Redwill ICT, in partnership with global distributor Weston-Comstor Sub-Saharan Africa, has aligned its efforts to simplify and improve local customers' ability to procure and deploy the full remit of Microsoft Cloud solutions, with particular emphasis on the Microsoft 365 offerings, Team, One Drive and Hosted Exchange.
With the current demand for digital procurement, SaaS, collaboration tools and cloud-based solutions, driven in large part by the work from home demands of employees resulting from the pandemic, both Redwill and Westcon-Comstor are working together to leverage the distributor’s digital procurement and digital customer fulfilment platforms to simplify customer and end-user access to Microsoft's cloud-based solutions.
"Since the beginning of the year, we have seen a surge in demand from clients for cloud solutions. But, more importantly, they want a simplified and transparent means to procure them, while still benefiting from the technical support and services we provide,” states Nicholas Reddy, CEO, Redwill. “Partnering with Westcon-Comstor, we have been able to leverage the company's digital distribution and digital customer-centric tools to offer our clients a more simplified means to get access to the full suite of Microsoft Cloud solutions.
"Through our partnership, we are also able to lean on Westcon-Comstor's extensive Microsoft pre- and post-sales and technical skillset as well as the fact that the company is an accredited Microsoft training centre," adds Reddy.
In April 2020, Microsoft announced a host of product name changes, which, according to Reddy, has left many users confused as to whether their specific solutions remain supported. The primary name changes include: Office 365 Business Essentials is now Microsoft 365 Business Basic; Office 365 Business Premium is Microsoft 365 Business Standard; and Microsoft 365 Business is Microsoft 365 Business Premium.
Reddy assures customers that while the names have changed, the products have improved, and the support they receive from Redwill and Westcon-Comstor remains unchanged and there is also no impact on how the solutions are deployed or how they work. Working with customers, Redwill and Westcon-Comstor are offering all clients additional support to navigate the name change as well as offer the extra help they need for end-user education during this transition.
“Partners like Redwill are in a unique position that they are the custodians of their clients' full ICT portfolio,” says Prebashini Reddy, Microsoft CSP Product Manager, Westcon-Comstor Sub-Saharan Africa. “This visibility goes a long way in helping clients navigate changes in their business, as well as directing them to where adopting cloud solutions in their organisation makes sense. Working with Redwill, we are jointly able to offer clients far more streamlined procurement and deployment for their Microsoft cloud solutions, while at the same time ensuring they have visibility of their cloud costs and usage.
“Together we are not only helping customers leverage Microsoft’s cloud portfolio, but we are offering them access to digital enablement, learning and management tools that ensure that their technology investment meets their business objectives and their budget,” she ends.