Intermedia claims world largest one-stop cloud title

Global firm Intermedia boasts that it has become the leader in office-IT focused cloud

There's something to be said about persistence and consistency in performance. Intermedia has taken the unsexy world of managed office services, based around many common products, and turned it into a profit-generating machine that now supports more than a million paid users.

The growing strength of its portfolio and customer base has lead Intermedia to lay claim to the title of "world's largest one-stop shop for cloud IT services".

In the past decade, Intermedia has grown into a powerhouse from a struggling service provider with a vision that cloud-based office and communication services would some day become the norm.

In addition to its million paying customers, Intermedia boasts more than 5,000 reseller partners, who are contributing 60 per cent of the company's revenue. Moreover, partner sells of multiple products increased more than 168 per cent in 2013, the company reports.

"Intermedia's one-stop shop model eliminates the complexity that would otherwise overwhelm SMBs attempting to integrate, secure, manage and make mobile the services delivered by multiple point solutions," said Intermedia president Michael Gold.

"Our Business Cloud Platform offers customers a suite of tightly integrated cloud services that go beyond Unified Communications to include single sign-on, file sync and share, email archiving and many more.

"We're proud to level the playing field for 1,000,000 SMB customers by providing the core IT services they need to compete in today's business environment."

Part of the success Intermedia is enjoying comes from horizontal sales within existing accounts. The company reports a 270 per cent increase in expanded sales in existing accounts.

This growth reinforces the old axiom that customers will buy more services once they have a taste for the benefits that come from the first service they buy. The trick is being the first provider to approach the customer for that additional service sale.

Intermedia has steadily added new capabilities, including a new secure file sharing, backup, hosted email and hosted PBX, as well as a number of mobile products.

The real magic comes from Intermedia's bundling of these homegrown and repackaged products, giving resellers the ability bring suites to customers under one, easily understood pricing model.

There's nothing really sexy about Intermedia's products and services; it's a provider of the utilities that every office needs.

What makes Intermedia truly different and worthy of emulation is how it's mastered the art of packaging and making the consumption of these utilities simple, and staying in close contact with existing accounts.

There's nothing fancy about Intermedia's strategy or operations; it's as simple as the products - as it should be.

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