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Case Study – Think4 IT Solutions
When Robert Gibbons founded Think4 IT Solutions, his vision
was clear: to provide IT services to businesses in a way that
works for them.
With many of Think4’s customers selecting to consume and pay for services including online
support, antivirus and connectivity on a monthly basis, Robert was frustrated that he could
not offer the same payment terms for Microsoft software licensing without forfeiting the billing
relationship. Office 365 was attractive from a technology perspective, but it didn’t make
commercial sense as the only way to pay was for customers to be invoiced by Microsoft directly.
That’s until he realised that the Tech Data StreamOne online software platform would offer Think4
the ability to resell Office 365 and Azure through the Cloud Solution Provider Programme (CSP)
whilst preserving the billing relationship they had with their customers.
“I’ve worked with Tech Data for 8 years,” says Robert, “and our businesses have evolved together.
I was delighted to hear that they would be offering Office 365 via the CSP programme on
StreamOne because it meant I could give my customers the Cloud software that they wanted and
protect the close relationships that my team has worked so hard to build.”
An Honest Approach
From an end customer experience, Office 365 is simple to use but the licensing and operational
tools involved in taking two-tier CSP to market were not entirely straightforward.
“It took a lot of time, investment and effort to bring Office 365 and Azure to StreamOne.” says
Sean Taylor, one of Tech Data’s Microsoft Solutions Architects, “We weren’t the first distributor
to market but that’s because we were thorough and wanted to take a thoughtful and
considered approach to rolling the service out. Think4 were one of the first partners to go
through the onboarding process with us, and it’s thanks to their feedback that we’ve put
in place the code updates and facelifts that have resulted in hundreds of resellers selling
tens of thousands of seats to their customers.”
This attention to detail throughout the process worked for Robert too.
“Tech Data gave me the same quality of service that I offer my customers.
Sean took the time to come and see me and made sure he understood how I
wanted Office 365 to work for my business on the StreamOne platform – from
how I wanted my team to sell licenses to how I wanted licenses provisioned,
and from how I wanted to produce reports, to the day on which I wanted to
invoice my customers. He listened and then worked to put everything in place.”
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