Ooyala gains new customers and larger deal sizes through co-selling with Microsoft

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Joint solutions lead to great results

Over the past few years, premium video solutions provider Ooyala and Microsoft have formed a strong technology bond. Ooyala’s technologies offer broadcasters, publishers, and media companies a comprehensive suite of video workflow, publishing, analytics and advertising products. Ooyala’s video publishing products are backed by the scale and security of Azure Media Services and both companies are jointly building a roadmap for other Ooyala technologies.

However, Ooyala’s relationship with Microsoft extends beyond technological integration. Ooyala is partnering with Microsoft to jointly sell solutions to customers, and they are experiencing great results. According to Aanal Bhatt, Senior Director of Channel Sales at Ooyala, there are several advantages to co-selling with Microsoft.

Leveraging Microsoft’s enterprise credibility

“Microsoft has proven to be an extraordinary partner in terms of expanding reach within targeted audiences. Co-selling with Microsoft enables us to reach more customers in more markets and leverage Microsoft’s enterprise credibility,” Bhatt said. “This approach has resulted in new business with four customers to date, including Toca Boca and the Women’s Tennis Association.”

Bhatt continued: “One key benefit of co-selling with Microsoft is their massive brand recognition, which allows Ooyala to gain access into its targeted market of premium broadcasters, publishers, and media companies and have a more strategic discussion with senior decision makers. This on average enables us to drive a larger deal size as the scope of projects tends to be more robust.”

Helping Toca Boca build a highly scalable, cloud-based video solution

Ooyala and Microsoft’s first joint win was with Toca Boca, which, with more than 130 million downloads, is the number-one game developer for children in the iTunes App Store. Working together in close collaboration, Ooyala and Microsoft helped launch Toca Boca’s first streaming service for children, Toca TV. For Toca Boca, Ooyala and Microsoft provided them with the right combination of technology, reach and insights. Ooyala has a global presence and video expertise in multiple markets, while Microsoft’s Azure Media Services gives Toca Boca the cloud infrastructure they need to build a highly scalable, cloud-based video solution.

According to Bhatt, Microsoft and Ooyala’s sales teams sync just as well as their technologies. “We jointly pitch and demo the solution, we partner through the rest of the sales cycle, and we work together to provide the best value to the customer during deal negotiations,” said Bhatt, who noted this teamwork was evident when working with Toca Boca. “While the two teams worked jointly to win business, we witnessed not only great synergy when collaborating, but also a profound operational process, which was highlighted by daily to weekly team syncs. This allowed both parties to ensure all sides were marching toward providing the most value for Toca Boca.”