10

Companies Using Platforms

and Ecosystems to Succeed—
and How You Can Too
 2

Contents
00 Introduction 3

The Companies

01 ABB 5

02 ADP 6

03 Atlassian 7

04 CANCOM 8

05 Comcast Business 9

06 Intuit 10

07 Microsoft 11

08 Roche 12

09 Salesforce.com
13

10 SAP 14

11 Three Critical Factors to Suceed with Platforms 15

12 Conclusion 17
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SECTION 00

Introduction

Today, nearly every business is undergoing digital transformation—or is about to

start. As digital technologies and strategies become a given, companies now face
the challenge of identifying the factors that can give them an edge. Company
culture, executive sponsorship, talent—all of these play an important part, but there's
one differentiator that is the most important of all: digital platforms.

In fact, 86 percent of executives say that platforms are the critical

factor for success in the digital economy. The reason why is clear:
What Is a Platform?
Eighty-four percent of customers are demanding more digital
products than ever before, and platforms are the most seamless,
“A platform is a business based on enabling value-
cost-effective way to meet these demands.1 creating interactions between external producers
and consumers.” Platforms create “matches among
At the same time, ecosystems—communities of software developers, users and facilitate the exchanges of goods, services...
resellers, and other stakeholders that companies build to support thereby enabling value creation for all participants.”2
platforms—are emerging as another must-have to succeed. Indeed,
almost seven out of 10 executives, 68 percent, say ecosystems are
the only way to innovate quickly to meet customer demands.3

1 The AppDirect Digital Economy Report, 2019 2 “Platform Revolution: How Networked Markets Are Transforming the Economy and How to Make Them Work
for You” by Geoffrey G. Parker, Marshall W. Van Alstyne, and Sangeet Paul Choudary
3 The AppDirect Digital Economy Report, 2019
In this eBook, you will read about 10 companies that are using 4
platforms and ecosystems to drive revenue, deliver a better customer
experience, and set themselves apart in today's highly competitive
digital economy. It also details the top three factors you need to
consider to build a winning platform strategy.

Every digital strategy is different, but they all highlight one key fact—
platforms have the power to completely reshape a business and have
a tremendous impact in the everyday lives of customers. Here’s how.

68%
The Companies
1. ABB

2. ADP of executives say ecosystems are

3. Atlassian the only way to innovate quickly
4. CANCOM
to meet customer demands.
5. Comcast Business

6. Intuit

7. Microsoft

8. Roche

9. Salesforce.com

10. SAP
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SECTION 01

S T R A T E G Y : Connecting Customers to Digital Services

H E A D Q U A R T E R S : Zurich, Switzerland
I N D U S T R Y : Industrial Machinery

ABB can trace its history to 1883, when its parent company—an electrical component
manufacturer—was founded in Sweden. Since then, ABB has grown to become
the world's largest builder of electrical grids and manufactures a range of other
industrial products.

In 2017, ABB launched ABB Ability™, a portfolio of digital solutions

“The true value of a platform and an ecosystem, in to support the company's installed based of more than 70 million
the end, is the number of connections that you have connected devices and 70,000 control systems. Soon after, the
between the participants. Our platform is really an company launched the ABB Ability Marketplace, a platform that easily
enabler for that, because it allows these different connects its customers to these technologies. Today, the marketplace
stakeholders to interact, to collaborate, to share. That's features more than 200 digital solutions for utilities, industry,
why we are building ABB Ability, and why we're building transportation, and infrastructure, and has helped drive strong
the ABB Ability Marketplace.” revenue growth across its services business.4

Alain Schaefer
D I G I TA L G R O W T H L E A D
ABB5

4 “ABB Showcases Digital Transformation Using AppDirect Technology,” ChannelFutures.com, 5 AppDirect Engage Conference, 2018
October 24, 2018
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SECTION 02

S T R A T E G Y : Reducing Complexity with a Platform

H E A D Q U A R T E R S : Roseland, New Jersey
I N D U S T R Y : Human Capital Management

ADP is one of the largest providers of HR services in the world, with 700,000 global
customers that use ADP to manage payroll for 40 million people in 112 countries.

As a technology pioneer, ADP quickly realized that the growth in HR

“When we launched the marketplace, a lot of people software was creating unprecedented complexity. To address this,
were asking why we were making it so easy for it launched the ADP® Marketplace, the largest platform for human
our competitors to do business with us. It's simple: capital management (HCM) solutions worldwide. Today, there are
Customers care about outcomes and ease of use, not almost 400 apps that ADP customers can buy and manage in one
competitive battles.” place6, helping to drive $13.3 billion in company revenues in 2018.7

Steve Roth
V P P RO D U C T M A N AG E M E N T
A D P M A R K E T P L AC E 8

6 "ADP Marketplace Continues Tremendous Growth Thanks to Leading Solutions Providers," June 14, 2018 8 AppDirect Engage Conference, 2018
7 “ADP Reports Fourth Quarter and Fiscal 2018 Results; Provides Fiscal 2019 Outlook,” August 1, 2018
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SECTION 03

S T R A T E G Y : Fostering an Ecosystem of Add-ons

H E A D Q U A R T E R S : Sydney, Australia
I N D U S T R Y : Software

Atlassian is the company behind

popular project management and
collaboration tools including Jira, The Atlassian Marketplace "will continue to
Confluence, Crucible, and others. be an important factor in Atlassian's ability to
create tools to work with partners and add
space between itself and the competition." 10
Recognizing the opportunity to foster a software ecosystem early on,
the company launched a marketplace in 2012 with 1,000 integrations
to third-party services. Since then, Atlassian has onboarded more
than 3,000 add-ons into its marketplace. The company recently
announced that its marketplace platform passed a new milestone,
with more than $500 million in lifetime purchases, including $200
million in purchases in 2018 alone.9

9 "Atlassian Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2018 Results," July 26, 2018
10 "Here's My Top Stock to Buy in February," Brian Stoffel, TheMotleyFool.com, January 31, 2019
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SECTION 04

S T R A T E G Y : One-Click Access to Cloud and Support Services

H E A D Q U A R T E R S : Munich, Germany
I N D U S T R Y : IT Infrastructure and Services

As one of the top 30 technology companies in Germany, CANCOM wanted to make

it even easier for its customers to buy and manage cloud services.

In 2016, it launched the CANCOM BusinessCloud Marketplace, a

platform that offers one-click access to cloud infrastructure from “The value of a platform for CANCOM is having a
leading providers like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, as well as one-stop shop for SaaS, IaaS, and PaaS. The flow is
specialized support and consulting services. Today the marketplace completely automated from purchase to invoicing, so
features more than 60 cloud solutions as well as 20 support and once you bring a customer to the platform, it's very
consulting services, a combination that has helped CANCOM's easy for our sales teams to up- and cross-sell different
platform see 25 percent month-over-month sales growth since offerings.”
shortly after launch.11
Christin Hanneken
M A N AG E R S T R AT E GY & O P E R AT I O N S
M A R K E T P L AC E , C A N C O M 12

11 "CANCOM Achieves Double-Digit Monthly Growth in Cloud Commerce Marketplace," AppDirect Case Study 12 AppDirect Engage Conference, 2018
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SECTION 05

S T R A T E G Y : Building an Ecosystem of Cloud Services and Core Products

H E A D Q U A R T E R S : Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
I N D U S T R Y : Telecommunications

Comcast Cable is the largest video, high-speed Internet, and phone provider to
residential customers in the United States. Part of the secret of the company's
success is its Comcast Business unit, which is one of the largest contributors to the
growth of the parent company.

Early on, Comcast Business realized that selling software in addition

to core Internet, phone, and video services could drive new revenue,
“Comcast Business is a large organization and we're
capable of doing a lot ourselves, but we rely on increase customer loyalty, and customer lifetime value. Four years
other organizations to help us do things differently. after the launch of the Comcast Business Marketplace, the “start-up”
Partnering is the best way to deliver value to our inside Comcast Business has solidified into a proven business model
customers. There's no reason to try and build a and is expanding into further channels within the company.
completely vertically integrated solution on our own
when we can have a platform.”

John Guillaume
VICE PRESIDENT
P RO D U C T M A N AG E M E N T & D E S I G N
C O M C A S T B U S I N E S S 13

13 AppDirect Engage Conference, 2018

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SECTION 06

S T R A T E G Y : Reinventing Itself As an Open Ecosystem

H E A D Q U A R T E R S : Mountain View, California
I N D U S T R Y : Software

The secret to Intuit’s success is that it continuously disrupts itself. Correctly

“intuiting” the direction of the software market, the company seized the opportunity
to become more than a provider of products and services.

Today, it views itself as an open platform, with an ecosystem

exchange reseller model where Intuit opens its reseller network to an “At Intuit, we're not able to solve every customer
ecosystem of third-party products that complement its core platform. problem alone. But we know that third-party
Today, Intuit's platform, the QuickBooks App Store, serves roughly 50 developers have incredible apps and solutions that
million customers worldwide, boosting its online ecosystem revenue complement QuickBooks Online. Together, we're able to
by 42 percent while helping the company rake in $6 billion in revenue serve our small business customers well.”
overall.14

Alex Barnett
D I R E C T O R , D E V E L O P E R P L AT F O R M
I N T U I T 15

14 "Intuit Reports First Quarter Revenue Increased 12 Percent Led by 42 Percent Growth in Small Business
Online Ecosystem Revenue," November 19, 2018 15 AppDirect Engage Conference, 2018
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SECTION 07

S T R A T E G Y : Soaring High with a Massive Global Reseller Ecosystem

H E A D Q U A R T E R S : Redmond, Washington
I N D U S T R Y : Software

For more than 40 years, Microsoft

has been a partner-focused company,
OF MIC ROSOFT ’S BUS I N E S S
with more than 95 percent of its
95% IS G E N E RATE D TH ROU G H
IT S PARTN E R E COSYST EM . business generated through its partner
ecosystem.

Driving the success of its cloud business—which recently surpassed

a $20 billion annualized run rate—is the Microsoft Cloud Solution
Provider (CSP) program. Created in 2014, the CSP program allows
partners to resell Microsoft cloud services, such as Office 365 and
Azure, in combination with value-added services, either directly or
indirectly through partners. In early 2019, Microsoft announced that
CSP is its fastest-growing licensing model with 31 percent growth
over the past year.16

16 "Microsoft Channel Chief Reports Uptick In Partner Additions, CSP Growth," Kyle Alspach, CRN.com,
February 5, 2019
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SECTION 08

S T R A T E G Y : Using a Platform to Improve Patient Outcomes

H E A D Q U A R T E R S : Basel, Switzerland
I N D U S T R Y : Healthcare

Roche is a multinational healthcare company that has pioneered numerous

innovations in its 123-year history.

The latest is MySugr, an open platform for diabetes management.

"As medical technology companies invest in platforms, With MySugr, users have the ability to automatically upload data
they must be careful not to force their development from their preferred blood glucose meters—including Novo Nordisk's
into one dedicated product... [T]he pivotal question for connected pen and Roche's own Accu-Chek meters—as well as
a medical technology company is this: how can we not share data with healthcare professionals and caregivers. More than
only create value for ourselves, but also enable others 1,000,000 people already use MySugr to monitor their diabetes and
to create or co-create value for a larger audience?" improve their quality of life.17

—AC C E N T U R E 18

17 "Roche acquires mySugr to form a leading open platform for digital diabetes management," June 30, 2017 18 "The Race Is On: Taking Advantage of Digital Platforms for Medical Technology," Accenture, 2018
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SECTION 09

S T R A T E G Y : Growing an Ecosystem that Drives 5x Value

H E A D Q U A R T E R S : San Francisco, California
I N D U S T R Y : Software

Launched in 1999, Salesforce is Partners in the Salesforce.com

arguably the original SaaS company. ecosystem report a range of
benefits,20 including:
Less than 20 years after it was
founded, the company announced that
it had reached $10 billion revenue run
rate faster than any enterprise software CU TTIN G A PP DEVELOPMEN T TIME BY 40%
company in history.

One key reason for the company’s success is its ecosystem. Back
in 2005, Salesforce launched the AppExchange, now a massive DECREAS IN G TIME TO MA RKET BY 39%
ecosystem offering 3,000 applications and components for
Salesforce.com. By 2022, the Salesforce ecosystem will be more
than five times bigger than the company itself, meaning that for every
dollar Salesforce.com will make, its ecosystem will make $5.18.19
IMPROVIN G SA LE S CLOS IN G BY 39%
19 "The Salesforce Economy Forecast: 3.3 Million New Jobs and $859 Billion New Business Revenue to Be
Created from 2016 to 2022," IDC, October 2017
20 Ibid.
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SECTION 10

S T R A T E G Y : Maximizing Its Partner Ecosystem with a Platform

H E A D Q U A R T E R S : Walldorf, Germany
I N D U S T R Y : Software

SAP is a cloud success story. For decades, SAP deployed on-premise enterprise
resource planning (ERP) solutions. In 2012, the company launched its first
platform-as-a-service and has put cloud-based solutions at the center of its
business ever since.

Part of the company's success is due to its large partner ecosystem, "[The] SAP App Center has set the stage to help both
currently 18,800 and counting. A key part of this ecosystem is the customers and partners gain maximum value out
SAP App Center, a platform that offers 1,500 applications from SAP of their SAP investments and continue to innovate
and its partners. Combined, the SAP platform and partner ecosystem themselves into digital cloud companies."
is helping to drive an estimated $130 billion in new yearly revenue, a
figure that is expected to double over the next five years.21 — S A P N E W S C E N T E R 22

21 "How SAP's partner ecosystem is built for long-term growth," Dion Hinchcliffe, ZDNet.com, February 5, 2019 22 "Celebrating One Year with SAP App Center," Uddhav Gupta, SAP News Center, June 20, 2018
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Three Critical Factors

SECTION 11

to Suceed with Platforms

All of these companies are using platforms and ecosystems, but each has forged
its own unique path to market. While different, all 10 companies have been able to
develop strong digital strategies that consider three key areas. As you weigh your
options to launch or scale a platform and ecosystem, here are the three critical
factors you must have to succeed:

1. A strong value proposition 2. An open partnership mindset

Today, platforms are a "hot" technology, but launching one just for the For decades, the only winning business strategy was to create
sake of having a platform is a mistake. Instead, you need to ensure products and build fortress-like walls around them to keep out
your platform solves real customer problems. As MIT's Sloan School competitors. Today, companies must always be open to new ways
of Management explains, "It’s easy to fall for the idea that building a of collaborating to deliver value to customers. With a partnership
platform is a pathway to success. Don’t just be the ‘Uber for …’ Think mindset, a competitor may actually be a partner if the value
about how your platform will make new connections."23 proposition makes sense for each party. Or it could mean making
part or all of your solutions accessible via open APIs. Whatever the
case, partnering should always be a first resort, not the last.
23 "Platform strategy, explained," Zach Church, MIT Sloan School of Management, June 16, 2017
3. Flexible technology, business processes, 16

and culture

In the digital economy, being first to market often provides a big

competitive advantage. However, as more companies deploy
platforms, the ability to test strategies and change direction quickly
is becoming just as important. To be successful, both now and in
the future, your company should prioritize flexibility across every
business function.

For decades-old companies with entrenched systems and ways of

doing things, this can seem especially daunting. However, strong
executive leadership and working with experienced partners to
implement platform-centric solutions can have a tremendous impact.
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SECTION 12

Conclusion

Companies of all sizes in every industry around the world are using
digital platform and ecosystem strategies to drive innovation, increase
revenue, and improve the customer experience. The businesses
Learn More About the ROI
you’ve just read about can be used as guideposts as you look to of Launching a Platform
launch or scale your own digital initiatives—and become the next
To get an inside look at the costs, benefits, and ROI of
platform success story.
choosing AppDirect to launch a marketplace platform,
read our recent Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study
on AppMarket commissioned from Forrester Consulting.
Solutions from the Platform Experts
Click here to download.
AppDirect offers a complete range of solutions that enable any
company to launch and scale a platform and ecosystem of its own.
With advanced billing, automation, and management tools, AppDirect
is the only end-to-end commerce platform for succeeding in the
digital economy. We power the platforms of leading companies in a
range of industries, including telecommunications, manufacturing,
software, and more.
To learn more visit appdirect.com
For more information, visit: www.appdirect.com
About AppDirect

AppDirect provides the only end-to-end cloud commerce platform for succeeding in the digital
economy. The AppDirect ecosystem connects channels, developers, and customers through its
platform to simplify the digital supply chain by enabling the onboarding and sale of products with
third-party services, for any channel, on any device, with support. Powering millions of cloud
subscriptions worldwide, AppDirect helps organizations, including Jaguar Land Rover, Comcast,
ADP, and Deutsche Telekom, connect their customers to the solutions they need to reach their full
potential in the digital economy.

AppDirect is headquartered in San Francisco, California with offices around the globe and works
across vertical industries, including software, manufacturing, value-added resellers, and financial
services. J.P. Morgan, Foundry Group, iNovia Capital, StarVest Partners, Stingray Digital, and
Mithril Capital Management have invested in AppDirect.

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