AWS and other large cloud operators have online storefronts that enable customers to buy partner-developed software. In many cases, it’s also possible to purchase consulting services. Last week, software maker Simpro Group joined the fray with a partner solution store of its own called the Simpro Marketplace. Boardroom Insight caught up with the company’s chief marketing officer to understand the role of consultancies in the launch. Plus, exclusive insights from leaders at Aptum, NewRocket and Intention.ly about the firms’ latest business updates.

Simpro launches a partner solution marketplace. The company, which raised more than $350 million from an investor consortium in 2021, provides a platform that helps field service and trades businesses manage their work. A facility maintenance firm, for example, can use it to create quotes and coordinate which technician carries out what repair. Simpro’s new solution marketplace offers third-party software integrations that ease tasks such as syncing data to external applications.

Notably, the marketplace also provides access to partner-delivered consulting services. Some of those services promise to help Simpro clients with marketing campaigns. Others focus on backoffice tasks such as managing payroll data. There are also more specialized services, including one that can help trades businesses set up dashboards for tracking internal performance metrics.

“By partnering with trusted integration, implementation and business consulting partners through the Simpro Marketplace, we ensure our customers are not only adopting our platform, but are transforming the way they work,” Simpro chief marketing officer Rachel Truair told Boardroom Insight.

Rolling out a new software product across a company often requires specialized skills. For example, a firm that plans to integrate the product with three existing applications needs developers who are familiar with all three applications’ APIs. Hiring a consultancy that already has the necessary knowledge in-house is often faster than building a development team from scratch. 

The consulting partners that offer their services through the Simpro Marketplace “guide field service businesses through process mapping, workflow optimization, and integration with other critical systems to ensure solutions align with their entire tech stack,” Truair explained. “Their hands-on guidance results in smoother adoption, robust training, comprehensive reporting, and long-term operational improvements.”

Akamai partners with Aptum. Akamai, which is best known for its content delivery network, also operates a public cloud. The latter platform provides access to GPUs, object storage and other infrastructure building blocks along with higher-level services such as managed databases. Aptum, in turn, is a managed services provider that operates more than a dozen data centers worldwide. Last week, it teamed up with Akamai to help enterprises adopt the tech firm’s cloud.

Aptum professionals can help clients move their workloads to Akamai infrastructure and build new applications from scratch. In addition, the firm will work with organizations to find ways of optimizing their infrastructure spending.

“We’ll provide advisory and managed services that help customers identify where workloads belong, whether in public cloud, private cloud, edge, or on-prem, to balance cost, performance, and security,” Aptum president and chief executive officer Ian Rae told Boardroom Insight. “A big part of that is uncovering inefficiencies that drive unnecessary expense, like underutilized resources or workloads better suited to alternative environments.”

“Our hybrid approach and FinOps expertise gives customers a clear, data-driven view of their options, along with the support needed to act on them,” he added. “This helps them lower costs and build a smarter, more sustainable cloud strategy.”

ServiceNow’s largest pure-play consulting partner appoints a chief growth and alliances officer. Jason Rosenfeld has joined NewRocket following a stint as the CEO of Cask NX, another ServiceNow partner that grew to 500 employees during his tenure. He earlier worked at HP and Big Four consultancy PwC. The executive’s responsibilities in his new role will include overseeing NewRocket’s relationship with ServiceNow. Earlier this week, Rosenfeld shared his perspective on that aspect of IT consulting with Boardroom Insight. 

“I’ve found that managing a software partner relationship, or any alliance relationship, is all about being grounded in a simple mantra: create measurable and mutual value,” Rosenfeld said. “Success is not a paper partnership or having each other’s logo published on a website, success is a marriage that encompasses an integrated strategy, deep collaboration on solutions, a unified go-to-market approach, and an unwavering commitment to client outcomes.”

Rosenfeld will also lead NewRocket’s marketing operations and partner ecosystem growth efforts. In addition, he will launch what the consultancy describes as a customer advisory board. It’s a group that will be responsible for incorporating client feedback into NewRocket’s business strategy. 

Intentional.ly launches an AI services suite. The go-to-market consultancy, which helps financial services firms with marketing campaigns and other customer-facing activities, says the suite has two main focus areas.

“We help firms leverage AI in two distinct but critical growth-related capacities: creating substantial workflow efficiencies and integrating personalization capabilities across their ecosystems to enhance operational excellence, and implementing the cutting-edge strategies that ensure their brands are surfaced when prospects ask ChatGPT or Perplexity about solutions in their categories,” Intention.ly chief executive officer Kelly Waltrich told Boardroom Insight.

The way the firm helps clients achieve those goals depends on the project. If a company’s machine learning program is in an early stage, Intention.ly staffers can map out how AI could be integrated into its go-to-market operations. The consultancy then points out the most immediate implementation opportunities. For firms with more advanced needs, Intention.ly can create customized chatbots. Its value proposition also extends to other tasks as securing favorable pricing from AI tooling providers.

Waltrich advises go-to-market teams to approach their AI projects with a degree of urgency. “Wait just six months, and competitors already using AI solutions and optimizing for AI search will have sprinted ahead.”

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