Carousel Hires New Exec To Drive Growth In High-Margin Microsoft Business

Carousel Industries sees Microsoft collaboration technology as its next big growth opportunity, and it is moving to capitalize on that market by expanding its sales leadership team.

To help it build revenue in the Microsoft space, the Exeter, R.I.-based solution provider, No. 68 on the 2014 CRN SP500, has named John Drolet to the newly created position of vice president of Microsoft Solutions, where he will focus on growing Carousel's Microsoft-focused professional services practice and its recently announced Skype for Business offerings.

Drolet said he is looking forward to the potential that his position has and says that his background in hardware, software and cloud-based solutions has prepared him for the job. "It is all about making, taking and receiving a call. It all involves communicating," he said of his past experience in the communications market.

[Related: Carousel Industries Builds Managed Services Offering Around Microsoft Lync]

Drolet, a 28-year communications industry veteran, will report to Chief Revenue Officer James Marsh. According to LinkedIn, Drolet most recently served as vice president of business development at eZuce, a video-as-as-service vendor in Andover, Mass. Before that he spent nearly six years with unified communications vendor Aastra, Concord, Ontario, and had previous stints at BlackBerry maker Research In Motion, Citel Technologies and 3Com.

Carousel says its Microsoft practice is growing more than 40 percent year over year. It started providing managed services around Microsoft products just last year, beginning with Microsoft Lync. Although Microsoft-focused professional services account for less than 10 percent of Carousel's sales, those services have the second-highest margin percentage performance of all the areas that Carousel plays in -- second only to managed services, said Ed Wadbrook, vice president of applications and collaborative solutions at Carousel.

For every $1 of Microsoft sales that the company makes, it brings in an additional $12 "in other product and services pull-through," which should bring the percentage of the company's sales from Microsoft professional services business into double digits within the next year or two, Wadbrook said.

"A year and a half ago, we weren’t even in Office 365," Wadbrook said. Now, however, the company has Gold status with Microsoft and was asked to join the Microsoft Skype for Business partners, a group that talks to users in the field and offers constructive criticism to Microsoft in order to help it continue to develop its products, he said.

Wadbrook said Drolet's position complements his, referring to Drolet as his partner. "I'm building the offers, and I am handing them over to my partner to drive the sales," he said. He added that although the percentage of Microsoft sales of Carousel's total sales is small, it is "growing, and it is driving so many of the other operations of the business."

"What John brings in with his sales experience is excellent," Wadbrook said.

Wadbrook said he is most excited about the growth opportunities that Drolet's new position creates for the company. He said that hiring a vice president of sales before Carousel's percentage of Microsoft sales hits double digits creates the kind of anticipation that drives success.

"Like Wayne Gretzky said, 'A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.' Our goal is to be great," he said.

PUBLISHED MAY 26, 2015