SINGAPORE & SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AppDirect, the leader in cloud service commerce, today announced the opening of its new Asia-Pacific headquarters in Singapore along with offices in Japan. With its new offices, the company has already begun expanding its partnerships with trusted providers in the Asia-Pacific region. Globe Telecom, a leading telecommunications company in the Philippines, is the newest AppDirect partner to join the rapidly growing roster of service providers in the region leveraging AppDirect’s platform to distribute cloud services to their business customers.
“Cloud has revolutionized the way consumers and businesses around the world distribute and use software,” said Gil Genio, Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Operating Officer for International and Business Markets at Globe Telecom. “Partnering with AppDirect gives us the power to help our customers easily find, try, buy and manage essential business applications in the Globe AppMarket.”
Globe AppMarket is a suite of cloud-based business solutions that can be purchased from a centralized SaaS portal, without the additional expense of owning local hardware. These business grade services have been selected because they meet security, redundancy and customer service needs. Globe AppMarket currently offers a collection of SaaS applications, such as CRM, Web Conferencing, Marketing/e-Marketing and Online Storage and the suite of apps will continue to grow.
Moreover, as a Preferred Microsoft Enablement Partner, AppDirect’s expansion in Asia will be a key growth driver for Microsoft’s cloud services business in the region.
“AppDirect has established itself as a key partner for distributing Microsoft’s cloud services around the world,” said James Ang, Senior Director of Hosting and Cloud Services, APAC at Microsoft. “With its expansion in Asia, we have a great opportunity to strengthen our partnership further by bringing Office 365, and our full portfolio of cloud solutions to a vast and rapidly growing market.”
In addition, Spark Digital, New Zealand’s leading technology and telecommunications provider, is partnering with AppDirect to launch that country’s first business apps marketplace.
“Working with AppDirect has allowed us to offer the first fully integrated SaaS marketplace in New Zealand, and reinforces our focus on enabling more businesses to unleash their digital potential,” said Mark Redgrave, Head of Marketing at Spark Digital, New Zealand’s leading technology and telecommunication provider. “Through Spark Digital Apps, businesses can buy and manage the software they need, all using a single log-in and on one bill.”
With the cloud services market in Asia expected to exceed $3 billion in 2015 alone,1 AppDirect’s expansion will help businesses of all sizes in the region gain access to the applications and services they need, such as Microsoft Office 365, Box, and DocuSign, through trusted local providers.
Other AppDirect partners in the region include leading technology company Samsung, as well as Telstra, Australia's largest telecommunications and media company. In July, with the full support of the AppDirect team, Telstra migrated more than 500,000 users to the AppDirect-powered Telstra Apps Marketplace, allowing the company to dramatically accelerate its time to market.
“The Asia-Pacific market is a strategic part of our business,” said Richard Dufty, Vice President, Worldwide Sales and Strategic Partners at AppDirect, and a native Australian. “We are excited to bring the leading cloud commerce platform to the region’s service providers and enable them to aggregate and sell highly sought after cloud services such as Microsoft Office 365. AppDirect’s vision is to drive economic growth in Asia by helping businesses find, buy and use cloud services for improved productivity.”
News of AppDirect’s growing presence in the Asia-Pacific region comes on the heels of AppDirect’s rapid expansion in Europe, where the company has offices in Munich, Paris, and London to serve partners across the continent. In addition to growing in Asia, AppDirect is planning additional near-term growth across Latin America.
AppDirect’s Asia-Pacific efforts are led by Lincoln J. Lincoln, AppDirect’s regional director, who brings 12 years of experience working across the region at EMC and Symantec. Service providers in the Asia-Pacific region interested in becoming an AppDirect partner can contact AppDirect here.
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.
1 IDC Asia/Pacific (Excluding Japan) 2012–2016 Cloud Services Market Analysis and Forecast & IDC Japan Public IT Cloud Services 2013–2017 Forecast and 2012 Review
