3 Ways to Increase Annual Recurring Revenue

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It is widely agreed and increasingly evident that to thrive in the 21st century you need to digitalize. 

Customers now demand solutions not products and they want simplicity. They are looking for a one-stop-shop and require usage- or user-based monthly billing that gives them the ability to up- and down- size according to market fluctuations. According to channelfutures.com: 20% of Lenovo’s device as a service (DaaS) customers are on a flexible term due to the past year’s hiring fluctuation; they expect it to stabilize this year and Lenovo is able to manage that using their subscription billing model.  

Managed Service providers (MSPs) have emerged as key players in this anything as a service (XaaS) era and have the potential to offer a vast range of bundled hardware and software such as (DaaS), workplace as a service and now even WIFI as a service. 

Of course, others have seen this opportunity and now everyone is a services company. Organizations that previously only sold hardware, for example Xerox, have evolved to offer services on top of their original equipment and now, 77% of their revenue comes from after-sales recurring revenue.  

Grow SaaS revenue based on informed decisions 

When running any business, it is crucial to offer the right solutions to the customers’ problems, even if the customer does not know what they are. It is the role of the MSP to identify those challenges and solve them. If you understand their business and have visibility of your customers’ usage, not only can you bill them accordingly, but you can also anticipate their future needs and cross- and up-sell them other solutions. 

Furthermore, by supplying the right solutions they can help the customer reduce or avoid shadow IT scenarios. Shadow IT is a loss of potential revenue for the MSP not to mention a headache to manage for the customer. 

Strategic expansion of your catalog means you can proactively offer usage-based, higher-margin services and bundles as opposed to reacting to ad-hoc requests from customers, which are often more costly, and margins suffer.  

Once billing is monthly or usage- based and your customers are committed to one- or two-year contracts, you have a predictable annual recurring revenue. The customer lifetime value (CLV) goes up and you can look at expanding your reach and offerings even further. 

Populate your portfolio strategically and reduce time to revenue 

In a market that is growing exponentially, and where competition is intensifying, you have limited time to create these cloud solution bundles. It is, therefore, vital to have an environment that enables a fast turnaround from idea to market, and essential to manage and expand your catalog strategically. Once your procurement processes are fully automated and centralized, time-to-revenue reduces dramatically.

Choreograph your network of subsidiaries to consolidate growth 

Mergers and acquisitions in the MSP ecosphere are on the rise, the main reasons for this are the need to increase margin by providing services and software on top of hardware; geographical expansion and the ability to shore up technical skills in areas such as cloud computing. 

An MSP which now finds itself with subsidiaries across different regions has several competitive advantages. Not least, the possibility to use its group-level power in negotiations with vendors and distributors. This means that subsidiaries, while maintaining their independence, can benefit from better pricing and the group as a whole achieves higher margins and lower total cost of ownership (TCO).  

By centralizing procurement, analyzing customer usage, and unifying operations at a group level to strategically manage your solution catalog, the path opens up to cross- and up-selling solutions, and drives innovation in the XaaS arena to increase revenue through ARR. 

Contact CloudBlue to learn how we are helping managed service providers build a wider array of bundled solutions and services, offer device as a service models, and optimize their end-to-end procurement, fulfillment, and delivery operations in a multi-cloud world. For more information, read how managed service providers are growing with new ARR lines of business. You can also read our whitepaper: “A relentless race toward recurring revenue”. 

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Mike Jennett, Director of CloudBlue Platform Strategy, is an accomplished business and technology executive. With a deep focus on product development and go-to-market strategy, he plays a pivotal role driving strategic growth and market expansion. Mike’s career is characterized by his adeptness in driving technological advancements and his commitment to leading digital transformations with experience including IDC where he was VP of the Mobility and Digital Transformation IEP practices, and HP where he held numerous leadership roles. Mike’s expertise is also reflected in his published works and contributions to multiple tech publications. Mike holds a B.A. from California Polytechnic University.
Having previously to strategic product management, agile transformations, and user experience in CloudBlue, Taylor Giddens heads the Services & Solutions team where he ensures smooth delivery, operations and solution growth for our partners and customers.

The team includes technical account management, managed services, support, custom solution development, and customer enablement.

Prior to CloudBlue, his resume boasts leadership of some of the world’s largest companies during their digital transformations and marketplace launches. Taylor is a practitioner of servitude leadership when it comes to enabling his team to drive positive outcomes on the road to operational excellence.
Laurens van Alphen, a visionary entrepreneur with over 29 years of internet technology expertise, serves as Director of Technical Managed Services at CloudBlue, responsible for Operations and Delivery of CloudBlue SaaS.

As a Dutch racing champion and car enthusiast, he brings the same drive to the tech realm, steering Keenondots from a managed hosting firm to a global cloud enablement leader. Laurens is celebrated for his outcome-driven leadership, deep industry insight, and passion for balancing business innovation with client engagement.
Lincoln Lincoln is CloudBlue’s Head of Global Sales; having been with the company since November 2017. Leading CloudBlue’s global go-to-market organization, he’s responsible for driving accelerated and sustained mutual growth with CloudBlue’s customers and partners, as well as forming new customer partnerships across the Vendor and Provider ecosystem. As part of CloudBlue’s leadership team he is responsible the organisation’s revenue and continued market leadership by delivering and supporting products, services and solutions to organizations in established and new markets around the world.

Before joining CloudBlue, Lincoln was AppDirect’s Regional Director, Asia Pacific & Japan, responsible for forming, building and leading AppDirect’s business and operations across the APJ geography. He built and led AppDirect’s fastest growing and highest performing region globally within 3yrs.

Before joining AppDirect, Lincoln was EMC’s Practice Manager, Cloud Service Providers, APJ, working with the leading Service Providers to maximise their Cloud Business presence & market success. Lincoln joined EMC in 2007, and has over 20 years’ experience in the IT industry, having been based out of Singapore, Australia and the UK. Prior to EMC, he was in range of sales and channel positions at Symantec and VERITAS.

Lincoln has an Honours degree in Business Administration from Kingston University in the United Kingdom.
Brent Clooney is the Executive Director and Associate General Counsel for Ingram Micro Inc., and lead counsel for CloudBlue.

Brent is a Canadian based corporate lawyer with more than 20 years of experience as a strategic legal advisor both in private practice and as in-house counsel to large multi-national companies. Prior to joining Ingram Micro in 2008, he worked at a well-respected corporate law firm in Toronto, Canada and later served as general counsel for Toshiba Canada. During his 15-year tenure at Ingram Micro, he has held positions of increasing complexity and responsibility, and since being promoted to his current role in 2022, Brent is the legal lead for both Ingram Micro’s Canadian and global cloud businesses, as well as CloudBlue.

Brent holds a law degree (LL.B.) from Queen’s University, a Psychology degree (B.A. Honours) from Lakehead University, and has been admitted to the bar in Ontario, Canada since 2002.
Anurag serves as the Head of Product Management for CloudBlue and is responsible for product direction and driving innovation. His leadership has been marked by a keen focus on customer needs, growing the ISV ecosystem, and ensuring the continual evolution of CloudBlue’s product portfolio.

Anurag joined Ingram Micro in 2017 and has been instrumental in, positioning CloudBlue as an industry leading monetization platform for MSP’s, Telco’s and Distributors. Previously Anurag worked at Oracle and Microsoft where he managed many technology projects and programs.
As VP of Engineering of CloudBlue, Rony oversees the development and engineering efforts of the company. He is a recognized leader with more than 25 years of experience in Technology and Product.

Prior to joining CloudBlue Rony lead the R&D efforts at Tripwire acquired by Thoma Bravo, and Cedexis acquired by Citrix. Rony is a leader with extensive experience in transforming both complex technology problems into products that customers love and disjointed organizations into agile high performing teams.
Coen is a distinguished leader and entrepreneur in the realm of cloud technology. Currently serving as CEO of Keenondots and the Global Director of CloudBlue SaaS. He is passionate about driving innovation, fostering collaboration, and leading high-performing teams to achieve transformative results.

With a background as Managing Director of INTO Cloud and a pivotal role as Director of Products of KPN, he brings a wealth of experience in steering organizations through the complexities of the digital landscape.

Beyond the boardroom, Coen is a marathon enthusiast, demonstrating endurance and discipline in pursuit of both professional and personal goals.
Alyson has over twenty years of experience in demand generation, marketing automation and data management. She is responsible for leading the strategy and direction of the company’s brand, performance, and digital marketing.

Prior to CloudBlue, Alyson served as Ingram Micro’s Director of Global Business Intelligence Marketing Automation driving channel partner campaigns. Her tenure in marketing leadership at prestigious companies such as Western Digital, Ocean Institute celebrates redefining marketing campaigns and building top performing teams based on trust, experimentation, and results.

Alyson resides with her husband and three children in Orange County and is an active volunteer and donor within her children’s sports and education programs.

Darek Tasak is leading Customer Success & Value Creation for CloudBlue. In his role, he looks after CloudBlue customers globally during the entire lifecycle of our relationship: from the initial on-boarding, through in-life account management, always ensuring they build successful businesses leveraging our technology. Additionally, he is also in charge of Partnership & Alliances, as well as Pricing Management for everything we commercialize.


Before CloudBlue, Darek managed Ingram Micro’s Services division for hi-tech customers in Europe & APAC. His prior experiences include also launching and leading pan-European services business for TDSynnex, as well as strategy consulting with Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

As President of CloudBlue, Uddhav is a distinguished leader and visionary with nearly two decades of platform-building experience. He is an industry leader in digital commerce, the subscription economy, and monetization platforms.


Notably, at SAP, he spearheaded the transformation of their platform business into a multi-cloud platform-as-a-service, offering enterprise and developer-friendly subscription models. At Pure Storage, he championed the efforts to successfully disrupt the storage industry by creating revolutionary Storage-as-a-service, AIOps-as-a-service, and Disaster Recovery-as-a-service offerings with cutting-edge features and establishing a sophisticated subscription commerce infrastructure that is channel-friendly.


At CloudBlue, Uddhav guides and empowers businesses to rethink their monetization strategies by unlocking the power of digital ecosystems and marketplaces. CloudBlue provides enterprises with a mature multi-tier, multi-channel marketplace and monetization platform that enables usage-based subscription models and global delivery of Anything-as-a-Service solutions. Uddhav has played a pivotal role in shaping the future of the subscription economy through his innovative thinking and impactful contributions.

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