How to Make an Easy Profit With Office 365

The most popular Microsoft business solution can also be one of the most profitable for resellers. Microsoft Office 365 now has a staggering 120 million worldwide users and its commercial revenue has increased by 41 percent year-over-year.

Plus, according to a Barracuda study, Office 365 business adoption rates over the last year have grown 20%, with up to 63% of respondents currently using Office 365 as their main business productivity software.

It’s safe to say that Office 365 is here to stay. But how does that affect you as an IT professional, a digital marketer, or as a sales manager? If you’re thinking about becoming a cloud services reseller, Office 365 is one of the easiest solutions to start selling to your customers.

The Microsoft RRP

No one beats Microsoft on price. If your customers want to move to Office 365, they’re probably thinking about buying direct as it’s the most cost-effective way for them to purchase licenses. But unless they have a team of in-house IT consultants, migration to Office 365 and the time it takes to set up their users can be costly.

To remain competitive on pricing, becoming a Microsoft Partner is the first step to bear in mind. Once you have an MPN ID, you can either purchase licenses with Microsoft directly or choose a program such as Open, Advisor, Enterprise Agreement (EA) or CSP for discounted pricing.

Which model should I go for?

As an Indirect CSP (Cloud Services Provider), Giacom is the largest distributor of Office 365 licenses in the UK. But that’s not to say our CSP program is right for your business. If you want to weigh up the differences between each program, you can check out the differences in our handy PDF guide. Alternatively, we’ve explained the benefits that the CSP program provides those looking to become resellers in this blog post.

Making a profit

OK, so you’ve done all the legwork and now you’re ready to resell Office 365 licenses. But the 15% margin you make is too small to make a decent profit. Treat Office 365 as a foot in the door to your customer’s business and make the most of the opportunity in the following ways:

• Make it part of a managed service plan and charge on a per user, per month basis.
• Make it a project and charge for user installation, configuration and the migration from their previous mailbox environment.
• Bundle Office 365 with other services such as Exclaimer, Mailbox Backup, Symantec Email Protection and a CRM like Nimble.
• Become their outsourced IT Support team and handle support queries for their O365 environment.
• Remain competitive with the CSP program and mark up the license price between 10-30%.

Those are just a few ways you can resell Office 365 and make an easy profit. While the CSP program won’t be the best fit for every business, it’s certainly the fastest route to market for resellers. For more information, call us on 0333 332 0888 to speak to one of our Account Managers.