AppDirect makes another significant deal, leveraging their omnichannel Go-to-Market capabilities to bring another significant player onboard, and expand the solutions available to their technology advisor channel to sell.
Renee Bergeron, COO of AppDirect
Subscription commerce platform provider AppDirect has made yet another acquisition, managed services provider ADCom. The key elements of the deal are obtaining ADCom Solutions’ Network Operations Center [NOC] and their VEEUE [(Visual End-to-End User Experience] platform. AppDirect expects that the expansion of their catalogue with these new additions will significantly expand the portfolio available to their large channel of over 10,000 technology advisors.
“ADCom has been a leading technology provider for over 30 years,” said Renee Bergeron, COO of AppDirect. “They grew out of the telco space, and were deeply rooted with an AT&T specialized skill set. They developed an understanding that large enterprises bult on AT&T needed help to manage that. Large enterprises valued their ability to build a solution. So their focus and specialization were very complementary to our own skills.”
Bergeron said that even though ADCom was a successful company, there were reasons why it made sense for them to sell.
“They had circumstances which were common to the last few companies that we bought,” she indicated. “Many technology providers have realized that today’s buyer approach has evolved. Half the buyers now are millennials, and they want an omnichannel solution. That means a marketplace. They know that’s the ony way they can survive. They can now leverage this omnichannel capability by being part of AppDirect. It overcomes limitations to get to that next level of growth by adopting omnichannel.”
ADCom provides managed network and infrastructure services, a monitoring platform, field services, carrier services, and other management and monitoring solutions to businesses. Its advanced NOC lets organizations focus on their core competencies while ensuring that their network operations are managed by experienced professionals, leading to improved network performance, reduced downtime, and enhanced operational efficiency.
“One of our differentiators is we don’t just focus on the process of purchasing technology – the transactional part,” Bergeron said. “We do that of course, but we also focus on adoption, and adoption is all about the services, and that’s what the NOC provides. It is a logical component of ensuring the technology performs for customers.”
ADCom Solutions’ VEEUE platform will provide AppDirect and their partners with network and cloud monitoring through analytics to deliver advanced monitoring, incident management, and business intelligence, which will give them actionable insights into the work and compute environment. The VEEUE platform will also allow AppDirect’s advisors to white label and will provide them and their customers with access to see how their technology and service providers perform. With direct insights from the VEEUE platform, AppDirect advisors can take business consultation to the next level.
“Our managed services are not just for the VEEUE platform, although it enables us to deliver the managed services,” Bergeron said. “It provides a unique window to see how that is performing. ADCom was visionary in understanding the platform, and VEEUE is a logical extension of our platform, which can help our advisors be more proactive.”
The plan is to unify all the acquired ADCom assets under the AppDirect umbrella.
“The services will be delivered through a NOC and the VEEUE platform,” Bergeron indicated. “The ADCom services will be unified with our own, which has ben the standard practice when we bought IP before. Customers like working on a single platform that is multifaceted, so this will all be integrated under a single navigation and a single workflow.”
These solutions will also be sold exclusively through AppDirect’s advisor channel, which numbers more than 10,000 strong.
“We are excited about taking these solutions to market exclusively though our advisor channel,” Bergeron said. “We have a number of direct customers, but any solution we sell is through an advisor.”
Bergeron said the deal significantly increases AppDirect’s capabilities.
“What I’m most excited about is the team they have developed and the fact that their technology is second to none,” she stated. “End customers now want to buy their technology through fewer partners. This acquisition brings us closer to having a complete catalogue. We have been leading the market with AppDirect Concierge and Advisor, and now we have an opportunity to bring these capabilities into managed networks.”
