Orient Technologies Uses AWS Partner Transformation Program to Grow Cloud Revenue and Add New Customers

Orient Technologies, an AWS Partner, standardized its cloud offerings by participating in the AWS Partner Transformation Program (AWS PTP). Orient is a systems integrator and solutions provider based in India. After completing the AWS PTP, Orient grew its annual cloud revenue from $2 million to $9 million in two years, scaled from five customers to 30 customers, expanded into new business segments, and helped its customers better understand the cloud.

Orient Technologies, a leading systems integrator and AWS Partner based in India, provides end-to-end IT solutions and services to central governments, public sector undertakings (PSUs), state and local governments, banking institutions, technology companies, and manufacturers. In addition to security and compliance, database, networking, and development services, Orient offers turnkey solutions that help customers migrate from on-premises environments to Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Recently, Orient sought to scale its cloud business more easily to accommodate customer growth. “Our company traditionally focused more on infrastructure and tasks like setting up data centers,” says Pradip Pillai, head of cloud practice at Orient Technologies. “We have been seeing more customer demand for cloud services and solutions, so we wanted to understand how to formulate cloud growth strategies to meet that demand.” Orient knew that any successful growth strategy would need a standardized approach. “We knew we would need to templatize our cloud offerings to enable scalability,” says Jayesh Shah, cofounder and technology head at Orient Technologies.

Orient chose to meet its business goals by participating in the AWS Partner Transformation Program (AWS PTP), an AWS-led assessment, training, and enablement program for AWS Partners. AWS Partners in the program take part in workshops and strategy sessions with AWS representatives, resulting in customized business plans. Orient specifically wanted to participate in the AWS PTP to learn how to scale its business by standardizing its cloud offerings.

Throughout the program, Orient worked alongside consultants from CUSP Services, who deliver the program on behalf of AWS, to develop a detailed cloud standardization plan. “The AWS Partner Transformation Program helped us understand not only how to grow our business but also how to put processes in place to ensure we can scale quickly,” says Umesh Shah, cofounder and director of cloud practice and the government vertical at Orient Technologies. Those processes include new templates for services including migration and application modernization. “Working with AWS, we built a templatized approach, beginning with the proof of concept we do with all new or prospective customers,” Umesh Shah says. “We now use templates to help our customers understand their requirements for cloud environments and how to scale and optimize those environments once they’re in place.”

Orient created a service catalog for all its offerings, such as migrations and managed services, along with detailed costs for each offering. In addition, the company gained access to an AWS sandbox environment for creating and testing new solutions. The consultants also coached the Orient sales team on large account planning using the Miller Heiman approach. As part of the sales strategy, a CRM system was rolled out during the program, which helped the Orient team manage cloud opportunities more effectively.

After completing the AWS PTP, Orient saw substantial growth in its AWS business. “Our annual cloud revenue was around $2 million per year before we participated in the AWS Partner Transformation Program in 2022, and we’re now at $9 million in annual revenue,” Pillai says. “We have also grown from five to 30 customers. We can attribute a lot of this business success to the cloud standardization plan we put in place during the program.”

Orient has also expanded into new business segments in India, gaining customers in both public and commercial industries. “We have successfully moved into other verticals by following AWS Partner Transformation Program recommendations such as earning more AWS competencies,” says Pillai.

Through cloud standardization practices, Orient can more easily assist its customers in understanding cloud technologies. “Not everyone has a concept of how the cloud works in terms of pricing,” says Umesh Shah. “Because of our new approach, we can provide customers with a comprehensive total cost of ownership comparison between on-premises environments and the cloud.”

Orient ramped up the pre-sales and services team and also rolled out training and certification courses for its employees, leveraging AWS Skill Builder for digital training in AWS Cloud Services while participating in AWS PTP. More than 40 cloud sellers from Orient were trained during this program. “Training and upskilling our employees on AWS will be more important as we move into artificial intelligence and other new technologies,” says Pillai. “We look forward to growing our partnership with AWS as we scale our business.”