Waruna Kirimetiyawa (Lancom Technology)
Auckland based software and technology provider Lancom Technology has launched a cloud solution provider (CSP) portal integration, enabling CSPs to automate billing and invoicing of Office 365 agreements.
The CSP portal provides one place for CSPs to manage all their Microsoft subscriptions and ensure changes are automatically synced between Microsoft and their professional services automation (PSA) tool.
Customer agreements are updated automatically with any licensing changes made throughout the month for accurate billing.
Waruna Kirimetiyawa, chief executive of Lancom Technology, said Microsoft was a strategic partner for most CSPs but it was generally accepted that accurately reconciling their licensing was a big pain point.
"I know first-hand it can take a long time which is why we developed our CSP portal," he said. "The time to value is instant as we can now automatically pro-rata licensing, improve the accuracy of pricing, reduce invoice queries and save time through automation.
"We can even increase front end margin and avoid missed billing opportunities.”
Steve Hornblow, partner development lead at Microsoft, said in the new world of consumption of cloud services, it was all about getting accurate, timely information and insight to help customers and partners make decisions.
Lancom Technology was at the forefront of making this a reality, he said.
Built on the Microsoft Azure platform, the CSP portal has been developed with scalability and availability in mind. Initially available for users of ConnectWise and Autotask, Lancom plans to expand to include Netsuite, Business Central and ServiceNow.
The portal is available in two flavours, either through Dicker Data integrating into their platform, or globally on the Microsoft Marketplace.
The idea for the development had been on Lancom's radar for some time but the COVID-19 lockdown presented the opportunity.
“Our dev projects slowed down during lockdown but we wanted to maintain productivity," Kirimetiyawa said.
"We looked at how we could innovate and it made sense to work with a large and well respected business like Microsoft. From our own experience, we’ve been able to save 20 hours per month on billing reconciliation alone. That’s time we can use to focus on innovation and scaling.”
