Liquit and ARJ Distribution Help Nordics EUC Do More with Less

ARJ Distribution AB becoming the Liquit Partner in the Nordic region makes sense. Founded in 2006, they’ve chosen solution partners based on the mantra of making it easy to do more with less in Nordic region EUC environments. Most Liquit users would define the leading end-to-end application management platform as the embodiment of that mantra. 

But it’s still all about timing.  Now is the right time to introduce the right solution (Liquit) to solve the right problem: Making on-prem and legacy apps work across hybrid environments and VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) to DaaS (Desktop as a Service) transitions.  

According to ARJ Distribution AB Founder, CEO and CTO Roger Jansson, the evolution of the company and its path to an eventual Liquit partnership was all about the right timing: 

“I’ve got a long history working as a distributor and support specialist in the Nordic region across several companies like Tricerat. I eventually went out on my own and brought on some guys as I formed ARJ. The goal was to distribute several select third-party tools that supported remote work and virtualization. We’ve always looked for EUC solutions like Liquit that bridge technology gaps to simplify application management and workflows.” 

Nordic Region EUC Application Challenges 

ARJ Distribution has always watched—and pivoted when necessary—to meet the Nordic region’s shift from: 

• Perpetual licensing  
• Organizations buying their own IT and installing it on prem 
• VDI to DaaS  

Now, it’s all about subscription models and the cloud. This creates unique challenges for Nordic IT teams where there are lots of on-prem legacy apps that can’t migrate. 

“We set out to provide solutions that eased the pain of making these hybrid environments work,” said Roger. 

This was happening in a Nordic EUC region where five unchangeable truths were operating: 

1. A channel market dominated by SMBs and SMEs   
2. The region is big, but the IT teams are small and must do more with less 
3. Channel partners demand ease, simplicity, flexibility, and time savings for IT admins and their end users  
4. IT teams demand solutions that let them do things in minutes rather than weeks 
5. Solutions must be easy to install with short learning curves for easy/intuitive use on the front and the back end  

 The time was right for ARJ to focus on the challenge of making legacy and cloud application management easy. 

The Right time for Liquit and ARJ to Solve Nordic EUC Challenges 

Up to this point, ARJ had been working with a pre-Microsoft FSLogix solution for VDI.  This left their partners with app management gaps in a hybrid world.  By 2018, the hybrid problem was too big for workarounds, and ARJ was open to Liquit’s innovative approach to workspace management.  

It all started with chance encounters at Citrix User group meetings and industry trade show conversations between the Liquit and ARJ Distribution teams. Conversations with Liquit COO Peter Hermeling and a Liquit demo soon followed. “Peter started some prior discussions, but the pandemic and Liquit’s focus on the Dutch region put things on hold, but Liquit held a spot on my watch list,” said Roger. 

Liquit’s origin story—rooted in Novell ZENworks solution history of making things easy for the user—had intrigued Roger. “The simplicity of clicking on a Liquit Smart Icon without having to care about the application’s location and having it work was a great offer for customers,” said Roger. 

Liquit and ARJ began talking in earnest in 2023 as Liquit began looking more seriously at expanding in the Nordic region. They were hearing good things about ARJ as a distribution partner.  

A mutually driven business model and understanding of the Liquit technology cemented the collaboration. 

One question still needed to be answered. Was it the right time to introduce Liquit as the solution to hybrid app and VDI to DaaS migration challenges in the Nordics?  

Meeting the Hybrid App and VDI-to-DaaS Challenge in the Nordics 

Providing easy access to applications in a hybrid work and IT infrastructure environment is a big challenge. Roger explained why it’s even bigger in the Nordics:  “We’ve got a lot of region-specific legacy applications that organizations can’t move to the cloud, but they still need easy end-user access. Liquit’s Smart Icon technology as part of Liquit Workspace would solve that problem for our clients, and its long list of partner adoptions in the Netherlands was impressive.” 

Further meetings with Liquit Director of Technology and Solutions, Nico Zieck and Sales Operations Manager Maarten Jansma cemented the relationship based on:   

• Their skills, expertise, and knowledge about application management 
• An ability to easily convey how Liquit solves countless application challenges 
• The support they bring in showing how it fits into the ARJ distribution Nordics market 
• How it fits varied IT team ecosystems and their varied technologies like VDI to DaaS transitions  
• The similarity of language, which also helps in communication 

The next step was deciding how to begin. 

Getting the Liquit ARJ Distribution Partnership Rolling 

Finding the right timing is always an issue in new markets with innovative solutions. Moving forward with Liquit would continue to be an issue of timing for the ARJ Distribution team due to:  

• Busy Nordic region partner schedules  
• The small size of customer IT teams that kept them busy 
• Finding the right time to show how Liquit bridges gaps in multiple EUC technologies like Intune 

According to Roger, many of their Nordic region partners are still: 

• On prem and in the process of moving to the cloud  
• Dealing with timing and cost constraints forced by Citrix and VMware DaaS migrations and licensing changes  

 “These partners may use Citrix today and need to move to AVD tomorrow, while others will want a mix of the two,” explained Roger. Liquit is one of the few products capable of bridging those gaps.” 

Moving Past Citrix and VMware Challenges in the Nordics with Liquit 

Like everyone, Roger was surprised by Citrix and VMware’s business model changes. It had the same impact on the Nordic region with loss of stability, user groups and affordable licensing costs.  While Nordic partners are considering other solutions, many hesitate to wait and see how the VMware EUC division acquisition by global investment firm KKR plays out. According to Roger, Liquit Workspace with Smart Icons Technology are the ideal solution for this time and any future changes that are sure to happen: 

“There are countless different scenarios that our partners are facing. Our mission is finding solutions that make migrations simple, transparent, and flexible. Liquit Smart Icons make it easy to switch by just swapping one icon for another and you’re seamlessly on AVD. The Liquit platform enables them to glue different solutions together, whether it be Citrix to AVD or VMware to AVD. It works across every application on prem and in the cloud, provides scalability, and delivers a fair licensing model that makes them cost effective for our partners.” 

Liquit and the ARJ Distribution team are still in the early training stages. 

The first introduction to potential partners is a webinar slated for March 14. Also, Liquit will be exhibiting at Stockholm Tech Show 2024, May 22 and 23 at Kistamässan Exhibition & Congress Centre in Stockholm’s Kista Science City. Additional events for Nordic Channel partners and end users will follow. 

“It never goes as quickly as you want, but that’s just the nature of channel where we talk to the partner, and the partner must talk to the customer, and the customer must ultimately decide to buy something,” explained Roger. We’re confident that Liquit will fit the needs of our partners and their customers across the Nordic region. Our approach will be to start with smaller partners and look at bundling opportunities for larger partners with clients across private and government entities.”