Cradlepoint takes on Aussie enterprise and IoT markets with distie deal

US wireless networking company Cradlepoint is promising big margins and upsell opportunities for resellers as it signs up its first Australian distributor.

The company, which claims to be the leading provider of secure cloud-managed 3G/4G/LTE networking solutions for the distributed enterprise, has signed Melbourne's M2M Connectivity as a local distributor and is in discussions with two others, as it seeks to push into the Australian market.

Cradlepoint, which recently secured US$48 million in funding, specialises in business continuity, M2M/IoT routing, advanced edge routing and primary connections with offerings that utilise both wireless and cellular.

Already established in the United States and across Europe, Cradlepoint is using Australia and New Zealand as its benchhead APAC.

Adnon Dow, Cradlepoint senior vice president of worldwide sales and general manager of sales for EMEA and APAC, says one of the two distributors the company is currently in discussions with is Sydney based, while the other is Melbourne based.

"One is a master distributor, which is a global distributor, and the other a VAD, more localised and specialised around the M2M and IoT business," he says.

Dow is currently visiting New Zealand, where the company has signed SnapperNet as its local distributor.

Dow says resellers who sign up to partner with Cradlepoint will have a 'huge opportunity' to corner the market, while also being able to offer customers a differentiated product – and get margins of a minimum of 15% and up to 30-40% with add on services.

"We are going to limit the number of partners and be very selective, so it will give them the opportunity to truly differentiate themselves because they are first to market and everybody is not going to be able to sell this product," Dow says.

With fewer partners and a unique product in the market, Dow says partners will have an opportunity to make a higher margin, without margin degradation caused by every reseller having access to the product.

"That's not going to be the case here. And it's not even the case in the US. We are very, very specific and surgical about the partners we sign," he says.

"And we truly believe our product is a differentiator in the market and it causes more product pull, so if you have other products and services that you sell it will increase that drag, that attach, because of the nature of how our product works.

He says resellers will be able to sell services, activation, integration services, failover and other key components on the back of a Cradlepoint sale.

While Dow declined to give any figures for how many partners the company is looking for in Australia, he says Cradlepoint is looking for partners who are technically apt, have wireless and cellular knowledge, with vertical expertise and a good footprint in the local market.

He say the company will be looking for partners who deal with both small and medium organisations and large enterprises, covering both system integrators and smaller resellers.

The power of three

The company plays in three key segments – networking, where its products and services compete with the likes of Cisco and Juniper; wireless, competing with Aruba, Ruckus, Motorola and Aerohive; and the internet of things/M2M market.

Dow says the third sector of M2M and IoT is key for Cradlepoint, which has its origins in that space.

"We have a whole host of products and cloud based services to enable the connection of machines and intelligent, ubiquitous sensors and then manage and control with insight and analytics on top of that via a cloud platform called ECM – enterprise cloud manager.

Within that space, Cradlepoint's product sets connect three key areas: networks in motion (transport logistics and 'anything that moves'), connected people (enterprise mobility devices connecting into the network) and connected networks (ATM machines, video, security and surveillance, HPAC monitoring and control.

"We go across a vast vertical, technological space," Dow notes.

He says the enterprise, SMB and mid-market is 'ripe' for Cradlepoint.

"We feel the small-medium, mid market is ideal for us, just from what we would call a primary wireless connection. With the robustness of the LTE networks it is not only competitive and affordable but easier for businesses to put down a wireless infrastructure and be in business day one.

The failover/business continuity market is also one the company is eyeing up.

"Imagine if you have a Cisco or Juniper router. If that physical line gets cut or the power goes out or it fails, there's usually no way to get to the internet – and everything is over the internet these days.

"We put our box next to those types of applications and solutions and within three milliseconds it fails over to our box and we provide that internet connection over the cellular network.