Building on the foundation of the anything-as-a-service consumption model for consumers, Exclusive Networks has extended that thinking to how it works with partners.
This week, the firm unveiled X-OD, an on-demand platform designed to help its growing partner ecosystem access products and services in the same agile way in which organisations consume them.
“A key factor is to innovate and disrupt and that leads nicely into our big reveal – X-OD, Exclusive Networks On-Demand. It’s all about taking the burden and risk away from our vendors to accelerate their move to the new consumption-based models that customers have come to demand,” Exclusive Networks CEO Jesper Trolle – who joined the company last month – said during a press conference.
“It will provide one seamless way to consume IT regardless of how it is bought or sold by the vendor.”
The platform is available as of now in France, the Netherlands and the UK following on from successful pilot activity with Google Cloud’s Chronicle, Palo Alto Networks, and Proofpoint.
Exclusive has confirmed it will extend this reach to Austria, Belgium, Finland, Germany, Ireland, and Spain, from the beginning of November, with roll-out planned for the rest of world next year.
“We work with many vendors and we see again and again the dynamic of the vendor evolving into subscriptions. We see vendors who are already 100% subscriptions, some are evolving super fast, and some are really thinking about it,” said Julien Antoine, executive vice president of strategy and operations.
“All of this is creating a lot of complexity. Our market in cyber security is already complex by nature… but the pace of innovation with the different business and consumption models are creating this [increased] complexity.
“Let’s imagine cyber security is a car. Today, you can consume your cyber security like hardware, software. You can own the engine; you can lease the tyres and get the rest of the car in a subscription model. [But] it doesn’t make any sense. That’s why, together, Exclusive and the channel we need to bring simplicity.”
Antoine said X-OD had been co-constructed with vendors, partners and the wider channel and described it as “Translating raw materials into business output” with an end-to-end platform whereby a distributor, for the first time ever, is packaging vendor offerings.
As to why partners should get excited and on-board with X-OD, Exclusive claims there is no cost or risk involved.
“X-OD delivers on our continuing mission to create value and competitive advantage for vendor and reseller partners,” Antoine added.
“[This] launch enables partners to rapidly onboard the X-OD platform and begin transforming their business models with ease, supported by a wealth of educational, marketing and sales enablement resources.”
The firms involved in the X-OD pilot definitely echo this sentiment.
“There are great benefits for our partners through X-OD, giving them more ways of meeting customer needs and enabling greater customer lifetime value. Subscription-based consumption is not just coming – it’s already here. X-OD is a very exciting initiative and we’re proud to be a part of it from day one,” said Michael Herman, vice president of channels for Palo Alto Networks in EMEA.
Magali Bohn, business development and strategic partnerships director of the security business unit at Google, concurs, saying: “The X-OD platform gives partners a rapid and scalable way of focusing on customer needs, no matter how extreme or changeable.
“Exclusive Networks has succeeded in making technology consumption simple, flexible and fast to adopt, and we’re looking forward to the future evolution of the platform to deliver even greater benefits.”
