Cloud Service Commerce Leader AppDirect Expands European Footprint to Drive Global Cloud Economy

Today at the Telco Cloud Forum in London, AppDirect, the leader in cloud service commerce, announced several business milestones that support the company’s European expansion and drive further adoption of its services by European businesses.

Strengthening its foothold in the UK, Western Europe and the Nordic-Baltic regions, AppDirect has added new services for partners Deutsche Telekom, Microsoft, Swisscom and TeliaSonera AB. The company has also added music streaming innovator Soundtrack Your Brand and its product Spotify Business to its developer ecosystem and AppDirect-powered TeliaSonera marketplace. With the opening of its new London office to support 300% team growth, AppDirect has hired former BCSG and Telefónica Digital executive Tim Marsden to lead Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) operations.

“Since our inception, our vision has been making software accessible worldwide and powering the global economy through cloud service commerce. The momentum and success we have experienced in Europe represent key milestones in making this vision a reality,” said Daniel Saks, co-founder and co-CEO, AppDirect. “Working together with our global cloud ecosystem partners, we are helping businesses realize the value of cloud services across the globe and transforming the experience for providers, developers and business end users.”

AppDirect is the catalyst helping businesses go to market effectively in the cloud. The company unites providers, developers and business end users of cloud services into a single ecosystem, making it easy for businesses to find, buy, manage, and monitor cloud services from a central location. At Telco Cloud Forum this week, AppDirect will host a panel of European cloud innovators and global technology leaders including DocuSign, GoDaddy, Microsoft and TeliaSonera — in a discussion on cloud service commerce best practices. AppDirect’s VP of Worldwide Sales Richard Dufty will moderate the panel. Dufty will also speak in a session on cloud monetization strategies.

2015 European Milestones:

• Experienced 300% growth across its European team, adding new General Manager Marsden to lead EMEA operations.
• Opened offices in London and France, expanded teams at its Munich and Stockholm offices.
• Secured strategic deals with software developers, adding new apps and/or distribution opportunities across its cloud service ecosystem:
  
  
  • DocuSign: A partner in the AppDirect ecosystem since 2013, the most widely used Digital Transaction Management platform and e-signature solution in the world can now be bundled as a value-add service for Microsoft partners worldwide.
  • GoDaddy: The world’s largest technology provider dedicated to small businesses is using AppDirect’s services to offer domain registration that can be tightly bundled with Microsoft Office 365 for Microsoft partners across the globe.
  • Microsoft: AppDirect launched its Express program for the Microsoft channel to provide technology and tools for Microsoft Cloud Solution Providers (CSP) worldwide and help syndication partners transition to the CSP program.
  • Spotify Business: For the first time, Swedish business customers will have access to music streaming from Soundtrack Your Brand’s product Spotify Business through the AppDirect-powered TeliaSonera marketplace. Spotify Business is developed, marketed and sold through Soundtrack Your Brand, with Spotify as co-owner and investor.
• Secured new business with leading European telecommunications providers:
  
  
  • Deutsche Telekom: Launched its second AppDirect-powered marketplace, Business Marketplace for Enterprise, for its T-Systems subsidiary. As one of the largest Internet Service Providers in Europe, Deutsche Telekom has used AppDirect’s services since 2012. Its first AppDirect-powered Business Marketplace for SMEs now offers over 40 apps, including Microsoft Office 365, Symantec, iMeet, HiDrive and Sage.
  • Swisscom: Now standardized on AppDirect technology for its entire cloud service distribution for business customers. This is reducing operational complexity, improving ease of use and enabling easy bundling of its own communication services with new cloud services, including Office 365. As one of Switzerland’s largest providers of IT services, Swisscom has used AppDirect’s services since 2012.
  • TeliaSonera AB: The first telco in the world to offer Spotify Business. TeliaSonera is one of the top-five telecom providers in Europe and has been an AppDirect customer since 2013. AppDirect is powering its marketplaces Telia AppMarket in Sweden, Sonera Sovelluskauppa in Finland, and its newest Teo Programeles verslui in Lithuania.

New GM to Lead EMEA Operations:

As AppDirect’s new General Manager and Head of EMEA, Marsden brings in-depth experience leading new business strategy and development, as well as driving product management, marketing, sales enablement and go-to-market strategies for technologies that include global digital services, cloud and mobile applications and enterprise mobility. Prior to AppDirect, Marsden led partner engagement for BCSG’s cloud service business. He has also held senior leadership roles driving business and product development for top tier technology and telecommunications leaders, including Telefónica Digital, Hewlett-Packard and Easynet Ltd. (BSkyB).

According to Dufty, who leads AppDirect’s sales, business and strategic development teams across the globe, “With Tim on board, we can fully support our accelerated growth across Europe and continue to effectively engage with clients and work together to build cloud monetization strategies that transform the experience for our partners and their customers. As a proven leader driving global cloud, digital and mobile strategies for enterprise clients throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Tim brings the capabilities to drive our worldwide business goals forward and make a significant impact on our European operations while sharing our values and vision.”

Supporting Quotes:

“Working with AppDirect, we launched our first Business Marketplace for SMEs in 2012. Since that time, we have continued to collaborate closely with the AppDirect team to deliver cloud innovation for our Deutsche Telekom business customers. AppDirect has provided the platform, technology and expertise to help us launch our second cloud marketplace in just three months, build our application catalog and bundle new applications using AppDirect tools. The company has been a valuable partner for us through our cloud journey, making technology easy to consume and bringing unique value to the entire process.” -- Dr. Andre Zehl, VP Cloud Portal Business Marketplace, Deutsche Telekom

“Our strategy is to help businesses all around the globe go fully digital. The AppDirect platform is turnkey and it allows us to work with some of the world’s leading service providers in reaching those customers, and do it in a way that is very efficient for our business.” -- Jesper Frederiksen, Vice President and General Manager EMEA, DocuSign, Inc. (DocuSign®)

“We share AppDirect’s passion for enabling access to cloud software through its vision of simplifying finding and buying cloud apps and we’re excited to join its partner ecosystem. At Soundtrack Your Brand, we’re driving a similar vision for music by building a new music economy that gives fans access to the music they love and pays artists fairly for their amazing work. Working with cloud innovators like AppDirect and TeliaSonera, we can now extend our services to Swedish business customers and provide them one-click access directly from business app marketplaces.” -- Andreas Liffgarden, Founder and Chairman, Soundtrack Your Brand (Spotify Business)

“We believe time to market is essential. We run a large, well-oiled operation but it takes a lot of time, effort and expense to deploy new services. We rely on AppDirect not only as a marketplace solution, but as a beach head between our legacy back end systems and the cloud services in our Swisscom cloud. This gives us economies of scale and faster time to market. Working with AppDirect, we are putting Swisscom on a path toward new areas.” -- Jonas Krensler, Head of Messaging and Collaboration, Swisscom

“Prior to working with AppDirect, we had built a similar product ourselves and determined it was too complex, expensive and difficult to continue managing. We also didn’t get the ROI we needed. We found that AppDirect met all of our technical requirements, and also important, was a good match from a personal point of view. The AppDirect team are thought leaders that we can rely on for support with new technology, product features and onboarding. In the end, it has to be easy for our customers to buy cloud services and easy for us to manage. Working together, we can be a 2.0 telco and a trusted advisor to our customers.” -- David Andreasson, Head of Product and Technology, TeliaSonera

About AppDirect

AppDirect is the cloud service commerce leader making software and products accessible globally. The AppDirect cloud service commerce platform unites providers, developers and consumers of cloud services into a single ecosystem. This makes it easy for businesses to find, buy, manage and monitor cloud services from a central location and delivers new opportunities to distribute, sell, and market cloud services. AppDirect-powered marketplaces, billing and distribution, and reselling services help providers – including Telstra, ADP, Samsung, Deutsche Telekom and others – connect millions of businesses to solutions from Microsoft, Google, Box and more. AppDirect is headquartered in San Francisco with global offices. Learn more at www.AppDirect.com.

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Contact information

AppDirect
Zoe Kine, 415-994-6080
zoe.kine@appdirect.com