Simplify product information management and publishing in the channel with the new CloudBlue v24

SHARE

Configurating a product’s information is hard. Capturing all the product’s variation information is painful. Managing the entire operation of such vast and diverse information is almost unthinkable.

Faced with this daunting challenge, companies are racing to find tools and processes that allow them to centralize and manage the ever-complex product information in digital commerce and provide them with a single, clear, and accurate view of that product information. With the latest release of CloudBlue, we are proud to announce the Product Information Management (PIM) capability, along with other features and improvements to our platform.

We know our customers are looking to operate more efficiently and these new features and improvements offer greater configurability and extend the capabilities of our platform to assist our partners when working within the CloudBlue network and managing their channel operations.

We’re going to highlight a few major feature implementation and improvements below, and you can see a full release of the changes in the V24 Release Notes. Also, be sure to tune into our V24 Overview Webinar on December 10th at 7AM Pacific time to learn more about this release.

A centralized platform to manage data on all product information within the channel

Products and services sold today are getting increasingly complex. These offerings come in variations that are sold with certain configurations or specifications that target a specific vertical, horizontal, and/or audience. The number of permutations and version possibilities of the product become increasingly difficult to manage without specialized tools and software. CloudBlue has always provided vendors with the ability to input product information to send over to their channel distributors. However, as the number and complexity of these products grow and the information needed from distributors become more complicated and stringent, we have decided to supercharge our product information capabilities in the platform.

With our new Product Information Management capability, distributors and vendors alike will see added capability in the portal. From a distributor’s point of view, users will now be able to configure and capture different product information from their vendors as it relates to the product or service being sold. Distributor portal users can manage and configure PIM objects such as attributes, groups, variants, classes, categories, and languages. Across these six dimensions, distributors are sure to be able to capture all aspects of the product or services, in a standardized manner in line with the business requirements to sell in their marketplace.

CloudBlue PIM

From a vendor’s perspective, users may notice some changes in their product module. Within the module, if the distributor partner has set up their product information management inputs, vendors will see a separate tab that will allow them to configure the product information exactly how their distributor needs it. This cuts down on the back and forth on missing or invalid information and provides a streamlined, standardized manner to managing such complex products and service in the channel. The vendors will see a separate tab for each distributor that they are working with that has set up such PIM capability.

CloudBlue Product Information Management

As you can probably already imagine, this is a monumental feature and milestone for CloudBlue that will help all our partners and the platform in being the centralized location for managing these great but complex channel products – whether it’s hardware, software or services and much more.
Read more about our PIM functionality here.

Private catalog curation and syndication for our partners

As the CloudBlue platform and our partner channel operation grow, our customers will increasingly require a more flexible platform that can handle more complex channel scenarios. Distributors have trended towards curating their own private catalog and their desire to syndicate a select range of products for specific resellers – due to strategic operations regarding geography, audience, or other factors. With the introduction of our Private Catalog capability, distributors will be able to create Product Groups which is a specifically controlled feature that will allow highlight specific products for their specific resellers based on certain agreements attached to the product group.

CloudBlue Catalog

This feature will allow distributors to curate the exact product catalog with specific marketplaces enabled for resellers to either work with the partner directly or syndicate through that distributor. As channel operations and distribution become a bigger investment for both vendors and distributors, respectively, our new private catalog feature with product groups will be an instrumental feature that will allow our partners to meet their channel goals by extending our platform features and configurability.

Custom email templates!

In our last release of CloudBlue, we enabled the ability to configure the emails that are sent out from our platform by account and with the latest release of CloudBlue, we are extending those capabilities so that our partners can customize the email templates they send from their CloudBlue account to match the content and branding to their company’s guidelines and specifications.

CloudBlue Notifications

These new email rules and settings allow the account users to customize different aspects of the email templates within the account – from the conditions which the email is sent, the subject line, message body, and other various aspect of the communication. This is extremely helpful for our partners that want to either include additional message content or information in a specific email template, customize the various conditions in which that email is sent, and any additional users that might want to be notified in these emails. By allowing our users to customize these aspects of email notifications, they’re able to generate the exact message when they need it to the exact audience that will need to be notified – a huge boost for communication and productivity.

With all these new and updated features available in the latest version of CloudBlue, we are very excited to see our customers leverage these extensive capabilities to help streamline their channel operations. Whether it is configuring and centralizing the new PIM functionalities, curating private catalogs, or customizing their email notifications – our partners are sure to increase their channel presence, boost productivity, and achieve their channel goals and objectives.

For full details of the changes within this release, please go to our V24 Release Notes.

Stay tuned for more helpful information for this release in the coming weeks – including our CloudBlue V24 Overview Webinar on December 10th at 7am Pacific and more product-focused blog posts.

SHARE
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.

Let's talk