We assisted an internationally recognised TMT company in South-East Asia to evaluate a partnership opportunity with a leading cloud service provider

The problem

• Our client, an internationally recognised TMT company, wanted to evaluate an opportunity to partner with a leading cloud service provider (CSP) in APAC, to facilitate the CSP’s expansion in the region. It engaged Analysys Mason to provide business planning support, to help it objectively assess the opportunity with the CSP

The solution

• We reviewed the market for cloud services in the target country by:
  • quantifying and segmenting the size of the cloud market by service type and by enterprise size, based on desk research and expert interviews
  • evaluating the data-centre ecosystem to provide a view on the country’s upcoming data-centre capacity
  • analysing the synergies between our client and the CSP 
• We developed a joint business plan, drawing on inputs from our client and the CSP, particularly for cost assumptions; it also involved detailing the roles of each party in the proposed partnership
• To assess the business case we built an operating cashflow model, incorporating inputs from the client and CSP which we validated via research and interviews, flagging potential risks of the partnership
• We considered a wide range of scenarios and sensitivities to provide a view on favourable, but fair, revenue share options for our client to propose to the CSP during future negotiations

Figure: Business models of large-scale CSPs

The result

• Our client was able to understand the business case, as well as the opportunities and risks involved, which was critical when negotiating more-favourable terms with the CSP for their partnership agreement