AppDirect acquires Radialpoint to add cloud tech support

Cloud service commerce company AppDirect has been quietly making a name for itself as the go-to solution for enterprise companies to find, buy and manage cloud service tools they need. Now it’s adding an important feature to its services: technical support.

The company announced on Wednesday that it has acquired Radialpoint, a provider of cloud and technical support services for small businesses and consumers. 

While no financial terms of the deal were disclosed, it was revealed that Radialpoint will become an independent subsidiary of AppDirect. All 80 of the company’s employees will be coming over to AppDirect, though it will maintain its office in Montreal.

Warren Levitan, Radialpoint’s current President and CEO, will remain in his current position, while also joining AppDirect’s leadership team.

AppDirect will also be integrating Radialpoint’s technology into its core platform. That means it will be able to offer its customer’s cloud services a cloud and IT helpdesk, consumer technical support and cloud services support for Microsoft Office 365.

“Cloud services have become an essential part of running almost any business. At the same time, business owners still need real people to help them get the most out of those services,” Daniel Saks, President and Co-CEO of AppDirect, said in a statement. “By acquiring Radialpoint, we’re able to help our partners engage the ‘human element’ of sales and support and become trusted partners to their customers.”

Founded in 1997, Radialpoint had raised $123 million in venture funding. Investors included TA Associates and Yorkton Securities. Its clients include Rogers, Bell, Telus, Windstream, SquareTrade, Virgin Media and Panda Security.

The San Francisco-based AppDirect offers tools, such as single sign-on, which give employers a single set of credentials that allow end users to access and manage the same application across Web and mobile versions.

Its platform helps clients to create one ecosystem for developers, providers and consumers. The company works with channel partners, such as large telecommunications companies, hosting providers and retailers, including Comcast, Deutsche Telecom, Rackspace and Staples. It then white labels app stores for them to offer apps to their business customers.

For example, a business will go to Staples and, instead of buying Microsoft or Google apps on the shelf, will be able to select the apps they need, then offer them to employees to manage them all with a single password. Ultimately, this saves businesses both time and money, in that they will often get a discount, as it is cheaper to buy apps as part of a bundle. 

The company reaches approximately a quarter of all small businesses worldwide through partners such as Comcast, Deutsche Telekom, Telstra, ADP, and FICO. In addition, it has over one million paid business subscribers, a nearly 300 percent increase year over year.

This is the fifth acquisition for AppDirect. It had most recently purchased AppCarousel, a provider of app management platforms for connected cars and fleets, smartphones, smart screens, tablets, and other connected devices, in September. 

(Image source: radialpoint.com)