Crayon rolls out Cloud-iQ platform across APAC

Crayon has consolidated its partner operations under one global platform, with the Asia Pacific-wide rollout of its upgraded Cloud-iQ platform experience.

The global platform replaces the company’s legacy Prism platform, and an earlier iteration of the Cloud-iQ platform. It was designed to future-proof cloud procurement, simplify license management, and deliver intelligent growth capabilities for partners. 

During her keynote speech at the Risk and Resilience conference in February, Crayon APAC executive vice president Rhonda Robati acknowledged Prism hadn’t delivered all that partners wanted in a platform.

At the time Prism was set aside and was no longer being developed because Crayon was focusing on “building this next generation tool”, the Cloud-iQ platform, said Robati.

Crayon vice president of platforms Ramon Mueller told ARN that several challenges arose from the previous platforms.

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“Licensing became increasingly complex, especially as Microsoft’s Cloud Solution Provider program evolved and transitioned to the new commerce experience,” he said. “At the same time, the number of new cloud services grew rapidly, while many legacy licensing options still needed to be supported.”

These problems, combined with an expanding product portfolio, made it harder for users to navigate stock-keeping units, buying, upgrading, and renewal options, Mueller explained.

“As we added more features, our self-service tools also became more complicated,” he said.

“To address this, we set out to combine the strengths of Prism and Cloud-iQ into a single, streamlined global platform.”

Mueller further explained that the latest generation of Cloud-iQ was redesigned from “the entire user experience from the ground up, using modern, user-centric design principles”.

“Our goal was to create a platform that is easy to use simple, yet powerful and effective, so users feel empowered to manage their needs independently through self-service,” he said.

“We also leveraged the latest web technologies and frameworks to deliver a more fluid and responsive experience.”

The newly rolled-out Cloud-iQ supports MSPs in optimising license usage and minimising overspend through a combination of key enhancements, Mueller said.

“We’ve introduced more guidance and proactive warnings tailored to the actions MSPs need to take,” he said. “A major upgrade is our new Insights section, which features improved reporting now enhanced with AI-supported insights to identify cost-saving opportunities.

“We’re also simplifying dashboards and reports, and have introduced role, and persona-based report selection, so each user sees the most relevant data for their responsibilities.”

Billing is a core focus of the latest iteration of the Cloud-iQ platform, said Mueller.

“We’ve introduced flexible billing options that allow customers and partners to choose between an aggregated or detailed billing experience, based on their operational needs,” he said.

“Through APIs and Billing Sync (previously PRISM Connect), we provide integration tools that help automate the often time-consuming and error-prone billing reconciliation process, significantly reducing the risk of duplicate charges or billing discrepancies.”

Billing Sync will also be available for Cloud-iQ customers, and the solution works seamlessly across both Prism and Cloud-iQ.

“This ensures a smooth transition for partners moving between platforms, while maintaining consistent, automated billing operations,” said Mueller.

Another key feature of the Cloud-iQ platform will be the scalability, which was a key reason behind rebuilding the platform from the ground up.

Cloud-iQ helps simplify onboarding, including adding new clients and transferring licenses, where supported by the publisher.

For example, onboarding with Microsoft works smoothly thanks to strong API support. For other publishers, some steps may still require manual interaction.

“We’re actively improving in this area for instance, we introduced support for AWS account transfers in our beta program, which was previously not possible,” said Mueller. “Ongoing enhancements are driven by publisher capabilities and partner feedback.”

The Cloud-iQ’s roadmap was shaped through extensive collaboration with partners across the globe, including direct input from the APAC channel.

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