rhipe’s global expansion has taken another step forward, with the cloud distributor announcing it’s won accreditation as an indirect cloud service provider for Microsoft in Japan.
Winning CSP status follows rhipe’s formation of a joint venture with Japanese Microsoft partner JBS, and was foreshadowed when rhipe announced its intention to target SMBs when revealing the deal in August 2019.
rhipe believes Japan is an untapped market for as-a-service procurement, making its market entry a way to accelerate the transition to subscription sales.
Dominic O’Hanlon nonetheless urged caution in the company’s ASX notification (pdf) about the win, telling investors he expects “a number of years of investment before it is able to deliver financial returns to our shareholders.”
On the upside, O’Hanlon pointed out that Japan is the biggest market rhipe has ever entered, has around five times more SMBs than Australia and is also the first market it has entered in harness with an established Microsoft partner.
The CEO therefore believes the opportunity is “a very exciting prospect”.
