Channel partner programs, CSPs, Networking

AppRiver Cloud Partner Program, Office 365 Drive Revenue Growth

AppRiver CEO Michael Murdoch

AppRiver, a key Microsoft Office 365 cloud partner for MSPs, apparently has grown for 15 consecutive years. Plus, the email and web security company says overall corporate revenue grew 16 percent in 2016 vs. 2015, along with 24 percent revenue growth in its channel business.

Moreover, AppRiver recorded a 22 percent year-over-year increase in channel partners and a 19 percent increase in partner customers last year. The company also noted its five largest partners increased their monthly revenue by 29 percent on average.

"We're competing – and winning – against some giants in the industry," AppRiver CEO Michael Murdoch (pictured above) said in a prepared statement. "The most exciting part is that the demand for cloud-based services, especially security, is enormous and still growing."

Indeed, AppRiver in some ways is an Office 365 value-added distributor, competing with the likes of Ingram Micro Cloud, Synnex CloudSolv and other distribution giants.

AppRiver has sustained "rapid year-over-year growth for 15 years running," Murdoch added. The company launched in 2002 as a spam and virus filtering company and now offers cloud-based cybersecurity, email and productivity services to 53,000 businesses worldwide, with more than 10 million mailboxes under its protection.

AppRiver specializes in Office 365 migration and security services, and its partners can provision Office 365 services and manage domains from within the company's Partner Portal.

AppRiver Email Marketing Tool

Rather than just reselling Office 365, AppRiver has built multiple value-added services for VARs and MSPs that are shifting to cloud services. For instance, the company introduced an marketing tool that enables partners to send pre-templated and co-branded email campaigns to their customers.

Gilbert
Justin Gilbert

The email marketing tool, appMailer, was announced in January. It is accessible from within AppRiver’s Partner Portal and can be integrated with:

  • Campaign Monitor.
  • Constant Contact.
  • Hubspot.
  • MailChimp.

AppRiver wants to be the "better business channel" for partners, Channel Sales Manager Justin Gilbert said at the time. The email marketing system doesn't require any HTML expertise for partners, he added during a call with ChannelE2E.

Side note: Gilbert will share Office 365 revenue and monetization tips during a ChannelE2E Webcast on Thursday, March 16.

Dan Kobialka

Dan Kobialka is senior contributing editor, MSSP Alert and ChannelE2E. He covers IT security, IT service provider business strategies and partner programs. Dan holds a M.A. in Print and Multimedia Journalism from Emerson College and a B.A. in English from Bridgewater State University. In his free time, Dan enjoys jogging, traveling, playing sports, touring breweries and watching football.