloud service commerce leader, making software and products accessible to businesses globally. The AppDirect cloud service commerce platform unites providers, developers, and business consumers into a single ecosystem for buying, selling and managing cloud services, ultimately helping businesses gain access to the services they need to thrive. AppDirect-powered marketplaces, billing and distribution, and reselling services help providers – including Comcast, ADP, Zendesk, Deutsche Telekom and others – connect more than 30 million businesses to solutions from Microsoft, Google, GoDaddy, and more. AppDirect is headquartered in San Francisco with 13 global offices.
About SoftBank Commerce & Service Corp.
SoftBank C&S, a subsidiary of Brightstar Corp., distributes various IT-related products, the original business of the SoftBank Group, and also manufactures and markets “SoftBank SELECTION” mobile accessories. Additionally, by leveraging SoftBank Group synergies, SoftBank C&S provides ICT solutions that combine mobile and fixed-line infrastructure with ICT-related products for corporate customers, web services for various mobile devices, and e-procurement services. For more information, please visit http://cas.softbank.jp/en/.
1 Gartner, Forecast: Public Cloud Services, Worldwide, 2014-2020, 2Q16 Update, 29 June 2016