Arrow launches xSP Central module of ArrowSphere platform for MSPs

Arrow Electronics launches ArrowSphere xSP Central, a new online module that enables the managed service provider community to forecast and report on various service provider license agreements in one central platform. A key feature of the tool is the ability to simulate and predict the total cost of operating a particular cloud service for the end customer. The new offering is a complementary module to the ArrowSphere cloud services aggregation and brokerage platform launched in 2012.

The platform includes patent-pending metering and reporting capabilities and provides MSPs with a centralised online dashboard to generate pricing models, evaluate vendor program options, automate monthly reports and perform various analyses, such as profit threshold and capacity planning. The efficiencies gained through the automation of such tasks, in combination with additional ArrowSphere capabilities, enables MSPs to increase their focus on value-creation activities.

"We have been working for several years on reducing time and money spent on interpreting numerous licensing options from several vendors," said Stefan Rosenlund Nielsen, managing director, Zitcom, a leading Danish MSP. "ArrowSphere xSP Central optimizes the way we can design, monitor and improve our services to our customers and better understand our costs. We believe we gained more than 50 percent more efficiency by using xSP Central. Given these benefits, Zitcom would prefer to work only with vendors that are included in the ArrowSphere xSP Central catalogue."

After a successful pilot with a set of MSPs and software vendors, ArrowSphere xSP Central is now available in all countries where Arrow has enterprise computing solutions operations. This new evolution of the ArrowSphere platform further demonstrates Arrow’s innovation in cloud business.

“We see ArrowSphere Store increasingly becoming the preferred choice for the channel to buy and resell cloud services. ArrowSphere xSP Central now allows existing and future MSPs to better design the specific technology stack they will use to provide their cloud services. It also offers software vendors the ability to recruit, enable and manage the MSP community. In less than 12 months, we have taken our ArrowSphere initiative from launch to revenue, and we will continue to invest in cloud solutions, services and dedicated resources on a global basis. We are building with ArrowSphere and its integrated modules an integrated resources management platform for all types of cloud services providers,” said Laurent Sadoun, president of the Europe, Middle East and Africa region and worldwide services for Arrow’s enterprise computing solutions segment.

ArrowSphere is a multi-module platform that enables the channel ecosystem (MSPs, solution providers, independent software vendors) to enter into the cloud services business in the most efficient, seamless and cost-effective way. ArrowSphere enables the channel community to either build or resell cloud services for the benefit of their customers.

Providing provisioning, metering and billing of cloud services, ArrowSphere Store allows partners to resell and integrate best-of-breed cloud services from leading cloud services providers and to propose these services to their customers via their own white-label web store without capital expense investments. The second module, ArrowSphere xSP Central enables managed service providers and traditional IT resellers (value-added resellers) that would like to become an MSP to build cloud services more efficiently. Launched in 2012 in Denmark, France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom, and in 2013 in the United States and Canada, ArrowSphere allows end-user customers to rely on their partners as trusted advisors to purchase and integrate the cloud services they need.